The images on the sky screen gave no one time to catch their breath.
Austin’s voice popped up again, his tone rising a notch, carrying the excitement of a storyteller reaching a climax.
[System Notification: World Shock Value has reached 45 percent.
Unlocking next video segment: The Great Prison Break.] “Alright, folks, we just talked about Luffy’s family background.
His grandfather is a Navy Hero, and his father is the head of the Revolutionary Army.
With a setup like this in any normal family, they’d start a fight just having a reunion dinner over the New Year.” “But what about Luffy himself?
He doesn’t care about any of that at all.” “The only thing he cares about is becoming the Pirate King, though during the Marineford War, his goal of saving Ace took priority over being the Pirate King.” “To save Ace, this Straw Hat kid did something that no one in the entire sea dared to do.” A panoramic view of a building appeared on the sky screen.
A low-angle shot from the seabed looking up.
A massive stone structure stood above an abyss at the bottom of the sea, layered and getting wider as it went up, like an inverted pyramid.
It was surrounded by surging undercurrents and patrolling Sea Kings.
The windows on every floor were fitted with Sea Stone bars, and huge characters were carved into the outer walls: Impel Down.
“The World Government’s underwater prison.
It holds the most vicious criminals in the entire sea.
From petty thievery to monsters capable of destroying nations, they are held on different levels; the further down you go, the more terrifying it gets.” “The bottom floor, Level 6, holds those whose names have been erased from history.
The World Government believes that their very existence is a threat to order, so they claim to the outside world that they are already dead.” “Such a place.” Austin paused for a beat.
“Monkey D.
Luffy broke in, all by himself.” The reaction across the entire sea was almost simultaneous: no one believed it.
On the Marineford plaza, a Lieutenant Colonel blurted out, “Are you kidding me?” The Major beside him also shook his head.
What kind of place was Impel Down?
In the two hundred years since that prison was built, only one person had ever successfully escaped.
Golden Lion Shiki.
He was a legendary pirate whose fame rivaled that of Pirate King Roger.
On an unknown island.
Golden Lion was smoking a cigar.
He had little interest in the petty grievances showed on the sky screen, but upon hearing that the Straw Hat brat had broken into Impel Down alone, his teeth clenching the cigar loosened slightly.
“This kid.” Golden Lion exhaled a smoke ring.
“Interesting.
Back then, I had to cut off my own legs just to get out.
How did a brat from the East Blue manage to get in?” After Golden Lion’s success, it wasn’t that no one else tried; great pirates from the New World had tried, and even tough characters at the Shichibukai level had planned riots after being imprisoned.
All of them failed.
And then the sky screen told them that a seventeen-year-old kid from the East Blue had broken in.
“Nonsense,” Akainu commented with two words.
Kizaru pushed his sunglasses up to his forehead, revealing a pair of half-squinted eyes underneath.
“Oh my~ This Straw Hat boy is quite bold, isn’t he~” Aokiji rarely sat up straight, but now he pulled his hands out of his pockets and crossed them over his chest.
He didn’t speak, but his brow furrowed.
He had seen the internal structure of Impel Down and knew the strength of Warden Magellan.
That man’s Venom-Venom Fruit—never mind a small pirate, even if an Admiral were to break in personally, they’d lose three layers of skin.
Sengoku stood by the window, the hand rubbing his temples coming to a halt.
“Impel Down…” he muttered.
The World Government spent more money on that prison than on maintaining three Marine bases.
Garp was chewing on rice crackers, the hint of sadness on his face replaced by a subtle expression.
It was hard to tell if it was pride or a headache.
He was proud that the brat was bold enough, but it was a headache because the brat was too bold.
“Hehehe…” Garp grinned.
Sengoku turned to glare at him.
“You’re still laughing!
Look at the good grandson you raised!” “I’m not laughing, I’m not laughing.” Garp stuffed the last half of the rice cracker into his mouth, crunching loudly.
New World, Moby Dick.
Ace’s eyes widened.
Luffy broke into Impel Down?
To save him?
That carefree brother of his, who hadn’t even left the East Blue and whom he had chased throughout their entire childhood, had plunged headfirst into the most terrifying prison in all the seas?
“That idiot…” Ace’s voice was very soft, with a hoarse quality born of exasperation.
Whitebeard took a swig of sake and wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Quite bold,” the old man commented.
He paused, then added, “Very bold.” At the other end of the sea, underwater, Impel Down.
Warden Magellan sat in his office.
He had already had diarrhea three times.
It wasn’t because of nerves, but because his constitution had always been like that.
Due to the side effects of the Venom-Venom Fruit, he would have diarrhea regardless of what he ate; it was no exaggeration to say he spent twenty hours a day in the bathroom.
