novelhk Page 136
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Lin Ye looked down at his hands; his silver hair had turned back to black, and the time-space mark on his chest had become a normal scar. He opened his palm, and the Key of Time lay there, its symbols still faintly glowing. "It's only just begun." He put the key in his pocket, where the last voice of the Order Keeper still lingered, "True freedom must be fought for."
Piccolo suddenly pointed to the sky: "Look over there!"
Outside Namek's atmosphere, the wreckage of the Order Keeper warship is coalescing into a new nebula, the light of the Super Dragon Balls twinkling like a lighthouse within it. Further out at the edge of the universe, a new spacetime rift is unfolding, the outline of a pirate ship faintly visible within, its sails adorned with a skull and two Dragon Balls embedded in its eye sockets.
Lin Ye's system bracelet suddenly lit up, this time not with a glaring warning red light, but with a soft blue. An unfamiliar message popped up: [New spacetime coordinates detected. Explore?]
"This thing still works?" Wukong leaned closer to look, his finger almost poking the screen. "New time-space coordinates? Is there going to be another fight?"
Lin Ye looked up at the crack, then at his companions: Piccolo was talking to Dende, the runes on his green skin still visible; Android 18 leaned against the altar pillar, spinning his energy gun in his hand; in the distance, Frieza's roar suddenly came through the communicator, probably because he discovered that the smiley face he had drawn on the prison's energy barrier had been changed to Goku's portrait.
"Go take a look?" Lin Ye's lips curled into a smile, his Saiyan blood stirring within him.
Goku had already assumed the starting stance, the red light of the Kaioken flashing in his palm: "Of course!"
The two soared into the sky simultaneously, passing through Namek's atmosphere. Lin Ye glanced back. On the altar's vines, newly formed miniature dragon balls were shimmering. One reflected the smiling face of the Lawkeeper as a boy, while the other was engraved with small words: [Next Stop: Pirate Galaxy].
The notification on the bracelet was still waiting for a response. The moment Lin Ye raised his hand to press "Yes," it was as if three hundred million shouts rang in his ears again.
No matter how many spacetime rifts or unknown battlefields lie ahead, as long as the energy of the comrades can still be transmitted through the Dragon Ball network, this battle will never end.
Saiyans, on the other hand, have never been afraid of war.
Chapter 315: The Pirate King's Invitation
The clatter of gears turning echoed from the black spatial rift, followed by the slow emergence of a pirate ship adorned with tattered skull and crossbones flags. Each skull on the flag had a miniature dragon ball embedded in its eye socket, its red light flashing like the eyes of a wolf eyeing its prey. The ship's hull was constructed of dark purple metal, its sails riddled with holes, whistling in the wind—or, upon closer listening, sounding like countless people wailing simultaneously.
Lin Ye's system bracelet suddenly heated up and a holographic projection popped up with a "hum." A roll of yellowed parchment unfurled in the air, with crooked words written on it in the universal language: "To the Saiyans of Universe 7: We cordially invite you to the World Expo, located on the Golden Island of the Sea of Nothingness. With this invitation, you can exchange any wish, including resurrecting the dead and ruling a galaxy, provided you survive to the end."
At the end of the scroll was a burning skull stamp, the flame of which was peculiarly shaped, like a coiled snake.
“This seal…” Piccolo’s Special Beam Cannon was already poised to fire, and wary lines appeared on his green skin. “It matches that legend from a hundred years ago. The Pirate King who could control Devil Fruits, whose ships were said to be able to travel through time and space, and whose crew members were all powerful individuals stolen from different universes.”
Vegeta scoffed, crossed his arms, and leaned against the altar pillar, deep blue flames swirling around his feet: "Pirates? Just a bunch of scum who steal things. When Zeno wiped them out, I was right there watching; not even a trace was left."
“It’s not necessarily a resurrection.” Lin Ye’s fingertips brushed across the holographic projection, and the parchment suddenly transformed into a data stream that entered the bracelet. “The system notification says that this is a side effect of the ‘multiverse fusion.’ The covenant of the Order Keepers has been broken, and many obliterated beings are reviving in data form, like cache files in a computer.”
Suddenly, Wukong pointed at the mainmast of the pirate ship, his eyes wide open: "Look! Isn't that Frieza tied up there?"
Everyone looked up and saw a golden figure chained to the mast, its distinctive tail nailed to a plank, the tip still twitching. Even bound, the figure still raised its head and roared at the red-robed man on the deck: "You think a mere Devil Fruit can hold me back? Once I break free, I'll let you taste the power of the Death Beam!"
