Return

The Inazuma struck Buggy, who was suspended in mid-air, and a numbing and painful sensation spread throughout his body, followed by intense dizziness that filled his head.

He fell straight into the sea, and in an instant, his body was enveloped by the icy water. An unimaginable pressure and a sense of powerlessness overwhelmed him, his vision blurred, and everything around him seemed indescribable.

Seawater rushed into his mouth, nose, and ears, choking him unbearably. He couldn't even move his fingers, cough, or feel like his arms and legs no longer belonged to him.

A feeling of sinking washed over him. Buggy stared at the sea above, watching the raging, towering Sky Split and gales churning the area into chaos. His eyes grew increasingly numb. These terrifying, apocalyptic scenes receded into the distance. His eyelids drooped slowly, and the light shining from above reflected a chilling, despairing terror in his increasingly blurry pupils.

This is the curse of all Devil Fruit User: they fear the sea. Their bodies will not rise; they will only sink until they reach the bottom of the ocean, a prison of death.

The surroundings turned blue, then deepened into black, the black and blue intermingling to form the unique inky color of the deep sea. Buggy's consciousness became increasingly blurred. He tried hard to open his eyes, but he couldn't, leaving only a small slit.

A giant shadowy creature emerged from the deep sea, swallowed the nearby waters whole, and then vanished.

Awakened by the biting cold around him, or perhaps by a strong will to survive, Buggy suddenly opened his eyes, sat up, and looked around at his surroundings. All around him was a vast expanse of blue, with a light source shining through from who-knows-where, illuminating everything clearly. There was clearly nothing beneath him, yet he seemed to be floating in mid-air, sitting steadily. When he placed his hands on a flat surface, ripples would spread outwards from below.

"What is going on?"

Buggy was filled with doubt. His energy had been slightly replenished, so he stood up and walked forward cautiously, glancing left and right.

After walking for a while, a deep blue, flowing veil appeared ahead, opening to both sides and leaving a gap about three meters high, leading nowhere.

Buggy walked up to the opening, hesitated for a moment, then made up his mind and went through it.

Suddenly, an incredibly bright light pierced Buggy's eyes, forcing him to raise his hand to shield them.

As his eyes gradually adjusted to the light, he lowered his hands and looked around. The sky was bright and cloudless, and beneath his feet was the earth. He was on the beach of an island, with coconut trees growing nearby and lush forests in the distance. It seemed as if an extremely strong sound of the ocean waves was constantly ringing in his ears.

Buggy patted his ears, but it didn't help, and he didn't know if there was something wrong with his ears.

Where am I now? Have I returned to my original location?

Buggy paused for a moment, then suddenly glanced to the side and saw a figure seemingly appear out of thin air. The figure was blurred as if covered by a mosaic, making it difficult to see clearly, but the outline of the person's body convinced Buggy of their identity: Golden Lion Shiki!

Is there something wrong with your eyes too...?

He blinked hard again, but still couldn't see clearly, as if the glasses of a severely nearsighted person had suddenly been taken off, leaving everything blurry.

"Golden Lion?!"

Buggy strained to speak, but found his voice hoarse and he couldn't even hear himself. He frowned. Was there something wrong with his throat too?

The Golden Lion in front of them didn't utter a word, holding two swords in its hands, and charged over from a distance with a whoosh.

Buggy was startled. He dodged the Golden Lion's slash, which had cleaved the sea into a chasm nearly a hundred meters wide!

With that movement, Buggy was startled again. He realized that although he couldn't hear, see, or speak clearly, his movements were twice as fast as before.

Golden Lion attacked again with his sword. Buggy calmed his initial shock, but became even more puzzled. The person in front of him clearly resembled Golden Lion. How did he end up here, and why was he attacking him? What was going on?!

Buggy dared not relax for a moment, covering himself with Armament Haki, dodging, defending, and counterattacking, defusing the opponent's offensive flawlessly, exchanging blows and defenses with the opponent, exchanging more than ten moves in the blink of an eye.

