Konoha: I have a clone in One Piece.

Chapter 182 The New Era

The Grand Line, Sabaody Archipelago, the Bamboo Pole Bar.

"Hahahaha..." Rayleigh laughed heartily, taking a large gulp of his wine. "Tsk... I never expected that kid could survive an attack from such a terrifying being. Truly outstanding!"

"Roger, it seems that the future we envisioned back then wasn't entirely accurate."

"Tsk...we..."

"Rayle! Stop pretending to sigh and sneaking a drink, hurry up and get to the docks for coating!"

The bar owner, Xia Qi, roared at Lei Li.

"Okay, I'll go right away."

Rayleigh awkwardly put down the bottle in his hand and quickly stood up and walked towards the dock.

"Ha, men!" Shakky chuckled as she watched Rayleigh flee in panic, then looked down at the bounty poster on the bar with a complicated expression: "Well, no wonder he said those things."

"After all, this guy is truly amazing!"

"Ten billion peles, that's...unprecedented!"

On the bar counter, Suzuki's bounty poster was neatly laid out, but the back view in the photo had been replaced with the flames of the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, and a huge, conspicuous "death" character was engraved on the portrait, making this already staggering bounty poster even more unique.

……

The streets leading to the pier in the Sabaody Archipelago.

"Hey, you saw it too, right?"

"Ah, I see it."

"What exactly was that strange pillar of light on the Red Line that day? Where did it come from?"

"Who knows? But I'll tell you a secret, what happened that day was definitely not as simple as the bounty poster said! A friend of mine recently passed by the Holy Land of Mary Geoise and discovered that a huge gap had been torn in there. So, the traveler's bounty is definitely not as simple as it says; he must have done something incredibly serious in the Holy Land of Mary Geoise!"

"Huh? What on earth did the traveler do? How could someone have a bounty of 10 billion Berries?!"

"Let me tell you something, but you absolutely mustn't tell anyone. It's said that a traveler fell for a female Celestial Dragon, and then..." (omitting a long paragraph)

"..."

As Rayleigh walked from the bar to the dock, he overheard the conversation on the island and smiled helplessly, thinking that these people really had rich imaginations.

Love at first sight? Pregnancy before marriage? Rejected marriage proposal and ridicule? Enraged, storming Mary Geoise and leaving with her lover?

What kind of weird and romantic pirate stories are these?!

Although he didn't know what Suzuki was doing in Mary Geoise, how could it be for something like that? That guy has never been interested in women.

Rayleigh smiled and shook his head, then walked seriously across Island 13 where the bar was located.

A moment later, after confirming that it was beyond the range of Shakky's Observation Haki, he quickly took out a bottle of wine from his chest pocket.

"Well... it's not as good as the bottle Suzuki gave me, but it's nice to have some alcohol to drink!"

Rayleigh clicked his tongue and gave a simple evaluation.

Hehe... Shakky would never have guessed that the price I sold myself for last time wasn't 1,000 Berries, but a full 1,500 Berries, right?

As Rayleigh strolled along, he savored the cheap liquor in his hand, worth five hundred Berries, a smug look creeping onto his face.

Not long after, at the pier in the Sabaody Archipelago.

"Hey, Lao Lei, you're here! You're here pretty early today. What's up? Did Xia Qi kick you out again?"

The worker who was applying a coating to a pirate ship looked up and greeted Rayleigh.

"Haha, yeah, we need to come here early to earn money to pay the rent, right?"

Rayleigh responded with a hearty laugh.

Just then, the pirates on the pirate ship saw the coating workers chatting and joking, and their faces showed displeasure:

"Hey! You idiot, hurry up and do it!"

"We're in a hurry to get to Fishman Island; I still need to collect that traveler's head!"

As he spoke, this lowly pirate, who was preparing to head to the New World, looked at Rayleigh and loudly commanded without any politeness, "And you, you're coated too, aren't you?"

"Hurry up and come over, two workers will finish faster."

"..." Rayleigh paused in his drinking, then smiled politely and said, "Okay, okay, coming."

However, before he could even walk over, the pirates on another nearby pirate ship, who were also waiting for the coating to be applied, immediately became unhappy. He stood beside the ship and roared:

"You think you can monopolize two coating workers on one ship? You might as well just die!"