The man in the red robe slowly turned around, his hood slipping down to reveal a scarred face. His left eye was a hollow hole, filled with a glowing red bead. In his left hand, he held a burning fruit, the patterns on its skin resembling dancing flames: "It seems the guests from the Seventh Universe have arrived."
The chains suddenly tightened, and Frieza let out a muffled groan. Golden energy flowed along the chains into the fruit in the red-robed man's hand, making the fruit shine even brighter. "Let me introduce myself, Marshall D. Teach, everyone calls me Blackbeard." He grinned, revealing two rows of sharp teeth. "This Flame-Flame Fruit, I just stole it from some guy from Universe 3."
Lin Ye's bracelet suddenly beeped, projecting an analysis diagram of the Devil Fruit: [A deformed product, formed by the fusion of system fragments and Dragon Ball energy. Ability: Absorbs all energy. Side effect: The user will gradually be assimilated by the fruit, eventually becoming an energy container.]
“Your Super Dragon Ball fragments can perfectly enhance my Devil Fruit abilities.” Blackbeard weighed the Flame-Flame Fruit in his hand, his gaze sweeping over Lin Ye and Goku before finally settling on Lin Ye’s silver hair. “Of course, if this silver-haired kid is willing to join my crew, I can give him half of the universe.”
"Who wants to team up with someone like you!" Goku suddenly unleashed his Kaioken, a golden shockwave hurtling towards the pirate ship. But the instant it touched the sails, the shockwave vanished as if sucked into a black hole.
Blackbeard's right hand suddenly turned into a dark purple vortex, sucking in even the surrounding light: "The power of the Dark-Dark Fruit can even devour ki." He suddenly pointed at Lin Ye, and the vortex spun even faster. "But your energy is very special, like a super dragon ball that can run. It would be delicious to devour it."
Lin Ye's silver hair suddenly glowed with gold, and the fragments of the hourglass of time spun into a golden sphere in his palm: "If you want to mess with me, ask it if it agrees first."
The moment the crimson-gold flames collided with the dark purple vortex, the entire pirate ship trembled violently. Blackbeard's arm suddenly emitted white smoke; he abruptly took several steps back, staring at his wrist, the scar twisted into a grotesque shape: "Impossible! This fruit can even devour gods!"
"But it can't swallow the spacetime paradox." Lin Ye's fist pierced through the vortex, and golden flames exploded on Blackbeard's chest. "Your Devil Fruit ability comes from a fragment of the system, and I just happen to be able to counter it, like antivirus software killing viruses."
Taking advantage of the situation, Frieza suddenly unleashed his power, his tail swelling violently and breaking free of the chains. At the same time, the tip of his tail pierced Blackbeard's shoulder: "Fool! You really think you can control cosmic-level power?" A death beam shot into Blackbeard's body through the tip of his tail, and within the golden energy flow, his tail tightened its grip. "I'll deal with this pirate myself!"
Blackbeard suddenly laughed, dark purple energy surging from his wound, beginning to devour Frieza's Death Beam: "Thanks for the energy replenishment." His Flame-Flame Fruit on his left hand suddenly exploded, flames wrapping around Frieza along the chains. "Want to try this?"
"This guy's ability is too troublesome!" Goku grabbed Lin Ye's arm, and as the Kaioken cape swept across, data streams condensed into a temporary springboard. "Let's go to the cabin! The system says there's something even more dangerous in the treasure room!"
The moment Lin Ye nodded, the two of them had already stepped onto the gangplank and rushed towards the pirate ship. As they passed the mast, Goku casually kicked Frieza, sending him away from the flames: "You hold him off!"
Frieza was kicked and slammed into the mast, his roar laced with surprise: "A Saiyan actually saved me?" He glanced at Blackbeard chasing after Lin Ye, then suddenly sneered, his Death Beam shooting towards the sails, "Trying to escape? Not so easy!"
The cabin was more spacious than I had imagined, with countless glowing crystals embedded in the walls. Each crystal contained a creature from a different universe: a winged cat-man, a robot made entirely of metal, and an old man in martial arts attire who looked like a relative of Master Roshi.
"These are all..." Wukong paused, his fists clenching unconsciously. "He treats people like collectibles?"
Lin Ye's bracelet suddenly projected a map of the entire ship, with the location of the treasure room flashing red: "Never mind that. The system says there's a Devil Fruit in the treasure room cultivated from Omega remnants, shaped like a Super Dragon Ball, with the covenant text of the Lawkeepers engraved on its surface."
