In the corridor of the massive building, Nami and the other three frantically dashed up the stairs as if fleeing from some terrifying pursuer.
"What the hell was that just now?!" Nami exclaimed in horror.
That enormous giant corpse had actually been reanimated by Luffy's shadow?!
Its colossal body must have been dozens of meters tall!!
How could something so terrifyingly huge also be revived by shadows?
Just how far do Moria's abilities extend?
"You're not getting away!!"
Perona's ghostly form chased after them, shouting: "How dare you hide inside Kumashi's body! I won't forgive you!"
Now she finally understood why Kumashi had been acting so strangely—someone had been hiding inside him!
"Oh no, she's catching up," Usopp's expression changed. "Run!!"
He'd witnessed firsthand how terrifying her abilities were.
After that ghost passed through Chopper's body, he'd become utterly despondent—not even moving when his life was threatened.
If Usopp hadn't used smoke bombs to obscure their escape, they wouldn't have made it this far.
"You can't escape!" Perona declared. "Just stay put!"
As she spoke, Perona's eyes locked onto Merry, involuntarily recalling Moria's earlier words:
"Such an adorable little girl... Why not join me?"
And yet the girl's response had been... a refusal?!
Someone of Moria's stature didn't extend invitations lightly, yet this girl had turned him down?
This irritated Perona. She felt compelled to teach the girl proper respect for Moria—lest she remain obstinate even after the Straw Hat Pirates' defeat.
"We're not staying!" Usopp retorted while loading his slingshot. "Only idiots would stay!"
"Certain Kill · Smoke Star!"
"Bang!"
The projectile exploded on the stairs, creating a thick smoke screen.
"Now's our chance! Move!"
Usopp turned to flee, but such tactics were useless against a ghost like Perona.
"Hahahahaha~"
"Long-nose, your attacks are pointless!"
Laughing maniacally, Perona charged forward while preparing her attack.
"Negative Ghost · Impact!"
"Whoosh~"
A small ghost materialized in her palm before being launched like a cannonball.
"Swish~"
"Thud!"
It passed effortlessly through Nami's body.
"Ugh..."
Nami staggered to a stop before crouching despondently. "In my next life... please let me be a penniless wretch..."
"Eh?!"
Usopp stared in shock at Nami's unexpected declaration.
But his astonishment peaked when—after uttering those words—Nami suddenly sprang up as if electrified, roaring:
"Like hell I'll be poor!!"
At this moment, Nami's mental resilience reached its peak!
Usopp: !!!
Perona: ???
Both stared at Nami in shock, though unlike Usopp, Perona was astonished that this woman could snap out of it so quickly.
Her Negative Spirits were incredibly powerful—those hit usually stayed depressed for a long time. Yet this woman... Just who the hell was she?!
"Don't know what's going on, but let's run!" Usopp shouted.
Without hesitation, he turned and bolted.
Nami didn't flee immediately. Instead, she glared back at Perona and snarled, "If you dare touch my money, I won't let you off!"
Clearly, for Nami, touching her money was no different from threatening her life—especially money meant for the afterlife.
With that, she ran without looking back.
Perona: ...
Was this woman insane? How could her obsession with money be so strong that it even negated the effects of the Negative Spirits?
This... was terrifying. Just how much did she love money?!
"Better pick another target," Perona muttered.
Raising her hand, she aimed at Usopp and attacked again.
"Whoosh~"
"Thud!"
"Usopp!"
Seeing Usopp stagger to a stop, Chopper panicked. If they got trapped here now, death was the only outcome!
As if confirming their fears, a horde of Zombies suddenly emerged behind Perona, glaring viciously at them.
"!"
"Horahorahora~" Perona laughed, hands on her hips. "There's nowhere left to run!"
She didn't understand that woman's immunity, but the Zombies could handle her. Her job was just to keep them here.
Horahorahora—Chopper frantically rushed toward Usopp, intending to carry him away.
"Usopp, we need to—"
"Huh?!"
Staring at Usopp, who seemed completely unaffected, Chopper's eyes widened in disbelief.
Why did Usopp look totally fine? It was as if he was immune to the negative energy entirely.
Nami had snapped out of it through sheer greed, but Usopp wasn't even fazed?!
"I—"
Usopp blinked. He didn't feel anything at all.
Looking down at himself, he blinked again before turning to Chopper. "Come on, let's go."
"Huh?!"
