Ohara's Reply
The light on the Sky Screen had mostly faded, returning to its usual golden hue, but the tone was a shade darker than before, as if the Sky Screen itself was maintaining a silent aftertaste of what had just been played.
No one in the world has left.
No one slept, no one returned to their daily work and life; the rhythm of the entire world was locked in place by the Sky Screen at this moment.
Lin Qi leaned back in his chair at the Tavern, looking at the time display in the upper right corner of the system panel.
He had been operating continuously for nearly six hours.
"It's time to take a break."
He stretched and tapped the panel a few times with his fingers.
[System notification: The question creator has chosen to pause question creation. The next round of review will begin in 24 hours.]
These words appeared on the Sky Screen.
A sigh of regret escaped the world, but it was quickly drowned out by discussions.
In every Tavern, on every street, on every ship, everyone was talking about what they had just seen.
Void Century, Great Kingdom, the D. Clan, the uses of Ancient Weapons.
These topics spread to every corner of the world in just a few minutes.
But the Sky Screen did not completely darken.
Three seconds after Lin Qi pressed the pause button, an additional prompt appeared in the system.
[One of the previously announced rewards has not yet been completed.]
[Reward recipient: Nico Robin]
[Bonus: Transfer thirty-seven copies of the research manuscripts of the last scholars before the burning of the Library of Ohara]
[This reward will be automatically awarded after the countdown ends; no action is required from the question setter.]
Lin Qi looked at the prompt and blinked twice.
"Execute automatically?"
He scratched his head.
"Alright, you can handle the system yourself. I'm going to take a nap."
He closed the editing interface of the panel, but left the main screen on, displaying real-time feedback data from all corners of the world.
He carried the beer can towards the small room at the back of the Tavern, but stopped halfway there and glanced back at a blue dot marked on the screen.
The point of light was located in a certain area of the sea, and the label had four characters on it.
Nicole Robin.
"This character's storyline is really well-designed."
He muttered something to himself.
"I've been hunted since I was a child, my teacher died, my hometown was destroyed, and now I'm finally going to receive my teacher's belongings."
"If this plot were on Tomato TV, the comments section would be filled with people crying."
He yawned and went into the back room.
On the Sky Screen, a new line of text quietly emerged against a golden background.
The text wasn't large, unlike the titles of previous review articles which took up the entire sky; it was displayed in a quiet font in a corner of the Sky Screen.
[Ohara Library Manuscript Delivery Program Initiated]
[Teleport target: Nico Robin]
[Transmission Method: Direct Projection into System Space]
[Teleportation countdown: 60 seconds]
A ship in a certain sea area.
The ship was small, an ordinary merchant vessel, with cargo and supplies piled up in the hold and freshly washed clothes drying on the deck.
Robin stood by the railing at the stern of the Stern, holding onto it, watching the countdown numbers in the corner of the Sky Screen tick by second by second.
53.
52.
51.
Her fingers left five shallow marks on the railing, her nails digging into the surface of the wood.
Dr. Clover's manuscript.
What turned to ashes in the fire twenty-two years ago is now returning to her hands.
She closed her eyes.
Behind my eyelids is a scene from twenty-two years ago.
The firelight in the library.
The sound of a bookshelf collapsing.
Dr. Clover stood amidst the pile of books, his hunched back glowing red in the firelight. He was holding another stack of books in his arms and was shouting something, but she was too far away to hear him.
All she could see was the shape of his lips.
Live on.
"PhD."
Her voice was so soft that it was almost shattered by the sea breeze, and even the crew member standing three steps behind her didn't hear it.
The countdown has reached zero.
A beam of white light shot down from the Sky Screen, not a strong beam, but a very thin ray of light, which landed as precisely as a needle on the deck in front of Robin.
After the light faded, there was something else on the deck.
A wooden box.
The wooden box wasn't large, about the size of two shoeboxes. The box was made of a dark brown hardwood with fine grain on the surface, and the four corners were wrapped with copper plates, which showed traces of verdigris.
There was a line of text engraved on the lid of the box.
[Ohara Tree of Knowledge Library, Archaeology Department, Seventh Archive Room]
Robin looked at the words, his center of gravity leaned forward slightly, and then he regained his balance.
She crouched down, her fingers reaching for the lid of the wooden box.
Her fingers paused for a second just as they touched the lid of the box.
My fingers are trembling.
She placed her other hand on the back of her trembling hand and pressed down hard, stopping the trembling.
She opened the box.
The box contained neatly stacked piles of paper, which had yellowed but were in excellent condition, with each sheet having perfectly smooth edges and wrapped individually in a material similar to oil paper.
On the top stack of papers was a line of handwritten words, the handwriting small and the font neat and tidy, characteristic of an old-fashioned scholar.
Robin recognized the handwriting.
She knows it all too well.
This is Dr. Clover's handwriting.
The text read:
The thirty-seventh revision of the theory regarding the Void Century, written by Clover, is dated twenty-two years ago, the day before the destruction of Ohara.
The day before.
He was revising his research the day before he was burned to death.
Robin's finger landed on the line of text, his fingertip slowly moving along the ink lines, as if touching the texture of a scar.
