I am the Bandit King of the East Sea.

The twenty-nation coalition and the remnants of the ancient kingdoms have just finished a battle here, and the twenty-nation coalition has emerged victorious.

In a pool of blood.

The towering giant collapsed to the ground, panting. His dust suit and bubble-like protective gear had been pierced by sharp blades and were no longer effective.

Lyca stood on his shoulder, her eyes somewhat vacant as she stared at the gap in the dust suit.

"It seems this is the best we can do," Xin said softly.

Strictly speaking, his injuries were far from fatal.

But this is precisely the new world after a volcanic eruption and a tsunami.

The air in the New World contains a high concentration of PYROBROIN particles. If a person with an ability is exposed to the air for more than half an hour, they will lose their ability and experience symptoms of exhaustion.

As time goes by, the gradual accumulation of PYROBROIN particles in the body will cause the symptoms of exhaustion to become more and more severe. This is a fatal flaw that even the most powerful ability users cannot get rid of.

If a giant with the ability to move more than 30 meters tall were to become exhausted at this point, the consequences would be disastrous.

The 20-nation coalition can no longer be said to have a complete advantage. Even Lyca, who is equally strong, is not confident that she can protect a paralyzed giant who is over 30 meters tall on this battlefield.

Even if they start evacuating now, they won't be able to sail very far in half an hour, and it's impossible for them to escape the New World waters.

"Leica, we've done something wrong," Xin said, gazing at the gray sky.

"...Even if it was a mistake, it was my doing, it has nothing to do with you," Leica replied softly.

He shook his head, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"Let's not dwell on that... What's done is done now. Although the Great Kingdom has suffered heavy losses, the Twenty-Nation Alliance is also in dire straits. If the two powers continue fighting, they will likely just be dragged down into the sea together in these ruins. The only way to salvage the situation is to end the war as soon as possible and rebuild the order of the new world in the ruins of this old world."

He grinned.

He stretched out his palm, palm down, and a vortex of energy rapidly unfolded, enveloping the surroundings and transforming into a huge, transparent spherical space.

"Laika, you know, my ability is the Op-Op Fruit."

"If the fruit is trained and developed to the awakened state, it can be used as a technique with permanent effects, called the Immortal Surgery."

The conditions for immortality surgery are extremely demanding. It requires the awakening of a Devil Fruit and the life of the user to grant immortality.

This wasn't a surgery in the true medical sense; after all, what kind of surgery involves sacrificing the doctor themselves?

Essentially, this is still a supernatural ability of a Devil Fruit, which can violate the laws of physics.

"Why do this?" Lyca's body floated in mid-air, being repeatedly cut into cubes by the giant's heart-shaped blade, yet no blood flowed out.

Within the domain of the awakened Op-Op Fruit, Lyca had little power to resist.

“Leica, you are an experimental subject who escaped from the Heavenly King Laboratory. Although you are an immortal species, your lifespan is still limited. But as long as you obtain eternal life and with the help of the Heavenly King’s power... then we should be able to end the war completely.”

"After the destruction of the Great Kingdom, there should be no power in this world that can stand against the Unlimited Heavenly King."

"As long as the Heavenly King is always there, an unrestricted Heavenly King hanging overhead is enough to deter other restless countries, using the power of super weapons to form a deterrent, and using deterrence to stop war."

"......"

Leica remained silent for a very long time.

"Do you not want to live anymore? Losing your ability and strength doesn't mean you're dead. There might still be a chance."

"Didn't you want to pass on your surname to your descendants, Joy Boy?"

This time, it was Xin's turn to fall silent.

On his deathbed, he recalled his distant yet brief childhood, the moment when he chose his own name under the patient guidance of a mysterious man named Shan.

At first, he just wanted to live in the sunlight as a human being.

But more than fifty years have passed since then, and his wish has not been fulfilled. Instead, it has brought about a massive war that has lasted for fifty years, and the ocean of the New World has been without sunlight ever again.

This ocean is not even as deep as the abyss where Fishman Island is located.

Joy Boy was his personal aspiration, the person he wanted to become.

But now...

"No one in this era can be Joy Boyle." (Thoughts)

"Passing on the torch, what I cannot do, there will be successors."

"Perhaps, thousands of years from now, two similar plants will appear." He suddenly remembered a strange metaphor he had heard before, and a smile appeared on his lips.

"Therefore, I will not die."

The death he was referring to was certainly not physical death.

Surnames are passed down through bloodlines and family lineage.

