Chapter 261: Chapter 261: Laugh Tale!

Chapter 261: Laugh Tale!

Undoubtedly.

After hearing the secret about ’Laugh Tale’ recounted by Rayleigh just now—

Even Hebi couldn’t help but be shaken inwardly.

What Rayleigh said was absolutely news sufficient to shock the entire sea.

The Laugh Tale that the people of the world yearned for was a ’barren’ little island.

But at the same time, it genuinely held ’everything this world has to offer’—to be exact, what it pointed to was a world.

That was the ’previous era’ that had been destroyed before this one.

And Roy naturally thought of the mural in the giant country of Elbaf from the original story.

On the mural, three worlds were depicted—namely, the past ’First World’ and ’Second World’, and the currently ongoing ’Third World’.

As well as the ’Poneglyph’ Vegapunk had told him about on Egghead Island.

“The world has experienced destruction twice.”

And what Rayleigh and the others witnessed were undoubtedly the ’remains’ of that destruction.

“In the center of the mural in Elbaf is a giant ’tree’—it runs through the three worlds. In the original story, everyone thought that tree must be Elbaf’s world tree, the ’Treasure Tree Adam’.”

But now, Roy had a bold guess.

Was it possible that the tree wasn’t the Treasure Tree Adam at all, but the ’Pillar of Creation’ that created the Treasure Tree Adam—the source of all Devil Fruits?

Roy recalled the contents of the mural in the giant country.

Leaving the content of the Third World aside for now.

[There was fire on the earth.]

[Humanity yielded to desire and touched the taboo sun.]

[Then the ’Sun God’ descended.]

[The God of the Earth was enraged, and together with the Serpent of Hellfire, sent the world into darkness and death.]

[From then on, they could never meet again.]

This was the mural content of the First World.

[The God of the Forest dispatched devils to descend, and the sun endlessly spread the flames of war.]

[The children of the Half Moon had a dream.]

[The children of the Moon also had a dream.]

[Humanity ascended to the throne of God after killing the sun.]

[The wrath of the God of the Ocean then flared up.]

[From then on, they could never meet again.]

This was the mural content of the Second World.

Combined with the mural on the Abyss, Roy formed a guess in his mind.

“First of all, all the ’Gods’ on the murals can be approximated as ’Imu’… that is, the shadow of the Pillar of Creation, the malice of the world.”

There was fire on the earth—that was the spark of fire, or it could be called wishes.

That should be the era recorded by the mural on the Abyss.

It was an era of abundance, where people followed the fire of desire in their hearts and could obtain anything by making wishes to the Pillar of Creation.

Until humanity touched the taboo.

“Davy Jones…”

The first cursed one, Davy Jones, made a wish and forged a pact with ’God’.

Roy now almost knew what that wish was—he wished for the whole world to become interesting and dangerous, for the world to become free.

Therefore, the concept of ’Freedom’ was born, which was the descent of the ’Sun God’ mentioned in the mural.

[Freedom] was the initial wish, and also the beginning of all taboos—it brought freedom, and for the first time liberated the bound ’God’. Thus, it was both hope and destruction.

As for what happened next, Roy wasn’t completely sure.

But what was certain was that Imu, having obtained freedom through Davy Jones, triggered a massive disaster.

And the method of that disaster—

“Earthquake…”

Roy had the answer in his mind.

The wrath of the God of the Earth should refer to an unprecedented great earthquake.

That earthquake caused the magma in the earth’s core to completely lose control and break free from the crust—that massive magma capable of enveloping a world was the ’Serpent of Hellfire’.

“That’s right.”

“Davy Jones desired an era of freedom; he was dissatisfied with the original era which, although abundant, was stifling. But even so, he should never have thought of killing everyone.”

“So he and Imu utilized the power of the ’Pillar of Creation’—although the Serpent of Hellfire covered and enveloped everything in the First World, it didn’t truly burn it down.”

