Little Wo Blasts Erik to Ashes

"But Luffy, how are we supposed to get Dragon Lord onto the island?" After the Straw Hats got off the ship, they ran into another problem: how to transport Dragon Lord onto the island. Usopp looked at Luffy in distress.

"Do we even need to think about it? Bring him over however we brought him here!" Before Luffy could speak, Nami answered first. Then she turned and shouted, "Aaron! Come over here and blow a bubble!"

"Wuuuu!" On the ship, Aaron heard Nami's words and trembled slightly. Then he slowly stood up, pointed at his mouth, and made a string of incomprehensible noises.

Yeah... he had been beaten into a lump of flesh. His mouth was so swollen that he could not speak.

"...Who beat him up like that?! Don't they know you don't hit people in the face?!" Seeing Aaron in such a state, Nami glared at everyone angrily.

"Wasn't it you?" Everyone rolled their eyes at Nami in unison.

Yeah... that wave had nearly knocked Nami, who had just come out of the cabin, into the sea. Even though she had not fallen in, the wave had nearly beaten her stupid.

Yeah... Nami's fists could break defenses, so even though Aaron's physical and magical defenses were both A-rank, once Nami joined the group beating, Aaron, who had previously been perfectly fine, instantly... went from a beautiful art style to a deranged one.

"...Ahem!" Nami coughed into her fist, then looked at everyone seriously. "How are we getting Dragon Lord onto the island? Do any of you have a good idea?"

"..." Everyone rolled their eyes again.

"Ah~~ Even Sister Nami forcibly changing the subject is so beautiful!" Uh... except Sanji.

"Ah! Now that you mention it, I do have an idea!" Usopp thought for a while before suddenly shouting.

Then he opened the treasure chest he carried with him, rummaged around for a bit, and pulled out a bottle.

"This is bubble solution I got from Aaron before. With this, we should be able to cover Dragon Lord in a bubble!" Usopp said to the others.

"So you had that trick up your sleeve! Not bad, Usopp!" Sanji praised as he looked at the bottle of transparent liquid.

"Yosh! Hurry up and start, Usopp!" Luffy did not really understand, but once he heard Usopp had a solution, he urged him on.

"Wait a second, Luffy!" As he spoke, Usopp recalled the trick Aaron used to blow large bubbles. He poured the bubble solution onto his hands and rubbed them together a few times. Then he pressed his palms together before pulling them apart, revealing a thin film. He took a deep breath and blew hard!

Whoosh!

Unfortunately, if it were that easy to blow one, how would the author pad the plot?

"Huh?! What's going on?" Usopp stared at his hands in shock. He had already used up all his breath, yet the film on his hands still lay there quietly, showing no sign of turning into a bubble.

Whoosh!!

Still unwilling to believe it, Usopp blew another fierce breath. He did not stop until his face was red and his ears were burning. Then he opened his eyes and looked, his face full of existential doubt.

The film still rested there quietly, with absolutely no desire to leave Usopp's warm, large hands.

...Since when were bubbles this hard to blow?!

Usopp felt that his dignity had been challenged. He let out a long breath of stale air, his back arching slightly backward.

Inhale!!

He slowly straightened up. His stomach and chest gradually swelled, nearly bursting his belly, before Usopp finally stopped inhaling.

Whoosh!

Usopp puckered his lips to increase the airflow, and a violent stream of air surged toward the film!

The film puffed up!

By about one millimeter!

Yeah... which meant it was completely useless.

"How is that possible?!" Usopp stared blankly at his hands. He felt like a useless person.

He could not even blow a bubble. Go eat rice fields!

"You really are weak, Usopp." Seeing that Usopp could not even blow a bubble, Luffy immediately mocked him.

"If you can do it, you try!" Usopp became a little embarrassed and angry, stretching out his hand in resignation.

"Hehehe! Watch closely! Gum-Gum, Balloon!" Luffy was not actually stupid. After seeing Usopp's performance, he knew these bubbles were not easy to blow. So he took a deep breath, inflated himself into a ball, then curled his hands around his mouth to reduce the air escaping.

"Blow!" A true gale erupted from Luffy's mouth, so strong it nearly blew Usopp over.

And yet it did absolutely nothing.

"Huh? It didn't work?" Luffy scratched his head, unwilling to give up and ready to try again.

"You can't blow a big bubble without mastering the trick!" Aaron suddenly interjected. The swelling on his face had already gone down. He looked at everyone and said, "The more bubble solution you use at once, the tougher the film becomes, and the harder it is to blow into a bubble. Without some skill, you simply can't do it."

Yeah... because the author had not expected to be able to pad the story this much, the plot was being forcibly sped up.

