The Rumble-Rumble Fruit Was Waiting for Me Above the Sky

"Captain, chase him!"

Inside the watertight compartment, a researcher rammed the iron door with his shoulder.

"Grave took the core files! Forget about us—stop him first!"

Su Hang walked up to the iron door and drove his dagger into the lock.

"Shut up. Step back."

"This is a Seastone alloy door. You can't open it!"

"The door is alloy. The wall isn't."

Su Hang took half a step back and clenched his right fist.

The Nika Core had not been enhanced, and his rubber power remained at a safe fusion level.

His fist slammed forward, caving in the entire partition wall as rivets burst loose one after another.

Bang!

The second punch landed, and the iron door, along with its frame, collapsed into the watertight compartment.

Seawater rushed out.

More than a dozen researchers were knocked down by the current, then caught by the ropes Su Hang flung out.

"Those who can move, get up. Those who can't, report your position."

A white-haired researcher helped a companion to his feet.

"Grave will get away!"

"That's my problem."

Su Hang secured an ordinary zip line to the tower's outer support frame and fired the other end toward the Dawnbringer.

"Everyone evacuate along the zip line. Anyone fighting for position gets thrown back first."

Qi Hai's voice immediately came through the shared Den Den Mushi.

"The zip line's secured! Send the injured first—the Dawnbringer will pick them up downwind!"

The researchers slid out of White Tower one after another.

Beneath the sea, explosions rang out in rapid succession.

The left tower began to tilt, and the rotating shaft anchoring the massive Seastone net groaned under the strain.

Mia watched the angle of the tilt.

"Su Hang, White Tower is going to fall toward the Dawnbringer! We have six minutes at most!"

"Have the main ship retreat two nautical miles."

"The zip line isn't long enough!"

"Get everyone across first, then cut the line."

Qi Hai demanded sharply through the Den Den Mushi.

"How are you planning to deal with the tower?"

Su Hang looked at the four support pillars running through White Tower.

"Make it fall in another direction."

"Don't increase the core fusion level!"

"No need."

The last injured person slid out through the window.

Su Hang stretched out both arms, wrapping them around two pillars, while his legs braced against the eastward-leaning wall.

His rubber body instantly tightened to its limit.

Crack!

The already broken western pillar was forcibly held in place.

White Tower's collapse abruptly slowed, and its peak hung above the sea for half a breath.

"Cut the zip line!"

Qi Hai sliced through the rope clasp with one stroke.

The Dawnbringer retreated rapidly with the wind.

Yet Su Hang remained wrapped around White Tower's pillars, his feet slowly sinking into the shattered wall.

Mia called out urgently.

"Everyone's aboard! Let go!"

"The Seastone net is still connected to the right tower. If the left tower falls toward the fleet, it'll seal off this entire stretch of sea."

"You can't hold on much longer!"

"Long enough to shift it once."

Su Hang's arms suddenly contracted.

The two pillars were pulled southwest, twisting White Tower's massive body with them.

The gigantic Seastone net swept across the surface and crashed down several hundred meters from the Dawnbringer.

Rumble!

A wall of water surged into the sky.

Su Hang released the pillars, grabbed a remaining zip line on the outer wall, and swung toward a reef on the force of the impact.

White Tower snapped apart behind him, avoiding the fleet as it crashed into an uninhabited deep-sea area.

"Send the pickup boat!"

Qi Hai had barely given the order when the roar of an engine came from the other end of the strait.

A black speedboat shot out from a hidden door in the right tower.

Grave sat at the stern, the file case locked beside his feet, an detonator still in his hand.

"Su Hang, you saved them, but you'll never catch me!"

"Who said I was chasing you?"

Grave's expression changed.

Ahead of the black speedboat, twelve ordinary buoys suddenly shot up from beneath the water.

Thick hemp ropes connected the buoys. There was no Seastone and no explosives, yet they perfectly blocked the only channel that could avoid the shattered net.

Grave yanked the helm around.

Too late.

The propeller tangled in the hemp rope and jammed on the spot.

The speedboat smashed sideways into the buoys, throwing Grave and the file case into the cabin.

Qi Hai emerged from behind the reef in the pickup boat, his blade tip pressed to Grave's throat.

"While you were stalling in the tower, I wasn't idle either."

Grave stared at the buoys.

"How did you know the escape boat would come this way?"

"The strait is surrounded on three sides by Seastone nets. You research ability users—you wouldn't risk your own life testing the nets."

Qi Hai kicked the detonator away.

"This last safe channel was the way you left for yourself."

Grave suddenly reached for the file case.

The flat of the blade struck his wrist first.

Crack!

His finger bones broke, and the file case fell into Qi Hai's hands.

Su Hang arrived aboard the pickup boat, bloody marks from the pillars still circling his right arm.

Grave looked up at him.

"You gave up chasing me. How could you still catch me?"

"I didn't."

Su Hang pointed at Qi Hai.

"You kept watching my choices and forgot that there was more than one person aboard the Dawnbringer."

"When did you set those buoys?"

"After we discovered the Seastone nets."

Qi Hai fastened the Seastone Handcuffs around him.