Her lips were pressed into a straight line, and the muscles of her jawline stretched out clearly beneath her skin.
Then she turned to the first page.
The first page begins with a paragraph.
"If you are reading this manuscript, it means that Ohara may no longer exist."
"I had a premonition about this, because our research has touched upon the truth that the World Government least wants to know."
But I don't regret it.
"The duty of a scholar is to seek knowledge. If I abandon the pursuit of knowledge out of fear, then I am not worthy to stand under this Tree of Knowledge."
Robin's gaze lingered on the passage for ten seconds, reading it word by word, before turning to the second page.
The second page is academic, filled with analysis and deduction of fragments of Poneglyph, but there are some annotations written in smaller print in the Blank between paragraphs.
"Robin came to the library again today. She hid behind the bookshelves thinking I couldn't see her, but her feet were sticking out."
"This child is more talented than me. If she can grow up in a safe environment, she will definitely become a better archaeologist than me."
But the world didn't provide her with a safe environment.
Robin's finger stopped on that line of annotation.
Her fingers stopped trembling.
But her shoulders began to undulate in an extremely subtle way, the frequency of which was out of sync with the rhythm of her breathing—faster and shallower.
This scene was being played simultaneously on the Sky Screen.
The whole world saw a woman squatting on the deck, holding a stack of old papers from twenty-two years ago, her shoulders trembling slightly.
In the corner of the image, a line of text is marked on the Sky Screen.
[Of Dr. Clover's thirty-seven manuscripts, twenty-three contain annotations about Robin in the Blank of the academic content.]
[The annotations are all observations of Robin's growth and concerns about her future safety.]
[The last page of the final manuscript contains annotations written six hours before the destruction of Ohara.]
Robin turned to the last page of the last manuscript.
The main text of the page ends at about two-thirds of the way through, leaving a large Blank Blank with only one line of text.
The handwriting was more illegible than all the previous annotations, as if it had been hastily written in a very short time.
"Robin, if you ever see these things..."
Don't come back to me.
"To the sea."
"Go find those stones."
Tell the truth to the whole world.
"You are the last spark of Ohara."
The last four characters were drawn with a line, and at the end of the line was a dot of ink that spread out quite a bit, as if the pen tip had lingered on the paper for too long.
After writing this line, Dr. Clover paused for a long time on the last word.
Stop when the ink has soaked into the paper.
Robin looked at the ink spot and ran his finger over it.
Her fingertips traced the ink stain that had dried for twenty-two years, feeling the rough fibers of the paper and the uneven layers of ink.
Then she closed the manuscript and hugged it to her chest.
She didn't cry.
Or rather, she had already cried, cried the moment she saw the manuscript, and now only dried traces remained at the corners of her eyes.
She stood up, holding the manuscript, and turned to face the sea.
The sea breeze blew, blowing her hair to one side.
Her lips moved.
"PhD."
The sound wasn't loud, but it was very steady.
"I saw it."
"I will go find those stones you mentioned."
"I will tell the truth to the whole world."
But you said you wouldn't come back to find me.
She tightened her grip on the manuscript in her arms.
"I can't do that."
"Because you're back."
The images on the Sky Screen slowly dimmed, and text appeared.
[Ohara Library manuscripts transferred successfully]
[Nicole Robin's rewards have all been redeemed]
[This roundup is now over. The next roundup will begin in 24 hours.]
[Next episode preview: The second layer of truth Void Century, the complete list of members of the Twenty Kingdoms Alliance]
When the final line of the trailer appeared, all the lights in the Holy Land Mary Geoise came on.
Behind every window, Celestial Dragons could be seen pacing back and forth; servants jogged down the corridors to deliver messages; and the white masks of CP0 agents flashed in the night.
Within the Room of Authority, Jupiter Saint returned from behind the door leading to a higher level.
His face was three shades paler than before he went in.
The other four veteran stars all looked at him at the same time.
"What did Lord Imu say?"
Jupiter Saint sat down in his chair, his hands clasped on his knees, a very subtle tremor emanating from between his interlaced fingers.
Imu Im said something.
What are you saying?
Jupiter Saint raised his head and scanned the room with his gaze.
"Clean."
The word fell on the floor Room of Authority like a drop of concentrated sulfuric acid on a marble surface, silently emitting smoke.
"Where is your partner?"
Venus Saint's voice was taut like a steel wire.
Jupiter Saint's fingers stopped trembling.
Alabasta.
"The Nefertari Family is the only one of the twenty first kings who did not remain in Mary Geoise."
"Lord Imu believes they possess something that shouldn't exist."
"Before Sky Screen Curtain releases the member list, that thing must be destroyed first."
The Five Elders' gazes met in the air.
The silence lasted for five seconds.
Then Mars Saint stood up.
"Give the order to CP0."
Target: The Alabasta Kingdom.
"Mission Level: Highest."
Time limit: Within 24 hours.
In a distant desert kingdom, Cobra was discussing with Vivi what had just been shown on the Sky Screen. His fingers were unconsciously rubbing together on the edge of the blanket, his gaze wandering across the ceiling.
Unbeknownst to him, an order directed at him had already been issued from the highest point in the world.
The command contained only two words.
Cleaning.