"Perhaps this was instigated by Fleet Admiral Sengoku behind the scenes?"
Chief Warden Magellan pondered to himself, and the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.
How could Damon, at his age, possibly have such profound wisdom? It must be the Fleet Admiral playing a grand game!
After Damon set up the teleportation anchor, he checked the consumption. It only cost ten Philosopher's Stones. He didn't know how many Philosopher's Stones would be consumed if the teleportation was actually completed. This required further testing.
The more sins committed by the prisoners in Impel Down, and the more powerful they were, the more Philosopher's Stones were formed from their corpses and souls.
Damon had already written to Fleet Admiral Sengoku, suggesting that he transfer prisoners held in other prisons to Impel Down to offer blessings to a better world.
The navy was currently short-handed and was struggling to capture pirates from various regions. Fleet Admiral Sengoku was still considering the matter.
However, Damon believed that the Fleet Admiral would eventually adopt his opinion.
Rather than imprisoning the captured pirates in different prisons, it would be better to concentrate them in a large deep-sea prison to prevent these prisoners from escaping.
In the original story, after the Alabasta incident, Crocodile and his Baroque Works members were arrested and imprisoned. Later, the other members escaped from prison, leaving only Crocodile and Mr. 1 behind. They were later transferred to Impel Down.
This glimpse revealed just how poor prison security was elsewhere.
Damon took out the Dimensional Square Shangri-La and could sense that it recorded a spatial coordinate, which he could teleport to at any time.
In order to conduct experiments and tests to the greatest extent possible, Damon once again boarded the three-masted sailboat and wandered around the vicinity of Impel Down.
The Dimensional Square Shangri-La could teleport people and objects without needing a teleportation anchor.
When a person was teleported using the Dimensional Square without using a teleportation anchor, one Philosopher's Stone was required for every 100 kilometers between them.
If teleportation anchors were used, only one Philosopher's Stone was required for every 500 kilometers.
Once the Dimensional Square Shangri-La teleported an entire ship and all its passengers, the consumption of Philosopher's Stones would surge.
Without using teleportation anchors, for every additional ton of people and goods, ten more Philosopher's Stones would be consumed on top of the existing consumption for distances of 100 kilometers.
After using the teleportation anchor, for every additional ton of people and goods, only five more Philosopher's Stones were consumed, on top of the consumption required for a distance of 500 kilometers.
It was conceivable that with the assistance of teleportation anchors, the consumption of the Dimensional Square Shangri-La would be greatly reduced, and its efficiency would be greatly improved.
Chief Warden Magellan stared in astonishment as Damon and the three-masted sailboat went in and out, as if he had been possessed.
It appeared and disappeared in an instant.
Chief Warden Magellan, bewildered, couldn't help but ask those around him:
"Can someone tell me I'm not dreaming?"
Vice Warden Domino opened her mouth, unsure of what to say.
She was also confused and shocked!
After Damon finished his test, Smoker and his friends finally cleaned themselves up and arrived at the location, only to find Chief Warden Magellan and Vice Warden Domino looking on in disbelief.
But in fact, there was someone who doubted life even more than them.
A stowaway who had sneaked into the kitchen of the three-masted sailing ship was vomiting and had diarrhea. He put his hands on the ground and his body went limp.
"Damn it, can someone tell me what happened?"
The Grand Line was a very special sea area, located at the equator of the planet. The first half was called Paradise, and the second half was called the New World.
Because the geomagnetism, celestial phenomena, ocean currents, and air currents were unrestrained and always in a chaotic state, the scattered islands often developed their own unique features, such as summer islands with hot climates all year round, or winter islands with ice and snow all year round.
Among the myriad islands, there were always a few with distinctive characteristics that made them widely known to the world.
The islands included Amazon Lily, inhabited only by women; Kamabakka Kingdom, the home of transvestites; Skypiea, like the abode of gods; Fishman Island, located 10,000 meters underwater; Whole Cake Island, made up of various creams, candies, donuts, and other desserts; Zou, the home of the ancient Mink Tribe; the Boin Islands, which had the most diverse plant life in the world; and the Sabaody Archipelago, located at the border between Paradise and the New World.
There were only two paths from Paradise to the New World.
One option was to make a request to the World Government and then travel directly through Mary Geoise, the sacred site located at the summit of the Red Line.
Another route involved coating the ship with Yarukiman mangrove resin, diving to a depth of 10,000 meters, passing through a huge hole beneath the Red Line, and then via the underwater route to Fishman Island to reach the New World.
This had created a unique geographical advantage for the Sabaody Archipelago.
Beneath the glamorous exterior of this island, where bubbles floated everywhere, lay a pervasive and unspeakable slumber of sin and bloodshed.
In the Sabaody Archipelago, you could always see bounty hunters and human traffickers arm in arm, exchanging information and making deals before forming teams to go hunting.
In their hunting plans, there was a very detailed list of people to be auctioned off.
Humans: 500,000 Berries.
The Tontatta Tribe: 700,000 Berries.
The Mink Tribe: 700,000 Berries.
The Longarm Tribe: 700,000 Berries.
The Longleg Tribe: 700,000 Berries.
The Snake-Neck Tribe: 700,000 Berries.
Fishmen: 1,000,000 Berries.
Male giants: 5,000,000 Berries, female giants: 10,000,000 Berries.
Female mermaids: 70,000,000 Berries, after splitting: 10,000,000 Berries.