"Watch!" Aaron pressed his palms together. Drops of bodily fluid seeped from his hands, and he rubbed them together twice. Then he slightly separated his hands, moved his lips, and blew a breath of immortal air toward Dragon Lord.

Whoosh!

The bubble slowly expanded and enveloped Dragon Lord. Then Aaron gave it a gentle flick, and the bubble completely detached from his hands.

"See? It's that simple." Aaron turned back with a smile.

Yeah, like letting them use level-zero accounts to brute-force a boss first, and after they failed, using a max-level main account to casually basic-attack it, then returning with a calm expression and saying, "See? It's that simple."

Tch... there was something I really needed to say right now.

"But this place looks so desolate. Is the dragon nest really here?" Zoro looked at the ruined walls around them and could not help asking.

"Even if it isn't, this place must have a great connection to the Thousand-Year Dragons." Sanji answered. Then he glanced back and fixed his eyes on Aaron. "Aaron, this Bubble Man No. 1... it actually has consciousness, right?"

"What?!" Hearing Sanji's question, everyone leaned back in shock and looked at Bubble Man No. 1, who was holding Dragon Lord.

At the moment, the Straw Hats were on their way up the mountain, while Bubble Man No. 1, summoned by Aaron, followed behind them carrying Dragon Lord.

"Yeah!" Aaron scratched his head and grinned foolishly. "I thought you all already knew!"

"You never told us, so how could we know?!" everyone said helplessly.

"That can't be... I remember the author had me mention it," Aaron said in surprise. Then he pulled out a script from behind his back and carefully checked the previous chapter.

"Ah! That slacker author really forgot to explain it again!" Aaron cried out. Then he tossed the script away and complained, "Seriously, he keeps randomly adding settings. At this rate, he'll ruin my character sooner or later!"

"Hahaha..." No one knew how to answer.

After all, they were not characters created by this slacker author.

"Bubble Man No. 1 really does have consciousness. I don't know exactly how it was born. Anyway, one day I suddenly discovered that there were several extra consciousnesses inside my body." Aaron casually explained his secret to the Straw Hats. "Since they can all take shape using my bodily fluids or bubble solution, I call them Bubble Men."

"Hmm..." Luffy folded his arms and tilted his head as he thought for a while, then nodded. "Yosh! That means they're really awesome, right!"

"Don't pretend you understand when you don't..." Usopp said helplessly. Then he glanced back at Bubble Man No. 1 again. "I never thought something like this existed in the world... I wonder whether it even counts as life."

"It probably does. And it might even be something like Aaron's child, right?" Sanji guessed, stroking his chin.

"Yeah..." Aaron nodded helplessly. "They really do treat me like an elder... but I don't know why they call me Grandpa. Shouldn't they normally call me Dad? Or at worst Mom? What kind of nonsense is calling me Grandpa...? Do I look that old?"

"Well! Maybe it's their custom. After all, they're a newly born race. A few things that don't conform to common sense are still understandable," Sanji said indifferently.

"That makes sense." Usopp nodded and quietly stored the matter away in his mind.

He planned to tell Kaya about it later.

As for the name, he would call them Bubble Babies.

"We finally reached the mountaintop!" Luffy stretched lazily and laughed as he looked around at the scenery.

"But how do we get through this door?" Nami looked at the heavy stone gate, completely at a loss.

"Smash it open!" Luffy said.

"No! What if there are traps inside?! Ancient cities like this are the most likely places to have those kinds of traps!" Nami, who had stolen all across the East Blue, had plenty of experience with such things. "We should look around first and see if there are any clues."

"That's our only option," Sanji said. "No, there's another way," Aaron seriously refuted. Then he pulled the long-forgotten conch from his clothes, a mysterious smile appearing on his face.

"Why don't we ask the Magic Conch first~~~"

"Meow!" The moment Aaron took out the conch, Wo immediately poked out of his shell and stared fixedly at it.

If he had not dissected this thing before, then this time he absolutely had to figure out what made it tick!

Aaron slowly pulled the ring, his voice low. "Magic Conch, how should we enter this door?"

The spring cord slowly retracted, and a mechanical voice came from the conch's opening. "Beep! Fall down."

"Fall down?" Hearing the conch's answer, Nami suddenly had a bad feeling.

Creak... creak creak creak!

As if confirming Nami's premonition, the floor tiles beneath the Straw Hats suddenly began making cracking sounds. Then, with a boom!

The floor could no longer bear their weight and shattered.

"Waaah!!" Everyone screamed as they fell.

"This should be the inside of the building, right?" Zoro looked up at the surroundings. "But why would the people here build a door in midair?!"

