Beckman laughed, and said, "As the saying goes, a country cannot be without a ruler for a day. Whitebeard's death has caused his territory to disintegrate, but whether it's Blackbeard or Death God, both of them are the kind of men with great ambition, and will definitely not let the other block them. So, this war is just a test for both sides. The real showdown should be starting soon."
"Then we'll just have to wait and see," Shanks laughed heartily.
The four emperors Big Mom, Kaido of the Beasts, Doflamingo, and other major forces in the New World also knew about the Black and White War in the New World. They were also very shocked by the strength of the Whitebeard Pirates and the Blackbeard Pirates. Especially the matter of former Navy Admiral Aokiji joining the Whitebeard Pirates caused a huge uproar, causing countless eyes to focus on Navy Headquarters.
"Bang!"
In Marineford, Navy Headquarters, Akainu slammed his palm angrily on the table, roaring, "That damn bastard!"
Sitting in front of Akainu were a group of Navy executives, among whom Kizaru was leisurely drinking tea, Vice Admiral Tsuru and Sengoku, who had become an advisor, were sitting in a corner, closing their eyes and resting, and the other Navy vice admirals, such as Doberman, were looking at Akainu with serious expressions.
"Betraying the Navy and joining a pirate crew is a disgrace to our Navy. We must not let him off easily."
Akainu roared angrily. Everyone present knew who he was talking about. However, Aokiji had good relationships with people in the Navy in the past. So, even though this kind of thing had happened, no one besides Akainu's roar had stepped forward to express their opinion.
Looking at everyone's expressions, Akainu knew what they were thinking. He said loudly, "Now is a crucial moment for our Navy. We can't let one person's problem affect the image of our entire Navy. What do you say we should do with Aokiji?"
Navy Vice Admiral Doberman opened his mouth, and said, "Since he has already joined the Whitebeard Pirates, he naturally doesn't have the qualifications to retain his title. I think what we should do now is issue a statement, remove him from the Navy, and put a bounty on him. After all, his current identity is a pirate."
As soon as these words came out, everyone's expressions changed somewhat. The contrast was really too great. Not long ago, he had been their Navy admiral, but now they were actually going to put a bounty on him. So, everyone didn't express their opinions, continuing to remain silent.
However, Doberman's words were very much to Akainu's liking. He opened his mouth, and said, "I think Doberman is right. Since he's already a pirate now, then he's our Navy's enemy. We must not be soft on enemies. We should immediately issue a wanted poster for him."
"Then how much should we issue as a bounty?"
Seeing that Akainu had made up his mind, someone opened their mouth to ask.
Akainu thought about it, and said, "One billion. Set his bounty at one billion Berries, in order to show our Navy's determination."
"One billion."
Hearing Akainu's words, the people present all had a slight change in expression. He was really ruthless enough, starting with one billion right away. However, thinking about it carefully, with Akainu's strength, he was indeed worthy of this bounty, and it might even be too little.
The matter was decided just like that. After finishing speaking, Akainu continued, "Besides Aokiji, we also need to increase the bounty on that Death God. His strength and danger have reached a very dangerous level."
To the Navy, besides Aokiji, what they were most worried about in the Black and White War were Akira and Blackbeard. The threat of these two was too great. Blackbeard had already revealed his ambition back in Marineford, and was definitely a very evil character.
And although Akira wasn't as evil as Blackbeard, he was definitely not an easy character either, even more dangerous than Blackbeard. Especially back in Punk Hazard, Akira had taken Aokiji away right in front of him. To Akainu, this was definitely a great humiliation.
Onigumo, who belonged to Akainu's faction, opened his mouth at this time, and said, "When that Death God was imprisoned in Impel Down, his bounty was already close to one billion. How much should we raise it to now to be appropriate?"
"A bounty of one billion is already a very high number. If we rashly increase it too much, it will definitely cause panic."
Someone expressed their concern. To ordinary people, pirates with bounties of more than one billion were very terrifying figures. So, Navy Headquarters would also deliberately control it when issuing bounties. This was also one of the reasons why there were very few great pirates with bounties exceeding one billion in the New World.
Akainu opened his mouth, and said, "We can't ignore Death God because of these reasons. He will inevitably become a figure who is extremely threatening to the world, just like Whitebeard. So, we must increase his bounty. Let's raise it to 1.3 billion Berries."
"1.3 billion!"
The Navy executives present all had a change in expression. They didn't know how long it had been since they had heard this number. However, thinking about Akira's strength, and the threat brought by the Whitebeard Pirates, this number actually wasn't too high.
