Chapter 147: The Most Interesting Bounty in History

It’s no wonder that the World Government and the Marines will suspect Ace. After all, the most remarkable newcomer that has emerged on the Great Line recently was Fire Fist Ace.

The Marines’ intelligence department has obtained a lot of information about him. They know that he was the one who ate the Flame-Flame Fruit and became capable of using and controlling fire. This was very similar to that mysterious black-clothed man. Of course, they don’t have information saying that he could emit that kind of black flame, but the specific abilities of a Devil Fruit were only known by the eater himself, which also involves the development of fruit ability and so on, but this alone can make Ace be listed as the biggest suspect target.

Moreover, according to the description of the Marines soldiers pursued him in Marijoa, the mysterious man in black seems to have Haoshoku Haki, and it became known that the Fire Fist Ace was capable of using such ability, which was mentioned in Hina’s report…

But… is the Fire Fist Ace a swordsman?

This was probably the most difficult problem for the Marines, because according to the information obtained, the fighting mode of Ace has always been fighting with fists, only martial arts, and combining his moves with his Devil Fruit ability. No one has ever seen him use swordsmanship.

“Is it possible that the so-called swordsmanship is confusing our sight?” A Rear Admiral who participated in the meeting mentioned this: “After all, according to the information analysis, the sword in the hands of the man in black doesn’t look special!” (LOL)

This conjecture immediately made everyone’s thoughts deviate, and the participants almost unanimously affirmed that the mastermind was the Fire Fist Ace.

However, just as they were so certain, a new piece of information came and immediately shattered their conjecture.

This new information content was that Fire Fist Ace wanted to challenge the Yonko Whitebeard just a few days ago, but was stopped by the Knight of the Sea Jinbe, one of the Shichibukai. They fought for five days on an island and ended in a draw, but he was taken away by the Whitebeard when he fainted!

The information was very accurate, so in other words, this was the alibi of Ace, because the two were in the same period. The fight between Ace and Jinbe has just happened, so he can’t appear in Marijoa this time.

So for a while, speculation about the identity of this mysterious mastermind fell into a deadlock again.

At present, the World Government and the Marines were in a state of anxiety. The Celestial Dragons have been exerting pressure on them to investigate the identity of the man in black as soon as possible, and find a way to get the identity chip back. That’s something that the Celestial Dragons shouldn’t lose, but what’s the use of just exerting pressure? They had nothing to do about this matter…

In the Marines, there were two people who had seen Ian’s skills, one was Hina, and the other was Smoker. Unfortunately, Ian’s ability has been changing with the growth of his cards. In Smoker’s impression, Ian, although he can use swordsmanship and can emit flame, but his flames were a normal fire. Smoker also doesn’t believe that Ian could hurt Aokiji… (Ian was just using Hiei’s normal fire. He only unlocked his black flames emerging from the depths of Spirit World when he upgraded his card to the 5-stars…)

This was also the case with Hina. She knows that Ian can use the Haki, but what Ian showed in front of her at that time was just the Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki), while the black-clothed man used Haoshoku Haki.

So that while attending the meeting, the two of them suspected Ian, but they were not too sure, so they did not dare to say it, for fear of misleading.

‘I don’t think it was him even though he had the courage!? Isn’t he counting on being a pirate hunter to make a lot of money? It doesn’t seem like he would start a war against the Marines and the world government, it doesn’t make sense!?’

It has to be said that in fact, the information was given by the Celestial Dragons also misled the Marines. The Mjosgard’s family only mentioned that their identity chips had been taken away, but they didn’t mention the disappearance of billions of cash in the treasure trove and the Devil Fruits. There’s only one explanation. Money doesn’t worth a thing in the eyes of the Celestial Dragons, and the Devil Fruits were just toys for them. They didn’t care about them. For them, the only thing that really matters was the identity chip.

So, such a small detail missing made the world government and Marines think that the mysterious man in black first sneaked into Marijoa, then went the Mjosgard’s family, followed the son of the Saint Mjosgard into the secret chamber, then killed the son, took the identity chip, then liberated the slaves, and then fled.

This whole incident seems to be very premeditated.

How can they know that Ian’s real purpose was the money and the Devil Fruits? The Identity Chip was just an incident. The emancipation of slaves was just to create chaos and make it easy for him to escape smoothly.

