The sea where Ross is living has a relatively dense distribution of islands, which is the Okuji Sea, one of the five major seas of the West Blue. Although it is only one of the seas of the West Blue, the pirate forces are still stronger than the East Blue by a lot.
Among them, the highest bounty pirates reached thirty-five million berries and more than double figures of ten million and twenty million.
However;
Until now, the pirates who died in the hands of Ross, with a bounty of more than 10 million, including Rhodes, already have four.
Now it is a decade of the Great Age of Pirates. Despite the situation of the Yonkō (Four Emperors) having taken shape, the Shichibukai (Seven Warlords of the Sea) are still in disarray, not yet formed order.
Ross, who wants to fight the Yonkō and Shichibukai and kick the Marine and Gorōsei are still slightly far away.
...
After half a day;
Ross came to the island closest to him with a marine branch on an island that is not very big. There is only one town on the island, and it is a place he visits often.
"That's... Ghost Hand Ross!"
The residents of the town, when they saw Ross enter the town from the shore, the residents of the town all showed their fearful looks. Some of them dragged their children back to their homes as soon as they could, and some closed the doors tightly.
Although also hunting pirates, this career as a pirate hunter is less honorable than the Marine. After all, the vast majority of pirate hunters' aims are money.
Ross does not care about this. He does not like pirates, nor does he like the Marine. Pirates have no place to live and are chased by the Marine all over the sea. The Marine has to obey orders as well as rules and restrictions everywhere. Moreover, many corrupt marines exist, acting more disgusting than pirates.
In contrast, the career of a pirate hunter is much easier.
"It's the Ghost Hand Ross!"
"Is he here again? It seems like it's only been less than half a month!"
Many recruits and officers saw the head in Ross's hand and showed some fear on their faces, with sweat spilling out of their heads and gulping noises from time to time.
Not long after, the top officer of this marine branch, Captain Moby, draped in a marine cloak with the word justice, came into the hall.
"Who is it this time?"
Captain Moby's face was sullen, and his emotion was not very nice.
Their marine force in this base may not be able to capture a pirate with a bounty of more than ten million in two or three months. Ross, a pirate hunter, has sent three heads with a bounty of ten million in a row in just two months.
Although the vicious pirates are punished is a good thing, this kind of thing is also often symbolic of their incompetent Marine needing to rely on pirates hunters to punish pirates.
"Machete Rhodes, with a reward of sixteen million berries."
Ross took a wanted poster out of his pocket and gently placed it on the table, imploring Captain Moby to come over and compare.
When Captain Moby saw what he said, he looked slightly startled.
"Rhodes was taken out by you?"
He had previously led the marine forces out to chase Rhodes once and escaped by the other side. He did not expect that this was not even a month later, Ross took out Rhodes.
With just one look at the head of Rhodes on the table, he was sure that it belonged to the Machete Rhodes.
"Wait a minute, I'm going to report to my superiors."
After staring at Rhodes' head for a few seconds, Captain Moby gave Ross another deep look, turned around, and walked inside his office.
Not long after, Captain Moby came inside the hall again and said, "It has been confirmed, the reward money will be sent over soon..."
Speaking of which, Moby paused for a moment and said in a somewhat impatient tone, "The Marine has recently been expanding its marine recruits. The Headquarters asked me to ask you if you are willing to join the Marine, and if you are, you can be granted the rank of Lieutenant Commander."
"Join the Marine?"
Ross rubbed his chin and said, "Forget it, I'm not ambitious. It's just enough to live with a little bounty."
Moby grunted, and he didn't want to see Ross join the Marine, and the Headquarters asked him to come over and ask, and now Ross himself refused, and that was the best.
Moby gave a smile. He didn't want to see Ross join the Marine, but the Headquarters asked him to come and ask him. It is good that Ross himself refused.
A few hours later.
Rhodes's sixteen million dollar bounty was sent over and loaded up into a backpack, which Ross opened and glanced at, not caring to count, and carried away directly.
"Captain, are we just going to do nothing?"
Lieutenant Commander Leica stood next to Moby and watched Ross's departing back with a grit of his teeth and a gloomy look in his eyes.
"Do what? What do you want to do?"
Moby glanced at Leica, grunted heavily, and said, "If you want to regain your lost prestige, get your ass to work! Arrest all those pirates who are running around!"
Moby rebuked Leica, his face twitched, and finally bowed his head in response. No one noticed his face, which had his head down, was beyond stiff and cold.
...
After leaving the Marine base, it was already midnight.
Roz was not afraid that someone would rob him in the middle of the night. He came to the coast carrying a backpack of money, got on his boat, drove it, and returned to where he had been living.
It is a medium-sized island.
There are seven or eight towns on the island, plus a very large city at the center where Ross lives.
By the time he returned, it was the next morning.
"Hey, Ross is back."
"Did you have a good trip? Any injuries?"
"Have you eaten anything yet? We've cooked noodles at home, why don't you come over and try some?"
The town's residents are very friendly to Ross because the pirates attacked the town a few months ago. Ross is the only one who stood up and defeated many pirates and saved the town.
Ross smiled and greeted the people in the town. He returned to the small house where he lived, threw the backpack with the money on the bed, and lay down on the bed to sleep.
This sleep lasted until the afternoon.
After waking up, Ross counted the money he currently had.
"There are already more than 40 million berries, which is enough to buy a larger ship, but the crew is a problem..."
A deep look came over Ross's face.
This island has Nico Robin, who is hiding in the secret underworld intelligence agency in the city's center. Ross would like to recruit her as a crew member, but once she is on board, she is bound to be wanted by the Marine and will have to go to be a pirate.
"After all, there is still not enough strength. If you have enough strength, whether it is a pirate or a marine, it is possible to get off easier and no one dares to mess with it."
Ross shook his head and left the house. He planned to go out for a bite to eat and work on his practice when he returned.
Although training his physique will not improve his talent proficiency, this improvement is a boost that is separate from the talent system. His current physique is not strong, so the margin for improvement is huge.