"...I like your gifts, Joker."
After putting down the sheepskin scroll, Karl smiled at Doflamingo. Then, he stared at the special Den Den Mushi that had been taken out of the case and said, "This is..."
Doflamingo had prepared two gifts in total: one was the shares in the entertainment companies, and the other was the sheepskin scroll recording the King Punch.
Could this special Den Den Mushi also be part of the second gift?
"Fuffuffuffuffu... This is a Visual Den Den Mushi, specifically used for recording images and live broadcasts."
Doflamingo pushed the Den Den Mushi in front of Karl and said, "Inside this Den Den Mushi is a recording of Elizabello II training and releasing the King Punch. Perhaps you can use it as a reference."
"...This gift is truly too valuable, Joker. No... Doffy!"
Karl fell silent for a moment, then looked at Doflamingo with a "touched" expression, his address changing directly from "Joker" to the much more intimate "Doffy."
As expected of a sincere man, Doflamingo's thoughtfulness could even be compared to Carina's.
But Carina was Karl's childhood sweetheart, his other half...
Doflamingo, on the other hand, was not even a stranger. The two of them had a several-billion-berry "grudge" between them; they could be considered enemies.
Such an enemy was not only the only BOSS-level figure to come in person today but also the only distinguished guest to bring two gifts.
One of those gifts was the "family heirloom" of a neighboring country, the King Punch, known as a natural weapon of destruction.
Since it was a "family heirloom," it meant that the King Punch was not to be taught to outsiders.
For Doflamingo to be able to get the royal family's "family heirloom" from a king, he must have paid a great price.
And not just the training method for the King Punch, but even a tutorial video.
The sentiment behind this gift was something that all the other major figures combined today couldn't even compare to a single one of Doflamingo's toes.
And then there were the several billion berries from a few months ago...
Karl had never seen such a generous person as Doflamingo in either his past life or this one.
He was determined to make a friend like this!
"Fuffuffuffuffu... I'm glad you like it."
Seeing that Karl had changed his address for him, the smile on Doflamingo's face grew even wider.
These two gifts had not only dispelled the faint hostility between them caused by the Bellamy incident but had also earned him a good impression on their first meeting.
For Doflamingo, it was absolutely worth it.
"I like it, but... to get this, you must have paid a considerable price, right?"
Looking at the sheepskin scroll in his hand, Karl did not hypocritically offer to return it. Instead, he gave Doflamingo the most important thing he had come for on this trip. "I won't say any of those disingenuous things, Doffy. I've seen your sincerity... From now on, you're my friend. Just call me Karl!"
"Fuffuffuffuffu... To gain the friendship of the Dragon Rider, I've come out on top."
Seeing his goal achieved so easily, Doflamingo couldn't help but reveal a smile that, despite his happiness, was even more devilishly imposing.
"Ara ara... for such a historic moment, shouldn't we have a drink to celebrate?"
Just then, Robin walked over with two glasses of red wine and said with a smile.
"To our friendship... cheers!"
Taking the glasses from Robin, Karl and Doflamingo looked at each other and smiled, then clinked their glasses.
This clinking of glasses also announced the powerful alliance of two dark kings.
How great were the benefits of gaining Doflamingo's friendship?
How great were the benefits of gaining Karl's friendship?
This would soon have an answer, and it would quickly alarm the major powers of the world.
Doflamingo had come alone, personally delivering two gifts as congratulations. Besides resolving the conflict between them and gaining Karl's friendship, he naturally had other motives.
And that motive required gaining Karl's friendship first.
That night, it was unknown what Doflamingo and Karl discussed.
The next day, Karl had Nami draw a new emblem for Gran Tesoro, which was also the crew's mascot—Little White.
After handing the flag with the drawing of Little White to Doflamingo, Karl also received a flag with a smiley face from him.
After exchanging flags, Doflamingo left Gran Tesoro with a satisfied expression.
"Karl, what's the meaning of exchanging flags?"
After accompanying Karl to see Doflamingo off, Nami looked at the flag symbolizing the Donquixote Family in Karl's hand and couldn't help but ask.
"It has no meaning, just a testament to our friendship."
Handing the flag to Carina, Karl said slowly, "But for now, I'm the one who's gotten the better end of the deal by exchanging flags."