"The remains of Omega?" Goku recalled the mechanical god they had defeated. "Could those fragments be used to create something like this?"
“Not only that.” Lin Ye pointed to another mark on the map, twelve points of light surrounding the red light of the treasure room. “These are the sealing keys to each universe. Blackbeard’s goal is not just the fruit; he wants to break the barriers of all universes and let the Sea of Nothingness devour everything.”
Goku's Kaioken blasted open the treasure room's hatch, and amidst the billowing smoke and dust, Blackbeard stood in the center of the room. In his hand, he held a black fruit, its surface pattern identical to that of the Super Dragon Balls, only pure black in color, and still pulsating slightly, like a living heart.
"I'm a step too late." Blackbeard held the black fruit above his head, and the twelve keys around him suddenly flew up and stuck into the grooves in the wall. "With this 'Omni-King Fruit,' I can become the new ruler of order!"
The moment the black fruit touched the air, the entire ship's cabin began to distort. Lin Ye saw a shattered vision of the future within the turbulent energy flow: Blackbeard devouring the power of the Omni-King, the twelve universes becoming a pirate paradise, familiar faces nailed to the masts of the Golden Island, and his own corpse hanging at the very top, the Key of Time inserted into his chest.
"Don't even think about it!" Lin Ye's crimson-gold aura merged with Goku's Kaioken once more, forming a gigantic energy dragon whose scales shimmered with the symbols of the twelve universes. "This time, I'll show you what true despair is!"
The moment the energy dragon charged toward Blackbeard, Blackbeard stuffed the Omni-King Fruit into his mouth. His body began to swell, his skin turned pure black, his eyes glowed red, and twelve black wings sprouted from his back, each wing bearing the mark of a different universe.
"Too late!" Blackbeard's voice became like countless people speaking at once, and the dark purple vortex expanded in his palm, even causing the energy dragon to tremble. "I am now the new Omni-King!"
The moment the energy dragon collided with the vortex, the entire pirate ship suddenly split open from the middle. Lin Ye saw through the falling debris that Frieza was stepping on Blackbeard's crew as he charged toward the deck, Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon pierced through the hull, and Vegeta's deep blue flames exploded at the top of the mast. It turned out they had followed them all along.
"Looks like everyone's here." Lin Ye nodded towards his companions, his crimson-gold aura surging once more. "Wukong, use that!"
"Alright!" Goku's golden hair suddenly turned silver-white, and the light of the Kaioken was mixed with the aura of a god. "Ultra Instinct: Kaioken!"
The silver and gold energy dragon suddenly broke free from the vortex, its mouth holding a miniature dragon ball—a core fragment of the Omni-King Fruit that had been shaken out of Blackbeard's chest.
Blackbeard's screams echoed through the sky as his body began to crumble: "Impossible! I am the one who..."
Before he could finish speaking, he was completely swallowed by the energy dragon. Twelve keys popped out from the wall, forming a circle in the air, emitting a soft light and repairing the distorted space.
When the smoke cleared, the pirate ship was nothing but floating debris. Frieza landed on a larger piece of debris, straightening his burnt clothes: "Hmph, in the end, it was only because I, the Great King, restrained him that we won."
Vegeta kicked him in the butt, sending him flying into the pile of shards: "Stop trying to glorify yourself, you piece of trash."
Wukong scratched his head and laughed, tossing the core fragment in his hand: "What do we do with this?"
Lin Ye took the fragment, the golden light from his fingertips seeping into it, and the fragment gradually transformed into a transparent bead: "Let the Super Dragon Ball purify it." He looked up towards the direction of the Void Sea, where a golden island could be vaguely seen, "However, the system notification indicates that the Expo does indeed exist, and..."
The bracelet suddenly lit up again, this time projecting not an invitation, but a video. In the video, Golden Island was filled with all sorts of aliens, and on the central platform sat a mysterious man in a top hat, raising a glass to the camera: "Welcome to the World Expo, everyone. The game is about to begin."
The moment the video ended, all the fragments suddenly began to move and automatically reassembled into a new spaceship with three words engraved on its bow: Golden Island.
"Looks like I have no choice but to go." Lin Ye jumped onto the spaceship, the crimson-gold flames transforming into thrusters at the stern. "Let's go see what this World Expo is all about."
Goku and Vegeta jumped aboard at the same time, and Frieza followed, clutching his backside and muttering, "This king just wanted to see if there was any treasure." Piccolo was the last to board, glancing back towards Namek, where Dende was waving from the altar.
