CHAPTER 169: CHAPTER 169: SELF-STRATEGY, HANCOCK GIVING HERSELF AWAY

"Lady Snake Princess, Lady Sonia, Lady Marie... a tsunami has appeared on our route!"

The appearance of the tsunami quickly attracted the attention of the Kuja Pirates.

The lookout, seeing the tsunami that was hundreds of meters high and thousands of meters wide, hurried into the ship’s cabin. In a room filled with royal style, she knelt on one knee before a large bed that occupied half the room, reporting respectfully to the two tall figures guarding the bed and the graceful figure lying on it.

On their bodies, large and small pythons of different types were coiled.

"A tsunami?"

As the second of the three Boa sisters, Boa Sandersonia, who ate the Zoan-type Snake-Snake Fruit, Python model, glanced at the room’s balcony and said, "How can there be a tsunami in this kind of weather?"

"The Grand Line, right? The climate hasn’t even changed, yet there’s a tsunami."

Her third sister beside her, Boa Marigold, who ate the Zoan-type Snake-Snake Fruit, Cobra model, also sighed faintly.

Hearing her two younger sisters, Boa Hancock, who was lying on the bed—or more accurately, leaning against her pet Salome—put down the newspaper in her hand, which she only read when on expeditions. Her beautiful eyes glanced at the subordinate kneeling on the floor, and her tone was light but full of dominance as she asked: "How big is the tsunami?"

"Lady Snake Princess, the tsunami is predicted to be 100 meters high and thousands of meters wide."

The subordinate, glanced at by the Empress, answered loudly, her heart racing and her cheeks flushed.

"A tsunami of this level, I’ll leave it to you, Marie, Sonia..."

After hearing the data, Hancock’s gaze returned to the newspaper. "If we cannot bypass it, then clear away the obstacle blocking my way to Gran Tesoro."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The two sisters, like the subordinate, respectfully bowed their heads.

The three of them then left the room and went to the deck to deal with the tsunami.

The newspaper in Hancock’s hand was, in fact, yesterday’s World Economic Journal.

The headline was Morgans once again using Karl, the "wealth code," as a gimmick, selling papers across the world and making a fortune.

This news was the very same one that caused a huge sensation in the first half of the Grand Line and made countless pirates and major forces in the New World grit their teeth in anger: the news that Karl had moved Gran Tesoro from the New World to Paradise.

Combining this with Hancock’s earlier words, it was not difficult to see.

The Kuja Pirates’ ship, the Perfume Yuda, was heading for the world’s largest entertainment city in Paradise.

"Ah... Lord Karl, so handsome, he’s grown taller than me!"

Once her sisters and subordinate were gone, Hancock, lying on the bed, instantly revealed her true colors.

She stared obsessively at the full-body photo of Karl on the front page, and her face, recognized by the world as the "World’s Most Beautiful," was adorned with two faint blushes.

Other than her two younger sisters...

No one knew that the Kuja Empress—who was as famous as the legendary Mermaid Princess, held the titles of Warlord of the Sea and Pirate Empress, and was the World’s Most Beautiful Woman—was actually a fan of a certain person, a stan among fans.

That person was one of the world’s recognized overlords, known as the Fifth Emperor in the New World, Dragon Knight Karl.

All this... had to start from three years ago.

As the current empress of Amazon Lily, Hancock and her two sisters had a dark, unspeakable secret, much like Robin’s at age 8.

That was, they were slaves in Mary Geoise for several years in their youth, and their backs were branded with the symbol of slavery—the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon.

It wasn’t until the Fish-Man hero, Fisher-Tiger, rampaged in Mary Geoise that they were rescued. With the help of Rayleigh and Shakky, they were found by Gloriosa, who lived overseas, and brought back to Amazon Lily.

Because she was forcibly fed a Devil Fruit by the Celestial Dragons for their amusement while she was a slave.

Hancock, upon returning to Amazon Lily, quickly became the strongest on the island with her Haki potential and the Paramecia-type Love-Love Fruit.

At the age of eighteen, she inherited the throne of Amazon Lily and the captaincy of the Kuja Pirates.

On her very first expedition, she received a first bounty of 80 million Beri, a high number for that era, and received an invitation from Mary Geoise to become a Warlord of the Sea.

Since then, the titles of Pirate Empress and World’s Most Beautiful Woman were all bestowed upon Hancock by the world and the media after Mary Geoise announced she had become one of the Warlords.

But because Hancock hailed from Amazon Lily, an island even more mysterious than Fish-Man Island and a holy land in the hearts of all men.

