"Woohoo~! Takeoff!!!"
Within the dense sea of clouds, a figure riding atop a giant whale suddenly burst out from the mist, leaving behind a perfectly straight white trail.
Golden sunlight poured down, illuminating the joyous smile on Luffy's face.
In the next instant, the giant whale's body spun through a full 720-degree rotation in midair, then plunged toward the ground at a speed even faster than a vertical freefall—only to stop with perfect precision just before impact.
Whoooosh~!!!
The massive force kicked up a violent hurricane that swept out in all directions.
At that moment, Usopp and Chopper, who had been waiting nearby for a long time, immediately rushed forward.
"My turn! My turn!!!"
"Luffy, get down already!!! It's time for God Sniper King to shine!!!"
The two of them leapt onto Laboon's back and started wrestling with the shamelessly clingy Luffy.
"Wait, let me go one more round! I'm not done having fun yet!!!"
"Hey~"
At that moment, Red walked out from the cabin and, upon seeing the scene on the open ground ahead, called out speechlessly:
"It's been an entire morning already. That's enough, you two. Laboon's evolution wasn't for you to use as a toy."
"It's Luffy cheating! We took so many cool photos for him, but look at the ones he took for us!!!"
As he spoke, Chopper tapped the Personal Terminal on his wrist, and a huge projection of images instantly appeared in the air.
They were all pictures of the three of them standing on Laboon's back, soaring wildly through the clouds.
Quite a few of them were prize-winning quality, whether in angle or composition.
But some of the others... either didn't capture the person at all, or the figure was nothing but a blur—like photos taken by a child using a camera for the first time.
"..."
There was no need to think about it. Those terrible shots had to be Luffy's handiwork.
"Honestly..."
Red let out a helpless sigh, then turned his gaze toward the victim of the whole affair.
"Laboon, are you okay?"
"Kyuu~"
Hearing Red's question, Laboon let out a cheerful cry, its two enormous eyes narrowing into happy crescent moons.
It was obvious that although Luffy and the others had been messing with it all morning, being able to play freely with its companions made it genuinely happy.
"Forget it. As long as you're happy."
"But don't play too late. Laboon still has a job to do in a bit!"
"Don't worry!"
The one least worthy of reassurance, Luffy, spread his hands wide.
"Isn't it just going to the Calm Belt to bring Amazon Lily over to the Pokémon Sea!? We know!"
"You'd better~"
Red stared into Luffy's eyes and spoke flatly.
When Laboon's modifications had been completed, they had already tested it. With Laboon's current strength, the power of the Float-Float Fruit was already enough to keep a medium-sized island suspended in the air for a long period of time.
So Red had immediately asked Hancock to contact Granny Nyon in the Calm Belt.
Now that the Kuja Pirates had openly joined the Straw Hat camp, the World Government probably would not specially head into the Calm Belt just to target an Amazon Lily that held little practical meaning. But to avoid any unforeseen accidents—and since they now had both the means and the opportunity—it was naturally better to keep everything in their own hands.
In fact, Red had long since asked the Revolutionary Army to look after the Straw Hats' families back in the East Blue.
And he had even planned to find a suitable opportunity to bring them all to the Pokémon Sea.
But now, under Red's influence, Kaya's family merchant company had already firmly established itself in the East Blue, and had formed cooperative ties with Cocoyasi Village, Shimotsuki Dojo, and the Baratie floating restaurant.
With the Akatsuki secretly protecting them, the company's reach had expanded further and further. Even though they dealt mainly in industries tied to people's daily lives, it had still grown into a business that could not be underestimated.
If they simply gave up the East Blue market like this, it would inevitably be a bit of a pity.
So for now, Red had only arranged for the Revolutionary Army and the Akatsuki to keep a closer watch over the Straw Hats' families, without taking any further action.
For the time being, they could only take things one step at a time.
With that thought flashing through his mind, Red stopped lecturing Luffy and the others and instead turned to Uta behind him.
"Let's go, Uta."
Whoosh—
The moment his words fell, a Hyperspace Hole suddenly opened above the deck outside the cabin.
A wondrous psychic barrier directly enveloped Red and Uta, then carried them into the Hyperspace Hole.
After several twists and turns, the two of them suddenly appeared in front of a laboratory under construction somewhere aboard Thriller Bark.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Dr. Vegapunk."
