One Piece: The Living Devil

Chapter 753: From Not Understanding to Acceptance

'Even if nothing is done, this world is destined to be destroyed.'

What a despair-inducing truth.

Even though the Zero Division possesses endless lifespans, even though they stand high above the clouds and call themselves the attendants of a god, if the skin is gone, where can the hair attach?

When the world collapses, so-called immortality will be nothing more than a joke.

The facts are right in front of them.

Ichibe's theory of simply maintaining the status quo is fundamentally a disastrously wrong form of slow suicide.

Carefully maintaining a bomb that is destined to explode will never be safer than dismantling it and rebuilding a new one.

At least, Rosse's seemingly radical changes might really be able to carve out a path to survival in this hopeless dead end.

Even if failure causes the system to collapse ahead of time, it's still far better than rotting away bit by bit under the slow poison called "stability."

At this moment, the last trace of hesitation in Hikifune Kirio's eyes disappeared.

She was a researcher. She couldn't tolerate knowing a bug existed and still choosing to ignore it out of fear of change.

Even if that meant betraying her former stance.

"Kukukuku! Only realizing it now? Old hag, those hundred-plus years you spent up there really were a waste of time!"

Kurotsuchi Mayuri mocked her mercilessly, his yellow-brown eyes behind the mask filled with disdain.

With a wave of his hand, he led the two of them through a curtain of Reishi light, officially stepping into the depths of the core laboratory.

This was a truly futuristic domain.

There were no solid walls around them. Instead, countless layers of floating virtual data walls overlapped in the air, their dim blue glow making the entire space look like the depths of the ocean.

And behind the massive reinforced glass directly ahead, several experimental subjects soaked in high-concentration Reishi solution rose and fell gently with their breathing.

Hikifune Kirio's pupils shrank slightly.

Even through the heavy barrier, she could clearly distinguish the identities of those experimental subjects.

There were Hollows with broken masks, Quincy in white uniforms, Shinigami wearing black robes, even several completely ordinary-looking humans from the living world, as well as common souls from Rukongai.

These living beings were now like disassembled toys, covered in various tubes, with every trace of their spiritual pressure being precisely monitored and recorded by instruments.

"You're just letting him experiment on living people like this?"

Hikifune Kirio suddenly turned her head, her gaze complicated as she looked at Rosse beside her.

Although as a research fanatic she herself had done plenty of morally questionable things in private back then, so much so that she'd been reported to the First Division and even reprimanded by Captain-Commander Yamamoto, that had been done in secret, hidden from the light.

But putting live experiments from all races out in the open like this, even displaying them right in front of the current Commander, if it had been the old man Yamamoto, he would've drawn Ryujin Jakka and purged the place long ago.

To be honest, at this moment, she felt a strange, absurd sense of envy.

If the Commander she had met back when she was in the Twelfth Division had been Rosse, then even knowing he was the Hollow King, she might have followed him without hesitation.

On the path of pursuing truth, this man had given researchers the greatest freedom and protection.

"The living will remember their contributions."

Rosse didn't avoid her question. His voice was calm and indifferent, his pupils reflecting the experimental subjects without the slightest ripple, "Some beings are destined to perish from the moment they are born. Since they lack the potential to transcend the ordinary and break free from the shackles of fate, it's better for them to become fuel that pushes the world forward and return to the cycle of reincarnation early."

He didn't deny the meaning of any individual's existence, but in the grand process of the world, personal joys and sorrows were too insignificant.

They could only blame their bad luck, being born into a world on the verge of destruction, and into an era where Rosse existed.

In his worldview, anything without utilitarian value or collectible value was consumable material.

It was cruel, but it was reality.

He wasn't born cold-blooded. He simply walked this path of evolution as if on thin ice.

If he didn't climb upward with everything he had, if he didn't grow stronger at any cost, then one day, he too would become consumable material for some higher-dimensional being.

Those who are born as paragons of justice, unless they are destined from birth to stand at the very peak, will never make it to the end.

Because beneath the halo of justice, there will always be ambitious schemers growing in the shadows, using the most despicable means to devour that naive ruler.

Every supreme being who stands at the top and looks down upon all life, no matter how kind-hearted they once were, eventually becomes like him.

Absolute rationality. Absolute pragmatism.

Even if one day his further evolution required him to step onto the experimental table himself, he would do so without hesitation.

"Cold and heartless," Hikifune Kirio muttered softly, but only that.

Her own research had been Artificial Souls, a technology that gave Shinigami artificial physical bodies.

It was easy to imagine how many lives she had studied to complete that work.

As a researcher herself, she had no right to stand on any moral high ground.

Still, a ruler as completely unrestrained and unapologetic as Rosse, this was the first time she had ever seen one.

'As expected of the Hollow King.'

She let out a breath and forced herself to look away from the experimental subjects, glancing instead at the rapidly flowing streams of data around them.

"The way data is processed here… why does it look so familiar? This feels like… the Great Spirit Book Corridor, doesn't it?", Hikifune Kirio asked in confusion.

"Kukukuku! Looks like your eyesight hasn't completely degenerated into senility yet."

Mayuri let out a strange laugh, his fingers dancing rapidly across a floating control panel like he was playing a mad symphony, "This is technological progress! The current Twelfth Division has already obtained unanimous permission from all captains. We now have direct access to the Great Spirit Book Corridor and can retrieve the entire history of Soul Society at any time."

As he operated, countless streams of complex data gathered before them, forming detailed reports on the world's structure. Reishi density in Hueco Mundo, matter decay rates in the living world, Reishi load indexes in Soul Society.

These reports were extremely academic, filled with data models and technical terminology.

If it were someone like Kirinji or even the former Captain-Commander Yamamoto, they'd probably feel dizzy after one glance and understand nothing.