The legendary status of this Pirate Empress was in no way inferior to that of the legendary Mermaid Princess Shirahoshi.

Only annually, when Hancock led the Kuja Pirates on an expedition in the Grand Line, would the world know the Pirate Empress had passed by, from the looted ships and petrified pirates left in her wake.

In the Sea Circle Calendar year 1517, Hancock, at the age of 26—or rather, 25, as she hadn’t yet had her birthday on September 2nd—led the Kuja Pirates on an expedition in the first half of the Grand Line as usual.

Every year, they would plunder pirates and merchant ships on the sea until the Perfume Yuda was filled with supplies, only then would they return.

On this expedition, Hancock happened to run into the major news that shocked the world: Karl had killed a Celestial Dragon at the Sabaody Archipelago and had withdrawn completely from the encirclement led by a Marine Admiral.

When the Boa sisters, who had been slaves to the Celestial Dragons, saw that someone had actually killed a Celestial Dragon, making history...

Without a doubt, their shock was far greater than that of the world. Like other former slaves who had been abused by the Celestial Dragons and held hatred and fear for them in their hearts, they felt as if the darkness that had shrouded their hearts for over a decade had been torn apart by an indestructible blade.

From then on...

Hancock, who had been disgusted by men and had worn the mask of a tyrant for over a decade to prevent others from discovering her past as a slave, remembered the name of a man called "Karl," revered as the Dragon Knight and the God-Slayer.

No... he was just a boy!

Thus...

The legendary Hancock proactively appeared before the eyes of a few people in the world...

Letting the Perfume Yuda dock at certain islands, Hancock collected all the news related to Karl.

From becoming the strongest hunter in the East Blue, to defeating Crocodile to become the world’s number one bounty hunter, to killing a Celestial Dragon and becoming the God-Slayer, to even crushing the Marines’ largest-scale Buster Call, and defeating one of the Four Emperors, Kaido, successfully ascending to become one of the world’s highest peaks, an Overlord of the Sea...

That year was the longest expedition Hancock had ever been on.

She not only celebrated her birthday in the first half of the Grand Line, but she also waited until she had witnessed Karl’s ascension before finally returning to Amazon Lily.

In the three years that followed, Karl’s image constantly appeared in Hancock’s mind.

Just as Karl had a large number of fans among all races.

Due to his young age, and Hancock’s own innocence, she didn’t initially develop so-called "love" for Karl, only the worship a stan has for their idol... the kind of crazy worship where you want to plaster pictures all over your room and sleep hugging a pillow with their photo.

It wasn’t until the Sea Circle Calendar year 1519, when Karl made his kingly return after keeping a low profile for over a year, that Hancock’s crazy worship underwent a qualitative change.

Because she always went on expeditions around that time of year, Hancock, who had been impatiently waiting on Amazon Lily to go out to sea and collect news about Karl, was also in the first half of the Grand Line that year.

After learning that Karl had killed a Celestial Dragon for the second time, Hancock suddenly felt.

The so-called Celestial Dragons didn’t seem so terrifying anymore, or perhaps they were no longer worth fearing.

Karl’s two acts of god-slaying successfully shattered the "creator" image that Mary Geoise had built for the Celestial Dragons over 800 years, causing it to completely collapse in the hearts of the world.

Countless people were mentally liberated from the darkness once cast by the Celestial Dragons.

The Boa sisters were among them.

Since then, Hancock’s desire to meet Karl grew even stronger.

But she was not alone, and the waters of the New World were also very deep; she had never been able to find the time or opportunity.

Until this year, when Karl announced he was temporarily moving Gran Tesoro to the first half of the Grand Line.

This year, from the spies her sister had secretly cultivated and placed in the first half of the Grand Line specifically to collect news about Karl, she learned that Karl had produced a "War of the Era" broadcast.

Hancock, who had arrived in the first half of the Grand Line early, also witnessed Karl completely suppressing another Overlord of the Sea in a prosperous town that had been temporarily occupied.

The series of effects afterward all filled Hancock with worship and "love" for this man.

After learning that Gran Tesoro was in the first half of the Grand Line, she immediately ordered her subordinates to sail the Perfume Yuda toward the world’s largest entertainment city.

Hancock, who was faintly showing signs of being lovesick, could no longer bear the torment in her heart and couldn’t wait to meet her idol.

In three years, Hancock had completed her own "self-strategy."

Hancock’s current state could be summed up in two words: A total giveaway!

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