On Island 78 of the Sabaody Archipelago.
The sun was setting in the west. The afternoon sunlight shone down from the sky, penetrating the dense branches and leaves of the Yarukiman Mangrove trees and landing on the emerald - green grass.
From time to time, bubbles emerged from the soil. Under the sunlight, they reflected a riot of colors, making the surrounding area as gorgeous and charming as a dreamy wonderland.
In front of Tezzolo's house.
Woo~!
Woo~!
"Ah! Wait, this won't do..."
...
Sephiroth was carrying a large sack of money on his left shoulder. He raised his right hand, intending to knock on the door, but then he thought better of it and withdrew his hand.
He turned around and sat on the steps in front of the door. Silently, he took out a cigar from the inside of his blue suit, lit it, took a deep puff, and then slowly exhaled a puff of white smoke.
Sometimes, having good hearing wasn't necessarily a good thing. He often heard things he didn't want to hear...
Especially since he was a hormone - charged teenage boy.
Sephiroth didn't think he was a very lecherous person.
Due to his previous career as a doctor, when he saw people, he'd subconsciously dissect their bodies in his mind, thinking about the muscles, blood vessels, bones, teeth, heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and other organs under the skin.
In his previous life, he had also had a girlfriend. She looked and was built okay.
However, perhaps it was because he knew too much about the human body structure, or it might be an occupational disease.
At that time, he wasn't very interested in the relationship between men and women. He was in an overly rational state.
So much so that sometimes he felt that playing online games was more exciting than being with his girlfriend...
Gradually, he developed a bit of annoyance towards the woman who often made a fuss in front of him, talked nonsense, and was very domineering and controlling.
When she threw a tantrum and broke up with him, he naturally agreed.
He even felt a sense of relief, thinking that living freely on his own was actually quite good...
Therefore, when the Boa sisters were shouting that they "loved him", he remained quite calm and didn't want to do anything along the lines of going with the flow.
For him, a fling was okay, but falling in love... let him think it over carefully!
After much thought, he decided that the root cause of his recent bad temper was probably that woman, Gion!
That woman kept showing off her charm in front of him every day, which made him seethe with anger...
However, he could bet that if he were to confess his love to that woman like Kaji did, there was a 99.99...% chance that he would be flat - out rejected by her.
"She's just pulling your leg. Don't take it seriously!"
Sephiroth guessed that the woman would probably say something like that to mock him severely...
After half an hour of daydreaming, the noise inside the house finally stopped.
Only then did he stand up and reach out to knock on the door.
After a slightly hurried sound of footsteps, Tezzolo, wearing only a set of purple pajamas, opened the door and appeared in front of him.
"Boss, you're here! Come in! Come in!"
Tezzolo quickly greeted Sephiroth and led him into the house. Then they sat down on the sofa in the living room.
"Here are over 100 million berries and some treasures. Take them all as the startup capital for our company."
As he spoke, the silver - haired teen opened the sack, revealing the banknotes and glittering treasures inside.
"Wow! Boss, where did you get so much money...?"
"I killed the captain and the cadres of the Grey Wolf Pirates. With the money they had, it amounts to this much..."
Hearing this, Tezzolo gasped and said in surprise:
"Whoa~! Boss, I remember that Bellows of the Grey Wolf is a pirate with a bounty of 76 million berries, right?"
"Yeah! The enemies were unexpectedly weak..."
"..."
When Tezzolo was extremely short of money back then, he also wanted to become a bounty hunter to make quick money.
Maybe then he could redeem Stella overnight...
It's a pity that his combat ability was only at the level of a street - fighting hooligan, and he wasn't good at using guns either.
Being a bounty hunter is a life - threatening profession with a very high mortality rate.
After a battle, it would be okay to be covered in wounds, but there was a risk of losing one's life, and there might be revenge and hostility from other pirates in the future.
So, after carefully weighing the pros and cons back then, Tezzolo finally had to give up that unrealistic idea.
As if thinking of something, Tezzolo suddenly said excitedly:
"By the way, Boss! I have a bold idea. I wonder if you dare to do it...
If it succeeds, our Umbrella Company can rise rapidly!"
Sephiroth raised his eyebrows and said with interest:
"Oh!? Let's hear it."
"Just yesterday, on the Sabaody Archipelago, the two biggest underground arms dealers had a shoot - out on Island 25 in order to seize the arms market..."
....
Late at night, the dark clouds covered the moon.
In a large villa on Island 21 of the Sabaody Archipelago.
On a long table, more than twenty men in black suits were sitting on both sides.
At the end of the long table was a mustached man in a white suit. He was holding a glass of champagne, with an arrogant smile on his face:
"Hahaha! After a day of mopping up, the remnants of the Lawrence family have finally been eliminated by us.
From now on, our Charlie family will be the biggest arms dealer on the Sabaody Archipelago.
Cheers!"
"Cheers!"
"Cheers!"
The faces of the small - time gang leaders sitting there were also filled with excited laughter as they raised their glasses one after another.
The Sabaody Archipelago, a gathering place for outlaws from the four seas, has extremely huge profits from underground industries, and the arms business is one of the highly profitable ones.
According to World Government regulations, ordinary weapon stores can only sell single-shot pistols and rifles. Weapons such as automatic rifles, grenades, rocket launchers, and high-explosive explosives cannot be sold.
In this turbulent era, besides the chaos brought by pirates, many countries are at war for some unavoidable reasons...
Some countries launched wars because of the greed of their kings.
However...
Some countries, to pay the high Celestial Tribute, have no choice but to constantly wage war to reduce the country's population and plunder the wealth of other countries to maintain their legal status as member states of the World Government.
For the top masters in this world, heavy weapons are not very useful to them. In fact, they are not as practical as the swords in their hands or single-shot firearms.
But for ordinary people, heavy weapons are the best choice for them to overcome the strong with the weak and rapidly boost the national army's combat effectiveness.
Therefore, under such great demand, the World Government has always ignored the arms industry.
Of course, they will not publicly declare or support it...
Therefore, if the Charlie family controls the arms business in the Sabaody Archipelago, they will have a pivotal position in the underworld.
Suddenly!
Squeak, squeak, squeak...!
A large group of black bats swarmed in through the open window and rushed into the room, scaring the members of the Charlie family to stand up one after another and take out the pistols in their arms.
The extremely thick black fog quickly filled the room, blocking everyone's sight. Even the lights in the room were compressed into a corner and couldn't illuminate the whole room.
"Ah!"
Bang, bang...!
"Ah!"
Bang, bang...!
...
Gunshots and screams echoed continuously in the room. After hearing the commotion inside, the gang members standing guard outside the villa rushed in one after another.
But when they entered the villa, they saw a man wearing black leather clothes, a black hood on his head, a cleaver in his right hand, and an ordinary pistol in his left hand, standing in front of them, looking at them indifferently with blood all over his body.
Da, da, da...!
Bang! Bang! Bang! ...
The gang members quickly raised the firearms in their hands at the black-clothed man and pulled the triggers.
However...
The black fog billowed up. In their horrified expressions, the black-clothed man mercilessly and quickly reaped their lives like chopping melons and vegetables...
...
The next day, Monday.
On the Sabaody Archipelago, news spread that two major arms dealers had a fire fight, but the top management of both sides had been wiped out.
Many underground forces seized the opportunity and flooded into the vacant arms market, starting to divide up the pie.
And Tezzolo, with his abundant funds, quickly recruited a group of people and occupied a part of the market.