The mansion of Thriller Bark didn't just smell like old wood and decaying velvet; it carried a faint, electric hum of 'System Stagnation'. As the crew stepped over the threshold, the air itself seemed to 'Thicken', a heavy, invisible 'Script' pressing down on their shoulders. Amine activated his violet HUD, and the result was a chaotic mess of warning windows.
[Environmental Analysis: Sub-Zonal Corruption.]
[Atmosphere Type: 'Stagnant Data-Cloud'. Memory Usage: High.]
"Something is... 'Draining' my energy," Luffy muttered, his steps heavy, his usual Gear 2nd steam not even starting to form. "It feels like... I don't want to punch anything anymore."
Amine's fingers flew across his invisibly projected keyboard. "It's not just fatigue, Luffy! The entire room is 'Optimized' to 'Mood-Suppress' us! The 'Admin-Perona' has 'Hard-Coded' this district to 'Halt' any 'High-Energy Processes' (Main Character Energy)! If we stay here, we'll become 'Motionless Files'."
Zoro shrugged, already pushing through a massive, cobweb-covered door. "Let them 'Mood-Suppress' my swords. If they try to steal my shadow, they'll find it's already got the edge of a hundred souls."
Suddenly, a high-pitched, childish laugh echoed from the balcony above. There, floating in the center of the room, was a girl with pink hair, wearing a gothic-lolita crown and holding a parasitic-looking umbrella. She wasn't standing; she was 'Rendering'. Her body was slightly translucent, a ghostly light that matched the blue 'Shadow-Energy' of the zombies outside.
[Entity Identified: Perona – The Ghost Princess.]
[Class: Phantom-Logic Entity.]
[Ability: Horo Horo no Mi – The 'Mood-Modifier' Fruit.]
"My, my... a 'Prophet' who understands the 'Script'?" Perona giggled, twirling her umbrella. "You are very boring, Mr. Scholar. My 'Negative Hollows' are not 'Scripts'. They are my little children! They just want to give your 'Spirit-Data' a big hug!"
Amine instantly raised his Golden Stylus, drawing a complex 'Antivirus-Aegis' (A Shield of Light) in the air. "Don't let them touch you! These 'Hollows' don't just 'Mood-Suppress'. They 'Download' your self-worth! They create a 'Logic-Loop' of unworthiness that prevents your 'Soul-ID' from executing any 'Attack-Commands'! If you fall, you won't just be sad; your 'Will-to-Write' your own future will be 'Formatted'!"
With a snap of her fingers, hundreds of the tiny, crying ghosts burst from her body. They flooded the room like a 'Distributed Denial of Service' (DDoS) attack. Luffy, in his confusion, tried to punch one, but his fist passed through it. The ghost smiled, its 'Identity-Tag' of 'NEGATIVE_COMMAND_001' latching onto Luffy's aura.
Luffy fell to his knees, his forehead hitting the floor. "I'm sorry... I shouldn't have been born rubber... I should be a worm."
Zoro, Sanji, and Franky fell next to him, their 'Soul-IDs' corrupted by the 'Mood-Suppressant' ghosts. Only Amine stood, his shield flickering under the weight of the DDoS attack. [System Integrity: 30% and Falling.]
"Kishishishi... look at them," Perona laughed, floating down to touch Luffy's head. "They aren't 'Protagonists' anymore. They are just 'Low-Level Assets' waitng to be 'Deleted' by the sun. And you, Mr. Scholar... you are next. The Admin Moria has a special 'Recycle Bin' waiting for your 'Unique Source Code'."
Amine's eyes burned with a dark purple flame. "You think... you can 'Format' our souls?" He bit his lip, violet ink spilling onto his chin. "You forgot one thing, Perona... a 'Mood-Suppressant' can only work... on a 'System' that still cares about its own happiness. But a 'Rebel Coder'... cares only about one thing: The 'Final Frame'!"
Amine slammed his stylus into the center of his shield. He wasn't defending anymore; he was 'Injecting' a 'Defiance-Rootkit' (A Corrupting Code) into the ghosts. The violet energy surged out, colliding with the negative ghosts and causing a 'Graphical-Glitch' in the very reality of the mansion.
The 'Mood-Suppressant' protocol was breaking. And the 'Usopp-Anomaly' was just getting started.