Linlin

How terrifying was the Grand Line, really?

Different people had different answers to that question, but perhaps only pirates who had entered the New World could give the most accurate answer.

At the entrance to the New World, on the waters near the towering Red Line.

Thick black clouds shrouded the entire sky. Lightning flashed and thunder roared within them, its rumbling echoing between heaven and earth and casting an ominous veil over the world.

The sea was even more turbulent. Gales howled, and the waves they casually whipped up stood seven or eight meters high. Ordinary ships simply could not sail through them.

And that was not even the worst of it. The climate here was even more complicated.

Simply put, the common sense of the first half of the Grand Line did not apply here.

One second, it might be springlike; the next, snow could be piling overhead.

The tides and currents were utterly unpredictable as well. One careless mistake, and the waves could swallow a ship whole, leaving it wrecked and everyone aboard dead.

In the dim world, amid the sound of waves being split apart, a silver-white pirate ship burst from the sea and shot into the sky.

On the deck, Naguri, captain of the Naguri Pirates from the North Blue, stood excitedly at the bow. Feeling the storm raging around him, he let out an exhilarated roar. Flashing lightning illuminated his face, revealing his crazed expression.

"So this is the New World?"

Behind him, nearly a hundred pirates worked frantically. Some struggled to control the sails, some repaired the damage to the ship, and others used buckets to bail out the seawater flooding aboard.

Boom...

As the ship fell from the sky and slammed violently into the sea, sending up enormous waves, it finally steadied.