Chapter 93 - The Bounty Shocking the Seas, Renji Becomes the Hottest Target!
"Saint Saturn really made a fool of himself this time!"
Saint Nasjurou glanced at Saint Saturn. They had all seen the live broadcast just now, and Im had summoned them as well.
Next came the issue of the failed God Valley battle.
That's right!
In their eyes, the God Valley campaign had been a complete failure.
If not for Renji's interference, the Celestial Dragons would have been evacuated safely, some secrets of the World Government wouldn't have been exposed, the slaughter of Celestial Dragons wouldn't have been so widely known, and Saint Saturn and the members of the Holy Knights wouldn't have been suppressed by Renji.
In that case, defeating Rocks would have still counted as a victory!
However, Renji ended up winning with overwhelming dominance. If it weren't for Im's final attack, they might all have died at Renji's hands.
"That guy is too strange..."
Saint Saturn's expression was dark. Although he knew it sounded like an excuse, he truly believed the loss wasn't just his fault—Renji's abilities were simply too bizarre.
If it had been just him alone, it might have been explainable. But even with eight members of the Holy Knights present, they were still defeated by Renji and nearly annihilated. That was unacceptable.
The combined strength of the eight of them easily matched two and a half Admirals.
And yet, Renji nearly took them all out in a single move.
Meanwhile, in the Flowers Room—
Im sat calmly on the Void Throne, watching the Five Elders kneeling before him. His expression revealed nothing. Though Saint Saturn bore the most direct blame, the other four Elders were all inwardly nervous. Their strategic decisions had also been flawed.
"Lord Im, I am willing to accept any punishment."
After a moment of silence, Saint Saturn spoke. He was well aware there was no point in trying to evade responsibility now.
This time, he had to bear the brunt of it!
"That guy didn't die. Let the World Government downplay this matter for now—but I want him captured!"
Im had no intention of punishing Saint Saturn. He had seen everything—Saint Saturn was completely outmatched.
Those strange powers had even heavily injured the Holy Knights.
There was no point in continuing to criticize Saint Saturn.
What mattered more to Im now was whether Renji could be captured alive.
"That guy isn't easy to catch. I initially thought my immobilization power would restrain his Rumble-Rumble Fruit, but even when immobilized, he could still move. I'm not sure what ability he has or whether he belongs to a special race."
Saint Saturn gave his analysis. Their defeat was due both to insufficient strength and the complete lack of intel on Renji's abilities.
"That guy doesn't seem like a Devil Fruit user. Could he have eaten multiple Devil Fruits?"
After Saint Peter spoke, everyone else remained silent.
"No matter what he is, as long as we capture him, everything will become clear!"
They didn't need to guess whether Renji was a special race or a multi-Fruit user. Once captured, they could study him.
"Let's record the known abilities for now, then keep investigating. Eventually, he'll slip up. If he is a Devil Fruit user, we can use Seastone to restrain him.
If we can build a Seastone prison, he might not be able to break out. Besides, we have other means."
Saint Saturn added quickly.
To him, Seastone was the best way to deal with Renji.
"Then should we arrange for some people to infiltrate his crew? The Rocks Pirates will likely fall apart soon—we have plenty of time to wait."
It seemed they didn't need to act in haste.
"Lord Im, should we issue a bounty?!"
Although Renji had been the Fourth Division Commander of the Rocks Pirates, he hadn't made a move before, so they hadn't placed a bounty on him. When he arrived at the Sabaody Archipelago, they had drafted one but never released it. Then he caused another huge incident.
Now, Renji's bounty needed careful consideration.
"2.5 billion berries, plus an additional 1 billion from each of the 19 Celestial Dragon families as a bonus reward."
That made the base bounty 2.5 billion berries—but with the bonus, it totaled 4.4 billion!?
This was the first time in history that someone's initial bounty surpassed 4 billion. No one had ever received such an 'honor'!
"Post the bounty. Only alive!"
Im was now very interested in Renji.
"By the way, has Rocks' corpse been recovered?"
Im suddenly thought of something—was the body brought back?
"No, Renji took it. Rocks had just died when they left and hadn't retrieved the body. Before I could activate the teleportation magic circle, Renji made his move."
Saint Saturn sounded regretful. He had planned to use the circle to take the corpse but didn't expect Renji to get there first.
"What's that guy's goal..." Im's eyes darkened. He couldn't figure out Renji's motive and found his behavior unpredictable.
Also, they would likely need to suppress rebellions in the near future. To maintain the World Government's authority, action had to be taken!
"By the way, there's a scientist lately who seems quite promising. I want to recruit him into the World Government. But we'll observe him a bit more first."
"Who?"
"Vegapunk!"
After discussing a few more matters, Im had the others go handle their assigned tasks.
Over at the Marines—
When they received the bounty notice from the World Government, they were completely stunned.
"A bounty that high, huh?"
Garp picked up the poster and scratched his nose, sighing with emotion. Just after Rocks' death, another monster had emerged.
And it wasn't just Renji. The bounty on every surviving member of the Rocks Pirates had increased.
Aside from Silver Axe and Rocks, all the other officers were still alive. Garp could already imagine what chaos the New World would become.
"Garp, the current situation isn't good for us. The authority of the World Government is steadily declining."
