A comfortable hot spring, with graceful white jade goddess sculptures, their eyes made of expensive rubies, holding jewel-encrusted water bottles from which hot spring water flows, and pure gold bases supporting these statues of dual expensive and beautiful colors.
The vast hot spring pool was filled with a milky white, warm mist.
A naked, middle-aged man with marble-like layered muscles was soaking in the hot spring, his hands resting on the pure gold edge behind him.
On the floating table in front of him were golden wine glasses and golden wine bottles.
Looking closely, the most abundant element within this entire hot spring was expensive gold.
The bottom of the pool was gold, the dome was gold, the surrounding hot spring stones were golden, and beyond the misty haze, all that could be seen was a pure, shining gold.
This seemed incredibly vulgar, very much like the ostentation of a nouveau riche.
If someone were to say that to the man, questioning his taste, he would only scoff and mercilessly retort.
Elegant taste? Fashionable flair? Those are all nonsense! So-called fashion, so-called elegance, are merely what a strong person does, and what their worshipping weak followers imitate!
Only the weak without self conform to the mainstream, controlled by worldly norms, blindly worshipping the strong and poorly imitating them.
The man didn't need to do that.
His decorations were mostly gold, endless gold.
When you decorate your house with gold leaf, people say you're a nouveau riche.
When you decorate your house with gold nuggets, your taste is questioned.
When you pile your house with gold bricks, all you get is awe-struck praise and prostrate worship!
Gold represents wealth, and wealth represents power.
And here, in Gran Tesoro, the world's largest entertainment city, he, Gild Tesoro, was the supreme god!
Drip-drop, drip-drop went footsteps.
A beautiful red-haired woman, wearing an expensive black evening gown that accentuated her full, slender figure, carried a Den Den Mushi.
She swayed her alluring hips, moving gracefully, and came to the Golden Emperor Tesoro's side.
"Your Den Den Mushi, Tesoro-sama, it's Heavenly Yaksha calling."
"Doflamingo? Why is that annoying clown calling me now?"
Tesoro wiped his face, sinking a little further into the hot spring as his capable subordinate Baccarat entered.
He frowned.
His expression was filled with disgust.
Hearing that Doflamingo was on the other end of the Den Den Mushi, he practically had the word 'dislike' written all over his face.
Yes, who would like a scumbag who did nothing but bad deeds? Not to mention that he got his start by robbing that very scumbag.
Gratitude was non-existent.
Ever since he shot at the Celestial Dragons, all of Tesoro's kindness had long since died.
Pssh The Den Den Mushi was connected.
Doflamingo's annoying face was mimicked perfectly by the Den Den Mushi.
Tesoro's lips curled into a mocking arc, and he burst into laughter.
"Hahahahaha, Donquixote, why are you calling me? Do you want to borrow money again? Don't worry, just tell me how much you need, I'll consider it charity for a pauper!"
On the other end of the Den Den Mushi, Doflamingo's temple instantly bulged with a vein.
Clearly, he didn't enjoy talking to Tesoro either.
After all, if a bastard robbed your store, then got rich using the stolen goods from your store, and now even cooperates with you, who wouldn't be unhappy?
"It's not me looking for you, it's someone else, you tasteless idiot!" Doflamingo retorted mercilessly.
"Someone who can make you his special mouthpiece... he must not be an ordinary person."
"First meeting, or rather, first conversation. Hello, Mr. Gild Tesoro, my name is Poltorto."
A refined voice came from the other end of the Den Den Mushi.
Tesoro frowned slightly and smiled.
"Oh, it's the current world's number one arms dealer, hahahahaha, that's great, I've been waiting for you to cooperate with me!"
Ostensibly, Tesoro made his profits by running the world's largest entertainment city, but anyone with a brain knew that it was absolutely impossible to earn twenty percent of the world's Belly by relying solely on an entertainment city.
Tesoro had many businesses, and they were very diverse: arms, drugs, human trafficking, smuggling, both legal and illegal.
