You Believe You

"Knowledge will make you a better version of yourself."

Dill swung a pocket watch as he spoke at length:

"The words in books are like beautiful butterflies, like delicious food, like a bright full moon."

"You'll be deeply drawn to them, but don't forget, your mother is the person who draws you most. You must obey her every command."

"Do you believe me?"

The boy's nose was running and his pupils were unfocused. He tilted his head up and murmured in reply:

"I believe my mom."

"That's right, you believe your mother."

Smiling broadly, Dill pointed at Mary beside him:

"Go and obey your mother."

Snap!

With a snap of his fingers, the boy's pupils refocused and he regained his senses, then ran into Mary's arms.

The hypnosis went very well. Mary left five million Beli behind and departed with her child.

Only Dill, Robin, and five million in cold, hard cash remained in the room.

Mary had only brought her child here on a trip. Her husband's trading company really did make a lot of money.

Robin took off her height-increasing shoes and sat cross-legged on the sofa, asking curiously:

"Will he really keep studying hard for the next six years?"

"Of course. Hypnosis is pretty amazing."

Dill held up two fingers and gave two examples:

"There's a hypnotist who can use nothing but a battered ring to make ordinary people fearless of pain and vastly stronger, able to smash rocks with a single punch."

"And there's a little girl who can change people's minds by painting particular patterns, making inseparable companions betray each other and making enemies' attacks involuntarily hit the patterns."

"Compared to theirs, my hypnosis that makes people study hard is hardly worth mentioning."

"Besides, hypnosis is just hypnosis. It doesn't change anyone's intelligence. Her son will study hard, but I can't guarantee he'll learn anything."

Robin nodded thoughtfully and remarked casually:

"Like how you only learned a few hundred characters in two years. Learning is slow if you aren't smart enough."

"So getting a doctorate at eight makes you so great, huh?"

Dill replied irritably, but to avoid losing his newspaper reader, he said nothing more.

He took off his shoes and lay straight down on the sofa. "Time to sleep. There's something big to do tonight."

The hypnosis just now had used up some of his stamina. He needed to recover as quickly as possible and prepare to brainwash another gang member tonight.

Petals scattered and several arms stretched out, taking a blanket from the bed and covering him with it, while also fetching an unfinished book and placing it in Robin's hands.

The room fell quiet, leaving only soft breathing and the rustling of pages.

Nine that night.

After dinner, Ross and Brandon walked into the inn with their arms around each other's shoulders. Ignoring the dozing owner, they headed up to the second floor together.

The drunken Ross looked around, his expression puzzled:

"This looks like an ordinary inn no matter how you look at it. Is there really any fun here?"

"Of course. There's something nice to look at in the room. You'll see when you get there."

Brandon pushed open the door and pulled Ross inside.

There was none of the pink he had imagined. Ross only saw an ordinary room, a youth sitting on the sofa, and five million Beli on the table!!

Ross's breathing instantly grew heavy, his heart pounding.

Money! So much money!

Mafia life wasn't that wonderful. Most of the protection money they collected went into the boss's pockets, and ordinary members lived only a little better than ordinary people at best.

The stacks of money before him were enough for him to live it up for a whole year.

"Want it?"

Dill grinned and pushed the Beli on the table forward:

"Follow my orders and help me get some things done, and all this money is yours."

Already drunk, Ross didn't give it much thought. He pulled a flintlock pistol from his coat and pointed it at Dill, grinning viciously:

"Idiot! If I kill you, that money's mine anyway!!"

A brat carrying a fortune-this was practically a cash giveaway. He, Ross, had never robbed anyone who offered such value for the effort!

Dill sat with his legs brazenly crossed, his posture utterly relaxed:

"Why don't you check whether your gun actually has any bullets first?"

Trying to bluff me? Who wouldn't trust their own gun!

Click, click.

Ross pulled the trigger, but the flintlock in his hand fired no shot. Refusing to believe it, he tried twice more, but still heard no gunshot.

