Swarming In

In just half a month, the news that the Mad Hatter Auction House would soon auction a Devil Fruit had already spread across most of the West Blue.

Suddenly, pirates hungry for power swarmed in.

Especially those pirate ship captains who had already prepared to enter the Grand Line were dead set on securing it.

What did a Devil Fruit mean?

Only veteran pirates like them, about to break into a new world, could truly understand.

On the other hand, the West Blue Marine branch naturally caught wind of this news as well.

However, troop deployment was an unavoidable weakness for the Marine branch, so even knowing, they could do little.

Because this was, after all, the West Blue, not the Grand Line.

Not to mention priorities, as one of the Four Seas, the sheer sea area of the West Blue was far beyond that of the Grand Line.

Correspondingly, this meant the West Blue Marine branch had to scatter the vast majority of its forces across various regions to protect the safety of the people within their jurisdiction.

If they wanted to gather these scattered forces together, real-time communication and orders weren't much of an issue, but timeliness couldn't keep up.

And the most troublesome problem still came from the ever-present threat of pirates.

Unlike the Marines, who needed to station themselves to maintain order, pirates didn't band together, but their shared nature allowed them to roam freely everywhere.

Seeing profit here, they latched on like blood-crazed locusts.

Once the Marines arrived, they fled without looking back, then headed to another profitable spot.

Under such circumstances, rashly redeploying troops would only give those locust-like pirates the chance to do as they pleased.

So, compared to the threat posed by individual pirate crews, it was the sheer numbers that made the Four Seas pirates different from those of the Grand Line, giving the Marine branch a major headache.

Of course, due to differences in local customs, culture, and other factors, the number of Marine forces in each West Blue jurisdiction varied.

Excluding certain corrupt Marine parasites, in some jurisdictions with ample forces, the Marines would pool the surplus troops into a mobile unit, whose main task was to hunt down fleeing pirates.

These Marine units, unrestricted by jurisdiction, often struck fear into pirates.

But while effective, it was only a temporary fix.

And for a lawless zone like Mad Hatter Town, with its deep roots, what real difference could these units make?

It was like a gun-wielding sheriff barging into a den of ten thugs.

Thanks to the deterrent of the gun, the ten thugs in the den would voluntarily give up their numerical advantage and submit.

But if a gun-wielding sheriff barged into a den of a hundred thugs, the outcome was obvious.

To break this situation, they would need a force sent from Marine Headquarters capable of tipping the balance.

However, a storm stirred up by just one Devil Fruit wasn't enough to warrant Marine Headquarters making a major move.

Although the West Blue Marine branch couldn't deliver a heavy blow to Mad Hatter Town, they still had their eyes firmly fixed on it.

Inability to act didn't mean doing nothing at all.

Mad Hatter Island, Mad Hatter Town, Mad Hatter Auction House.

As the name suggested, the auction house building resembled a top hat lying flat on the ground.

Like this:

The first and second floors of the auction house were like the brim, taking up the most floor space and serving as the main venue for auctions.

To increase guest capacity, the auction house's design was largely consistent with a conventional opera house.

So, the second floor could essentially be grouped with the first.

Above that, the floors decreased in area as they went higher.

And the room at the very top of the auction house naturally belonged to the boss who controlled it.

As the pinnacle of the auction house, the room's decor was lavish, oozing nouveau riche vibes.

The wall facing the street center was a full pane of coated floor-to-ceiling glass, and in front of it sat a set of deep-red European-style table and chairs.

The Devil Fruit, set to be auctioned in ten days, rested quietly on the table, cushioned by a soft cloth to highlight its value.

In the main seat sat a middle-aged, burly man with slicked-back hair, a cigar in his mouth, and a red suit.

This man was the auction house's boss—Luchesse Ralph.

"Just a wave of the hand, and those wolves and jackals go wild—that's the charm of a Devil Fruit."

Ralph leaned back in his armchair, his eyes cold and dark, as if stripped of humanity, with rare emotion showing.

Across from him, a man sneered, "It's not for nothing that I went through all the trouble of bringing this Devil Fruit back from the Grand Line. Just moving it from one place to another has multiplied its value several times over. How many good deals like this are there in the world?"

Ralph lowered his eyelids, watching the man's smug expression through the smoke he exhaled, but said nothing to correct the man's mistaken view.

In this world, good deals were plentiful.

Doubling the value of a Devil Fruit was more the result of marketing than the deal itself.

Ralph snuffed out the glowing red tip of his cigar with his fingers and said flatly, "Starting price, one hundred million. The final price should be over one billion."

"That much?"

The man was startled, clearly trusting Ralph's judgment.

Ralph glanced at the Devil Fruit on the table and said, "The big shots of the West Blue underworld don't fancy this Devil Fruit, but the Five Great Gangs are dead set on getting it. So the only one capable of winning it at auction will be one of them. Do you know what that means?"

Without waiting for the man to answer, Ralph continued:

"It means that under normal bidding, this number will only keep climbing until it hits the limit they can bear—of course, assuming no one pulls any tricks behind the scenes. As for those pirates swarming in, they're just here to make up the numbers and throw away their money."

Hearing Ralph's words, the man grew intrigued.

"So, which of the Five Great Gangs do you think is most likely to take the fruit?"

"Gangster. Begg."

Saul's Weapon Shop.

After half a month, Maud's injuries had basically healed. With rich meals day in and day out, not a trace of gauntness could be found on his face anymore.

Compared to the pale, haggard look he'd had when he first woke up, his complexion was now rosy and full of luster.

Having recovered well, Maud unwrapped his bandages and made a point of checking himself in the mirror.

The former sickly appearance was gone, replaced by a face brimming with color, further improved by the absence of the bandages that had once covered his brows.

After looking in the mirror, Maud was surprised to discover—he was this handsome?

At the same time, he finally found his second target—the neighbor.

Wrote until three in the morning to finish, covering my face... Is it too late to ask for recommendation votes now?