Outside Loguetown, Doflamingo and Crocodile watched as Adrian's band of bandits steamed away. They'd seen Aokiji take that brutal kick, and they'd seen the aftershocks of the fight scorch the sky above the town. They hadn't watched the battle blow-by-blow, but the fact that Adrian's group got away intact said everything: the Navy had failed.
For pirates like Doflamingo and Crocodile, that was a show worth watching. They didn't want to see the Marines triumph; they wanted to see the Marines get humiliated. Getting to witness that was like eating ice on a sweltering day—utterly satisfying.
Still, neither of them moved to contact Adrian's crew. If a group could slip past Garp and the three Admirals intact, then trying to cozy up to them would be courting danger. Recruiting someone far stronger than you is a provocation; if the other side had a bad temper, you could end up dead. And besides, both men already had empires that were stable—swallowing half a slice of someone else's pie was not appealing. Better to watch from afar.
…
One day later, the world's papers ran the story. The World Economic News Network splashed the headline everywhere: the Navy had dispatched the legendary Garp and the three Admirals to take down Adrian's crew—and failed. Morgans somehow got a post-battle photograph of Garp, and the picture showed something shocking: one of Garp's legs was clearly damaged. The press ran it full-size.
The story detonated across the seas. Morgans cashed in—his presses were practically smoking as he printed edition after edition.
Adrian's appearance had already shifted global attention. A force strong enough to stand against Garp and three Admirals—that verged on the birth of a fifth Emperor of the Sea. Talk spread fast: if Adrian's crew entered the New World, they could become the fifth Emperor. Rumors ran wild.
Morgans rode the wave. After the heat cooled slightly, he released another issue—this one anointing Adrian as the Fifth Emperor on the Seas. He was ready to stir the pot as aggressively as possible. Morgans didn't care if the World Government came knocking later; a huge story was worth the risk.
Adrian saw the headlines and only smiled. He didn't mind the hype—Morgans was doing his work for him. In his line of work, what mattered most under the system's rules was reputation. Fame meant less effort on his part: if he grew famous enough, Morgans would come to him and shout his deeds to the world without asking. That was even better than hunting down reporters.
After the operation, Adrian and his crew headed into the Grand Line. He now had Usopp and Hachi—one man and one fish—in his grasp. That meant at least two lucrative extortion jobs on the horizon. Following the Grand Line route, his first stop would be Rayleigh.
Hachi had saved Rayleigh once; Rayleigh's gratitude made him an ideal mark. Adrian planned carefully—what could Rayleigh realistically hand over? The old man used to be the Dark King, but those days were decades past. Roger's crew was long gone; Rayleigh's resources were not what they had been. Granted, he kept company with Shakky now, but Shakky might not be able to produce the bounty Adrian wanted.
Still, Adrian aimed to raise the value of whatever he took from Rayleigh—if he could land something in the SS+++ tier, all the better. Before reaching Sabaody Archipelago, he wanted a list: what could the Dark King pay up without making noise? Planning was everything.
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