One Piece: Conquering Wanokuni at Start

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"There's a big hole under the sea ahead!" someone shouted.

Everyone saw a black hole about 100 meters wide on the ocean floor. It looked scary as sea water was being pulled up through it.

Alex looked at the deep sea hole, his eyes showing interest. "Go back to Unit Zero. We need to check this out!" he ordered.

He wondered why such a sea floor hole was there, but this was clearly the place shown by the Road Poneglyph. This must have something to do with Laugh Tale, and might even be the crossing point they'd been looking for.

Nami and Robin seemed to think the same thing, and they quickly headed back to Unit Zero.

The ship was made by humans, built from special metal. Even with the power of the Castle-Castle Fruit added to it, it could still stretch freely under water.

After everyone from the Sky Kingdom got back to Unit Zero, Kaido changed back to human form and moved over without saying anything.

Soon after Alex gave the order, Unit Zero put up many clear safety walls and rushed straight toward the huge swirling hole.

BOOM!!!

After diving into the black hole on the sea floor, the push of sea water coming in from all sides was quick, and the pressure got stronger as they went deeper.

Falling into what looked like a never-ending deep hole would usually cause enough fear to make anyone's heart sink. But inside the fancy fortress made with the power of the Castle-Castle Fruit, Alex and the others couldn't feel this fear. They even calmly enjoyed good food and drinks while they waited.

After going thousands of meters into the black hole, it seemed like the door to the New World had opened under the sea. The dark hole got light again as white brightness began to slowly eat up the darkness, and everything around started to look blurry.

When all darkness was gone, leaving only bright white light, a white hole marking their end point showed up right ahead.

BOOM!!

Unit Zero went straight through the white hole where the bright light came from, and they heard the sound of breaking through the sea surface right after.

Through the shared sight from the Castle-Castle Fruit, Alex and the others found out they were somehow in open water?!

Based on their dive, they should have been at the sea floor, but now they had come up to the surface with sky and sunlight above them. It was hard to believe!

"An underwater world! It feels like Fishman Island!" Yamato said with excitement, her bright eyes taking in everything around them. The weirder the place, the more her love for adventure woke up.

"The sky on Fishman Island is fake, and the sunshine comes from the Sunlight Tree Eve, which can send sunlight from the surface to the dark sea floor," Robin explained.

"Maybe that black hole links to the roots of the Sunlight Tree Eve," Nami suggested.

Alex thought more about it, "It can shine sunlight from the land to the darkest sea floor, like the sun that brings happiness and light to sad people in the world. Plus, this is the final place, where 'that person' will come as the prophecy said."

Thinking about how an upside-down Sunlight Tree Eve could be on the sea floor, and how it took in and kept so much sunlight energy, Alex thought about Vegapunk.

That big-headed genius had a dream to make endless energy. With his tech and ideas, taking much from old history, maybe the so-called "tech future" had been around in the past. It wasn't impossible.

Hearing Alex's words, Kaido's eyes lit up with excitement, especially when a big island slowly came into view in the direction Unit Zero was heading.

From far away, they could clearly see the island was covered with weeds and moss, showing it was very old.

Yamato couldn't help but gulp. "Is this Laugh Tale?"

The question didn't need an answer. Since this was the last place pointed to by the Road Poneglyphs, the answer was clear. This was indeed Laugh Tale, the final island and home to the great treasure that started the Great Pirate Era and was wanted by countless people all over the world.

Since the start of the Great Pirate Era, many pirates had chased their dreams and sailed on to reach this island.

The so-called wealth, fame, and power—all gathered in ONE PIECE.

Those looking at the island with Alex felt their hearts fill with feelings like excitement, wonder, and a wish to explore.

Kaido in particular, though not drunk right now, was already hiding his face as tears ran down, making quite a funny sight.

Alex looked at the run-down, huge island, full of ruins and remains—an empty, lonely scene.

The damage wasn't just from being left alone and getting old, but seemed to be the result of a big war that had spread across the whole country.

Maybe it was the huge war that began 800 years ago and spread across the whole world.

Laugh Tale was possibly the ruins of that great kingdom from 800 years ago, the city destroyed before today's Celestial Dragons set up the World Government.

The sound of the wind blew past their ears as Alex used his Devil Fruit powers to help everyone land on the island.

Once on shore, the feel of decay and sadness became stronger. One could only barely sense the former richness and beauty of this land from the size of the monuments.

The look of the island, with mountain peaks stacked on top of each other, reminded Alex of the place shown when the Roger Pirates found it in stories he'd heard.

Sure enough, on the very wide flat area at the mountain's peak, Alex found several huge stone walls. They were made of the same material as the Poneglyphs that told the True History.

In the middle of all the stone walls stood a large stone with a capital letter "D" carved in its center.

"These are ancient letters!" Robin said after landing, quickly stepping forward to touch the writing on the stone.

"But there seems to be nothing here except these," Perona said, sounding let down.

From their spot on top of the mountain, they had a general view of the whole island.

It was covered with ruins, nothing like the wow-factor of wealth brought by Skypiea's City of Gold.

"That's because what's in front of you might be the treasure that Roger was thinking of!" Alex said, his eyes fixed on the ancient stone.