Red smiled as he greeted him.
Across from him, Vegapunk's eyes flashed, and he stepped forward at once.
"So this is the Sing-Sing Fruit user you were talking about!?"
"With nothing more than the transmission of sound, she can pull people into a spirit world. Even sound delivered through electronic signals can still activate the effect."
"If I can fully understand this ability, then the virtual world you asked me to research, Red, should be completed very soon!"
"I can hardly wait to experience the power of the Sing-Sing Fruit for myself."
"Come. Although the laboratory itself isn't finished yet, I've already assembled the relevant testing equipment."
As he spoke, Vegapunk gestured for Red and Uta to follow.
Red nodded, and under Vegapunk's guidance, they quickly arrived in front of a strange device.
It was a recliner that looked quite comfortable, but mounted above it was a headpiece resembling the kind of lie detector helmet used during interrogations.
One of Vegapunk's satellite bodies, the pink-haired female unit Atlas, was operating something beside the machine, with arcs of electricity flashing from time to time.
Hearing footsteps behind her, Atlas turned around sharply. When she saw Red and the others, she immediately smiled.
"You're finally here!"
"Main body, I've already finished calibrating the machine. We can begin testing at any time."
"Huh? The machine!?"
Seeing the bizarre contraption before her—something both eerie and faintly terrifying—Uta suddenly halted in her tracks.
Then, with a troubled look on her face, she tugged at Red's sleeve.
"Hey, Red, are you sure this experiment won't go wrong?"
Only after joining the Straw Hat crew had Uta begun to understand the outside world. She did not know much about Vegapunk's towering reputation, so she did not trust his abilities as instinctively as others did.
Of course, no matter who it was, seeing such a strange machine in front of them would naturally provoke some odd thoughts.
"Uh..."
Equally unnerved by Vegapunk's equipment, Red hesitated for a moment, but in the end he still nodded and reassured Uta:
"Don't worry. It's probably just because time was short, so the doctor didn't have time to make the device look nicer."
"If the doctor says he's confident, then there probably won't be any problems."
"Fine~"
Listening to Red's unconvincing comfort, Uta could only let out a helpless sigh.
What else could she do?
After all, they were already here.
Since joining the Straw Hat crew, her strength had steadily grown and her quality of life had improved every day, yet she had not really made any meaningful contribution.
It was rare for there to be a job today that absolutely required her. How could she possibly refuse?
As she spoke, she stepped forward and sat directly in the frightening recliner.
Uta squeezed her eyes shut tightly and said as though bracing herself for death, "Come on, I'm ready!"
Yet in the next second, Atlas beside her looked at her in surprise.
"Miss Uta, what are you doing?"
Uta slowly opened her eyes, confusion on her face. "Aren't we starting the experiment?"
"Of course!" Atlas nodded, then said:
"But the one using this device is the main body. The data we want to test is the principle behind your Devil Fruit activation~"
"You just need to activate your Fruit ability~"
"Ah!?" Uta froze in astonishment.
Atlas, however, smiled and turned to Red, who had visibly relaxed.
"Lord Red, your mental monitoring device is over here. Please come with me."
A short while later, after quite a bit of fumbling around, Atlas finally secured the device onto the tops of Vegapunk's and Red's heads, making it look as though they were about to undergo some form of torture.
Atlas herself then put on a pair of soundproof earmuffs and said to Uta:
"All right, Miss Uta, you can activate your ability now!"
"OK~"
Standing on a testing platform, Uta flashed a gesture, then pressed the accompaniment device beside her.
"Yo-hohoho~ Yo-hohoho~"
"Yo-hohoho~ Yo-hohoho~"
The Straw Hat crew's favorite song, Binks' Sake, flowed from Uta's lips in a form both beautiful and enchanting.
If Brook's singing expressed the carefree spirit of a lonely sailor facing the sea...
Then Uta's singing was like the endlessly rising and falling waves of the ocean itself, making one feel as though they were drifting with the tides, occasionally glimpsing an unknown seven-colored bird flying by on the horizon.
The same song, yet two entirely different moods.
Within that beautiful singing, Red and Vegapunk soon closed their eyes, their bodies going limp as they slumped down.
At the same time, an enormous flood of data flashed across the screen in front of Atlas, making her eyes light up as her fingers flew rapidly across the controls.
