East Blue, a construction site.
The construction was being handled by the Ace Construction Crew under Demacia Company's First Construction Division, the annual business champions, a team from the Goa Kingdom.
As they worked, they chatted loudly and enthusiastically:
"Did you all see the news?"
"I heard that archaeologist Nico Robin uncovered the 'historical truth' the World Government had hidden for eight hundred years!"
"So Demacia already existed as a nation on the seas nine hundred years ago."
"That goddamn World Government is nothing but a pack of thieving rats, termites gnawing away at houses!"
"Yeah."
As the workers discussed the historical truth spreading throughout the seas, the conversation soon turned to something that interested them even more:
"It's not just that historical truth. Lord Garen found the legendary Laugh Tale and got the great treasure, One Piece!"
"Look at those photos in the newspaper. Damn, that's incredible."
"There were several mountains of gold!"
"When all that gold was piled together, it stood taller than the garbage mountain we used to live on in the Goa Kingdom."
"The Pirate King really was the Pirate King. He was seriously rich!"
Not many people had known about the Poneglyphs before, but everyone knew about the Pirate King's great treasure.
As the workers discussed the huge news of Garen finding Laugh Tale in the newspaper, their faces flushed with excessive excitement.
However, one of their coworkers felt neither excitement nor curiosity. Instead, he looked as though he had just heard devastating news.
He no longer even wanted to work. He merely sat there in a daze, muttering to himself:
"The great treasure..."
"The great treasure has already been found."
At that moment, Luffy experienced despair much like Teach and his brothers had.
The formerly energetic and optimistic Luffy now lay limp on the