"Lord madam, the watcher found the ship. He says we can catch up to it if we go full speed." An aged man said as he bowed towards a masked woman.

"That's great, do so. This chase is taking longer than I expected, do you think the marines found out of our previous raids?" The masked woman, Linda, asked back. 

"I'm positive, lord madam. We've already destroyed 6 islands so far, and I'm sure the marines aren't stupid enough to not link us with the destruction." The man answered.

"Mhm, I expected as much. How are the new recruits?" She asked as she got up from her desk. 4 months had passed since her first raid, and during this time, she had been always busy.

Upgrading the ship, training herself and her men, gathering resources, plotting and informing and also hunting down particular ships with particular cargos.

"They're alright. Although they're newbies, sir Breaker is confident he can shape them up in less than 2 weeks." The man nodded, his eyes narrowing. He was the chief of staff of the ship, the one who organized everything and made things orderly. Naturally, Linda liked him a lot, considering she gave him so much power.

Still, he considered the Breaker his main rival. After all, Linda had taken quite a liking to the man and showered him with gifts of all sorts. Slave women, jewels, expensive weapons... 

"Good. Leylin, please come back from your own world." She waved her hand in front of his face, startling him.

"I apologize, lord madam. Old age must be getting to me." Leylin apologized and retreated out of the cabin. 

The ship had gone huge upgrades. From a mediocre ship that struggled every storm, Linda had built a powerful battleship able to match up against an entire fleet. It had hundreds of cannons its sides and many rooms had been built for the crew.

Linda had broken down the ship and rebuilt it from scratch, enlarging it to be over 100 meters long and 30 meters wide. She had also hired the very best shipbuilders she could find, partially by threatening them and also by promises of huge amounts of wealth, which she gave them.

She had also gathered a much more experienced crew, gathering criminals, outcasts and even just young men wishing for adventure along with half a dozen sea-hardened veterans, which she had searched far and wide for.

Leylin was one of these men, along with the Breaker. She had appointed them to the highest offices in the ship. It has to be noted that Linda's plan was not limited to merely one ship. All of this organization and preparation was the start of her plan to build up a grand fleet, but for now, she was satisfied with just this.

As she looked out the window in her cabin, Linda sighed with a somewhat sad smile on her face.

"Work, work, work. Only work. Can I never get a rest?" She murmured in a sarcastic tone. She had no intention of stopping now, as she had already got the ball rolling.

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For the following 3 hours, Linda was in her room talking with her subordinates, usually either deciding on the division of loot, planning on their next raid or checking that everything was going well. Everyone on the ship was loyal to her, especially now after the latest batch of recruits had a rebel in it, who was promptly put to the sword, his head cut off and his body thrown to the sharks.

Although people like the Breaker, a man with a bounty of 3.000.000, was considered someone very powerful in the region, he was nothing in front of Linda, who could subdue him with her pinky (not including her death beams).

The marines hadn't yet certified who was behind the destruction of all the islands, but they were starting to close in on her. In her last raid, there had been a garrison of 400 marine soldiers and even a captain, but they had all been slaughtered and devoured by Linda, so they were never able to report any concrete information.

By now, Linda was starting to raise her eyebrows on the situation. Either the Marines were concocting a master-plan to catch her off-guard, or they were depressingly incompetent. Being in the East Blue, she knew there were very few powerful marines around, hence she had a strong desire to just annihilate every marine base on this sea, but she held off. For now.

At the dawn of the fourth hour, Linda received a report that the ship they had been hunting for the past few days came into sight. With a smirk, she ordered the ship to get battle-ready.

The enemy ship had a huge sail with five circles, one in the middle and four on its edges. The ship was manned by a huge number of slaves and a good number of Marine soldiers, but they stood no chance against the much better-equipped pirate ship.

This was a world government ship. More precisely, it was a ship who was carrying tribute from a nearby nation. Normally, pirates would steer clear of these ships due to the danger attacking one entailed, but Linda had no qualms about obliterating a couple.

Linda's ship effortlessly boarded the world government ship, slaughtered any resistance and enslaved the rest, took over 100.000.000 Beri and then sank the ship. All of this happened in less than an hour, and soon, they were off.

 In a nearby Marine base...

"God damn it! Damn, damn, damn!" A large and muscular man cried out in fury. The assistant nearby trembled and quickly excused himself out of the room.

"Those fuckers! How dare they attack a world government's ship?? Argh!" He roared as he bashed his head against a wall several times.

He had every right to be angry. He was the one supposed to protect the area from pirates, but not only had he not been able to stop them, he hadn't even discovered what kind of pirates were doing this.

He was well aware of the destruction of 6 islands, but despite the strangeness and danger of the situation, he had chosen to deal with other things (sucking up to his superiors for a promotion) and hence let all of this happen.

Now, it was basically a confirmed thing. He was the one responsible for this, and soon, the government would come for him. He didn't dare imagine what they would do to him if they found him guilty.

His only choice was a desperate last stand against the pirates. He had received several valuable reports during the boarding, namely the ship's type, size, and name as well as a general idea of the strength of the ship.

There were several 1.000.000 million bounties on the ship, and there was even a report of a couple big games on the ship, like The Breaker Kazan, Snake-eyed Leylin, and a couple others.

What was so terrifying about this was that it was common knowledge that these pirates would never normally band together. Hence, there had to be something, or someone, forcing them to work together, and that was the real problem.

Despite being a powerful and feared captain in the area, he was still nothing in front of the big boys from the New World. If someone like that had decided to take a trip back to the Blues, he was in a whole lot of trouble.

He grit his teeth, and despite the danger, shouted at his snail-phone "Prepare the warships, we're going pirate-hunting."