In the early morning hours, Jerry sat at the bow of their ship as usual, fishing rod cast into the calm waters while his crewmates went about their morning routines behind him.
"Boss Jerry, here are the newspapers you wanted to see from the past few days, including coverage of our Alabasta adventure," Skull announced, handing over a small stack of papers before turning to join the others for their daily exercise session.
Generally speaking, during their voyages, unless special circumstances arose, even evening celebrations rarely interrupted their established training rhythm. Physical conditioning remained a priority for everyone aboard.
Jerry thanked him and took the newspapers, reading through them slowly while keeping one eye on his fishing line.
"Wow! That bird-brain really has guts," he muttered with admiration. "He's willing to print absolutely anything."
Regarding the events that had unfolded in Alabasta several days earlier, the news coverage was surprisingly comprehensive. While the report didn't explain the initial causes or final resolution in complete detail, and clearly contained the writer's subjective opinions throughout, the general sequence of events had been presented quite truthfully.
As an eyewitness to those events, Jerry knew how common it was for news reports to blur the lines between fact and fiction. If more than fifty percent of any given article contained accurate information, it could be considered relatively objective by World Government press standards.
What surprised him most was that the dominant perspective of this particular article wasn't entirely supportive of the Celestial Dragons' position—a remarkably bold editorial choice.
If Morgans keeps reporting like this, the World Government will eventually deal with him permanently, Jerry thought to himself.
What Jerry didn't realize was that the News Coo president had already marked the Black Star Pirates as a priority target for ongoing coverage. Morgans, who prided himself on being a consummate professional journalist, naturally wanted to provide extensive reporting on their activities.
After all, the Black Star Pirates could arguably be called the highest-bounty crew among the younger generation of pirates who had set sail within the past two years. Jerry, Ace, and now Cavendish with his newly acquired Rumble-Rumble Fruit powers represented the absolute cream of the crop among rookie pirates in terms of both individual strength and overall potential.
Therefore, even if they had managed to avoid causing international incidents, Morgans would have wanted to create newsworthy stories about them. The fact that this particular group provided fresh material on a seemingly weekly basis only made his job easier and more profitable.
Looking at his dramatically increased newspaper sales figures, combined with the intense reactions and pressure from various government and pirate factions, Morgans became even more convinced that his aggressive reporting strategy was the correct approach.
"So our bounties have collectively increased again?" Jerry muttered, narrowing his eyes as he studied the updated wanted posters included with the newspapers.
The Alabasta incident had created significant political waves, causing the bounties of every Black Star Pirates crew member to rise substantially. As the crew's captain and the person who had made "close physical contact" with the Celestial Dragons, Jerry's bounty had unsurprisingly broken through the one billion berry threshold.
Even crew members who hadn't actually appeared in Rainbase during the confrontation, including Ace, had seen their individual values increase to some degree based on their association with the incident.
Building on his previous achievements and reputation, Ace's bounty had now climbed past 550 million berries. This number probably reflected the fact that while he hadn't appeared directly in the Celestial Dragon confrontation, he had been present on the ship and was considered a primary combat asset of the team. The World Government had factored in his extensive battle record against pirates, Marines, and other significant forces.
The outside world remained unaware that the previous user of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit had been defeated by Ace personally—if that information had become public knowledge, his bounty would likely have increased even further.
Cavendish's value had skyrocketed to 300 million. Jerry estimated that roughly half of that increase was directly attributable to his acquisition of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's incredible powers.
Brook's situation was particularly amusing—the authorities had apparently dug up his decades-old wanted posters, updated the photos to reflect his current skeletal appearance, and raised his bounty to 83 million berries. The skeleton musician's criminal past had finally caught up with him in the most bureaucratic way possible.
Since Carina had defeated CP9 agents alongside Carrot and Kotatsu, it appeared the government had credited her with the primary responsibility, raising her bounty to 85 million berries—a significant jump that reflected her growing reputation as a capable combatant rather than just a skilled thief.
Correspondingly, as the crew's animal members, Carrot's bounty had increased to 50 million berries while Kotatsu's had reached 30 million—respectable amounts that acknowledged their genuine combat contributions during recent battles.
As for Deuce and Skull, who hadn't appeared at the actual battle scene in Rainbase, their bounties had still increased to 78 million and 73 million berries respectively, reflecting their roles as essential support personnel for such a dangerous crew.
