"Everyone~ welcome to the St. Brabo Auction! I'm your host, Sweetheart Lilia~"
A scantily dressed young lady held a microphone, striking charming poses toward the crowd below as she made the announcement loudly.
"Whoa—!"
"It Miss Lilia from Pleasure Street!"
"Miss Lilia, look at me! We just had afternoon tea together last week!"
Quite a few men, along with a small number of women, cheered loudly at the beautiful hostess on stage.
However, more people remained unmoved, and some even showed impatient expressions.
After a brief round of warming up the atmosphere, Lilia quickly moved to the main event.
"Now, let begin today auction! Please welcome our first item! No matter how fierce the war, it will always stand tall—the strongest tree! Also the best shipbuilding material, with only a few in the entire world—Treasure Tree Adam!"
Soon, several burly men pushed a massive log onto the stage. Then they picked up clubs and machetes, hacking and smashing at it with all their strength.
After that, they switched to firearms, shooting at it, and even brought out a flamethrower to blast it for quite a while. In the end, aside from a few soot marks that could be wiped off, the log remained completely unscathed.
"…Impressive!"
Even though Sherwin already knew how incredibly tough this thing was, seeing it with his own eyes still made him exclaim in admiration.
Though it was wood, it was actually harder than steel, yet still retained the qualities of timber. No wonder it was hailed as the finest shipbuilding material.
It was obvious that Sherwin wasn't the only one who wanted such a treasure—many pirates were determined to get it as well.
Before Sherwin had even made a single bid, the auction price had already been driven up to 130 million Berries.
If Sherwin remembered correctly, four or five years later, Franky would buy Treasure Tree Adam for around 200 million Berries…
"Two hundred million!"
Sherwin directly raised the price by seventy million.
The pirates who had been adding a million here or two million there instantly fell silent.
Just when Sherwin thought the bidding strategy he'd learned from novels was about to work, a pirate who had snapped out of his daze quickly called out, "Two hundred and five million!"
Tch! Figures that stuff in novels is all lies!Sherwin clicked his tongue but didn't rush to increase his bid. Instead, he observed the reactions of the other pirates.
Sure enough, 200 million Berries was about the limit for Treasure Tree Adam. Fewer and fewer pirates continued bidding, and when the same pirate who had first countered Sherwin offer called out 220 million, no one else raised the price. Judging by his expression, that was probably his own limit as well.
So Sherwin made his move again: "Two hundred and thirty million!"
To be safe, he didn't bother with small increments and directly raised it by 10 million. The pirate who had been outbid glared at him fiercely but didn't continue.
And so, Sherwin successfully won the massive log of Treasure Tree Adam.
After securing it, Sherwin didn't make any more bids and instead quietly watched as one item after another was auctioned off to others.
The pirates who had also come for the Devil Fruit, however, were far less patient than Sherwin. Before long, a hot-tempered pirate yelled out, "Bring out the Devil Fruit already! We didn't come here for all this useless junk!"
"This guest, please calm down," Lilia said with her sweet smile still intact, showing no sign of fear.
"Anyone who disrupts the order of the venue will have their bidding rights revoked~"
"What did you say?!" The type to jump out first like this clearly wasn't just hot-tempered—his brains weren't much either.
Not only did he ignore Lilia's warning, he even drew a jagged long blade from his waist and continued shouting,
"Do you know who I am? I'm the infamous Captain Som of the Som–Kachin Pirates! I've got a bounty of 67 million Berries—'Sawblade' Som!"
And then… he was promptly taken out with a single gunshot by one of the auction house's hidden marksmen. His first mate Kachin, whose bounty was around 50 million, was also taken down along with him.
Sigh… Over a hundred million Berries in bounty gone just like that…
Seeing two of his planned bounties vanish in an instant, Sherwin's heart ached.
Please… let there be no more idiots trying to cause trouble!
Fortunately, the pirates were quick to read the situation—especially after one fool had set such a fine example. The restless crowd soon settled down.
After the staff quickly cleaned up the scene, the auction resumed. This time, what was brought onto the stage was none other than the Reindeer Fruit Sherwin had consigned for auction.
"This Devil Fruit was suddenly submitted to us for auction just today," Lilia explained to the crowd.
"So it's a surprise addition. That means today's auction will actually feature two Devil Fruits!"
Her words immediately stirred excitement in the audience. Until now, the publicity had been for only a single Devil Fruit, so many people hadn't held much hope of winning it. But now that there was a second one, the situation changed…
If the wealthy buyers aimed to win both fruits, the others could intentionally drive up the price of the first, draining their funds and giving themselves a better shot at the second.
If the wealthy bidders decided to play conservatively, then they could focus all their efforts on this fruit instead.
The pirates with comparatively fewer funds exchanged glances, forming a silent alliance on the spot.
Lilia then began to introduce the pear-shaped Devil Fruit: "Since it arrived so suddenly, we haven't had time to determine its ability. Zoan? Paramecia? Or even the most powerful Logia? All are possible! Or, if any guest happens to know this fruit's true nature, you are welcome to share it here."
Lilia gave a sly smile. Seeing no one respond, she loudly announced, "Unknown Devil Fruit, starting price: 100 million Berries! The auction begins!"
Sitting in the audience, Sherwin listened to Lilia's nonsense on stage and couldn't help but tug at the corner of his mouth.
When he handed the Devil Fruit over to the auction house, he had clearly told them it was the Reindeer Fruit.
After all, this was Stussy's headquarters—surely they wouldn't be lacking a Devil Fruit encyclopedia—so there was no need to hide the information at all…
But these businesspeople were even more cunning. They deliberately concealed the fruit's details, and the excuse they gave sounded perfectly reasonable—"It just arrived today, we haven't had time to confirm it."
The problem was… Sherwin had handed over that Reindeer Fruit to the auction house several days ago!
Still, looking at the scene around him, with people frantically raising their bids, Sherwin certainly wasn't foolish enough to expose the auction house's little trick.
Very soon, the auction price broke past 500 million, far beyond what the Reindeer Fruit was actually worth, and yet the bidding kept climbing…
Sherwin was so delighted his grin nearly reached the back of his head. He had to clamp one hand tightly over his mouth and pinch his thigh hard with the other to stop himself from laughing out loud.
In the end, the Reindeer Fruit was sold for the sky-high price of 820 million Berries to some hapless pirate.
Perfect—this basically guaranteed he'd be able to get the other Devil Fruit.
Sherwin grinned. The earlier bidding had also conveniently revealed most of the people's financial limits. As long as nothing unexpected happened, no one here would be able to outbid him…
Sure enough, spending an hour before coming here snuggling Klee Meow, that little angel, and letting her bless him with good luck really worked!