First Of Many

"Honestly, can't tell if the Marines are too cautious or just idiots."

Raymond scoffed as he had just received the newspaper from the News Coo that had just flown by the town not too long ago, and what he found inside was rather interesting to say the least. Of course, there was basic news regarding normal affairs, but there were a few things that really stood out.

First thing was that he had found Luffy's bounty poster, more specifically, Luffy's first ever wanted poster. It had recently been issued to the young pirate after he had defeated Arlong, and from this alone, Raymond now had a really good idea now as to where in the timeline he was currently at.

Luffy would soon be sailing to the Grand Line.

Anyway, while Luffy's wanted poster was certainly an interesting topic, he was particular amused when he found a wanted poster for himself. You heard that right, the Marines ended up placing a bounty on his freaking head. He wasn't sure if they were stupid or smart to do so.

They had probably decided to do this due to his conversation with Kizaru yesterday, where he mentioned he was a neutral party. In the Marine's eyes, a neutral person is probably the most dangerous since they were wild cards that could either be with you and/or suddenly turn against you.

They most likely placed a bounty on him to attract more bounty hunters and such to go after his head, along with pirates since pirates tend to enjoy raising their own bounties. Though, did they not consider that putting a bounty on him would also lose some credibility with him? Meh, not like he would have joined the Marines even if they didn't put a bounty on his head.

The bounty that Raymond received was a whopping 280,000,000 Berry, which was a starting amount that anyone would be shocked about. Someone having a bounty of such high value before even stepping foot into the Grand Line was unheard of and completely preposterous, but the reasons could be justified.

After all, Kizaru had most likely informed the other Marines about how he was capable of utilising Haki, and that alone was already enough to majorly boost ones bounty higher. Another thing was already that his ability to take down numerous rather high-bounty pirates during his time on the island also had its lasting effects.

Here in the West Blue, the highest recorded bounty recently went to a pirate who had an impressive bounty of 80,000,000 Berry. Raymond couldn't help but wonder why this pirate hasn't apparently stepped foot into the Grand Line, Luffy did so when he only had a 30,000,000 bounty. It didn't matter though, Raymond now held the highest bounty in this sea and probably in all of the other Blues.

With his current bounty, his first bounty no less and the also the fact that the Marines would treat him no better than they treat the pirates, he would most likely be considered a Super Rookie, otherwise known to some as a Supernova. Who knows what kind of stir his presence will cause now.

Well, it was about time for him to leave anyway, and staying here now was definitely not the best idea. Not only would his new bounty end up attracting money hungry pirates and also Marines, a new Marine base was going to be established here according to Kizaru from yesterday. Staying was definitely not a good idea.

Not like his plans changed or anything, he was already considering finally leaving to explore. This just gave him even more incentive to finally leave some day, and that day was today, evident by the fact that he was now staring up at a relatively large ship, though it wasn't massive.

The ship in front of him was one he had taken from a group of pirates he defeated in the past, and since the damages to this particular ship were minimal, it was easy to get it properly fixed up. The ship was sturdy too, so when he decides to go to the Grand Line, it should be more than enough to make the journey.

"Alright, Raymond. We got everything done that you asked for." One of the craftsmen in the town spoke as they walked over towards Raymond. "We installed the controls next to the wheel, you should be able to easily man the ship on your own. It's all ready to go, good luck."

"Thanks." Raymond gave a simple thanks in response. Since he didn't have his own crew, he made special plans for the craftsmen to install some controls to help raise and lower the mast of the ship. He may be strong, but he was still one person. "Guess it's time to set sail."

"R-Raymond, wait!" The male in question turned his head to see Ereka rushing over towards him, and from the looks of it, she was holding some kind of large basket. "I made some food for you before you go! Also, don't think you can just sail off without saying goodbye to all of us first!"

"I wouldn't think of it." Raymond smile and rolled his eyes before accepting the basket. Looking inside, he saw a bunch of freshly made bread and also other food items to go with it. Nodding in thanks, Raymond then looked up to the town area to see pretty much every single person lined up and waving towards him. "Heh, I'll miss these guys."

