The sea breeze was crisp and slightly cool, blowing from the long, boundless coastline all the way to the horizon.
Two men in black coats and black fedoras sat on the bank, each holding a fishing rod. After a while, the slightly wider, fatter man on the left finally couldn't help but yawn listlessly, muttering under his breath, "How much longer will this damned life last...? I've been fishing here for a month, but I haven't seen even a trace of Rainbow Fish. I really don't know if Rainbow Fish even exist."
"Who says otherwise..." the slightly thinner man on the right chimed in, "But... what if there really is Rainbow Fish, and we actually catch it... then, that would truly be a meteoric rise to wealth!!"
"What kind of daydreaming are you, kid? We'd never have such a good opportunity..." The fat man shrank back. "If it weren't for Lady Inia's orders, I wouldn't want to stay in this damned place!"
"Hehe, Lady Inia is indeed a great beauty, but don't even think about it. Even if you try your whole life, Lady Inia will never look at you."
The skinny man chuckled and said, "Instead of thinking about how to please Lady Inia, we should think about how to catch the Rainbow Fish. Once we catch the Rainbow Fish, we'll have a chance to turn things around. Then Lady Inia will naturally look at you with new eyes and favor you greatly!"
As he spoke, a hint of wonderful daydreaming appeared in his eyes, "If I manage to catch Rainbow Fish, I'll take it to the auction house in the Sabaody Archipelago. I've heard that Rainbow Fish can fetch a staggering 100 million there, which is comparable to the price of Devil Fruit!"
The fat man was clearly a pessimist. He sighed and said listlessly, "Don't even think about it. There's no such thing as a free lunch. That's the legendary Rainbow Fish..."
"Haha." The skinny guy laughed nonchalantly, instead teasing, "If you could catch Rainbow Fish, what would you do with it? You know, if you hand it over to the captain, I heard you can exchange it for a Devil Fruit!"
The fat man suppressed the slight thrill in his heart and sighed again, "How could I possibly catch anything..."
The skinny man pressed on, "I mean, what would you do if you actually caught one? Life isn't just about the present hardships; there's also hope and the future."
"Kindness..."
Under the skinny guy's persistent pestering, the fat guy couldn't help but let his imagination run wild, "If I could catch a Rainbow Fish... I'd probably trade it with the captain for a Devil Fruit, right? With Devil Fruit, Lady Inia would notice me... Besides, I heard a Marine Vice Admiral recently came to the island. If he leads the Marines to attack us, I could use my Devil Fruit ability to escape, right? I don't want to die right now!"
The skinny guy said, "Hey, you're being way too pessimistic. We're not pirates. Even Marine Vice Admiral doesn't have the authority to arrest us!"
"Who knows... Crown Island hasn't been peaceful lately!"
As he spoke, the fishing rod in the fat man's hand began to vibrate slightly, as if something had taken the bait!
"Such immense power... What... What's going on?!"
The fat man was stunned, and even his speech became incoherent.
"Maybe we really caught Rainbow Fish!!" The skinny guy was so excited he started to stutter. "Quick, quick, pull it up!"
The fat man swallowed hard, his trembling hands tightening as he gripped the fishing rod and lifted it upwards. "My God... could it really be Rainbow Fish?!"
The force beneath the fishing rod was immense, pulling the fat man downwards relentlessly. Seeing this, the thin man quickly joined his arms on the rod, shouting, "Let's work together! Whether we can turn things around depends on this!"
As the two men pulled the fishing rod back with all their might, a hazy shadow gradually appeared on the surface of the sea, and the outline of the dark shadow became clearer.
Whoosh--
The sea surface was as if a powerful bomb had been dropped, instantly creating waves dozens of feet high. A light rain began to fall from the sky. Suddenly, a giant Sea Kings, tens of meters tall and resembling an electric eel, emerged from the sea with a fishing hook in its mouth. Its eyes, as big as water tanks, stared fiercely at the two people on the shore, and saliva dripped from its mouth like a waterfall.
The moment the two men saw the Sea Kings, they immediately released their fishing rod, which had already broken in two. Their faces filled with terror, they collapsed to the ground, seemingly losing control of their bodies in extreme fear. Their pupils dilated, and they muttered unconsciously, "This isn't Rainbow Fish, it's Sea Kings! We're doomed!"
The electric eel- Sea Kings opened its gaping maw, crouched down, and prepared to swallow the two barely-fitting people on the shore as a mere dinner.
"Silver Fang Slash!"
A dense current of air pierced the sky like the dawn breaking through the enormous shadow cast by the electric eel Sea Kings, exceptionally dazzling.
The electric eel's body stiffened in mid-air, then slowly tilted downwards, revealing a smooth, straight cut between its upper and lower body.
