On a shattered walkway.
Inside a giant sphere, entwined with countless gold bars.
Tesoro gritted his teeth, falling to his knees, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the young boy before him.
The circular space, enveloped by gold bars, was dim. However, whether intentionally or not, a beam of light descended from a gap in the bars, illuminating Kong Tai.
He became the sole light in this dim space. Of course, in the eyes of Tesoro and his two companions, he was now a god demanding their lives, the Grim Reaper.
Meeting Tesoro's gaze, Kong Tai nodded.
After all, they were about to die, so he might as well let them be enlightened ghosts.
He wasn't a villain, and even if he were, shouldn't villains let their victims understand before they die?
Then, Kong Tai extended his hand towards the three of them.
Time seemed to slow down infinitely. As they watched Kong Tai raise his hand, an extreme sense of crisis, panic, and helplessness surged within the three.
This feeling of imminent death manifested as endless terror on their faces.
They wanted to struggle, but the pressure acting upon their bodies and souls rendered them utterly immobile, unable to even twitch.
Seeing Kong Tai's hand raised to its highest point, Tesoro knew that if he didn't say something, he would never speak again.
For so many years, he had been completely lost in the power of money. His life had just begun to be enjoyed, and now he was about to die. How could he accept this?
"Wait, wait."
Staring at Kong Tai, Tesoro ignored the stinging of his sweat-filled pupils and spoke in a hurried, loud voice, "Silver-haired, Lord Silver-haired, what do you want? No matter what you want, I can give it to you."
"I can use money to make the Celestial Dragons do my bidding, to make the Marines do my bidding. Whether it's Devil Fruits or anything else, I can buy it for you with money."
"As long as it's me, combined with your strength, we will be the undisputed kings of the world."
Seeing that Kong Tai had actually stopped, he breathed a sigh of relief, a glimmer of hope appearing in his eyes.
However, at that moment, Kong Tai uttered words that sent him plunging into an ice cellar.
"Are you done?"
"If you're done, it's time to go."
"Uh..."
Tesoro's mouth hung open, still wanting to say more, but Kong Tai had no intention of listening to his nonsense. His raised hand slammed down.
*Boom—!*
The space vibrated, and a phantom giant hand rapidly materialized in the dim space, then unhesitatingly slammed down towards the three.
*Bang—!*
A hollow sound echoed only within the space of this domain.
Through the translucent phantom hand, everyone could clearly see the three figures beneath the palm had been completely flattened into a bloody pancake.
No one spoke. They had seen such scenes many times.
Existing in this world, once they set sail, bodies were something they had long grown accustomed to.
"Now it's quiet."
He retracted his right hand, took down his gourd, took a large swig, and then turned to walk around the bloodied pancake, continuing towards Tesoro's room.
What Tesoro had said would have been extremely tempting to ordinary people, even the Four Emperors.
After all, this guy had too much money, so much that it accounted for twenty percent of the entire world's wealth.
But all of this was useless to him.
With his strength, he could even go to the moon, to other planets nearby. If he wanted gold, wanted precious metals, they were inexhaustible.
However, while he could ignore other things this guy possessed, including the gold outside and the remaining ship, there was one thing he absolutely could not leave here.
That was the Beri in this guy's vault.
He truly didn't care about money, but he also wouldn't let the World Government, the countless pirates on this ship, and the nobles benefit for free.
Killing Tesoro and saving them could be considered his mercy; there was no need to leave such a large sum of money for them.
After all, when he first came here, he had no intention of killing Tesoro.
If it weren't for his experience in the tavern, he wouldn't have come here on a whim.
Perhaps it was Tesoro's fate to face this tribulation. Even if Kong Tai hadn't intervened, he would have encountered Monkey D. Luffy and the others three years later.
Well... perhaps he wouldn't even last three years, as his arrival had already caused the history of this world to develop in a direction completely different from the original story.
And by the time Monkey D. Luffy set sail, who knew what kind of world it would become!
Shaking his head, Kong Tai took the lead and entered Tesoro's room.
His gaze swept across the entire room in an instant, finally settling on a unique elevator to the right of the room.
He knew that the treasure vault would not be here, but somewhere higher up, so he didn't linger and headed directly for the elevator.
"Kong Tai, where are we going?"
While waiting for the elevator, Guina stepped forward, took Kong Tai's left hand, and tilted her head to ask.
"Going higher up. I heard he possesses twenty percent of this world's circulating Beri. So, his vault should contain hundreds of billions of Beri, even if it's not twenty percent of the whole world!"
"Hundreds of billions?"
Upon hearing such a colossal sum, even Guina, who wasn't particularly interested in money, and the companions behind her, showed expressions of disbelief.
"I don't know the exact amount, but I imagine it's over five hundred billion."
Looking at their shocked expressions, Kong Tai chuckled lightly.
He truly didn't know how much Beri was in Tesoro's vault. In the original story, Nami and the others never entered, and five hundred billion was just Carina's guess. To know the amount, they had to see for themselves.
*Ding—!*
Just then, the elevator door opened.
With expectant hearts, they followed Kong Tai into the elevator.
Five hundred billion, what an enormous sum of money!
This amount was more than all their accumulated wealth since they set sail, and that included the wealth of the Charlotte family they had taken over on Whole Cake Island.
To their knowledge, with such a sum, they could even afford to buy a country from the World Government.
Thinking of this, expectant smiles appeared on everyone's faces.
Although they weren't particularly passionate about money, when money reached a certain magnitude, just looking at it piled up could bring joy, a feeling that even the well-traveled Robin and the sword-focused Guina couldn't escape, let alone Ah Hua and the others.
With expectant hearts, they took the elevator to the very top of Gran Tesoro's tallest structure.
The moment the elevator doors opened, Kong Tai and the others saw not guards or Beri, but a golden corridor filled with the glow of gold.
And at the end of that corridor stood a cold, thick door, shimmering with metallic luster.