"You dared to activate White Tower's self-destruct, which meant you had an escape route prepared. While the captain entered the tower, I searched outside for your way out."

Grave suddenly laughed.

"You think you've won?"

"White Tower was only an observation point. The World Government already knows Su Hang's priority. Human lives, crew members, organizations—all of them rank below opportunities."

Su Hang crouched down and picked up the black file case.

"So what if they know?"

"Next time, they'll send more people."

"Then I'll prepare more ships."

"There will always be people you can't save."

"You should worry about yourself first."

The file case had a burn compartment built into it.

When Grave activated the self-destruct, most of the documents inside had already burned to black ash. Only several booklets near the bottom had been soaked by seawater, preserving fragments of their contents.

Mia carefully separated the pages one by one.

"Causality research serial numbers, White Reef Torpedo sound-pattern data, auction selection records—they're all here."

One of the rescued researchers spoke in a low voice.

"We were only responsible for calculating anomalous events. Grave broke people's choices down into weighted values, then repeatedly applied pressure with bait."

Su Hang turned to the final booklet.

White Tower Strait had only been a false entrance.

The true coordinates of the Rising Current perfectly matched Hawk's incomplete map, the reverse thunderstorm records from Rogue Town, and the two route-recording shells before and after it.

The tide cycle had not changed either.

Twenty-one days later.

Mia recalculated the observation measurements once more.

"The water column's angle in the first half is correct, and the original wind layer in the latter half is real as well. The Bronze Compass locks onto the thunderstorm exit, the Recording Shell corrects the ship's angle, and the Rogue Town data determines the tide cycle."

She stacked the four sets of documents together.

"We found the complete route."

Lorne asked quietly.

"And the destination?"

Mia opened the final page that had been soaked in seawater.

Seven layers of cloud patterns were drawn on the paper, beside which was a line of ancient text.

Below it was a translation later added by the World Government.

Vika.

High-intensity lightning activity continued to occur. A Logia Devil Fruit was suspected to exist there.

A system screen suddenly unfolded before Su Hang's eyes.

[High-weight opportunity detected.]

[Target: Logia Rumble-Rumble Fruit.]

[The original recipient has yet to complete the destiny loop.]

[Interception condition: The host must personally alter the fruit's ownership.]

[Mission reward: Thunder Module unlocked. Worldline rewards will be calculated based on causality deviation.]

[Warning: Destiny convergence has appeared in the target area. The original recipient is approaching the opportunity.]

Su Hang stared at the words "Rumble-Rumble Fruit," his palm slowly tightening.

Nika was only the beginning.

Above the sky lay an ultimate Logia power capable of tearing apart islands, turning its user into lightning, and covering the entire airspace.

Lorne took out a waterproof document case.

"How should we store the complete route?"

"Upload it to the Dawnbringer Merchant Guild's shared archives."

Several researchers looked up at once.

Mia stopped what she was doing as well.

"This is a complete route to Sky Island. If we make it available to guild members, someone might set out before us."

"Restrict access to members who have signed the navigation confidentiality agreement. Archive the coordinates, tide cycle, and all risks. Anyone who accesses it will leave a record."

Su Hang placed the Bronze Compass into the document case.

"If the Dawnbringer sinks, the route can't disappear with me."

Lorne asked again.

"You're not afraid someone will intercept the Rumble-Rumble Fruit?"

"An opportunity can't be guarded just by locking it in a document."

Su Hang looked up toward the clouds.

"Anyone who wants to take it can compete fairly once they reach Vika."

The shared Den Den Mushi transmitted the complete data back to the merchant guild's outpost.

Hawk's Private Vault's incomplete map, the black-market Sky Map, the Seven-Tier Cloud-Pattern Recording Shell, and the Rogue Town Thunder Manual finally formed a path leading to the sky.

The system prompt appeared again.

[The host had proactively reduced the degree of information monopoly over a high-weight opportunity.]

[Cause-and-Effect Lighthouse brightness increased.]

[High-level observers had confirmed that the anomaly source possessed a stable organization.]

The Holy Land, Mary Geoise. The Flower Room.

Imu stood barefoot at the end of the long staircase, with only half a page left in her report.

The White Tower had sunk, Grave had been captured, and some of the causality research materials had been leaked.

The Five Elders knelt outside the door.

"Should we mobilize the Navy immediately and seal off the entrance to the Rising Current?"

Imu snapped the white flower stem between her fingers.

"No."

"Nika is about to reach Vika. If the Rumble-Rumble Fruit also falls into his hands, the blank spots in the predictions will continue to expand."

"Let him go."

Imu looked toward the patch of black on the wall that could not reflect the future.

"Those whose fates have been severed will not remain silent forever."

A new sail rose aboard the Dawnbringer.

Mia calibrated the tide cycle twenty-one days ahead, Qi Hai escorted Grave into an isolated cabin, while Lorne issued supply requests to the merchant guild's ships.

Su Hang stepped onto the bow as the needle of the Bronze Compass lifted higher and higher.

The system's final prompt passed through his vision.

"Go to Vika. The one who was meant to become a god has already seen the Rumble-Rumble Fruit."