But Joy Boy would not pass on his surname to his descendants, because the JOYBOY he envisioned would not be born within the foreseeable future.

Perhaps this will only be possible in the more distant future.

The towering giant removed the straw hat he always wore to shield himself from the sun and placed it on the ground. He had made this hat himself after his trip to Ohara.

The immortality surgery begins.

"Leica, live on with my ambition."

.....................................

After half an hour.

Leica stood under the tree, looking at the huge straw hat in the clearing beneath it, her expression shifting several times.

She pressed her hand to her chest, feeling an emptiness inside, as if a piece of her heart was missing.

Now, she has no heart.

“Leica…” Yi called softly from behind her, having witnessed the whole thing.

Leica turned her head indifferently, her face expressionless.

"Don't call me by that name anymore... Change it."

"Let's call him Im... never mind, the name doesn't matter."

She raised her head, gazing at the World Tree piercing the clouds at the horizon, a chill creeping into her strange eyes with their double-circled pupils:

"Go to Elbaf, it's time to end this far too long war."

At the edge of the World Tree, at the end of the line of sight, a massive storm, visible to the naked eye, was swirling around.

This was a giant tornado that enveloped the entire area surrounding the World Tree and remained fixed in that area without moving.

This is very unnatural, because this is the power that belongs to the ability user.

He is known as the Storm Titan, the most powerful of the Scourge warriors who survived the cataclysmic events of the New World.

This Zoan-type ability user can manipulate the power of wind to maintain terrifying storms the size of a city for extended periods.

This means that in the area around the World Tree, the concentration of PYROBROIN in the air would be far lower than the average level in the New World, making that place the last sanctuary where ability users can fully unleash their power.

Centered around Storm Titan, the last remaining legion of powerful beings from the ancient kingdom resides there.

...............

At this moment, in the deeper part of the new world.

Inside an island that was swallowed by a great flood.

With a flash of light, several figures suddenly appeared, only to find themselves surrounded by endless seawater on all sides.

Flooded and overwhelmed.

"How did the lab get flooded? This time travel only took about a year, right?" Sig, his body wreathed in black flames that scorched the seawater, stared blankly at the messy lab and the robots ruined by the seawater for a long time.

However, he did not receive a reply.

Besides Sigurd, Stussy, Toki, and Vegapunk are all Devil Fruit users. They are already drowning and struggling wildly in the sea.

"Drowning? A power user drowning in the ocean?" Sig frowned, finally realizing something was wrong.

The ocean is the natural enemy of ability users. Any ability user who falls into the sea will drown, and without outside help, they will die.

This is common knowledge 800 years from now.

But in this day and age, the seawater shouldn't be able to drown a person with superpowers.

"Has the Ragnarok, the so-called twilight of the gods in the history of the gods, already begun? Has the sea been polluted?"

Sig's heart sank.

A tsunami-like telekinetic force swept in all directions, tearing the entire laboratory and its surrounding ground apart, pulling it out of the sea and suspending it in mid-air.

Once the seawater had receded, Stusi and the others finally recovered.

The interval between each time travel is approximately six months to a year. To date, more than fifty years have passed in the timeline, and Sieg and others have successfully traveled through time nearly a hundred times.

The last time I traveled through time, the weather was fine and sunny, but now...

They stood in the laboratory ruins suspended in mid-air, gazing in all directions, seeing only a vast expanse of gray sky and an endless, boundless sea.

Apart from that, not a single reef was seen.

Between the sky and the sea, there was only a vast expanse of silence, devoid of any living creatures or signs of life.

"How is the laboratory?" Sig first used telekinesis to completely drain the seawater, and then checked the damage to the laboratory with Vegapunk.

“It’s already destroyed… rebuilding won’t be easy.” Vegapunk sighed. His life’s work was ruined, and he was exhausted.

"Fortunately, I made a backup beforehand, so only the results from the last six months or so were lost." Sig opened his 300KG inventory and took out the backup data he had saved.

He had previously knocked over a water glass and damaged his laptop, so he was quite careful about backing up his data, and therefore the loss this time wasn't too significant.

Chapter 1264 The Tree Planter (8k)

"The loss isn't huge, but rebuilding the lab will be very difficult."

Vegapunk spoke in a low voice.

He stood on the floating floor beneath his feet, gazing into the distance.

In his original memory, from this height, one could see an island controlled by an ancient kingdom, which housed a large city and advanced laboratories.

Previously, when Sig and his gang impersonated Pandamen and went around doing free shopping, they frequently visited their lab.