Enel's battle on Sabaody Archipelago made him instantly famous. As a user of the top-tier Logia Rumble-Rumble Fruit, and having managed to escape from Admiral Kizaru, the potential Enel displayed was considered no less than that of the Three Marine Admirals in their youth. The Marines became exceptionally wary of Enel, and Fleet Admiral Sengoku had a massive headache just looking at his picture.
Enel's bounty naturally skyrocketed, directly reaching nearly seven hundred million Berries, second only to Bege and Moria within their crew.
During this period, the officers of the Fire Tank Pirates had been rampantly capturing Devil Fruit users across the Four Blues and the first half of the Grand Line, resulting in bounty increases for all of them.
Of course, the degree of Enel's bounty increase was the most exaggerated. Among the rest, the one with the largest increase was Little Oars Jr., who hadn't even needed to use his Devil Fruit ability because no one in the Four Blues or the first half of the Grand Line could push him to his full strength.
Currently, most valuable Devil Fruit users in the Four Blues and the first half of the Grand Line had been captured. They were now preparing to initiate operations to capture users in the New World.
Due to not wanting to clash with the Fear Pirates, only Little Oars Jr. and a few others had currently entered the New World; the remaining officers all stayed on Sky Island.
Sky Island, Wild Beast Island Training Camp. Enel, wrapped in bandages, was waving his own wanted poster in front of Wiper, looking extremely smug.
"Wiper, did you see this? Did you see it? A bounty of 680 million! That's only fifty million less than Uncle Moria! It won't be long before I surpass Uncle Moria and become Godfather's second strongest subordinate!"
"And you still got beaten into that state by Kizaru," Wiper snorted coldly.
Enel's smug expression immediately froze, and he looked displeased. "That old geezer is indeed strong. I'm not his match right now. But give me three years—no, just one year—and I'll be able to fight him to a draw. In another two years, I'll be able to defeat him."
"Stop bragging, Enel. Without five to eight years, don't even dream of fighting Kizaru to a draw," Wiper retorted with a cold snort. Then, a confident smile appeared on his face, lightning flickering around his body as he became wreathed in thunder.
"I'm different. Five years at most, and I'll definitely be able to fight Kizaru to a standstill."
Why was Wiper also crackling with lightning?
Because he had "fused" with the power of former Admiral Simon, obtaining the Zoan Mythical Beast Model: Thunder Lizard Fruit ability. In terms of potential, he was only slightly behind Enel.
Moreover, the Thunder Lizard Fruit, being a Zoan Mythical Beast type, enhanced physical strength. Wiper's hand-to-hand combat skills were already slightly better than Enel's, and with the amplification from the Thunder Lizard Fruit, his physique was rapidly improving, making up for that tiny gap in potential.
Wiper, like Enel, was a subordinate being groomed by Bege to reach the level of a Marine Admiral.
Even if he didn't reach the level of a Marine Admiral in the future, he would still be a top-tier combatant for the Fire Tank Pirates.
"Hmph! Don't think you can surpass me just because you got the Thunder Lizard Fruit ability, Wiper. You're still far off!" Enel said, instantly annoyed, and snorted.
"Then let's compete and see who defeats an Admiral first," Wiper said with immense confidence. If it were before, without the Thunder Lizard Fruit, he definitely wouldn't have been able to catch up to Enel. But things were different now. The Thunder Lizard Fruit gave him abundant confidence; he was absolutely sure he could surpass Enel.
"You think I'm afraid of you?" Enel accepted the challenge without a second thought.
"Then we'll just have to wait and see," Wiper said, his face full of confidence as he stepped onto a cloud bridge and headed towards Wild Beast Island to continue honing his fruit's abilities.
"That brat Wiper has been training like a madman ever since he got the Thunder Lizard Fruit. I can't underestimate him. No, I have to go train too! I can't let him catch up. I am Godfather's strongest subordinate!" Enel muttered, watching Wiper's retreating figure. Then, ignoring his injuries, he also stepped onto the cloud bridge to train.
While Bege and his crew were discreetly capturing Devil Fruit users in the New World, at this moment, below the White-White Sea, a miniature pirate ship was floating in the sky, traversing the cloud layers.
A giant hot air balloon was attached to the top of this pirate ship; it was because of the hot air balloon that the ship could float in the air.
All the pirates on board looked nervous. Riding this kind of hot air balloon was extremely dangerous. Several pirate ships had already fallen from the sky before this, smashing to pieces, with immense casualties among their crews.
This pirate ship was currently six to seven thousand meters above the ground. If the hot air balloon were to rupture, the entire ship would plummet, and no one would survive.
The pirate maneuvering the hot air balloon was even more cautious, constantly adjusting its direction to maintain a stable ascent angle against the high-altitude winds.
This pirate ship was an advance scout team from the Fear Pirates, specifically tasked with reconnoitering Sky Island.
The hot air balloon flight method they were using was the very technique developed by the World Government's science unit for landing on Sky Island.
This type of hot air balloon was entirely different from ordinary ones; it could be steered in the wind, thus avoiding being blown off course at high altitudes.
After obtaining this method and conducting several tests, the Fear Pirates had dispatched an advance force to investigate the situation on the island first.
Not far from this pirate ship, four other hot air balloon pirate ships were also floating; they too were part of the advance force.
The advance force originally consisted of ten miniature pirate ships. However, while passing through the cloud layers, some had unfortunately flown into cumulonimbus clouds and had their balloons struck by lightning and shredded, causing the ships to fall from high altitude. Others encountered gales and were blown much further away.
The hot air balloon carried the pirate ship through layer after layer of the sea of clouds, finally flying into the White-White Sea.
The White-White Sea was also like a cloud layer, offering no resistance, and the pirate ship continued to float steadily upwards.
"Where… are you… now?" On one of the pirate ships, the Den Den Mushi held by a large, scar-faced man suddenly rang, the voice intermittent. At high altitudes, Den Den Mushi communication also became somewhat delayed.
The scar-faced man hurriedly replied, "We are currently passing through an incredibly vast and strange cloud layer. We've been traversing it for almost ten minutes and have ascended about five or six hundred meters, but we still haven't passed through it."
"Record your flight distance and route carefully. Report immediately if anything happens," the voice on the other end of the Den Den Mushi said.
"Understood, understood!" the scar-faced man quickly responded.
The Demon Lord of Fear was also monitoring the situation of this advance force. On the other end of the Den Den Mushi, the Demon Lord of Fear was undoubtedly listening to his report.
At the mere thought of the Demon Lord of Fear, the scar-faced man shivered and immediately roared, "All of you, keep your eyes peeled and pay attention to your surroundings! We must find Sky Island and stay alive!"
"Yes, sir!" the crewmen responded solemnly.
The five pirate ships continued to ascend through the White-White Sea. When they had risen to a height of nearly eight hundred meters, they finally encountered trouble:
An attack from the Sky Beasts of the White-White Sea.
One after another, bizarrely shaped Sky Beasts emerged from the White-White Sea, appearing silently beside the pirate ships. By the time the pirates noticed them, the Sky Beasts were already at arm's length.
A giant octopus, swollen like a balloon, directly latched onto one pirate ship. The miniature vessel was instantly torn to shreds by the giant octopus's tentacles, and all the pirates on board plummeted downwards in an instant.
The octopus's tentacles danced, grabbing them and stuffing them into its blood-red maw.