Chapter 205 Liberation and Self...
"How terrifying." A golden light flashed, and without alerting any defense systems, Borsalino brazenly barged into Vegabank's laboratory.
Eyes behind brown sunglasses quickly scanned the room: Begabank, Big Bear, Luo...
"They actually kidnapped important government experimental personnel. As a naval admiral, I cannot turn a blind eye to this."
Borsalino said, raising his hand to attack.
Compared to his two colleagues who ate the Ice-Ice Fruit and the Magma-Magma Fruit, Borsalino, who ate the Glint-Glint Fruit, can use his fruit ability to make very precise strikes. With the speed of the Glint-Glint Fruit, he can even fight in this enclosed environment without hurting Vegapunk in the slightest.
"It's you who came here." Luo said in a deep voice. "Then it seems that it was Kuzan or Sakazuki who went to surround R'lyeh Island."
"Huh?" Borsalino exclaimed in surprise. "So, you guys knew about the Buster Call beforehand."
"Indeed, dealing with such terrifying pirates as you requires a Marine Admiral to oversee things. Who could it be? Kuzan, or Sakazuki?"
"I remember that survivor of Ohara, what was his name, Robin? He was on R'lyeh... That's terrifying. He was a dangerous character with a bounty of over ten million Berries at such a young age."
“Borsalino,” Vegabank looked at Borsalino seriously and said, “you’ve come here, as an enemy or as an old friend?”
"Huh? Why would you ask that?"
“The World Government is doomed, Borsalino,” Vegabank asserted. “They’ve done too many evils to turn back.”
"But the Navy is different. You have absolutely no need to sink with the World Government."
"Huh?" Borsalino looked surprised. "Vegabank, are you trying to persuade me to surrender?"
Shouldn't you say something like that when you've won, or at least when you're halfway through and about to win?
Although he was alone, it was clear that once the fight started, victory would undoubtedly be his.
Begabank, who knew his old friend quite well, chuckled twice: "It's not about persuading you to surrender, but rather that once you're in, you won't be able to leave."
As soon as Begabank finished speaking, a series of mechanical sounds came from all around the laboratory, and the thick stone walls on all four sides quickly collapsed, completely blocking the windows and doors.
The stone walls are covered with beautiful, mysterious, and regular patterns, and each stone wall has a purple gemstone set in the very center.
Tap, tap...
Stussy, wearing high heels, elegantly tossed a strand of her smooth hair: "Sir Navy officer, please rest here for a while..."
As Stussy spoke, black bat wings sprouted from her back, making her already lipstick-covered lips appear even fuller and more vibrant.
“...Or if you want to stretch your muscles, I’d be happy to oblige~” Stusi licked his lips, revealing his sharp canines.
“Ah, this is really…” Borsalino scratched his head, not entirely sincere, as he saw the translucent purple energy covering the stone wall. “…This is big trouble.”
Ralleya Island.
Robin stood on the shore, watching the naval warships that were closing in on them from all directions.
Buster Call.
Robin had thought that hearing that word again would overwhelm him with memories of fire, tears, and desperate wails, that he would be so terrified that he would tremble uncontrollably and find it extremely difficult to remain rational.
but……
Robin raised her hand and gently pressed it against her chest. Her heartbeat was steady and healthy, perhaps a little faster than usual, but not out of fear. It was because she was relieved that she could finally protect the home and family she cherished.
“Mom…” Robin smiled and looked down, “I have found the most important partner for me.”
She will protect this place at all costs.
The sound of footsteps came from behind. Kaku and Lucci walked to Robin's side one after the other, looking at the largest naval warship in the distance.
Lucci: "General, he's right there."
Robin: "What, are you scared?"
Robin knew that Lucci and Kaku, the two former World Government agents, did not stay on R'lyeh voluntarily. Although, under Ginny's tutelage, they seemed to consider themselves part of R'lyeh, Robin still felt it was necessary to provoke Lucci.
Lucci, also a master of intelligence gathering and manipulating people, glanced at Robin and sneered, "I'll be on the winning side. And how can you climb up the ladder without paying a price?"
Lucci does not believe that he chose R'lyeh over the World Government.
He chose the winner over the loser.
Now that he has decided to jump onto R'lyeh's big ship and rely on Violet to achieve his dark justice, he needs to gain Violet's trust as soon as possible.
The Buster Call, isn't this a perfect opportunity?
This not only proved his separation from his background as a World Government agent, but also demonstrated his capabilities.
Unlike the island owner, Robin is always more wary of him than trusting him. A pure analysis of interests is more persuasive than emotional appeals.