Kong glanced at Garp. He had received two major pieces of news today: one was Renji's bounty, and the other was about Garp.
"Heh, wasn't it those bastards who caused all this themselves? The Celestial Dragons really are exactly what Renji said—garbage!"
Garp spoke with a flash of disdain on his face. He had never thought much of the Celestial Dragons. If most pirates weren't the type to burn, loot, and kill, he honestly wouldn't have wanted to join the Marines.
He joined the Marines to uphold his own sense of justice.
"The World Government intends to credit you alone for the defeat of Rocks. With pirates like Roger and Renji emerging, the Marines need a symbol of hope."
Kong ignored Garp's tone and directly conveyed the World Government's decision.
At first, Garp seemed indifferent, but as soon as he heard Kong's words, his expression changed instantly. "Rocks wasn't taken down by me alone! You're giving me the credit!?"
Truthfully, it was shameful to say—Rocks wasn't someone he could defeat solo. He had joined forces with the Holy Knights and Roger.
If he had faced Rocks one-on-one, he likely would've been killed.
"The Holy Knights can't show themselves. Even though the livestream exposed them, the public doesn't know who they are. The World Government will manage the narrative to erase them from memory. And Roger? He's a pirate. We can't publicize a pirate and Marine working together to defeat another pirate. So in the end, the credit has to go to you."
The Holy Knights were the Celestial Dragons' personal guard and naturally couldn't appear in the papers.
As for Roger, he was a pirate. The World Government needed to cover up the God Valley incident. Renji's influence was spreading too rapidly.
Someone had to step forward.
And Garp, who participated in defeating Rocks, became the perfect candidate.
"Release Renji's bounty poster. From today onward, Garp, you are the Hero of the Marines!!"
With that, Renji's bounty was sent across the world.
The entire world stared blankly at the bounty poster. No one had imagined that a pirate who had only just debuted—not even with any major accomplishments—could make such waves. Even though he had been a division commander in the Rocks Pirates, he had never made a name for himself.
Meanwhile, the rumor that Rocks was killed by Garp also spread rapidly, generating even more buzz than Renji's bounty.
Thanks to Morgans stirring things up, even though the incident was live-streamed, the World Government still had the resources to control the narrative. Eight hundred years of foundation made it easy. While they couldn't immediately erase everything, they could gradually make people forget.
Since communication between islands was still limited, the influence of the incident would slowly fade.
The World Government also warned Morgans, urging him to slant coverage in their favor. As a trade-off, they wouldn't pursue previous infractions. Morgans, naturally pleased, agreed. His newspaper was finally thriving. He couldn't afford to offend the World Government too much.
Sure, it was hard for them to touch him—but not impossible.
On a desolate island, several members of the former Rocks Pirates were gathering.
Even Ochoku, who had been shouting about leaving and reclaiming Hachinosu, hadn't actually left yet.
"Renji, want to consider it? I could give you a really good time."
In the air, Charlotte Linlin stood atop Zeus, licking her lips with a look of undisguised intent.
She hadn't seen the final moments of the fight, but now she only wanted to take Renji and bear a few children with him.
"No thanks. I'm not interested."
The commanders sat around in a circle. Though Renji was well aware that Linlin had developed an interest in him after the battle, he didn't want anything to do with her.
He didn't want to end up being tied down. Even if he could tell himself it was just a fling, Renji simply found the whole idea off-putting.
If Linlin had been sincere, he might've appreciated her looks—at this point, she really did match his tastes. She was certainly worthy of being called the most beautiful female pirate of this era.
"Oi, Renji, you really stole the spotlight this time, huh? A 2.5 billion bounty and a separate 1.9 billion bonus!"
Golden Lion sounded a little bitter. His bounty had risen too, but compared to a newcomer like Renji, he was still far behind.
"That guy Renji is locked in a deathmatch with the World Government now. And you—you've been hiding your strength all this time, haven't you?"
Ochoku looked at Renji with dissatisfaction. That bastard definitely hadn't gone all out during their previous fight.
Judging from what Renji showed at God Valley, just how much power had he been holding back before?
"Gurararara, such bizarre abilities… So what now? Are we all just disbanding?"
Whitebeard was curious about Renji's power and origins but knew what could be said and what couldn't.
Asking about someone's ability was a serious taboo—a silent rule they all followed.
Still, he raised the question everyone was wondering—disbandment.
The Rocks Pirates, aside from Rocks' original crew, had been made up of New World pirates. Renji had started with no fame at all but became a commander by responding first to Rocks' call. The others had all joined for profit.
If Rocks had lived, the crew might've remained a united front or even formed an alliance of pirates.
But with Rocks dead, the one holding them all down was gone. Now, no one acknowledged anyone else's authority.
So the crew dissolving was perfectly natural.
"Renji, let's start our own pirate crew!"
Golden Lion looked at Renji with blazing ambition, hoping to recruit him.
"MAMAMAMA, Renji, let's birth a pirate crew together!!"
"Let's head back to Hachinosu. I don't think the World Government would dare come after us there!"
"You bastards—are you just ignoring me!? That's my precious friend you're sweet-talking right in front of me!"
There was no doubt.
Renji had become the hottest target in the room.
(End of Chapter)
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