Marineford. Admiral Sengoku's office.
Although Fleet Admiral Kong still held the top position in the Navy, there had long been rumors within the Marines that Admiral Sengoku would be the next Fleet Admiral.
There was no official announcement yet, but Kong had already started handing Sengoku a portion of the less critical high-level matters.
Pururururu—
Click.
"This is Sengoku."
"What? They failed? How is that possible? Three Headquarters Vice Admirals and nine warships still couldn't wipe them out? What exactly happened?"
"Alright. I understand."
After hearing the full report from the Marines sent to capture Ren, Sengoku fell into thought.
His gaze landed on Ren's bounty poster.
The Navy had given him the epithet Lucky Ren.
Was it really a Devil Fruit ability?
Or just a bizarre chain of coincidences?
Sengoku had already studied the details of the failed operation. According to the report, the sudden appearance of the Red-Haired Pirates had disrupted the encirclement plan.
But what shocked him even more was this—
not a single Navy shell had successfully hit Ren's pirate ship.
Then Sakazuki had taken matters into his own hands, only to enrage a Sea King and end up causing heavy damage to multiple warships.
Still, Sengoku hadn't expected the Myriad Worlds Pirates' overall combat strength to be this high.
According to Beart's account, two Rear Admirals and five field-grade officers had gone up against just two enemy crew members—
and were defeated within minutes.
On top of that, Ren himself had the ability to face Beart head-on.
It looked like the Navy would have to raise the crew's bounties.
Just then, a Marine messenger called from outside the door.
"Admiral Sengoku, Fleet Admiral Kong is asking for you."
"Understood."
…
"Fleet Admiral."
"Sengoku, take a look at this. This came from an undercover source inside the Red-Haired Pirates."
"What? Ren actually has an ability like this?"
"Yes. According to the report, he can grant strange properties to ordinary objects. By his own words, he gave his ship the trait of good luck."
Sengoku stared at the intelligence report in silence.
If the information was accurate, then the chain of strange events during both Ren's public departure and the recent capture operation wasn't luck at all.
It was his ability.
Then Sengoku noticed another line in the report.
"Fleet Admiral, I propose we substantially raise Ren's bounty."
Kong asked, "Why?"
Sengoku pointed at the section mentioning the storage bag.
"Because of this."
"If this information is real, it could cause major consequences."
Kong studied the note, and it didn't take him long to see the problem.
An item that could be carried on one's person while storing massive quantities of supplies would be invaluable to both pirates and the Marines.
There were spatial abilities in the world already, but most of them only affected the user. Very few could be applied to outside objects.
But Ren's existence suggested that storage-type items could become widespread.
That would change the world.
For example, if someone brought a bomb into the World Government's summit chamber using one of these storage items, the consequences would be impossible to predict.
Pururururu—
At that moment, the Den Den Mushi on Kong's desk rang.
Kong glanced at it and immediately recognized the line.
One of the Five Elders.
He picked it up.
"This is Kong."
"I am one of the Five Elders. Listen carefully, Kong. This pirate named Ren must be brought under the control of the World Government. His ability is too dangerous. Do you understand?"
"I understand."
After hanging up, Kong looked toward Sengoku.
"The Five Elders personally issued the order. Ren is to be captured alive."
"What? Why would the Five Elders—"
Kong snorted.
"CP is everywhere."
He naturally understood what had happened.
The infiltrator within the Red-Haired Pirates was a Marine operative. The Red-Haired Pirates, while rising fast, still weren't important enough for CP to focus on directly. Compared to Shanks, CP would rather keep watch on monsters like Whitebeard and Big Mom.
So if the Five Elders learned all this so quickly, it could only mean one thing—
there were CP people buried inside the Marine system itself.
…
The next day, Ren and the others had fully shaken off the Navy and were once again following the Log Pose toward their next island.
Seeing a News Coo flying overhead, Ren waved it down and bought a newspaper.
The front page was about him again.
The Myriad Worlds Pirates Escape from the Encirclement of Three Vice Admirals and Nine Warships
Ren didn't care much about the article itself.
