TN: Amway is a chinese internet slang that means "to recommend / to promote something enthusiastically". This came about because Amway is famous for its direct selling / promotion style, so netizens jokingly borrowed its name to mean "pushing a recommendation on someone."
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In a certain base of the Donquixote Family in the North Blue, Donquixote Doflamingo had returned there at some point.
In fact, even though Doflamingo had established the Donquixote Pirates, he never gave up the foundation he had built in the North Blue during his youth. On the contrary, his roots in the North Blue ran deep, and a large portion of his underworld business was conducted there.
Doflamingo was currently holding two lists and comparing them.
"Interesting. Can we get a 20% discount on the iron ore price?" Doflamingo murmured, placing the lists on the table. He looked up at Trebol beside him and asked again, "Have you figured out the background of this 'Amway Company'?"
Recently, Doflamingo had noticed a newly emerging trading house, or rather, a company. Named the "Amway Group," it had access to a vast supply of goods at prices lower than most of its competitors. Its rapid development surprised him.
For instance, Doflamingo was the buyer for this batch of iron ore. He controlled a complete arms production chain and was a long-time trafficker of black market weapons. The production of these weapons naturally required a sufficient supply of iron ore and other materials. Doflamingo did have a few related mining operations, but the supply wasn't enough. His arms business was in an expansion phase, so he needed new sources of goods. He had worked with other mining merchants before, but this Amway Company had suddenly entered his radar.
The iron ore they offered was of excellent quality and priced 20% lower than the market rate. This had piqued Doflamingo's interest. So, while contemplating this, he was also secretly investigating the true nature of this mysterious Amway Company.
Trebol nodded. "We've found some information. This company has a huge background!"
"Oh?" Doflamingo raised an eyebrow, then gave an evil laugh. "Fuffuffuffu, how huge?"
"This company is backed by two major figures: one is the Warlord of the Sea, 'White Hunter' Smoker, and the other is the Queen of the Pleasure District, Stussy…" Trebol said softly.
Doflamingo frowned slightly. "A Warlord of the Sea? What gives that Smoker the right to partner with Stussy?"
In Doflamingo's view, Stussy's status and reputation in both the underworld and the New World were far superior to Smoker's. While she might be lacking in strength, such a flaw was acceptable in their industry. Plus, rumor had it that Stussy's backer was Charlotte Linlin, so there was nothing to worry about. In comparison, 'White Hunter' Smoker, despite his title as a Warlord of the Sea, was inferior to Stussy in every way. How could they be working together?
"Perhaps it's because of his Warlord of the Sea status? Our intel suggests that the Amway Company might also have the backing of the CP organization. I suspect that Smoker, using his Warlord status, made this request to the World Government, and Stussy, seeing his Warlord background, chose to cooperate with him," Trebol said quietly.
On this point, Trebol's intel wasn't wrong. The Amway Company did have some CP backing, as Stussy herself was a high-ranking member of CP-0. Smoker had, in fact, made a similar request to the World Government, and they had agreed to it under the Warlord of the Sea agreement.
This also tied back to Smoker's appointment as a Warlord. Due to Diarmuid's efforts, Smoker became a Warlord of the Sea through the recommendation of the CP organization, which gave the CP organization a natural positive impression of Smoker. The World Government's vigilance toward Smoker was also not very high. Because of all these reasons, the current situation was formed: the World Government knew about Smoker's status and arranged for Stussy to cooperate with him, but they didn't know that Stussy and Smoker were secretly on the same side.
"A Warlord of the Sea?" Doflamingo was intrigued. Ever since the organization was established, he had been very interested in it but hadn't found a way to join. For the past few years, he had been trying to curry favor with the Marines. Currently, the Marines could purchase weapons from him at a 30% discount, a significant concession. Even so, Doflamingo wasn't sure if the Marines would agree to his joining the Warlords. Now, seeing Smoker starting to stir things up with his Warlord status, Doflamingo was understandably envious.
But envy was one thing. After thinking for a while, Doflamingo asked, "How's the Amway Company's business? How strong are they?"
"They're very strong," Trebol said first, then elaborated. "In the beginning, they operated in the open, just like many other trading houses and ships. Later, with Stussy's help, they started to enter the underworld and conduct large-scale smuggling. What's surprising is the wide variety of their goods and their abundant supply. From what we've seen, they're already involved in a large number of mining businesses, as well as timber smuggling, tobacco trading, and more. However, they are currently only at the stage of selling raw materials or acting as agents for finished products, with the exception of tobacco. They haven't manufactured any mature products themselves. I suspect they have control over a secret raw material source or are cooperating with a country to secretly sell these resources."
"They've reached this level in just over two years?" Doflamingo's desire for the Warlord of the Sea title grew even stronger after hearing this.
That's right, it was now late in the year 1507. It had been just over two years since Smoker and Stussy teamed up to start this business.
"And were you able to find out where their goods are coming from?" Doflamingo asked again.
This time, Trebol looked troubled. "We couldn't. Their sources are too well-hidden. The Pleasure District side…"
"I know," Doflamingo nodded. "The Pleasure District is a formidable intelligence organization. The information you can find is what they don't care about, what they're willing to show us. If Stussy doesn't want us to see the source of their goods, then we can't see it." Doflamingo had a lot of respect for the Pleasure District's intelligence capabilities and didn't think too much of it.