“And Davy Jones must have been able to use this disaster to command everyone to leave their original world with him, arriving at the ’New World’, and beginning to conquer the numerous races that originally lived in the world.”

“The Pillar of Creation should also have been transplanted at that time… the huge cavity under the sea is the ’proof’.”

That was the content recorded on the Abyss—the First King obtained the power of God and began to conquer the world!

At this point, time moved to the era of the ’Second World’.

In this era, Davy Jones began to conquer the various races, and his method was very simple.

“The God of the Forest dispatched devils, and the sun endlessly spread the flames of war…”

Devil Fruits were formally born in this exact era.

Using the power of Devil Fruits, Davy Jones successfully spread the flames of war throughout the whole world, ultimately conquering it and establishing that Great Kingdom—at that time, perhaps even Joy Boy was his subject and subordinate.

As for the subsequent ’children of the Half Moon’ and ’children of the Moon’, Roy didn’t have many clues at present, but he guessed it should be related to the special residents on the moon of this world.

And then—

“According to the records of the Abyss, Davy Jones met with betrayal.”

“The initial twenty Kings made a pact with Imu and launched a war against him.”

“He and Joy Boy tried their best to resist, but ultimately lost the battle!”

“So…”

[Humanity ascended to the throne of God after killing the sun.]

This sentence described the massive war that led to the downfall of the Great Kingdom.

But…

“Why does the subsequent prophecy say the ’God of the Ocean’ was burning with wrath?”

Having clearly achieved victory, why was Imu still angry?

The answer was self-evident.

“He didn’t achieve a true, complete victory—He was also betrayed.”

Roy thought of the ’Contract’ signed by the initial twenty Kings that he had seen in the Room of Flowers through Doflamingo’s memories not long ago.

In the contract, one name was missing.

That was the most crucial betrayer.

[Nefertari Lily]

She had highly likely betrayed Imu, causing Him to remain unable to gain complete freedom even after defeating Davy Jones and Joy Boy.

So He once again utilized the power of the Pillar of Creation, causing the sea level to rise.

Thus, the Second World was also destroyed.

And Imu transplanted the Pillar of Creation again, relocating it along with Himself—still bound—to the current Red Line, ’Mary Geoise’.

Thus, the current era came to be—the era belonging to the ’Third World’.

And many things were thus explained.

For example, the special ocean currents converging from the four seas at Reverse Mountain were highly likely caused by that massive cavity leading to the First World beneath Reverse Mountain, and the magma within it—the intense high heat created that special landform and ocean current structure.

Even the birth of the Red Line was highly likely a result of this.

Up to this moment—

Roy finally, vaguely, sorted out the full picture of this world’s history.

Of course, he had many thoughts in his mind, but he didn’t ponder for too long.

Rayleigh also waited quietly for him to absorb this information before the ’Dark King’ continued: “Even Roger was truly shocked at the time.”

He recalled the reactions of the Roger Pirates’ members.

Upon realizing that Laugh Tale was essentially an entrance connecting to the ’previous era’, their first reaction was naturally… excitement!

“That’s a whole world!”

A brand new world, a brand new adventure—for men of the sea, that was something they couldn’t possibly not yearn for.

But unfortunately—

“The power left by Joy Boy was resisting us… What was left there should be the maximum output of his ability. Even we had no way to break through those crystal stones and enter that ’tunnel’ formed by sunlight.”

Rayleigh said so.

“But if we dived normally, even a coated ship wouldn’t be able to dive to that depth, let alone pass through that magma.”

In other words—

“We couldn’t reach ’that world’.”

Having arrived at the final island but unable to obtain the ’Great Treasure’.

This naturally made the Roger Pirates very unhappy.

But soon, their thoughts changed.

Because they could see—that tunnel didn’t stop even after extending to the ’First World’.

It continued to extend downward until it landed in the center of the First World, beside that huge deep pit.

That was the place where the Pillar of the World used to stand, the ’divine domain’ of the former world.

