บท 152: Chapter 152: Calculation
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It seemed as if the Big Mom Pirates were being extra cautious to avoid detection by the Marines, which stunned everyone across the seas.
What kind of Marine base could hold a Yonko pirate crew in check?
As a result, the reputation of G-5 Base and its Commander, Byakuya, spread wildly across the oceans.
Some cunning individuals even fabricated a story around the situation, saying that Byakuya, the Commander of G-5 Base, was one of Big Mom's many sons.
According to the rumour, he had gone undercover as a high-ranking Marine spy many years ago.
Now, to prepare for her son, Big Mom pretended to be intimidated by G-5 Base.
This charade was meant to highlight Byakuya's immense power.
The story claimed that the entire scheme was to allow Byakuya to rise to an even higher rank within the Marines and eventually provide more benefits to the Big Mom Pirates.
Once this tale spread, it gained widespread acceptance, as many believed it was the only way to explain how a single Marine base could subdue a Yonko pirate crew.
Even the soldiers of G-5 started to think the story made sense.
When Byakuya first heard this rumour, his initial reaction was: Could this be Virgo's doing?
He suspected Virgo, the traitor, had swapped out his ties to the Donquixote Family with Byakuya's supposed ties to the Big Mom Pirates, smearing Byakuya's name.
This is like the same script with different actors, Byakuya thought, absolutely shameless!
However, Byakuya didn't care. Let the rumours spread—the more, the better. After all, any kind of fame was still fame.
In Byakuya's view, even a bad reputation was still a reputation. Not long after, Byakuya heard the familiar sound of his system notification:
"Congratulations, host, for achieving the renown accomplishment: 'Momentary Fame.' Reward: 10,000 World Energy Points."
Byakuya nearly burst out laughing when he saw the notification.
If Virgo was behind this rumour, he wanted to thank him in person for helping him earn 10,000 points for World Energy.
As the saying goes, "One man's joy is another man's sorrow."
While Byakuya was rejoicing over his easy rewards, not far away, Doflamingo was fretting over how to explain himself to Kaido.
There was less than a week left until their agreed delivery date.
Of course, Doflamingo hadn't been sitting around idly during this time; he had mobilized the entire Donquixote Family and their underworld connections to scour the world for Zoan-type Devil Fruits.
Even if it meant paying several times the market price, Doflamingo was determined to acquire them.
After relentless effort, Doflamingo had managed to gather four Zoan-type Devil Fruits.
One of them was a rare Ancient Zoan, the Short-necked Crocodile form. This rare fruit alone had cost him nearly 500 million Berries.
Including the other three regular Zoan fruits, Doflamingo had spent 1 billion Berries.
He was going all out to ensure that Kaido would spare his life. Doflamingo hoped this would be enough to calm Kaido's fury.
After much hesitation, he finally decided to call Kaido.
"Hey, have those 100 SMILE fruits been prepared so soon? Let's arrange a place to meet, and I'll send King to make the trade with you," Kaido's slightly drunken voice echoed from the other side of the line.
Doflamingo paused, bit the bullet and replied, "I'm sorry, Lord Kaido."
"The batch of SMILEs you requested was ready, but an unexpected incident occurred during transport, so we can't proceed with the trade."
"What?" Kaido's voice immediately became filled with rage.
Even the Den Den Mushi in front of Doflamingo seemed to tremble in fear, as though it sensed the overwhelming terror on the other end.
"Doflamingo, are you looking to die? You've dared to deceive me twice now."
"Do you think your status as one of the Seven Warlords makes you untouchable?"
"Looks like I need to show you the strength of the Beasts Pirates!"
The killing intent in Kaido's voice seemed to seep through the Den Den Mushi, sending chills down Doflamingo's spine.
He quickly pleaded, "Lord Kaido, I didn't mean to deceive you. Please, let me explain."
"Explain my ass!" Kaido roared. "You better wait in Dressrosa for death! I'm coming with my men to finish you off right now!"
Hearing the sincerity in Kaido's threat, Doflamingo feared Kaido would hang up and come straight to kill him.