As the spaceship broke through the clouds, Lin Ye's bracelet flashed a new notification: [Powerful individuals from 17 universes have been detected heading towards Golden Island, including the extinct ancient Saiyans.]
He exchanged a glance with Goku, their Saiyan blood boiling. No matter how many powerful figures or traps lay ahead, they accepted this new adventure.
At the edge of the Sea of Nothingness, the bells of Golden Island are slowly tolling, as if urging their prey to come to them.
Chapter 316: The Curse of the Fruit
The energy wave erupting from the black fruit slammed into Lin Ye's chest like a red-hot iron. He crashed into the bulkhead, leaving a deep, human-shaped dent in the metal. A metallic taste rose in his throat; this was the first time he had felt such intense pain since the Hourglass of Time had reformed. His gaze pierced through the billowing smoke and dust, and he saw Goku's Kaioken technique, its golden light twisting in mid-air, like noodles being swallowed by an invisible mouth.
The blond warrior's muscles visibly withered, and the once bulging veins now seemed to flow with a dark purple viscous fluid rather than blood. Scales identical to Blackbeard's appeared on his neck, each scale's edge gleaming with the white light characteristic of system data streams.
"This fruit will absorb the user's life force!" Lin Ye struggled to break free from the wall, and a fragment of the hourglass of time suddenly transformed into a golden needle, precisely piercing acupoints on Goku's back. "Quickly use the Kamehameha to force out its energy! Your cells are still resisting!"
Wukong's hands trembled as he formed a blue-white orb of light, but the scales had already spread to his cheeks, and even his pupils were turning purple: "No...it's tampering with my cells...like the android virus from back then..." He suddenly cried out in pain, and the orb of light vanished with a "poof." "Damn it! My body is becoming unresponsive!"
Blackbeard's maniacal laughter shattered all the windows in the cabin, and barbed chains flew from his sleeve, wrapping around Goku's wrist: "This is the true power of the Omni-King Fruit—to assimilate all who come into contact with it!" He yanked the chains violently, dragging Goku towards him, while a dark purple vortex spun wildly in his other hand. "Soon, you will all become my puppets! Especially you, silver-haired brat!"
The vortex suddenly swung towards Lin Ye, sucking in metal fragments, broken tables and chairs, and even scattered bullets, twisting them into an iron ball at the center of the vortex. "Your spacetime energy is perfect as nourishment for the fruit! Didn't the Order Keepers tell you? The system's original prototype was an energy source made from spacetime paradoxes!"
Lin Ye's golden aura suddenly turned silvery-white, and the Law of Time formed a flowing barrier around him. The metal fragments that had been drawn in began to move in reverse the instant they touched the barrier, flying back to their original positions like a movie playing in reverse. He stared at the scales on Blackbeard's neck, where a mark faintly covered by the scales was a six-pointed star mark unique to the system's host.
"So you were an experiment too." Lin Ye's voice came through the barrier, carrying an icy chill. "The Order Keepers used system fragments to modify you, just like they modified this fruit."
"Shut up!" Blackbeard's vortex suddenly swelled, and the entire ship's cabin began to cave inward. "I'm not an experiment!" His left eye flashed red, and black blood seeped from the red bead embedded within. "I'll make all those who look down on pirates pay the price! Including that self-righteous Lawkeeper! When he threw me into the spacetime rift, he never imagined I'd find the system core!"
Frieza's death beam suddenly shot from outside the cabin, golden energy grazing Blackbeard's shoulder and leaving a trail of black blood. The Emperor of the Universe landed inside the cabin through a shattered porthole, his golden skin glowing with an eerie red light, and burning chains still bound his tail—spoils stolen from Blackbeard's crew.
"How could a fight be complete without me?" Frieza picked up a shard of glass with his toe, looking at his distorted reflection. "This Devil Fruit, I'm taking it. After all, I'd like to taste something that can make a Saiyan suffer."
Just as Blackbeard was about to attack Frieza, Lin Ye's silvery-white aura suddenly transformed into countless fine threads, binding the Omni-King Fruit like a spiderweb. "Goku! Now!" Lin Ye's voice resonated with a temporal tremor, "Use your most powerful technique!"
"But my hand..." Goku's right arm was completely covered in scales, and his fingers couldn't bend at all. Just then, a green light suddenly shone from his chest—energy transmitted by Piccolo through the Dragon Ball network. "Piccolo?"
"Stop talking nonsense!" Piccolo's voice boomed from Goku's communicator, crackling with static. "Use the basic Kamehameha I taught you! Forget all that fancy stuff!"
