Inside the bright and luxurious casino, Baccarat lightly shuffled a large stack of chips in her hand, looking at several sweat-drenched gamblers opposite her.
"D-damn it, I don't believe I can't win against you this time! I'll keep calling!"
With a clatter, the sweat-drenched, fat-eared gambler pushed all his chips onto the table. This action seemed to be a signal; the expressions of the other two gamblers changed, and one of them stood up directly:
"I'm folding! I only came to play for fun; I don't want to end up bankrupt just like that!"
"I'm calling too! If I win, my assets can triple!"
Watching the various postures of the gamblers before her, Baccarat revealed a smile and flipped over her hole cards:
"Oh my, a straight flush... It seems I've won again! I'm truly sorry!"
"I-impossible!!"
The two gamblers swayed, their faces filled with disbelief. The only gambler who had folded breathed a huge sigh of relief, but seeing the twisted, almost zombie-like expressions on the remaining two, he quickly retreated a few steps.
There are plenty of people who go bankrupt in Gran Tesoro, and there are absolutely no shortage of guys in the One Piece World who will hack people to death at the slightest disagreement. The combination of the two meant that violent incidents in Gran Tesoro were never scarce.
Although the master of Gran Tesoro, the "Golden Emperor" Tesoro, put a lot of effort into maintaining order in Gran Tesoro—anyone who violated the rules of Gran Tesoro and directly attacked others would be chopped up and thrown out to feed the fish—this did not scare off certain gamblers who had completely lost everything.
Since it was a dead end anyway, going crazy before dying was a very normal choice!
Therefore, the rational gambler naturally retreated several steps; firstly, to prevent those two bankrupt guys from attacking him in their madness, and secondly, to avoid getting splattered with blood.
Looking at the two crazy gamblers before her, Baccarat remained smiling, casually flicking a chip into the air; after spinning, it landed back in her hand.
"What's wrong? You two? You look quite uncomfortable; do you need any help?"
"Cut the crap, you bitch! Even if I die, I'm dragging you down with me!"
"Go to hell!"
Watching the two men lunging at her, Baccarat sighed leisurely and flicked the chip in her hand, causing it to fall directly at one of their feet.
The man stepped on the upright chip, lost his footing, and slammed his head directly onto the corner of the table, instantly bleeding profusely and passing out.
Before losing consciousness, his flailing hands grabbed the other man's ankle, causing him to fall to the ground as well.
Just as that man tried to stand up, a creaking sound was heard. The huge chandelier above the luxurious casino suddenly fell for some unknown reason, landing right on top of him.
Amidst a miserable groan, that gambler died instantly. One of the parts flying off the chandelier hit the head of the more rational gambler, leaving him bleeding as well.
"It hurts... I should have stayed further away!"
Seeing the bleeding gambler, Baccarat shrugged slightly. Since these three dared to gamble with her, they had naturally had a lot of their luck absorbed by her.
Therefore, although the rational gambler wasn't crushed to death by her luck-suppression attack like the two who had lost everything, he had ended up with only bad luck left, which was why he got hit.
Fortunately, Baccarat's luck collection was only temporary; before long, this gambler's luck would slowly recover, otherwise he would have to start thinking about how to write his will.
Of course, the injured gambler was also badly frightened now. Although he couldn't figure out why these two had died so strangely, he was very clear that this was definitely Baccarat's doing, and his gaze towards her was filled with wariness.
Baccarat stretched lightly, ignoring the gambler's strange look, and continued counting her chips to herself.
"It seems I haven't earned much this time; as expected, these large casinos are where the money is! And the amount of luck I can absorb is also sufficient..."
As a Luck-Luck Fruit User, Baccarat was not currently a subordinate of the Golden Emperor. The reason she came to Gran Tesoro was simply because she liked the appearance of gold, and also to earn more Berries and absorb more luck.
Over the years, according to Baccarat's research, luck was not something completely without source or root; it could often be seen from external factors.
Not to mention the wielder of a certain Haki, or extreme examples like the weakest Shichibukai in history and the Four Emperors, generally speaking, the stronger, wealthier, and higher-status a person was, the higher their luck value was compared to ordinary people.
Baccarat didn't want to study whether these people became strong, wealthy, and high-status because they had enough luck, or if they possessed strong luck because of changes in their strength, wealth, and status; she just wanted to collect more luck.
The more luck she had, the more she could do. To some extent, luck was also a hard currency for Baccarat.
The small-time losers in ordinary casinos had very little luck to squeeze out, even if she accumulated it over time, it was hard to significantly improve Baccarat's own luck.
But those who could come to a money-sink like Gran Tesoro were at least at the level of a small millionaire. It could be said that everyone here had luck exceeding that of a normal person. For Baccarat, plucking two fat sheep here was much better than working for a day or two in those ordinary casinos.
Of course, luck came fast, but it spent just as fast. In this extravagant Gran Tesoro, the luck Baccarat collected was converted into Berries through gambling. In fact, there were already rumors in Gran Tesoro about a Red-Haired Goddess of Luck.
"It's a pity, if I don't want to provoke the Golden Emperor, I should stop at this level... Should I just defect and join this Golden Emperor's subordinates?"
The thought turned in her mind for a moment, but Baccarat eventually abandoned it. As a Luck-Luck Fruit User, Baccarat had her own method of making choices, which was simply flipping a coin to choose heads or tails.
As long as her luck was abundant, Baccarat could always make the choice most favorable to herself; if both choices were unfavorable, the coin would even land on its edge.
It was by relying on this method of choosing that Baccarat, who had mediocre strength, was able to walk the path to the present without any surprises or dangers. Otherwise, with her rare Devil Fruit ability, she would have likely been captured long ago.
