Whoosh!
Dozens of dark blades, taking advantage of Blackbeard's moment of shock, simultaneously pierced towards him from all directions.
"Andy Poland disappeared?"
Blackbeard's expression was unpredictable. He swung his hook claw forward, blocking the dark blades coming from the front, while simultaneously moving his body to evade the attacks from behind.
"Did you rescue him?" His eyes darted around, trying to locate the Shadow Fiend's position.
"If we had rescued him, would I need to find you?"
Vladimir snorted lightly.
Of course, he wouldn't rescue him. After all, he had an agreement with the Navy. To arbitrarily break a treaty and cause the Phantom Organization to lose credibility over a mere Nini Poland was not worth it.
"It wasn't you who rescued him…"
Blackbeard was silent for a moment, then felt the situation was becoming troublesome.
He had reached an agreement with Nini Poland: if he rescued Andy Poland, she would help him.
Now that Andy had disappeared, that agreement was void.
"Who was it!"
Blackbeard thought angrily, but anger was useless. He quickly calmed down.
After a moment of thought, he chuckled again. "Hahahaha… It seems my luck is truly terrible."
His plan had failed, yet he found himself in the mood to laugh.
Vladimir raised an eyebrow. "Now, are you going to tell me?"
"Alright, I'll tell you where Nini Poland is now!"
Blackbeard snorted lightly and said, "I did meet with her a few days ago and reached an agreement. You can probably guess the contents of the agreement. But after that, she left, with the understanding that we would meet somewhere after rescuing the person."
Hearing this, Vladimir remained noncommittal. He didn't fully believe him.
But it didn't seem like he was lying.
"Shadow Fiend, if what you say is true, and Andy was rescued, then it's highly likely that the little girl made agreements with more than just me."
Blackbeard grinned. "Cooperate with us, the Whitebeard Pirates! Let's find her together. After obtaining the Treasure-Hunting Mouse, I only need to find one specific item. Once I find it, the Treasure-Hunting Mouse will be yours!"
Upon learning that the Phantom Organization was also after the Treasure-Hunting Mouse, Blackbeard had to take a step back. He didn't want to clash with the Phantom Organization.
Of course, he was also deliberately raising a banner, invoking the Whitebeard Pirates.
Vladimir saw through such petty tricks at a glance and couldn't help but mock him. "If you say that, it would be more appropriate for Whitebeard to say it to me. You, however, are not qualified to represent the Whitebeard Pirates!"
Hearing this, Blackbeard's smile faded. He didn't know how he had been exposed. He had always been an inconspicuous, almost invisible presence within the Whitebeard Pirates.
This was his first meeting with the Shadow Fiend, yet the latter seemed to know everything about him.
As he was thinking, he heard the Shadow Fiend continue, "Your actions this time were also kept from Whitebeard, weren't they? Speaking of which, your goal is nothing more than to find the Dark-Dark Fruit. As expected of a rat, hiding in the shadows and acting sneakily."
"How did you know!?" Blackbeard's expression changed drastically, his face full of disbelief.
He had stumbled upon the Devil Fruit Databook by chance and set the Dark-Dark Fruit recorded within as his target, always pursuing this goal, yet he had never told anyone.
How did someone from the Phantom Organization find out?
"Hehehehe…"
Vladimir let out a light laugh. "You rebellious, ambitious schemer. If I were to tell Whitebeard, wouldn't things become very interesting?"
Hearing this, Blackbeard's face grew even more unsightly.
The reason he hid within the Whitebeard Pirates was that the New World was most powerful under Whitebeard, and it was the most likely place to obtain the Dark-Dark Fruit.
Although leaving the Whitebeard Pirates wouldn't be a catastrophic blow to him, Vladimir's words truly made him feel a bit uncomfortable.
"Hahahaha… Do you think Old Man will believe your words?"
"Hehehehe… That's not certain. Do you want to try?"
Vladimir's gaze was playful. "Since Nini wasn't captured by you, I'll have to find another way. However, running around for nothing isn't my style. Blackbeard, what price do you think would make me keep your secret?"
He paused, then rephrased, "No, let me put it another way. How much are you willing to pay to buy this information?"
A de facto hush money.
Blackbeard was furious. He had always heard that the Phantom Organization extorted protection fees everywhere, using all sorts of methods like blackmail, extortion, threats, and coercion.
Before this, he had even admired this style of piracy. He never expected the protection fee to be demanded from him!
However, this anger could only be hidden. Blackbeard was capable of enduring what others couldn't.
"Hahahaha, Shadow Fiend, why does your Phantom Organization collect so many Devil Fruits? Is it for some boring thing like an ability user army? No way. Or perhaps… Devil Fruits have uses I don't know about?"
"No comment," Vladimir said calmly, looking at him. "I advise you not to pry, or you might attract a ruling-level executive."
Blackbeard fell silent. After a moment, he snorted, "In that case, I can agree. I'm willing to trade 10 Devil Fruits for the Dark-Dark Fruit. How about this deal? You collect Devil Fruits indiscriminately, right?"
"10 for 1?" Vladimir shook his head. "I'm not interested in wasting my time with you. Prepare 4 Devil Fruits as hush money. I'll come find you next time. If you don't have them, hehehe…"
With that, Vladimir had a thought and immediately turned into black smoke, dissipating.
As he left, the black mist covering the restaurant gradually disappeared.
"Damn Phantom Organization…!"
Blackbeard spat blood in his rage. Suddenly, his gaze swept around, and he said coldly, "Don't blame me. I didn't want to expose my identity, but unfortunately, you overheard!"
With that, he suddenly attacked, his left hook claw sweeping out, taking the life of a diner.
...
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