Chapter 77: Skypiea – The White Sea & the Dreamlike Cloud Beach
Along the route guided by Gan Fall, the Merry continued to climb through the vast sea of clouds.
"According to that old knight grandpa, we're still in the White Sea at 7,000 meters," Nami checked the Log Pose. "To reach Skypiea proper, we need to ascend another 3,000 meters."
The cloud sea wound and twisted like a silver river leading to the heavens. Just as Chopper worried for the Nth time whether cloud fish would jump out, a magnificent golden gate suddenly appeared in everyone's view.
"Waaah! Look at that!" Chopper pointed ahead excitedly.
A towering white gatepost stood not far away, intricately carved with complex patterns. At the center of the lintel, four large characters were inscribed: "Heaven's Gate."
Sunlight filtered through the clouds, refracting a dreamlike halo across the gate.
"This is… Heaven's Gate?" Vivi clasped her hands to her chest, eyes shimmering with awed tears.
Sanji's cigarette fell to the deck: "Angels… beautiful angels must be waiting behind that gate!" Pink bubbles floated around him as visions of winged maidens filled his mind.
"I think you're truly beyond saving. Why don't you just go to hell right now?" Zoro couldn't help roasting the curly-brow.
Robin, however, thoughtfully opened Noland's logbook and compared it to the sketches inside: "The records from four hundred years ago… match the scene before us perfectly."
Under everyone's expectant gazes, the Merry slowly passed through the gate. Suddenly—click!
A blinding flash went off. From behind the gatepost emerged an elderly woman with wings on her back and a face full of wrinkles, holding an old-fashioned camera.
"Granny looks just like a pickled plum!" Luffy pointed bluntly and shouted.
The old woman's face immediately wrinkled even more. In a hoarse voice she said, "Sorry for looking like a pickled plum! I'm Amazon, the gatekeeper of Heaven's Gate. If you want to enter, please pay the entry fee—10 million Ik per person."
"That's 100,000 Berries each… for the whole crew…" Usopp was still counting on his fingers when Nami instantly calculated:
"1 million Berries total! Tch, that's way too expensive!" Though Nami was now quite wealthy, her frugal instincts kicked in. She immediately grabbed Chopper and Karoo:
"Granny Amazon, these two are pets—pets should be free, right?"
Amazon carefully examined the trembling Chopper and innocent-looking Karoo: "Fine. Pets are exempt. You're Qinghai people, right? Then I'll take 800,000 Berries."
Nami returned to the cabin with a pained expression and opened the giant custom safe.
She hugged a thick stack of bills and walked back to the deck with three steps forward, two steps back—like she was attending her own funeral.
"Here… here you go…" Nami's hand clenched the money so tightly her knuckles turned white.
Amazon tugged several times but couldn't pull the bills free. Veins bulged on her forehead: "Little girl, are you paying or not?!"
After a fierce "tug-of-war," Amazon finally snatched the money and began counting carefully. Nami collapsed onto the deck as if her soul had been drained. "So how do we go up now?" Luffy asked curiously, poking his head out.
At that moment Usopp suddenly pointed at the cloud sea and shouted: "Something's coming up!"
A gigantic lobster emerged from the clouds. Amazon blew a strange whistle; the lobster gently clamped the Merry's hull with its pincers and hoisted the entire ship onto its back.
"This is a specialty of the White Sea—the Express Shrimp," Amazon explained, then blew the whistle again.
"Wahahaha! This is so thrilling!" Amid Luffy's cheers, the Express Shrimp rapidly climbed along the cloud waterfall.
Nami temporarily forgot her heartache and marveled at the surroundings: "Incredible… the clouds really flow upward like rivers!" The cloud waterfall refracted rainbow light in the sun, resembling a staircase to heaven.
As they ascended higher, a huge wooden sign appeared in their view. Nami squinted and read aloud: "SKY PLEA… Land of the Gods! It's exactly the same name as on the treasure map Luffy found."
The Express Shrimp accelerated. The Merry burst through layer after layer of mist. When the ship fully entered blinding white light, the shrimp hurled the Merry forward—a brand-new world slowly unfolded before them: snow-white cloud islands floating in the azure sky, strangely shaped buildings scattered gracefully across them.
Before the ship even fully stopped, Luffy, Chopper, Usopp, and Karoo had already rushed down onto the island cloud and started frolicking.
"Woo-hoo! Long live! The ground is so soft and bouncy—it feels amazing!"
Zoro stared worriedly at the anchor: "Is this thing even useful if there's no seabed…?"
"Don't worry, the ship's too big to drift away." Sol reassured him, then waved to Nami and leaped off to join the fun.
"Yeah…" Zoro muttered, but still dropped the anchor anyway. "Still… I never thought this place would be so beautiful. It really feels like a dream."
"Can't stand these guys! Even Sol's just playing around without scouting first. Unbelievable." Sanji grumbled while rolling up his pant legs. "Yahoo!" He executed a perfect backflip and landed.
"You're no different!" Zoro stared at him, face full of black lines.
Nami changed into swimsuits with Vivi and Robin, then lightly jumped down to join the cloud-sea play.
"It really is! So soft and comfy! And no Navy can chase us here—we can finally relax and unwind! It's been forever since I played on a beach… no, a 'cloud beach' like this!"
Meanwhile Sanji noticed the exotic flowers blooming on the cloud island. He quickly picked a few and rushed over to the three ladies with eager flattery.
Luffy had already climbed a tree bearing dark-green coconut-like fruits. "Wow! The tree has weird fruits growing on it!" His eyes shone. He plucked one and bit down hard—crunch! Nearly broke his teeth.
"What rotten fruit!" Luffy angrily knocked it, then picked two more and tossed them downward to Usopp and Sol. "Hey! Usopp! Sol! Catch! These two fruits are for you!"
"Ow!" Usopp was caught off guard; the fruit hit him square in the back of the head. He nearly fainted on the spot, a huge lump instantly swelling. Squatting on the ground clutching his head, he wailed: "Luffy! What the heck did you throw at me?!"
Sol easily caught his and examined it—turned out to be Skypiea's special coconuts. He poked a small hole at the bottom center with his finger and tasted the flowing juice. "Sure enough—it's coconut water. And… really sweet and refreshing!"
He asked Luffy to pick more, then snapped off several hollow long grasses nearby to use as straws.
Soon the group lounged leisurely in a distant pavilion—soft cloud-processed sofa chairs—sipping ice-cold coconut juice in contentment.
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