No matter how Baccarat flipped the coin, the option of joining the Golden Emperor never appeared in her hands. Clearly, this Golden Emperor either wouldn't value her as a Devil Fruit User, or he was very likely to kick the bucket soon.
"Time to leave. Finding a place like this again won't be easy!"
Baccarat took a longing look at the luxurious casino and decisively prepared to leave. At this moment, due to the "accident," several casino security guards were already approaching the scene.
Baccarat didn't want to entangle herself with these casino security guards. While she was indeed in the right, having certain things happen too often would arouse the vigilance of the people in the casino.
In many matters, people in the One Piece World only care about their own subjective judgment... Being discovered killing people with "accidents" wasn't the problem; the key issue was being associated with her extraordinary luck, which would be rather troublesome.
With a slight sway of her body like a fish, Baccarat disappeared into the surrounding gamblers. Even though such a beautiful red-haired woman should have been very conspicuous in the entire casino, those few security guards ignored such a living person for various reasons.
...
"Vixen!"
"little thief cat!"
Nami huffed and puffed, looking furious as she glared at the purple-haired girl opposite her.
The purple-haired girl opposite her smiled back at Nami, extending a hand and making a finger-rubbing gesture:
"Where's my information fee? 5 million Berries. You aren't planning to embezzle it, are you, little thief cat!"
"Damn it! You won't get the information fee until I find the Luck-Luck Fruit User herself!"
"little thief cat, is this your final stubbornness? Hehehe!"
"Damn vixen, watch out or I'll beat you up!"
Seeing Nami clench her fist and the faint black sheen on it, Carina, who was called a vixen, couldn't help but retreat two steps, convergence her smile, shrugging her neck, and waving her hand:
"Don't be so rough. We girls should protect ourselves with wisdom, not fists..."
"Cut the crap! Last time when we split the money, you took it all! You only left me a little bit! Don't try to change the subject this time!"
"Ha, what are you saying? little thief cat! You didn't even discover the hidden compartment in the treasure chest at the time! Even without me, you would never have been able to get the true essence of that treasure!"
Vegapunk and the others standing on the side just listened, and they already understood the current situation.
It was probably a case of uneven distribution of loot! Carina was a bit smarter than Nami; she discovered the hidden compartment in the treasure chest they found but didn't tell Nami, instead splitting only the superficial wealth and keeping the true essence of the treasure for herself.
As for Nami, although her intelligence and means were quite good, she was slightly inferior to Carina. However, compared to the original work, Nami, who had joined the Umbrella Corporation, had made great progress in both knowledge and strength. She even knew Two-Color Haki now, and in terms of strength, she undoubtedly crushed Carina.
Therefore, once Nami got angry and prepared to speak with her fists, Carina became a bit wary. No matter how much she claimed that girls should speak with wisdom, if Nami was determined to beat her up, Carina would only end up beaten into a pig's head.
However, whether it was Nami or Carina, the relationship between them was actually quite complex, belonging to that kind of "frenemy" or rival relationship. Although they didn't get along, in reality, their relationship was actually quite good.
Therefore, after bickering for a while, Nami didn't end up hitting anyone, and Carina wisely skipped over the previous topic.
"Red-Haired Goddess of Luck? Is this the woman?"
Looking at the photo in Carina's hand, Vegapunk nodded and asked.
Although Vegapunk knew what Baccarat looked like in the original work, there was definitely a huge difference between 2D and 3D. In the One Piece World, unless someone had very obvious features, it wasn't easy for ordinary people to distinguish them.
Although Baccarat was a beauty, she clearly didn't have very obvious features. Therefore, judging solely from the photo, Vegapunk didn't dare to fully confirm; he could only say she did look very similar.
"That's right, it's her. It is said that no matter what kind of gambling method it is, even a slot machine that relies entirely on luck, she can win relying on her incredible strong luck. So far, the funds she has earned have exceeded 500 million Berries, which is why she is called the Goddess of Luck!"
Carina said with an expression of envy, jealousy, and hatred. Even Nami, after hearing about Baccarat's deeds, had a drooling look on her face.
This was much better than going around swindling! Just casually going to a casino could net her hundreds of millions of Berries, while she worked hard, working at the Umbrella Corporation and finding treasures to scam pirates, and in the end, she could earn at most one or two hundred million!
Vegapunk nodded, not bothering to care why Baccarat hadn't joined Gran Tesoro this time. He just closed his eyes slightly, released his electromagnetic waves, and began searching throughout the entire Gran Tesoro.
After just a moment, Vegapunk opened his eyes. His electromagnetic waves were fused with Observation Haki. Although he couldn't see everyone clearly like with eyes, he could still distinguish their general shapes.
In that instant, Vegapunk had already found a dozen or so suspected targets. Looking at the city filled with gold, a smile couldn't help but appear on the corner of his mouth.
At this time, Baccarat, who was already preparing to leave, had just reached the entrance of Gran Tesoro. According to normal time calculations, by the time Vegapunk finished screening the suspects one by one, Baccarat would have just left Gran Tesoro.
But... Vegapunk didn't use the normal method!
"Lightning Clone Technique!"
In an instant, a dozen or so lightning clones appeared beside Vegapunk. Then, all the lightning clones elementalized at the same time, moving through Gran Tesoro, which was composed of a large amount of gold!
Gold is a good conductor second only to silver and copper. With Vegapunk's elementalization ability, the speed of travel in this conductor was almost the same as that of genuine electric current, both infinitely close to the speed of light. Therefore, in an instant, Vegapunk's clones had already appeared beside the dozen or so women suspected to be Baccarat.
Baccarat, who had originally been preparing to leave Gran Tesoro, saw the figures formed by electric light emerging from the gold, and her expression changed drastically.
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