I am the Bandit King of the East Sea.

"Barrett, stop fighting. A storm is coming," Hale urged hurriedly.

"Heh, Straw Hat, it seems you're nothing special after all. I'll let you off this time." Barrett calmly set a flag before casually tossing aside the defeated Luffy.

He walked to the spaceship's control panel, placed his hands on it, and began to operate the entire spaceship in conjunction with it.

The rain poured down, and the dense lightning flashes were as dense as the rain curtain; it was a storm that was rare even in the New World.

“Flying at high altitudes in such extreme weather is not a wise move.”

Barrett muttered to herself, controlling the spaceship as it landed around an island on the sea, transforming into a massive sea vessel.

But before he could catch his breath, his expression changed slightly.

Amidst the lightning and thunder, a majestic and divine azure dragon emerged from the clouds, speaking in human language:

"Barrett, you've broken the rules."

"How can one obtain ONE PIECE without going through countless trials and tribulations?"

As the Dragon King spoke, the surrounding waves rose and fell, with giant waves tens of meters high surging up and down, threatening to engulf Barrett's ships.

"Dragon King, you dare to stop me?" Barrett sneered.

He didn't even bother to make a move; he simply stood on the deck and glared at the Dragon King.

Barrett craves to fight the strong, but disdains the weak.

The Dragon King also noticed his contempt.

"You monkey, if you won't let me stop you, do you expect me to go and invite Sig?" the Dragon King roared.

“Si...Sieg?” Barrett and Hale both paled.

"It seems that Sig is indeed behind the Dragon King... Is this his doing?" Hale pondered, glancing around at the same time.

"Could it be that Sig is watching from the other dimension right next door?"

"So what if it's Sig? When have I ever been afraid?" Barrett snorted coldly, her tone very defiant.

"Is that so? Sig once taught me a truth." Amidst thunder and lightning, the Dragon King transformed into human form, his bare feet treading on the sea surface, the roaring waves causing the entire ship to bob up and down.

She cleared her throat and read aloud:

I really like a quote from Barrett: "Who wants to become stronger alone...it's just that there's no one to accompany them..."

Before she could finish speaking, Barrett's face changed drastically, and she screamed, clutching her head:

"Aa ...

His roar seemed louder than the sound of the waves. Barrett covered her face with her hands and walked away on the waves, disappearing from the island without a trace.

“Then…” The Dragon King then turned to look at Hale.

Hale's expression changed slightly, and he immediately turned his head, sighing with feigned profundity as he looked at Luffy and the other pirates:

"Young pirates, I am very disappointed in you."

Pirates: ?

"Some things have no shortcuts," Hale said deeply.

"People's dreams never end, and any opportunistic behavior is a betrayal of those dreams."

"It seems that only Straw Hat Luffy has come to his senses in time and passed my test this time."

After sighing, Hale suddenly leaped into the air, transforming into a jet-black humanoid southern cockroach, and glided towards the island.

As the pirates watched Hale's retreating figure, some belatedly realized something:

"Wait, what about the money we paid?"

"RNM, refund my money!"

After a polite and friendly farewell, Hale followed closely behind Barrett and disappeared off the island.

The storm came quickly and went quickly.

The Dragon King had also vanished without a trace. The sunlight shone once more on the waves, on the unclaimed ship, and on the Sunny, which had just been pulled from the warehouse.

"What a farce."

Robin chuckled softly and commented.

Luffy and the others returned to the Sunny, feeling as if their experience had been a dream.

Suddenly, they boarded a spaceship and flew to ONE PIECE, and then returned to their usual orbit.

"I've really been tricked." Zoro glanced in the direction of the island, but didn't give chase.

Nami sighed, "Although this sightseeing trip didn't cost any money, after a busy day, we're back to square one."

Luffy, sitting on the floor without any regard for his image, suddenly grinned, revealing a set of white teeth, and laughed out loud.

"Nami, which direction is the next island?"