The two fought fiercely and ruthlessly, with a wide impact, from the southeast corner of the island all the way to the northeast corner, and then from the northeast corner to the northwest corner. Large swathes of land were continuously destroyed and leveled, and the lush forests were bent and twisted as if they had been hit by a violent storm.

They fought from the clear blue sky of daytime until the starlit night, and from the foggy dawn until the rising sun.

Throughout the day and night, Buggy felt no signs of exhaustion. Instead, he grew stronger and more excited with each battle, like a werewolf howling in a mad rage under the moonlight, finally finding an outlet for his inexhaustible energy.

The fierce battle showed no signs of stopping, continuing until the early hours of the third day. Suddenly, a sense of absurdity washed over Buggy —the person before him was not Golden Lion at all!!

Looking up again, Bucky saw that the blurry figure in front of him had suddenly turned into Roger. Although he couldn't see clearly, Buggy was certain that the other person was Roger, who was wielding a sharp longsword and attacking him with wide, sweeping strokes.

Roger's swordplay was always imbued with Conqueror's Haki. Whenever that longsword got close, it would create a strong sense of oppression and a terrifying feeling of suffocation, as if suppressing the mind and body with an invisible force. It swept in with immense power, stirring up a storm.

Under the pressure of Conqueror's Haki, Buggy found it difficult even to raise his hand, and could only barely dodge. It was a close call, and his intuition told him that if he was not careful, he might really die here, and it was no joke.

After battling Roger relentlessly, teetering on the brink of death several times, Buggy gradually adapted to the terrifying pressure of Conqueror's Haki and slowly launched a counterattack. He became excited again, and the two fought fiercely for three days and three nights.

Until the early hours of that day, Buggy's uneasy feeling returned. He looked closely and saw a blurry figure, but he knew it was Rayleigh.

Rayleigh wields his sword with one hand, his swordsmanship known for its speed. Each move is swift and skillful, demonstrating his immense strength and ability to maximize every ounce of power, creating an oppressive force comparable to Roger's Conqueror's Haki.

Buggy tried to defend himself, but was overwhelmed and in a sorry state. Several wounds were torn open on his arms, chest, and abdomen, and blood was flowing freely. However, he did his best and, after overcoming the initial crisis, was able to launch an effective counterattack again, instead of remaining on the defensive.

After three days and three nights of fighting, Buggy's uneasy feeling returned, and the blurry figure in front of him turned into Gaban!

Gaban wielded his sword, his attacks rhythmic, like waves crashing one after another. Often, before one attack was finished, the next would follow, as if all the attacks were piled up together, or like a towering wave cascading down.

Driven by his fighting spirit, Buggy fought relentlessly. After battling Golden Lion, Roger, and Rayleigh, he was able to handle the situation with ease and was no longer constrained by their swordsmanship.

After three more days of non-stop fighting, the blurry enemy before them changed his appearance again, reverting to the form of the Golden Lion, and even his fighting style was completely different.

They are also silent and speechless, only knowing how to relentlessly attack, carving furrows and cracks into the land and sea, destroying and ravaging.

"Wait a minute... why don't I use this opportunity to hone my Devil Fruit abilities!"

Buggy and his opponent exchanged blows, but then Bucky suddenly realized something and a thought arose in his mind. He acted on his thought, immediately unleashing the power of his own Chop-Chop and continuously using it.

Day and night alternated, day after day, battle after battle. Buggy had long forgotten how many times the enemy before him had changed. The endless fighting gradually numbed him, and he only knew that he was becoming more and more adept at using the power of Chop-Chop, and a huge tension was surging within him.

"Break!"

The power he had been accumulating within him suddenly erupted. He clasped his hands together and charged forward, crushing the longsword in the hand of the enemy before him—whose identity he no longer recognized—with overwhelming force. The sword shattered into pieces, fragments shooting out in all directions. With undiminished power, he struck the chest of the blurry figure before him, sending the latter flying backward.

At this moment, visible cracks appeared in the air in front of them, and a pale green fluorescence, like that of fireflies, spread through the air.

