Borrowing a Ship

The archives reeked of paper and dust. Dawn began searching through the files quickly and carefully.

Hard work paid off. After some searching, he found the detailed sea chart of Ohara he had long dreamed of in a cabinet marked "West Blue—Special Routes"!

Suppressing his excitement, he continued searching. Ohara, located in the West Blue, lay on the New World side of the latter half of the Grand Line. Without maps of the Paradise region in the first half, he would not even be able to reach the Red Line.

After another round of searching, he finally gathered the necessary charts for reaching the Red Line. He carefully rolled up these precious maps and placed them in the huge canvas backpack he carried with him, which was likewise invisible.

The Subspace opened by the Yami Yami no Mi did not have storage capabilities. One of the inherent properties of that profound darkness was "compression" and "pulverization"; it mercilessly crushed any matter drawn into it.

Dawn had conducted many experiments, but no matter what he tried, he could not eliminate the Subspace's destructive effect on matter. Therefore, he could only rely on a traditional backpack to carry items.

Just as he was about to leave the archives, his steps suddenly halted. A thought flashed through his mind: if he could directly find maps here of the islands where those promising future figures from his memories were located, wouldn't that save him the trouble of going to Ohara?

In his previous life, as a seasoned One Piece fan, he remembered the islands where certain key figures had been active in their early days with great clarity.

He knew very well that he could never complete that world-overturning revenge alone. He needed to find and gather companions strong enough and reliable enough.

With a trace of hope, he turned back and quickly searched through the archive cabinets again. This time, however, Lady Luck did not favor him. The islands he sought were either too remote to have been recorded, or their maps were too highly classified to be kept in an archive room at a branch of this level.

"Looks like the trip to Ohara is still an irreplaceable step."

Suppressing the faint disappointment in his heart, Dawn no longer lingered. He quietly left the archives and carefully restored the door to its original state.

He then followed the same route back, moving as silently as when he had arrived, and ultimately left the Marine Base without harm.

Outside the base entrance, Dawn thought for a moment and decided to head straight for the docks. He needed a ship; he could not exactly swim out to sea.

The dock area was still bustling. Dawn looked around, his gaze sweeping over ships of all kinds as he tried to find one he could "borrow."

Before long, his eyes settled on a two-masted sailing ship docked in a somewhat secluded spot. It was neat in appearance and rather luxuriously furnished. The flag on its mast seemed to belong to a merchant guild. It looked like a fine vessel, and quite a few crew members appeared to be moving about and resting on deck.

That was the one.

Dawn slipped into the shadows again and silently boarded the merchant ship's deck.

On the open deck, several crew members were chatting together or scrubbing the boards. Suddenly, a clear sound of footsteps stepping across the wooden planks rang out abruptly, echoing through the air—yet there was no one in sight!

At once, alarm bells rang in every crew member's heart! Having spent years at sea, they were instinctively wary of all sorts of strange occurrences.

Almost in unison, they reached for the weapons at their waists—swords, firearms, and even harpoons.

"Who's there?!"

"Show yourself!"

"There's an enemy! Is it a Devil Fruit user?"

Cries of alarm erupted everywhere.

Dawn gave them no chance to react or resist. The instant his footsteps drew attention and caused a commotion, he had already decided to end this quickly.

"[Kurouzu]"

His low voice seemed to come from the underworld. In an instant, thick liquid-like darkness spread rapidly from him like spilled ink, covering the entire deck. This darkness not only devoured the light, but also generated an incomparably powerful gravitational pull.

The crew screamed in terror. The deck beneath their feet seemed to have turned into a quicksand swamp, and an irresistible force dragged them downward. They struggled desperately and grabbed onto anything fixed nearby, but it was all futile.

The darkness seemed alive, winding around their limbs and devouring their resistance.

"Help!"

"What the hell is this thing?!"

"No—!"

Amid shrill screams, crew members were dragged one after another into the bottomless darkness and vanished without a trace.

In only a few breaths, the once somewhat noisy deck became deathly silent and completely empty. Only the scattered tools and weapons proved that people had been there moments ago.

Dawn did not pause. He immediately began searching the cabins. He needed to make sure no fish had slipped through the net. After a careful inspection, he discovered a man and woman immersed in primal desire inside the captain's cabin at the stern.

The two were completely naked, engrossed in their vigorous activity. Their heavy breathing and moans drowned out every unusual sound from outside, and they had not noticed the terrifying scene that had unfolded on deck.

Dawn frowned slightly. He had no interest in such a scene, nor did he feel any pity. He directly used his ability. Thick darkness flooded into the captain's cabin and swallowed the pair into the Subspace before they could react, sending them to join the crew members from before.

After confirming once more that there were no other living people aboard, Dawn walked to the helm. He had learned how to sail while traveling on a passenger ship to Drum Island, where he had sought instruction from the old helmsman aboard.

At the same time, he had learned some basic navigation. Though he was nowhere near Nami's almost conceptual level, he could barely sail alone.

To travel freely across these seas, one could not get anywhere without knowing how to handle a ship and navigate.

He familiarized himself with the ship's controls, then skillfully cast off the mooring lines, raised the anchor, and adjusted the sails with the rigging.

Under his control, the merchant ship slowly turned its bow, departed the harbor of the City of Queen Spring, and headed toward the boundless sea.

TO BE CONTINUED