"Didn't you see we also need a coating?"

"Besides, who do you think you are? You think you can take the Traveler's head? That's my Beli!"

Just then, a sneer rang out.

"Pfft..."

"Two idiots!"

Beside him, a pirate who was also preparing to head to the New World, but whose knowledge was clearly far superior to the other two small fry, said with a mocking expression:

"Don't be ridiculous. You two piece of trash think you can take the traveler's head?"

"Do you guys even understand what 10 billion Berries means? That's roughly the same as the Traveler's bounty combined, which is the combined bounty of the other three Monster Kings in the New World!"

The other two low-ranking pirates were immediately enraged:

"Hey, what do you mean by that?"

"So, you want to fight?"

"Ha, mere trifles..."

Before long, under the continued taunts of the more knowledgeable pirate, the three pirates began to fight fiercely.

Seeing this, Rayleigh sighed helplessly:

"Sigh... the pirate business is tough."

As he spoke, he continued drinking the cheap liquor in his hand.

A short while later, another pirate ship arrived at the dock, its emblem clearly bearing the insignia of the Doflamingo family.

Vergo, the former top executive of the family's elite unit, stood on the deck and shouted to Rayleigh and another coating worker who had stopped working because they couldn't earn their commission from the pirates' battle:

"Hey, you two, stop standing there and come over here to apply the coating!"

"Okay, coming, coming."

Seeing that there was work to be done, Rayleigh put away his wine bottle and then, together with another coating worker, began to diligently coat the pirate ships belonging to Doflamingo's subordinates.

Meanwhile, Vergo, Pica, and Torrepol disembarked and waited to the side.

"Vergo, we must avenge Dover and Diamante!"

"The highest-ranking member of the Doflamingo Family, Trebol, said with hatred in his eyes."

"Ah, I know, but this matter needs careful consideration!" Vergo frowned, then sighed, "No one expected Dover's death, and now there are only the three of us left in the family."

"But our enemy is that monster!"

"The Traveler's bounty has now reached 10 billion Berries. Although we don't know what that guy did, with such a high bounty, we can imagine his strength. Even before Doflamingo died, his highest bounty was only a few hundred million Berries."

Hearing Vergo's "long-term plan," even though she knew he made a lot of sense, Pica still couldn't stand it.

This tall, burly man with a rugged face and a golden helmet spoke angrily in a strangely funny, high-pitched loli voice:

"Even so, Vergo, we must take revenge!"

"If it weren't for the traveler, if it weren't for that damned guy, we could have reached the pinnacle of the world under Dover's leadership. But look at us now, our family members are either dead or have run away. What do we have left?"

"Traveler! He killed our companions and destroyed our dreams. No matter the cost, we must kill him!"

Vergo, with a serious expression and a furrowed brow, replied:

"I know, but you should also understand the gap in strength between us and the travelers. Taking a long-term view is the best option."

"Furthermore, since we're going to the New World to join Kaido, we can't immediately sow discord between him and the travelers. We'll have to wait quite some time."

"Vergo! You..."

"Pfft..."

Rayleigh, who had a strong Observation Haki, couldn't help but laugh when he heard Pica's voice, which was completely out of place with his appearance.

"Huh? Who's laughing?"

Pica turned his head angrily, as if he heard someone laughing at him!

But after looking around, Pika, noticing that no one was laughing nearby because of the distance, looked puzzled.

"Did I hear that right?"

Then, the former top executive of the Doflamingo family turned back and continued arguing with Vergo.

In the distance, Rayleigh, who was applying the coating, lowered his head, his smile turning into contemplation.

Are these little guys going to find Suzuki?

Doflamingo? Come to think of it, I seem to have sensed that Suzuki killed him that day.

Well, forget it. They're just three idiots. Suzuki is so strong now, how could these guys possibly take him down? Besides, Kaido isn't someone you can fool so easily!

Rayleigh pulled himself together, glanced at Vergo and the other two with a light laugh, and then prepared to continue the coating process.

Just then, the coating worker standing nearby suddenly whispered:

"Hey, Lao Lei."

