Chapter 625: Inferior Executives
Unfortunately, Tesoro still hadn't realized the crux of the issue by now. He shouldn't have gotten involved in Dragon's matter in the first place. Although Dragon had appeared in Gran Tesoro, Tesoro could have simply pretended not to see him, and the World Government couldn't have done anything about it. He could have stayed out of it entirely, and then perhaps none of these subsequent troubles would have occurred.
Tesoro didn't grasp this point. Maybe it was due to long-standing habitual thinking—he always assumed that anyone confronting him was after his money. So at this moment, he kept thinking that Ian and the others were just exploiting the chaos caused by Dragon's appearance to fish in troubled waters, never imagining any connection between Dragon and Ian.
Compared to helping the World Government capture Dragon, Tesoro still felt his own base and money were more important. So he made a snap decision and planned to return.
Solomon also heard the content from the Den Den Mushi, knowing someone was targeting Tesoro's vault. But since he served the World Government, the mission took precedence over everything. Seeing Tesoro want to leave, he tried to stop him, but Tesoro completely ignored him!
Tesoro had achieved his current status through the power of capital and money. Without money, he was nothing! Compared to the money in his vault, the promises made by the Five Elders and the World Government were just empty checks. Tesoro knew well that not to mention more privileges, if he became penniless, the World Government would immediately send people to completely occupy his Gran Tesoro!
Although he was rushing back in a hurry, Tesoro hadn't completely lost his mind. He realized that this opponent was unimaginably powerful, and he probably couldn't stop them alone. So on his way back, he took the risk of offending the World Government and found Edward Weevil and Miss Bakkin, who were being watched!
These two, as witnesses who had discovered Dragon's whereabouts, had long been controlled by Tesoro with gold and were under the watch of CP intelligence agents. After finding them, Tesoro directly knocked out those CP members.
He came to Bakkin, who was wrapped tightly in gold, crouched down, and said, "Want to make a lot of money?"
"Ah... Ah-choo!" Bakkin had been frozen by Aokiji earlier, and although her whole body was now encased in gold, she was still shivering. But upon hearing Tesoro's words, she perked up, her eyes gleaming as she said, "Of course I'm willing if there's money to be made!"
"Good!" Tesoro snapped his fingers, and the gold on Bakkin's body immediately receded like liquid, releasing her.
Tesoro crouched in front of Bakkin, sneering and lowering his voice, "Old hag, to be honest, I really hate you! But your son is a treasure, so you still have some use. As long as you can get him to help me solve a problem, I'll pay you a huge sum as a hiring fee!"
"How much!?" Bakkin was completely captivated by Tesoro's words at this point and didn't mind being called an old hag.
"Ten billion!" Tesoro was quite generous. "Someone is after my vault right now. If your son can help me drive them away, I'll give you ten billion Berries!"
This number stunned Bakkin, and without a second thought, she nodded in agreement.
Wasn't she making all this fuss just for money? Now that Tesoro, this big moneybag, was right in front of her, why would she care about Dragon anymore?
After reaching the deal with her, Tesoro released Edward Weevil as well. The foolish Edward Weevil initially wanted to attack Tesoro, roaring at him, "You dared to tie up Mama and me! I'll kill you!"
However, Miss Bakkin's cane rained down on Edward Weevil's feet, crackling as she scolded, "Stupid son! All you think about is fighting and killing! Don't you know making money is the most important thing? I've worked so hard to raise you, and now that we finally have a chance to earn money, you want to lay hands on the boss!?"
"Ah! Mama, I was wrong!" Edward Weevil quickly apologized.
Tesoro held his forehead, watching this bizarre mother-and-son pair, wondering if this was a mistake. But now he couldn't care less. He called out to Bakkin and led the way toward the Golden Tower.
Meanwhile, Bakkin, sitting on Edward Weevil's shoulder, hurried to follow.
At that time, Tesoro's subordinates, Tanaka and Baccarat, had already arrived at the Golden Tower ahead of them.
What they saw were various sugar statues in different poses. The guards of the Golden Tower had already been taken out by Perospero's ability, suffering heavy losses.
Baccarat and Tanaka hurried upstairs. On the way, they found a guard who, though not turned into sugar, was severely injured. They quickly woke him up to ask about the situation.
They learned that the enemies were advancing toward the top floor of the tower. Over a thousand guards in the Golden Tower had been fully deployed to stop them, but with little effect.
Tanaka, being loyal, knowing the enemies hadn't succeeded yet, used his Pass-Pass Fruit ability to bypass the stairs and directly pass through layers of floors, heading to the top.
Baccarat, on the other hand, thought for a moment, found the guards who were still alive and barely breathing, and activated her fruit ability to start absorbing their luck.
