The underworld, on the road to the afterlife.
Buluoke opened his eyes groggily. There was no light, just a hazy grayness all around him. He felt dizzy and weightless, which was a little unsettling.
Why was it so dark? Had he forgotten to turn on the lights? Where were the city's neon signs? Had the whole block lost power?
He hoped it wasn't a blackout. After years of drifting from place to place, the only company he had in his rented room was a tank of delicate goldfish. Without electricity, the water wouldn't circulate and stay oxygenated. Several of those fragile fish would probably die overnight. They were a comfort to his lonely heart, each one raised on the fish food he'd fed them by hand, one pellet at a time.
He closed his eyes, then opened them again and shook his head, scanning the surroundings. Buluoke froze. Why couldn't he feel his hands or feet?
All around him was a dead silence. A pale bone-white road stretched into the distance, where a muddy yellow river seemed to churn. The dim, eerie surroundings made even Buluoke's soul tremble.
Where am I?
Buluoke was lost in confusion. He was truly bewildered. Was this a dream?
Am I dead? Is this the road to the afterlife?
Suddenly, a flood of memories slammed into Buluoke's soul, forcing their way inside as they rapidly intertwined and merged with his own.
Brook, musician of the Rumbar Pirates, a pirate crew that entered the Grand Line from West Blue. His bounty was thirty-three million Beli, and he had formerly been the captain of the guard in the Rumbar Kingdom of West Blue.
In the Sea Circle Calendar year 1470, the Rumbar Pirates had parted ways with Laboon the Island Whale at Twin Capes. Not long afterward, their captain, Yorki, had contracted a plague and left the crew. Brook had become acting captain, but a few months later, the pirates had been attacked by an enemy using poison gas weapons in the Florian Triangle. The crew had ultimately been wiped out.
I actually transmigrated into the world of One Piece, and I'm about to become Brook—the perverted skeleton who loves looking at panties?
Buluoke's soul quivered. This was worse than transmigrating into Bone King Ainz Ooal Gown from Overlord. A bony loser might end up king of the sinful realm, and either way it was all just talk—but at least Momonga had been a max-level boss.
He'd transmigrated, but he still couldn't escape Zhang Chulan's fate? Just thinking about it made Buluoke's balls ache.
In his previous life, he'd been a reclusive video-editing blogger who specialized in dark educational videos: kidnappings and auctions on the dark web, injustice and crime, bizarre and terrifying cases from around the world, fish slaves in Southeast Asia, scams in northern Myanmar...
All of it had left Buluoke with a rebellious streak that made him feel out of place in the real world, and even more alienated from women. But what guy didn't want a life of wine, women, and song?
Buluoke struggled to digest and absorb Brook's memories, piecing together his current circumstances. It seemed he had just died and entered the underworld of the dead.
The power of the Yomi Yomi no Mi was protecting his soul. It kept the underworld from erasing his memories and prevented the depths of hell from dragging him in. Brook's consciousness had already been scattered by Buluoke's foreign soul. He had taken over Brook's body, merging with him.
At the rate things had originally gone, it would have taken Brook a long time to regain consciousness and escape the road to the afterlife. In the original story, after escaping, Brook had spent a year lost in the fog of the Florian Triangle. By the time he returned to his body, it had been reduced to a skeleton.
But based on the crime-related videos Buluoke had edited, a corpse was unlikely to become a skeleton in just one year. In relatively dry conditions, it could sometimes take seven or eight years for a corpse to skeletonize. It would take around ten years for the bones to completely dry out and become free of fat.
And according to Brook's recollections in the original story, he had lived alone in the mist for more than thirty years, until Gecko Moria stole his shadow.
So Buluoke guessed that, in the original story, Brook had drifted along the road to the afterlife for at least ten years before escaping the world of the dead and returning to life with Underworld Qi and Underworld Ghost Qi.
Now that Buluoke had merged with Brook's soul and regained consciousness, he had to find a way to escape the road to the afterlife as soon as possible. He had to return to Brook's body within a short time, or his ultimate fate would be to become a rotting zombie or a monster made of bones.