"With this flag, I can call upon the power of the Donquixote Family at any time."
After speaking, Karl looked up at the top floor of the hotel, at the Little White flag that had just been hung on the Golden Bell, and smiled. "If not for my current status as a wanted criminal with a total bounty of 4.1 billion berries, and Doffy being one of Mariejois's legal pirates, I might not have exchanged flags and hung them together."
"I see, so it's a symbol of alliance?"
Carina's action of folding the flag paused for a moment, then she said with a look of realization.
"Yes..."
Karl nodded and then said to the girls, "The next period of time might be very busy, because my friend's biggest gift has not yet been delivered."
"There's another gift?"
Except for Robin, Carina and the other girls' beautiful eyes widened slightly.
"Of course..."
Karl smiled meaningfully. "Did you think he paid such a high price just to gain my friendship?"
"Don't forget, besides being one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Doffy is also an underworld broker, a businessman who knows how to do business and never takes a loss."
"He paid such a high price to gain my friendship. Did you think all he wanted was a flag that couldn't be flown as an alliance flag?"
"Of course not. He will hang that flag in another way."
"Although we can't openly announce our alliance, announcing it secretly is the same thing. Mariejois can't do anything about it..."
His tone paused slightly, and Karl finally said, "When that flag is hung, I will be receiving gifts. You'll be in charge of receiving them."
"No way..."
Nami said with a look of astonishment, "To go to all this trouble just to announce our alliance to the world, is it necessary?"
"Nonsense, of course it's necessary."
Carina couldn't help but roll her eyes at Nami and retort, "You're a great pirate with a bounty of 300 million berries. When will you get rid of that country girl humility?"
"I'm not a wanted criminal who roams the four seas anymore. I'm the lord of a territory, one of the newly promoted kings of the underworld."
"An alliance is not a transaction; it's a long-term cooperative relationship. It's not something that can be done casually."
"On the contrary, the more complicated it is, the more it shows that the other party values this relationship."
At this, Carina couldn't help but nod. "I have to say, this Heavenly Yaksha is quite savvy. I thought he would be a sinister and cunning guy, just like his alias 'Joker,' but I didn't expect him to be so generous."
"Rather than savvy, it's more a sign of weakness," Robin said, hitting the nail on the head.
"Indeed."
Karl nodded in agreement, then let out a rare sigh. "Only after truly coming into contact with these major figures can one appreciate how fortunate we anomalies are."
Born as powerful monsters, they were like the protagonists of a destined era.
Whether it was Charlotte Linlin or Karl, a transmigrator, they were destined to stand at the pinnacle of the world from the age of 5.
Their potential was at the ceiling from the very beginning.
Therefore, the former only took a few decades to become the Sea Emperor with the largest force among the Four Emperors, ruling over the Totto Land kingdom formed from over thirty islands.
The latter, besides the lottery-like golden finger every five years, had the advantage of knowing the plot like a prophet. He set out to sea at 7, entered the Grand Line at 14, and completed his ascent at 15, becoming a dark king second only to the rulers.
The only reason Karl didn't form a pirate crew was that he didn't want to live a life of looking over his shoulder and cleaning up after the scum of the sea, which was why he didn't infinitely expand his crew.
Otherwise, Karl could have definitely turned the so-called Four Emperors into the Five Emperors before the start of the plot, and the future Fifth Emperor into the Sixth.
Compared to these born monsters, Doflamingo, who had worked for so many years to develop the Donquixote Family to its current state but was unable to advance further due to his own strength, was, in a way, quite tragic.
What was even more tragic was that the force he had built could be easily destroyed by a single Yonko Commander from one of the ruling powers.
If Karl and Charlotte Linlin were playing on easy mode, then Doflamingo was playing on nightmare mode.
But back to the matter at hand...
Just as Karl had said, Doflamingo had indeed paid a considerable price to get the King Punch from Elizabello II.
Not only that, his proactive lowering of his stance to come to Gran Tesoro was, besides being full of sincerity, also an apology to Karl.
He had clearly lost several billion berries, yet he had to be the one to come and apologize.
Having paid such a high price, Doflamingo naturally wasn't just after a verbal promise from Karl, or a superficial friendship that could be broken at any time. He truly wanted to get on Karl's boat.
