A World of Difference

The buildings in the Ritual Town are angular and very square, like a Rubik's Cube magnified countless times. The exterior walls are covered with metallic textures, and compared to the other houses in the town, the only word to describe them is "grand".

However, the main entrance of the building is not a regular square, but is shaped like a squid. Although the entrance is tightly closed at the moment, it is not a problem for Buggy.

He placed his hands on the gate, and the entire gate shattered into Chop-Chop, turning into dust that fell to the ground.

Buggy led Cabaji, Mohji, Shuma inside, only to find the place empty and deserted.

The interior decorations weren't exactly opulent, not comparable to the royal palaces and mansions Buggy had seen on his journey along the Grand Line.

The entrance hall leads to a long corridor, with wall lamps flickering one by one. The further in you go, the fainter the light becomes, until at the far end of the corridor, it is pitch black and nothing can be seen.

According to Bos, the state priest never left the building. Whatever happened on the island or what orders he gave, they were always relayed by his guards.

Some townspeople suspected that the real state priest had been murdered long ago, and that the three Eight-Feathered Generals had always been in actual power on the island, with the state priesthood merely a pretext.

However, such words can only be said in private. If said publicly, even ten lives wouldn't be enough to get you killed.

Even with such a fierce battle taking place in the town, the fact that the state priest still did not appear makes this speculation quite plausible.

The group stood at the building's entrance. Mohji gazed at the deep, dark corridor. "Shall we go in?"

"Perhaps everyone inside has already escaped..." Cabaji suggested.

"No matter what the situation is inside, we still have to go in and take a look. If there are no enemies, then we can save ourselves the trouble of going in."

Buggy went inside, and the three of them followed closely behind.

After walking forty or fifty meters, the wall lamps began to dim, until finally only boundless darkness remained. However, in this bizarre world, the sheer darkness wasn't frightening; it was just rather tedious, as the corridor was unexpectedly long, and we hadn't seen a single room or window along the way, which was quite strange.

Listening to the sound of their footsteps on the ground, the group had the illusion that they were in a frozen space-time.

Buggy stopped and looked back, only to find complete darkness behind him, without a glimmer of light.

He continued walking forward cautiously, wondering if the enemy would launch an attack at this moment.

However, even enemies would probably find it difficult to adapt to such a dark environment, since Observation Haki cannot truly replace eyes and ears.

Buggy kept walking forward for about ten minutes when he finally realized something was wrong. He was confident that his sense of direction was correct; he had been walking straight, but the corridor was just too strange, as if it would never end!

"Cabaji," Buggy called out, his voice echoing in the empty corridor.

No one responded.

"Mohji, Shuma," Buggy called again, but only an echo returned, "Mohji, Shuma."

Buggy activated his Observation Haki, but couldn't sense anyone's presence. He frowned. When did these guys get lost...?

"There's definitely something strange here. Is this some kind of ghost wall...?"

He stopped, stood still, pondered for a moment, then separated his hands and flew upwards, quickly feeling a tangible, cold sensation.

It's the zenith.

Buggy gathered the Chop-Chop power into his hands, which had soared to the top of the sky, and unleashed it with tremendous force.

The roof, which was of unknown thickness, began to slowly crumble, and then a ray of light shone through from the floor above.

The hole in the ceiling grew larger, and the light filtering through became denser, but it was still very dim.

Buggy looked up, then leaped up and landed on the floor above.

Looking around again...

Isn't this the main entrance corridor I came in through?

A broken, octopus-shaped door came into view, and the wall lamps on either side of the wall flickered with dim light, leading to an impenetrable darkness.

Buggy muttered to himself, "This is really strange..."

I walked straight ahead without going up or down any stairs, but somehow I ended up on the next floor.

He suddenly understood something, walked to the door, looked outside, and then his confusion was resolved. "So that's how it is... But it really is quite strange."

The room lights blazed bright white as Shuma, wielding his Raptor Boomerang battle with the six-man squad before him.

These were not ordinary soldiers, but imperial guards with seven feathers hanging from their waists. Their true purpose was to annihilate the foreign invaders— Buggy and his group.

Seven-feathered experts are already at a very high level on this island. Apart from the Nine-feathered National Priest and the Eight-feathered General, almost no one can match them. And now there are six experts of this level!

Even with the combined efforts of all six, they were completely unable to suppress Shuma, and the fierce battle between the two sides left the large room in a complete mess.

However, although the walls and ground affected by the impact showed marks of varying depths, they were not shattered, demonstrating an astonishing level of hardness.

"Raptor. Giant Pill."

Shuma seized an opening to break free, gripped the boomerang in a unique gesture, and then shot it out suddenly.

A series of cyan slashing air currents, centered on the Raptor Boomerang, extended two meters long like laser blades, clinging to the edges of the boomerang and forming a huge disc slash, rapidly approaching the six Seven-Feathered Imperial Guards.

It wasn't just Shuma; Cabaji and Mohji were also separated and fell into the Imperial Guard's trap. They wanted to take down the three of them one by one, and finally capture Buggy, who was the leader.

Mohji is somewhat better off, Store-Store Fruit can store external damage. With this alone, as long as his storage capacity is within its limit, all attacks can be neutralized. Of course, the cost is that his stamina will be constantly consumed.

In addition to his Devil Fruit ability, he is also proficient in Tekkai and Armament Haki. With these three different forms of damage reduction combined, unless he is too careless, ordinary people cannot hurt him. Even the encirclement of the Imperial Guard with the strength of seven feathers can only be used by him to counterattack, and he is not afraid at all.

On the contrary, in the instant when darkness and light met, Cabaji was stabbed in the right arm by the sudden appearance of the Imperial Guard. He only managed to dodge in time, otherwise it would have been a fatal wound aimed at his heart!

