One Piece: A Guide for Ordinary Players

Sabo didn't expect Robert to agree so readily. Even with Ace's connection, Robert was still a pirate with a bounty of 18 billion. Although his net worth was not as high as that of the Four Emperors, he was still a powerful figure in his own right.

Even if such a person agrees to meet, they will most likely choose to meet in their own territory or a neutral location.

Robert's straightforward and self-assured nature is extremely rare, and this carefree attitude and trustworthiness greatly increased Sabo's positive impression of him.

Aren't you afraid we'll lie to you?

Robert was slightly taken aback: "You guys? You don't mean you and Ace, do you?"

Sabo remained silent for a while, while Ace chuckled and said, "I told you, Robert is different from everyone else."

Sabo's voice became extremely formal: "Mr. Robert, on behalf of the Revolutionary Army, I sincerely invite you to Baltimore for a meeting!"

Chapter 27 You better explain yourself clearly, who are you going to marry?

Upon hearing the name Baldigo, Robert knew that the Revolutionary Army genuinely wanted to have a deep conversation with him this time.

Baltigo is the headquarters of the Revolutionary Army. It is only known that it is located on the Grand Line, but apart from people within the Revolutionary Army, no one really knows the exact location of the island.

Actually, if Robert really wanted to find it, he could. After all, Baldigo's terrain is quite distinctive, covered with white desert and Gobi. Usually, no one is active on the island. If you're willing to ask around, someone will definitely know about this.

However, neither the Navy nor the World Government had read the manga, and no one knew that the Revolutionary Army headquarters was located on a deserted island full of desert. That's why Robert felt that Sabo's mention of Baltimore as a location showed his sincerity.

"I won't go to the Revolutionary Army's headquarters. It's not that I don't trust you all, but my identity is sensitive. I've already felt the Revolutionary Army's sincerity, and you don't need to take the risk of being exposed."

Hearing Robert's reply, Sabo's fear intensified. The fact that Robert said those words meant that he must know about Baldigo.

The Revolutionary Army's stronghold was a top secret, and it was somehow discovered that it had been taken over by a pirate who had only been at sea for a year. Fortunately, he had no interest in betraying the Revolutionary Army, otherwise, wouldn't they be in constant danger of being besieged?

Ace was just carefree, not really stupid. Seeing Sabo's utterly disgusted expression, he knew Robert's charlatan words had frightened him, and quickly tried to smooth things over:

"I have a suggestion. How about we meet in the Golden City, Gran Tesoro?"

When Robert heard the words "City of Gold," he was startled. He suddenly remembered that Karina had mentioned six months ago that her and Uta's second lecture would be held there, but he had completely forgotten about it!

Karina hadn't contacted him during this time, either because her plan to usurp Tesoro's place was at a crucial moment, or because she was completely angry with him.

After all, he hadn't been absent since returning from the moon, and had even caused several world-shaking events, but he had forgotten to take the initiative to contact her.

With that thought in mind, Robert agreed without hesitation: "No problem, my friend's concert is going to be held there anyway, and I was going to go there anyway."

Sabo asked in confusion, "Are you referring to Miss Karina or Miss Uta as your friend?"

Robert laughed, "They're all my friends, and the concert should be a group event for them..."

Robert was beaming with pride when Sabo interrupted him somewhat awkwardly, "But their concert ended two weeks ago, didn't it?"

Robert was struck dumb. Since returning from the moon, he had barely paid attention to the news. Even when he read the newspaper, he only focused on the few major world events on the front page and never flipped to the entertainment section.

He completely missed Karina and Uta's concert. Uta might not care, but Karina must be furious.

Robert swallowed hard, then smiled sheepishly and said, "I went on a long trip... I completely forgot about their concert date..."

Ace was also a little embarrassed: "How about we go somewhere else?"

Robert hurriedly said, "No, we're going to the Golden City! I'll head there today. When will you be there?"

Sabo said, "I will go with Ace. Let's meet at noon the day after tomorrow."

Although the Golden City, Gran Tezolo, is a ship, it is actually no smaller than a large city, with a total length of 10,000 meters.

When they met in this place, Robert and Sabo tacitly agreed not to arrange a specific location or contact information, which was actually a subtle way of demonstrating their strength.

