Brûlée's cheeks were flushed from anxiety, and fine beads of sweat had even formed on her forehead. She kept shouting urgently as she ran, her voice trembling.
"Quick! Mama said all ability users are to go to the laboratory immediately…"
Smoothie froze for a moment when she heard that, then narrowed her sharp eyes.
Her hand moved unconsciously to the hilt at her waist.
Her fingers tightened around it, her knuckles whitening slightly from the force.
Suspicion and wariness rose in Smoothie's heart.
"The laboratory?" she asked softly. "What exactly happened there?"
There was a trace of inquiry and unease in her gaze, as though she sensed that something significant was about to be revealed.
Brûlée carefully leaned close to Smoothie's ear, as if afraid someone else might hear.
She deliberately lowered her voice and said with a hint of panic,
"We… We've already become a subordinate force of the Eternal Divine Kingdom. Mama gave the order. We have to fully cooperate with Lord Ron in completing that mysterious Devil Fruit encyclopedia…"
As she spoke, her voice grew even lower, and her eyes filled with worry and helplessness.
Smoothie felt as though she had been struck by a hammer.
Her pupils contracted violently.
The power of the Wring-Wring Fruit inside her seemed to receive some intense shock and activated on its own, completely beyond her control.
Crystal-clear droplets of water began seeping from the deck beneath her feet.
They quickly gathered into a small puddle, shimmering with an eerie light beneath the moon.
But before she could properly process this shocking news, a gentle voice carrying an irresistible force suddenly drifted over from behind her.
"Charlotte Smoothie, Paramecia-type Wring-Wring Fruit ability user."
The voice was like ripples spreading across a calm lake, seemingly soft yet hiding deeper meaning.
Smoothie abruptly turned around, her gaze instantly locking onto the young man in white standing at the center of the harbor.
Moonlight fell generously over him, outlining his figure with a faint silver edge and making him look as though he had stepped out of some dreamlike world.
His eyes were calm as water, deep and distant.
Yet that seemingly calm gaze made Smoothie feel an inexplicable pressure, as though invisible hands had closed tightly around her throat.
"Welcome to Wano," Ron said with a slight nod.
His movements were elegant and composed, and a faint smile rested at the corner of his lips.
"Your Mama is waiting for you over there… in the laboratory."
His voice remained gentle, but the command within it was impossible for Smoothie to ignore.
Half an hour passed quietly.
Smoothie now sat expressionlessly inside the laboratory, looking like an ice-cold statue.
Her gaze was fixed on the needle slowly piercing into her arm, disbelief and deep humiliation tangling in her eyes.
She was one of the famous Sweet Commanders!
In the past, she had stood at the peak of glory, receiving the respect and admiration of others.
Yet now, she had fallen so far that she was being treated like an ordinary test subject with no dignity at all, allowing others to draw her blood.
That enormous contrast left her heart surging like a stormy sea, impossible to calm.
"Stop making that ugly face."
Katakuri stood lazily to the side, his iconic scarf swaying lightly.
Beneath it, the corner of his mouth twitched almost imperceptibly, as if he were trying to suppress some emotion.
His tone carried a trace of impatience, mixed with unquestionable authority.
"Look around you. Even Mama is cooperating willingly. What right do you have to keep complaining?"
Smoothie's gaze fell involuntarily on the test tube in front of her, where her freshly drawn pale-pink blood had been collected.
That unusual color was the direct manifestation of the special power granted by the Wring-Wring Fruit.
Looking at that faint pink liquid, a strange melancholy and confusion rose in her heart.
She could not help murmuring in an extremely quiet voice,
"Brother… is this really all we can do now…?"
Her voice was so soft that it was almost swallowed by the noise of the surrounding instruments, yet it was filled with endless unwillingness and doubt.
"The times have changed."
Katakuri decisively cut off the words she had not finished.
His deep gaze moved past her shoulder and landed, with complicated emotion, on the figure named Ron standing at the center of the laboratory.
In that instant, many emotions flickered through his eyes—fear of the unknown, expectation for the future, and a trace of awe that was difficult to describe.
He slowly said, "That man… the power and ambition he possesses are changing the entire world's structure at a speed beyond imagination."
Through the window came the noise of the banquet outside.
The lively scene formed a stark contrast with the cold silence inside the laboratory.
Outside, people laughed and drank freely, immersing themselves in brief happiness, completely unaware that behind this tightly shut door, something capable of influencing the course of history was taking place.
Inside the laboratory, test tubes filled with precious blood samples were neatly arranged on one experiment table after another.
Under the bright lights, those tubes glittered with an eerie glow, hiding countless unknown secrets.
Every drop of blood carried tremendous energy and potential.
They were not merely ordinary biological fluids.
They were the keys that could open the door to a new era.
Smoothie sat there quietly, her thoughts gradually becoming clearer.
She suddenly realized that everything before her was far more than a simple blood-drawing experiment.
Behind this seemingly ordinary act was an earth-shaking secret.
It was the grand opening act of a new era.
And every one of them would become both witnesses and participants in this historic transformation…
...
The Marines' forceful Kill Order struck like thunder, instantly throwing the once seemingly calm sea into unprecedented chaos.
Its chilling authority and absolute resolve turned into tangible force, stirring every wave and filling the entire ocean with tension and unease.
At the same time, another piece of news swept across the vast sea like a raging storm, stirring countless hearts with excitement.
As long as one joined the Eternal Divine Kingdom, there would be a chance to obtain a mysterious and powerful Devil Fruit!
That news was like brilliant starlight, illuminating the dreams and desires hidden in countless hearts.