"No idea. Maybe the people here had some strange hobby." Sanji also stood up from the ground and scanned the area. "But getting inside should count as a good result."

"Dragon Lord! Dragon Lord! Wake up, Dragon Lord! Hurry and see whether this is the dragon nest!" At that moment, Apis, who had been offline the whole time, suddenly came back online. She shook Dragon Lord wildly to show that she existed.

"..." Dragon Lord slowly opened his eyes. He raised his head to look at the mural above them, then slowly closed his eyes again after a long while.

"Hey! Dragon Lord, what does that mean?! Is this the dragon nest or not?!" Apis anxiously pushed Dragon Lord, completely failing to notice that Wo had already climbed down from her shoulder.

"Meow!" Wo stared intently at the hollow ahead. After a long moment, he slowly crawled inside.

"Hm? Wo, where are you going?" Aaron, who had been spacing out nearby, saw Wo crawling inward and curiously followed him, unnoticed by the others.

Wo slowly entered the darkness, then closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings for a while before crawling to one side.

"Wo has been acting all weird ever since he touched that warship... How strange." Aaron scratched his head and followed after him.

Eventually, Wo crawled into a fist-sized hole, just large enough to fit him.

"What is Wo doing in there...?" Aaron scratched his head. Without thinking much of it, he shoved his head into the hole. The muscles in his face trembled as they pushed Aaron forward in a wriggling motion.

Before long, Aaron squeezed inside too.

He patted the dust off himself and looked around for Wo.

The surroundings were extremely dark, but under a faint trace of light, he could barely make out the area around him.

"Whoa! Wo, what are you doing?!" Then Aaron spotted Wo lying atop a pile of bones.

"Meow!" Wo seemed not to have expected Aaron to get in as well. He let out a helpless cry, then refocused on the Millennium Dragon Bone beneath him.

That was right, all these bones belonged to Thousand-Year Dragons.

No one had expected that at the very bottom of this structure, there would be an enormous amount of Millennium Dragon Bone.

This would make a good shell cannon. Wo thought, and his muscular foot stabbed fiercely into the dragon bones like a steel blade.

Pale white light lit up all around them. Aaron looked around and suddenly realized that he was standing atop an enormous skeleton!

"Meow!" Wo suddenly gave a loud cry, and his whole body bloomed with azure light.

Then the white light surged toward Wo all at once, like swallows returning to their nest.

The light grew brighter and brighter until Wo became a dazzling luminous body.

Suddenly, all the light vanished. The abrupt contrast instantly blinded Aaron.

"Wo, what exactly are you doing?" Aaron, blinded by the flash, did not panic. He scratched his head, dug out his eyeballs, wiped them with his hand, and shoved them back in.

Tch... if a gag manga changed art styles, it would instantly become absurdist horror!

"Meow~" Wo felt his shell and nodded in satisfaction.

Creak... creak creak creak!

The surroundings suddenly began to shake.

Yeah... according to the usual trope, once all the power had been absorbed, this room was naturally going to collapse.

"Wo! Get over here! This place is about to collapse!" Feeling the state of the surroundings, Aaron ran toward Wo in panic, wanting to shield him beneath his body.

"Meow!" This prince had a cannon now. Why would he fear a mere collapse?

Then Wo's shell suddenly shone with deep blue light. A few seconds later, a black hole opened atop the shell. The entire shell flowed and churned upward like liquid.

In the end, a pale cannon barrel stood quietly atop Wo's shell. Sparks occasionally flickered at its muzzle, while the blue glow within the shell grew increasingly intense until it reached a critical point.

"Meow!" Armstrong Jet Cyclone Armstrong Cannon, fire!

Boom!

A searing white beam tore through the sky, piercing straight into the heavens like a sword.

"Meow!" Wo looked at the huge hole above his head and nodded in satisfaction.

Not bad, not bad. This prince's craftsmanship had not declined after all.

Then he glanced at Aaron, whose jaw had dropped. "Meow!" He urged him to hurry up and climb out.

"...Wo, you're amazing!" Aaron looked at Wo, stars practically shining from his eyes.

"Meow!" Foolish test subject, now you understand how amazing this prince is!

After getting out, Aaron discovered that the area was utterly silent. Everyone stared blankly at the huge hole above them.

"What are you all looking at?" Aaron asked curiously.

"Aaron..." Usopp turned to look at Aaron and swallowed. "What exactly did you do just now?"

"Huh? I didn't do anything. What happened?"

"Just now, a man who called himself Erik was standing beside that hole. He said one sentence, then a beam of white light hit him dead-on, and he turned into ashes..."

"That wasn't me." Aaron scratched his head. "Wo did it."