But for once, he wasn’t squatting on the toilet.
He stood by the window.
The sky screen could also be seen from inside Impel Down.
Golden light penetrated the seawater, the stone walls, and the Sea Stone, projecting directly onto the ceilings of every cell.
The prisoners saw it all.
From Level 1 to Level 6, every prisoner who could still lift their head stared at that light.
Magellan leaned his hands on the windowsill, looking at the words “Impel Down” on the sky screen, his mouth curling downward.
A brat breaking into his Impel Down?
He wasn’t angry; he just found it ridiculous.
From design to construction, every brick of this prison was meant to ensure people could get in but never get out.
Sea Stone defenses, the Poison Floor, the Freezing Floor, the Blazing Floor, the Starvation Floor—five levels of hell, each more absurd than the last.
Even if you really managed to break in, then what?
He, Magellan, was still alive.
Hydra, Venom Demon, Poison Cloud, Hell’s Judgment.
Pick any move, and it would be enough to give even a top-tier pirate a hard time.
“Warden.” Vice Warden Hannyabal poked half his head through the doorway.
“The prisoners outside are making a fuss, saying there’s something being shown in the sky…” “I see it.” Magellan withdrew his gaze from the sky screen and took a sip of the bowl of soup noodles mixed with venom on his desk.
“Let it show whatever it wants.
Even if the entire architectural blueprints of Impel Down are pasted in the sky, no one can snatch a prisoner from my hands.” When he said this, his tone was as flat as if he were talking about today’s weather.
Because it was the truth.
A truth that had held for two hundred years.
But on the sky screen, Austin’s audacious voice happened to continue: “You all might think this is impossible.
Warden Magellan of Impel Down probably doesn’t believe it himself.
The Venom-Venom Fruit, the body-covering poison—he’s a tough guy who could take down half the Grand Line in a single encounter.” “But some things, if you try to deduce them with common sense, you’ll never figure them out.” “Because Monkey D.
Luffy is someone who doesn’t follow common sense.” The images on the sky screen began to speed up.
Luffy charged through the main gate of Impel Down.
Level 1, Crimson Hell.
Needle-leaf trees and red spiders were everywhere.
Luffy pushed aside the branches blocking his way and jumped down.
Level 2, Wild Beast Hell.
A giant manticore opened its mouth and lunged, but Luffy punched it right on the bridge of its nose, sending its teeth flying.
Level 3, Starvation Hell.
Luffy was so hungry his eyes were glazed, but he was still charging down.
Level 4, Blazing Hell.
Magma pools bubbled, and the heat waves distorted the air.
Luffy’s clothes caught fire, but he patted out the flames and kept running.
The scenes cut faster and faster, and the beat of the background music soared along with them.
Austin’s narration followed close behind: “This kid fought his way from the first floor to the fourth, where he ran into Warden Magellan.” On the sky screen, Magellan appeared.
His entire body was encased in venom, and purple smoke billowed from the horns on his three heads.
“The Venom-Venom Fruit.
His whole body is toxic.
The kind where you’re done for if you even touch him.” Luffy charged forward.
A punch.
His fist struck Magellan, and the venom spread up Luffy’s arm.
Starting from his fist, Luffy’s skin began to turn purple, his veins bulged, and the toxin spread along his blood vessels toward his heart.
Luffy fell.
On the screen, he rolled on the ground, his hands clutching his throat tightly, his fingernails leaving bloody streaks on his neck.
His agonized howls pierced through the screen and struck everyone’s ears.
That sound wasn’t faked; it was the scream of a living person enduring the torture of being skinned and deboned.
“In their first encounter, Luffy was poisoned until only half his life remained…” On the Windmill Village pier.
“Luffy!” Makino screamed, covering her eyes, unable to watch any longer.
Luffy himself broke into a cold sweat as he watched his poisoned state.
“It hurts…
it looks so painful.” He swallowed hard, his hand instinctively touching his own neck.
Marineford.
The rice cracker in Garp’s hand fell to the ground.
The old man didn’t pick it up.
He stared at his grandson rolling on the ground on the screen, his breathing heavy.
…
“Luffy!” Ace took a giant step forward, his hands gripping the ship’s railing so hard that his fingerprints were pressed into the wood.
“Stop fighting!
You can’t beat him!
Run!” …
Shanks’s fingers stopped tapping on his sword hilt.
He looked at the fallen Luffy on the screen, his brow pressed low.
“Captain, this kid…” Lucky Roux didn’t even care about eating his meat.
“He won’t die,” Shanks said.
Beckman glanced at him.
“Magellan’s poison is incurable.
Where do you get your confidence from?” “Because of the promise between us.” Shanks offered no further explanation.