Male humans: 1,000,000 Berries.
The prices of Ability Users and other rare species fluctuated based on demand.
Damon snatched the buying and selling list from a human trafficker and couldn't help but marvel.
When humans committed evil, they tended to direct that malice at children, women, and the elderly who were weaker than themselves.
Ever since Damon set foot on the Sabaody Archipelago, he had felt the undisguised malice from all sides.
The unlucky human trafficker at his feet had just planned to hit Damon on the back with a stick and stuff him into a sack to take him away.
The acquisition price for humans at the human auction was fixed at 500,000 Berries, meaning that once a human trafficker succeeded, he could easily obtain a large sum of money.
Keep in mind that a Navy private's annual income was only 20,000 Berries.
In other words, these human traffickers could earn the equivalent of a naval officer's income for 25 years just by completing one transaction.
Being a naval officer was a high-risk profession; it was always a life of walking on the edge of a knife, where you never knew when you might die in a hand-to-hand battle with pirates.
These human traffickers only needed to keep an eye on tourists visiting the Sabaody Archipelago, and kidnap the tourists' children when the adults were not paying attention, which was enough to make a fortune.
As for where these children would eventually go? Whether it was the World Government, certain research institutions, or even the Celestial Dragons and nobles with their peculiar tastes, they all had a strong demand for children.
"What a place that's all show and no substance!"
With a sigh from Damon, a blazing flame rose from beneath his feet, burning the human trafficker to ashes amidst the trafficker's agonizing screams.
Seeing the human trafficker fall to such a state, the gazes that had been eyeing Damon suddenly vanished, clearly realizing that this was not a sheep, but a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Damon didn't have the time to deal with these human traffickers and bounty hunters. He knew very well that as long as Celestial Dragons and nobles existed in this world, there would be a strong demand for human slaves. Even if a group of human traffickers and bounty hunters were killed, another group of human traffickers and bounty hunters would flock to this line of work.
Damon had already instructed Smoker and others to find a master craftsman to plate the bottom of the three-masted sailing ship with a layer of seastone. At the same time, the three-masted sailing ship also needed to be refurbished and painted, and they would need to stay here for at least half a month.
When Damon emerged from an alley, he had changed drastically.
With black hair and black eyes, yellow skin, and a tall stature, he was shirtless with a five-clawed golden dragon tattoo on his back. He wore the Abyss Mask on his face, with eerie purple soul fire swirling around his face, and his pitch-black eyes instilled a profound sense of fear.
The moment Damon put on the Abyss Mask, he transformed from a sunny boy into a pirate that everyone feared.
The streets were bustling with people, and vendors on both sides of the road were loudly hawking their wares.
But the moment Damon appeared on the street, the surrounding crowd immediately avoided him like the plague, their faces filled with terror.
Mysterious, dark, powerful. This was the first impression Damon gave to outsiders today.
Returning to the auction in Area 4, Damon, without waiting for the hostess to speak, took out the document he had previously signed and said:
"I consigned a three-eyed Den Den Mushi to you before, and I'm here to collect the money now."
The greeter's expression changed slightly, she bowed gently, and spoke in a sweet voice:
"Please wait a moment, esteemed guest. I will immediately inform the manager to bring your money."
Damon remained noncommittal, casually choosing a spot in the reception building and settling down on the sofa in a nonchalant manner.
On his way here, Damon had already found out that the three-eyed Den Den Mushi he had previously consigned had sold for an astonishingly high price.
It was said that even the renowned scientist Vegapunk was very interested in this three-eyed Den Den Mushi and commissioned the World Government to acquire it.
As the saying went, things were valued for their rarity. The Three-Eyed Den Den Mushi was the only known creature in the world, and the Celestial Dragons and nobles wanted to use it to show off their wealth to the outside world, so they all competed to bid for it.
Damon originally estimated that the Three-Eyed Den Den Mushi could be auctioned for a maximum of 20 billion Berries, but he still underestimated the wealth controlled by the Celestial Dragons and nobles. In the end, the Three-Eyed Den Den Mushi was auctioned for a sky-high price of 170 billion Berries!
170 billion Berries!
That was quite an astonishing number.
Ordinary people worked from dawn till dusk and earned only tens or hundreds of thousands of Berries a year, but these Celestial Dragons and nobles could casually throw out such a large sum of wealth.
Poverty had limited Damon's imagination!
Just as Damon was pondering, a series of hurried footsteps approached.
Damon could easily determine the number of the other side just by the number of footsteps.
More than twenty bodyguards in suits had ferocious expressions on their faces. One of them reached into his clothes, pulled out a dark flintlock pistol, aimed it at Damon's back, and pulled the trigger without any mercy.
"Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang..."
These state-of-the-art flintlock muskets, developed by South Blue craftsmen specially hired by the Donquixote Family, were not only capable of firing in rapid succession, but also had very little recoil.
The bodyguards emptied their guns in one go, the muzzles puffing out plumes of smoke. The sofa where Damon was sitting was riddled with bullets, and smoke filled the air.
"Is someone dead?"
As the smoke cleared, the bodyguards were shocked to see Damon standing unharmed in the same spot.
"How can this be?"
Damon stretched his stiff neck and smiled at the group of bodyguards.
"That's really the style of pirates."
"Since you're not going to pay, don't blame me for being ruthless."
As soon as Damon finished speaking, the group of bodyguards immediately lost sight of the person in front of them.