At the same time, Brandon drew his gun and pointed it at Ross, urging him with a grave expression:

"Give it up, Ross. Follow his orders and we can get more money than we can count."

"Brandon, you!?"

Ross looked stunned, a flash of anger at the betrayal crossing his eyes, but he soon raised his hands without protest:

"I surrender!"

Why risk my life for the pittance I make each month? If I can't steal it, earning it through work is acceptable too. As for the boss? I wish him all the best.

"A very wise choice."

Dill clapped his hands, picked up five hundred thousand Beli, and tossed it to Ross. Ignoring the delighted surprise in his eyes, he asked calmly:

"Do you believe me?"

Believe you? I believe in money!

Ross muttered inwardly, but with circumstances stacked against him, he nodded to show he believed Dill.

"Very good. Then have a seat. Let's have a heart-to-heart."

Six hours later,

After listening to descriptions of dozens of abilities, Ross left the inn with Brandon.

Late the next night, Ross brought Brown.

On the third day, Brown brought Geno, a squad leader.

On the fourth day, Geno brought Pica, the right-hand man of the boss's right-hand man.

Supposedly, you could get to know any stranger through no more than six people.

Dill didn't plan to brainwash everyone in Black Fire. Instead, he worked his way up step by step, hypnotizing the higher-ups.

"Until I finally take control of Black Fire's leader in one stroke and take over a gang without shedding a drop of blood!"

"Then I'll use Black Fire to approach Bullet and, from there, control the Five Families!"

Lying in bed, Dill held forth, painting a grand vision of their future for Robin:

"Then we'll pour the Five Families' entire fortune into building a huge ship that'll take us around the world to find every Poneglyph!

"We'll go up to Sky Island ten thousand meters above and dive down to Fish-Man Island ten thousand meters below, and see every sight this world has to offer!"

"What a grand dream," Robin said calmly:

"I hope the World Government doesn't discover this huge ship, or we'll definitely be blown to pieces by cannonballs."

"Don't just tear apart someone else's fantasies, you jerk!" Dill grumbled. His grand vision of the future had fallen at the very first step.

Black Fire's leader, Gunpowder, was a Gunpowder Human who had eaten the Paramecia Gunpowder-Gunpowder Fruit.

The gap between the strongest and weakest Paramecias was enormous, with god-tier fruits like the Paw-Paw Fruit as well as utterly useless fruits with extremely low floors like the Whisper-Whisper Fruit and Jacket-Jacket Fruit.

The saying "there are no useless fruits, only useless ability users" didn't hold in the pirate world. There were superior and inferior fruits.

Like the Arms-Arms Fruit and the Dice-Dice Fruit.

According to the information gathered over the past few days, Gunpowder's ability wasn't particularly powerful. It was a body-altering ability that let him turn himself into gunpowder, making him immune to physical attacks while also allowing flames to ignite him.

"If he's gunpowder, why doesn't he just burn up and disappear? Why can he keep fighting while he's burning?"

Dill complained through gritted teeth, "That's not scientific!"

"Can't you just hypnotize him like before?"

"Robin, hypnosis has its limits."

Dill shook his head and held up another photograph:

"Boren, Gunpowder's deputy. The two are inseparable."

"Gunpowder isn't much of a fighter. He mostly relies on turning into gunpowder to become immune to damage, then setting himself alight and charging around."

"But this Boren is the agile type. Supposedly, he's fast enough to dodge bullets."

"Trying to hypnotize two people at once is too risky. If either one notices something wrong and starts fighting, my hypnosis becomes useless."

"So we need a different approach. What's the maximum number of arms you can sprout now?"

"If I don't maintain my disguise, I can create twenty arms at most."

Robin looked puzzled. "What are you planning to do?"

"This is the Four Blues, not the Grand Line where monsters are everywhere. Guns are still a pretty effective deterrent."

Dill pushed open the window and looked up. The midday sun blazed with heat, and a few wisps of cloud drifted across the sky. It was a perfectly clear day.

"We need a warehouse."