The Grand Line, viewed from the perspective of the real world, is at Earth's equator, encircling this world of water once.
If the Grand Line is the equator, then the Red Line is a vertical meridian. One runs horizontally, one vertically, and together they circle the world once, dividing the seas into the East, South, West, and North Blues.
Conquering the Grand Line is the dream of countless adventurers and pirates. This is not a journey where you just sail around once—it only counts if you reach the final island.
Of course, that isn't Vane and the others' goal—or rather, not their main goal.
"The first great hurdle of the Grand Line—Reverse Mountain!"
On both sides of the Grand Line lie extremely wide Calm Belts. As the name suggests, there is no wind there, and ships that rely on sails can hardly make any progress at all.
Of course, it's not like no one has tried using ships powered by other forces to cross. The result is that the Calm Belt is home to massive numbers of gigantic Sea Kings. Once unfamiliar disturbances on the sea surface are detected, those Sea Kings will appear.
Whether they're trying to drive the target away or just come out of curiosity, for ninety-nine percent of ships it's an absolute disaster.
Before the Navy's Seastone "enchanted" ships appeared, only the ships of Amazon Lily's Kuja could enter and leave the Calm Belt. Their ships are pulled by two giant venomous snakes—counted as "biological" technology.
"Reverse Mountain… the natural laws of this world just don't make sense."
Vane looked at the towering Reverse Mountain of the Red Line before him and felt that the pirate world simply didn't make sense… then again, that's normal. Manga worlds rarely make sense. People come to see all kinds of unreasonable, spectacular settings.
"Reverse Mountain is the first hurdle for the many pirates entering the Grand Line."
The Red Line and the Calm Belts isolate the Grand Line, but on this side of the Red Line, Reverse Mountain has sea routes that run up the mountain.
The phenomenon of water flowing uphill appears vividly on Reverse Mountain, and there are exactly five routes, connecting the four Blues and the Grand Line.
People from the four seas can take their respective routes, climb uphill as the water flows upward onto Reverse Mountain, and enter the route leading into the Grand Line.
"I bet quite a few pirates give up the moment they see Reverse Mountain."
Several navigators aboard the Thunder Fortress looked at Reverse Mountain with shock on their faces. Clearly, not many of them had been here before.
The uphill sea current on Reverse Mountain is extremely fast, and the channel is narrow and long.
That makes many people who are used to sailing on the wide open sea feel at a loss.
"On this road to the sky, who knows how many ships crash every year."
"This really isn't scientific, meow."
Vane looked at Meowth with a very helpless expression. You, a Pokémon, are talking to me about science… well, in the Pokémon world, Pokémon are science.
"Get ready to climb the mountain!"
The closer they got to Reverse Mountain, the more ships traveling alongside them began to appear.
"Haha! The first step for our Ironclad Pirates to conquer the Grand Line starts right here!"
"This is the first step for our Chubby Pirates too!"
Probably because the weather was good, several pirate crews choosing to enter the Grand Line today ended up gathering together.
A ship that looked extremely sturdy and iron-plated, and another very round, chubby-looking ship, began sailing side by side with the Thunder Fortress.
Vane swept them with Observation Haki and discovered that the iron-plated ship was really just iron plating—basically a wooden ship with a layer of iron on it.
As for the other chubby ship, it looked like a disk. Did they really build a ship based purely on their crew's theme?
Vane remembered that in the Golden Emperor's movie there was a Long Pirates crew whose ship's defining feature was that it was extremely long.
"Haha! I didn't expect we'd run into competitors. Today, only our Ironclad Pirates' ship will make it into the Grand Line. Men, start the iron cannons and aim at that biggest ship!"
The Thunder Fortress was clearly much larger than their two ships, which made the Ironclad captain extremely jealous. He decided to first sink the other side with the iron shots his crew was so proud of.
"Captain, there's no time—we're about to enter the channel!"
At the foot of Reverse Mountain, the speed of the current obviously increased, like giving the ships modern engines. Chug-chug, and they started rushing up Reverse Mountain.
The Ironclad pirate ship looked like it was covered in iron armor, but in reality it was the lightest of the three, so it was the first to be affected, caught by the current and pulled into the climbing phase.
"The speed is really fast—just like a speedboat."
The uphill current could give slow sailboats the speed of a speedboat.
"Everyone, be careful! Don't fall off!"
The current was fast and the climb was steep. A single misstep and you could easily fall off the ship. Falling into the water at this time—whether you'd die or not aside—getting back onto the ship right away would be basically impossible.
Unless you can fly.
The Thunder Fortress and that chubby pirate ship began climbing together.
"So awesome!"
"Set sail for the Grand Line!"
"Ah!"
While everyone was excited, two people on the neighboring chubby ship lost their balance, rolled around on deck, and were finally flung off the ship, their fate unknown.
Before the chubby pirates could even grieve for their companions, they ran into a bigger crisis themselves.
"What's going on? The ship is spinning!"
"Meow, their ship is round. In this kind of high-speed current, it's really easy for it to start spinning like that."
The Thunder Fortress was big, heavy, structurally strong, and had powerful performance. It could adjust its posture at any time and stayed steady as a rock in this extreme-speed channel.
The chubby ship next door was like a top that had been whipped several times. Once the hull started spinning, it spun faster and faster.
"Meow, looks like they're going to crash into us."
The spinning chubby ship's course was obviously off—it was heading straight for the Thunder Fortress.
"Meowth!"
"Roger! Don't think about dragging us down with you, meow!"
Meowth pushed the control lever. The Thunder Fortress's power system started up, and at the same time Electivire released its electrical energy to its heart's content.
The two ships, which had been at about the same speed, instantly opened up a gap.
The spinning chubby ship failed to hit the Thunder Fortress, but its speed kept increasing as it veered to the side, and in the end it slammed into the channel wall.
Boom!
The entire ship broke apart on the spot. The high-intensity current also tore the remaining pieces into fragments.
"That's really miserable. No idea how many will survive."
"Who knows."
In such violent currents, aside from Fish-Man, it would be very hard for ordinary humans to survive in there.
"Don't worry about others! We're not out of the channel yet!"
"Watch it—make sure we enter the route to the Grand Line. Don't end up in another sea."
The current was very fast, and they quickly reached the summit of Reverse Mountain. This was where the five routes converged, and the one in the middle was the route to the Grand Line!
The Thunder Fortress's powerful maneuverability showed itself again, and without any mishaps it sailed straight into the correct channel!
"The Grand Line—now we're really here!"
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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