Jerry finished reviewing their updated wanted posters and was preparing to continue reading other newspaper coverage when he suddenly heard a familiar "ding" sound resonating in his mind.
"A quest trigger? Out here in the middle of nowhere?" he wondered, mentally accessing the mission details.
[Ding! Random Quest Triggered: The Goldfish Enthusiast's Obsession]
[Quest Rewards: Double attribute bonuses for daily task for one week, plus one mystery treasure chest]
[Failure Penalty: Publicly declare inappropriate romantic interest to ten random young girls while shouting "The Age of Giant Goldfish has begun!"]
The quest followed the familiar pattern of useful rewards balanced against utterly humiliating punishments. However, the actual requirement seemed problematic—he was supposed to catch a freshwater goldfish while surrounded by ocean water.
"Get lost! I'm not some goldfish fanatic! Where am I supposed to find goldfish in the middle of the sea?!" Jerry immediately stood up and raised his middle finger toward the sky in frustrated defiance.
Ignoring the concerned stares from his crewmates on deck behind him, Jerry grabbed his hair with both hands and stared upward in silent contemplation.
After a long moment, his expression remained filled with confusion as he thought to himself: Wait... are goldfish actually saltwater fish in this world?
"Forget it, let me try fishing first. If this doesn't work, I'll have to face that ridiculous punishment," Jerry shook his head, deciding not to worry about the academic details of marine biology classification in a world where giant elephants could walk on the ocean floor.
When everyone saw their resident fisherman beginning to act erratically again, they all turned expectant eyes toward Deuce for an explanation.
Deuce simply shook his head, spread his hands, and shrugged helplessly. "Don't look at me—he's beyond help at this point."
The crew returned to their respective morning training sessions, leaving Jerry to his increasingly frantic fishing attempts.
Several hours later, after completing her usual exercise routine, Carrot bounded up to the ship's observation deck and grabbed the telescope for her regular horizon sweep. Moments later, she leaped back down to the main deck and called out toward the bow:
"Big Brother Jerry! There's an island visible ahead!"
"Oh, let Deuce take a look... eh?!" Jerry had been staring listlessly at the water's surface, his chin propped on his hand as he responded with obvious disinterest. Before he could finish his sentence, his eyes suddenly widened in shock.
"Here we go! Big fish!"
His fishing rod had suddenly begun moving dramatically, and countless bubbles were emerging from the water's surface across a surprisingly wide area. The disturbance seemed to be growing larger by the second.
After a moment of building tension, a massive shadow began rising from the depths, and Jerry's fishing rod bent to its absolute limit under the tremendous strain.
"Wahoo! Everyone come quickly—I've actually caught a big fish!" Jerry shouted excitedly, his voice cracking with disbelief at his own success.
The commotion at the bow, combined with Jerry's increasingly frantic yelling, attracted the rest of the pirate crew like moths to a flame.
"No way! What's wrong with this world? Even Boss Jerry can catch something substantial?" Skull exclaimed, his voice filled with genuine shock.
"I have to agree!" Carina added with equal amazement. "Did the fish get so hungry it actually ate bait that would normally make dogs run away in terror?"
Watching Jerry scream with excitement while wrestling with his fishing rod, both Skull and Carina's faces displayed complete disbelief. The rest of the crew nodded in agreement, thinking this had to be some kind of cosmic joke. They could only assume this was the result of Jerry's accumulated bad fishing luck finally reversing itself through sheer probability.
Water exploded skyward in towering columns, creating countless ripples across the surface, as the enormous black shadow hidden beneath the sea finally revealed itself alongside their ship.
"I knew it! I absolutely knew that goldfish in this world live in the ocean!" Jerry's eyes lit up with vindication as he raised his left hand high, clenched his fist triumphantly, then pulled it back to his chest while cheering with passionate enthusiasm.
"That's complete nonsense! That's obviously a Sea King!" the entire crew roared in unison, unable to contain their exasperation at Jerry's stubborn interpretation of reality.
From Jerry's perspective, his fishing line was indeed connected to what appeared to be a massive, rotund goldfish. However, what he had actually hooked was an enormous Sea King that happened to possess goldfish-like features and coloring.
While they were still processing this development, the giant Sea King goldfish opened its cavernous, tooth-filled mouth and lunged directly toward the Black Nova with predatory intent.
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