Meanwhile, under the effect of Uta's Fruit ability, the consciousness of both Vegapunk and Red abruptly descended onto a small island identical to the Kingdom of Elegia.
"Red, Dr. Vegapunk, you're here!"
At that moment, Uta, dressed in a colorful formal outfit, descended from the sky. A rainbow-hued glow drifted behind her as though she were riding down on a rainbow itself, landing before Red and Vegapunk.
"So this is your spirit world!?"
It was Red's first time entering Uta's mental world, and he looked around curiously.
He swung his arm, then kicked at the soil beneath his feet. Everything felt so real that there was not the slightest sense of anything being off.
"That's right!"
Uta greeted him with a smile.
Meanwhile, Dr. Vegapunk, wasting no time at all, immediately pulled out a spherical device.
He pressed a button, and the device rapidly unfolded into a strange machine.
At the sight of this, Vegapunk's eyes brightened.
"Just as I thought! After entering this world, the items I carry with me in my consciousness can still be used."
"That means that so long as there is no forced interference from the ability user, the consciousness of others entering this world can still affect the world itself."
"It may even be that every consciousness that enters this mental space becomes part of the nourishment of this world itself—one of the factors maintaining its existence."
Seeing Vegapunk instantly enter work mode, Red and Uta exchanged curious glances, then slowly moved closer.
Although she was the Sing-Sing Fruit user, Uta herself did not actually understand this Fruit's power very well. She simply used it instinctively, as though it were second nature.
Just like before people had knowledge, they did not know that eating was to provide energy or breathing was to sustain life. They simply did it by instinct.
So when Vegapunk said this, Uta also began looking forward to the results of his research.
If he could discover some way to make her stronger, that would be even better.
After all, simply using her ability to clear out minor enemies left her with almost no room to shine aboard the Merry.
The facts proved that when a scientist went mad, there was truly nothing they could not do.
At Vegapunk's request, Uta and Red ended up accompanying him in the mental space for a full three days and three nights of testing.
In the real world, Uta had no choice but to keep herself going for three entire days without sleeping, relying on harmless medicine like Super Potion.
Finally, just as Uta was about to drink another bottle of Super Potion, the doctor and Red, lying in their recliners, slowly opened their eyes at last.
Sensing something, Uta also paused mid-motion.
But in the next moment, she still poured an entire bottle of Super Potion into her mouth.
Using the restored stamina, she stood up and moved toward Vegapunk.
But once Vegapunk entered research mode, it was as though he had completely retreated into a world of his own.
He quickly took out his portable device and started entering a large amount of information with rapid clattering movements.
There was no helping it.
Although the mental space could connect his consciousness and knowledge, allowing him to create the tools he used, the data they had measured inside could not be brought back out at all.
So he could only memorize all of that information in his brain, then input it all again afterward.
That process alone took another half a day.
And after also needing to integrate the brainwave data Atlas had collected, it was not until the next morning, while Red was eating breakfast with Uta, that he suddenly heard an excited shout.
"It's done!!! I've completely analyzed the ability of the Sing-Sing Fruit!!!"
Vegapunk came hurrying over to Red with something like a tablet in his hands, his face full of joy, and said with a grin:
"Red, based on the observations from these past few days, I can tell you with complete certainty..."
"With the ability of the Sing-Sing Fruit, it is absolutely possible to create the game world you described!"
"Really!?"
Red excitedly tossed the tea egg in his hand onto the table, his eyes locking tightly onto Vegapunk.
Vegapunk smiled and nodded. Then he operated the tablet a few times, immediately summoning a projection of data so complex that Red could not understand a single bit of it.
Completely failing to notice this, Vegapunk continued explaining:
"Based on the tests from the past few days, it appears that the power of the Sing-Sing Fruit is not limited to singing alone~"
"As long as the user wishes to activate the ability, no matter what kind of sound they make, and no matter what medium it is transmitted through, as long as it is the user's voice, anyone who hears it can be pulled into the spirit world."
"The only restriction is that the user must keep the Fruit ability active at all times."
"Secondly, the mental space created by the Sing-Sing Fruit can have its rules freely altered according to the user's will."
"In other words, the things you mentioned, Red—NPCs, wild monsters, dungeons, and the like—can all be created within the mental space."
"With such uniquely favorable conditions already in place, creating a mental world for people's entertainment would be as easy as lifting a hand!"
(End of Chapter)