Out over the boundless sea, Ren Kurogane's new pirate ship was finally complete.
"Welcome aboard the super spaceship personally built by the Vegapunks!"
Big Tongue stood on the deck, shouting excitedly.
Ren Kurogane was running all over the ship too, looking here and there, full of curiosity about his future ride.
Krillin and the others also went inside. When they saw the futuristic control panels, they finally understood why Ren Kurogane had insisted on building this spaceship.
Compared with their old sailing ship, this was an entirely different level!
Most importantly, their old ship had been placed inside the spaceship, so their living arrangements hadn't changed much.
The only thing they needed to get used to was operating the spaceship.
After all, Ren Kurogane didn't want to bring the Vegapunks along into space. So if anything went wrong with the ship in the future, they would have to repair it themselves.
And Ren Kurogane didn't want to bother with that either, so he could only leave the work to his crew.
Even Brook, who had been a sailor, had now become a fitter responsible for maintaining the spaceship.
Shirley had recently been studying how to pilot the spaceship and read its star charts.
The star chart had been given to Ren Kurogane by Luffy. He had found it on the Final Island, but Luffy didn't think it was useful to him, so he gave it to Ren Kurogane.
Nami had given Luffy quite the scolding for that.
But she absolutely didn't dare go to Ren Kurogane and ask for the star chart back.
Recently, someone had started spreading a rumor across the sea that Ren Kurogane was a lecherous fiend who wouldn't turn down any woman.
And just like that, Ren Kurogane's reputation was ruined!
Ren Kurogane himself was furious about it.
Sure, he did have some unusual preferences.
But he really wasn't some lecherous fiend!
He only had Shirley right now, okay?
He hadn't even gotten around to Pudding and Olvia yet!
Ahem.
Anyway, Ren Kurogane was absolutely not some lecherous fiend.
It had to be another smear campaign by Imu!
After wandering around the spaceship for a while, Ren Kurogane sat in the main seat of the cockpit and waved his hand grandly.
"Set off! Let's go see Lord Imu!"
Shirley gave Ren Kurogane a helpless look.
"My dear Captain, if you don't want this spaceship to fall apart before we even get there, could you please give your servant a week to familiarize herself with it?"
Big Bonney also nodded beside Shirley.
"Yeah. We just got our hands on this thing. You have to give us some time to learn how it works, right?"
Olga nodded repeatedly.
"This captain is evil!"
Duang!
Ren Kurogane punched Olga on the head and said irritably, "You don't understand anything, so how do you have the nerve to criticize me?"
Olga covered the spot where she'd been hit, her eyes filling with faint tears as she gritted her teeth.
"Just you wait! I'll get you back for this someday!"
"Tch."
Ren Kurogane dismissed the little girl's threat entirely.
Over the following week, the Vegapunks explained everything they needed to know.
After that, they would have to rely on themselves to get used to the ship.
Ren Kurogane yawned.
He had been unbelievably bored these past few days!
Shirley had been studying new things all day and hadn't slept with him for an entire week.
It had gotten to the point where even looking at a monkey made him think it looked rather attractive.
After wasting a whole week, they finally boarded their spaceship and flew toward the top of the Red Line.
At the same time, the world's biggest news organization was broadcasting their movements live.
Ren Kurogane had specifically arranged for them to do it.
After all, the World Government had been making things difficult for him all this time. He'd been too lazy to bother with them before, but now that he was about to leave the planet, shouldn't he at least give them a little farewell gift?
At this moment, somewhere in the New World.
Aboard the Thousand Sunny.
Luffy and the others watched the spaceship soaring into the sky on the broadcast, their faces filled with envy.
"So cool! Franky! I want a spaceship like that too!" Luffy shouted.
Franky smiled helplessly.
"Well, that might take a while. I haven't completely digested everything I got earlier yet."
Luffy laughed without a care.
"As long as you can build one eventually!"
"I really envy Ren Kurogane. He's already about to travel through outer space!" Luffy exclaimed. "But I won't be that far behind! Once I've traveled across the entire sea, I'll head into space too! I'll start a whole new adventure!"
Hearing Luffy's grand declaration, Nami poured cold water on him.
"Don't be stupid, Captain. With your current body, you've got at most another thirty or forty years to live. Compared with the endless expanse of space, that's nothing. You might not even reach the next planet before you die of old age along the way."
"Eh?! Is that really how it works?"
Luffy was stunned, his face filled with disbelief.
"Hehe~ It's true," Robin said with a smile. "Human lives are simply too short. In the endless universe, we might not even be able to complete one proper journey."
Robin grew somewhat melancholy as she said this.
She wanted so badly to live longer, to pursue the even more ancient history of the world and piece together its scattered fragments into a thick history book that could tell people about the distant past.
