novelraw Chapter 509 509
Chapter 509 509
On the shores of Boro Town, countless pairs of fervent eyes stared fixedly at Laugh Tale.
A slight smile curled at the corner of Caesar's lips as he took the lead and stepped onto this final island.
"Those who wish to take a look, come on up."
His calm voice reached everyone's ears.
"Really? This is the island where the great treasure is located. Aren't you afraid someone might seize the chance to steal it?"
A king from some kingdom, unable to hide his greed, stammered out a question.
Immediately, he was met with looks of disdain from the crowd.
Doflamingo and Crocodile paid no mind and eagerly followed behind Caesar, their eyes gleaming as they rushed onto Laugh Tale.
"Ah, what a nostalgic place, hahaha! Too bad the inner barrier on the island can't be opened, so we can't get what's inside."
Roger laughed heartily and also leaped onto the island.
As they entered, the crowded masses saw that Caesar truly made no move to stop them.
In an instant, the crowd surged like a tidal wave, swarming onto this mysterious island that had been the subject of legends for centuries.
"Hurry up, Katakuri! They're going to beat us to it!"
Yamato anxiously grabbed Katakuri's hand and pulled him toward the island.
Katakuri showed a wry smile, shook his head, and had no choice but to stride forward with his long legs to keep up.
Laugh Tale, spanning twenty kilometers in length and width, was still quite vast.
Although tens of thousands of people had gathered in Tottoland at that moment.Yet scattered across the island, they still appeared quite sparse.
Among the crowd, Vivi, wearing a purple princess dress, stared somewhat dazedly at the enormous mural before her.
The mural was exquisitely carved, with figures so lifelike that viewers felt as if they were personally present in the scene.
In the mural, a massive warship that blotted out the sky descended, and from it emerged aliens clad in spacesuits.
Subsequently, these beings displayed various divine miracles. Vivi saw a vast, dark mass of people kneeling before them.
Then, twenty individuals were selected, and the aliens bestowed upon them the power of gods.
Beside one of them, ancient script was inscribed: "Nefertari."
"Is this my ancestor? The tale of the Twenty Kings. So we were not the gods themselves, but their servants."
The members of the Beast God Pirates, along with Roger, Dragon, and others, had gathered before the luminous barrier in the inner part of Laugh Tale.
"Roger, even your power can't break through this barrier?"
Linlin curiously reached out her hand toward the hazy light screen.
A miraculous sight unfolded.
The barrier did not block her hand as she had expected.
But what was eerie was that the moment Linlin's hand touched the barrier, it instantly vanished.
As if erased from existence by an invisible eraser.
"Linlin! Are you alright?"
Kaido was startled.
He thought Linlin had lost her hand.
Because even his Observation Haki couldn't sense the vanished hand.
"Mamamama, what a strange barrier. I can feel my hand is still there, but I can't see it. I wonder what would happen if someone walked right through it?"
Linlin withdrew her hand in surprise.
Her hand was completely intact.
Rayleigh's expression turned grave: "It's best not to attempt it lightly. Over twenty years ago, a few reckless apprentices on our ship disappeared into this barrier just like that. We waited on the island for a full month, but they never emerged."
"Hiss..."
Doflamingo and the others couldn't help but shudder, and Teach nearly rushed headlong into it in panic.
Caesar let out a light laugh, drawing everyone's attention.
"Caesar, what are you laughing at? Have you figured out how to enter?"
Kaido couldn't resist asking curiously.
"The key is Joy Boy!"
Caesar looked at Roger and the others, extending his right hand, from which a ball of white light emerged.
"Joy Boy's power of creation is the key to opening the inner barrier. Weren't you all waiting for his return? Couldn't you even guess that much? Moreover, this barrier is actually a spatial rift. If you rashly enter, there's no telling where you might be transported."
"Cr... creation power? Caesar, how do you possess Joy Boy's power?"
Roger's eyes widened in shock.
Under the astonished gazes of Kaido, Linlin, and the others, Caesar pressed the white light in his right hand against the barrier before him.
The barrier parted swiftly to both sides like a water curtain, eventually dissipating like a giant soap bubble that had been popped, vanishing as if in a dream.
"This... what is this?"
When they saw what lay beyond the barrier, everyone was stunned!
Even Caesar was no exception!
With a face full of awe, he stepped inside, scanning the space above and around him.
It was a miniature representation of the starry sky!
Standing within it felt as if they had been transported into the real cosmos!Beneath their feet, colossal celestial bodies rotated endlessly.
There were blue planets with rolling ocean waves,
Yellow-brown worlds encircled by massive asteroid belts,
And gigantic, blazing suns engulfed in roaring flames!
Above and around them, magnificent galactic rivers swirled in perpetual motion!
"Zehahahaha! This is the starry sea, the cosmic expanse I've always yearned for!"
Teach laughed madly, gazing at the star-filled vista.
Roger's eyes also reflected boundless longing.
For him, this world represented the absolute pinnacle.
Nothing else held much appeal anymore.
"If only we could journey into the cosmos..."
Yamato curiously reached out to touch the spinning aqua-blue planet before her, only to find her hand passing through it.
"They're projections."
Vegapunk, in her eccentric feminine form, walked in with hands clasped behind her back, equally captivated by the surrounding spectacle.
At the very center of this starry display hovered a dense sphere of brilliant white light.
"Hah, this must be all the creative power stripped away when Joy Boy died eight hundred years ago. He intended to merge with the energy stored here after eight centuries to defeat Imu."
