Vane almost reflexively pushed her away.
The rational reason was that he was afraid the other party might be a Luck-Luck Fruit user—touching him could steal his luck. But then he thought about it: if she were a Devil Fruit user right now, why would she be treated like merchandise here?
The Luck-Luck Fruit would make it easy for her to escape her restraints.
The emotional reason was that Baccarat made him have some normal male reactions—there was no helping that.
The first time he transmigrated he was a virgin. In the Demon Slayer world he was young and spent every day fighting to the death; in that situation, the only one who had a wife at a young age was the Sound Pillar.
If you add the ages of his previous two lives to the age of this body, he'd been a virgin for sixty years in both mind and body. Getting stimulated by Baccarat and having some reaction was normal—if there were no reaction, he'd be a eunuch.
"This is the underground grand casino on Bliss Island. The boss behind it is a loan shark king famous even on the Grand Line."
A loan shark king? He thought it would be some underworld king related to gambling, but it turned out to be loan sharking. Still, you can't say the two have nothing to do with each other.
"Here, no matter what the gambling method is, the minimum bet each time is 100,000 Belly."
The underground space was spacious. The atmosphere here was sometimes as noisy as upstairs, and there were also quieter areas. Of the people who came here to gamble, pirates only made up one third; the rest were gang bosses and people in high positions.
"What's the most distinctive form of gambling here?"
"That would definitely be the Death Cage."
The so-called Death Cage is throwing people into a huge cage for life-and-death combat. Spectators can bet on each person; whoever's chosen fighter survives to the end gets the proceeds from everyone else.
"The casino will hold Death Cage matches depending on how many guests there are that day. On ordinary days, it's people with average strength killing each other; at special times, they'll hold battles between stronger ones—at the level of pirate captains."
The loan shark king runs a loan-sharking business. This industry is bound to produce many people who can't pay back their debts. Those who can run away do; those who can't and get caught by the loan shark king then have some value.
They're sent to places like the Death Cage to fight to the death.
...
Baccarat led Vane to the Death Cage area:
"The arena promises that if these people can survive ten bouts, they'll gain their freedom, but… I've never seen anyone who truly gained freedom from the Death Cage."
It was set up like a much smaller Colosseum, and there happened to be a fight going on, blazing hot.
This should be a ten-person duel. Six were already down on the ground; the remaining four were fighting two-on-two.
Vane's eyes narrowed slightly. These people looked familiar—weren't they the pirates he caught a few days ago?
Who would've thought the shipyard people would sell the pirates to the loan shark king. These pirates had no bounties; if gangs sent them to the Marines, at most they'd get a thank-you. Of course the gangs wouldn't want to do such a losing business. Selling them to the loan shark king or to slave shops makes money.
Quite a few of these pirates should have been from the same ship. Former companions were now killing each other.
The people who had placed bets around them shouted loudly.
"Kill him! Hurry up and kill him!"
"Cut him to death with your blade!"
"Dodge! Dodge!! Ah—why didn't you dodge?"
Very quickly, four people became two, and then only one person was left alive in the cage.
"Dead! They're all dead, all dead…"
The one who survived went completely mad—probably couldn't bear the blow of crewmates killing each other.
Baccarat explained, "Small bouts like this are held most frequently. Also, betting on them starts at 500,000 Belly. If you win, it triples."
The multiplier wasn't very high, but this kind of violent, bloody scene really satisfied the bettors' cravings. Some people wouldn't even feel angry if they lost, especially those who only bet the minimum.
"Honored guest, you came at just the right time. There's another fight coming up, and it's a higher-level three-person bout. All three have the strength of pirate vice-captains or chief mates."
...
Baccarat pulled Vane to the betting area. At the same time, the three people who were about to participate in the next bout were sent up on the lift.
Each of them was over two meters tall, with explosively muscular builds.
"The one in red and the one in white have already fought three matches and survived. The one in black is this year's newcomer."
"And I heard he got into trouble and was caught and sent to the arena… his name is Dice."
Dice?
Vane glanced at this guy with very One Piece–style proportions. He looked to be in his twenties and wore a black headscarf.
Vane: "Will the odds for the newcomer be a bit higher?"
Baccarat shook her head. "Everyone's odds here are three times. But if you're the only one who bets on him and he wins, then you can participate in dividing up the bets placed on the other two."
In fact, no one had bet on Dice yet. Compared with the two who had already fought three times and survived, Dice had no highlights at all and looked more like he was just making up the numbers.
"Only one gladiator can survive. That's the iron rule of the Death Cage. After the fight starts, the cage will be charged with extremely high voltage. The power will only be cut once it's confirmed that only one person is alive."
Vane nodded and took out his chips.
"I'm betting 40 million Belly on Dice."
The hands of the person collecting the chips trembled.
Vane, whose arm was being held by Baccarat, could also clearly feel her whole body tremble.
"Th—… Sorry, honored guest. Besides the minimum, there's also an upper limit for this bout. The cap is 20 million Belly."
The casino can't possibly lose money. 20 million Belly should be the limit they can bear if Dice wins.
Whether this limit means they don't lose or can still make a small profit depends on how much the other gamblers have put on the other two gladiators.
"Then I'll bet 20 million Belly."
Only one can survive in this cage. Dice lived all the way to eighteen years later and worked under the Golden Emperor in the movie.
In that movie, Dice's opponent was Luffy's right-hand man, the three-sword style Zoro. He had fairly strong Armament Haki. Judging by his strength at the time, he should be about the same as Kaido's Tobiroppo, and likely among the top one or two of them.
After all, Kaido's Tobiroppo had too many… abstract characters—either abstract behavior or abstract luck—especially those with the Dragon-Dragon Fruits. Their few advantages were that they were pretty tough to beat down.
Since Dice could live to eighteen years later, he naturally wouldn't die here. Putting down 20 million was a sure win.
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