When Pons heard Reg mention the bounty, he could not help but feel his breathing grow slightly heavier.
When he had killed Zodyl moments ago, the thought of the bounty had not even crossed his mind.
A bounty of twenty million Berry…
though it paled in comparison to the bounties of the great pirates worth hundreds of millions…
was still an extraordinary fortune for an ordinary civilian.
Now that his boar-hunting trade had gradually reached a standstill, receiving that twenty-million-berry bounty would ensure he had no worries about food or clothing for a considerable period ahead.
Thus, Pons asked Reg: “Where would I go to claim this bounty?
At your Marine branch?” Reg gave a wry smile and said: “Our branch is far too impoverished to pay out such a sum.
If you wish to claim the bounty, you will need to take Zodyl’s head to our Marine N-6 Branch and collect it there.” “Um… where exactly is this N-6 Branch you mentioned?” For the past two years, Pons had remained on Riman Island the entire time and knew absolutely nothing about the surrounding geography.
Reg thought for a moment and said: “The N-6 Branch is located roughly one thousand five hundred kilometers south of Riman Island, beside the Kingdom of Dolts.” Over a thousand kilometers to the south lay a different sea region, one not as remote as this area.
Several nations were situated there, with the Kingdom of Dolts being the largest among them.
The primary mission of Marine N-6 Branch was to protect the security of the Kingdom of Dolts.
Upon hearing Reg’s explanation, Pons was utterly flabbergasted, ‘Roughly one thousand five hundred kilometers south of Riman Island…
how was I supposed to get there?
I did not have a large ship capable of long-distance voyages.
It was not as if I could fashion a small dinghy and paddle all the way there like Mihawk, right?’ He simply did not possess that kind of skill.
If a single large wave struck, his little boat would be swamped and sunk in an instant.
Could he transform into Gengar and fly there instead?
But his stamina would not support flying such an enormous distance.
Though there might be other islands along the way where he could land and rest, he had no knowledge of the geography.
What would happen if he could not find any place to rest during the journey?
Reg observed the look of difficulty spreading across Pons’s face.
After a moment of contemplation, he said: “If it is inconvenient for you to travel to the N-6 Branch on your own, I can have my warship take you there.” Pons cast a slightly surprised glance at Reg, ‘Offering to send a warship to transport me…
was that not being a little too enthusiastic?’ Of course, Reg had his own considerations.
Though Pons was still a young man, as a young fighter capable of defeating Zodyl, he was certainly worth investing some effort in.
If the Marines could recruit him, it would undoubtedly be a valuable addition…
a new member with considerable combat ability and apparently high potential.
Even if he chose not to join the Marines, building a good relationship with such a talented young fighter would never be a mistake.
Of course, it was not possible to transport Pons to the N-6 Branch immediately.
There were still other pirates remaining on the island.
As Marines, they first needed to arrest those remaining pirates and handle the aftermath of the town’s devastation.
Only after all of that was settled could they attend to Pons’s matter.
Pons also needed to check on the specific casualties in town.
If any of his acquaintances had perished, he would naturally need to pay his respects and mourn them.
Including Zodyl and Oko, the Hammer Pirates had a total of one hundred and three members.
After this battle, fifty-four had been killed in action, twenty-six were wounded to varying degrees, and only twenty-three remained entirely unscathed.
Of course, whether wounded or unharmed, all of the surviving pirates were ultimately taken into Marine custody.
Aside from a few pirates who had been wounded or killed by the town’s militia members, the vast majority of casualties had been inflicted by Pons alone.
The Hammer Pirates’ second-in-command, Oko, had also been killed by Pons.
His bounty of ten million Berry naturally also belonged to Pons.
This meant that the total bounty Pons would be able to collect amounted to a staggering thirty million Berry.
However, at this moment, Pons felt no joy or anticipation.
The town had suffered enormous losses…
no fewer than thirty buildings had been burned to the ground, and over four hundred townsfolk had been killed.
The entire town was shrouded in a gloomy, sorrowful atmosphere.
Pons first helped with firefighting efforts.
By the time the flames were mostly extinguished, dawn was nearly breaking.
He then went to check on the status of the friends he had made over the past two years.
Some of them had perished in this calamity, which filled him with deep grief.
At the same time, a sense of self-blame welled up within him.
If only he had noticed the situation in town sooner and arrived more quickly, perhaps he could have saved more lives.
Was this a result of his own lack of ability?
But how could he possibly have prevented such a situation in the first place?
Training in Observation Haki might have helped… but he had no way to learn Haki.
After remaining on Riman Island for half a day, the Marines decided to depart on the afternoon of the following day.
Among the captured pirates who had been wounded, nine succumbed to their injuries, leaving a total of forty prisoners.
The N-23 Branch did not have facilities capable of holding so many pirates.
They would need to transport these forty prisoners to the N-6 Branch, where they would be processed.
This conveniently provided Pons with passage as well.
