Below Seireitei, in Heavel Capital.
Bullet stood in front of the great staircase with a medical book in his hand.
However, his eyes would leave the book from time to time as he looked toward the distant street, as if he was waiting for someone.
Before long, he seemed to notice something. He closed the medical book in his hand and walked forward.
On the other side, Bartholomew Kuma had been brought here.
He saw Bullet from far away as well. After all, Bullet did not look like an ordinary pirate at all. He carried a strong presence.
Bartholomew Kuma had paid close attention to the Valthior Pirates, so there was no way he would fail to recognize someone like Bullet.
As for Kuma's arrival, Bullet felt a little complicated. He had always seen himself as one of the Young Master's close followers on the crew, but now someone who had followed the Young Master from even earlier was suddenly coming. Judging by the Young Master's usual attitude, he also seemed to be looking forward to Kuma's arrival, so Bullet naturally felt a little urge to compare himself with him.
"You are Bartholomew…" Bullet spoke first, his tone not very polite.
Before he could finish, Bartholomew Kuma looked at him with a sincere expression and said, "You must be Mr. Douglas Bullet, right? You look so tall and strong. I also heard that you are the ship's doctor, so you must be a good person who respects life. My name is Bartholomew Kuma. I am very happy to meet you!"
A good person who respects life?
Bullet somehow felt that this guy was mocking him. Had Kuma heard somewhere about how he shouted "victory" while dragging people into self-destruction?
Besides, this was a pirate crew. How could there be a good person who respected life here?
However, when Bullet looked carefully at Bartholomew Kuma's sincere eyes, he felt that he was probably thinking too much. The young man in front of him was said to be only sixteen years old, yet he was already almost seven meters tall. Could this huge guy really be an honest and reliable person?
The thoughts Bullet had about showing off his strength were pressed down. He rubbed his nose a little awkwardly and said, "Yes, that is me. I am also happy to meet you. The Young Master is already waiting. Come with me…"
"Thank you for guiding me. I hope the two of us can get along well in the future, become friends, and serve the Young Master together!" Bartholomew Kuma said with a warm smile.
Bullet naturally had no intention of climbing the stairs, so he led Bartholomew Kuma straight toward the elevator used by the officers.
Bartholomew Kuma seemed very eager. He was not usually someone who talked much, but today he was probably excited because he was about to meet Valthior, so he could not stop speaking.
"I really envy you. Actually, I also wanted to become a ship's doctor. When I was in the South Blue, I often treated people, but most of the time I relied on my ability. I only started reading medical books two years ago, but the contents are too hard for me to understand. When you have time, could you teach me?" Bartholomew Kuma asked after entering the elevator.
Bullet froze for a moment, then said with some pleasant surprise, "You want to become the ship's doctor?"
"Yes," Bartholomew Kuma immediately nodded.
"Hahaha, good, good, good. Just for saying that, you are already my good brother. Later, I will explain the situation to the Young Master for you and let you become the ship's doctor…" Bullet laughed loudly and reached out, wanting to pat Bartholomew Kuma on the shoulder.
But once he raised his hand, things became a little awkward.
He could not reach.
So he smoothly patted Bartholomew Kuma's arm instead.
He knew that from today onward, his honor as the tallest member of the Valthior Pirates was already a thing of the past.
Bullet had a powerful build, and over the past two years, he had eaten well and lived well, so his body had grown even faster. Not long ago, when his height was measured, he had already surpassed Sunbell, the four-meter-eighty Fish-Man, and had become a large man of five meters twenty.
He had thought this would last for a long time, but in the end, a newcomer who was so much taller than him had arrived.
"Are you also a Devil Fruit user?"
"Yes, I have the Paramecia-type Paw-Paw Fruit."
"Ah, I have the Mythical Zoan-type Phoenix Fruit."
"That is amazing. My ability was taken for me by the Young Master."
"That is nothing special. Mine was also taken together with the Young Master!"
"I really envy you. Actually, I wanted to come here a long time ago, but the Young Master…"
As they chatted like this, the two of them soon arrived in front of the great hall where Valthior was.
The doors were still wide open, as if there was nothing to hide. Valthior was inside as well, currently talking with someone.
"According to this year's plan, our budget has already been worked out, Young Master. The situation is not good," Lincoln said as he stood beside Valthior, holding a thick report in his hands.
