Chapter 102: The New Bounties
Ten thousand meters in the sky, atop Avant Heim.
In the biting cold wind and swirling mist of the high sky, Kuina was dressed in a simple and neat training uniform. Her bandaged hands gripped the Wado Ichimonji, swinging it in the cold wind. The blade cut through the air, making a sharp whistling sound.
Kuina's gaze was focused, her short black hair flying in the wind. The angle of her swing was sharp, yet full of power. Every swing was accompanied by a gasp of breath. The prolonged practice made beads of sweat slide down her forehead and into her clothes.
The clouds and mist slowly dissipated as Avant Heim entered a cloudless area, revealing an unexpected visitor to Kuina's sight.
Kuina stopped her swinging, looking with some surprise at a white seagull that had landed not far away. It seemed to have crashed headfirst into Avant Heim during its flight. There was a visible bump on its head, and the whole bird looked quite pained.
Suddenly, Kuina's gaze caught the hat on the seagull's head and the satchel on its side. "Is that a News Coo?" A strange light appeared in her eyes. News Coos rarely ventured ten thousand meters into the sky. Therefore, Louis's group still didn't know how the World Government had responded to their actions.
Kuina slowly sheathed her sword. After wiping the sweat from her forehead, she walked straight toward the News Coo. "A newspaper, please."
The sudden voice startled the dazed News Coo, and its feathers puffed up, making it look almost twice its size. After a moment, it gradually recovered. It used its beak to pull out the past few days' newspapers and bounty posters and handed them to Kuina, then took the Berries and left Avant Heim.
In the cold wind, Kuina held the bounty posters and opened the newspaper on the spot, beginning to read carefully. Her eyes quickly scanned past the unimportant information, searching for anything related to her group.
Soon, she found it. In the back pages of the newspaper, she found the report from the World Economic News Agency. The next moment, a strange light appeared in her eyes again, and her face became somewhat shocked. She temporarily put aside her thoughts of training and, taking the newspaper and bounty posters, returned to the cloud cave.
?
Louis slowly walked out of his room and into the modified interior of the cloud cave. At first glance, he saw Hajrudin, Gerd, and the others gathered together, looking at the bounty posters, which were only the size of a few fingers in their hands, with smiles on their faces.
Seeing their smiles, Louis teased them with great interest, "How much are the Marines and the World Government willing to pay for your heads?"
Gerd heard him, and a faint smile appeared on her beautiful face. "All four of our bounties are over 100 million Berries. Among them, Hajrudin's bounty is even close to 300 million!"
To this, Louis was a little stunned. "After annihilating nearly two thousand Marines and attacking Enies Lobby, the World Government is still this stingy?" Today, Louis had a new understanding of the World Government's stinginess.
Then, Louis asked again, "What about Dorry and Brogy?"
"The two captains' bounties are both one billion Berries," Hajrudin bent down and handed their bounty posters to Louis.
Louis took the posters, which were printed with photos of the two from their rampage on Enies Lobby, and examined them closely.
Just then, the giant Road propped himself up with his hands, his entire upper body leaning close to Louis, his massive face filled with admiration. "Captain Louis, you're a bona fide great pirate now! Your bounty is over 1.8 billion Berries!!"
"1.8 billion Berries?" Louis reached out and pushed away Road's approaching large face, tilting his head as he complained, "Why is the World Government willing to raise my bounty again?"
A few years ago, after his clash with Garp, the World Government had only given him a symbolic bounty of fifty-something million. But this time, they had directly added 1.8 billion. As expected, in their eyes, only the lives of Celestial Dragons are worth anything.
Yelena came to Louis's side with her updated bounty poster and handed it to him. Louis took it and studied it thoughtfully.
It read:
"Archangel" Louis
Bounty: 1,865,000,000 Berries!
Dead or Alive!
Yelena crossed her arms, and her scarlet eyes swept over everyone present. "Uta and Kuina haven't been given bounties, and Daz's bounty hasn't been updated," she said thoughtfully. "It seems the World Government hasn't noticed them yet."
Yelena's words took Louis by surprise. "You mean, you got a bounty?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I remember there were no survivors on our battlefield at that time."
Since there were no witnesses, Yelena should have been like Uta and Kuina, without a bounty.
To this, Yelena showed Louis her bounty poster.
"Nation-Destroyer"
Bounty: 730,000,000 Berries.
Dead or Alive.
On the poster was a photo of Yelena from many years ago, clad in heavy armor and holding her octagonal war hammer.
Louis looked at the epithet "Nation-Destroyer" and the photo, which was clearly taken at the Jacob Kingdom, and a flash of understanding crossed his eyes. "I see. The World Government connected the traces you left when you destroyed Jacob with the incident a short while ago and discovered your identity?"
"That should be it," Yelena nodded slowly. The traces she had left behind when she released the low temperature to freeze all her enemies to death were still there. As long as the people from the World Government weren't stupid, they would connect it with the recent battlefield.
Back then, Shanks had taken the blame for destroying the Jacob Kingdom to prevent Yelena from bearing the pressure from the World Government too early. It wasn't until now that the World Government realized that incident wasn't the work of Shanks and his crew, but the masterpiece of Yelena, whom they were so desperate to capture.
But at the time, Shanks didn't know that Yelena had already been targeted by the World Government. Taking the blame for this would not make them ignore her. This photo on the bounty poster, which had been taken before Yelena had even met Louis, was the best proof.
Then, Yelena raised a hand, tucked a strand of white hair behind her ear, and said with a smile, "However, it seems the World Government doesn't know much. They don't even know my gender, appearance, or name!"
However, Louis had a more pessimistic view. "Don't forget, we appeared publicly in Elegia."
"Even if Gordon doesn't betray us, those omnipresent CP agents are professionals. They have ways of figuring these things out without Gordon knowing."
Louis stated that although he scoffed at the strength of the CP agents, he had never doubted their intelligence-gathering capabilities. They made a living from their craft. It wasn't always a case of them being unable to get the information they wanted just because you didn't talk.
Yelena heard this and looked at her own bounty poster, with its missing name and faceless photo, and fell into thought.
"Then what's the situation with this?"
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