The New Riding the Wind and Waves was completed.
Most importantly, by continuously hunting large Sea Kings, he had successfully condensed the sixth Imprint Entry for the Equality Space. Consequently, Zane imdiately issued the order to set sail once more.
Following this command, the island beca a hive of activity again.
It was unavoidable, even after a selection process.
Combining the Shandia people and the Angel Islanders, the Hunting Team had expanded by a full two thousand newcors.
Although these past three months had allowed the newcors to gradually integrate into the Hunting Team, they still needed a proper farewell and ti to pack before leaving their holand.
Zane humanely granted them three days for this.
Three days later.
Amidst the tearful goodbyes of the Angel Islanders and the Shandia, the brand-new Hunting Team slowly sailed away on the New Riding the Wind and Waves.
At this point, so might ask:
Wasn't the Ancient Jaya Island supposed to be their base of operations?
Why was everyone leaving without anyone staying behind?
Zane wouldn't say that he was now the pirate version of the Flash, capable of returning whenever he wanted.
Nor would he say that he hadn't been twiddling his thumbs during these three months.
Besides hunting Sea Kings, he had also put in significant effort to strengthen his other abilities through rigorous training.
For instance, the Door-Door Fruit.
He had developed a junior version of the Anywhere Door based on its concept of opening doors.
By simply leaving spatial coordinates on Ancient Jaya Island, he could even bring the entire ship with him, arriving the mont he opened a door.
Returning to the Blue Sea from the White-White Sea.
The Sky Island already had a well-established procedure for this.
With the help of Octopus Balloons, a ship could be suspended and lowered all the way from the White-White Sea to the Blue Sea.
Although the New Riding the Wind and Waves was massive, it successfully landed back on the familiar surface of the sea under the buffer provided by several Octopus Balloons.
BOOM!!!
The warship hit the water, kicking up massive waves.
"So this is the Blue Sea?"
"What a spectacular ocean. It's completely different from the White-White Sea."
"Hahaha, don't say that. We were just as shocked by your sea when we first climbed up to the Sky Island."
"....."
After the violent swaying subsided, the New Riding the Wind and Waves gradually stabilized.
On the deck, the Angel Islanders and the Shandia stared blankly at the boundless ocean before them.
Seeing this, the veteran mbers of the Hunting Team burst into laughter.
Coo, coo!
The cry of a bird echoed from the sky.
"It's a News Coo! Hey, over here! We want to buy a newspaper!"
Baby 5, who had leaned into Zane's embrace to steady herself, looked up at the familiar bird cry and imdiately began waving and shouting.
The News Coo flying in the sky had clearly noticed the New Riding the Wind and Waves long ago.
This type of highly intelligent bird imdiately dived down upon hearing a potential custor, landing on the deck's railing.
"Check if they have any old newspapers from the last few months. Buy them all if they do, and get a set of bounty posters as well," Zane reminded Baby 5 as she stepped forward to make the purchase.
Baby 5 signaled her understanding and imdiately began communicating with the News Coo.
Although the News Coo could not speak, it could understand human language and provide simple answers through nodding or shaking its head.
A mont later, the News Coo flew away happily after making a tidy profit, and Baby 5 returned with a stack of newspapers and bounty posters.
"Captain, they only had newspapers from this month, and the bounty posters are only from this year," Baby 5 said as she handed the papers to Zane.
Zane indicated it was fine, then sat down on the golden throne that had been moved onto the warship and began browsing through them.
"Hmm?"
First was the newspaper.
Looking at the most recent issue, Zane's attention was imdiately captured by the news on the front page.
'Have the gears of fate begun to turn...?'
Zane's eyes narrowed slightly as he read the content.
The reason was simple: the headline reported that the East Blue rookie pirate, Straw Hat Luffy, had been given his first bounty of 30 million Berries by the World Governnt after defeating Buggy the Clown and Arlong the Fishman in succession.
Luffy setting out to sea undoubtedly signaled that the entire world was about to descend into chaos.
After all, while he appeared to be a user of the Gum-Gum Fruit, he was actually the user of the legendary Nika Fruit, the Sun God.
Pondering for a mont, Zane ntally reviewed the plot points that would follow Luffy's departure before continuing to flip through the papers.
Luffy's departure was naturally significant.
However, he was still far too green at the mont, so there was no need to concern himself with the boy for now.
As he flipped through the pages, the content of an older newspaper caught his attention again.
The date of this newspaper was from shortly after Zane had left for the Sky Island.
To put it simply, the full disclosure of Doflamingo's death had caused quite a stir.
But no matter how prominent one was in life, death leveled the playing field.
After the initial turmoil, and once the pack of wolves had finished fighting over the scraps, even the World Governnt moved quickly to fill the vacancy in the Seven Warlords.
The new mber of the Seven Warlords replacing Doflamingo was none other than Weevil.
'The World Governnt truly doesn't care about Zephyr, the forr Admiral, at all. At this rate, Zephyr will likely leave the Marines even earlier than expected.'
Zane sighed inwardly as he read the news.
Honestly, he had a lot of respect for Zephyr.
Though sowhat naive in his ideals, compared to many in the Marines, the man truly embodied the word 'Justice.'
For that reason, even though Zane knew Zephyr's strength had declined significantly and that he was suffering from illness, Zane had never listed the man as a target when selecting Haki experts to hunt.
Feeling a bit of pity for Zephyr and disdain for the World Governnt, Zane continued reading.
Then, after only a few more pages, he stopped again.
The news that caught his eye this ti wasn't about soone else, but himself.
'The Zane Hunting Team, huh? The na is certainly straightforward.'
Zane's lips quirked as he read the news.
Since he had no intention of becoming a pirate, he had proactively put up the sign of a Hunting Team while in Mock Town as more and more scouts from various factions appeared.
This move had clearly been effective.
Even if there was no evidence that Doflamingo died at Zane's hands, Zane and his Hunting Team had gained fa as the pri suspects.
They had even been officially dubbed the 'Zane Hunting Team' by the World Economic Journal.
'Given how things are nad in this world, once my eye is exposed, they'll probably change it to the Three-Eyed Hunting Team.'
Zane raised his hand to touch the third eye on his forehead.
After plundering the power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, he no longer bothered to hide his third eye.
Initially, aside from Manlong, who already knew, and Baby 5, who couldn't be kept in the dark, the rest of the Hunting Team had been greatly shocked.
However, Zane had already established absolute authority within the team, so the shock quickly subsided.
As for now.
He didn't even need to think about it.
With Zane no longer hiding it, his identity as a mber of the Three-Eye Tribe would surely attract a lot of attention once he appeared in public.
Or rather, it would draw the greed of many.
[ Author's Note : If you're loving the story, a power_stone, review or comnt ans the world!
Want 40 chapters ahead right now? patre0n.c0m/Royal_ink ]
User Comments
0 comments from readers