Chapter 196: Whatever it takes

Dressrosa.

In the palace.

“It is indeed a prosperous country. I can’t imagine how, one of the leading figures of the underground world, could have such efficient governance methods.”

Ron stood in front of the windowsill, looking down at the casual opening of the bustling street below.

Dressrosa’s darkness was well hidden by the light of its cheerful streets, darkness covered by the strange devil fruit’s ability of Sugar, the Hobby-Hobby Fruit.

Ron naturally knew all this.

This trip to Dressrosa was an invitation from Doflamingo, and Ron was not afraid that the joker would dare to gather people to ambush him there.

With his current strength and means, unless he is facing one of the Four Emperors, or an admiral of the marines, even if he was facing three or five versions of Doflamingo, it would not be difficult for him to retreat unscathed. It wasn’t arrogance, such confidence was build thanks to his latest learned magic, the space magic.

“Fuffuffuffuffu, compared to manipulating the dark world, it is way easier to govern a small country. Oh, this reminds me of your conspiracy to seize Alabasta. It seems it is almost complete. Although Alabasta is a bit remote and poor, the country lands and population far exceed that of Dressrosa.”

Doflamingo stood beside Ron and looked out the window.

Ron carried his hands behind his back and said: “Don’t use the word “conspiracy”. I’m different from you. I’m a righteous person. I’m just guarding Alabasta. But you?! You used all the underhand ways to seize this country”

“No, no, no.”

Doflamingo shook his head and smiled: “The word “conspiracy” doesn’t apply in my case either. The Donquixote family originally ruled Dressrosa 900 years ago, but when my family moved to Mary Geoise and the Riku Family were left her as temporary management, I just took back which was already mine.”

Speaking of this, Doflamingo looked at the sky and said: “It’s getting late, I have some things to take care of. We will talk about the cooperation terms tomorrow. Let’s take a good rest tonight, that trip with the marines was very tiring, Fuffuffuffuffu…”

Doflamingo turned away as he spoke, then left.

Ron continued to stand in front of the window without looking back until Doflamingo completely left, then turned around and glanced in Dofi’s direction.

With Doflamingo’s departure, four delicate and handsome young girls walked in from the door and saluted Ron with a little timidity, saying: “Ron-san.”

They were maids send by Doflamingo, and facing Ron, who was also a Shichibukai, like their master, they were naturally a little timid.

Ron didn’t show any affection. Still, it was too pretentious to kick the maids out. No one would mind a little relaxation…being served with bath and dressing.

of course.

Even if he knew that Doflamingo wouldn’t do any small moves, Ron, using his mental strength, was keeping an eye on the palace surroundings.

…

The other side.

Doflamingo was walking down the corridor.

At the top of the corridor, a sticky thing was creeping along with him. After wriggling for a distance, it fell down with a crash and landed next to him.

“Doffi.”

It was Trebol, one of the top three officers of the Donquixote Pirates, acting as a Staff superior. Trebol looked at Doflamingo, a cold light flashed in his eyes, made a gesture, and said: “Would you like…”

“No, it’s not necessary.”

Doflamingo shook his head and smiled hesitantly: “For the moment, he is the main target of the escaped Big Mom. We don’t need to worry about him now. Moreover, even if we set an ambush, we may not be able to kill him. That guy is tough and smart.”

“We just need to make good use of his power. After meeting our needs…we can even sell him with a good price to Big Mom.”

Hearing what Doflamingo said, Trebol smiled happily, and said: “This guy probably didn’t expect Big Mom to escape! The Four Emperors are not so easy to be killed, Behehehehe “

“How about the production of the artificial devil fruits?”

“everything proceeding normally as you left it.”

“We can’t afford any accidents in the transaction with Kaido. Vergo should soon become the base chief of the branch in the new world, Fuffuffuffuffu. In this way, with his authority, we will be able to cover up a lot of information.”

“After so many years of lurking, it’s time for him to play a bigger role, Behehehehe.”

…

The other side.

Ron, who had just walked into the bathroom and laid in the bathtub, let out a gentle sigh, looking calmly at the ceiling above.

Different from the Observation Haki, spying from a spiritual perspective, Ron could not only penetrate through matter but also hear any sound in his range. Naturally, the dialogue between Doflamingo and Trebol was heard loud and clear.

But Ron’s expression was very calm, without any fluctuations.

This is how it should be.

It is just the nature of Doflamingo, a cunning man. It was so expected that he would try to sell him out after taking advantage of him, trying to get the maximum benefit.

It’s a pity that things won’t go his way this time 😊.

…

A few days later.

Ron left Dressrosa.

The senior cadres of the Don Quixote family also met Ron, knowing that he had become Doflamingo’s collaborator, and the news was also passed down to the lower levels.

Doflamingo’s first demand was very simple. He needs Ron’s help to deal with an underground dark force that he couldn’t deal with. Doflamingo already had a deal with this force, and it would affect his reputation and credibility in the underworld if he made a move against them.

In contrast, this deal didn’t matter to Ron.

Although the leader of this dark force was not a pirate, he had a bounty of 70 million Berries and was a wanted criminal of the world government.

Ron didn’t even need to do it himself. With half a month after the order was issued, the force was uprooted, and he received a huge bounty.

The cooperation went smoothly, as Doflamingo sent Ron more sea-stones to provide him with the needed material to build his magic towers and weapons.

Another half month passed.

Big Mom attacked the guild base in Albares.

Most of the people in Albares had been evacuated under Ron’s arrangement, including Robin and Nami. Only Ron himself remained in the base.

Ron knew that Big mom would come after him, the reason why he stayed. It was a great opportunity to give it a try using the wizard towers, to find out how big the gap was between him and the Four Emperors.

The attack power of his fourth-level elemental magic was no less inferior to the admirals’ attacks, and the fourth-level frost system was comparable to the admiral’s most powerful attacks.

With the help of the wizard tower… Ron’s confidence increased.

He also wanted to try, with enough wizard towers, whether he could withstand a mighty force as one of the four emperors. It was something he had to confirm, for the sake of his future plans.

With the arrival of Big Mom, Ron started a fierce battle with the Yonko, and the whole island was torn apart.

Regrettably, Ron failed to resist the Yonko.

Even with the wizard tower, Ron barely managed to avoid Big Mom’s assault, unable to completely contain such fierce push.

On the one hand, Ron’s current strength was still inferior to that of the Four Emperors. On the other hand, the number of wizard towers was indeed not enough.

In this battle, although Ron was forced to evacuate, he almost came to a conclusion that…if there were hundreds of wizard towers, with the assistance of several magicians, they could indeed withstand Big Mom attacks! Withstand one of the four emperors!

The quantitative change should be enough to achieve qualitative change!

Simple tactics were indeed useless against people at the level of the Four Emperors, but this implies only to humans of ordinary strength, even if the number is large, it would be difficult to shake the Four Emperors.

The numbers of ordinary people won’t change the outcome of a battle against a powerful enemy, but a bunch of skilled people may take him down.

For instance, Doflamingo alone will probably be killed by Kaido in seconds, but if ten copies of Doflamingo team up, using the intertwined silk threads, they have a chance to hold their ground against Kaido.

And if hundreds of Doflamingo join forces, the silk thread made by them will be more than enough to stop that beast from moving!