Whoosh--
The upper and lower halves of this Sea Kings fell into the sea in free fall, creating countless high waves and huge splashes.
A moment after the splash subsided, a slightly immature face emerged from the sea where the electric eel Sea Kings had sunk.
Shuma wiped the water off his face, picked up the floating corpse of the Sea Kings, looked towards the shore, and asked in confusion, "Strange, I clearly sensed two people on the shore, did they leave?"
He didn't pay much attention, dragging the Sea Kings's corpse as he slowly swam to shore. Then he waved towards the distant Big Top, "Everyone, come quick!"
On the Big Top at that moment, Cabaji sheathed the Sakura Blizzard back into his waistband, turned to look at Mohji, and revealed a smug smile, "I won!"
"You're cheating!" Mohji retorted, denying it.
The two, bored out of their minds, made a bet to see if Cabaji could cleave the Sea Kings in two with a single strike. The distance between the deck and the Sea Kings was nearly 300 meters. Even if Cabaji unleashed his full power with a flying Flying Slash, the Sea Kings would diminish with distance, making it difficult to inflict fatal damage. However, after Shuma used Geppo to carry Cabaji through the Vice Admiral, closing the distance by over 100 meters, he decisively ended the life of the unfortunate Sea Kings with a single " Silver Fang Slash."
Then, Cabaji swam back to the ship. Faced with the "cheating" method, Mohji naturally refused to admit the other's victory... These two have always been like this, arguing is a daily occurrence, but occasionally they can still reach a consensus.
As the two bickered, the Big Top slowly docked. Everyone, including Nilek, disembarked and sat on the shore, waiting for Shuma to cook the Sea Kings into dinner before they could really enjoy it. After all, the food on the ship was almost gone without them realizing it... Entrusting the task of food storage to Shuma was indeed an unwise decision.
It was two days ago that we left the Sky Island and returned to the Blue Sea (land). The octopus balloon and cushioning airbags allowed the Big Top to land smoothly on the sea. As for the experience, it was probably like taking a parachute ride – thrilling!
Nilek wasn't hopelessly a recluse; he still seemed quite sociable, especially with Shuma. Their relationship had become so close these past two days that they were even singing together in the middle of the night at Kikoku volume, calling it "vocal training." This almost made Cabaji was on night duty, think it was an enemy attack.
Through these days of conversations with Nilek, Buggy learned quite a bit. Nilek's two eyes, one black and one white, are actually the essence extracted from Obsidian and White Radiant Stone. These two essence stones can continuously absorb "light" and "darkness" from the outside world to replenish the kinetic energy consumed by its own movements. In other words, these two eyes are the energy source that has enabled it to operate for hundreds of years.
However, to be precise, this thing is not the real God Nirok. The first God Nirok created it before his life came to an end, and stored his own memories and personality in a special chip that could radiate infinite possibilities. He transferred it to the chip as the information processing center, and continued to live as a continuation of his own life. However, can the existence of transplanting a person's memories, personality and thoughts into a machine really be considered a continuation of life? This is a question that may not be definitively answered even hundreds of years later.
Nilek's memories are incomplete for some reason, which is why he had the idea of going to the Blue Sea to see if there was a way to restore his "memory".
As for Spar's body, it was also taken down by Nilek, who should now be able to control it...
Interestingly, this Spar was the God Plap from six hundred years ago. Not only that, he also studied science and technology under Nilek for several years, making him, in a sense, Nilek's last disciple. He had a series of dramatic events with the God Jess from six hundred years ago, and after a heartbreak, he asked Nilek to replace his heart with a mechanical one. Then he left the Three Gods Island for the Blue Sea, and this perfectly preserved heart later seems to have ended up in the body of King Weilan, Xilo Frans.
In short, the events of that year were so complicated that even Nilek was unwilling to elaborate, leaving Buggy to piece together the story from his tone of voice.
After Shuma cooked a pot of fragrant meat and grilled several astonishingly large skewers, everyone sat around the campfire, chatting and filling their stomachs.
"Have you noticed that the shape of this island is like a crown?" Kaya asked.
Mohji recalled the panoramic view of the island he had seen from the ship. "It does look quite similar."
Cabaji nodded and said, "If this island is considered a crown, then we are currently positioned on the front of the crown."
Kaya said uncertainly, "I remember there was a mention of an island with this shape in < Ivan's Adventure Stories >, but I don't know if it's this island..."
Sitting next to Kaya, Lilina continued, "You mean the story of the Rainbow Fish? This island is the Crown Archipelago. I passed through here a long time ago when I was on tour, passing through Sabaody Archipelago."
" Rainbow Fish?" Buggy's interest was immediately piqued. He put down his bowl and looked at Lilina, saying, "Tell me about it."