Perona gasped. "Why isn't it working on him either?!"
Refusing to believe it, she unleashed all five of her Ghosts, sending them swarming through Usopp's body—but... he still didn't fall into despair.
"Why?!"
"Why aren't you affected?!" Perona shrieked.
That woman was one thing, but how was this man completely immune to her Negative Spirits?!
"Click~"
Usopp paused mid-step, as if realizing something. He turned back to Perona and asked, "Want to know why?"
"Of course!!" Perona roared with her shark-like mouth open. "What the hell is wrong with you people?!"
A terrifying Ninja who could make her see Illusion Techniques, a woman who snapped out of it quickly because she loved money, and now a man immune to negative power... What kind of pirates are these bastards?!
"That's because... I'm already extremely negative!!!"
"Ehhh?!!"
Perona stared at Usopp in utter shock, her eyeballs bulging and snot flying uncontrollably. Clearly, this man who was negativity incarnate had dealt her an unparalleled blow.
"You..."
Nami and the other two were also dumbfounded as they looked at Usopp. Sure, this guy always spouted negative nonsense, but... who would've thought he'd be immune to Negative Spirits because of it??
"So, these tricks don't work on me anymore, you Ghost girl!" Usopp declared, crossing his arms.
He looked like some peerless master, but his strength came from sheer negativity... It gave everyone a weirdly complicated feeling. Even the Zombies couldn't bear to watch.
"What... a pitiful man."
"Truly."
"Hey man, why not join us?"
"Like hell I'd join you freaks!"
"You... You gotta keep going..." Perona muttered softly.
"Huh?"
"Keep going!!" Perona suddenly shouted, tears in her eyes. "Don't lose hope in life, Long Nose!!"
"Shut up, don't encourage me!" Usopp roared, his shark mouth wide open.
His negativity was his shield against her powers—he didn't want to lose that protection by becoming resilient.
"Run! Ignore them, we need to find Luffy and Meiser first!" Nami urged.
"Right!"
Chopper, carrying Merry on his back, quickly followed Nami down the stairs. Usopp glanced back at the Zombies and said, "You guys..."
"Yeah?" The Zombies nodded eagerly. "What about us?"
"Bye!!"
"Ehhh?!!"
The Zombies gaped as Usopp sprinted away without a second glance. "You bastard, that's all you've got to say?!" they yelled indignantly.
They'd put their hearts into cheering him on, and he just ran off like that?!
Snapping out of her daze, Perona took a deep breath. "After them! Don't let them escape!"
Sure, that Long Nose was pitiful, but that wasn't reason enough to let them go. Except for the little girl, the rest would become materials for reviving Zombies!
"Ooooh!!"
The Zombies roared and charged downstairs with terrifying momentum—only to immediately scramble back up in sheer terror.
"Huh?" Perona frowned. "What's wrong?"
"It's... It's that fire-breathing man!!!" the Zombies shrieked.
These were the Zombies who'd survived the front gate. They knew exactly how terrifying that Ninja was.
"Ehh?!"
"Fire-breathing?!"
Perona's face showed a look of shock as she exclaimed in disbelief, "So that means that Ninja has come here?!"
That terrifying man had actually appeared here?
Instinctively, Perona floated downward a bit and cautiously peered into the distance.
The moment she clearly saw Meiser, her face turned green.
"It really is you!" Perona cried out in terror. "You demon, back again!"
Without thinking, Perona looked into Meiser's blood-red eyes, which once again seemed to grow larger in her vision.
The next moment, as if seeing something utterly horrifying, Perona burst into tears with a loud wail.
"AHHH!!!"
"GIANT COCKROACHES!!"
"Please stop chasing me!!"
Terrified into tears, Perona fled without looking back.
As for those Zombies?
From the moment they saw Meiser, they had already lost any will to fight, fleeing the scene long ago without a second glance.
"What's her deal?"
Chopper turned back dumbfounded, watching as that fearsome Ghost girl had been scared off by just a look from Meiser?
"It must be the Illusion Technique," Nami guessed.
She knew Meiser possessed such abilities.
Against Ghosts and the like, Meiser's powers might truly be her natural counter.
"Ah, with Meiser here, we're safe."
Usopp sighed in relief, well aware of just how powerful the other man was.
"So she's the girl who controls Ghosts," Meiser mused, stroking his chin. "Doesn't really look like a child."
