One Piece: Blue Scale Admiral

After a long silence in the hall, Rorschach spoke again, asking, "Why did Gulliver come all this way? Don't tell me he came just for you."

“Of course not.” Jonathan shook his head, sighed, and pointed to the ground. “He came for this Hunter’s Guild headquarters.”

"station?"

"Yes, because this place holds all the wealth accumulated by the entire Bounty Hunters Guild over the past 33 years."

A fortune so vast it would drive any power in the world mad.

Chapter 261 The Treasure Vault and Another Invitation

"Click click click click".

A muffled hum echoed in the enclosed room, and the ground beneath Luo Xia's feet cracked open, revealing a dark, downward-sloping opening.

"Come with me, and I'll show you what I've saved up over the past thirty years."

Jonathan walked ahead with a torch in his hand, and Rorschach followed curiously behind him as they descended the steep, sloping stairs into the underground.

"So mysterious? Is the Bounty Hunter Guild very profitable?"

Rorschach subconsciously released his Observation Haki, which seeped and spread downwards.

Soon, he discovered that the underground passage was deeper than he had expected.

It seemed to extend all the way down into the depths of the earth.

The perception of Observation Haki was greatly weakened in the face of the nearly solid soil, rock layers, and numerous man-made fortifications, and was not as smooth as when it was used to perceive things in the air.

“Running a Hunter's Guild itself doesn't make money, and you might even have to spend a lot of money on the guild's daily operations. But the bounty commission system I established allows the guild to earn tens of billions of Berries every year from the Four Seas and Paradise.”

Jonathan walked at a fast pace.

Actually, he didn't need to carry a torch or anything like that.

Although he is old, he is not so old that he cannot even release a little bit of Observation Haki.

Luo Xia paused, his foot hovering in mid-air. In the darkness, his face was obscured, but his astonished voice betrayed his shock.

"How many?"

"It's only a few hundred billion, don't make such a fuss. That amount of money is just the monthly income of the Gild Tezzoro. The money I earn is hard-earned. We have hundreds of guild branches all over the world, and every year we have to be on tenterhooks just to collect and summarize accounts all over the world."

Jonathan kept rambling on and on.

Rorschach couldn't understand the specific details he was describing, but the exaggerated figure of tens of billions of Berries in profit every year truly shocked him.

"Several hundred billion a year, over thirty years, wouldn't that amount to trillions?"

“It’s not like we can earn that much every year.” Jonathan suddenly sighed. “Speaking of which, ever since that bastard Roger started the Great Pirate Era, although the bounty we earn from Paradise has decreased, the bounty we earn from the Four Seas has increased several times over. However, overall, pirates from Paradise are still more valuable.”

"Why is that?" Rorschach asked curiously.

"Because once the Great Pirate Era began, a large number of people from all over the world chose to go to sea and become pirates every moment."

The number of pirates once swelled to millions every year, comparable to the total population of some medium-sized kingdoms.

In the world of survival of the fittest, pirates who manage to pass through numerous obstacles and successfully enter Paradise are all quite strong, making them many times more difficult to hunt down.

While the pirates of the four seas are weak, their sheer number is simply too vast.

"Why do those bounty hunters who kill pirates go directly to the Navy to claim their bounties instead of going to your Hunter's Guild? As far as I know, the Navy bases stationed in the four seas can also issue bounties, and they only take a 20% commission."

Rorschach asked again.

Yes, the Navy takes a cut of the bounty money paid to those who capture pirates.

They usually take 20% of the total reward.

Of course, this percentage is not fixed and is usually adjusted based on the number and quality of local pirates.

In areas where pirates are rampant, the number of pirates will be reduced accordingly to encourage people to hunt pirates and earn bounties.

When he was a second lieutenant in the branch office on Qianyan Island in Beihai, he had learned a lot of relevant information.

"There are many reasons for this, and I'll tell you the ins and outs of it."

As Jonathan descended the steep stairs, he gave Rorschach a brief explanation of how the Bounty Hunter Guild operated and its commission system.

Today, Jonathan divides the bounty hunters on the high seas into two types.

One type is hunters who have joined the Hunter Guild and are registered under their real names.

These bounty hunters can increase their hunter star rating within the guild by arresting and killing wanted criminals, thereby gaining many benefits.

For pirates captured by bounty hunters of four stars or below, 60% of the pirate's bounty can be obtained from the guild.

It seems the guild took away quite a lot.

But in reality, it's only about 20% more than the bounty hunters get by directly exchanging it with the Navy.

When upgrading from three stars to four stars, the commission will be reduced by 10%.

Upgrading from four stars to five stars will result in a 20% commission, similar to that of the Navy.

