One kilometer below the surface of the Sabaody Archipelago, a ship is slowly descending; it is the Thousand Sunny.
And in one of the rooms on the Thousand Sunny...
Xia Chen sat cross-legged on the bed, his eyes closed, as if he were an old monk in deep meditation.
In a sudden instant, Xia Chen's tightly closed eyes snapped open, unleashing a burst of sharp light.
"Is this all the Observation Haki can achieve? That doesn't make sense! I feel like it can be improved!" Xia Chen murmured to himself.
"Forget it, let nature take its course! If I can't do it myself, there's always the system!"
During these six months, Xia Chen didn't just spend his days being all lovey-dovey with Hancock; he also seriously worked to improve his strength.
The first thing he did was to upgrade the remaining Armament Haki and Observation Haki of the Three Types of Haki by another level, all of which reached the King Level.
There's also been a tiny, minor breakthrough in Devil Fruit abilities!
Xia Chen was just trying to break through his Observation Haki to a higher level, and he felt he had reached a bottleneck. And this bottleneck wasn't easy to overcome!
However, he didn't care. Just like he said, even if he couldn't break through, he still had the system, and with his current strength, he could already roam freely in the pirate world.
"Alright, let's go up and see where we are!"
After saying that, Xia Chen got off the bed and walked towards the deck.
At this moment, everyone except Xia Chen was standing on the deck, staring intently at the world below the sea, their faces filled with excitement.
Sunlight streamed through the sea, casting its rays upon the water, while nearby stood the enormous trunks of the trees from the Sabaody Archipelago —a truly magnificent sight!
"How beautiful!" Chopper gazed at the seascape with dreamy eyes.
"I can't believe how beautiful the seascape is!" Sanji exclaimed, taking a slow drag of his cigarette.
Zoro, who was standing to the side, unusually did not refute Sanji, but instead said with the same sigh:
"Indeed! It feels completely different from being on land!"
For a moment, everyone was captivated by the beautiful scene, until...
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Usopp, who was admiring the beautiful scenery, seemed to see something and rubbed his eyes to look again.
"That is..."
(#°Д°)!
Usopp's expression switched from bewilderment to terror in a split second. Then he hurriedly shouted:
"Come quickly and check if there's a huge dark shadow over there!"
"Um?"
Usopp's shout drew everyone's attention, and they all crowded around, looking in the direction Usopp was pointing.
A huge dark shadow appeared in front of their ship, and it grew larger and larger.
The next second, when the true face of the shadowy figure was revealed to everyone, a bead of sweat involuntarily rolled down the foreheads of all of them.
"This... this is?" Luffy stammered.
"A shark? But why is it so big?" Robin was a little surprised.
Nami: "It should be Giant Sea Kings!"
Luffy: "Can I eat this?"
Sanji: "It should be possible!"
Zoro: "Then I'll go cut it down!"
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Three dull thuds rang out, Luffy and his two companions moved in unison, all sprawling on the ground like upside-down leeks, with three bumps of the same height bulging on their foreheads.
This demonstrates the incredible control the person exerted over the force of their attack!
Looking at the three people lying on the ground, Nami shouted, "Are you three out of your minds? It's already a miracle that it hasn't come after us, and you still want to cause it trouble?"
"The best thing to do now is to ignore it and slowly make our way to Fish-Man Island. Honestly! Always looking for trouble!"
Nami!
Nami was about to say something when Usopp called her name.
"What's wrong?"
Nami turned her head and met Usopp's strange expression. Usopp slowly spoke:
"What if this shark tries to eat us?"
(⊙o⊙)...
"You mean..." Nami stiffly turned her head to look in the direction of the shark, and what she saw was an enormous, gaping maw of abyss.
Σ(っ°Д °;)っ
" Zoro, get up and cut it down!" Nami hurriedly dragged Zoro, who was lying on the ground, to his feet and shielded him in front of her.
Zoro:...
"That crazy woman!" Zoro couldn't help but mutter to himself. But he didn't say anything more, instead slowly drawing his sword, a bloodthirsty glint in his eyes.
"Since you have the audacity to come and eat us, then leave your lives behind!"
After saying that, Zoro was about to swing his sword when a hand grabbed his arm, stopping him.
"Huh? Xia Chen, what are you doing?"
Zoro looked at Xia Chen, who was blocking his way, and asked curiously.
"You guys... didn't you read the manual about membranes Rayleigh gave you?" Xia Chen asked the group quietly, his gaze mostly falling on Nami.
It's one thing that Zoro and the others are so simple-minded and didn't even read the manual, but why didn't Nami read the precautions either?
"Um... I don't think so!" Nami felt a little embarrassed as she felt Xia Chen's gaze. She had been immersed in the joy of shopping these past two days and hadn't really looked at any guidebooks.
As the ship's navigator, this was indeed a dereliction of duty!
Seeing this, Xia Chen didn't say much, but explained, "The coating on the outside of our ship can indeed allow some small objects to pass through, and it can also withstand a certain amount of pressure!"
"But if you just slash like that, Zoro, even a fool would know it'll break, right?"
"We're only a little over a thousand meters below the surface, so it's alright. Even if it breaks, at most a few ability users will drown, and then they'll float to the surface!"
"But if we wait until we reach the deep sea, under the immense water pressure, once this membrane outside our ship breaks, then..."
"You know that!"
"!!!"
Upon hearing Xia Chen's words, Nami's face immediately showed a look of relief, as if she had just escaped death. Luckily, Xia Chen stopped Zoro, otherwise she would have been doomed.
"What do we do now? Think of something quick! This shark is about to eat us!" Sanji said urgently.
"What's the rush! You can't make any big movements inside, but... you'll be fine outside, right?" Xia Chen gave a mysterious smile, then looked at Zoro's butt.
Don't get me wrong, he doesn't have any special hobbies, he just wants to...
"Bang!"
A dull thud was heard, and Zoro's figure flew out instantly, only pausing for a moment when he hit the membrane before passing right through it.
???
" Xia Chen, what are you doing? Why did you kick Zoro out?" Luffy shouted, glaring at him.
"Could it be that we're planning to feed the Moss Head to this shark so it won't eat us later?" Sanji pondered.
"That doesn't make sense! With its tiny, bony arms and legs, the Moss Head isn't even good enough to fill the gaps between a shark's teeth; it'd be like it didn't eat anything at all!"
" Xia Chen probably wants Zoro to go out and kill this shark! But the problem is, we don't know how long Zoro can hold his breath. If he can't hold his breath and still hasn't dealt with the shark, then we'll be in trouble!" Chopper said from the side.
" Chopper, you're half right! I did want Zoro to go out and fight this shark, but... I didn't say he couldn't breathe!" Xia Chen said with a faint smile.
"Um?"
Upon hearing this, everyone was taken aback for a moment, then all eyes turned to Zoro...