The Hunters' Guild

The Marine Headquarters has issued a wanted bounty, and bounty hunters are chasing for it, which is a ubiquitous sight in the pirate world.

But the bounty hunter industry is already caught between the light and the dark, a mix of rugged loners. They're also the shady underground assassins, and even many bounty hunters themselves are being hunted for bounties.

If they were to take the heads of pirates to the Marine Corps to collect the bounty, the Marine Corps might throw them in jail instead.

Thus, the Hunter's Guild, a semi-official, semi-dark institution, was born.

The forces behind the guild were complicated, most recently, naturally, the monstrous World Government, which in a sense acted as some sort of white-glove for those big shots.

Then there were the great nobles of those kingdoms, the great merchants that roamed across several seas, and even the rulers of the Underground World.

Because of this, although the Marine Headquarters explicitly gave most of the bounties offered by the Hunter's Guild, there were also many underground bounties for assassinating the leaders of rival powers or spying on enemy intelligence.

...

A kingdom in the central sea of the first half of the Grand Line, a region known as the Black Triangle, is home to countless pirates, and is even known as the "Sea of Thieves"!

Therefore, the tasks handed over to the Hunter's Guild branch in this pirate lair naturally focused on those underground bounties.

It is somewhat ironic that the most frequent visitors to this hunter's guild are instead the pirates, laughing and watching those people redeem their bounties, and then trying to figure out the strength to consider whether to go underground.

Even if no business is open, they can sit down and drink wine whilst gossiping.

However, the always loud and chaotic guild branch was quiet that even a pin dropped on the ground could be heard at the moment.

All because of the man sitting on the front stage wearing a ghost mask.

"Gulp! Is that guy Demon Sword Apophis? He's not going to go berserk and kill us all, and rumour has it that he's as scary as the slaughterhouse every time he kills!" The pirate captain, who has a fearsome reputation for making children cry in the nearby seas, is now speaking in a trembling whisper, not even daring to raise his head for fear of being killed for looking directly into the eyes of that man.

"I don't know, and it's best not to run into that kind of monster. I heard that when that man targeted the ogre Barlow who offered a bounty of ninety-two million berries, the screams of his death even reached a kilometre away. It's hard to imagine what kind of torture can make that kind of ferocious sea pirate cry for mercy." The pirate beside him shuddered, the evil spirit-like howls seeming to echo in his ears again.

"I am Apophis, you should all have heard my name, and I am planning to start my pirate group to take a shot at the Pirate King, so I need to recruit some experienced crew members..."

The Hunter's Guild all nearly rioted when they heard Apophis say he was planning to recruit a crew, a rugged adventurer who was no match for even the sea pirates who had a bounty of nearly a hundred million!

Although Apophis is rumoured to be brutal, brutal is supposed to be synonymous with powerful among pirates. For most pirates, they'd instead follow a powerful and ruthless captain than a weak and easygoing boss.

If you can board Apophis's ship, you might become a future veteran member of a large pirate group!

"Mighty Apophis-dono, I... my reward is only 27 million berries, but I have always aspired to your might, so allow me to follow you!" A little-known pirate came forward with an exciting request.

"I don't care if you're strong or weak, even if it's Ogre Barlow, it's only the difference between one sword or two for me!" An apathetic voice came from beneath Apophis's mask.

Now the crowd was even more overwhelming.

"Apophis-dono, please take me, I am Crypt Keeper Rose with a 35 million berries bounty on my head!"

"And me, please take me with you to witness your legend!"

Soon, Apophis took most of the pirates under his wing and said with a slight nod of his head, "The manpower is almost there, the next step is the ships, only the top ships built by Treasure Tree Adam will be worthy of my status."

Although they didn't know what Apophis' meaning was in bringing up this topic, there was still a newcomer who patted his ass, "Of course, the legendary pirate king Roger was the one who made the legendary journey on the ship built by the Treasure Tree Adam. So naturally, Apophis-dono should have the same top-notch ship."

Apophis nodded appreciatively, "There is news of the Treasure Tree Adam at the auction in the Capital of Seven Waters. It is estimated that it should sell for an astronomical price of 300 million berries, you will first give me the money you have on you to shoot the Treasure Tree Adam. When I am in a good mood, I will casually go kill a few sea pirates with a bounty of over 100 million and then double the money back to you."

Hearing this, the pirates were all a bit hesitant.

"What? Did my first captain's orders not work? You must know that three hundred million berries are just a small sum of money to me, and I am just anxious to go and take a shot at that precious tree Adam."

"This..." the group of pirates looked at each other, somewhat unsure of what to do.

Creak...

The door slides open, and a tall man with a suitcase enters, also wearing a similar ghost mask on his face.

Seeing this, all the pirates swept back and forth between the two with suspicious eyes, and their previous enthusiasm began to dissipate.

The man in the mask sitting on the front counter, "the man with the ghostly face, with a secret hatred in his heart," turned around, stepped off the barstool, and walked straight to the tall man with the suitcase.

After standing up, the masked ghost man realized that his opponent was at least 2.4m tall, standing in front of him who was less than 1.8m tall had a full sense of pressure.

"Gulp!" The masked ghost man gulped indiscreetly and whispered, "Brother, you've crossed the line for fishing here, this is my territory of Variety Jack."

"Of course, forget it this time, you cooperate with me through the play, and we'll split the money we get at the end of ninety per cent."

Seeing that the tall man didn't answer, the masked ghost man gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, you're cruel, we'll get twenty-eight points... thirty-seven points at most... four or six points really can't be less... . to be a good person to meet later, 50/50 is my last line, the worst-case scenario is to break up."

After the ghostly masked man kept changing his bottom line, the tall man like a puppet on strings finally said, "You're standing in my way!"

The ghost masked man, who had initially been down with the tall man finally letting go, asked with confusion, "What did you say?"

Finally, the tall man lowered his head, and the ghost masked man who locked eyes with him only felt that his soul was frozen. His heart was terrified and horrified, what kind of looks, filled with the deadly and murderous bloody tyranny as if birthing everything ominous in the world.

What was even more frightening was that the owner of those eyes was able to remain calm, seemingly imprisoning the terrifying demons in the world with the most peaceful of minds.

This guy couldn't be Demon Sword Apophis, could he?

Published in Qidian, March 03, 2019