If anything, he felt she was probably around Nami's age.
But why would someone like that be afraid of cockroaches??
She wasn't even scared of Zombies...
Was it because she grew up with Zombies due to Moria's influence?
Hmm, that would make sense.
"This fearsome ability user is actually afraid of cockroaches?" A strange light appeared in Lola's eyes. "How unexpected."
"That girl might be Moria's daughter."
"Eh?!"
Lola gasped in shock. "Is that true?"
That utterly terrifying Moria actually had a daughter?
Thinking about it, it made sense—otherwise how could there be such a pretty young girl here?
"Who are they?" Nami asked curiously, looking at Lola and the others.
After scanning the group carefully, she realized she didn't recognize any of these twenty-plus people.
"Friends I met in the forest," Meiser explained. "They're the ones who told me about Moria's intel."
"This is Lola, Echo, Tooth..."
Meiser introduced them to Nami and the others, helping everyone get acquainted.
"Lola, these are my crewmates—Merry, Usopp, Nami, Chopper."
"Nice to meet you!"
"Uh, hello..." Nami hesitated, studying Lola closely. There was something familiar about her voice.
Ahem...
Lola suddenly cleared her throat and walked up to Usopp and Chopper with exaggerated seriousness.
Seeing this, Meiser instinctively covered his face.
"Wh-what's wrong?"
Usopp looked puzzled at Lola's sudden formality, unsure why she was acting so serious.
"Which one of you two would like to marry me?"
"HUH?!!" x2
Usopp and Chopper stared at Lola in utter shock, completely unprepared for her sudden marriage proposal—and to both of them at once.
"Who'd want to marry you?!" they both roared with shark-like gaping mouths. "And I refuse!"
They'd never seen anything so absurd—proposing marriage at first sight when they didn't even know each other!
"Hahahaha, Captain's 4,446th proposal failure!!"
"What?!"
The two gaped at Lola in disbelief. She'd proposed 4,446 times? And most importantly, been rejected every single time? This... this was beyond ridiculous.
"How could this be..." Lola said dejectedly. "Even the gorilla rejected me..."
"Idiot, I'm a reindeer!" After setting Merry down, Chopper reverted to his normal size and yelled, "I'm a reindeer, damn it!"
"Eh?!"
"Wait, you're a reindeer?"
"Then may I ask you—"
"At least propose to a human, you moron!!" Chopper bellowed with his shark mouth agape. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined being proposed to by a human as a reindeer-human. This was utterly insane.
"Wait... marriage proposal..." Nami suddenly recalled something. "No wonder your voice sounded familiar! Earlier, we saw a zombie who kept babbling about going to propose to some 'Lord Absalom' or something."
"Could that zombie be your shadow?!" As she spoke, Nami glanced at Lola's feet and confirmed she indeed had no shadow.
Lola blinked. "Is that so?"
"I think it's highly possible."
"Same here."
Echo and Tooth exchanged glances, nodding in agreement before grinning knowingly.
"Wait, this isn't the time for that," Usopp suddenly interjected. "Quick, Meiser, let's return to the ship and find Luffy!"
"Eh?!"
"Luffy's back on the ship?" Meiser was dumbfounded. They'd already checked the Thousand Sunny earlier but found no one there, which was why they'd brought Lola's group charging toward Moria's lair.
And now he'd gone back? Did that mean they'd missed each other again?
"Yes, Luffy and the others lost their shadows. They've probably returned to the ship by now," Nami confirmed with a nod.
"The others?"
"Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy."
Meiser: "..."
"What the hell are those three idiots playing at?" Meiser grumbled. Even if the zombies were somewhat capable fighters, they shouldn't have been able to capture them. Unless... there were even stronger zombies here? The thought made Meiser fall into deep contemplation.
"We'll figure that out later. Let's go find them first," Nami said. She had no idea how Luffy's trio had gotten caught by zombies, but now wasn't the time to dwell on it. Returning to the ship was the priority.
With that, she tugged at Meiser—still lost in thought—and urged Lola's group to follow.
"Going to meet Straw Hat Boy... Luffy?" Lola's face suddenly lit up with anticipation. "Do you think he'll accept my proposal?"
Usopp and the others nearly tripped over their own feet at her words.
"Captain, do your best~"
"Ha ha ha, I'll definitely do my best!"
"Hey, you guys, hurry up and keep up!"
"Got it!"
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