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Nothing had ever been able to instill fear in Arthur.
Fear in humans usually stems from the unknown or a state of helplessness. Yet, for Arthur, facing the unknown or the insurmountable only made him more excited, more thrilled.
But the moment he stepped into this small town on Ruluka Island, a chill shot up from the soles of his feet, rising all the way to his spine. He witnessed a scene of utter, bizarre absurdity.
Upon entering the town, it was as if the screen of reality had been suddenly fast-forwarded. Ruluka Island, disturbed by Arthur's arrival like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, had its temporal balance shattered...
The chatter of the residents was distorted, twisting as it poured into his ears. The sea breeze blowing from the ocean, the rolling waves, the ships sailing hundreds of nautical miles away—everything was flowing past at an accelerated rate of time, imprinted directly into his Observation Haki.
Images flashed through Arthur's mind. In a single instant, the sun and moon rose and set countless times.
Residents rushed in and out of their homes. The tides rose and fell incessantly. A calendar hanging in a resident's house flipped pages at a speed that defied imagination!
The date was... Sea Circle Calendar 720.
Arthur felt a strange sensation, a displacement of space and time. A simple motion of slowly turning his head took a full ten years to complete. Yet beside him, Stussy seemed completely oblivious to the rapid passage of time, smiling and waving at people who no longer existed.
Arthur felt an inexplicable shock. His feet felt as though they had taken root; he couldn't move a muscle, locked firmly in place.
Sun up, sun down. The scenery in all directions—the flowers, trees, buildings, and mountains—morphed at a speed visible to the naked eye. People he caught a fleeting glimpse of aged silently and died, while new generations of Ruluka residents were born.
He couldn't even calculate how many ships passed by or how many pirates plundered the island.
New calendars replaced old ones on the walls, the dates pushing forward relentlessly, flowing like an endless river!
Except for the ocean, everything changed at an astonishing speed. The only unchanging things on all of Ruluka Island were Arthur and Stussy, whose expression remained perfectly normal...
Sea Circle Calendar 800... 900... 1000... 1400... all the way to 1488. Nearly eight hundred years vanished while he stood there in a daze.
The ceaseless flow of time seemed to sense something in this specific year, and in an instant, it froze.
Arthur snapped back to reality, preparing to retract his Observation Haki, as the influx of sensory data had left him mentally and physically exhausted. But just then, a merchant ship appeared in the outer seas, intruding into his detection range. It gave Arthur another wave of that bizarre, bone-chilling dread!
On the mast of that merchant ship, he saw something from memories long sealed away—the crest of the Seabury Family. And lying on a bed in the cabin was a face that was incredibly young, yet intimately familiar!
It was his own face from his childhood!
He was face-to-face... with his eight-year-old self!
Arthur had never imagined he would return to the past and see another version of himself. An indescribable, eerie feeling rose from the bottom of his heart.
Faced with this unknown, a strong curiosity ignited within him.
When he was eight, the Seabury family had entered the Grand Line for business. On the return trip, they passed many islands—Arthur couldn't remember exactly how many.
Back then, he had just arrived in this world (transmigrated) and was in a state of extreme excitement. Furthermore, his young body lacked vitamins, and he had fallen ill with a sickness that nearly took his life. He could never easily forget the meticulous care his parents gave him day and night during that time.
Eventually, on the return journey past Jaya, the merchant ship was ruthlessly swallowed by monstrous waves whipped up by the unpredictable Knock Up Stream.
There were no survivors on the entire ship. Only Arthur was washed ashore on Jaya.
But now, he was actually seeing the scene from when he had first arrived in this world...
There is definitely something wrong with Ruluka Island! The only thing on the sea capable of creating such a strange phenomenon is a Devil Fruit. Affecting time? Or a realistic illusion? Arthur was absolutely certain of this.
The Seabury family merchant ship restocked a batch of fruit on Ruluka Island and, without staying a moment longer, sailed away into the distance!
Arthur could finally move. He looked at the residents on both sides of the street.
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"Oh? Two more outsiders have arrived on Ruluka Island!" A bold resident greeted them with a beaming smile.
"That's a rare sight. No one has been to this island in years, right? A group just left half a day ago, and now two more are here!"
"Don't tell me you didn't make it back to the ship in time and got left behind? That's really bad luck... Hahahahahaha!"
It was evening. The residents of Ruluka Island began their simple nightlife, stepping out of their homes to enjoy the sea breeze, whispering and gossiping among themselves...
"Sir, we indeed didn't make it back to our ship. We'd like to rest on Ruluka Island for the night!"
Stussy greeted them with a giggling smile. Relying on her natural advantage—her world-class beauty—she successfully extracted quite a bit of useful information.
"Young people... missing the boat because of a date... you really have the style I had back in the day!" An old man, holding the wrinkled hand of a toothless old woman beside him, nodded with a look of approval, as if Arthur were a teachable student.
He naturally assumed that a man and a woman together, missing their ship, must have been delayed by some romantic endeavor.
Clearly, a man with a story.
Arthur responded with cold indifference, nearly tempted to punch the entire street into rubble. Aside from Vegapunk, who among those who knew him would dare tease him like this?
"Let's go."
Guided by the townsfolk, Arthur and Stussy walked toward a restaurant near the ocean. Under the enthusiastic gaze of the waiter, they casually ordered some food to fill their stomachs.
The restaurant was deserted, with pitifully few seats. Perhaps because they hadn't hosted guests in a long time, the adjacent tables were piled thick with dust.
"Thunder Emperor, did you notice?" Stussy checked that no one was around, her bright expression suddenly dimming, replaced by a hint of excitement.
"Did we go back to the past? Is it actually Sea Circle Calendar 1488 right now?"
Arthur took two sips of tea and said expressionlessly, "I know. But when we entered the town just now, the flow of time was extremely bizarre. You didn't feel it?"
"Flow of time?" Stussy asked blankly, unable to understand what Arthur was talking about for a moment.
"Eat up. Then follow me somewhere!"
The waiter brought out food that was passably palatable. The two ate—one crude and ravenous, the other elegant—dropped a piece of gold to pay the bill, and left the restaurant.
Arthur took to the air, and Stussy used Moonwalk, chasing after the Seabury family merchant ship that had left half a day ago.
"Thunder Emperor Arthur... The Navy evacuated the islanders, completely bankrupting my plan to save my partners... and then they sent in this monster... But where are the members of the Pumpkin Pirates?!"
After the two left, a sneaky, middle-aged figure emerged from behind the restaurant.
Arthur's Observation Haki had completely failed to detect this man, as if he didn't exist at all!
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