Chapter 7: Gao Wen's Career Planning

"Monka is dead; those who surrender shall not be killed!"

Gao Wen flicked his sword upward, lifting Monka's severed head.

His voice was not loud, yet it caused both sides engaged in combat to stop simultaneously.

The previously frenzied marines felt as though they had plunged into an ice cellar the moment they saw Monka's headless corpse.

The desire stirred up by Monka's few words just moments ago scattered completely in an instant; the scene before their eyes differed far too much from what they had expected.

"Major Monka... is dead?"

A marine's face turned deathly pale; were it not for the blade wound on his arm, he would have almost believed himself to be in a nightmare.

"Are you kidding me?"

"How can we bow down to pirates?!"

Hiss!

Before he could finish his sentence, Gao Wen sliced off his head with a single sword strike; blood sprayed in all directions, splattering onto the surrounding marines.

"Warm, salty, with the taste of iron..."

"This is no dream; I..."

The marines, who had been full of confidence moments ago about taking Gao Wen's head to establish their merit, were now trembling continuously from fear.

After all, if even Monka was no match for Gao Wen, what meaning did their resistance hold?

Clang~!

Accompanied by the sound of metal hitting the ground, the marines present abandoned their resistance one after another and squatted where they stood.

The battle on the island ceased thereby.

It was not until Gao Wen directed his subordinates to bind these marines that the pirates finally came to their senses; they looked at Monka's corpse, then at Gao Wen, whose clothes were untouched by even a speck of dust.

A flame seemed to burn within their pupils.

"Our captain actually... truly defeated that Monka?"

"Defeated?"

"That was an instant kill!"

The one wearing a hat continued staring at Monka's corpse, reaching out to touch his own neck, his eyes filled with awe.

"This time, our captain will likely become famous throughout the entire East Blue!"

"Even those monsters within the Grand Line might not be our captain's match!"

"Ah."

"I have this feeling: the East Blue cannot confine him; no, it should be that the East Blue cannot contain him."

"The matter of Lanse allowed him to complete his metamorphosis entirely!"

"Whether in mindset, strength, or will, he is completely different from before; it is simply... simply as if he has become a different person!"

The pirates present looked at Gao Wen's back, their eyes holding not only awe but also a confidence they had never possessed before.

With Monka's defeat, the situation on the island was quickly brought under control.

All the marines who had followed Monka onto the island were bound hand and foot and gathered in one place.

The warships remaining at sea were also easily seized thanks to Gao Wen's intervention, and every marine aboard those ships was captured by Gao Wen.

By the time the turmoil on the island was quelled, a red sun had already risen on the horizon.

Gao Wen stood on the deck of the warship, with the captured marines before him.

"Captain, how should we deal with these people?"

The helmsman wearing a hood walked before Gao Wen and asked respectfully.

After Lanse's death, he had become Gao Wen's temporary second-in-command, and his abilities were considered outstanding even among the pirate crew.

Gao Wen swept his gaze over these prisoners, paused in thought for a moment, and then spoke:

"Leave them on the island."

"Captain, these people have much blood of our brothers on their hands; are we just letting them go like this?"

The helmsman instinctively spoke up to object.

"Are you teaching me how to do things?"

"I dare not!"

The helmsman hastily knelt down, his eyes filled entirely with terror.

Only now did he realize that the person before him was no longer the soft-hearted knight of the past, but the true pirate, Gao Wen.

The man who used to chase and beat them could not even withstand a single move from Gao Wen's hands.

Furthermore, during this past month, Gao Wen had spent most of his time guiding them in cultivation, which precisely indicated that Gao Wen had been hiding his strength all along!

He was not weak; he simply had no heart for strife. It was we and the Navy who strangled that mercy and jointly created this monster!

For a moment.

Countless speculations flashed through the helmsman's mind; the more he pondered, the more difficult it became for him to suppress his fear of Gao Wen.

"Good that you know it."

Gao Wen's tone was indifferent; he glanced at the helmsman before turning his gaze to the prisoners on the deck.

Killing marines during combat and torturing captives were matters of two different natures; the former still left room for mitigation, while the latter meant an irreconcilable feud unto death.

He was not yet prepared to completely break relations with the Navy, at least not for now.

Looking across the world of pirates, barring extreme examples like Hawkeye, great pirates almost inevitably ended up walking the path of carving out territory and crowning themselves kings.

Crocodile occupied Alabasta, Doflamingo held Dressrosa, while the Four Emperors of the New World—Kaido, Whitebeard, and Big Mom—were kings in the substantive sense, ruling over stretches of land.

Even Red-Haired had gathered his own great fleet under his command.

There was only one reason why these great pirates unanimously chose this mode of operation:

Stability.

Living off pure plunder, never knowing where the next meal comes from — that kind of life was fine in the early days of building a crew.

Anyone still running things that way in the later stages is either genuinely stupid, or the sort of crew like the Straw Hat bunch — adventurers more than pirates, really.

But even so, Straw Hat still gathered a huge crowd of followers beneath him.

From Fish-Man Island to Wano, every place flying the Straw Hat flag — whether they intended it or not — has effectively become Straw Hat's sphere of influence.

And for Gao Wen, who holds the Captain System, the more stable his pirate crew, the faster his leeks can grow, and the faster he himself grows.

To build a stable force, achieve a virtuous cycle, and at the same time avoid the Navy's relentless harassment from every direction —

either you're one of the Four Emperors, strong enough to make Marine Headquarters think twice before moving against you, or you hold a World Government-sanctioned plundering license as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

So after seeing this point clearly, Gao Wen's first goal was set:

Rebel first, then accept the imperial pardon!

As for how to become a Warlord, Ace and Blackbeard have already provided two examples.

Either rely on raw strength — pull a Warlord off his seat, have someone powerful backing you above, and the slot naturally falls to you.

Or wait for a vacancy among the Warlords and volunteer yourself.

Both paths have their merits and their flaws, but the prerequisite for either is that your own strength is hard enough.

Gao Wen, who hasn't even left the East Blue yet, clearly doesn't meet that condition — but that doesn't stop him from putting the plan to join the Warlords on his schedule.

However.

The top priority right now is still to raise his own strength as fast as possible.

Leaving the prisoners on the island, and after a simple check-over of the ship to confirm there were no problems, Gao Wen led his men out, sailing in the direction the sea chart indicated to resupply at a nearby town.

Gao Wen didn't bother to change the Navy flag flying on the warship either.

After all, to enter an ordinary town for supplies or anything else, that flag is far more useful than a pirate flag.

……

……

……

Several days later.

Marine Headquarters Eastern Branch.

Smoke curled through the meeting room, the atmosphere oppressive and solemn.

Navy officers from every branch base across the East Blue had gathered here, their expressions grave as they stared at the two bounty posters on the table.

One wore an orange cowboy hat, freckles across his face, a sunny smile on display.

The other was clad head to toe in pitch-black leather armor, strikingly handsome, tall of build, his bearing so elegant he looked like a knight straight out of a storybook.

Headquarters Lieutenant Brannew stood before the assembled officers, his tone utterly grave:

"Gentlemen."

"The situation in the East Blue is more severe than we imagined."

"The Logia user Fire Fist Ace ran rampant at Marine Branch 151, causing countless casualties."

"And the Knight Gao Wen killed Branch Base Commander Morgan. By the marines on the scene's account, from start to finish, Gao Wen only drew his sword once!"

"The bounties on these two need to be redrawn!"

(End of chapter)