In other words, Ian’s motive for committing the crime was fundamentally different from what the world government and the Marines suspect! They were totally in the wrong direction!

When the world government and Marines confirmed that the mastermind might have come to steal the Celestial Dragon’s identity chip, they even once again listed Doflamingo as a suspect, wondering whether it would be that he wanted to regain his rank as one of the World Nobles, so he hired someone to steal the identity chip.

So, after Ace, Doflamingo, unfortunately, became the second most suspected person.

Fortunately, after the speculation reached the Celestial Dragons, they cleaned out the wrongdoing for Doflamingo. That identity chip doesn’t mean that anyone who holds it can become one of the Heavenly Dragon Folk. Doflamingo knows this very well, so he won’t do it.

After a busy night, the meeting between the world government and the Marines didn’t come up with a result, so at last, they had to decide to go public with this news and made the mysterious man in black wanted.

The bounty was quickly made, using a picture taken by a Surveillance Den Den Mushi in the city of Marijoa. Above the picture, the background was the burning city, while Ian, the mysterious man in black, was photographed in a side view there.

And the name on the wanted poster was also very interesting. It’s just marked with “Mysterious Man in Black”, below was a small note: “The Arsonist of Marijoa!”

The bounty was 500 million Berries, which was the money offered by the Mjosgard’s family, but he must be caught alive.

When seeing this wanted poster, Vice Admiral Garp couldn’t help laughing heartily, because he knew that the most interesting bounty in the history of marines was born!

When Garp heard that Aokiji was injured and the black-clothed man was capable of using Flame Abilities, even Garp was shocked. He almost thought it was really Ace, but fortunately, when Ace scrubbed after the suspicion, Garp was relaxed.

It was why he was in a good mood at the moment. They confirmed that it was not Ace who did it. That’s a good thing, but now Ace has been taken away by the Whitebeard. His grandson seems to be getting further and further on the Pirate’s path!

‘I hope he doesn’t have anything to do with this matter…’

Such a wanted poster was carried by the news seagulls, and after the next day’s dawn, it was distributed around the whole world.

Correspondingly, there was only the news about the incident of Marijoa’s arson.

Yes, only the arson incident! The world government was so determined for the nature of the news. That was their way of handling things. They have to exercise public opinion control. If the truth was known to the world, that would be a big deal.

Eleven years ago, Fisher Tiger of the sun Pirate Group liberated so many slaves in Marijoa, which has caused a great stir. If this time was reported as the event of slaves’ emancipation, it would be like telling the world that Marijoa’s defense is Hollow, so they quickly manipulated the news!

Not only did they hide the liberation of the slave, but even the death of a Celestial Dragon was concealed!

Why? Because this was a very serious problem! The original agreement between the world government and the Celestial Dragons was that they gave up the royal power, and the world government provided protection for them. For a long time, no one dared to disobey the Celestial Dragons, because the marines would send an Admiral to protect them. But if a Celestial Dragon was killed this time, it would be discovered by all the world that the Heavenly Dragon Folk were nothing but foxes masquerading as tigers!

Even An Admiral failed to protect them. Not only that, the murderer finally escaped!

Once the image of invincibility is exposed, they’re afraid that the assassination against the Celestial Dragons will be endless, right? In the case that Celestial Dragons like to visit the Sabaody Archipelago, all the killers, pirates and people who hate Celestial Dragons will flock to the Sabaody Archipelago…

The world government can’t allow such a thing from happening, so they didn’t mention the death of a Celestial Dragon in the news.

To cover up the truth was the right thing for the world government to do, just as they did to cover up the 100 years of the Void Century. They agreed to cover up this matter.

It’s just that… as some people were pursuing the truth of history, such a cover-up can’t conceal too many people.

Not to mention, the amount of the bounty seems very strange, even if this mysterious man in black burned Marijoa, why would he get such bounty? What’s more, they wanted him to be caught alive?

Moreover, during the World Council, the kings of many countries gathered in Marijoa have witnessed the event. Naturally, they have their own intelligence channels to find out what happened. When they learned the truth, the kings and leaders of all the participating countries, like Garp, laughed heartily.

As Garp said, this was really an interesting wanted poster!

After laughing, other thoughts suddenly appeared in many kings and leaders’ heads.

“This kind of thing happened. What would happen if we proposed in the conference to cancel the tribute gold system again?”