Buluoke flung his soul around with all his might, stirring up the surrounding Underworld Qi and Underworld Ghost Qi. These energies slowly merged with his soul. The power of the Revive-Revive Fruit protected his soul and consciousness from being corrupted, while gradually absorbing the Underworld Qi and Underworld Ghost Qi.
Nearby, blurry souls of all shapes were being ground away one after another, slowly drifting toward hell. The sight sent a chill through him.
Like a tadpole, Buluoke waggled his soul's tail and swam back the way he had come, toward the entrance to the world of the dead. The power of the Revive-Revive Fruit helped propel his soul forward as it tried to escape this world.
Though the distance was short, Buluoke had already been swimming for hours. Fortunately, he had also merged with Brook's soul, giving him the strength of two souls. That was the only reason Mo Ye hadn't run out of spiritual power.
Brook's techniques could release the icy ghost energy of the underworld and freeze his enemies. Thinking of that, Buluoke tried to devour and fuse with the Underworld Qi and Underworld Ghost Qi as he fled.
Sure enough, under the power of the Yomi Yomi no Mi, Buluoke's soul successfully began to merge with the Underworld Qi and Underworld Ghost Qi, growing stronger and stronger.
Remembering the advantage Brook had in the original story—the ability to leave his body as a soul—Buluoke grew even more eager to devour these energies. The stronger his soul became, the stronger he would be once he returned to his body.
Thanks to Buluoke's tireless efforts, he finally saw the entrance to the world of the dead. But as his soul grew stronger, something unimaginably terrifying seemed to be awakening in the depths of hell. The force pulling at him grew stronger and stronger, dragging him down toward hell.
Buluoke was so frightened that he no longer dared to absorb the Underworld Qi and Underworld Ghost Qi recklessly. He poured every last ounce of strength into drifting toward the exit.
Without the power of the Yomi Yomi no Mi protecting a soul from being erased by the underworld and dragged into hell, perhaps no soul could withstand the corruption of the world of the dead.
As his soul suddenly felt lighter, Buluoke finally escaped the underworld. Without stopping to think, he immediately searched for Brook's body in the Florian Triangle.
He had skipped the confusion on the road to the afterlife and the time lost in the fog, so the Rumbar Pirates' ship hadn't drifted far. Buluoke hurried aboard, elated. Brook's body had been dead for less than a day and was still fresh. It looked like there might still be a chance to save it.
Without a word, the soul formed from Buluoke and Brook entered Brook's body. The icy ghost energy of the underworld flowed into the blood that had congealed in his veins. The blood turned a ghostly blue and began to flow again, while the poison spots on his body faded away.
Underworld Qi entered his spirit, and the oppressive, deathly aura of hell spread around Brook.
"Hah... Ah!!!"
Buluoke—now Brook as well—had finally come back to life. His cold body frosted the deck white. Brook opened his mouth and exhaled; white vapor billowed out, condensing into frost.
With a crackle, Brook stood up. He felt like a White Walker from Game of Thrones. He reined in the Underworld Qi and Underworld Ghost Qi, and some color slowly returned to his body, though he remained extremely cold.
The first thing Buluoke did was pull down his pants and tease his little buddy. Brook was thrilled by the result. It could still move—it could still stand tall.
For a moment, Buluoke felt that even in this cold world, there was still a little warmth.
He looked around and saw corpses covering the deck. As a modern man, the sight of so many bodies, combined with the Florian Triangle's thick fog—which was no less eerie than the underworld—made Buluoke swallow a mouthful of cold saliva.
He had edited plenty of videos about tragedies and watched plenty of horror movies. After taking a moment to steady himself, Buluoke fixed his gaze.
"Friends, you were all good brothers to Brook in life. Sons of the sea, rest easy and return to the embrace of the sea mother. I'll avenge you all!"
Buluoke carried all the bodies into the ship's hold, their final resting place.
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