Eric didn't leave Xi Hong Town directly.
After fighting with Aokiji and testing his current combat abilities, he went directly to the port.
Due to the Sky Island Gold incident, there were now over sixty warships from various West Blue branches docked at the port, including his own large headquarters warship.
"I have to take my warship, as for the rest... I'll take whatever I can get."
A dark shadow rapidly expanded on the surface of the nearby sea, engulfing over thirty warships in an instant.
The stationed Marines shouted in alarm, causing unavoidable commotion.
Eric only took the warships, he didn't attack any ordinary Marines. After succeeding, he immediately fled.
Through the recent battle, he had already understood his current strength level.
If he ignored the "Descendant's Shadow" ability and only looked at his Haki and martial arts, he was at the level of a headquarters Vice Admiral, belonging to the stronger category among Vice Admirals.
He estimated that he was on par with Vice Admiral Smoker.
But with the Descendant's Shadow, everything was different.
The spatial ability was more unruly than natural Logia elementalization, Aokiji couldn't do anything to him.
Eric did have a chance to kill Aokiji just now.
"From now on, we're even."
...
Shortly after.
West Blue, a certain sea area, near the Calm Belt.
The Fire Tank Pirates.
"E... Eric Colonel, why are you here?"
Capone Bege was startled when he saw Eric suddenly appear on the ship.
"The Sky Island Gold matter has been exposed, you've been carrying the black pot for two or three months, now you can breathe a sigh of relief."
Eric raised his hand, a black light flashed from his palm, and a heart wrapped in shadows appeared immediately.
"M-m-m-m-my heart!" Capone Bege screamed.
"Here you go, it's useless now."
Eric reached into his chest, forcefully putting his heart back in place.
The feeling of getting it back was so good, Capone Bege was in tears. He thought he would never get it back.
He didn't expect Eric to be so considerate.
"Goodbye, the Marines shouldn't pursue you anymore, at least they won't send tens of thousands of troops. You can rest assured."
Eric turned to leave, Capone Bege quickly stopped him.
"Wait, Eric Colonel, now that things have come to this, even if the Marines know it wasn't me, the news reports over the past few months have made the World Government lose face. They won't let me off!"
"You're on your own."
Eric paused, saying: "Do you still want compensation from me?"
"Never!" Capone Bege knelt on one knee: "I'm willing to continue being your little brother!"
He wasn't stupid, he knew to find a backer.
Eric smiled: "You're too weak."
After saying that, Eric turned into a black shadow and swept across the sea, disappearing from sight in an instant.
"Godfather!" The subordinates came to his side: "What should we do now?"
"Damn it, without the information he gave us, we can't hide in West Blue at all!"
Capone Bege gritted his teeth and immediately ordered: "Go, to the Grand Line! To the New World! We can only join one of the Yonko!"
In his current situation, only the three Emperor pirates in the world could save him.
...
...
Grand Line, the first half, Paradise.
Seagulls soared through the clear sky, their cries echoing across the heavens.
Marine Headquarters.
Marineford.
The solemn and majestic military fortress, as the main base of the Marines, was extremely large.
A row of warships were docked at the inner bay port, large triple-barreled cannons were mounted on the fortress walls around the plaza.
The main body of the base was a seven-story tower-shaped building.
At the bottom of the building, two gigantic characters, "Justice," were visible even ten nautical miles away.
At this time.
A high-level Marine meeting was being held.
Around a large round table, there were over a dozen headquarters Vice Admirals and dozens of Rear Admirals with solemn expressions.
There were also two Marine Admirals.
Kizaru, Borsalino.
Akainu, Sakazuki!
And, the Chief of Staff, Sengoku the Buddha, and the Marine hero, Monkey D. Garp.
Finally, the person sitting in the main seat was the Fleet Admiral of the Marine Headquarters, Sengoku the Buddha!
Such a large-scale meeting almost included two-thirds of the headquarters' high-ranking officers.
If ordinary citizens were standing here, just the aura of so many powerful individuals, and the solemn atmosphere in the meeting room, would make them tremble, unable to even stand.
However, in such a serious place, someone was eating.
Garp happily chewed on his Senbei, laughing loudly:
"Suddenly calling a high-level meeting, Sengoku, what happened? Did Whitebeard and Kaido fight? Did Big Mom come for revenge?"
Unlike his usual reaction, Sengoku's face was extremely gloomy.
If it were before, he would definitely have scolded Garp a few times.
But now, he was not in the mood.
Just now, he received a report from Smoker, learning about what happened in West Blue.
Then, he received a direct order from the Five Elders!
"It's to discuss a man... Prodmore Eric, a former Marine Headquarters Colonel."
Upon hearing Sengoku's words, many of the high-ranking officers were stunned.
An unfamiliar name.
After all, he was just a Colonel.
How many officers of this level were there at Marine Headquarters?
You have to know, in the original plot, when the Straw Hat Pirates broke into Enies Lobby to rescue Nico Robin, the Marines launched the Buster Call, and the number of headquarters Colonels deployed at that time was...
300 people!
Just one Buster Call, and they could easily deploy 300 Colonel officers.
This shows that there were far more than that number of Colonels at Marine Headquarters!
Therefore, most of the dozen Vice Admirals and dozens of Rear Admirals present had never heard of him.
Only a few knew him.
One Rear Admiral raised his hand, asking in confusion:
"Fleet Admiral Sengoku!"
"I know Eric Colonel's name, he also participated in the battle to subdue Big Mom half a year ago."
"Just bad luck, he unfortunately had 50 years of his life stolen by Big Mom in the war."
"After that, the headquarters, considering his 'age,' sent him to West Blue to establish the new 187th branch..."
"What happened to him?"
Everyone looked at the Rear Admiral.
Sengoku remained silent, but took out a brand new Wanted poster and placed it on the writing board behind him.
"This is his Wanted poster..."
In an instant, everyone's eyes widened at the bounty on the Wanted poster.
Sengoku sighed: "After Aokiji fought this man, he judged him to be 'Admiral-level'!"
Thinking of an Admiral-level fighter defecting from the Marines during his tenure, he felt pain in his chest.
This was an Admiral-level fighter, even at Marine Headquarters, there were only a handful of them!
Compared to Sengoku's pain, the other Marine high-ranking officers present were in a daze.
Admiral-level?
Colonel?
Defection?
A series of shocks, one after another.
...
...
The night in the Grand Line, with a few stars in the sky.
New World, on the surface of the sea.
A dark shadow floated, suddenly condensing into a human form.
Eric looked up, just as a news bird flew past and also noticed him.
"Come here, buy newspapers."
Eric bought the latest edition from the news bird. In the folded pages of the newspaper, he found his Wanted poster.
[Prodmore Eric]
Former Marine Headquarters Colonel
Extremely Vicious
Dead or Alive
Bounty: 1,000,000,000 Berries!
"First bounty of 1 billion?"
Eric glanced at the newspaper content.
Morgan was making a big deal out of it, stripping the title of "King of West Blue" from Capone Bege and placing it on his head.
"Boring."
Eric threw the newspaper aside, looked up at the island with waterfalls in the distance.
"Wano Country?"