"And we'll miss you." Ereka smiled as she pulled him into an embrace, which he returned. "Don't get yourself killed out there, promise me that!"

"I'm not going to die that easily. I'm more concerned for you guys." Raymond smirked as he placed his hand on the ship before releasing a small amount of Haki out from his hand, resulting in the ship quickly shooting back into the water and sailing across the waters. 'Not too bad, I'm getting better!'

He wasn't entirely certain why, but he had an easier time teaching himself how to project his Haki out from his body than he did coating, let alone hardening, despite emission being a rather advanced form of Busoshoku Haki. Perhaps he just wasn't a focused individual, after all, it required quite a lot of focus to shift and maintain Haki on specific parts of the body.

When it also came to performing internal destruction, yeah, he had made no progress with that. He honestly thought since he could quite easily emit Haki that he'd have an easier time performing internal destruction, but he was damn wrong. It proved to be more difficult than coating.

Even though he could emit Haki from his body, doing so with focused precision is far more difficult. Whenever he released Haki from his hand, it was usually just in the form of a shockwave than it was like a cannon or something. It wasn't really that controlled aside from how much he would expel.

Though, maybe he was just weird, probably that.

"See you some other time!"

"Be careful out there!"

Raymond just gave a thumbs up as he ran towards the edge of the shore before kicking off the ground and jumping over towards the ship, barely reaching it as he caught the railing and hung onto it with one hand. He flipped over onto the ship before turning around and waving towards the townspeople, and he could see his parents waving him off too.

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

The sea was relatively peaceful as only small waves crashed against his boat, and he wasn't entirely sure if he was happy about that since it was kind of boring with nothing interesting happening. He had been on the boat for around two hours now, and he was still a few hours away from his first destination.

He was making sure to keep an eye on the compass in his hand as he looked out towards the sea, he didn't want to accidentally turn off course due to carelessness. He wasn't at the wheel since he had already oriented the ship properly, so he was letting the winds take the ship to his destination.

Speaking of which, the place he was heading towards first was apparently an island town known as Aloisse Town. From what he knew about this town, nothing truly stood out about it, but it was apparently a town full of talented craftsmen, ones that were probably far better compared to the ones back home.

The reason he wanted to visit here was to reinforce or get a better ship made, after all, he was going to be sailing to the Grand Line. He did have faith that his current ship could make the trip, but he wanted to be as prepared as possible before he left, and a better ship never hurt anyone.

"Hm?" Raymond's attention was soon caught by the sound of a large splash. Turning his head to the side, he rose an eyebrow when he saw a large pillar of water shooting up into the sky just beside his ship. When the water dropped back down, a loud roar sounded. "Hoh~? A Sea King, huh? Feeling more and more like Luffy as the day goes by..."

True to those words, a large sea monster soon emerged from the waters, revealing to be a creature resembling that of a large two-headed fish snake, one with white scales and blue markings printed all over its body. Obviously, the monster was pretty damn big, definitely bigger than his ship right now as well.

While this creature was a Sea King, one of the most feared creatures in all of the damn oceans, it was nothing compared to the ones he'd eventually encounter in the Grand Line. The Sea Kings in the Blues are far inferior both in power and size compared to those in the Grand Line.

"Well, at least I have some dinner." Raymond grinned as he stood up and narrowed his eyes up at the beast. The Sea King merely gave him a threatening roar, though Raymond merely stared back at it unflinchingly. "Be good little snake-fish now, and this won't hurt, at least not a lot."

Seemingly taking his comment as an insult, the Sea King struck both its heads down towards him, both heads baring their fangs as they were ready to bite down onto Raymond. With a smirk, Raymond reeled both his fists back, after a quick second, Raymond jumped before he threw both fists forwards.