Caesar extended his hand, not even activating his devouring power, when the massive white sphere seemed to recognize its master, surging directly into his body.
"Mmm... incredible."
A wave of profound comfort flooded through every fiber of his being. Caesar felt his power touching against some intangible barrier, growing stronger than ever before!
He suddenly pointed a finger, from which a white glow emerged, touching a massive blue planet before them.
Whoosh! The celestial body spiraled upward above the group, rapidly expanding to colossal proportions.
Everyone looked up in awe, clearly seeing the planet's vast oceans and yellowish continents.
Lines of text materialized across its surface:
Planet: Unknown Star System, Blue Water.
Civilization: Primitive Low-Level Civilization, No Technology, Moderate Combat Potential.
Highest Lifeform Tier: D.
Resources: Average.
"Fufufufu, so this is the planet we inhabit? Seems rather... primitive."
Doflamingo felt like a native savage seeing classifications like "Low-Level" and "D".
No wonder Imu kept calling them insects.
"Caesar! Quickly! Check other planets! I believe this must be a star chart from Imu's civilization! It should contain information about all known cosmic civilizations!"
Vegapunk exclaimed with barely contained excitement.
Caesar's curiosity grew as he observed the other rotating spheres.
Guided by the creative energy within him, he parted a slowly swirling nebula projection, continuously zooming in until he selected a planet that appeared over ten times larger than other projections.
Whoosh!
The planetary projection rapidly expanded, revealing numerous steel peaks piercing the clouds.
Between these metallic mountains, countless phantom-like spacecraft shuttled back and forth.
Planet: Celestial Radiance Star.
Civilization: Celestial Tribe Civilization, Tier 2 Cosmic Civilization, Moderate Space Exploration Capability, Technology and Superpower Focus.
Highest Lifeform Tier: A.
"Celestial Tribe Civilization! Isn't this exactly what Joy Boy described - Imu's homeland?" Roger's eyes burned with fervor, wishing he could set off immediately to explore that place.
Kaido, Shanks, and the others all wore expressions of utter astonishment.
Everyone crowded around Caesar, gazing at the slowly rotating massive star projection overhead, their expressions somewhat dazed.
Not just them, even Vegapunk, the scientific genius, was entranced at this moment.
"The advancement of this technology is beyond our comprehension. This is exactly why I want to explore the outer cosmos!"
A gleam flashed in Caesar's eyes, revealing his unsettled emotions.
He casually tapped another distant star point.
Whoosh!
A dark yellow planet appeared, its surface gray and desolate, showing no signs of any living beings, nor any advanced steel structures or spacecraft.
Only an unimaginably tall tree, seemingly piercing through the heavens, stood firmly on the planet's surface.
"What is this place?" Caesar narrowed his eyes.
Text quickly materialized above the planet.
Planet: Divine Tree Star.
Civilization: Ōtsutsuki Civilization, Tier 3 Cosmic Civilization.
Specialization: Supernatural Abilities.
Highest Lifeform Level: S [Deity].
Gulp.
Doflamingo swallowed hard.
"Deity! S-Class! Tier 3 Cosmic Civilization!"
"I remember, even someone like Imu, who possessed world-shattering power, was only B-Class! What kind of immense power would an S-Class possess?"
Shanks couldn't help but murmur to himself.
"At full power, they can shatter a star with their bare hands. Joy Boy mentioned it, didn't he?"
Caesar said with a laugh.
Even Kaido, who usually feared nothing, twitched at the corner of his mouth.
"Ororororo, shatter a sun? That's... utterly ridiculous."
Next, Caesar continued to tap on numerous star points.
Among them were primitive civilizations similar to or even less advanced than Water Blue Star.
There were also Tier 2 Cosmic Civilizations like Imu's homeland.
The rarest were the Tier 3 Cosmic Civilizations.
For example:
Planet: Designated 178 Earth Star.
Civilization: Tier 1 Technology, Tier 2 Supernatural Abilities, Tier 3 Physical Prowess Civilization.
Highest Lifeform Level: S [Deity].
Overview: This planet has not engaged in cosmic exploration, but it hosts numerous high-energy lifeforms, referred to as monsters, creatures, and heroes.
Special Warning: Beware of the bald one! Beware of the bald one!
...
Planet: ???
Civilization: Saiyan Civilization.
Level: ???
Highest Lifeform Level: S [Scratched out] ???
Overview: Indescribable, do not [Scratched out] prohibited from investigating!
...
...
"So, this is the universe we inhabit."
Caesar raised his voice, soaring into the air so everyone on the island of Laugh Tale could hear.
"The reason I've gathered you all here is to tell you," Linlin interjected.
"Although Imu is dead, the signal she sent out is still heading toward her homeland."
"As you've seen, the Celestial Tribe Civilization is a Tier 2 Cosmic Civilization."
"The so-called Uranus is merely a colonial sub-ship capable of annihilating our planet's surface."
"And next, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in a few years, that powerful alien civilization will descend upon our world, just as it did nine hundred years ago!"
"Everyone! Regardless of our previous identities—"
"Royalty, commoners, pirates, Marines, Revolutionary Army—none of that matters!"
"Our only shared identity is that we are people of Water Blue Star!"
"To confront the arrival of the alien civilization with our greatest strength—"
"I declare!"
"The Great Pirate Era! Has ended!"
Caesar's voice thundered like roaring skies, echoing across the land!
"The Age of Stars! It has arrived!"