Robert, who had completely forgotten about Karina's concert, was extremely guilty and didn't dare to waste a single second, wishing he could fly to the City of Gold in an instant.

But he certainly can't leave now; he can't leave without making proper arrangements with Punk Hazard.

Robert was brought together with Caesar Courant, and York was studying Caesar Courant, so Robert couldn't deliberately avoid her.

“I have some urgent business to attend to and need to leave for a while. Since the plan against Vergo is led by you, I will leave Punk Hazard to you.”

Luo said confidently, "Go ahead and do your thing. I'll send you a big gift. I just hope no one interferes."

With his heart removed by Robert, Caesar Courland wouldn't dare to have any disloyal thoughts. Besides, Robert's promises had completely bound him to him, and he wouldn't agree to leave even if asked to.

Why would someone betray their allies for a mere undercover Vice Admiral Vergo when they could cling to the coattails of a powerful figure with the potential to become one of the Four Emperors of the Sea?

"Don't worry, I'm truly loyal now. I'll cooperate wholeheartedly in whatever way you need me to. Besides, the boss's wife is keeping an eye on things."

York didn't care what they were saying at all, he just stared at Robert with a displeased look: "Where are you going? I want to go too!"

Robert felt even more guilty now. Although he and Karina were only pretending to be a couple, and his memories with York were also fake, York clearly didn't really think that way.

If she finds out that I'm going to woo another woman, and that woman is my ex-girlfriend whom I used to acknowledge, she'll completely explode and destroy everything around me.

“York, what I’m going to do this time is rather secretive. It involves negotiating a cooperation with the Revolutionary Army, so it will have to be done on the territory of the third-party power, the Golden King Tesoro.”

“It’s easier for me to go alone to hide my identity. You’re currently a key target of the Navy. I’m not worried that the Revolutionary Army will target you, but Tesoro is a ruthless bastard. I’m afraid he’ll use you to threaten me.”

York's expression turned sinister: "Then let's kill him!"

Robert swallowed hard. He always felt that York should represent evil, while Lilith at most had some greed. Had Vegapunk mixed up their personalities?

"Sweetie, wait for me here. I'll be back in a week at most. Panz Fry will cook you delicious food every day."

York pouted, but she also knew that Robert was very strong and that having her with him made things inconvenient for him; it was just his possessiveness at play.

"It's settled then, you have to be back in a week, or I'll take Caesar and drop poison gas bombs on the Golden City!"

Robert nodded firmly, already considering how to discuss with Vegapunk about altering York's memories. Although the boyfriend-girlfriend persona was beneficial for guiding York toward good, the risk of things going wrong was too great.

With some money, Robert easily bought the permanent pointer of the Gran Tesoro on the black market.

The new world sped along, and soon we found ourselves standing on the world's most luxurious entertainment city.

As Robert activated his electromagnetic induction, he was about to carefully search for Karina's whereabouts when he suddenly felt a jolt.

This entire golden behemoth seemed to be a sentient being, and its attention was firmly locked on him!

A human face slowly emerged from the gold before them; judging from its appearance, it was that of a middle-aged man around forty years old.

"Mr. Robert, welcome aboard my ship."

"Karina has been talking about you a lot. I've wanted to send you an invitation countless times, but I heard you're involved in a secret naval project, so I haven't been able to get the invitation to you."

"You came here on your own initiative because you heard the news."

"Did you come specifically for our wedding?"

Chapter 28 The Return of the Missing Person

In the City of Gold, the face that materialized from gold could only be a ghost story if it wasn't Tesoro who ate the Gold-Gold Fruit.

Robert was filled with vigilance when this man, who claimed to be the richest in the world, appeared in front of him.

When Robert watched the movie, he felt that Tesoro was completely unremarkable compared to some other villains in One Piece.

First of all, this person's growth trajectory is rather stereotypical. Initially, his family was very poor. Later, he took a fancy to a girl and wanted to buy her, so he worked hard. However, just when he was about to save enough money, the girl was bought by the Celestial Dragons.

The Celestial Dragons not only bought Tesoro's beloved, but also enslaved him because he foolishly tried to attack them to take her back.

After that, he willingly became a slave, his belief being that the person he loved was living with him in the Holy Land of Mary Geoise.

Tesoro escaped just as the girl was tortured to death by the Celestial Dragons, just as the Fishman Tiger was causing havoc in Mary Geoise.

