Chapter 39
The players' attention had been captured!
Another half day passed.
The Flower Country players' spending potential was exhausted for the time being. Adrian took a quick inventory of his gains, then prepared to leave.
He had just taken out the Pillar of the Second Treasure Navy again, along with a large crowd of its rank and file. Besides earning some experience, he had once more damaged his standing with Flower Country.
His relationship with the Second Treasure Navy was already at Deadly Enemy, so it could sink no lower. His standing with the other navies had barely changed.
Flower Country's overall opinion of him, however, had shifted from cold to Hostile.
The strange part was that his standing with the Happo Navy had gone up again...
That made no sense.
When Adrian killed Hog, there had at least been a reason for the Happo Navy to like him more. Hog had provoked them and insulted their leader, Chinjao, first.
But why had their opinion of him risen this time?
Were the Happo Navy and the Second Treasure Navy born to hate each other?
Adrian checked his faction standings. His relationship with the Happo Navy had now reached Friendly, one notch above its previous Neutral status. It was absurd.
What on earth had the Second Treasure Navy done to make the Happo Navy hold such a grudge?
Adrian had no idea, nor did he care to dig into the story behind it.
As the Flower Country players watched reluctantly, Adrian vanished from where he stood and headed for his next destination.
Over the following days, Adrian kept harvesting experience from players. Now and then, he showed off his strength in front of them to raise his profile and make himself more appealing.
In little over a month, he visited every player starting village in the West Blue and amassed a huge amount of experience.
His original plan had been to use Ghostification to fly over the Red Line once he had finished collecting experience from West Blue players, then head to the South Blue.
Starting in the West Blue, he would make his Four Seas Voyage counterclockwise through the South Blue, East Blue, and North Blue. It was the future plan he had once mentioned to Gion.
But an unexpected message disrupted Adrian's schedule and forced him to stop.
The players had been so eager to buy that...
The Razor Gang was running out of weapons!
Adrian didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he heard.
He had never managed the Razor Gang or Shelby Company's affairs himself. Tommy had developed both so well on his own that Adrian had felt comfortable leaving them to him.
Yet the Razor Gang, already one of the West Blue's strongest underworld gangs, couldn't keep up with player demand...
On reflection, it made sense.
No matter how capable Tommy was, the Razor Gang was still a new organization less than a year old.
With Adrian backing it, ordinary gangs couldn't destroy it. But that support could only do so much to speed its growth.
The gang could keep supplying Adrian with guns and other weapons, but doing so would inevitably disrupt its plans for developing both the Razor Gang and Shelby Company.
That was why Tommy had reluctantly called Adrian on the Den Den Mushi.
"Mm. I understand."
After ending the call with Tommy, Adrian fell into thought.
Stop trading with players in the other three blues...
He ruled that out immediately.
The amount of experience he gained directly affected his strength.
True, he had already maxed out two abilities of the Hollow-Hollow Fruit and become one of the world's strongest Devil Fruit Users.
But apart from his Devil Fruit abilities, Adrian's main class was still only level 40. He had plenty of room to grow.
He couldn't cut off trading with players just because he had run out of goods to sell. That would be throwing away the meal because he'd choked on a bite.
He could suspend sales of guns and other weapons until the Razor Gang replenished its stock, then reopen them to players...
After a moment's hesitation, Adrian ruled that out too.
Skills were valuable to most players, but their prices were steep—luxuries, essentially. Guns and other weapons that gave an immediate boost to combat strength were what they actually needed.
Over the past month, far more players had bought weapons from Adrian than had learned skills.
That left only one solution.
The Razor Gang might be short on weapons, but it wasn't the only outfit in the world willing to deal in arms.
Adrian adjusted his route on the spot. He would postpone his trip to the South Blue.
He was going to the North Blue.
And while he was there, he could make contact with the Donquixote Family, which had risen to power in the North Blue!
Sread was a cold island in the North Blue, where temperatures stayed low all year round.
At that moment, its bustling port was crowded with visitors, a picture of prosperity.
"So this is the Donquixote Family's current headquarters? It certainly looks a lot more impressive than Oatfee Island."
Adrian wore a casual black suit with the jacket open, revealing a pale blue silk vest, a white shirt, and a dark red tie. His tousled black hair was brushed back, and a pair of translucent yellow sunglasses sat on his nose.
"From the information we've gathered, the Donquixote Family has been based on this island for the last few years. We just don't know whether its leading officers are here right now."
Tommy Shelby, whom Adrian had not seen in some time, seemed much more composed. He still dressed discreetly in a newsboy cap and tweed coat.
Since they were here to approach the Donquixote Family, another North Blue underworld power, Adrian had brought Tommy along. Tommy had a talent for this sort of thing.
Putting the right task in the right person's hands was the sensible way to work.
"Should we settle in for a while and send people to gather information," Tommy asked quietly, glancing around, "or go straight to the Donquixote Family?"
Tommy had no intention of letting an opportunity to expand the Razor Gang into another blue slip by.
He knew that neither the Razor Gang nor Shelby Company was strong enough on its own to become an underworld giant spanning two seas. But the Razor Gang had White Ghost behind it.
Sorry, but having someone powerful in your corner made all the difference!
