Chapter 469: Roger's Whereabouts, Heavenly Tribute Stolen for the Second Time
The Roger Pirates fled towards Reverse Mountain, preparing to head to North Blue or West Blue and directly reach the New World by passing through the Calm Belt.
With Kozuki Oden's addition, the Roger Pirates gained significantly.
Besides adding a Top Tier Combatant capable of deciphering Poneglyphs, they also obtained information about two Red Poneglyphs.
It was truly killing three birds with one stone.
Red Poneglyphs are special.
Kozuki Oden's joining indicated that Roger's conjecture was correct.
Red Poneglyphs record the coordinates of an island.
Initially, Roger thought these coordinates were for Laugh Tale, but he discovered they weren't, because Kozuki Oden knew about the existence of two more Red Poneglyphs.
After some thought, the Roger Pirates quietly headed to West Blue via Reverse Mountain.
It is said that West Blue has an island named Ohara, which possesses the world's largest library.
While sailing on the Great Sea, Roger had also encountered archaeologists from Ohara who were searching for the whereabouts of Poneglyphs in various places.
However, at that time, the Roger Pirates didn't pay much attention to Poneglyphs.
They believed they would definitely gain something in Ohara.
Upon reaching the more expansive West Blue, it became somewhat difficult for the Marines to find the Roger Pirates.
After the Byrnndi Pirates' rampage, coupled with the situation in West Blue, the Marines' strength in West Blue was the weakest among the Four Seas, and their active range was also the smallest.
However, the chaos of the situation also led many people to join the Marines seeking protection, either for survival or simply for revenge.
After several years of development, the West Blue Marines could once again develop and grow stronger.
And just about two months after the bloody battle began.
The long-dormant "Century Thief" reappeared.
That's right, during this period of concentrated heavenly tribute transport, the heavenly tribute was stolen again.
It was initially thought that after last year's change, the "Century Thief" would have no opportunity to steal the heavenly tribute, and the fact that the heavenly tribute was completely intact last year confirmed this.
But unexpectedly, two years later, the same thing happened again.
The difference was that this time, there was no bomb explosion to destroy the transport ship.
When the transport ship arrived at Red Port, the treasure vault was opened with full expectation, only to reveal an empty treasure vault, causing their smiles to freeze instantly.
A total of ten portions of heavenly tribute were transported, and two portions were missing.
Logically, Ignis should have been more experienced this time.
However, looking at the results, the World Government's changes did yield some positive outcomes.
More complex transport routes concealed more agents and strongmen.
But the World Government underestimated Ignis's ability.
The most crucial treasure vault remained unchanged, failing to achieve full Seastone coverage.
Giving Ignis another opportunity to steal the heavenly tribute.
Treasure worth fifty billion Beli was enough to complete the construction of the "Sky-Air Carrier" and the Deep-Sea Mother Nest.
The World Government's uncontrollable rage.
Repeated provocations, did he want a third time?
What was he treating the World Government as?
In eight hundred years, the World Government had never been so humiliated.
If it had only happened once, the matter would have passed.
But for this to happen every two years, how could the World Government tolerate it?
They had completely lost dignity.
And the series of events that had occurred over the past three months were all unfavorable to the World Government.
First, the encirclement and suppression of the Roger Pirates failed, and then the pirates in the New World, under the call of "Golden Lion" Shiki, launched a bloody battle against the Marines.
In reality, it was against the World Government.
The changes and development of the Flying Pirates made the World Government feel unease, not to mention the Roger Pirates, a threat that absolutely had to be eliminated.
However, the second encirclement and suppression of the Roger Pirates also failed, happening right at the heavenly tribute transport node, resulting in insufficient high-end combat power to deal with the Roger Pirates.
Next, the "Century Thief" jumped out again.
It was simply a year of bad luck, utterly disastrous.
The Case Investigation Team was formed again.
This time, the transport ship was not damaged, giving the investigation team hope of finding clues.
What excited them was that they indeed found a crucial clue.
A Sniff-Sniff Fruit ability user found an unfamiliar aura inside the treasure vault of a transport ship.
There was only a trace, likely left behind accidentally, which gave them an opportunity to capture the "Century Thief".
This was intentionally left behind by Ignis – the aura of a Pass-Pass Fruit ability user from a certain sea area in the New World.
The Pass-Pass Fruit ability user's strength wasn't considered great, but his body could pass through things within a certain thickness range, meaning he possessed the ability to pass through walls.
If one ignored the powerful guarding strength of the Marines and the World Government, this ability user could also pass through the treasure vault to enter its interior.
This ability user was discovered by Ignis unexpectedly.
He had a minor reputation in the Underworld of a certain sea area, but few people knew him further outside.
At the very least, the World Government and the Marines hadn't investigated him before.
After all, the investigation team had previously only investigated within the World Government.
Continuing this operation would only be more dangerous, as things shouldn't happen more than twice.
So after completing this job, Ignis decided he would no longer steal the heavenly tribute in the future.
And this Pass-Pass Fruit ability user was the scapegoat he left behind.
Ignis could, of course, have done nothing, and no one would have suspected him.
But what about the future?
If Ignis's ability were exposed later, the World Government and the Marines would definitely suspect him.
This was unavoidable.
Therefore, clearing his name before that was the best course of action.
Even a little bit was enough.
As for how they would find that ability user based on just a trace of aura, it had nothing to do with Ignis.
In any case, he left the clue, and he believed the World Government's ability meant they could find him.
After stealing the heavenly tribute, Ignis returned to the New World immediately and killed that Pass-Pass Fruit ability user.
At the same time, he hid nearly one billion Beli worth of treasure at the ability user's residence.
Regardless of whether this batch of treasure was found by World Government agents or accidentally discovered by other lucky individuals, it could shift the suspicion for the "Century Thief" onto the ability user.
Or even the Behind-the-Scenes Force.
As for why he died, it was likely murder resulting from an uneven distribution of loot.
What use was finding a dead person?
Furthermore, the Behind-the-Scenes Force didn't even exist.
Leaving behind one billion Beli worth of the stolen heavenly tribute was already Ignis being generous.
(end of chapter)