Akainu continued, "Besides the Whitebeard Pirates, the people of the Blackbeard Pirates also need to be wanted. Especially Blackbeard. This person is also a madman, and the pirates under his command are all heinous criminals. This pirate crew is even more evil than the Whitebeard Pirates. So, we must not let them go."
The Navy's bounties and wanted posters quickly spread throughout the world. When the world knew that Navy Admiral Aokiji had left the Navy and joined the Whitebeard Pirates, they were all very shocked. This was probably the most serious defection incident since the Navy was established.
"Akira, your bounty has increased. It's already reached 1.3 billion."
There were only two days left until the agreed-upon day for the two-month gathering. As of now, a total of fifteen pirate crews that had previously been affiliated with Whitebeard had come, and many of these pirate crews were pirate crews that hadn't joined the Summit War. So, their strength was still relatively well-preserved. The fifteen pirate crews had a total of more than two thousand people.
But the only regret was that these pirate crews didn't belong to the kind of large pirate crews. Even the strongest captain was only a pirate with a bounty of more than 100 million, not even having a pirate captain with a bounty of over 200 million.
However, Akira wasn't worried. Instead, he was somewhat happy, because the fact that the pirate crews could arrive on time at this time showed that they were sincerely towards the Whitebeard Pirates, and were trustworthy subordinates. What's more, there were still quite a few of these people, enough to strengthen the momentum of the Whitebeard Pirates.
Two days passed by in the blink of an eye. On the last day, more than twenty pirate crews came to the place agreed upon by the Whitebeard Pirates. There were about forty pirate crews that had come before and after. There were also many small pirate crews with relatively few people. Many of these pirate crews were remnants of scattered pirate crews.
The number of pirates from all the pirate crews totaled five to six thousand people. Adding the number of people from the Whitebeard Pirates' main crew, the number of pirates gathered this time reached more than seven thousand people. This kind of number was very terrifying in the New World. Even for the four emperors pirate crew, it wouldn't be easy for them to gather so many pirates all at once.
Akira was naturally very satisfied with this result. He had originally thought that only a very small number of people would come at most, but he hadn't expected that so many would actually come in the end. It seemed that Whitebeard's use of kinship to win over his subordinates in the past was a very good approach.
"Akira, everyone has arrived. It's time for you to appear."
After everyone had arrived, Marco gathered them on the island. With more than seven thousand people gathered together, the scene was naturally very amazing. Although these pirates were all from different seas, they all knew each other. So, after gathering together, there wasn't any chaos.
Akira was somewhat hesitant at this time, asking Marco, "Marco, what do you think I should say?"
"Uh."
It was Marco's turn to be stunned. In his eyes, Akira had never known what fear was. How could he actually be somewhat stage-frightened now? He said, "This isn't like you, Akira."
Akira scratched his head, and said, "I haven't experienced this kind of scene after all. I really don't know what to say."
During battles, no matter what kind of person was standing in front of him, he wouldn't have any hesitation. But at this time, he really didn't know what to say. After all, this was the first time he was speaking as a leader in this kind of situation.
Although Marco had followed Whitebeard for a long time, and had seen many big scenes, it had always been Whitebeard who had gone up. He had just been watching from the side. So, at this time, he really couldn't give Akira too much advice.
"Well, just say what you're thinking in your heart. It's nothing difficult. Go."
After saying that, Marco immediately turned around and left. He was really afraid of being caught by Akira, and the others also followed Marco and left.
Akira looked helplessly at this group of unreliable guys, took a deep breath, and could only rely on himself.
Under everyone's gaze, Akira slowly walked onto the temporarily built high platform. As he stepped onto the high platform step by step, his heart also gradually calmed down. At the same time, he exuded a soul-stirring aura. This aura was actually lingering around him, and hadn't erupted outwards. It just gave people a feeling of submission when they looked at him.
"Akira's use of Conqueror's Haki has indeed reached the pinnacle. Even Pops's Haki wasn't as powerful as his. I really don't know how he trained it. Pops once said that Conqueror's Haki is innate, and difficult to train."
Marco still understood a little more about Conqueror's Haki than the average person. After all, he had always been following Whitebeard. Conqueror's Haki was a natural spirit. Even Whitebeard didn't know how to train it. In his memory, besides Akira, the only one who could condense Conqueror's Haki to this extent was Red-Haired Shanks. And he felt that Akira's Haki seemed to have become even more powerful at this moment.
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