Little Goku's Great Adventure Starting from One Piece

Chapter 233 Crisis in the Dark!

As night deepened, countless stars twinkled in the sky, resembling sparkling gems.

The bright, round moon, like a silver plate, quietly appeared out of nowhere, hanging obliquely in a corner of the sky, draping the world in a silver veil.

In the Devil's Triangle, everything is shrouded in gray fog, making it difficult for light to penetrate and for people to distinguish between day and night.

This place is perpetually shrouded in a gray haze, chilling to the bone, and utterly desolate. The zombie army created by Moria and Hogback is scattered throughout Ghost Island, hidden in the darkness, waiting only for Moria to give the order to act.

Those poor souls who have been stripped of their shadows can only hide here miserably, with nowhere else to go, living a life like that of walking corpses.

A very small number of those who remained determined challenged Moria time and time again, trying to reclaim their shadows. But let alone seeing Moria, they couldn't even defeat Moria's zombie army, let alone reclaim their shadows.

At this moment, Brook, full of fighting spirit, encountered his great enemy, Shimotsuki Ryuma, the former great swordsman of Wano Country, in Moria's castle.

After his death, the opponent was transformed into a zombie by Moria, who also inserted his own shadow into him, enabling him to unleash all of Moria's techniques.

And it was faster! Stronger! It completely suppressed him, leaving him with almost no hope of victory!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The two long swords intertwined in the air, creating countless afterimages, and collided countless times in just two seconds, emitting a piercing and sharp sound.

Brook looked grave as he struggled to hold on against Shimotsuki Ryoma's attacks, feeling increasingly powerless.

He carried a small bag filled with salt on his waist. This salt was intelligence he had gathered after scouting Ghost Island many times. He knew that if he sprinkled the salt into the mouths of the zombies that had been given shadows, the shadows on the zombies would detach and return to their true owners.

This is also the only way to reclaim one's shadow without facing Moria.

Brook believed he was no match for Moria, so he resorted to this method: to try to defeat Shimotsuki Ryoma, who possessed his shadow, by sprinkling salt into Moria's mouth in order to reclaim his own shadow.

He had tried many times before, but each time he failed. Last time, his skull was even cracked by the other party and it took a long time to heal. It was only recently that he met Wukong and his friends and asked them for a bottle of milk, which he drank and finally cured his wound.

"Nose Song Sanding: Requiem!"

Suddenly, Brook unleashed his strongest move at the moment, knowing that if he continued to fight, his chances of winning would only approach zero.

However, Shimotsuki Ryoma, who possessed his shadow, also knew this move and launched this strongest attack almost simultaneously with him.

call out! !

Two cold, sharp lights flashed through the air as the two figures crossed paths like lightning, then simultaneously came to a standstill, back to back, motionless like two statues.

After a breath, Brooke clutched his stomach and knelt down, his dark eyes looking somewhat dazed. He opened and closed his mouth and said, "I lost. I lost again."

Clang!

Behind him, Shimotsuki Ryoma sheathed his sword, turned his head slightly, and said to him, "If you want to defeat me, you'll have to show stronger strength. You're too weak right now."

Inside Hogback's castle, Goku and Pupu were fast asleep in a room.

Sanji was also in the room. He covered his mouth and yawned, muttering, "I'm actually a little sleepy today. Is it because I've encountered too many exciting things?"

Muttering to himself, he turned off the lights in the room and lay down on the bed to sleep fully clothed.

Not long after, a third rhythmic snore echoed in the room.

On the other side, Nami and Robin were also in a room, but neither of them were very sleepy and were discussing something with each other.

"Robin, don't you have a strange feeling?"

Nami pressed her ear against the door, and only after confirming that Sindori's footsteps, who had brought them there, were no longer audible, did she come to the bedside and whisper to Robin, who was sitting on the bed.

"Are you referring to this woman, or Hogback, or everything here?" Robin looked up at her, his eyes deep.