What he wanted to see was the new bounties.
Flipping through the pages, he found Martha's and Xu Nian's first.
Thousand-Faced Witch — Martha
Position: Helmsman
Ability: Unknown
Bounty: 50,000,000 Beli
Never Misses — Xu Nian
Position: Sniper
Non-Devil Fruit User
Bounty: 25,000,000 Beli
"Martha, Xu Nian, you two got bounties too."
Xu Nian only glanced at him once before continuing to clean her guns.
Ren kept flipping.
Then he found the husky and the Devourer.
Husky — Pet of the Myriad Worlds Pirates
Bounty: 50 Beli
Ren immediately burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Wrecker, you got a bounty too! Fifty beli! That's a huge fortune!"
The husky looked at Ren, completely unable to understand what was so funny.
It just let out a confused whine.
Next came the Devourer.
Sneering Lizard — Mount of the Captain of the Myriad Worlds Pirates
Bounty: 100,000 Beli
Not bad.
A first bounty of a hundred thousand was already respectable.
Seeing that everyone else on the ship had gotten a bounty, Ren grew even more excited for his own.
This time he had clashed with a Navy Vice Admiral and escaped a full-scale Marine siege.
No matter how he looked at it, his bounty should have skyrocketed.
But as he searched the pages, he suddenly realized something.
There was no new bounty poster for him.
That left him completely baffled.
How could there not be one?
Did he miss it?
Ren flipped back through the paper from the beginning.
Then again.
Still nothing.
Which meant there was only one explanation—
the Marines hadn't updated his bounty at all. He was still stuck with the old one.
But even the Devourer had a bounty of a hundred thousand now.
Meanwhile, he, the captain, was still sitting at fifty thousand.
Wouldn't every pirate in the world laugh themselves to death over that?
Just imagining people saying, "That Myriad Worlds captain is a complete joke. His crew's worth tens of millions, and he's only worth fifty thousand," was enough to make Ren want to scream.
"Navy, you—"
He cursed the Marines for a solid half hour before finally giving up.
After all, they were the ones who issued the bounties.
During this period, Ren had gained a lot from fighting Shanks, especially after finally learning Armament Haki. That had filled in one of his biggest weaknesses.
Now, he had decided it was time to upgrade it.
His earlier fight with that Marine Vice Admiral had looked evenly matched on the surface, but the truth was different. Ren had only managed that because of the special properties of his flip-flops and his edge in weapon handling.
When it came purely to Armament Haki, he had still been inferior.
So now he wanted to upgrade it properly.
"Use Skill Upgrade Cards on Armament Haki."
"Ding. Host has used a Skill Upgrade Card to raise Armament Haki from Entry Level to Beginner."
"Ding. Host has used a Skill Upgrade Card to raise Armament Haki from Beginner to Intermediate."
"Ding. Host has used a Skill Upgrade Card to raise Armament Haki from Intermediate to High-Level First Stage."
Ren blinked.
"System, what does High-Level First Stage mean?"
"Once a skill reaches the high level, every further increase is a qualitative leap. A single upgrade card is no longer enough to satisfy the requirements for a full breakthrough."
Ren frowned.
"So you mean once a skill reaches high level, upgrading it requires multiple cards?"
"Yes."
Well.
There went his dream of instantly becoming much stronger.
Still, now that his Armament Haki had been upgraded, it was time for the most exciting part.
Character summoning.
The previous battle had made one thing very clear—
his pirate crew was still too small.
He needed more people.
And just so happened, he now had another Character Summoning Card.
"Use Character Summoning Card."
Even though he had already seen the summoning process several times, it still felt like opening a blind box.
Until the very last second, there was no way to know what kind of person—or thing—would appear.
Watching the human-shaped figure slowly take form, Ren let out a quiet breath.
At least this time, it looked like a human.
Not another weird creature.
Then a voice rang out.
"The one being held so tightly… turns out it was me."
[Author Note]
More chapters available on Patreon: AbyssCrown