Thus, Pons said goodbye to his surviving acquaintances, explaining that he would be taking a long trip, and then boarded the Marine warship as it set sail.
Originally, Pons had planned to keep the bounty entirely for himself.
However, the damage to the town had turned out to be more severe than he had anticipated.
He decided that he could contribute more than half of the bounty money toward the town’s reconstruction.
Though Riman Town was merely a small settlement on a remote island, over fifteen million Berry was by no means a large sum for rebuilding a community.
Still, it was the best Pons could offer as a token of his feelings…
after all, he had lived in the town for over two years and had developed a genuine attachment to it.
Given the speed of this old, worn-out warship, the journey to the N-6 Branch would take roughly three days.
Inside the captain’s quarters, Lieutenant Reg first used a Den Den Mushi to contact the Marines left behind at the N-23 Branch.
He informed them that he was currently transporting captured pirates to the N-6 Branch and instructed them to continue guarding the base for the next several days until he and his team returned.
However, upon hearing this news, the Marines at the base found it extremely difficult to believe, ‘Lieutenant Reg had actually captured pirates?
And according to what he had just said over the Den Den Mushi, he had not captured just two or three, but a full forty pirates?’ ‘Wait, what on earth had happened on Riman Island that allowed Lieutenant to capture so many pirates?’ After all, in all their previous encounters with the Hammer Pirates, their lieutenant had suffered nothing but defeats.
Reg had not gone into detail during the communication, so the Marines back at the base had no idea that a young prodigy named Pons had already crippled the Hammer Pirates and killed Zodyl before the Marine even arrived.
Everyone found Reg’s reported “achievement” utterly inconceivable.
Afterward, Reg also contacted the N-6 Branch, informing them that he would be delivering a shipment of pirates in three days.
The commanding officer of the N-6 Branch was Lieutenant Commander Nos.
He too was skeptical of Reg’s claim to have captured forty pirates.
He knew Reg’s capabilities well enough…
how could he possibly have captured so many at once?
But then again, it seemed equally unlikely that Reg was fabricating reports or claiming false credit.
Reg had an upright and honest character, and Lieutenant Commander Nos was well aware of that.
Reg was not the type to exaggerate his own accomplishments.
Unable to make sense of it, Nos decided to put the matter aside.
In three days, when Reg’s warship arrived, the truth would come to light.
…… On the second day of the Marine warship’s voyage, they encountered two pirate ships in the middle of plundering a merchant vessel.
In this Great Pirate Era, setting out to sea as a merchant was an extraordinarily risky endeavor.
Being robbed by pirates…
or even losing one’s life…
was practically a statistical probability.
Nevertheless, opportunity and risk went hand in hand.
If a merchant successfully reached another island and completed their trade, the profits could be substantial.
Thus, merchant ships still departed from various islands from time to time.
When a merchant fleet set sail, they would typically hire skilled fighters as guards.
Sometimes these guards could serve a useful purpose, but when faced with particularly ferocious and powerful pirates, the guards often ended up losing their lives alongside everyone else.
Such was the case with the guards aboard that merchant ship.
There had been roughly a dozen or so guards in total, but most of them were already lying on the deck, with only a handful still fighting desperately.
One Marine sailor reported to Reg: “Lieutenant, it’s the Swordfish Pirates!” The pirate ship’s mast flew the flag of the Swordfish Pirates, a crew that was equally infamous in these waters as Zodyl’s Hammer Pirates.
The two crews were bitter rivals.
Earlier, when Pons had used Confuse Ray on the Hammer Pirates’ grunts, the hallucinations they experienced had made them see their comrades as members of the Swordfish Pirates…
which had triggered their internal bloodbath… Similar to their track record against the Hammer Pirates, the Marines under Reg’s command had almost always suffered defeat when facing the Swordfish Pirates as well.
But even so, it was the Marines’ duty to engage pirates.
Moreover, this time the warship carried a reliable ally.
After issuing orders for the Marines to prepare for battle, Reg quickly walked over to Pons and said to him: “We are about to engage the Swordfish Pirates.
I would like to ask for your assistance.” Pons hesitated for a moment, but then nodded.
He might not be what one would call a particularly good-hearted person, but if he saw people being killed right before his eyes and had the power to save them, he should at least try to help.
Reg then provided Pons with a brief summary: “The captain of the Swordfish Pirates is named Narut.
He is a Swordfish Fruit user.
In terms of individual combat ability, he is slightly superior to Zodyl, and his bounty stands at twenty-four million Berry.” Upon hearing Narut’s bounty, Pons’s expression shifted slightly.
He asked Reg: “If I defeat this Narut, would I also receive his bounty?” Zodyl’s bounty, plus Narut’s and Oko’s bounties combined, would total fifty-four million Berry… “If you can defeat him, then that bounty will naturally be yours as well,” Reg said to Pons.
Pons nodded.
Then, even before the warship had drawn close, he transformed into his Gengar form and flew straight toward the pirate ships and the merchant vessel ahead.