Panicked, he spoke as quickly as he could. "Lord Kaido, to make up for your loss, I've personally collected four Zoan-type Devil Fruits, one of which is an extremely rare Ancient Zoan: the Tyrannosaurus Rex form."
"Hm? An Ancient Zoan: Tyrannosaurus Rex form?" Kaido's interest was piqued.
A hundred SMILE fruits could indeed create a hundred formidable subordinates, but none of that compared to the potential of a single Ancient Zoan fruit.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that, as long as the user wasn't utterly incompetent, an Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit could elevate someone to a senior officer within the Beasts Pirates.
Even if it wasn't enough to promote someone to the level of one of the top three executives, this Devil Fruit could still elevate someone to the rank of the Flying Six, a position much more valuable than 100 SMILE fruits.
Such rare Devil Fruits were not easy to come by, even for Kaido himself. Doflamingo had managed to get his hands on one.
Kaido asked again, "Are you willing to give me all four Devil Fruits?" Hearing Kaido's calmer tone, Doflamingo finally felt relieved.
"Of course, these four Devil Fruits are my offering to you as an apology, Lord Kaido," he replied.
Kaido wasn't entirely devoid of manners. Since Doflamingo had gone to such lengths, he decided not to act as aggressively as before.
"Very well," Kaido warned, "these four Devil Fruits will make up for the 100 SMILEs."
"But in three months, I still expect 100 more SMILEs. And don't let there be any problems this time."
"Unless, of course, you find another Ancient Zoan-type Devil Fruit within that time."
Although Kaido had let him off this time and extended the deadline by three months, Doflamingo knew full well that Caesar's fate was still uncertain.
Forget three months—he couldn't even create a single SMILE in three years at this rate.
As for finding another Ancient Zoan-type Devil Fruit, Doflamingo didn't even dare to consider it.
He considered himself lucky to have found one in such a short time. The thought of finding another? It was more realistic to try to make more SMILEs!
Recalling his earlier thoughts, Doflamingo hesitantly probed, "Lord Kaido, we might not be able to trade SMILEs anymore!"
"What do you mean?" Kaido's voice was still cold, though less threatening now, likely because he already had the rare Devil Fruit as collateral.
Doflamingo's eyes flashed with cunning. "Let me explain, Lord Kaido. It's all because of that Marine G-5 base."
"You mean the G-5 base that dared to collect protection money from Big Mom's crew?"
"Yes, exactly. It's all because of that Marine G-5 base."
Kaido didn't usually keep up with the news, but the whole situation between Marine G-5 and his old acquaintance, Big Mom, had been making waves across the seas, so he had heard about it.
"Isn't the base commander of G-5 supposed to be Big Mom's son, a spy she planted in the Marines?" Kaido asked, curious.
Doflamingo nearly cursed out loud when he heard Kaido say that. Byakuya, Big Mom's son? What nonsense!
I know exactly who Byakuya is. He's Sengoku's nephew! How could he possibly be Big Mom's son?
Unless you're saying Sengoku and Big Mom are somehow related? I don't know what to tell you if that's the case.
Maybe you should go see a doctor for that brain of yours. One is a Marine Fleet Admiral, and the other is one of the Yonko.
If they were relatives, their family would be terrifying! Do you think everyone now has a last name like Monkey D.?
Doflamingo didn't know which idiot had spread such a ridiculous rumour.
Did they think this could take down Byakuya, someone with deep connections in the Marines?
What a bunch of morons! The person spreading this nonsense should also get their head checked.
Meanwhile, far away in the G-5 base, Vergo suddenly sneezed three times in a row.
Puzzled, he muttered, "What's going on? With my strength, could I be catching a cold?"
As he pondered, Vergo frowned and thought, Could it be that Byakuya has found out I'm the one who spread the rumour?
No, that can't be. I didn't personally spread it; I just wrote the story. There's no way he could trace it back to me.
After considering it, Vergo decided to keep a low profile around Byakuya for the next few days to avoid raising any suspicions.
<End Chapter>
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