The sun rose again, bringing a sense of comfort to people's hearts.
The sunlight was fierce, revealing everything. Demons could not survive in the sun; even Kibutsuji Muzan, the king of demons, had to avoid it, let alone other demons.
Luffy brought Nami into a dark room. After taking a look at the still-sleeping Nami, he left again.
He sat at the bow of the ship, looking as the outline of a small island gradually appeared ahead, and exclaimed, "Zoro! We're almost there!"
"Ah, I need a little rest." Zoro had stayed up all night, and with the wound on his chest, he felt quite tired.
They didn't know what dangers lay on the island, so it was best to get themselves in good condition before going ashore.
Zoro leaned directly against a nearby piece of wood and fell asleep in a very short time.
"Hey, Zoro!" Luffy, surprisingly, wasn't feeling very sleepy anymore. Although he hadn't slept much himself, perhaps the excitement of approaching a new island had chased away his drowsiness. He was wide awake now.
Looking at Zoro, who seemed to be fast asleep, Luffy pulled down the brim of his hat. "Never mind, I'll go ahead and check it out."
Gazing at the island not far away, Luffy gripped the railing with both hands and then suddenly retreated backward.
His hands continuously stretched, making him like a slingshot. Luffy chuckled as he pulled back, feeling the elasticity in his arms. When he felt the stretch was just right, he forcefully propelled himself forward with that power!
Like a stone shot from a slingshot, Luffy made a short flight over the sea and then got closer and closer to the island. On the island was a not-so-large village, and outside the village stood a tall tower.
The tower was probably nearly twenty meters high, and a person stood on top of it. A person with a pointed nose. Luffy's eyesight was good enough to see that the person was holding a blue crossbow.
A crossbow?!
Luffy was shocked because he saw that the pointy-nosed person seemed to have noticed his approach and turned to aim the crossbow at him!
Whoosh!
A blue arrow shot out. Luffy quickly dodged. Although he couldn't gain leverage in the air, his entire body was rubber, so he wasn't a normal human anyway.
The arrow was aimed at Luffy's abdomen. It was hard to imagine how such a tiny target like Luffy, flying at high speed in the air, could still be precisely targeted and shot at a specific body part. But what they couldn't have predicted was that just as the arrow was about to hit Luffy's abdomen, Luffy's body suddenly shifted.
Luffy curled into a "C" shape, causing the arrow to miss and fly further into the sky.
The pointy-nosed man seemed taken aback by this, but he reacted quickly. He raised his blue crossbow again. This time, several arrows appeared on the bow, as if to completely cover Luffy's body?!
"Hey!" Luffy exclaimed, his eyes wide. He didn't want to be shot dead like a bird in mid-air. He took a deep breath and unleashed his Conqueror's Haki!
Hum!
An invisible power swept through. The pointy-nosed archer, at that moment, seemed to experience a mental shock and clutched his head. His bow also disappeared. But under the stimulation of Luffy's Conqueror's Haki, he didn't actually faint!
Luffy became interested in this person. Although the two had just met and the man had shot an arrow at him, the arrow wasn't aimed at a vital spot. This man probably wasn't a thoroughly wicked person.
While the archer was clutching his head in pain from the Conqueror's Haki's stimulation, Luffy had already successfully landed on the ground. Feeling the solid ground beneath him, Luffy leaped up and charged directly towards the tall tower!
"No, no, no, no... Don't come any closer!"
The Conqueror's Haki disappeared. The man with the long, pointed nose had broken free from the stinging sensation. He looked at Luffy, who suddenly appeared before him, and said somewhat flusteredly, "If you come any closer, I won't be polite!"
Ignoring his threat, Luffy asked, "Why did you shoot at me?"
"You..." Looking at Luffy's naive expression, the pointy-nosed man was a little stunned. "Huh? Aren't you a killer sent by Gato?"
"Gato? Oh, I already sent him flying!" Luffy grinned, "I'm here to deal with demons! And to see that 'Boaster' as well."
"What 'Boaster'!" The man suddenly got angry. "My name is Usopp, and I'm not some 'Boaster'!"
"So you're the 'Boaster'." Luffy finally realized. He clapped his hands, and stars lit up in his eyes. "How did you shoot those arrows just now? No, where did your crossbow disappear to?!"
"I told you I'm not a 'Boaster'," Usopp pouted. However, he quite enjoyed Luffy's subsequent reaction. So, with his hands on his hips, he said, "My bow is not something ordinary people can see."
As he spoke, the blue crossbow reappeared in his hand. The crossbow emitted a faint glow, looking like a gemstone.
Luffy was deeply captivated by the glow and couldn't help but say, "That's so cool!"
"Of course!" Usopp said proudly. "This is the bow that only I, the world's greatest sniper, possess!"
Usopp awakened this power when he was seven years old.
His father had gone out to sea as a pirate when Usopp was two, leaving him and his mother to live in the village. Eventually, his mother also died, leaving him all alone.
When his mother was on her deathbed, Usopp could only make up lies about pirates coming, wanting his mother to think his father was returning and rally her spirits. But in the end, the man never came back.
In his sorrow and anger, Usopp awakened this power. He could see a kind of energy drifting in the air and form it into an armament. Instinctively, he condensed that energy into a bow.
Later, he gradually became familiar with this power and called that energy "spirit particles." The bow became the Spirit Particle Bow. After that, he had been using this power to fight the monsters that only he could see and the evil demons lurking in the darkness.
But because others couldn't see those monsters at all, and because he had lied about pirates coming many times before, the villagers simply didn't believe him.
However, Usopp didn't get discouraged. Instead, he single-handedly built this tall lookout tower. He usually rested here and used this tall structure to observe if any monsters were approaching or if any demons were arriving.
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