In a world like One Piece, where individual combat power can rival nuclear weapons, the normal person's thought process would be to strive to become stronger and then take revenge on the Celestial Dragons.

But Tezzolo's thinking was, "I want to become rich, that's it."

The background story mentions Tesoro's plan to overthrow the world with money and turn the Celestial Dragons into slaves, but Robert thinks it's all wishful thinking. The Celestial Dragons will remain Celestial Dragons, and he continues to run his entertainment complex without any intention of seeking revenge.

As for the Gold-Gold Fruit's abilities, Robert also felt they were very weak. Unlike other Paramecia-type fruits, it couldn't create gold out of thin air; it could only manipulate existing gold. What kind of combat power did this fruit actually have?

So long before today, Robert had always looked down on the King of Gold, and whenever Karina said she wanted to get her hands on his money, Robert thought it was a matter of course.

But the moment he met him, Robert realized he had been making assumptions. Someone who could develop a Devil Fruit to its awakened state must have extraordinary abilities.

The entire Golden City has become one with Tesoro. As long as he is on this ship, there are no secrets to Tesoro. He can monitor every blind spot and arrive at any place instantly.

It could be said that as long as Tesoro is on this golden ship, his abilities can be used as if he were half a Logia-type.

I'm not Luffy, I don't have his strong "brain-lowering aura" that makes Tesoro stubbornly fight him head-on.

If Tesoro calmly uses his Gold-Gold Fruit powers to fight him on this ship, he really isn't confident he can catch him and kill him.

Robert keenly recalled how Robert had addressed him earlier: Mr. Robert!

Admittedly, he was currently using Robert De Niro's persona because, after weighing the pros and cons, Robert wanted to try to distance himself from his subordinates, such as Ah San and Karina, whose public identities were relatively clean, whenever possible.

He had just used the power of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to appear on the ship as lightning. According to the story, his awakened fruit power was not active all the time; it would only be activated when the gold was subjected to a powerful impact.

Robert deliberately chose a blind spot without any Den Den Mushi monitoring before boarding the ship, so Tesoro should not be able to guess his true identity.

Robert probed, "Do you know me?"

Tesoro laughed and said, "How could I not know the former naval hero, my fiancée Miss Karina's ex-boyfriend, the prodigal lieutenant colonel who made her cry?"

Robert tries his best to embody the character of a scumbag whose girlfriend is about to marry someone else because of his own infidelity, and attempts to react in a way that fits this persona.

“We haven’t officially broken up yet, so I don’t think she can be considered your fiancée.”

Tezzolo didn't seem angry at all: "Oh, love is free. I accept fair competition. Go see Karina. I think she will make the right choice."

The golden face exploded into a shower of golden dust, which slowly coalesced into an arrow symbol, pointing Robert in the direction in the air.

With a disdainful smile, Robert activated his electromagnetic field, instantly repelling all the gold dust that seemed to have drifted towards him unintentionally.

Robert didn't care about any of Tesoro's Devil Fruit abilities. The only one that was truly imaginative was the technique of secretly letting gold dust enter everyone's respiratory system, then mixing into their bloodstream and ultimately controlling others indirectly by manipulating the awakened gold dust.

However, this tactic only works on those who are unaware of it; it becomes less effective once others are on guard.

Even if Robert hadn't wanted to use his identity as Robert De Niro to contact Karina first, he could have easily countered the attack by simply transforming into an elemental form, even if he had inhaled the gold dust.

Tesoro seemed unperturbed by his failed ambush, and the gold dust continued to guide Robert towards the tallest building on the ship.

The entire city of gold is magnificent, and countless tourists live a life of extravagance and debauchery here. What they don't know is that the waiters serving them may have once been guests who, like them, spent lavishly.

Robert frowned as he walked. Ever since he boarded the ship, his Observation Haki had been extremely compressed. Tesoro seemed to be consciously using the gold around him to resist his Observation Haki perception.

Electromagnetic induction was also severely interfered with because the ship was full of gold. Although Robert could not be said to have become blind, his most prized electromagnetic and Observation Haki-like perception abilities were indeed severely damaged.

The golden arrow vanished into thin air, replaced by a tall, alluring red-haired beauty:

"Hello Mr. Robert, I am a VIP receptionist at Golden City. You can call me Bakala."