As for how Jake knew all this, the answer was simple.
First, as a transmigrator, he had a vivid impression of Tesoro—the 'Pure Love Warrior'.
However, since by the time he transmigrated here, Stella had already died, even if he wanted to help, there was hardly any opportunity left.
Secondly, while dealing with various corruption issues within the Marines over the past year, he had come into contact with many people from the Underground Black Market.
It could be said that any corrupt Marine who wanted to launder their ill-gotten wealth had to rely on those Underground Black Market connections.
Over this past year, Jake had met no fewer than hundreds, if not a thousand, Underground Black Market bosses.
Under his mix of threats and incentives, almost all of them had become his informants.
Now, Jake's intelligence network was nothing short of staggering.
On the legitimate side, he had access to nearly the entire Marine system's intelligence network, while in the black market, he had an intelligence web that spanned every corner of the four seas.
Finding information about Tesoro was almost too easy.
Even though Tesoro had done his best to keep things under wraps, there were no walls in the world without cracks.
By the time Jake's letter reached Tesoro, the latter had effectively lost any real choice.
If Tesoro wanted to keep living comfortably, his only option was to cooperate with Jake.
Of course, this was Tesoro's own assumption.
Jake had never expressed any intention of forcing him to do anything.
Even if Tesoro refused, Jake could simply find someone else.
Among his vast intelligence network, there were quite a few individuals he rather liked, and he wouldn't mind letting them inherit the Donquixote Family's legacy.
Naturally, Tesoro's willingness to cooperate was the best possible outcome.
After all, from Jake's perspective, the power of the Gold-Gold Fruit could give both him and the Marines more leverage to stand up to the World Government.
Just think about it—even without the Marines' support in the original story, Tesoro had used the Gold-Gold Fruit to become a man who controlled a quarter of the world's wealth.
And that was just his personal influence!
It was easy to imagine just how overpowered this Devil Fruit's abilities truly were.
Now, if Tesoro were to gain Jake's support—and by extension, the full backing of Marine Headquarters—Jake couldn't even begin to fathom how far Tesoro might grow.
Of course, by that point, the wealth Tesoro amassed wouldn't belong solely to him.
At least half of it would end up in the Marines' coffers.
*****
Earlier this morning, Jake had already received Tesoro's reply, but he'd been too busy eliminating the enemies attempting a second assault on Flevance's homeland to open it right away.
The contents of the letter had pleased Jake immensely.
Tesoro was more than willing to cooperate, eagerly accepting the Donquixote Family's legacy.
In fact, he was practically itching to meet Jake in person.
At the end of the letter, Tesoro even mentioned that he was currently within Flevance's borders and could meet Jake anytime at his convenience.
This was why Jake had chuckled when he read the letter.
At this stage, Tesoro had only recently shed his slave status and still lacked confidence in himself, which explained why he'd approached Jake with such humility.
Had this been the Tesoro from the original story, even if Jake had become an Admiral, Tesoro would never have adopted such a submissive attitude.
But isn't the best time to become an investor when the other party is still weak?
Jake didn't hesitate at all.
He activated his Observation Haki to its limit and almost instantly locked onto Tesoro's location.
Tesoro was currently in an abandoned residential building discussing something with his trusted aides when suddenly, azure electric arcs appeared before their eyes.
The moment they saw the electric arcs, Tesoro's aides immediately stood up, surrounding him protectively to prevent any harm from coming his way.
Yet as Tesoro watched his companions' actions, he felt little emotion.
He knew that while they appeared to be protecting him, what they truly wanted to protect was the Gold-Gold Fruit.
Ever since Stella's death, there hadn't been a single person in this world who genuinely wanted to protect him...
The azure electric arcs didn't take any hostile action.
Instead, they flickered a few times across the wooden table before them.
When the blue arcs vanished, a line of text had appeared on the table's surface.
"Fredericks City Hall. I'm waiting for you there. — Jake"
Everyone fell silent as they read the words.
A scarred man looked at Tesoro and spoke in a muffled voice.
"Are we really going to meet that Marine? It feels dangerous. The power of this fruit is too tempting. Even if he's some Marine super rookie, he might make different choices—maybe even imprison you to force you to produce gold for them endlessly."
Tesoro responded indifferently.
"Producing gold for the Marines is better than producing it for Pirates. Perhaps they could actually use the gold I create to end the Great Pirate Era. Wouldn't that mean fewer slaves like us?"
"That may be true, but—"
"Enough! Since we've come this far, we must meet Jake. Think about it—if he can leave messages here, can't he also hear everything we're saying right now?"
The group fell silent.
The man who'd spoken ill of Jake even began trembling slightly.
Like Tesoro, they'd all been slaves.
Though now free, the deeply ingrained cowardice from years of whippings hadn't faded.
Tesoro shook his head slightly at his companions before walking toward the city hall as Jake had instructed.
His eyes showed neither sorrow nor joy.
Truthfully, from the moment Stella died, he'd lost all will to live.
The current Tesoro was merely an empty shell.
He didn't know what kind of person Jake was, but he knew his current goal—to extract maximum benefit from Jake.
His revenge required many resources.
That Celestial Dragon responsible for Stella's death—he would never let them go.
No matter the cost, no matter the effort required, he would spare nothing!
For her, He willingly endure all of this!
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