The weather in the Grand Line was ever-changing.
For some unknown reason, the sky outside had already turned pitch black, but the inside of the ship's cabin remained bright, illuminated by a soft, yellowish light.
After the brief interlude earlier, the Straw Hat crew's post-dinner meeting finally moved from casual banter to the main topic at hand.
"Ahem..." Nami cleared her throat and spoke up loudly to her companions. "Alright, since Chopper is here too, it's time we talk about some official business."
Saying this, the navigator leaned forward and lowered her voice, a mysterious smile playing across her fair face.
"Let's discuss exactly how we're going to spend the gold we brought back from Skypiea!"
"Awesome!" everyone cheered in unison.
Ever since leaving Skypiea, the Straw Hat crew had dropped straight into a Marine fortress, and they had been busy shaking off the pursuing Marines ever since. Only now could they finally sit down in peace and quiet to begin the grand task of "dividing the spoils."
"This time, I'm absolutely going to buy a huge bronze statue!"
"Hey, Luffy, the Merry can't fit something that big," a certain long-nosed sniper said, waving his hand. "If we're buying anything, it should be a cannon! A cannon!"
"Heh heh, I can finally drink to my heart's content this time!"
"Ingredients, new kitchenware, a giant refrigerator with a lock, the biggest mouse trap... Oh, right, and a durable lighter!"
"I want to buy medical books and some medicinal ingredients!"
"Hehe..." Robin cradled Bestie in her arms, smiling without a word.
"Hold on, hold on!" the navigator waved her hands to quiet her crewmates down, then turned a beaming smile toward a certain bespectacled man.
"Sherlock~~~ Can you give me an estimate right now?"
Nami rubbed her hands together, her sweet, coquettish voice dripping with flattery. "Just how much will the gold we brought back from Skypiea be worth when converted into Berries?"
Whoosh— Everyone turned their eyes to Sherlock simultaneously, their gaze full of anticipation.
Although the vast majority of the gold in the City of Gold had been squandered by that spendthrift Enel for his massive construction project, the Straw Hats still managed to salvage a portion of it after the golden ark was blasted into smithereens by the Sorcerer's Six-Fold God-Slaying Spear.
The mountain-like pile of gold was a breathtaking sight. It was the first time Nami had ever seen so much gold, so she truly couldn't guess its exact value.
Sherlock hesitated for a moment. Instead of speaking, he calmly held up a single finger toward everyone.
"One? Is it one hundred million Berries?" Usopp asked tentatively.
Sherlock shook his head.
"Could it be... one billion Berries?!" Nami covered her mouth in shock.
"It's ten billion Berries," Sherlock corrected, his tone so nonchalant it was as if he were merely reciting a string of meaningless numbers.
"And that's just a conservative estimate. Since this gold has undergone secondary smelting, its purity isn't great overall. Furthermore, it has lost the historical value inherent to the City of Gold, so its appraisal value is naturally heavily discounted."
"Ten billion?! That sounds amazing! How many zeros is that?"
Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, Zoro, and Sanji—guys who had little to no concept of money—all looked utterly impressed despite not fully understanding. Meanwhile, though Robin was quite surprised deep down, her face maintained its usual calm and composed expression.
As for a certain money-grubber...
"Te... Ten billion Berries?!" Nami's mind was instantly filled with a long string of zeros, her full chest heaving violently. She opened her mouth but couldn't squeeze out a complete sentence. Then, her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the floor under the dumbfounded gazes of Luffy and the others.
"Nami!!!" everyone cried out in shock.
"Nami! Don't die, Nami!" the clueless captain shouted, looking entirely bewildered.
"Don't worry, Luffy. She just fainted from overexcitement." Zoro curled his lip, thinking to himself that this money-obsessed woman was truly a hopeless case.
"Out of the way, everyone! Let me give Nami-san mouth-to-mouth!" Sanji leaped up with a look of fearless martyrdom, as if saying, If I don't enter hell to save her, who will?
"A doctor! Where's a doctor?! Oh, wait, I'm the doctor!"
"Hehe..." Gently stroking the soft fur of the little black cat, Robin watched the chaotic scene, still smiling silently.
"I knew this would happen. That's why I didn't dare tell you earlier." Looking at Nami, who still had a beaming smile on her face even while unconscious, Sherlock gently pushed up his glasses and muttered, "How completely foolish..."
After a chaotic commotion, Nami finally woke up, and Sherlock revealed his plans for the gold to everyone.
"Gild Tesoro?"
Usopp tilted his head, confused. "Why sell the gold to him? Does he specialize in buying gold?"
"More or less." Sherlock rested his elbows on the dining table, interlacing his fingers in front of his mouth as his clear lenses reflected a faint white light.
"Ten billion Berries is no small sum. Ordinary factions can't swallow this much gold all at once. Plus, we're pirates, and the origin of this gold is hard to explain. If we rush to offload it, the buyers will definitely maliciously drive down the price. So, if we want to exchange it for Berries at a fair price, he's the first person who comes to mind."
"Besides, we aren't strapped for cash right now, and the gold is perfectly safe with me. We can easily wait a while before liquidating it, can't we?"
This was the absolute truth. Ever since Sherlock boarded this pirate ship, the Straw Hat crew had never had to worry about money matters again.
"So that's how it is..." Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji nodded, deeply impressed despite not fully understanding.
"Wait, Sherlock." Nami's beautiful large eyes sparkled with little stars. "From the sound of it, doesn't that mean this Tesoro guy is insanely rich???"
"That man cannot be described merely as 'insanely rich,' Miss Navigator."
Stepping into her role as the Grand Line's resident know-it-all, Nico Robin smiled gracefully and explained patiently to everyone, "Gild Tesoro, known as the 'Gold Emperor,' is the master of Gran Tesoro, the world's largest entertainment city. He is also the wealthiest person in the world. Rumor has it that he possesses twenty percent of all the Berries in circulation."
"Ehhh?!?!"
The crew erupted in an uproar. They had already considered themselves top-tier tycoons sitting on ten billion Berries, but they never expected such an insanely, mind-bogglingly filthy rich tycoon to suddenly pop up.
"Twenty percent of the world's Berries might be an exaggeration, but he likely does hold twenty percent of the world's gold."
Sherlock shook his head and continued, "He used to be one of my biggest clients. The Goldglint Trading Company owns over a dozen gold mines under its umbrella, and the vast majority of that gold was bought up by this man. Not only in the East Blue, but he's also been aggressively buying up gold across the other seas. After all these years, heaven only knows how much gold he actually accumulates."
"Though I haven't seen it with my own eyes, I've heard that the amusement parks and casinos in his entertainment city are built almost entirely out of solid gold. Hehe, what a capricious guy."
Speaking up to this point, a certain bespectacled man's lips curled up slightly. "So, compared to Shandora on Jaya, I believe his entertainment city is the true 'City of Gold.'"
"Amusement parks..."
"Casinos, gold..."
Upon hearing this, Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and Nami instantly became extremely hyperactive, though the reasons for their excitement differed completely.
"Alright! It's settled!"
The airheaded captain pressed down on the straw hat atop his head, a familiar and brilliant grin spreading across his simple face.
"In the future, I'm definitely going to that entertainment city and having a massive blast!"
(Uh, Luffy, while you're not wrong...) everyone thought.
Looking at their highly enthusiastic captain, the rest of the crew exchanged glances, an overwhelming sense of foreboding inexplicably rising in their hearts.
(...But why do I get the feeling that when the time comes, you definitely won't stop at just "having a blast"?!)
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