Sanji looked at Luffy's smiling face, silently took out a lighter, and lit a cigarette.

"Getting beaten up by Barrett and still so happy... I don't know what she's so happy about all day long..."

While complaining, a faint smile unconsciously appeared on his lips.

All under heaven are united; ALLBLUE has arrived.

But now, as a member of the Straw Hat Pirates, his dreams and goals are no longer as simple as they were at the beginning.

Luffy's dream is no longer just his dream.

He took a drag of his cigarette, pushed open the door, and went into the ship's kitchen.

The group got busy again, and set sail once more under the glow of the setting sun, just like the beginning of countless journeys.

So what if the Starship? So what if the world changes drastically? So what if the world government collapses?

What does this have to do with the Straw Hat Pirates' journey?

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

Every generation has its own story.

The story of the mountain bandit king has come to an end, but the young people have their own stories to tell.

Above the clouds, in the floating steel behemoth, the Dushan Castle.

Sieg and Roger sat facing each other, raising their glasses in a toast.

“Barrett is quite stubborn, so I’m not really suited to handle this. I’ll have to trouble you this time,” Roger said with a smile, raising his glass.

“I don’t want him to deprive young people of the joy of adventure.”

“It’s nothing,” Sieg said casually.

If the Dragon King can't handle it, then he will take action. From this perspective, the cockroach bully Hale certainly has extraordinary shrewdness.

He was able to get from the old era to the present not because of any kind of luck or power, but entirely because of his strong will to survive.

"But are you really determined to set sail for the stars and the sea as soon as Barrett's ship is built?" Sieg asked again.

"I have already warned you about the dangers in the depths of space."

"My clone Sigma once ventured into the depths of space, but the price was an ominous, half-mad old age. Vegapunk from another world speculated that he must have encountered a great enemy that was supposed to destroy human civilization five hundred years later..." (PS: The parallel world arc was written earlier, in chapter 980.)

Roger smiled slightly, seemingly unconcerned, and raised his glass to drink it all in one gulp.

“I won’t let something like this hold me back,” Roger laughed.

The story of Gol D. Roger, the Pirate King, ended decades ago; it was just that Higuma forcibly added more scenes for him.

Now, he is about to turn the page on a new chapter in his life's grand drama.

Sieg didn't say anything more.

The universe is vast and boundless; even if the Roger Pirates were to reach the stars, they might not encounter the same enemies.

Life is like a play.

The characters on stage will eventually reach their final act.

The bandit king's grand drama has come to an end, but his life is still long.

After the grand finale, everyone has their own choices and directions.

Whitebeard returns to the New World to continue living with his sons, Roger is about to embark on the path of space pirates, and Higuma faces an infinite spacetime gate. Vegapunk will continue to serve in the Liangshan camp, preparing for a great enemy from the depths of space five hundred years from now.

The Straw Hat Pirates are still on their way to the final island.

They all have bright futures.

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

Sabaody Archipelago.

The bald man walked alone on this bustling island.

He was measuring the land with his footsteps, observing this newly born world after the war with his own eyes.

As a bandit, although he had a firm goal and direction, he was still limited in the end, and he was trying to make up for his shortcomings.

"The slave markets of Sabaody Archipelago have been completely eradicated; slavery is a thing of the past..."

"It seems that there are others in the Navy who have inherited Sigurdswarf's will," the bald man remarked.

As he was feeling this way, a burly preacher in a robe with a shiny bald head walked up to him and approached.

"Brother, have you ever heard of the Lord of the Mountains?"

The bald man was taken aback.

The bald-headed preacher had already begun a standard sermon:

"Lord of the Mountains, our eternal God!"

"God loves the world, and He has a dream..."

As the bald man listened, he suddenly felt a sense of nostalgia, and he patted his equally shiny forehead.

"When I was young, I did a lot of foolish things. I remember when I had just eaten the Whispering Fruit, I got carried away..."

“Too small, too small, too narrow-minded…” he chuckled.