"We're here to discuss business," Adrian said lightly. "Naturally, we should take a look at where they do theirs."
He flicked the newspaper in his hand, a local edition he had just bought from a roadside stand. Its most prominent front-page headline read: Donquixote Auction, tonight!
The Donquixote Auction was one of the North Blue's most prestigious auctions.
Breaking into the top tier of auction houses was no simple feat, even in the blues.
It required several things.
First, it had to hold regular auctions devoted to luxury goods: fine oil paintings, soft furs, dazzling jewelry, and more.
Second, every auction had to bring in at least one hundred million Beli in sales. That was the bare minimum.
Next, it needed a stable membership loyal enough to keep coming back.
Finally, and most importantly, a powerful organization had to stand behind it and protect its guests.
On the vast sea, anything could happen. The nobles and wealthy merchants who attended an auction didn't want their purchases seized by force the moment they stepped outside.
Only an auction house that met all those conditions could be considered top-tier.
At present, the Donquixote Auction House had the strength, reputation, and backing to put North Blue nobles and wealthy merchants at ease.
Its reputation in particular.
On the high seas, you probably couldn't find a more trustworthy, honest businessman than Doflamingo.
He actually dared to sell genuine Devil Fruits!
And without tampering with them beforehand!
Just think how many Devil Fruits would pass through Doflamingo's hands in the future.
Two especially memorable ones were enough to make the point.
Wealth capable of shaking the world—the Gold-Gold Fruit!
Flames that could burn anything—the Flame-Flame Fruit!
Really, plenty of people disliked Doflamingo's arrogant manner, but the arrogance was only on the surface. Deep down, he was an honest man.
Yes. An honest man...
The auction item Adrian and Tommy had their eyes on was no ordinary object.
As one of the North Blue's famous auction houses, the Donquixote Auction occasionally sold some highly unusual goods.
The star lot at this auction, for instance, was a genuine treasure of the sea—a Devil Fruit!
As the public face of Shelby Company and the Razor Gang, Tommy's business acumen needed no explanation.
But on a sea where strength ruled, power was what gave a person the confidence to speak.
Adrian sometimes gave Tommy pointers on physical combat, but they had had too little time for Tommy to make much progress.
Luckily, the sea offered another way to create a powerhouse quickly.
A Devil Fruit, of course.
Adrian still had the Castle-Castle Fruit, with both offensive and defensive potential. But he had another use in mind for that rare spatial Devil Fruit.
The fact that one had come up for auction while they were here was a stroke of luck for Tommy.
Whatever happened, they could buy it first.
The Donquixote Auction House on Stride Island had once been a theater and still kept much of its original layout.
The stage had become an auction platform, and the backdrop behind it had been replaced with posters of the lots. The lights were still the large overhead fixtures used for ordinary plays; beneath them, jewelry and porcelain gleamed all the more brilliantly.
A scattering of merchants sat in the main hall on the first floor, some speaking quietly with acquaintances. The second-floor gallery had been divided into small private boxes reserved for guests of high standing.
Adrian and Tommy entered the Donquixote Auction House without drawing attention. Since their visit had been a spur-of-the-moment decision, they simply picked seats in the first-floor hall.
Before long, a formally dressed attendant handed each of them a brief catalog of the lots.
"I didn't expect this Devil Fruit to be the star lot." Adrian leafed through the booklet. "The Paramecia-type Bomb-Bomb Fruit."
Tommy searched his memory, then looked surprised. "Sir, is that the fruit of the Capone Gang's former godfather, 'Scarface' Bell?"
He looked pleased.
Tommy had only arrived on Oatfee Island after Adrian had dealt with the Capone Gang. But he had long since gathered accounts of the fight from the islanders and knew how dangerous Capone Bell's explosive powers had been.
"No, it isn't." Adrian narrowed his eyes. "If I'm right, Scarface Bell had the Bomb-Bomb Fruit. Its effects are similar to this Bomb-Bomb Fruit's, but the two aren't the same."
There was something else Adrian kept to himself.
If he remembered correctly, this Bomb-Bomb Fruit would eventually belong to a member of the Donquixote Family. He just didn't know why it had appeared at today's auction.
Could it be that after today's auction, this Devil Fruit will reappear someday and end up back in Doflamingo's hands? Adrian wondered.
"Sir, which do you think is stronger?" Tommy asked. "The Bomb-Bomb Fruit or the Bomb-Bomb Fruit?"
"They seem about the same to me."
Adrian shrugged, his gaze lingering briefly on an accessory pictured in the catalog.
"If I had to choose, I'd say this Bomb-Bomb Fruit is probably stronger."
Before the auction began, there was the customary opening performance: a dance that was quite a sight to behold.
How best to describe the dancers' moves?
Let's just say they could inspire a very particular kind of comic.
After a dance that had quietly made a certain soft part of the audience rather less soft, the Donquixote Auction's chief auctioneer stepped onto the platform. She had beautiful long blond hair, a mature figure, and creamy skin. As was her habit, she struck her small wooden gavel three times to open the auction.
Compared with the sultry opening dance, though, the first few lots were fairly ordinary.
They fetched respectable prices, but clearly fell short of expectations.