Even faster than the Underworld's ruling class were the noble lords who withdrew their bids, but they were only taking a chance anyway and weren't really the main force in the bidding. They gave up as soon as the price exceeded their acceptable range.
Next to give up was Queen. He was never really interested in Paramecia Devil Fruit; if the price were cheap, he wouldn't mind buying them. But now that the price had gone up and there were several other bidders, he knew he had no chance and didn't bother bidding anymore.
In the later stages of the bidding, only Katakuri, Dragon, Tesoro, and the Celestial Dragons Rosward remained, and the price of the Mirror-Mirror Fruit had risen to 800 million Beli.
Aside from Rosward's hesitant bid, the other three were subtly exchanging bids. Rosward felt the price of the Devil Fruit had exceeded his expectations, but the Celestial Dragons ' pride prevented him from giving up easily.
Katakuri is determined to get it for his sister; Dragon has Vic backing him up, and he won't hesitate as long as it's under a billion Beli; Tesoro is rich but foolish. No, Tesoro isn't foolish; he has his own ideas and is indeed rich enough not to mind spending money to buy this Devil Fruit.
"850 million Beli!"
"900 million Beli!"
"1 billion Beli!"
"1.05 billion Beli!"
"1.08 billion Beli!"
"1.1 billion Beli!"
"1.12 billion Beli!"
" Vic! You've exceeded the limit again, look..."
"1.5 billion, that's really not enough. My money didn't grow on trees."
"Good!"
I thought Rosward, the Celestial Dragons who barely made it out, would be the first to be eliminated, but for the sake of his pride, he actually managed to get past the 1 billion Beli and squeezed Dragon out of the competition.
Seeing that Dragon hadn't bid after two rounds, Rosward felt he had saved face and didn't bid again. He was a little afraid of being tricked like his son Charlos had been.
Spending such a huge sum of money to buy a Devil Fruit to peep at a few beautiful young women and Celestial Dragons bathing and changing clothes is really not worth it. It would be much better to just buy a few beautiful young women as slaves and vent your frustrations on them!
That was Tesoro who played Charlos just now, and now that person is bidding again. Rosward doesn't know if that person really wants to auction off the Devil Fruit or just wants to cause trouble. Since he's not sure, he'd better not get involved to avoid getting scammed!
"1.2 billion Beli!"
1.22 billion Beli!
"1.25 billion Beli!"
"1.3 billion Beli!"
"1.32 billion Beli!"
With no one else involved, the bidding gap between Katakuri and Tesoro wasn't as large anymore; they were bidding by tens of millions of Beli at a time. One reason was that they only had one opponent left, and another was that they felt their opponent was nearing their limit.
However, after Dragon joined in, he widened the bidding range again. With the backing of Vic, he naturally wanted to raise the price to intimidate the other two and prove that he was not short of money and was determined to win!
One or two rounds isn't much, but after two or three rounds, it will really prove that he has deep pockets and is determined to win, and might even scare away the competitors.
However, Dragon didn't know who the two people bidding against him were. One was truly determined to win, while the other, although not determined, was rich and didn't care about spending money. So, the two of them didn't care about his intimidation at all; it was just a performance for a blind man.
"1.5 billion Beli!"
"1.55 billion Beli!"
"1.58 billion Beli!"
The bidding quickly surpassed 1.5 billion Beli, Dragon sullenly gave up and stopped bidding, leaving only Katakuri and Tesoro as the remaining contenders.
Rosward had previously withdrawn without hesitation when he saw Dragon leave, but then Dragon rejoined, which was a slap in the face for him. Rosward was furious, but seeing the price rising higher and higher, he still didn't participate.
Seeing that Dragon had been defeated again, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. "I knew those two were crazy, so I withdrew in advance. You idiot, you still went for it and got slapped in the face!"
Rosward felt smug, thinking he was the smartest one. His earlier hatred for Dragon vanished, and he now only thought Dragon was an idiot. He then continued watching the two bidding ahead of him.
In the end, this Devil Fruit was sold for 1.8 billion Beli, and the person Devil Fruit got it was Katakuri!
It wasn't that Tesoro couldn't afford it, but Katakuri was getting impatient. He simply pulled down the hood covering his head, revealing his signature hair and scarf.
Katakuri was revealing his identity to Tesoro, hoping he would give him the Mirror-Mirror Fruit. Of course, there was also a threat involved, namely, using his mother's power Four Emperors to benefit his sister.
Just like how Celestial Dragons never hide their identities at auctions, this can indeed save a lot of money. Because many people dare not offend the Celestial Dragons, many people will not participate in items that the Celestial Dragons have bid on. Don't risk your life.
Tesoro wasn't necessarily Mirror-Mirror Fruit, and he truly couldn't afford to offend the Four Emperors. He could use money to settle things with the World Government and the Celestial Dragons, but pirates didn't think that way. Pirates were desperate criminals; they'd want to kill you, and then their money would be theirs.
Therefore, compared to the World Government and the Navy, he was more afraid of the powerful and unscrupulous Pirate Emperor. For these two reasons, he stopped bidding and gave the Mirror-Mirror Fruit to Katakuri.
After the second Devil Fruit was sold, most people in the audience were eagerly anticipating the appearance of the third Devil Fruit, since the auction was already halfway through and based on the items brought out earlier, it could be inferred that there was still one more Devil Fruit to be revealed as the grand finale.
However, two people wanted to leave with what they had won at the auction. One was Shalria, a female Celestial Dragons. She couldn't wait to hang out with Grandpa Rayleigh. This anticipation made her heart race, her face flush, her mind wander, and she often daydreamed. However, since her brother and father didn't want to leave, she couldn't leave alone.
The other one is Katakuri. His goal here is very clear: to get the Mirror-Mirror Fruit. Now that he has the fruit, he wants to sneak away from home, take his sister to the backstage to pay, and then quietly leave the Sabaody Archipelago.
He was afraid of being targeted if he left alone, because he could sense that the mysterious hooded man who had competed with him in bidding earlier also coveted the Devil Fruit, and that this man was definitely very strong, as his Observation Haki could only detect him vaguely!
If this person is also determined to get this Devil Fruit, in order to prevent him from giving the fruit to his sister when he goes backstage to pay, that person is very likely to cause trouble when he goes backstage.