Chapter 225: Entrapment
"Well, if it isn't Boss Shakky? What, did another pirate crew try to wreck your place?"
"Something like that. Just process them the usual way."
At the Fish-Man Island diplomatic office on the Sabaody Archipelago, the Neptune Army guards stationed there familiarly took the bound pirates off Shakky's hands. The rest of the process was standard: they would claim the bounties from the Marines and then take a predetermined percentage as a commission.
Anyone doing bounty-related business operated this way. The only difference was the commission rate. Veteran Underworld brokers charged higher cuts, but they were also more reputable.
Double-crossing or taking the money and running were not uncommon occurrences. After all, the Underworld was filled with the darkest depths of human nature; for people running illegal enterprises, no dirty deed was out of the question.
For Shakky, exchanging bounties through the Ryugu Kingdom was far more hassle-free.
Moreover, the Marines would never set foot inside this territory managed by the Ryugu Kingdom. Unless explicitly ordered by Headquarters, the Marines stationed at Sabaody would at most patrol the outer perimeter.
This environment made Shakky and Rayleigh feel much more secure.
This wasn't her first time doing this. Even before Roger turned himself in and the Great Pirate Era officially began, Shakky's Rip-off Bar had encountered similar situations.
After all, the words "Rip-off" were literally painted on the signboard. This kind of blatant entrapment naturally attracted trouble.
However, Shakky and Rayleigh had very clear targets. Fresh pirates who had just arrived at Sabaody from Paradise were absolutely no match for the two of them.
Rayleigh's combat prowess was a given. And as the former Empress of the Kuja and the ex-captain of the Kuja Pirates, Shakky's own martial might was nothing to scoff at.
The Kuja's succession didn't rely on bloodlines; it respected absolute strength. Anyone capable of becoming the Kuja Empress attained that position purely because they were the strongest.
Doing this frequently had made her a master of the process. After checking the recent bounty lists, the Ryugu Kingdom office even prepaid her the funds directly.
Precisely because of this efficient system, when bounty hunters or other pirates got into conflicts, they would often choose to cash out their bounties here.
Although the commission was slightly higher, the office was absolutely reputable, and they could get hard cash instantly without having to wait. For them, it was an excellent deal.
"It looks quite peaceful over here," Shakky remarked, glancing at her surroundings.
The pirates who had come to the office were all lining up in an orderly fashion. Though minor frictions occasionally broke out, they were all contained within the established rules.
"That's a given. Any pirate willing to walk through these doors is a pirate willing to abide by our rules. Their choice is to pay the toll and cross the border safely. Even if some of them harbor hidden schemes, they won't dare show it here."
Babel, who had been meditating quietly nearby, suddenly stood up and walked over to Shakky's side. Right now, there was not a single trace of the "simp" or repressed tension he usually exhibited; he looked completely normal and composed.
"Fair enough. Come by my bar when you have the time. We're old acquaintances, after all. The least I can do is treat you to a drink."
"Old acquaintances... Quite a few from our era have already bowed out," Babel noted, not bothering to lower his voice. "And among these new rookies setting sail, there's quite a bit of troublesome trash."
The "troublesome trash" Babel mentioned wasn't present in the office. Those pirates had chosen not to play by the rules.
Pirates attempting to cross the border illegally would never come to the diplomatic office. Instead, they would seek out unlicensed mechanics to coat their ships and then attempt to dive in secret.
It was just that pirates of that sort generally met incredibly miserable ends.
"The times are moving forward. More than a decade has passed; we're no longer the young hotheads we used to be," Shakky said.
"Conceding to old age already? The Shakky I knew wasn't like this."
"People change. Continuing the voyage and things of that nature... that's a job for the youth now."
Snuffing out her cigarette, Shakky waved her hand and turned to walk back toward her bar.
She had no idea whose pirate ship Rayleigh was currently coating, but she still had a bar to run.
Babel didn't reply, merely shifting his gaze to scan the nearby pirates.
From a purely professional standpoint, it was better if these rookies behaved themselves.
But from a personal standpoint, Babel really hoped some arrogant, ignorant rookie would step out of line. Only then could he properly remind these brats that while the figures of the "old era" might have aged, they were far from dead.
The current sea was not yet theirs to rule.
Just then, a massive surge of bubbles suddenly erupted from the surface of the water not too far away.
There were wide gaps between every mangrove island on the Sabaody Archipelago, but the gaps between the inner islands weren't wide enough for massive ships to pass through. Large-scale pirate crews still had to anchor their vessels on the outer perimeter.
Only smaller boats could navigate the inner waterways.
Air couldn't just spontaneously generate at the bottom of the sea. The air inside Fish-Man Island's massive bubble was drawn down through the roots of the Sunlight Tree Eve and stored by the Ryugu Kingdom.
The Ryugu Kingdom also operated dedicated gas stations for replenishing air.
Thus, a sudden eruption of bubbles like this usually meant only one thing: a coated ship had suffered a catastrophic failure while diving.
And that was exactly what had happened.
On the northern side of the Sabaody Archipelago, at the outer edge of the lawless zone, numerous pirate ships were anchored.
Their crews were busy resupplying, waiting for their ship coating to finish so they could depart for the New World.
"Hey, Hodel! I heard you actually acted like a good little boy and paid the border toll? A pirate paying a toll just to cross a border? If word gets out, people will laugh their teeth off!"
On two adjacent pirate ships, one pirate was loudly mocking the other, clearly utterly contemptuous of the idea of paying the toll.
Pirates weren't exactly poor. Through treasure hunting, plundering, and slaughtering, any pirate crew capable of reaching the Sabaody Archipelago had amassed a decent fortune on their ship.
But getting a pirate to honestly hand over their money was an incredibly difficult task. There was never a shortage of arrogant fools who scoffed at the toll and planned to force their way through.
"Dere, you money-grubbing idiot," Hodel shot back. "My goal is to claim the Great Treasure! Not to pointlessly increase the risk of my ship sinking in a place like this!
"That is ten thousand meters underwater! Trying to fight an aquatic race on their own turf? Who's the real joke here?!"
Dere and Hodel had known each other for a long time. Even if they were bitter rivals during their voyage, neither could manage to kill the other, eventually forming a strange, competitive rivalry.
Glug... glug glug...
Suddenly, the violent sound of churning bubbles echoed from the water's surface. Accompanied by a rapidly expanding shadow from the depths, a shattered pirate ship, still partially encased in a broken bubble, breached the surface.
Pop!
The moment the ship broke the surface, the remaining bubble film violently burst. Stripped of the bubble's buoyancy, the ruined ship began to collapse and scatter across the water, and a deck full of gruesomely distorted corpses was gradually swallowed by the rolling waves.
Staring at the pirate flag washing up against the shore, Dere's face instantly turned a sickly shade of pale green.
He recognized that flag. It belonged to a genuine Supernova of this year's generation, a man whose bounty made Dere's look like pocket change.
Relying on his overwhelming strength, that Supernova had forcibly stolen Dere's coating mechanic and dived first. Dere never expected that, in the blink of an eye, the man's ship would be destroyed and his entire crew wiped out.
And as far as Dere knew... that Supernova hadn't paid the toll.
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