And there, they saw a figure.

“It was Joy Boy.”

Recalling this, Rayleigh also seemed somewhat dazed.

Before his eyes, he could still seemingly see the scene from back then.

At the end projected on the crystal stone screen, that figure sat cross-legged, raising his head.

He opened his mouth and laughed, his iconic straw hat slung on his back.

That was the legend of an era—Joy Boy.

“He was already dead.”

Rayleigh stated.

Yes.

In that dead world—

Joy Boy was also buried there.

However, his death was very special.

Because—

“He had clearly been dead for at least eight hundred years, but his corpse hadn’t decayed.”

Or to be exact—

The Roger Pirates could see that Joy Boy’s body was actually decaying.

But when the sunlight projected from Laugh Tale fell on his corpse, his body would once again become full of vitality.

“To this day, we still can’t understand how he managed to do such a thing—it clearly exceeded the scope of a Devil Fruit ability.”

Speaking of this, Rayleigh shook his head.

But at this moment, Roy could somewhat understand.

The essence of a Devil Fruit is a ’wish’.

After the user dies, the wish returns to the world, becomes part of the cycle, and is reborn.

But clearly, Joy Boy was an exception.

His ability was the Nika Fruit, an ability symbolizing ’Freedom’.

He could assimilate everything in the world into rubber and manipulate it as he pleased. The ’sunlight tunnel’ of Laugh Tale was clearly born this way.

And the ’freedom’ granted by this fruit could even be so special as to affect the ’Source Energy of Lineage Factor’, thereby erasing Imu’s Abyssal Sea Contract and breaking free from its restraints to a certain extent.

In other words, the rules that normal Devil Fruits needed to follow were highly likely not so absolute for Joy Boy.

And one must consider—according to Rayleigh’s description at this moment—

The place Joy Boy chose to die was the First World, the place where the former ’Pillar of Creation’ took root.

“The wish power and Source Energy of Lineage Factor there must be dense to an unimaginable degree.”

The ability of freedom combined with a massive amount of Source Energy of Lineage Factor was highly likely the reason for creating that miracle.

In short, although Joy Boy died, and even the Nika Fruit re-entered the ’cycle’—

His corpse still maintained the operation of the final ability he left behind before his death—that is, the tunnel connecting Laugh Tale to the First World.

And beside him, there was a message formed by twisted light rays.

[Congratulations on conquering the sea and finding the ’Final Island’.]

[To be able to reach the Final Island, you must be the freest group of people on the sea in your era.]

[You must be resisters of the ’Abyss’, my colleagues.]

[You might have already learned of the three necessary fruits and obtained the possibility of opposing the Abyss.]

[You might have already found clues to the three weapons and have the resolve to oppose the world.]

[You must be remarkable heroes. Having now discovered there is no treasure on the Final Island, you might be thinking of beating me up.]

[Seeing my message, you must all be very serious.]

That was clearly Joy Boy’s message.

[But now, you don’t need to be so serious anymore.]

[Because this is just a joke.]

Beside this sentence, there was a mark.

It was a ’smile’ mark—D.

The members of the Roger Pirates could almost imagine the kind of laughter Joy Boy wore when he carved those lines of text back then.

[Since you can see my message, it means the promised era has not yet arrived.]

[I am sad for you, because you achieved everything, but have no way to complete the final great undertaking.]

[I am also happy for you, because the world will not face its ’end’ in your era; that final war will not arrive in your era.]

[You may all return to your homelands and freely enjoy life reunited with friends and loved ones; that is something far more precious than treasure.]

[Laugh to your hearts’ content, Joy Boys of that era.]

Rayleigh had to admit.

When they saw this message back then, the entire Roger Pirates crew was dumbfounded.

Even past noon, when the sunlight in the sky began to slant and fade, they completely couldn’t understand what Joy Boy’s dying words meant.

But soon, Roger discovered the crux of the problem.