Although Robin didn't answer directly, Nami saw the look in her eyes and immediately knew that her companion felt the same way. So she nodded solemnly, frowned, and said, "Everything here gives me a strange feeling. Robin, you felt it too."

"Hilton said he was Dr. Hogback's servant, but after bringing us here, he disappeared and hasn't been seen since."

Nami paced back and forth, recalling what had happened earlier.

"Dr. Hogback was a bit too enthusiastic towards us. He answered all our questions and helped us whenever he could. This was unreasonable. We were still strangers to him. He shouldn't have been so unguarded with us."

Previously, they had asked Hogback many questions, including the situation on Ghost Island, Brook's whereabouts, his immortality, and the unknown figure who could strip others of their shadows.

Hogback answered all their questions, and for the few who said they didn't know, he assured them he would find someone to help them inquire. He treated them like VIPs, and his attitude was so good that it was almost unsettling.

"And that woman named Cindy, from the first moment I saw her, I had a creepy feeling about her."

.

Nami recalled the woman she had just said goodbye to not long ago, hugging her arms and feeling that there was still some hair on her arms.

It's one thing if the other person has an eccentric personality, but when you get close to them, it always feels like you're approaching a block of ice, which is a very uncomfortable feeling.

"Dr. Hogback said that Cindy has lost most of her memories because his immortality surgery was not yet perfect."

"The immortality surgery, the immortality surgery... Robin, do you really think anyone in this world could research such a surgery? Even if it comes at the cost of losing memories, I still think it's too far-fetched." Nami muttered to herself, the knot between her brows still not unraveling.

At first, when they heard Hogback say that he had successfully developed an immortality surgery that would allow people to live forever, they were incredibly excited, thinking that they had witnessed some great invention.

But when they heard that the immortality surgery would cause people to lose most of their memories, they felt that the surgery didn't seem so amazing after all.

After all, if I lose my memories, am I still me? Even if I could live forever, what would be the point?

Now that Nami has calmed down, another question comes to mind: putting aside the drawbacks of losing her memory, is it really possible for such a miraculous thing as immortality surgery to exist in the world, and to be developed simply by studying those damn zombies?

She looked at Robin questioningly, hoping that her partner, who had some medical knowledge, could provide an answer.

Robin pondered for a long time, then finally nodded and shook his head.

Nami was bewildered by her actions and couldn't help but ask, "Robin, what do you mean? Is it possible or not?"

Robin didn't answer directly, but instead whispered about something else: "Do you know, Nami, among the many Devil Fruits in this world, there is an extremely special one, called the Op-Op Fruit."

"Op-Op Fruit?" Nami murmured, looking at Robin with some confusion, waiting for her to continue.

"Legend has it that this fruit possesses an ultimate ability: the power to perform an immortality surgery on others, granting them eternal life." Robin didn't keep him in suspense and quickly finished her sentence.

Nami was shocked when she heard this: "What? There are such overpowered Devil Fruits? This is unbelievable!"

""

Ever since she saw the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, she believed it to be the most overpowered of all Devil Fruits, capable of manipulating lightning power, making it practically like a god.

Now, the power of the Op-Op Fruit surpasses even that of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, granting the recipient immortality. How is this any different from the King of Hell who controls life and death?

"Yes, as far as I know, if there really is a way to make someone immortal, it would be through the Op-Op Fruit." Robin nodded.

Nami took a few seconds to calm herself down, then asked with a complicated expression, "So you mean that Dr. Hogback's talk about the immortality surgery developed using zombies was a lie? Or that he ate the 'Operation Fruit' you mentioned and was just hiding it from us?"

Robin shook her head: "No, I can confirm that he didn't eat the Op-Op Fruit, because the Op-Op Fruit was eaten by someone else many years ago."

"That person is Trafalgar Law, the captain of the Heart Pirates, and he's still alive and well, so Hogback couldn't possibly have obtained the Op-Op Fruit."

Nami was stunned, not expecting that the Op-Op Fruit had already been claimed by a pirate.

"So, what do you mean?"