His actions caused his fists to strike right into the middle of both the Sea King's head's eyes, which obviously had its effects as the Sea King recoiled back limp before the colour of its four eyes went blank. The body of the Sea King then falling and crashing down onto the water's beside his ship.

"Man, Sea Kings really are weak here in the Blues..." Raymond sighed with a shrug as he jumped into the water, swimming over to the Sea King's body and ripping one of its heads off, to which he then tossed the severed head over and onto his ship. After doing so, he swam back over and climbed back onto the ship.

Raymond shook his body a bit to shake off some water before he walked over towards the head, its neck dangling into the water as the blood from where he ripped it off was spilling into the water. Raymond held his chin in thought before nodding as he went off to find a kitchen knife.

After getting it, he came back and began cutting the head into multiple large steak sections. It'd definitely be easier for him to cook this thing on the stove if it was in sections, so that was what he was going to do. His only concern really was whether or not this thing would taste good.

Anyway, after getting the entire thing cut up, he tossed out any other parts he wasn't going to eat, such as the bones, eyeballs, and stuff like that. He knew some people at that stuff, but he wasn't one of them. He wasn't sure how long it'll be before this meat rots, so he was going to eat some now just in case it was the same as freaking lobsters.

"Jeez, looks like they're having a blast." Raymond couldn't help but snort in amusement when he opened the chat group while cooking. He could see that the members were all chatting with one another, and from what he could see, it was mainly Adol asking a few things about everyone's worlds. 'As expected, the guy's an adventure freak.'

『Adol The Red: Man, all of your worlds sound pretty interesting! I wonder if I can visit you guys someday』

『Knight Of Lhant: Probably isn't impossible』

『Reborn Villainess: The chat group did say we could go to other worlds!』

『The Rising Emperor: Hey, guys』

『Knight Of Lhant: Oh, hey, Raymond!』

『Reborn Villainess: Hello!』

『Adol The Red: Welcome back!』

『The Bloody Bear: Finally decided to join us, huh? What are you up to?』

『The Rising Emperor: Nothing much』

『The Rising Emperor: I'm just cooking up some Sea King meat for dinner』

『Reborn Villainess: Sea King?! You actually beat one?!』

『The Rising Emperor: It was a small one, nothing special』

『Adol The Red: Sea King?』

『Reborn Villainess: It's basically a really massive fish』

『Knight Of Lhant: Really? How big are we talking?』

『The Rising Emperor: Depends really. The one I killed was a pretty small one, but they can easily grow to be bigger than entire cities and even islands』

『Adol The Red: ...』

『Knight Of Lhant: ...』

『The Bloody Bear: What does it taste like?』

『The Rising Emperor: I haven't tasted it yet, this is going to be my first time』

『The Rising Emperor: Aside from my dinner, have you guys found anything else about this chat group while I was gone? Anything that may give us a clue to why we're in here or who invited us?』

『Adol The Red: Unfortunately, no』

『The Bloody Bear: Aside from Adol asking us about our worlds, nothing really. It's mostly been just us talking』

『Reborn Villainess: Aren't we supposed to receive missions?』

『Knight Of Lhant: I do remember that. Something about our worlds freezing in time while we're gone, teleported to another world that is, for the mission. What are the chances that a mission is going to appear while we're talking?』

『The Bloody Bear: Oh, you definitely just jinxed it!』

『The Rising Emperor: Definitely did』

『Reborn Villainess: Yep!』

『Adol The Red: I have to agree』

『Knight Of Lhant: What are you guys talking about?』

.

『Chat Group Mission』

Objective: Travel to the Grand Line and purge the island of Lames Praya from questionable forced life-style functionality as well as overall corrupt government rule

Participants: All Members

Rewards:

● World Travel Ticket

● Random Item Or Ability Token

Issued Supplies:

● Eternal Pose [Lames Praya]

.

『The Bloody Bear: ...』

『The Rising Emperor: ...』

『Reborn Villainess: ...』

『Adol The Red: ...』

『Knight Of Lhant: ...I see what you guys mean』