He took all comers.
No one would complain about having too much money, and Tesoro was no exception.
Even though he possessed countless amounts of gold, his craving and desire for wealth never diminished.
"Yes, I've also been waiting for an opportunity to cooperate with Mr. Tesoro."
Shin looked at the Den Den Mushi, which mimicked Tesoro's expression, and his lips curved slightly.
"It's just that this business I want to discuss, Mr. Tesoro, you might not be able to handle..."
"There's no business in this world that I can't handle!" Tesoro waved his hand grandly, speaking with an air of magnanimity.
"Even if you're selling the Great Treasure, I can still take it!"
"Is that so?" Shin's smile grew even more pleasant.
"Alright then, the project we're going to discuss next, its name is 'World Government Disintegration, Celestial Dragon Extinction'."
"..."
Tesoro was silent for a moment, his voice suddenly growing cold.
"Are you out of your mind?"
Tesoro hated the Celestial Dragons; he wished those bubble-headed imbeciles would all die off, but that didn't mean he was insane enough to openly provoke them.
Given his current status, even if he hit a Celestial Dragon, the Five Elders wouldn't really do anything to him.
But killing a Celestial Dragon and hitting a Celestial Dragon were two different things.
The latter wasn't a capital offense; if handled well, the Five Elders wouldn't care if a few mentally-challenged idiots were beaten.
But the former was clearly an act of rebellion.
He didn't know what kind of madness this Poltorto Poltorto was showing, nor why the usually rational Doflamingo would get involved.
But not only was he unmoved, he even wanted to report them to the Five Elders, hoping that those few factions would clash, which would be for the best.
Tesoro immediately wanted to hang up the Den Den Mushi, but Shin's next sentence froze his movements.
"Mr. Tesoro, I hear you have a very large scar on your back, so large that it seems to be covering something up, like... the Hoof of the Celestial Dragon?"
Shin's playful yet clearly malicious voice made Tesoro stand up from the hot spring with a start, roaring in fury.
"What are you talking about?!"
Typically, people only react so strongly when their most painful spot is poked.
For Tesoro, the scar on his back was exactly that.
"There aren't many commoners who dare to shoot at Celestial Dragons, especially those lucky ones who were 'mercifully' spared and then enslaved after firing the shot."
Shin looked at the Den Den Mushi, which mimicked Tesoro's furious face, and continued with a light chuckle.
"Gild Tesoro, or perhaps that wasn't your name back then? You were once a Celestial Dragon's slave, but you fortunately escaped thanks to Fisher Tiger.
What do you think would happen if the World Government knew about this?"
"Fufufufufu!!! Tesoro, I never knew that besides being a despicable thief, you were also once a slave. Your life is truly 'splendid'!"
After a moment of shock, Doflamingo mercilessly gave Tesoro his greatest ridicule.
"The scar of the Celestial Dragon's Hoof cannot be erased, so you used a larger scar to cover the mark on your back. But if the scar were to heal, the Hoof of the Celestial Dragon would reappear."
Shin played with the Belly in his hand, smiling pleasantly.
"If the Five Elders were to know about this, Mr. Golden Emperor, I presume you would be in a very bad situation. From a major capitalist who could be courted, to a domestic slave, can you accept such a massive shift in identity?"
Tesoro's face turned pale, then green.
This matter was a nightmare he could never erase from his life.
Once his identity as a Celestial Dragon's slave was exposed, the Five Elders would absolutely move against him without mercy.
Everything he had painstakingly built over decades would vanish in an instant!
"...What do you want to do?!"
Tesoro gritted his teeth, his voice leaking through them, suppressing his anger.
Since they were still talking to him, instead of directly exposing the matter to the Five Elders, it meant they didn't want his downfall.
Being held by the scruff of the neck felt terrible, but being coerced by two Warlords was better than being utterly consumed by the Five Elders.
"It's simple, just as I said, let's join hands and let the World Government and the Celestial Dragons be utterly destroyed."