"How bad is it?" Valthior asked while eating an orange, not looking very concerned.
He had spent too many years as a Celestial Dragon, so his sense of money was somewhat twisted.
On top of that, the old man had opened up a large part of the Jaygarcia family's wealth to him, which made him spend money even more freely. After all, when someone was spending family money, they rarely felt much pain.
"Just the Frost Island Industrial Park plan alone will need an investment of six hundred and seventy billion Berries this year," Lincoln said softly.
Valthior, who had been eating his orange, froze for a moment before asking in surprise, "How much?"
"At least six hundred and seventy billion Berries," Lincoln repeated.
Valthior slammed the orange onto the table, crushing it, and said angrily, "Which bastard is trying to take a cut from me? Building an industrial park costs six hundred and seventy billion Berries? Do they think I'm that easy to fool? Who made this report?"
What kind of number was six hundred and seventy billion Berries?
It was more than ten times Roger's savings.
Even a rich kingdom might not have six hundred and seventy billion Berries in yearly income, yet now, just to build an industrial park, his people were asking him for that much money.
If this much money flowed out of Mary Geoise, even the old man would take a second look.
"That is not the case, Young Master. When I first heard it, I was also shocked, so I checked it several times. There was no mistake in the report, and there was no situation like the one you are thinking of," Lincoln quickly explained.
As he spoke, he handed the report to Valthior and said, "Combining all of Frost Island's arms production lines, plus buying outside technology, machine tools, and related equipment, will cost around eighty-two billion Berries for the weapons industrial area alone."
Valthior looked at the report. This part did not seem to have any problem.
More than eighty billion Berries would allow them to move all of Frost Island's arms production lines into the industrial park and buy a large amount of new top-level production equipment and technology. The output would greatly increase. That price was reasonable, and once production began, as long as sales did not become a problem, they could recover the cost in one year.
After that came the construction of various buildings in the park, along with food supplies and wages. Those were not too much either, adding up to less than twenty billion Berries in total.
In other words, to build up the arms industry, they would need about one hundred billion Berries. That matched Valthior's earlier understanding and estimate.
Anything between one hundred billion and one hundred fifty billion was still something he could accept.
"So how did it become six hundred and seventy billion…" Valthior muttered. He quickly flipped through several pages of the report, then suddenly stopped. After a short pause, he cursed, "Damn Caesar. That bastard really took my words as permission to spend without limit, didn't he?"
Back then, Valthior had promised Caesar that he would invest in a top-level research lab for him.
But that bastard Caesar had not held back at all.
Looking at the long list of advanced equipment names that he could not even understand, and then looking at the painful prices behind them, Valthior finally understood why top scientists like Vegapunk had to find powerful backers before they could truly show their ability.
Without money, science really could not move.
"How many years can he use this equipment?" Valthior took a deep breath and asked Lincoln.
"He said it should last at least ten years without needing any major replacement," Lincoln replied.
"When can it start producing results?" Valthior asked again.
"He said some of these are direct production devices. As long as the equipment listed from page twenty-eight to page thirty-four arrives, and as long as enough raw materials are purchased, he can immediately begin producing SAD," Lincoln replied in a steady voice.
"SAD…" Valthior clicked his tongue, and his anger slowly faded.
That was the raw material used to create artificial Devil Fruits. When plants absorbed that material, they would bloom and bear fruit. The fruit produced would be a kind of fake Devil Fruit with some traits of Zoan-type abilities.
Its side effects were strong, and its power was not that impressive, but there was someone on the sea who liked it.
That person was Kaido. This guy went out to sea as a pirate, and he always claimed that his dream was to create a world ruled by violence. But in Valthior's view, he was probably just trying to become the owner of a giant beast park.
If they could produce this thing, they could sell it to Kaido at a high price.
"How much money do we still have?" Valthior pulled back his thoughts and asked Lincoln.
"Around six hundred billion Berries. The five hundred billion Berries in support from the family in Mary Geoise this year has not been touched yet, and the rest is the surplus from last year," Lincoln immediately said.
Even though Valthior could still ask the family for more money after spending all five hundred billion, he would feel somewhat embarrassed doing that.
After thinking for a while, Valthior said, "Look around and find out who has been especially rich in the New World recently. We will go rob them."
--------
Read Advanced Chapters on : www.patreon.com/c/ReadJin
~ Every 100 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~ Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]