"Besides the traveler's astonishing bounty, there's another big news story that hasn't been released yet, hehe, do you want to know?"

"What news?" Rayleigh asked, looking puzzled.

The coating worker glanced around, then whispered:

"I learned about it from a big shot who happened to be passing by. It seems the Five Elders are getting a change!"

"What? Which of the Five Elders is being replaced? And why?"

Rayleigh looked surprised; he really didn't know that.

"Hmm...it sounds like it was Lord Saturn. I only heard a tiny bit, how would I know why they changed it?"

The coating worker scratched his head sheepishly.

"..."

Rayleigh narrowed his eyes, looked up at the direction of the Holy Land Mary Geoise, and suddenly looked horrified when he thought of the huge bounty that Suzuki had inexplicably increased.

A horrifying possibility occurred to him!

……

The Grand Line, the New World, the waters near the Whitebeard Pirates' ship, the Moby Dick.

"Kill them!"

"Kill the Whitebeard first, then take down the Traveler!"

"The Pirate King is mine!"

"Watch out for that guy's fire..."

"ah--"

The golden-blue flames easily burned down several pirate ships carrying hundreds of pirates, and a battle between small fry and top-level experts ended completely in less than ten seconds.

Marco was preparing to flap his wings and return to the Moby Dick when he suddenly noticed a newsbird flying over.

So he quickly flew over and bought the latest newspaper.

"Dad, how many times has this happened..."

"In the past, there were hardly any pirates who dared to provoke us for months at a time, but now there are almost pirates every day."

"They're keeping me up at night."

Marco returned to the ship with a wry smile and handed over a newspaper.

On the other side was Edward Newgate, the world's strongest man, sitting on a stool, hugging a barrel of liquor and drinking heavily.

The white-bearded man quickly finished the entire barrel of liquor, then took the newspaper and laughed heartily:

"Gurala la la..."

"Isn't this perfect? ​​You've rarely experienced combat while staying by my side, this is so much better!"

"Besides, weren't Joz and the others also sent to guard other places?"

As he spoke, the white-bearded man flipped open the newspaper in his hand, glanced at it, and immediately revealed a look of surprise and doubt:

"what?"

"What's wrong, Dad?"

"What did the newspaper say? Did they increase the traveler's bounty again?"

Marco walked over with a puzzled look on his face, then looked at the newspaper.

As he watched, the Whitebeard Pirates' ship's doctor gradually revealed an expression of astonishment:

"How could this be...?"

"Can the Five Elders still be replaced and step down?"

"Ha, election my ass! Resignation my ass!" The white-bearded man scoffed. "Those five old guys were already up there when I was young. Who knows how long they held on? Power isn't something you give up so easily!"

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he quickly took out Suzuki's wanted poster and placed the two newspapers together.

"Dad?"

Marco looked at his father's actions with a puzzled expression.

The white-bearded man looked seriously at the two newspapers placed side by side, and after a moment of silence, he slowly spoke:

"It seems the little traveler has done something quite extraordinary!"

"The Holy Land of Mary Geoise is probably not as the World News reported, where only some buildings were burned down or something."

"That retired Five Elders is probably already dead!"

"What?!" Marco exclaimed in shock. "Father, you mean the Traveler killed the Five Elders?!"

"Ah, yes."

The white-bearded man squinted, carefully examining the two newspapers, and then couldn't help but sigh:

"This kid is really hard to understand!"

As he spoke, he glanced at the small black dot appearing on the distant sea surface and grinned broadly:

"Gurala la la..."

"But the ocean is getting more and more interesting!"

"Marco, stop standing there, hurry up and get into battle!"

"...Okay, Dad!"

Soon, the blue flames, like a newborn fire, rapidly leaped across the sea.

……

East China Sea, Rogge Town.

After parting ways with Monkey D. Dragon and the others on Fishman Island, Suzuki came here.

Looking at the towering execution platform of the Pirate King, he couldn't help but recall the words Roger shouted during his execution that day.

The Great Pirate Era...

"It's been almost ten years."

Suzuki casually stuffed his bounty poster into his pocket, then slowly walked towards the shore.

"So, what should this new era be called?"

(End of this chapter)