Goku bit his tongue hard, the sharp pain bringing him a moment of clarity. A blue-white sphere of light reformed in his palm, this time without dazzling special effects, but imbued with the purest martial will. The instant the silver-white aura resonated with the Kamehameha, the outlines of the twelve universes appeared on the sphere's surface: Earth's continents were spinning, Namek's green sea was churning, and even the Sweets Planet of Universe 6 was glowing.
"This is the life energy of all universes!" Lin Ye's silvery-white aura suddenly pierced through the energy flow, forming a golden spear. "Blackbeard, look carefully!"
The moment the spear pierced the Omni-King Fruit, the covenant text on its surface began to peel away, revealing a hideous mechanical structure beneath—a core pieced together from system remnants, still stained with fragments of the Lawful Ones' covenant. "Impossible...the fruit shouldn't be countered by this power..." Blackbeard's scales began to crumble, revealing festering skin beneath.
"Because you've misunderstood its nature." Lin Ye's voice, transmitted through the energy, resounded clearly in every corner. "This isn't the power of the Omni-King; it's a counterfeit made by the Order Keepers using system remnants! True power never needs to devour others."
Before he could finish speaking, the Omni-King Fruit suddenly exploded. Black liquid splattered throughout the cabin, sizzling and smoking on the metal, but turning into golden specks upon contact with Lin Ye's silvery-white aura. Blackbeard's body crystallized at a visible speed, transforming from toes to head into a cracked black sculpture.
"I could have been the greatest pirate king..." His final roar echoed from the crack in the crystal, "I could have..."
Lin Ye's silvery-white aura enveloped his mangled body, preventing the crystal from shattering further: "True freedom is not about plundering others, but about protecting what you want to protect. It's a pity you never understood that."
When the light faded, there was no trace of Blackbeard on the pirate ship's deck, only a continuously shrinking black crystal that eventually became a bead the size of a pigeon's egg, rolling to Frieza's feet.
“What a boring ending.” Frieza kicked the crystal bead with his toe, a hint of disappointment flashing in his golden eyes. “I thought we could play a little longer.” He suddenly turned to Lin Ye, the fiery chains on his tail snapping against the ground. “But the energy from that fruit seems to have given my detector a new function.”
As he spoke, he removed a metal ring from his wrist and tossed it to Lin Ye. The ring projected an unfamiliar star map, with the coordinates at the very center labeled "One Piece World," and next to it, in smaller print: [High concentration of free will energy detected].
The moment Lin Ye caught the metal ring, the system bracelet suddenly displayed the same coordinates, and a real-time video appeared in the projection: on a vast blue sea, a pirate ship adorned with straw hats was being besieged by a naval fleet, and the straw-hatted boy at the bow was raising his fist and laughing as he charged towards the cannon fire.
Goku walked over, scratching his head. Black fragments of the fruit still clung to his golden hair. As he casually brushed them off, he discovered the fragments had turned into golden powder. "Looks like there's a new adventure?" He pointed at the Straw Hat Pirates in the image, his eyes shining. "That guy's aura is so similar to mine when I was young!"
“Adventure?” Vegeta’s voice came from the hatch. He was wiping his blood-stained gloves with a cloth, a flash of deep blue aura around him. “Just a bunch of childish pirates.” Even so, he was already standing in front of the ship’s control panel, his finger swiping across the interstellar map.
Lin Ye looked up at the distant horizon, where the spatial rift was widening, and the faint sounds of naval cannon fire and pirate shouts could be heard intertwined. He clenched the crystal bead in his palm; fragments of the hourglass of time vibrated slightly within it. Within this bead, the lingering obsession of Blackbeard remained.
"Let's go." Lin Ye put the crystal bead into his bracelet, and the silvery-white flames transformed into thrusters at the tail of the spaceship. "Let's see how the people of that world define freedom."
The moment the spaceship broke through the clouds, Wukong suddenly pointed out the porthole: "Look! It looks like there's a Dragon Ball hanging from the mast of that Straw Hat Ship!"
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw, indeed, a red-glowing bead hanging beneath the flag fluttering in the wind atop the mainmast of the Straw Hat Pirates' ship. The star symbols engraved on its surface were identical to those on the Dragon Balls of Universe 7.
Frieza suddenly laughed, his golden tail wagging excitedly behind him: "Looks like this adventure won't be too boring."
Lin Ye's bracelet suddenly emitted a rapid alarm, and a new notification popped up next to the coordinates of the "One Piece world" projected on the screen: [Warning: System source code fluctuation detected; coordinates are moving rapidly].
Moving islands? A world that runs?