For stars of five stars or above, not only is there no commission, but they also receive a salary.

The higher the star rating, the more benefits you enjoy.

Even after the Hunter's Guild gathered these skilled hunters, it didn't spend every day leading a large group of hunters around the world hunting down wanted criminals.

The guild has its own channels and business.

For example, serving as a guard for caravans or nobles.

Protect the town, the kingdom.

They might even accept a temporary conscription from the Navy to become temporary teammates and join forces to hunt down pirates.

These businesses can also bring huge profits to the guild and the hunters themselves.

Besides that, there are free hunters.

The identity of the Free Hunter is quite complex.

There are ordinary civilians, kingdom guards, and ordinary pirates who refuse to be managed.

And the biggest part of it is the pirates themselves!

Yes.

Rorschach didn't mishear.

According to Jonathan, 70-80% of the free hunters who capture and kill the most pirates each year are the pirates themselves.

These pirates who acted as pirate hunters either killed their opponents in battle or temporarily took on the role of pirate hunters because they were short of money.

After killing several of his fellow sailors who were wanted by bounty hunters and obtaining a sum of money, he returned to his ship and continued his voyages.

For these people, getting the most bounty is not the most important thing.

The most important thing is to safely obtain the bounty money.

The Bounty Hunter Guild will provide them with this exchange channel.

However, the commission taken from the bounty is as high as 50%.

That is, split in half.

The majority of the Hunter's Guild's annual income comes from the contributions of these pirates who act as free hunters.

Because of his past as a naval admiral, Jonathan had already established a bounty exchange channel with the World Government when he founded the Hunter Guild, and obtained a preferential price of only 10% tax.

After all, the Hunter's Guild is relatively righteous and can help the World Government's rule.

"Why should we exchange bounties for those pirates who come to collect their fellow pirates' bounties? Aren't the Hunter's Guild and they enemies?"

Rorschach voiced the question that had been bothering him.

Jonathan explained that there are simply too many pirates in the world, and relying solely on others to hunt them is insufficient. Offering bounties to pirates, to some extent, encourages infighting and distrust. This prevents pirates from forming large, organized groups.

This explanation makes a lot of sense, and Rorschach couldn't find a reason to refute it.

A dozen minutes later, Luo Xia estimated that the two of them had walked down four or five thousand meters before finally seeing a heavy and huge stone door at the end of the sloping stone steps.

He couldn't help but turn around and look at the dark underground passage, speechless with astonishment.

"Hey Jonathan, the location where you built this treasure vault is way too well hidden, isn't it? Is it possible for a man to excavate such a deep underground structure?"

"Human power may not be enough, but don't forget, there are unreasonable abilities like Devil Fruits in this world."

As Jonathan spoke, he pulled a large key from his pocket, inserted it into the keyhole on the door, and turned it.

With another series of loud noises, two stone doors, each over a meter thick and weighing an unknown number of tons, slowly opened, revealing a vast underground space.

Luo Xia stared in disbelief at the underground space, which was surrounded by tightly sealed stone walls, filled with an unknown number of boxes and piles of gold and silver jewelry that resembled small mountains.

The dazzling gold and jewels almost blinded him.

"Holy crap... how much is this worth?" Rorschach licked his lips, turned around in disbelief to look at the smug Jonathan, and looked the withered old man up and down.

"You old codger, are you a dragon in disguise? Every night, you revert to your dragon form and sleep peacefully on these mountains of gold and jewels."

Jonathan, who was opening a treasure chest, rolled his eyes and said irritably, "Stop reading those boring storybooks. We don't even know if dragons exist. Even if they do, they can't possibly become human unless they eat the Human-Human Fruit."

Luo Xia walked over and looked at the wooden box that he had casually lifted.

Inside was a large box of Pele, neatly stacked.

Luo Xia turned around and looked at the thousands of wooden boxes of the same size around him, as well as the piles of gold and jewels, and shook his somewhat dizzy head.

"How much money is here?" A dreamlike murmur escaped his lips.

"I don't know either." Jonathan paced back and forth beside the mountain of Bailey and gold, his hands behind his back.

"It should be worth seven or eight hundred billion peggs. These gold and jewels are rare antiques, and their value is much higher than that of pure gold. But there are too many items, so it will be difficult to sell them all at once."

"With so much money, I think you old codger are the real king of this Holy Poplar Kingdom, aren't you? This place should be called the Kingdom of Bounty Hunters."

Rorschach was speechless.

Even the air in this enclosed underground space smelled of Pele's ink.

“In fact, this place has long been known as the land of bounty hunters.” Jonathan said with pride.

He earned all this wealth in the latter half of his life.