Shin said cheerfully.
"I think we all have a common enemy: I, Mr. Doflamingo, Mr. Tesoro, His Majesty Judge, and... Monkey D. Dragon. Everyone would be very happy to personally send off the World Government."
Tesoro raised an eyebrow.
If the alliance Shin was forming truly had so many people...
at the very least, he was serious.
"Mr. Tesoro, you possess an irreplaceable advantage within our alliance. If the World Government is to collapse, your power is indispensable."
Shin's tone became filled with respect.
Tesoro was a genius, undoubtedly a business prodigy.
From the age of twenty-nine when he stole the Golden-Golden Fruit to his current age of thirty-nine, he only took ten years to transform from a penniless slave into the richest man in the world.
Perhaps you'd say that all of this was due to the Golden-Golden Fruit's power.
With such a fruit, who wouldn't be rich?
You'd be wrong.
First, the Golden-Golden Fruit is not as "easy to use" as people imagine.
Before awakening, the Golden-Golden Fruit cannot transform surrounding substances into gold, nor can it create gold out of thin air.
Before awakening, the Golden-Golden Fruit's ability can only turn the user's body into gold and control the deformation of metal.
And even if the fruit awakens, the gold it produces has significant flaws.
Once it comes into contact with seawater, the user loses control over that portion of gold, causing it to revert to its original object.
This kind of counterfeit gold cannot be used for trade unless you're running a racket-but clearly, a swindler could never achieve Tesoro's current status.
Tesoro's rise from destitution to his current position was entirely due to his own abilities.
From the age of twenty-nine when he stole the Golden-Golden Fruit, to the age of thirty-two when he became famous on the high seas, in just three short years he built the massive Gran Tesoro from scratch.
Only then did Doflamingo discover his identity as the former thief.
But intimidated by Tesoro's status at the time, even someone as arrogant as Heavenly Yaksha could only choose to swallow his pride and cooperate with him.
Then, over the next six years, his reach and businesses spread across the entire world.
That world-leading entertainment city was not his main business; in six years, his vast capital group had expanded to an unimaginable degree.
Controlling twenty percent of the world's Belly circulation-what does that mean? Keep in mind that even the dominant America, which harvests globally, only accounts for 23.9% of the world's total economic output, while Native, ranked second, only accounts for 15.12%.
In other words, Gild Tesoro's wealth alone has already caught up to a superpower.
From an economic perspective, this situation should theoretically not exist.
However, Tesoro genuinely achieved it.
This means he himself can be considered a true "ultimate proprietor" in the entire One Piece world.
Therefore, he was a partner Shin had to win over.
To completely destroy a government from all aspects, it's not enough to just attack militarily.
Popular support, prestige, and...
economics are also crucial.
"Hmph, what do you want me to do?" Tesoro snorted, displeased.
"Well, let's save that for our meeting when we have time. If you don't mind, let's choose Mr. Tesoro's ship as the meeting place."
"Oh, right, just in case, I'll also tell Mr. Tesoro a secret of Mr. Doflamingo's-Vice Admiral 'Demon Bamboo' Vergo, the base commander of G-5, is a member of the Donquixote family."
The Den Den Mushi was hung up.
Shin smiled pleasantly and turned his head.
A vein throbbed in Doflamingo's temple, but he still calmly suppressed his anger.
At this point, no matter how much he disliked the guy in front of him, as partners, they couldn't fall out.
They were already on this ship; getting off meant being prepared to die.
If they succeeded, they would naturally soar to the sky.
If they failed...
then it would be eternal damnation.
"This Den Den Mushi can directly contact my main body. If there's any progress, I'll contact you."
Shin handed a Den Den Mushi to Doflamingo, straightened his clothes, and took a deep breath.
"Alright, do it."
Doflamingo didn't hesitate, raising his hand and cutting No. 5's neck with the Five-Colored String.
Within his vision, the world spun, and then, there was darkness.
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