But for Hikifune Kirio, this was a feast.

At first, she felt a bit unaccustomed to this overly standardized academic format.

After all, in her era, research relied entirely on personal intuition and experience, and notes were like incomprehensible scriptures that only the writer could understand.

But after forcing herself to read through a few sections, her eyes gradually lit up.

She had to admit, this seemingly rigid format actually contained extremely high efficiency and logic.

Even a completely unfamiliar researcher could quickly grasp the core of the project as long as they had the basic knowledge.

It was hundreds of times better than her old scribbled notes.

Hikifune Kirio stopped speaking. She directly took over part of the query permissions and began frantically pulling historical data from the Great Spirit Book Corridor, trying to refute it, trying to verify it.

File after file was opened. Data point after data point was compared.

Time passed, second by second. The only sound in the lab was the hum of flowing data.

After a long while, Hikifune Kirio slowly lowered her hand. Her entire body seemed drained of strength as she let out a heavy sigh.

Although she really didn't want to admit it.

Although this conclusion was practically denying everything she had protected for hundreds of years.

Cold data didn't lie.

Everything was confirming Mayuri's mad hypothesis.

This seemingly glorious world, forcibly stitched together by the Soul King, was truly heading toward the brink of collapse under the erosion of time and the swelling population.

And what made her feel the most despair is that the critical point wasn't far away.

It might even arrive within her own lifetime, allowing her to witness the great collapse that would destroy the world.

Replace the Soul King with a new one?

Maybe it could buy some time, like applying a patch.

But it would only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.

As the underlying system accumulated more and more flaws, this massive machine would eventually shut down again, or explode even more completely.

"It really is just as you said."

Hikifune Kirio looked up, her expression almost surreal, "To be honest, I'm starting to agree with your approach."

She looked at Rosse and Mayuri and let out a soft sigh, "If we truly do nothing and just keep maintaining stability in the Soul King Palace, then we're completely finished."

From previously staying detached, keeping herself out of it, to now actively stepping in, at this moment, Hikifune Kirio's stance underwent a fundamental reversal.

In the face of the ultimate problem of the world's destruction, so-called factions no longer held any meaning.

So what if Rosse was the Hollow King?

So what if he was an ambitious schemer?

At least this man was genuinely trying to solve the problem.

In contrast, Ichibe in the Soul King Palace only clung to that useless stability, completely incapable of addressing the issue.

If the fundamental problem of the world's impending collapse wasn't solved, then what difference did it make who became the Soul King, or who ruled the three realms?

Everyone would end up as bones in a grave.

And if Rosse could truly solve this problem and free the world from dependence on the Soul King, then even if that now-useless wedge were devoured by Rosse, Hikifune Kirio felt it wouldn't be unacceptable.

In her view, it would even be a reasonable reward.

After all, Rosse was the one who raised the problem, and also the one who provided a viable solution.

To maintain the operation of this broken world, to save countless lives, he was even willing to pour in effort and carry out such a massive project that overturned all understanding.

Based on that alone, his commitment to preserving the world, Hikifune Kirio felt he qualified as a king.

Otherwise, what would he even be doing this for?

If it were truly just for power, he could simply devour the Soul King, let the old world collapse, and rebuild a perfect new one on the ruins.

Wouldn't that be far simpler and more direct than this thankless effort of trying to make the Soul King step down first before devouring him like some kind of savior?

Having reached this conclusion, Hikifune Kirio took a deep breath, her gaze blazing as she looked at the two of them:

"Tell me, how exactly does this Reishi solidification work? I think I can help."

"Kukukuku! A wise choice!"

A satisfied curve formed at the corner of Mayuri's lips beneath his mask.

Making this old relic lower her head and acknowledge him was, in itself, a great victory.

The denial and disdain of the past had now turned into obedient cooperation.

This was proof that the path he walked was the only correct route to truth.

"These are all the core materials on Reishi solidification. Watch carefully and don't blink, old hag."

Mayuri's fingers danced rapidly across the holographic screen.

With his movements, streams of incomprehensibly complex data poured down like waterfalls, constructing a three-dimensional holographic model in front of Hikifune Kirio.

While she focused intently on reading, Mayuri didn't forget to mock her from the side, "Data of this level might be a bit beyond you, a remnant of the old era. But with your old foundation, you should at least manage to read and listen to my genius explanation at the same time, right?"

"Hmph! Don't underestimate me."

Hikifune Kirio snorted lightly, not even lifting her head as she scanned the dizzying formulas. She raised a hand to signal him to continue, "I'm not that far gone. Just get on with it."

"Kukuku, then I'll generously enlighten you."

Mayuri cleared his throat, a trace of fervor in his voice, "At the beginning, after Commander Rosse discovered the underlying logic behind the world's collapse, we had an in-depth discussion. In the end, the Commander proposed an extremely bold hypothesis."

"Since pure Reishi, due to its instability, must rely on Kishi as a foundation to exist… then—"

He suddenly leaned in close to Hikifune Kirio, his yellow-brown pupils shining with madness, "Why can't we forcibly convert Reishi into a stable intermediate state between Kishi and Reishi?"

"Impossible!"

Hikifune Kirio shook her head almost instinctively, "You're challenging the fundamental laws of the world. The Soul King isn't just a converter that maintains balance, he's also the source of energy."

She pointed at the model that was still running its simulation, speaking rapidly, "The growth of Reishi is essentially the result of Kishi that has perished being converted through the Soul King's body, during which it multiplies. The same applies in reverse, Kishi increases because Reishi is converted back into matter through the Soul King."

"The reason this world is heading toward collapse is fundamentally because every additional unit of Reishi generated consumes the Soul King's source energy. Every additional unit of Kishi generated overdrafts his flesh and blood."

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