Those guards who were already on the verge of death, after having their luck absorbed by Baccarat, immediately met with misfortune. Those lying in the middle of the hall were unluckily crushed by chandeliers falling from the ceiling. Others hanging on the stair railings had the railings suddenly collapse, causing them to scream as they fell from a height. Some had their wounds suddenly reopen, leading to massive blood loss. Even more bizarrely, some choked to death on their own saliva. In short, these already dying people, after losing their last bit of luck, faced even worse endings...
Baccarat, now blessed with good fortune, confidently headed toward the top floor.
On a floor close to the top, the remaining Tesoro subordinates had set up a defensive position, trying to block and delay Ian and the others' advance.
They had blown up the elevators, placed a large number of bombs in the corridors, and ambushed a large group of people at the exit, sealing off the entire corridor with dense firepower.
"How annoying! How many waves is this now?"
As soon as Katakuri, leading the way, appeared in the corridor, he was greeted by a hail of bullets and cannonballs, filling the corridor with thick smoke.
However, these weapons were completely useless against an ability user like Katakuri. The bullets and cannonballs hit him and sank into his body. With a flex of his body, Katakuri popped them all out and let them fall.
Although the Mochi-Mochi Fruit's ability was similar to Luffy's Gum-Gum Fruit, it was slightly inferior in terms of rebound capability, so Katakuri didn't bother sending the bullets and cannonballs back.
Ian leaned against the wall, hands behind his head, yawning and saying, "Why say so much? Who cares how many waves? Just clear the way!"
Throughout this journey, Ian and the Dragon Hunter Pirates' crew had been extremely relaxed. The ones who fought the most were Perospero and Katakuri. Ian had been using them like workhorses, leaving almost all the fighting to them, to the point where even Aokiji rarely got involved.
Of course, Perospero and Katakuri had complaints about this, but Ian had his reasoning. "I didn't want to bring you along in the first place. You were the ones who insisted on joining. Now that you want me to take you on a ride, you have to put in the effort!"
Seeing Ian acting like he was ready to coast to victory, Perospero and Katakuri felt helpless. Ian had already accepted Big Mom's invitation, and although he hadn't yet stated whether he would attend the tea party, he was still a potential guest of Mama. They were now in a delicate cooperative relationship, so being used was something they had to accept.
Katakuri walked forward through the gunfire, his body torn apart by the explosions but quickly sticking back together.
Fortunately, the main structure of the Golden Tower was made of gold, so it wasn't damaged by the bomb blasts. Katakuri, like Rambo in First Blood, walked all the way to the end of the corridor, right up to the guards.
The desperate guards drew their swords and swung at Katakuri, but he punched them one by one into the ground. The gap between ability users and ordinary people was truly enormous.
Ian and the others leisurely walked behind, passing through the charred corridor, and arrived behind Katakuri.
At the end of the corridor was a huge spiral staircase leading straight to the top floor. According to Carina's intelligence, there were four circular golden domes at the top of the tower, shaped like the curved fingers of a hand in the Golden Tower's design. But in fact, these were four massive treasure vaults, and all of Tesoro's money was stored in one of them.
Just as Ian and the others stepped onto the spiral staircase to continue upward, Tanaka appeared. This guy suddenly emerged from the floor below, jumped into the air with a pistol, and fired at Ian and the others!
Bang! A bullet shot toward an ordinary sailor of the Dragon Hunter Pirates. Tanaka was clever enough to know that his bullets were useless against strong people like Ian, so he targeted the ordinary sailors of the Dragon Hunter Pirates.
However, he clearly underestimated the combat ability of these ordinary sailors. The moment he fired, the sailor reacted, raising his shield in front of him and blocking the bullet.
Tanaka, failing to hit, didn't linger. Upon landing, he passed through the floor and disappeared. Then, the next moment, he emerged from the side wall again and continued shooting.
"I'm out! I'm gone! I'm out again! I'm gone again!"
He used this harassing tactic to delay Ian and the others' progress, but his annoying, fly-like behavior irritated Ian.
Ian punched the wall, breaking through the cement to reveal the gold structure inside. Then he placed his hand on the gold wall. With a crackle, a powerful electric current instantly spread through the gold, covering the entire Golden Tower!
Just as Tanaka was about to pass through the floor again to harass them, the moment he crossed through the floor, he met his doom!
With a crackling explosion of electricity, this guy was blasted out of the ground by the high-voltage current...
Seeing him lying on the ground, charred black and motionless, Ian snorted disdainfully, "Pass-Pass Fruit? What a joke. Are Tesoro's subordinates all this inferior?"