In the North Blue, in a residence of the Donquixote Family.
Doflamingo had returned to the North Blue at some point.
In fact, although Doflamingo had become the leader of the Donquixote Pirates, he hadn't given up the foundation he'd laid in the North Blue when he was young. On the contrary, he had deep roots in the North Blue, and a large number of businesses related to the underworld were conducted here.
At this moment, Doflamingo was holding two lists in his hands, comparing something.
"Interesting! They can give us a 20% discount on iron ore prices?" Doflamingo murmured. He then placed the lists on the table, looked up at Trebol, and asked again, "Have you figured out the origins of this Amway company?"
Recently, Doflamingo had noticed a newly emerging business, or rather, company.
The company was called 'Amway Group.' It had sufficient supply of goods and its prices were lower than most competitors. It was developing very rapidly, which surprised him.
For example, in this case of iron ore, Doflamingo was the buyer. He controlled a complete arms production chain and had been smuggling black market weapons for years. The production of arms required sufficient iron ore and other materials.
Doflamingo did have several related mining businesses, but the problem was they weren't enough. His arms business was in an expansion period, so he needed new sources of goods even more urgently.
It wasn't that there were no mining merchants who'd cooperated with him before, but this Amway company had suddenly entered Doflamingo's sight.
The iron ore they could provide was of high quality and the price was 20% lower than market value. Doflamingo would naturally be tempted.
So while he was considering these matters, he was also secretly investigating what was going on with this Amway company that had suddenly appeared.
Trebol nodded, then said, "I found out something. This company has a very powerful background!"
"Oh?" Doflamingo raised his eyebrows, then smiled wickedly. "Fufufufu, how powerful?"
"This company is backed by two big players. One is the White Hunter Smoker, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and the other is the Queen of Pleasure Street, Stussy..." Trebol said softly.
Doflamingo frowned slightly, then said, "A Warlord? What qualifications does that Smoker have to work with Stussy? Is it because they both have name starting with 'S'?"
In Doflamingo's opinion, Stussy's status and reputation were far greater than Smoker's, whether in the underworld or in the New World.
Perhaps she was lacking in combat strength, but in their industry, such flaws were tolerable. Moreover, it was rumored that Stussy's backer was Charlotte Linlin, which made it even less of a problem.
Compared to her, White Hunter Smoker, although he had the title of Warlord, wasn't as accomplished as Stussy in every aspect.
How could this be cooperation?
"Maybe it's because of his status as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea? We found out that behind Amway, there might be CP agency power helping out. I suspect Smoker made this request to the World Government as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and Stussy might have been attracted by his Warlord background, so she chose to cooperate with him," Trebol said softly.
Trebol was indeed correct in this regard. There was indeed some CP power behind Amway. After all, Stussy herself was a senior executive of CP-0.
But in fact, Smoker had made relevant demands to the World Government, and according to the Seven Warlords of the Sea Agreement, the World Government had also agreed to his demands.
This was related to how Smoker became one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Because of Finn's efforts, Smoker had become a Warlord through the CP Agency's recommendation. Therefore, the CP Agency naturally had a favorable impression of Smoker, and the World Government wasn't very wary of him.
It was because of these reasons that the current situation had come about. The World Government knew about Smoker's situation and had Stussy cooperate with Smoker, but they didn't know that Stussy was actually in league with Smoker behind the scenes.
"The Seven Warlords of the Sea?" Doflamingo was quite interested when he heard that. He'd been very interested in this since it was established, but he hadn't found any opportunity to join it.
In recent years, he'd been trying to curry favor with the Marines. Currently, the Marines only had to pay 70% of the normal price when purchasing arms from him, which was already a significant discount.
But even so, Doflamingo wasn't sure whether the Marines would agree to him joining the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
Now, seeing Smoker starting to make moves as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, he was naturally envious.
But despite his envy, after a brief pause, Doflamingo asked, "How is Amway's business situation? What's its strength?"
"Very impressive," Trebol said first, then explained in detail. "At first, they were doing business openly, just like many businesses and merchant ships. Later, with Stussy's help, they began venturing into the underworld, engaging in large-scale smuggling. What's surprising is they have a wide variety of goods and abundant supply. So far, they've been involved in numerous mineral businesses, as well as timber smuggling, tobacco trade, and so on. However, at this stage, they've been selling raw materials or handling other finished products on consignment. Aside from tobacco, they haven't produced any mature products of their own. I suspect they have control over a secret source of raw materials, or perhaps they're collaborating with some country to secretly sell these resources."
"In just over two years, it's developed to this point?" Upon hearing this, Doflamingo became even more envious of the Seven Warlords of the Sea title.
That's right. It was now the end of Sea Circle Calendar year 1507.
A little over two years had passed since Smoker and Stussy had teamed up to do this.
"Can we find out where their goods come from?" Doflamingo asked again.
At this point, Trebol said with some embarrassment, "I can't find it. Their source of goods is very secretive... As for Pleasure Street..."
"I understand," Doflamingo nodded and continued. "Pleasure Street is a powerful intelligence organization. The information you can find is all information they don't care about and are willing to show us. Information like supply channels, things Stussy doesn't want to show us, means we genuinely can't see them!"
Doflamingo was quite impressed with Pleasure Street's intelligence capabilities, but he didn't think too much about it.