It was impossible for him to imagine that the Marines were the ones providing a steady stream of raw materials to Smoker and Stussy, let alone that the bulk of the Amway Company's profits were ending up in the hands of the Marines.
"Young Master, should we cooperate with this Amway Company?" Trebol asked again.
Doflamingo casually picked up a glass of red wine from the table and took a sip. After a moment of thought, a sinister smile appeared on his face. "Of course. Since their prices are lower, why wouldn't we cooperate? Besides, Smoker is my preordained colleague. After all, I'm determined to get a Warlord of the Sea position!"
The situation was different from two years ago. At that time, when the Amway Company was just starting, 'White Hunter' Smoker was the only Warlord of the Sea. Now, there were two more. The first was Bartholomew Kuma, who had joined the organization a year ago, becoming the second Warlord of the Sea. The other was Dracule Mihawk.
It was said that Mihawk had become unrivaled in swordsmanship, claiming to be the World's Greatest Swordsman. His arrogance had earned him the animosity of many top swordsmen, who all challenged him and were defeated. Because of this, Mihawk had more or less solidified his title.
Everyone had thought he was a vagabond. Although the Marines had classified him as a pirate and put a bounty on his head, he had no history of committing crimes and was not widely recognized in the pirate community. Everyone thought he would continue his aimless wandering, but then he suddenly became a Warlord of the Sea, which left many people baffled.
Doflamingo also had some vague information that Mihawk's reason for joining the Warlords was to cause trouble for the Marines. It seemed he had some kind of unpleasant history with Marine Admiral Rodriguez Diarmuid. Doflamingo didn't care much about whether this was true or not; it had nothing to do with him.
What he did care about was that the Warlord of the Sea system, which had been in place for a few years, was slowly getting on track. There were a total of seven positions, and three had already been filled. Rounding up, you could say that half of the Warlords had already been appointed.
If he, Doflamingo, didn't hurry up and make a move, he might miss his chance! If he could build a good relationship with Smoker through this, maybe he could help with the Warlord of the Sea matter? After all, Smoker was the most senior Warlord.
Now, it seemed Smoker's star was on the rise, and what pleased Doflamingo even more was that Smoker was very similar to him; they weren't restricted by their pirate identities and enjoyed doing business. This made them a good match. So, from the perspective of both profit and personal gain, Doflamingo was ready to form a friendly connection with Smoker.
"Yes, Young Master," Trebol nodded quickly.
Doflamingo took another sip of wine and didn't ask anything else about the Amway Company. Instead, he said, "I only came to the North Blue for one thing: to speed up the acquisition of Amber Lead. Buy as much as you can. What's the market like right now?"
"The market is relatively stable, but the price of Amber Lead is continuously rising. Besides us, it seems there's an even stronger force also competing for the Amber Lead supply…" Trebol replied.
"It's the World Government. No need to guess," Doflamingo stated.
"The World Government?" Trebol was shocked.
"That's right. The only reason I have this information about Amber Lead is because I got it from the World Government. You didn't think the people in the World Government were all fools and incompetents, did you? If they were, they wouldn't be able to steer such a huge 'ship'," Doflamingo said.
Recently, the price of Amber Lead had begun to climb steadily. Hidden beneath this good news was the spread of an epidemic known as the 'White Sickness' in the city of Flevance. Within the World Government, this disease had been named 'Amber Lead Syndrome.' Medical experts had studied and concluded that the disease… was an incurable terminal illness!
After understanding the pathology, the World Government realized that the disease was hidden in the bloodline, and the entire population of Flevance were all potential patients. Therefore, many high-level officials believed that a large-scale outbreak of the Amber Lead Syndrome would occur in Flevance within a few years. The 'White Sickness' that was currently spreading was just the initial symptom.
The World Government considered this a high-probability event and immediately launched a large-scale commercial plan to acquire Amber Lead ore. That's right. The moment they discovered the problem, the World Government didn't even consider saving Flevance, or rather, they had already concluded that Flevance was beyond saving.
This country would either be destroyed by the Amber Lead Disease itself or by a war caused by panic from surrounding countries. There were no other possibilities. After all, it was a terminal illness hidden in the blood of all Flevancians. How could they be saved? The root of their destruction had already been planted more than two hundred years ago when the World Government, for the sake of profit, did nothing to stop the problematic mining of Amber Lead!
In contrast, it was better to make a fortune quickly. Once a large-scale epidemic or war broke out in Flevance, the production of Amber Lead would plummet. At the same time, due to the 'Amber Lead Syndrome,' it was likely that no one would dare to mine Amber Lead for the next ten years or more. At that time, with the World Government's endorsement proving that Amber Lead itself was not the cause of the illness, the price of Amber Lead would surely skyrocket to an extremely high level. Whatever they bought now would be pure profit!
The sinister and ruthless World Government would not miss such a golden opportunity. This was a business worth tens of trillions of Berries, and it could even reach into the hundreds of trillions.
Doflamingo was just a small shrimp trailing behind the giant, dark hand of the World Government, eating scraps. He was well aware that the World Government was never as incompetent as they appeared on the surface!
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