Twenty years after Gol D. Roger, a pirate crew finally found the final island once again.
That news immediately shook the entire world.
But before that, let's go back a little in time.
Under Nami's outstanding navigation skills, it took the Straw Hats an entire week to finally reach the target sea area.
When the four Log Poses entered a "parallel" state, the place where they ultimately stopped was nothing more than an ordinary stretch of ocean.
"There's nothing here... Is the final island really here?"
Usopp ran toward the lookout post and looked around through his binoculars.
There was no disturbance in the sea. The endless blue surface looked peaceful, like a gentle mother.
Sanji had a cigarette in his mouth.
"The island isn't in the sky...? Did you see anything, Usopp?"
"No." Usopp replied after using his Observation Haki and sensing nothing nearby.
"Hey, Luffy, what should we do now?"
Luffy sat on the Merry's figurehead, also staring at the sky.
His Observation Haki spread across the heavens, reaching thousands of meters... but there was nothing.
Zoro, beside him, suggested:
"Are you gonna fly up there and take a look?"
Luffy thought for a moment:
"Roger and the others couldn't fly. That means there should be some way to get up without flying... Maybe something like the Knock-Up Stream at Gaya Island?"
Silvers had told him that Laugh Tale was a Sky Island and that it moved.
Combining that information with the current situation, perhaps the island only passed through the skies whenever a Knock-Up Stream appeared.
But that was only a hypothesis.
How could a Knock-Up Stream possibly follow a Sky Island?
Suddenly, an enormous black shadow appeared in the sea ahead.
Everyone in the fleet was startled, and Zoro immediately gripped his sword hilt, ready to fight at any moment.
BOOM!
Something gigantic emerged from beneath the ocean.
They were enormous whales.
Each one was practically the size of Laboon.
And there were dozens of them.
"Island Whales...?" Brook said in surprise. "There are Island Whales in a place like this?"
The entire group let out synchronized cries.
Luffy raised his eyebrows as he listened to the meaning behind their sounds.
Chopper widened his eyes:
"Luffy... They're asking if we're also looking for that island!"
"That island?" Sanji frowned. "Laugh Tale?"
"More than twenty years ago, a group of people followed them... and finally found the Flying Island!" Chopper quickly translated. "Eh?! Roger's Pirates?!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he was the first one to look shocked.
Luffy pressed down the brim of his hat and smiled.
"I get it... Old Rayleigh was still messing with me. So this is the island that can 'move.'"
It wasn't Laugh Tale that the Island Whales were chasing.
The Island Whales themselves were guiding adventurers toward their true destination.
Luffy crossed his arms and shouted:
"Everyone, when we entered the Grand Line, what was the first thing we encountered?"
"Laboon!"
Several people answered simultaneously.
Usopp clapped his hands and started laughing.
"Hahahaha! Isn't that amazing?! We started with an Island Whale and we're ending with an Island Whale!"
Luffy raised his hand.
"Follow them!"
After that, the entire fleet began following the group of Island Whales toward unknown seas.
The whales completely ignored the ships behind them. They simply kept swimming in a specific direction.
Not in a straight line.
It was more like a spiral, circling a massive sea region.
Hours later, they disappeared beneath the ocean once more.
The sea surface returned to complete stillness without even the slightest ripple.
Then Nami's voice echoed from the Sunny:
"Luffy! Something's wrong! It's like what happened at Gaya Island! It's a Knock-Up Stream!"
Luffy nodded.
"As I thought. No wonder ordinary people can never find this place. A hiding place using Knock-Up Streams, Island Whales, and a Sky Island..."
The coordinates recorded on the Road Poneglyphs actually pointed to the sea region where the Island Whales lived.
Nami shouted again:
"It's not like before! This Knock-Up Stream is much bigger than the one we saw at Gaya! The sound from beneath the ocean is getting heavier!"
"H-How much time do we have?!" Usopp yelled in panic.
"I don't know! Maybe a few minutes! But we'd better not ride the stream's force upward! The ships won't survive!"
The moment she finished speaking—
BOOOOOOOM!!
In the distance, an enormous column of water exploded toward the heavens.
The monstrous impact created huge waves that surged toward the fleet.
The Island Whales appeared once more around the Knock-Up Stream, leaping endlessly as if they were dancing.
Luffy grinned widely.
"Hahahaha! Let's fly!"
He snapped his fingers.
The next moment, several ships simultaneously rose from the ocean, following the gigantic Knock-Up Stream as they ascended toward the sky.
At an altitude of roughly seven thousand meters, the fleet entered the dense cumulus clouds.
The lower layers of the clouds were dark, while the upper layers were completely white.