Sure enough, Robin showed an expression of agreement after hearing his words.
Victory belongs to the island's owner; that's beyond question.
Kaku glanced at Lucci and then at Robin, sensing that the atmosphere was a bit awkward: "Katakuri and Mr. Rosinante are on alert on the other side. The raft with the man-eating flowers has been lowered, and the hive-guarding bees have started to move."
“However…” Kaku looked at the warships with some confusion, “Why hasn’t the navy launched an attack yet?”
——
"Why don't you agree to Mu's proposal?" Im, who had been summoned to the final island by Violet's [hostile signal flare], felt the energy around her that had not dissipated even after hundreds of years, an energy that seemed like a natural enemy to her. "Become a Celestial Dragon, or even become a new Five Elder, and rule this world with Mu."
“Im possesses the power to rule the world, while you possess the power to recreate it.” Im extended his hand to Vil. “If you do not like the world that I have created, I can destroy it with you and then use your power to complete the recreation.”
"That would be a perfect world, exactly as you wish."
Violet nodded: "Actually, I sometimes think that there are too few resources in this world, and the farm materials for growing crops are too hard to come by. So if I had an invincibility mod... I would probably plant corn on every piece of land in the world, and raise fish and seaweed in every sea.
Im, who was already feeling his power being suppressed little by little, smiled when he heard Wil's words.
"To cooperate with you and create a perfect new world that suits my wishes... that sounds really tempting." Vera tilted her head and looked at Im, or more accurately, at the health bar above Im's head. "But why are you hostile towards me when you want to cooperate with me?"
Im's breath hitched. The next second, countless black hands emerged from the shadows of the moon tree, the moon rock, and the moonlight glass, rushing toward Vil!
Violet raised her Starcalling Staff, and several bright dwarf stars rose into the sky, illuminating the entire island until there was not a trace of shadow.
Under the dwarf star's brilliance, the effect of increasing sanity was reversed by the lunar storm, causing it to decrease sanity.
But before Im could even breathe a sigh of relief at his sanity, which was starting to drop again, he felt an intense sense of crisis.
Bang, bang!
The ground was shaking, the waves were surging, and even the wind in the air was different from normal.
whoosh—
A large elk-goose, accompanied by several smaller elk-gooses, circled above the island, causing the rocks on the Moon Island to tremble. Then, a desert antlion emerged from the tremors.
There are also one-eyed giant deer, siren with tentacles that emit piercing screams, and tiger sharks with cat faces that can walk independently.
"You can control them? How is that possible?!"
These monsters, these monsters raised by a vanished civilization, these monsters that became violent and irrational with the disappearance of that civilization, actually obeyed Violet's orders?!
Im had considered eliminating these threats completely, but every time she killed these monsters, they would reappear on the sea at some point the following year.
Violet watched Im's trembling body. These area bosses had extremely strong sanity-reducing auras, and with multiple auras stacked together, combined with the effect of Moonstorm, Im's sanity was increasing at a terrifying rate.
One after another, white phantoms appeared around Im.
"Why, why did you betray me?"
"You damned shadow monsters, you've taken over our bodies!"
"The ritual has gone out of control; the monster has corrupted the souls of the sacrifices... Are the Moon People doomed to disappear forever?"
...
Im clutched his head, letting out a suppressed cry of pain, while Violet listened quietly to the voices of the phantoms. Combining their whispers with the murals Violet had discovered in the ancient ruins, she had roughly deduced the story.
These people who call themselves the Moon People once possessed extremely advanced technology, but one day, darkness descended, and shadow creatures appeared and devoured their civilization. Some of the Moon People fell into darkness, becoming shadow creatures and living in the shadows of the world, while the surviving Moon People struggled to survive using the power of technology and magic.
After each catastrophe, the people of the moon would periodically select one person to carry offerings to an underground cave for a sacrifice, praying for everything to return to normal. However, they did not anticipate that in a dark underground world, the power of shadow creatures was constantly growing stronger.
One day, a young girl carrying offerings ventured into the underworld, only to be possessed by Im. Possessing the bodies of the Moon People, she emerged from the underworld and slaughtered the Moon People on the surface, using their bodies as vessels to bring countless Shadow Creatures to the surface.
The descendants of those shadow creatures that possessed the Moon People are the so-called Celestial Dragons.
This is why the Celestial Dragons are not attacked by shadow creatures, and their sanity is always kept at zero.
The so-called immortality of Im and the Five Elders relies on absorbing the power of the Dark World. Therefore, when their sanity increases and they are no longer regarded as one of the Dark World, this ability to be immortal and unharmed disappears.
