Ten thousand meters above Fishman Island, in the deep-sea current.
The massive Eclipse, like a black pearl wrapped in a transparent bubble, rode the powerful ascending current, racing steadily toward the surface.
Pop!
With a crisp splash, the resin coating burst and vanished like a soap bubble the moment it touched the surface air.
Boom!
The Eclipse's heavy black hull slammed down onto a churning, ink-dark sea, sending up white spray dozens of meters high.
"Hah... finally out! So this is the New World's sea breeze?"
Sabo stood at the prow, taking a deep breath, his blue eyes gleaming with excitement. But the next second, his brow furrowed.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Out of a perfectly clear sky, a dense hail of bizarre ice balls suddenly pelted down without warning. Even crazier, the moment they hit the deck, they instantly vaporized into bursts of scorching white steam.
"Hot hot hot hot! What the hell kind of weather is this? Hail that's burning hot?!"
Chopper panicked and immediately transformed into his human-beast form, scrambling into the shadow of the mast.
Dr. Indigo, sitting beside him, was even more dramatic. His lab coat got singed with several small holes, his shoes made frantic squelching sounds, and he scrambled into the cabin on all fours.
"Yahahahaha! Even the weather in this sea is unreasonable? How interesting!"
Enel floated cross-legged in midair, letting the scalding ice balls hit him, only to be instantly vaporized by his two hundred million volt lightning.
"Making a fuss over nothing."
Buggy, who had been huddled in the cabin munching an apple, rolled his eyes dramatically, his red nose tilting up smugly.
"What's the big deal? The New World's climate is a crazy bitch. The air pressure and magnetic fields in these waters are completely chaotic. That hot hail you just saw is just the appetizer!"
Buggy stood up, hands on his hips, addressing the others like a seasoned veteran.
"When I sailed with Captain Roger, I saw all kinds of crazy weather! I've seen knives rain from the sky, and the sea suddenly turn into boiling lava! One time, we were sailing and the water ahead started spiraling down into the earth like a whirlpool. The whole ship nearly got sucked in!"
"For real? Knives falling from the sky?!"
Bonnie, sitting inside her black mechanical spider, leaned in curiously.
Kuma stood quietly beside her, his thick palm ready to shield his daughter from any more of those freakish ice balls.
"Ahem, of course! I'm a walking encyclopedia of this sea!"
Buggy, spurred on by Bonnie's interruption, grew even more full of himself. "In the New World, one second it's calm, the next a super tsunami can swallow an entire island. You rookies have a lot to learn now that you're here!"
"Quit bragging, red-nose."
Jeno emerged from the lower deck. He'd been thinking about how to upgrade the little robots they'd brought from the moon. "If you've got time to run your mouth, come help me with the ship's navigation system. The magnetic fields here are so chaotic, the regular compass is spinning like a top. Can't tell direction at all."
"That's because the Log Pose is useless here."
Shark, with Samehada strapped to his back, walked onto the deck with steady steps and glanced at the needle on Jeno's wrist. "In the New World, ordinary compasses are scrap metal. Every island's magnetic field is constantly shifting, and they interfere with each other. Only a special three-needle Log Pose can lock onto the direction of the major islands in this chaos."
"Forget the needle."
Ace sat in the captain's seat, catching a hot ice ball in his hand and letting it melt in his palm.
He turned to the ship's intelligence officer.
"Carina, you planted all those listening devices. You should have Gran Tesoro's coordinates by now. How far are we?"
Carina closed her eyes and focused for a moment.
"Got it. Coordinates locked. Lucky us. He's only about two days' sail from our current position."
Shark, overhearing, showed a rare hint of undisguised amazement.
"Gran Tesoro! Ace, that's our first stop?!"
Carina took over, sweeping her gaze across the crew on deck. "Gran Tesoro. The largest entertainment city in the New World, and the only independent nation recognized by the World Government that's also a ship."
"An independent nation? A ship?"
Leonora frowned slightly, her left hand resting habitually on White Night at her hip.
"Is it bigger than our Eclipse?"
"Of course, and it's not just a little bigger."
Carina flipped open her intelligence files, her tone turning dead serious.
"According to underground black market dealers, it's a super-massive ship ten kilometers long! Its total volume is even larger than several of the big mangrove areas of the Sabaody Archipelago combined. Its outer armor, streets, buildings, luxury hotels, even the casino chips, are all made of gold!"
At those words, everyone on deck except Ace, who already knew, sucked in a cold breath.
"Made of gold? Ten kilometers long?!"
Buggy's eyes instantly turned into dollar signs, drool dripping shamelessly, and his split-apart body parts floated around in midair from sheer excitement.
"How much money is that?! If we robbed that ship, I could retire right now!"
"I'd advise you to drop that idea, red-nose."
Carina shot him a glare and continued her briefing.
"The owner of that ship is Gild Tesoro. They call him the 'Gold Emperor.'"
"He's not some fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered. He controls nearly twenty percent of the wealth on these seas. Whether it's the Marines, the Four Emperors, the underworld gangs, even those lofty Celestial Dragons, they're all his guests. As long as you have money, in that city that never sleeps, you can buy anything. Famous swords, Devil Fruits, even the life of a king of a country."
"Even the Celestial Dragons are his guests?"
Sabo's blue eyes flickered with thought. "So on the surface it's a casino, but behind the scenes it's a massive gold-den and slave market?"
"Exactly." Carina nodded. "On that ship, money is the only law. Anyone who gambles there, pirate or civilian, if they lose everything and fall into debt to Tesoro, they lose their human rights."
She flipped a page. "They get branded and forced to work as slaves for life in the gold furnaces deep in the ship's hold. No freedom, no dignity, not even death can release them. Because Tesoro is a Paramecia-type Goru Goru no Mi user. Every inch of gold in that city is under his absolute control."
"Yahahahaha! Gold? That's this god's favorite metal!"
Enel sneered disdainfully. "Who cares about some Gold Emperor? If his ship is made of gold, then in front of my lightning, it's just one giant conductor. If I don't like the look of it, one Thor's Hammer will melt his golden city into a puddle of molten gold."
"Yohohoho, sounds like a golden tomb filled with desire and lamentation."
Brook, dressed in a casual beach outfit, hopped around the deck.
"Still, I wonder if in that city of decadence, there might be a beautiful lady willing to let me admire her panties? Yohohoho... I can't wait!"
"You perverted skeleton! Can't you keep anything normal in that head of yours?!" Chopper jumped up and kicked Brook in the shin, making him yelp in pain.
"Hahaha, let's go, boys."
Ace's lips curled into an expectant grin.
"Let's go see this sea's greatest gold-den."
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