It was an incredibly strange sight.
The clouds were nearly thousands of meters thick!
Nami was amazed. The cumulus clouds there were at least ten times larger than those at Gaya Island!
Luffy shut his eyes tightly, listening to everything around him amidst the roar of the ocean current.
"Found it!"
Suddenly, he opened his eyes, controlled the various ships, and quickly found an island hidden among the white clouds.
It was a small island, not very large.
All the ships anchored above the island, and people disembarked one after another, observing the scenery around them.
Zoro calmly muttered:
"Is this Laugh Tale?"
[You have arrived at the final island, Laugh Tale, and received 100,000 adventure coins.]
The system had already given Luffy the answer.
"Yeah, this is Laugh Tale."
Luffy nodded and took the lead, walking deeper into the island.
This wasn't an ordinary Sky Island.
On normal Sky Islands, the ground was made of solid clouds, but on this island, the land was real earth.
Around them, there was almost nothing except pale clouds covering the landscape.
After walking for a while, several structures finally appeared.
They were the ruins of an enormous palace complex.
At the center of the ruins stood an iceberg.
Everyone approached and looked at one another.
Through the ice, they could see what was inside.
Countless treasures of gold and silver were frozen within it!
"The great secret treasure?!"
Usopp's eyes sparkled. He punched the iceberg and immediately grabbed his hand in pain.
"Why is it frozen?! It's way too hard!"
His Armament Haki-coated fist hadn't even left a scratch.
"I'll try... Fire Fist!"
Ace raised his hand and launched a flaming punch.
The flames exploded instantly.
However, the iceberg remained completely intact against the powers of the Mera Mera no Mi.
"Why aren't my flames working?!"
Ace looked completely confused.
Zoro drew his sword, coated it with Conqueror's Haki, and slashed.
The black slash struck the iceberg... and was repelled.
Zoro widened his eyes.
"This isn't ordinary ice."
Suddenly Robin's voice echoed:
"Luffy... There are ancient writings here too."
Luffy immediately walked over.
It was a Poneglyph.
On the ground before it was another smaller stone containing another ancient inscription.
Robin carefully analyzed it for a few moments.
"It's a message left by Roger..."
"What did he write?"
"He said he arrived too early... and that the iceberg would melt in 1522."
"How did he know that?"
Luffy looked surprised.
1522... meaning two years from now.
Luffy pointed toward the Poneglyph in front of the iceberg.
"And what does this Poneglyph say?"
Robin gently touched the stone's surface.
"It's a gift left by a woman named Lily for Joy Boy, eight hundred years in the future."
The things sealed inside that iceberg were not merely treasures of gold and silver.
At that moment, all the veils of history began to be lifted.
The amount of information was so overwhelming that everyone became stunned.
They stood before the iceberg, silently listening to Robin's narration.
As the truth was revealed, everyone's expressions changed repeatedly.
Until they finally understood the entire story.
Luffy couldn't stop himself from laughing.
"So that's what it was..."
The Void Century could be summarized simply as the story of moon people invading Earth.
The Moon inhabitants possessed incredibly advanced technology, but their resources had run dry. In search of new energy sources, they came to Earth and built a vast kingdom atop the Red Line.
The moon people were friendly. Through contact with Earth's inhabitants, they eventually had hybrid descendants, creating the Lunarian race.
Gradually, that enormous kingdom came to be known as the "Kingdom of Gods."
But gods were not omnipotent.
Despite their advanced technology, there was one thing they could never fully understand: Devil Fruits.
They were the ones responsible for creating the ancient records about the Akuma no Mi.
And it was through those records that they discovered their origin.
People's desires could take physical form.
Someone wished for perfect skin, and fruits such as the Sube Sube no Mi would appear.
Someone wished to turn everything into food, and similar powers would emerge.
The moon people became fascinated by that power.
But their research didn't last long before war erupted.
The Twenty Kings led by Imu raised the banner of rebellion and destroyed the great kingdom.
The current World Government was built upon the corpses of that lost kingdom.
As for the reason for the war...
Luffy picked up a Den Den Mushi and dialed a number.
{"Hello! World Economic News Agency! If you know this number, then you must have important information!"}
Morgans' excited voice immediately rang out.
"It's me."
Morgans' eyes widened instantly.
"Straw Hat Luffy!"
Luffy smiled slightly.
"I've reached Laugh Tale. I found the great treasure Roger mentioned... and now I know everything about the Void Century."
Somewhere far away in the New World, Morgans froze for several seconds.
How long had it been since the great war?
His body began trembling with excitement.
Then he practically shouted:
"Please give me an interview! Emperor of the Seas... no, Pirate King!"
(End of Chapter)