"Why must we kill Mu?" The black phantom surrounding Mu's body trembled incessantly. "Mu, and Mu's kind, only want to live in the sunlight."
"Mu was once a Moon People too... so were Mu's companions."
"Perhaps you were once innocent, corrupted by darkness and forced to exist as shadow creatures. Even the fact that you took over the bodies of the remaining Moon People is merely a case of 'even the most hateful have their pitiable aspects.'"
"But it has been eight hundred years, eight hundred years since you first had bodies, and you still do not see yourselves as human beings, but as gods who are above human beings."
What led to their demise was not their xenophobia, but simply that these Celestial Dragons were utterly incompetent as humans, rulers, and gods.
Violet drew her Shadow Sword toward the phantom that was gradually separating from Im's body: "Don't worry, the Celestial Dragons will still exist, but they will exist as ordinary people like the West Blue and East Blue people."
A Celestial Dragon can cultivate one acre of land in a day, a noble can cultivate one acre of land in a day, and a slave can also cultivate one acre of land in a day.
In the eyes of farming players, these NPCs are simply cheap, equal labor.
Violet swung her sword at Im with all her might. After losing his body, Im was just an ordinary shadow creature.
[You have defeated the Shadow Queen, and the game is complete.]
[Settling your account and shutting down the world...]
[Error, error...]
[Reloading...]
[Generating islands... Generating vast oceans... Generating monsters... Error, generating biome]
[Intensive hunger is spreading... Error... Expanding planting area]
[The game continues...]
——
Locus plunged his weapon into Marcus Mazsan's chest, intending to finish him off once the wound healed, but he found the man staring wide-eyed in terror, clutching his chest, his lips trembling as if he wanted to say something, but he only coughed up clumps of blood.
What's going on?
"Lox, the immortality ability of these Knights of the Gods seems to have disappeared?!"
"Wait, what's that appearing on their corpses, a shadow?!"
Black phantoms emerged from the bodies of the dead Five Elders and the Knights of God, only to quickly dissipate in the sunlight.
Locus looked around and saw fear and disbelief in the eyes of the remaining members of the divine order.
He thought of a pair of black eyes and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
After laughing, Rocks flicked the blood off his weapon: "Men, keep charging in!"
——
"Um... Admiral Aokiji, how long are we supposed to wait here?"
Aokiji's adjutant looked at the man in front of him who was wearing an eye patch, tilting his head back, opening his mouth, and had suspicious liquid at the corner of his mouth.
"Weren't we here to carry out the Buster Call?" Why did the ship stop moving after it reached the vicinity of the target location?
"Ah la la..."
Aokiji irritably removed his blindfold and looked at the foolish adjutant in front of him. Couldn't this guy use his brain? If Sengoku-san really intended to destroy R'lyeh, then the person he sent shouldn't be Kuzan, but Sakazuki.
"Wait a little longer..."
Wait, wait for what? Are we supposed to wait until the Warring States Marshal rescinds his order?
The ship beneath their feet suddenly began to shake, and whirlpools appeared on the surface of the sea. The tides crashed against the ship, making a splashing sound. Just as Kuzan was about to freeze the sea, one after another, rusty clockwork monsters swam out of the sea.
They carried rocks on their backs and placed them on the shore of R'lyeh. The moment the rocks touched the island, they seemed to merge together as if they had grown together.
This is……
Kuzan placed his hands on the gunwale and stared wide-eyed in surprise.
Although these clockwork monsters move rocks quite slowly, it is foreseeable that if they continue moving them for decades or centuries, R'lyeh and the surrounding scattered islands will eventually "grow" together.
“ONE PICE”.
Kuzan murmured, "Could that legend be true?"
——
With a soft thud, the tyrant's head was severed, and the family that had oppressed the island for hundreds of years was completely dragged off the throne.
The rumbling sound of a head rolling echoed within the palace, and the palace guards and revolutionaries, locked in a fierce battle, all turned to look at the dragon standing beside the throne.
At the dragon's feet lay the lifeless body of the old king, and beside him stood the throne, representing the highest power on the island.
The dragon walked toward the magnificent throne, then raised its foot and kicked it away.
"From this day forward, there will be no more kings, no more nobles, and no more slaves on this island."
A new era has begun, all of you—
"They're all free!"
-----------------------
Author's Note: The main story is finished!!!
The side story is currently tentatively planned to be a part of the epilogue, featuring "what if" scenarios involving Law, Shanks, and Katakuri.
I actually wanted to write a story where everyone from the original storyline gets transported to the world of the game Don't Starve and gets carried by the powerful player, Violet, but that part is still in the planning stages [shy].
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