Unfortunately, this world had four or five thousand years of history. Apart from the Void Century, which had been completely erased, the rest of that history existed only in fragments.
There was simply no way to recover all of it.
Even Ohara had failed to collect the world's entire history.
Luffy scratched his head, then smiled again.
"Well! Don't think about things that far ahead! When I really can't move anymore, that just means it's time for us to rest!"
Hearing their captain's words, the members of the Straw Hat crew smiled as well.
That guy really was worthy of being the man they had chosen to follow.
At this moment, it wasn't just Luffy, the future Pirate King, who was watching Ren Kurogane.
Countless pirates, Marines, and ordinary people across the four seas were also watching what Ren Kurogane and his crew were doing.
Of course, most of them were simply there for the spectacle.
Red-Haired Pirates
Shanks watched the broadcast with a solemn expression.
"Ren Kurogane… Are you planning to go to war with the World Government? Without joining forces with the world, you're relying entirely on your own strength?"
Whitebeard Pirates
Ace and a group of his brothers stared intently at the broadcast.
He suddenly felt that the gap between himself and those top-tier powerhouses was growing wider and wider.
Look at them.
Ren Kurogane had even built a spaceship, while they had only barely reached the level of a Yonko's combat power.
And his subordinates weren't particularly strong either.
He had heard that one of Ren Kurogane's men had nearly cut Kaido in half with a single slash!
That was absolutely Yonko-level strength.
After all, even Ace himself wasn't confident he could seriously injure Kaido in a short period of time.
Watching Ren Kurogane flying through the sky, Ace stood up.
"Brothers! Set sail! We're heading for Marine Headquarters!"
"Yeah!!!"
The brothers shouted excitedly.
They were finally going to avenge their father, Whitebeard!
Elsewhere, Kaido and Big Mom were also sitting in a plaza with all their subordinates, watching the broadcast.
Kaido laughed.
"That brat is finally going to settle things with the World Government?"
Big Mom was still curious about Ren Kurogane's strength.
"Is that brat really as strong as you say?"
"Hmph! He's a man I've acknowledged! How could he not be strong?" Kaido snorted. "He isn't Joy Boy, but I can say for certain that he's even more troublesome than Joy Boy! The World Government was asking for it by provoking him. Now they're going to pay the price."
Behind them, their subordinates looked grim.
Although they supported their bosses, reality was right in front of them.
Their bosses weren't Ren Kurogane's match.
Now they simply wanted to see Ren Kurogane crush the World Government and rebuild the rules of this world.
Ren Kurogane, however, had no intention of remaking the world.
He was causing trouble for the World Government simply because he wanted to cause trouble for them.
There was no other reason.
The spaceship's engines were incredibly powerful. In just a few minutes, they reached the sky above the Red Line.
Faced with Ren Kurogane's aggressive arrival, the World Government wasn't about to back down either.
The Five Elders and two Admirals came out together, accompanied by the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Kong.
Apart from these top-tier fighters, there was no one else.
At their level, numbers no longer meant much.
Ren Kurogane jumped out of the spaceship.
He hadn't brought any of his subordinates.
He came alone.
Smack!
Landing on the ground, Ren Kurogane smiled at the people in front of him.
"You little nobodies should stop embarrassing yourselves. Bring Imu out and have them bow their head to me twice. I'll give you all a quick death today!"
"Arrogant!"
The old swordsman among the Five Elders snorted coldly.
But in the next instant, he turned into a pile of ash and was carried away by the wind.
Everyone was horrified.
Especially the other four Elders.
Their lives were connected. As long as one of them remained alive, the others couldn't truly die.
And even if all of them died, Imu could resurrect them.
That was why, despite knowing they weren't Ren Kurogane's match, they hadn't been particularly afraid.
But now, the old swordsman had actually died.
Completely.
The other four panicked instantly.
"Brat! What exactly did you do?!"
The Elder known as Saturn glared viciously at Ren Kurogane.
"Nothing much. I just erased his information from the Dark Plane."
Ren Kurogane shrugged.
The gods of this world were indeed difficult to kill.
But Ren Kurogane was a god himself now.
A technological god, at that.
And, as it happened, this technological god was stronger than these old men.
So…
"Still not coming out? I'm going to kill all of them if you don't~"
Ren Kurogane looked toward the highest center of power in the world.
He knew that the true ruler of this world was sitting inside that room.
Faced with Ren Kurogane's second provocation, a sigh came from the void.
"Sigh. I didn't expect you to grow this powerful. Imu really didn't see this coming."
As the voice faded, a graceful figure appeared in front of the Five Elders.
The newcomer wore a golden crown and a golden robe.
In her hand was a small remote control.
Her green eyes stared intently at Ren Kurogane.
"You!"
