Luo Ya talked a big game, but before long, he couldn't drink another drop. "You drink like a lightweight, yet you call yourself a Great Swordsman? You've got a long way to go, kid! Hahaha!"
Though old Maynard's hair had gone white, he drank faster than most people gulped water. His face flushed red as he raised his cup and laughed at Luo Ya.
Seeing Luo Ya passed out on the table, he went to drink with the others instead.
In the end, the banquet lasted until dawn, when everyone in the room had been knocked out.
Luo Ya slowly sat up, clutching his head. He looked at the mess around him and smiled, then got up and headed to the harbor.
"It's time for a spontaneous trip! Hehehe!" Luo Ya was brimming with anticipation.
As he pressed the button, all eight pairs of propellers spun faster and faster, and the Black Pearl slowly pulled away from the dock.
"Mihawk, you've held on to that top spot for too long. Get ready to face the storm of a new age."
Maynard, who had woken up at some point, watched the Black Pearl leave the dock through the window and murmured to himself.
Once the Black Pearl had left the harbor, Luo Ya checked their direction, set a course, then hurried back to his cabin to catch up on sleep.
Half a month later, a massive red mountain that seemed to reach the sky appeared before Luo Ya. Even though the anime had described the Red Line as vast and towering,
nothing could compare to seeing it with his own eyes. Luo Ya was awestruck.
As the ship entered the current, a river flowing uphill came into view.
The One Piece World was made up of the four seas, the Grand Line, and the New World. The Red Line and the Calm Belt divided them into a cross.
Apart from crossing the Calm Belt, the only way into the Grand Line was to sail up the current at Reverse Mountain.
Luo Ya struggled to control the ship as the raging current drove it toward the Red Line.
He sailed for a long time before finally spotting the entrance in the distance. The journey had consumed so much energy that he'd already recharged the ship twice.
After aligning the ship and activating its propulsion system, he sailed onward. The reason so many pirates who made it this far ended up shipwrecked
was that when they sailed up Reverse Mountain, whether they crashed into the Red Line depended on luck. In that kind of raging current, even Luo Ya's powered propellers wouldn't be enough to help.
As for their sailing ships, it all came down to the navigator's steering skills.
This was when the two Jet Propellers came into their own. Even the mightiest current could be redirected by a massive blast of flame.
Luo Ya felt his ship pick up speed, then hurtle straight toward the towering Red Line.
He gripped the railing tightly to keep from being blown away by the wind.
Watching the ship surge upward, Luo Ya felt his heart race. This kind of thrilling adventure was exactly the life he longed for.
The ship reached the very top, and its momentum sent it soaring into the air. Then it splashed down and raced downhill at even greater speed.
They passed Reverse Mountain without a hitch, leaving the Jet Propellers with nothing to do. Luo Ya felt a little disappointed.
At last, Luo Ya had officially left West Blue and entered the Grand Line.
Normally, the first major challenge upon entering the Grand Line was finding your way. Without a Log Pose, you could only drift aimlessly across the sea.
The Grand Line had seven routes for this very reason: each route had the same magnetic field.
Only after reaching an island and letting a Log Pose record its magnetic field would it point toward the next island.
Maynard had prepared Log Poses with their routes already recorded for Luo Ya, but he turned them down.
As he put it, only the unknown could make a journey exciting. In all those novels Luo Ya had read before,
the protagonists had crossed into another world only to follow Luffy's route. What was the point of that?
So Luo Ya had only taken two blank Log Poses from Maynard.
If Maynard hadn't solemnly warned him about what could happen if a Log Pose was damaged and insisted he bring a spare, Luo Ya would've set off with just one.
Of course, Luo Ya didn't know that the Straw Hats hadn't followed a fixed route either. After all, there were seven Shichibukai, and Luffy's crew had encountered three of them during their voyage.
Jinbe guarded Fish-Man Island, the Empress was in the Calm Belt, and Hawk-Eye spent his time chopping at his little boat with Yoru. Kuma had also devoted himself to the World Government's experiments.
No matter which route they took, they were bound to run into these formidable oddballs.
The excitement of entering the Grand Line wore off after Luo Ya had spent half a month wandering aimlessly at sea.
After all, sailing across the ocean was truly dull. Even the most beautiful seascape grew tiresome after a while.
If Sea Kings hadn't occasionally tried to eat the Black Pearl and given Luo Ya something to do, he would've had to pass the time by training in the gym.
But Sea Kings weren't easy to come by during a voyage, either. So Luo Ya had no choice but to hone his Haki aboard the ship.
After all, the duration of Black Flame Mode depended on how much Haki he had, and Luo Ya was already just one step away from hardening his Armament Haki.
For some unknown reason, his Observation Haki remained at the beginner level.
As time passed, Luo Ya drifted across the sea for more than half a month before finally spotting an island.
The island's docks were packed with all kinds of merchant ships and pirate ships. At the harbor, plenty of sailors and workers bustled about, loading and unloading cargo. The place seemed very prosperous.