Baccarat watched as Vane placed 20 million Belly on Dice. She was not yet the subordinate of the Golden Emperor with immense wealth eighteen years later; for her right now, 20 million Belly was a huge sum.
Don't be fooled by the casino designing her listed price at 10 million Belly. In reality, her true worth would not exceed 1 million Belly. Even among those who came into the casino, even if they could come up with 10 million Belly, under normal circumstances fewer than one in a hundred would buy her.
So why would the casino give her such a high price?
Because wealthy people who enter the casino are the most likely to win big. Just like Vane here—if he wins by betting on Dice, just the doubling alone would net him 60 million Belly.
And in this match, he's the only one who bet on Dice, which means he also has the right to divide up everyone else's stakes. In the end, his reward might even approach 100 million Belly.
When someone wins that much money, it's very easy to get carried away. Things they'd never spend on normally, once their head gets hot they'll just spend—like the kind of beauties you hold in your arms.
That way, they can claw back some Belly from the winner.
The betting ended, and Vane and Baccarat went to the seats to watch the three fight.
Dice wasn't very strong yet. In Vane's eyes, the fight between the three was full of openings… no, many of Dice's openings were deliberate. Most non-lethal attacks, he took on purpose.
He almost forgot this guy was a masochist. Back in the Golden City days, he was the dice dealer. The dice cup he shook was a steel cup four to five meters tall.
In the end, when the cup was opened, he'd whirl in the air for several turns while swinging a huge axe. Just when people thought he was about to split the dice cup with the axe, he'd instead slam his head into the steel cup and smash it.
The axe was only a tool to help him spin. The real tool for opening the cup was his head. After crashing into it, he'd even show an extremely satisfied expression.
When he was defeated by Zoro, he also had that blissed-out look. As long as he didn't die, the heavy blows dealt to him felt like a reward.
Vane: "Dice probably chose to enter the cage himself."
Baccarat: "He… maybe. But there really are people who willingly enter the death cage."
"At the grandest tournaments, the organizers will put up a Devil Fruit as the prize for victory. Some people who want a Devil Fruit will voluntarily enter the cage."
Devil Fruit? That hit Vane right on his excitement point. He really wanted a Devil Fruit. Any Devil Fruit would do—at least it could drop an item for him.
"Then… has there been a match like that recently?"
"No. It was just held a month ago. The prize back then was a Zoan-type Devil Fruit."
"At that time there were ten people in the arena. Only three were provided by the casino; the remaining seven all volunteered."
A Zoan-type Devil Fruit? If it wasn't the Cat-Cat Fruit, then he could verify whether he could summon a new Pokémon unit.
Too bad he came late. He didn't know whether the person who ate the fruit was still near Bliss Island. If he ran into them, he'd definitely have to fight them once.
Baccarat said slowly, "But I know about another Devil Fruit."
Truly, when one path seems blocked, another opens.
Vane clenched his fist and looked at Baccarat.
"You… what do you want?"
"Buy me."
In the world of One Piece, there has always been a saying that Devil Fruits choose their owners. If that saying exists, then the reason Baccarat would be chosen by the Luck-Luck Fruit is probably because her luck was just that bad.
A sick mom, a gambling dad. When she was twelve, she was sold to the Bliss Island flower district and trained there ever since. That training really was training with your life on the line.
The flower district had ways to torture you without damaging your pretty shell. Every time she wasn't sold, she'd be punished. She'd had enough of it.
Having seen countless people, she could tell that the face under Vane's mask was young. When she first hugged him, he clearly had that kind of… pure, young-boy reaction. Someone like that had to be much better than the brothel madams and pimps.
"Fine. I hope your information is real."
A Devil Fruit tied to Baccarat… maybe it was the Luck-Luck Fruit. Although he felt this fruit was so-so and not that useful for top-tier powerhouses, for his team it would be a very handy fruit.
"The information is real, but I can't help you get that Devil Fruit."
Vane: "That's my business. You just need to guarantee the information is real."
With Vane's assurance, Baccarat finally let out a sigh of relief. At last, she could leave this damned place.
...
Vane turned his attention back to the cage. Dice had probably enjoyed enough pain and began to counterattack.
Now the gap was obvious. Dice seized his chances better and quickly kicked the two opponents into the electrified cage, electrocuting them to death.
In many people's eyes, this fight had dragged on for so long that the three were about evenly matched. In reality, Dice was at the 20 to 30 million captain level. The long entanglement was entirely because he personally liked getting beaten.
With his Transparent World, Vane could see exactly when he truly burst out. Once the burst began, the other two were swiftly defeated.
"Won."
"Let's go get my money back."
60 million Belly was the doubled amount. Vane also took part in dividing up the other stakes and got another 30 million Belly.
Vane then spent 10 million Belly to buy Baccarat. Only then did the casino's mood improve a little.
On the ground, although she had been bought as goods, strictly speaking Baccarat still hadn't obtained freedom, but she just felt incomparably refreshed.
...
Vane brought her to the boundary between the inner ring and the outer area and stopped.
"The Devil Fruit information—its accuracy will determine your future treatment."
Baccarat's expression also turned serious. "The flower district boss, Madam Lara, has a Devil Fruit of unknown ability in her private little treasury."
"Quite a few people actually know about this, but there's one thing very few people know—that Madam Lara is a Devil Fruit user herself. If you want to get the Devil Fruit from her, you need to be careful."
For others, this was bad news, but for Vane, it was good news—buy one, get one free.
"Do you know what kind of ability she has?"
"This… it should be Zoan-type, but I'm not very sure which one."
Zoan-type? Zoan-type is good.
"Very well. If what you said is true, then I'll formally invite you to join my team."
Team? What team? A pirate crew?
"Pirate crew?"
Vane really wanted to say no, but right now the World Government and the Navy defined him as that. It didn't matter whether he admitted it or not—the right to define lay in others' hands.
"That's what the Navy and the World Government call me, but I don't think I am."
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