The moment he saw Imu, Ren Kurogane was completely stunned.
He had never investigated Imu's true identity.
He had been saving it for the final reveal, hoping to give himself a surprise.
But now it seemed that the surprise was a little too big.
The next second, Ren Kurogane threw his head back and laughed.
"Interesting! This is too interesting! I never expected the true ruler of this world to be from Amazon Lily!"
The dark-skinned beauty, who looked ninety percent like Boa Hancock, remained expressionless.
"Amazon Lily? It is no longer Amazon Lily. The Amazon Lily of the past was nothing like the weak place it is today."
"Whatever. Call it whatever you want."
Ren Kurogane waved his hand with a laugh.
"Since you've come out, I assume you're ready to fight?"
Imu lowered her eyes.
"You've already seen how vast the universe is. You should understand that although this planet is special, it's still nothing more than a slightly larger ant in the universe. With your strength, you could conquer other star systems. Why waste your time here?"
Ren Kurogane let out a mocking laugh.
"Are you begging for mercy?"
Imu pressed her lips together and said nothing.
She had occupied the highest position for several hundred years.
Lowering her head now was difficult.
Boom!
Ren Kurogane brought his palm down.
A section of the entire Red Line was instantly erased.
Imu and the Five Elders were vaporized in an instant.
"Then at least look like you're begging for mercy."
Ren Kurogane's voice was cold.
The next moment, an enormous black serpent that reached from heaven to earth appeared in front of him.
Its dark green eyes stared at Ren Kurogane.
Imu's furious voice rang out.
"You bastard! You destroyed the power I've spent so much effort building!"
Ren Kurogane couldn't have cared less.
"What do you mean, 'spent so much effort'? Haven't you been sitting back and doing nothing this whole time?"
Whoosh!
Two streams of white air burst from the giant black serpent's nostrils.
Clearly, Ren Kurogane had infuriated her badly.
If only she could beat him…
A dangerous light flickered in her eyes.
But Imu had lived for several hundred years. Faced with an opponent stronger than herself, she decisively chose to endure.
Returning to human form, Imu took a long breath.
"What exactly do you want? To kill me? I'm telling you, that's impossible!"
"Oh? Then I'd love to hear why."
Ren Kurogane became interested.
He really wanted to know why this Lord Imu was so confident.
"Hmph! Because Imu has already fused with the planet. As long as the planet still exists, Imu cannot die!"
Imu seemed rather proud of this. She even stretched her neck a little higher.
Ren Kurogane looked at the ground beneath his feet, then at Imu.
He clapped his hands.
"I see! You must have deceived the planet's will and tricked it into merging with you, which angered the planet's will! Then, to take revenge on you, the planet has been raising the sea level all this time!"
Ren Kurogane felt that he had discovered the truth.
Then he looked up.
His eyes met Imu's strange gaze.
"What are you talking about? The planet's will is an inanimate thing. I fused with it through my own strength. Why would it take revenge on me?"
"Besides, the rising sea level has two causes. One is the damage caused to the planet by the Ancient Weapon, which accelerated the rise. The other is that this central star system is about to enter a new era, causing changes in its magnetic field that are drawing nearby satellites closer. That's what's causing the sea level to rise. It has nothing to do with Imu!"
Ren Kurogane frowned.
He hadn't expected to get it wrong.
Then he asked, "So, under normal circumstances, how long would it take to enter the next era?"
"Five thousand years!"
"Ha! And you still say it has nothing to do with you? The original five thousand years have been compressed to less than a thousand because of you!"
"It was going to happen sooner or later. It's only a matter of time."
Imu remained calm.
"Besides, Noah is already complete, and Pluton and Uranus are also ready to be deployed at any time. Even if the disaster arrives, we have absolute confidence that we can survive it."
"Then why did you betray Joy Boy?"
Ren Kurogane's curiosity had been thoroughly piqued. He asked with obvious interest.
"Because he wanted to save everyone in the world. That was impossible."
"Even with the technological support left behind by the previous era, we couldn't bring everyone into the new world. To ensure that the elite could successfully enter the next era and allow our species to continue, the sacrifice of a minority is acceptable."
Ren Kurogane nodded.
Imu was clearly a realist.
She had clashed with Joy Boy, an idealist, and ultimately killed him and seized power.
Ren Kurogane understood Imu's position, but he didn't support it.
Because he wasn't part of the elite!
Ahem.
Anyway, Ren Kurogane looked at the several planets outside the world that were drawing closer and closer.
"Is there a possibility that the planet has its own defense system against the coming new era? For example, what if we threw the Red Line out and used it as a planetary ring to reduce the danger brought by those planets?"
Hearing this, Imu suddenly widened her eyes.
She stared blankly at Ren Kurogane.