It was impossible for him to imagine that it was the Marines who continuously provided raw materials to Smoker and Stussy, and it was even more impossible for him to imagine that the bulk of Amway's profits would eventually fall into the Marines' hands.
"Young Master, should we cooperate with this Amway company?" Trebol asked again.
Doflamingo casually picked up a glass of red wine from the table, took a sip, and after thinking for a while, a wicked smile appeared on his lips. "Of course. Since they offer a lower price, why wouldn't we cooperate? What's more, Smoker is my future colleague. After all, I must get the Warlord position!"
The situation was different from two years ago. Two years ago, when Amway was just starting out, White Hunter Smoker had been the only one among the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
And now, there were two more. One of them was the Tyrant Bartholomew Kuma. This guy had joined the Warlord organization a year ago and became the second Warlord.
The other was Hawkeye Dracule Mihawk.
It was said this guy was now unrivaled in swordsmanship and called himself the World's Greatest Swordsman. Because of his arrogance, he'd aroused the hostility of many master swordsmen who'd gone to challenge him, but all of them had returned defeated. Therefore, Mihawk had now more or less established his title as "the Greatest Swordsman."
Originally, everyone thought this guy was a free spirit. Although he was defined as a pirate by the Marines and had a bounty on his head, he had no history of committing any crimes. Therefore, he wasn't recognized by the pirate camp.
Everyone thought he'd continue wandering and maintain this dissolute state, but in the blink of an eye, he'd suddenly become one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, which was very confusing.
Doflamingo also knew some obscure information. It seemed the reason Mihawk had joined the Seven Warlords of the Sea was to cause trouble for the Marines. It seemed he had some unpleasant history with Marine Admiral Rodriguez Finn.
Doflamingo didn't dwell too much on the truth of this matter. After all, it had nothing to do with him.
What he cared about was that the Seven Warlords of the Sea plan had been slowly getting on track in the few years since it was announced. There were seven positions in total, and three had been filled now. Rounding it off, you could say half of the Seven Warlords of the Sea had been formed, which wasn't far off.
If Doflamingo didn't work harder, he'd really be left behind!
If he could establish a good relationship with Smoker, perhaps he could help with the Warlord matter? After all, no matter what else, Smoker was still the most senior of the Warlords.
Now it seemed he was about to take off again. What made Doflamingo even more satisfied was that Smoker was very similar to himself. They weren't bound by pirate identity and also liked doing business. This made them very compatible.
So whether from an interest perspective or from these other aspects, Doflamingo was ready to establish a good relationship with Smoker.
"Yes, Young Master," Trebol nodded quickly.
Doflamingo took another sip of red wine and stopped asking about Amway. Instead, he said, "I came to the North Blue this time for only one thing: to step up the purchase of Amber Lead. Buy as much as you can. What's the current market situation?"
"The market is relatively stable, but Amber Lead prices continue to rise. In addition to us, there seems to be a stronger force competing for Amber Lead..." Trebol said.
"It's the World Government. No need to guess," Doflamingo said.
"World Government?!" Trebol asked in surprise.
"That's right. I was able to get the information about Amber Lead from the World Government. You don't think everyone in the World Government is a fool and incompetent, right? If so, they wouldn't be able to control such a massive 'ship,'" Doflamingo said.
In recent times, Amber Lead prices had begun rising steadily. Hidden beneath this good news was the fact that a disease called "White Sickness" had begun spreading in the white town of Flevance.
Within the World Government, this disease had been named 'Amber Lead Disease,' and according to the results of research and treatment by many medical experts, this disease... was a terminal illness with no cure!
The World Government, which had figured out the pathology, had already realized the disease was hidden in the blood, and all of Flevance consisted of potential patients.
Therefore, many high-level officials believed that Flevance would experience a large-scale outbreak of Amber Lead Disease within a few years, and the currently spreading "White Sickness" was just a sign of its onset.
The World Government believed the probability of this happening was very high, so they'd immediately launched a business plan to acquire Amber Lead on a large scale.
The moment the World Government discovered this problem, they didn't even consider saving Flevance. Or rather, they'd already determined that Flevance was beyond saving.
This country would either be destroyed by Amber Lead Disease, or it would cause panic among neighboring countries due to the disease, leading to war and national destruction. There was no other possibility.
After all, this was a terminal disease hidden in the blood of all Flevance people. How could it be cured?
More than two hundred years ago, after discovering problems with Amber Lead mining in Flevance, the World Government hadn't stopped this matter due to their own interests, thus sowing the seeds of destruction!
Compared to that concern, it was better to make a fortune quickly. Once a large-scale epidemic or war broke out in Flevance, the output of Amber Lead would inevitably drop sharply. At the same time, due to "Amber Lead Disease," no one would probably dare to mine Amber Lead for the next ten years.
By then, with the World Government's endorsement, proving that Amber Lead itself had no problems and wouldn't cause illness, the price of Amber Lead would inevitably hit an extremely high level. The more you bought now, the more you'd earn!
The ruthless World Government wouldn't let go of such a good opportunity. This was a business worth tens of trillions of berries! Even hundreds of trillions was possible.
Doflamingo was just a small player eating some scraps under the World Government's massive operation.
He knew very well that the World Government was never as incompetent as it appeared.