And that boat was Karl's alliance flag.
Although due to their statuses, that flag could not be flown high, Doflamingo had his ways to hang it.
And that way was to send gifts.
Continuously sending gifts!
Sending so many that the whole New World would know, the whole underworld would know, that the underworld broker and the Dragon Rider had formed an alliance.
And so...
For the next period of time, Carina and the others continuously received various gifts from Doflamingo.
There were shares in numerous legal and illegal industries, special-made arms, people with strange skills (slaves), and intelligence sharing...
Among these gifts, the latter was the most valuable, and the former was the least valuable.
With a City of Gold and Baccarat, who could steal people's luck, Karl's crew was not lacking in money, and even less in money-making industries.
The same went for arms, which were the weapons of the weak.
But compared to the industries spread all over the world, these arms were somewhat useful. They could be used by Karl's crew to train Gran Tesoro's standing army, for show.
After all, Gran Tesoro was not an absolute sanctuary, an unarmed zone.
The people with strange skills were all thrown into the various areas of the amusement park to work by Karl's crew.
Only the intelligence sharing was the greatest gift that Carina and Robin received.
The various pieces of intelligence that couldn't be found or investigated on the surface not only broadened their horizons but also allowed them to grow rapidly.
Especially Nami, who grew up a lot after reading just a little of the intelligence.
Doflamingo's continuous gift-giving was soon known by the major powers.
After all, galleons flying the Donquixote Family's flag were constantly entering and exiting the Golden Port of Gran Tesoro. It would be difficult for the major figures who had planted spies in Gran Tesoro not to know.
Especially when the person escorting the gifts was Diamante, one of the four top executives of the Donquixote Family, and the person receiving the gifts was Carina, one of the executives of Gran Tesoro.
The news of Karl and Doflamingo's alliance quickly reached the ears of all, including the rulers.
To this, Mariejois and the Marine Headquarters were naturally shocked and angry.
The rulers of the New World only paid a little attention.
Only the dark kings of the same rank as Karl and Doflamingo felt a great deal of pressure.
These two were already big bosses above them. Now that they had formed a powerful alliance, were they going to reshuffle the underworld?
While Carina and the others were busy receiving gifts and handling the various affairs of Gran Tesoro, Karl learned the King Punch.
He learned it in a glance. With his Absolute Comprehension, Karl instantly learned the King Punch from the images projected by the Visual Den Den Mushi.
And then...
And then Karl didn't even dare to try it.
After just a short warm-up, Karl quickly canceled the charging state, not even daring to release the energy he had gathered during that time.
Because it was too strong!
The nature of the King Punch was somewhat similar to the giants' Hakoku and Hero's Spear.
This move was indeed an ultimate move, a fully charged version of the Rokuogan.
Even though he had never used it before, as he was charging it, Karl's peerless perception seemed to see what would happen next.
The King Punch he would release would be something that the ten-thousand-meter-long Gran Tesoro could absolutely not withstand.
And so...
Karl began to look for a way to eliminate the side effects of the King Punch, even trying to see if Life Return could complete the charge instantly.
Clearly, the result was a failure.
Life Return could indeed reduce the charging time to a certain extent, but with Karl's current skill, he couldn't instantly control the vast, sea-like energy of his body and condense it into a world-destroying super shockwave.
A few days later, Karl, having found nothing, directly threw away the sheepskin scroll and walked out of the training room in a foul mood.
Having Absolute Comprehension didn't make him a genius after all.
The King Punch could just gather dust in the skill library he was worst at!
"Karl, an old acquaintance is here to visit!"
Just as Karl was in a foul mood and about to go find Carina and the others to play and vent his frustration, Nami suddenly flew in from the balcony of the hotel's top floor and said to him with a smile.
"An old acquaintance? Besides Doffy, do I have any old acquaintances in the New World?"
Karl, who was in a bit of a bad mood, didn't catch the meaning in Nami's words.
"Of course you do. Have you forgotten?"
Nami said teasingly, "That person who, like me, is from the East Blue, one of the 'Twin Stars of the East Blue' who shares your fame, 'Fire Fist' Portgas D. Ace, has come with the Spade Pirates to challenge you."
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