Even if Devil Fruit User were to row straight into the Calm Belt, no Sea Kings would pay him any attention. In fact, several Sea Kings would sneeze him out of the Calm Belt in succession, so he wouldn't even need to row.
That would make it incredibly convenient for the Revolutionary Army to travel between the Four Blues and the Grand Line. Of course, this is just the most basic application of the Luck ability, but even such a basic ability is of great help to the Revolutionary Army.
"Sure! If you like it, just buy it and compete with them."
Upon hearing the introduction, Vic recalled the origin of this Devil Fruit. Wasn't the power of this fruit possessed by one of Tesoro's beautiful female subordinates? She had used this fruit's power to manipulate the Straw Hat Pirates at will.
If Usopp hadn't used up all the luck she had collected using the coin gambling machine, the Straw Hat Pirates would probably have fallen to their deaths due to their bad luck.
So this fruit's ability is quite good; Vic didn't expect that Tesoro bought it at this auction.
The items Tesoro set his sights on were definitely outmatched by others in terms of money, so it wasn't surprising that he won them. He wasn't called the Gild Tesoro for nothing. Although Tesoro didn't have as much money or that title as he would later, Vic didn't have high hopes for Dragon this time.
But I don't have any money. Could you give me some more?
"Fine! Let's forget about it if it's over a billion."
Dragon said this with some embarrassment. The Revolutionary Army army had been expanding over the years, but they had produced very few money-making projects, or they hadn't put their minds to making money.
It's safe to say that aside from the Flower Country treasure that Vic told Dragon about, all the other money was secretly provided by Vic. Otherwise, do you think Rebecca's constant attacks on pirate crews in the New World all these years were just for a contract with the World Government?
Is it that she left the Navy but still clings to a so-called sense of justice? Is Rebecca naturally belligerent? Is Vic trying to train his troops? None of the above. To put it bluntly, it's about robbing people to support the Revolutionary Army's cause. Vic doesn't want to target ordinary countries and civilians, so he can only turn to pirates.
Of course, Vic must have some income from doing business. For example, Ban's intelligence agency has long been able to make money for him. Its personnel have been spread out all over the world, and it no longer needs to spend a lot of money. The income from selling intelligence has far exceeded its expenses.
Moreover, Ban's reputation had already spread far and wide, and much of his intelligence was worth hundreds of millions of Beli, which could be sold to several buyers. Vic had also arranged for skilled individuals to protect Ban and his crew.
Of course, there are other businesses, but like Ban's intelligence organization, they are not openly discussed. No one knows that they are related to Vic. Vic has not yet used the gold in the Dimensional Ring, nor has he used the gold obtained from the Sky Island City of Gold.
Moreover, Vic did indeed have some intention in sending Rebecca out to rob people, which was to give them real combat experience and make them famous. It would also make those evil pirate crews disappear from the sea, which could be considered as saving some countries and civilians who would be persecuted by them in the future. It was a win-win-win situation, and there was no reason for Vic not to do it.
So it was really awkward for Dragon to ask Vic for money to buy Devil Fruit. It was like he was bringing a group of the Revolutionary Army to eat and drink Vic's Vic, and then having to pack some to take back with him.
However, Vic didn't refuse. He knew that he definitely couldn't compete with Tesoro for 1 billion Beli, so he let Dragon play with 1 billion Beli.
Moreover, one billion Beli is no small sum. For a support-type Devil Fruit like the Lucky-Lucky Fruit, it would be more than enough at a normal auction. This is not the Op-Op Fruit that can grant immortality, which is only worth 5 billion Beli. The two Devil Fruit are not in the same league. Therefore, Dragon had no objection and joined the bidding after Vic agreed.
"500 million Beli!"
"This mysterious gentleman has offered 500 million Beli. Is there anyone offering more?"
I'll offer 550 million Beli!
"550 million Beli already, is there anyone higher? Are there other competitors? Are only these two gentlemen knowledgeable enough?"
"600 million Beli!"
"600 million Beli! These two gentlemen are really rich! Are they determined to win? Will the other gentleman make another bid?"
I'll offer 640 million Beli.
"1 billion Beli!"
"The price has reached 1 billion Beli! The competition for the first item today is already so fierce, setting a great tone for this auction. Thank you both gentlemen for your support. Are there any further bids?"
The auctioneer tried to instigate the bidding by fanning the flames, but he wasn't the only smart person in the room, and his words wouldn't sway anyone.
Of course, there are people like that, such as the Celestial Dragons father and son. It's just that they didn't really care about the Devil Fruit. Otherwise, their competitive spirit would have been really aroused. They didn't earn the money themselves, so they didn't care about spending it!
The host tried to encourage the two Celestial Dragons, who were frequent guests, to join the bidding, but this Devil Fruit was simply not to their liking, and nothing they said worked. Only Dragon and Tesoro made it to the end.
Blackbeard didn't participate in the bidding at all; his goal has always been clear: he doesn't care about anyone except the Dark-Dark Fruit.
Queen participated in two rounds and then stopped bidding. He was only after Zoan Devil Fruit. He had even gone to the first half of the Grand Line to welcome a Zoan Devil Fruit user, and almost got killed by Vic that time. This shows how much the Beasts Pirates and are obsessed with Zoan abilities!
Other underground vendors gave up after a couple more rounds of bidding, as the price had already exceeded their estimated cost-effectiveness.
Katakuri was quite persistent, but he gave up after reaching 500-600 million Beli. The Big Mom Pirates had been robbed by Vic last time, and with the pirate crew's own expenses, they didn't have that much money to spare.
So when he saw the other two bidding recklessly, he gave up. The Lucky-Lucky Fruit wasn't that urgent; he needed to save his money for things he truly needed, so he had no choice but to withdraw from the auction.
Only Dragon and Tesoro persisted to the end. While the host thanked the two for creating a good atmosphere, he also encouraged them to continue bidding, which was extremely shameless and made many people in the audience turn up their noses!
Tesoro even considered getting rid of the host. Although he was rich, he didn't want to be taken advantage of. He believed that it was the host who kept encouraging the mysterious person to keep bidding against him.
I'll offer 1.1 billion Beli!
"Alright! This gentleman has offered 1.1 billion Beli. Any higher bids?"
There are no other competitors now, so maybe if we bid again, we can get this Devil Fruit!
1.1 billion Beli at once...
1.1 billion Beli twice...,
Is no one else bidding? If you don't bid soon, the deal is about to be sold!
"1.1 billion Beli, three times! Deal!"
Unfortunately, this Devil Fruit can only belong to this gentleman!
Tesoro and Dragon both had the urge to kill the host. Luckily, they wanted to see what good stuff was coming next, otherwise they might have actually made a move. This host is really despicable. I don't know how he's survived this long. Has he never encountered a hot-tempered person before? He's really lucky!