Therefore, he was at a disadvantage from the very beginning of the battle and has been suppressed by weapons coming from all directions ever since, making it difficult for him to catch his breath. He is now trying to turn the tide.

Although none of the four knew their own situation, they could basically confirm what had happened to the others by using themselves as a reference.

Buggy, who was looking at the view outside the gate, finally understood.

The main entrance was originally located in the center of the first floor of the building, but it has now shifted to the second floor on the right...

In other words, it's not that I've been stuck in a maze, but rather that the building is actually a Rubik's Cube, not just something that looks like one!

It seems someone has been manipulating the mechanism, causing spatial changes and rotations, making them keep going in circles.

Judging from the area occupied by this Rubik's Cube-like structure, it should be able to be divided into many squares, creating countless looping paths, after all, this structure is truly enormous.

It must be said that such a sophisticated mechanism is truly astonishing. If it were an ordinary pirate, he would probably spend his whole life here and eventually be trapped and die. But for a split-person, there are naturally a hundred ways to leave.

"The building's ability to change its structure at any time in response to our actions means that someone is constantly observing us, or that a system within the building itself is controlling it..."

"In that case, if we use our Devil Fruit abilities to wreak havoc here, wouldn't that force out that national festival...?"

Upon realizing this, Buggy immediately dismissed the idea. The ground and walls here were not made of ordinary metal; they were probably some kind of complex alloy. Although he could split them using his ability to Chop-Chop, it would consume a lot of energy, which would be detrimental to dealing with the dangers that might arise at any moment. It was not a wise approach.

"We can't cause any damage inside..."

Buggy pondered for a few minutes, then his eyes suddenly lit up. He leaped towards the damaged door, "We could have done this a long time ago..."

He landed on the ground, looked up, and took in the Rubik's Cube-like structure that was about fifty meters long, tall, and wide. A smile appeared on his lips.

Then, he slowly squatted down and placed both palms on the flat ground.

Cracks on the ground started from his palm and spread to the right of the Rubik's Cube building. The cracks grew larger and larger, and suddenly turned into a chasm more than ten meters wide.

Pulled by the chasm, the originally straight Rubik's Cube structure lost its footing and gradually tilted to the right like a die. Then, its corners were stuck in the chasm. If the ground were to collapse and widen further, the entire structure would probably be crushed.

The deafening roar of the collapsing Rubik's Cube building could be heard throughout the entire town. The townspeople peeked out from their windows and stared in disbelief at the scene.

Although a corner of the Rubik's Cube-like structure collapsed, it did not break in half due to shear and bending forces, which speaks volumes about the quality of its materials.

However, Buggy was stopped from moving. He saw an underground opening that had appeared on the ground after the cube-shaped structure tilted, and white light shone from the opening.

"Oh?! There's a hidden passageway like this here..."

He freed his hands, stood up, and went to the bottom of the Rubik's Cube structure.

The base of the cube-shaped building, which originally included the entrance, should have been a transportation device like an elevator. However, it has been broken into two sections. Inside the entrance, there is an elevator mechanism embedded in the wall, and the depths below emit a white light, suggesting a hidden world.

"So that's how it is..."

Buggy tossed a pebble down into the hole, and a few seconds later he heard a very faint splash. He estimated the distance and jumped down into the hole.

Snap!

A thin layer of water splashed on the ground, but it couldn't really be called water splash; it was just a small puddle of water, only about three or four centimeters deep.

Buggy stepped out of the center of the elevator and looked around. Incandescent lamps hung on the ceiling of the cave, illuminating the entire dark cave as if it were daytime. Apart from the incandescent lamps, there was only a large, arched gray door in front of him, and nothing else.

The air here is very humid; fine water droplets condense on both the incandescent light bulbs and the cave walls, dripping down.

Buggy stepped through the shallow puddles on the ground, walked towards the door, pushed it open, and went inside.

The view here is excellent, but the cave is empty, with a patterned stone pillar standing in each of the four cardinal directions.

In the center of the four stone pillars is an altar, and in the center of the altar is a human figure. The figure is dressed in a cloth skirt, has very strong muscles, a thick face, and holds a harpoon in its right hand.

Buggy looked at the statue in front of him with some confusion; there was actually an altar here...

Etc!

He suddenly felt that he had seen this stone statue somewhere before; it looked somewhat familiar.

But for a moment, I couldn't quite remember where I'd seen it before...

After careful consideration, he decided to put the matter of the altar aside for the time being, looked at the arched gray door in front of him, walked over, and pushed the door open.

The door wasn't locked and was easily pushed open.

What appeared before them was another long corridor, but unlike the pitch-black Rubik's Cube building before, this corridor was now brightly lit by incandescent lights, and it was unclear where the power source was.

Beep beep beep...

The sound of water droplets falling from the cave ceiling to the ground echoed continuously, like a melody with only one beat. Listening to this for too long in the quiet cave would become tiresome.

The corridor is less than a hundred meters long, and at the end there is another large, arched gray door.

Buggy walked along the corridor without encountering any obstacles. The 100-meter distance took him about 50 seconds before he pushed open the door.

The view was filled with the same white light as always. This time, behind the main door was not a long corridor, but a domed opening resembling a hall.

At that moment, Buggy saw the back of a very short humanoid creature, and the creature seemed to sense something, slowly turning around.

He was only about 1.2 or 1.3 meters tall, with thin arms that were just skin and bones. He leaned on a cane that looked like a scepter in his right hand, and wore a mask with a slightly pointed top and neat, symmetrical angles protruding on both sides, making him look like an octopus at first glance.

Upon seeing the nine feathers at the other's waist, Buggy was finally able to confirm that this was definitely human... and the supreme ruler of this island.