Because as the sunlight stopped spilling down, the ’sunlight tunnel’ piercing through the entire deep sea also dissipated along with it.

And exactly as mentioned before—the ’sunlight tunnel’ itself was a genuinely existing physical entity.

Its disappearance directly caused slight turbulence in the surrounding ocean currents.

Waves began to roll up around the entirety of Laugh Tale.

They weren’t tall, but they crossed the island base and beat against that mountain in the center of the island.

Again, exactly as mentioned before, the entirety of Laugh Tale, including that mountain, was covered in that bizarre ’rubber crystal stone’.

Their highly elastic nature meant that whenever seawater beat against the crystal stones, it would leave a shallow ’mark’.

That was Roger’s discovery.

Because—

“From bottom to top, that mountain was densely covered… with many such marks.”

Rayleigh sighed.

“Every time the sea level rose, the waves beat higher, and the marks on that mountain climbed higher.”

Just like parents recording their child’s height.

Laugh Tale was a tunnel to the First World, a telescope peering into the truth of history, and also a ’beacon’ recording how much time was left before the entire world was destroyed.

And that long record, which had lasted for eight hundred years, appeared before the Roger Pirates at that time.

It was also at that time that they understood the meaning of Joy Boy’s message, and even understood what Joy Boy’s plan was.

Joy Boy’s corpse lay in the deep sea, receiving the illumination of sunlight to sustain itself, maintaining the existence of the sunlight tunnel and the bizarre crystal stones on Laugh Tale.

But don’t forget—under the power of that Lord Imu, the sea would rise every few eras.

Islands and continents would gradually disappear until the entire world was submerged.

And Laugh Tale existed for this.

When the sea level completely submerged the highest peak of Laugh Tale, sunlight naturally could no longer reach Joy Boy’s body through the ’sunlight tunnel’.

At that time, Joy Boy’s body would gradually, truly decay, and the ability he maintained would also gradually disappear—those bizarre crystal stones would dissipate, revealing that ’tunnel’.

That was the only opportunity Joy Boy left for the next generation’s Joy Boy.

In other words—

For people like the Roger Pirates who could land on the island of Laugh Tale and see Joy Boy’s message, it inherently meant they were born in the ’wrong era’.

When the right person who truly reached here in the promised era arrived at Laugh Tale, this island would already be submerged beneath the sea—what would be left here… was only that soon-to-disappear ’tunnel’ leading to the First World.

Laugh Tale, just like its name.

It itself was… a ’Joke (Laugh)’.

And it was exactly upon realizing this—

“Hahahahaha!”

Roger and the Roger Pirates let out sounds of joyful laughter amidst speechlessness and admiration.

“This… we really got played!”

“Hey hey—arranging a joke spanning eight hundred years? What is wrong with this Joy Boy’s head?”

“Should we be glad?”

“We should be glad, I guess. I don’t want to fight a war… my wife and kid are waiting for me!”

“It’s a pity that guy is already dead, otherwise I’d definitely beat him up for playing such a joke!”

And at that time, Roger laughed loudly and raised the liquor flask from his waist.

“Hahahahaha… so I came too early?”

He seemed relieved, yet also somewhat unwilling.

But no matter what, he couldn’t help but laugh.

“Joy Boy, you are truly an interesting guy…”

He opened his mouth and took a swig of liquor—this time, Crocus beside him hesitated for a moment, but did not stop him.

Then, Roger tipped the bottle mouth down.

Rum spilled all over the ground, as if in a libation.

A libation for that JOY BOY who, before dying, used his own life to complete this joke that played the world for eight hundred years.

At the same time, he also seemed to be pouring one for himself.

He knew he didn’t have much time left to live.

What a pity this is!

Whether it was the Joy Boy of the previous generation, or the Joy Boy of the next generation—the eras they lived in must undoubtedly be extremely interesting eras!

“If possible… I really wish I had been born in the same era as you!”

☆☆☆

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