Buggy stood frozen in place, then suddenly realized what was happening and used both hands to exert even more force towards the gap.

The gap in space grew larger, with irregularly shaped missing corners. In an instant, a tidal wave of suction force surged forth, sucking Buggy's entire body in.

A white pirate ship was anchored on the sea, its surface shrouded in a dazzling display of yellow, red, and blue sea mist, resembling a vibrant neon light.

On the deck of the monk Baihao, Buggy, who had been keeping his eyes closed, suddenly opened them. He looked around in confusion, feeling a buzzing in his ears and a tightness in his chest, unable to breathe.

He sat up abruptly, panting heavily.

As he exhaled, Buggy felt dizzy and almost fell over. He quickly braced himself on the deck with his hands, as fatigue, emptiness, and pain rushed into his body.

"You're back..."

Buggy grinned, then murmured with a sigh of relief, "This feeling of being on the deck is much more real than before. My memories of being with Roger Pirates are suddenly becoming a little blurry."

His inner intuition told him that this was the real thing!

Still somewhat unsettled, he sat for a while before staggering to his feet. He walked to the galley in the cabin, took out a bag of bread from the cupboard, and found it had gone bad, probably from being left in the damp environment for too long.

However, he didn't care at all and wolfed down the food. Then he found some fresh water, lifted the whole bucket upside down, and gulped it down his throat.

While drinking fresh water and munching on bread, Buggy quickly finished the spoiled bread, then let out a satisfied burp and breathed a long sigh of relief, his strength having been restored considerably.

He walked toward the deck again, but suddenly sensed something, stopped, rolled up his trousers, looked at his legs covered in bloody marks, and then immediately rolled up his right sleeve, and was stunned.

There was a nearly 30-centimeter-long wound on his right arm. Although it had scabbed over, it still looked shocking.

"How could this be...? Was the cultivation I experienced in that dream also real...?"

With a thought, Buggy instantly unleashed the power of the Chop-Chop.

A gap appeared in the space beside his palm, revealing a flowing green light within. However, the gap gradually narrowed and soon closed up again.

"So it really was true..."

Buggy rolled down his sleeves and trouser legs and returned to the deck thoughtfully. He did indeed feel that his strength seemed to have increased significantly compared to before, and not just a little bit.

Stepping out of the cabin, he rushed to Mikuru, who was lying on the ground. He knelt down and put his finger under Mikul's nose. Although Mikul was barely breathing, he should still be alive.

Buggy breathed a sigh of relief. Judging from his own experience, Mikuru should have entered a very long dream and fallen into a state of possible "fake death." As long as he sailed the pirate ship out of the sea fog, she should wake up.

Buggy then went to Gild Tesoro, who was leaning against the wall, and checked his breath with his finger. Hmm... this guy was still alive too.

Then, he checked on the sailors who had fallen on the deck, and found they were not dead.

Only then did he realize that the Pale White was anchored on the shore of an island, and that it wasn't just his ship; there were several other rotten and decaying ships nearby, including merchant ships, pirate ships, and Marine warship.

Buggy thought for a moment, then leaped onto the deck of another ship.

On the decks of the other ships, there were also groups of people lying or leaning in various positions, their eyes closed and motionless, all lifeless. Perhaps they had been trapped here for too long and their energy was exhausted, or perhaps they had been killed in that dream. However, these people's bodies were basically intact and had not decomposed.

After checking each of the ships and finding nothing amiss, Buggy landed on the beach. The area was shrouded in a three-colored sea fog, making visibility extremely low; he could barely see anything more than thirty meters away.

Curious, he walked forward step by step, wanting to see what was on this island shrouded in sea fog, and what kind of structure produced this sea fog.

The further you go, the thinner the fog becomes, and the clearer the vision becomes. However, the surroundings are barren and there is nothing there. There is no vegetation, and no sign of life. Only brownish-yellow mud stretches to the horizon.

"This island... is really strange..."

Buggy had just finished thinking to himself when he stopped in his tracks, looking up in astonishment at the enormous creature before him.