"I don't know." Robin shook his head again.

"Although I have some knowledge of medicine, it is only to a passable degree. Compared to a genius doctor like Hogback, I am far inferior."

Robin pondered for a moment before saying, "What he said could be true or false. With my current level of knowledge, I can't tell whether what he said is true or false, so I can't give you a definite answer."

"I see." Nami sighed.

Indeed, the immortality surgery is such a high-tech thing that most doctors in the world probably cannot determine whether it is true or not. It would be a bit much to ask Robin, who is not a top doctor, to judge it.

"Forget it, forget about all that. Our goal is to find the enemy who's targeting us. We don't need to worry about anything else. Anyway, we don't care about this kind of amnesiac surgery." Nami shrugged.

To make her lose her memories of her friends and family in order to achieve immortality, it would be better to let her die.

"Hehe, that's right, Nami." Robin smiled slightly, completely agreeing with her statement.

For her, being alive was already a blessing; she never even considered the possibility of immortality.

"Sigh, I wonder where Brook has gone. If we can find him, we can find the guy who's been eyeing us." Nami sighed.

Although Hogback offered to help them find Brook and the enemy who had stripped them of their shadows the next day, somehow she felt that the longer it dragged on, the more likely something might happen.

But she couldn't make any other arrangements, since according to Hogback, it was nighttime and various monsters and ghosts would appear in many places on the island, such as the zombies they had encountered before, which would crawl out of the graveyard and wander around the island.

To walk safely on the island, you have to wait for the sun to come out tomorrow. Although the light will be weak, there will still be some, enough to make the wandering monsters return to their dwellings and stop moving.

With Goku yawning incessantly after finishing his meal, looking as if he had been overworked, Nami had no choice but to agree to Hogback's suggestion to spend the night in the castle, which led to their current predicament.

"Never mind, let's go to bed early so we can get up earlier tomorrow."

After racking their brains without finding a solution, Nami and Robin stopped discussing it and went to sleep, turning off the lights as well.

Although they felt something was off, they probably just overthought it. Hogback had never shown any malice towards them from beginning to end, so they couldn't possibly suspect him based on their feelings alone; that would be a bit petty and suspicious.

An hour passed quickly.

In a secluded room within the castle, Hogback finished his surgery on Absalom, repairing his two broken arms. He wiped the fine sweat from his forehead and exhaled.

"I never expected that Absalom's powerful body could be injured to this extent. That brat is terrifying."

Hogback looked at Absalom, who was still unconscious on the operating table due to anesthesia, with a solemn expression.

Absalom's body had been modified by him, possessing the bite force of a lion, the tough skin of an elephant, and the wild strength of a bear and a gorilla. He knew all too well how powerful his opponent was.

It was truly unimaginable that such a person could have both hands broken by a kick from that seemingly silly, gluttonous brat.

"Fortunately, no matter how strong this brat is, he will not be able to cause any more trouble in the future. His shadow will be used by Lord Moria and become the key to the awakening of that giant warrior."

Hogback seemed to remember something, and a sinister smile crept onto his lips.

"Eek! Hiss! That brat and that cook should be sleeping soundly by now. The Squirrel Brothers have probably taken them to Lord Moria's place. The zombie army will soon gain two more generals!"

It turns out that he had put drugs in the food at the banquet he was hosting for Goku and the others. The special fragrance that Sanji smelled was not actually any kind of spice, but a hypnotic drug that he had carefully made.

This hypnotic drug can make people feel sleepy without them even realizing it, just like when they are tired normally. After the person who took the drug falls asleep, they can quickly enter a deep sleep and it is difficult to wake them up no matter how much noise is made in the outside world.

Because Sanji hadn't eaten much or taken much medicine, he might not have fallen asleep immediately.

To ensure the other person was asleep and in a deep sleep, they did not act immediately but decided to wait a while.

According to Hogback's calculations, an hour would be enough; the other party couldn't possibly keep resisting sleepiness indefinitely.

So now is the best time to act!