Chapter 354

"It’s broad daylight! Are you watching the moon in your dreams!"

The entire Straw Hat crew was gathered on the deck of the Sunny.

Lord Lord Sima Di stood at the very front, facing everyone, looking a bit awkward.

"Lord Lord Sima Di, you aren't nervous, are you?" Zoro laughed.

"Lord Lord Sima Di, say whatever you want to say. We aren't outsiders anyway," Usopp said.

"Mm... I know." Lord Lord Sima Di tried to adjust her breathing.

Maybe no one would believe it if she said it, but Lord Lord Sima Di herself was a conservative and shy person, and communicating with others was not something she was good at. Precisely because of this, she preferred to immerse herself in a sea of books. Later, becoming a freelance writer was 80% because she liked it, and 20% because of her personality.

"Then... let me introduce myself first," Lord Lord Sima Di finally adjusted her mindset and said.

"Self-introduction? That’s not necessary. We all know," Facing Facing Nami was stunned.

"No, you don't. My name is Lord Lord Sima Di, but that’s not my given name."

"What do you mean?"

"My given name is a single character 'Xi', and the surname is Lin. So like Sanji, you should call me Miss Lin or Ms. Lin," Lord Lord Sima Di explained.

"Miss Lin?" Sanji tried calling out.

"Eh? So that’s how it is? So Lin is the surname." Chopper’s small face was full of shock.

"Next... I think we can skip gender, age, and hobbies. But I can talk about my birthplace."

"Isn't your birthplace the Golden Dragon Kingdom?" Zoro asked, full of confusion.

"No, I can tell you were sleeping on the train and didn't hear our conversation at all," Lord Lord Sima Di complained. "I come from..."

*Boom*—

A clap of thunder exploded, completely without warning.

Lord Lord Sima Di was startled.

Facing Facing Nami also looked up at the sky suspiciously, finding it just clear and sunny. And she herself had never felt any signs of a storm coming.

"The weather in the Grand Line is really strange," Usopp muttered.

Lord Lord Sima Di didn't take it to heart and continued, "My hometown is very similar to the Golden Dragon Kingdom, but there are very big differences. I actually come from..."

*Boom*—

*Snap*—

Lord Lord Sima Di looked back at the spot where she had been standing, the grass scorched black by the lightning, emitting black smoke.

If she hadn't dodged in time, that lightning would have hit her.

And at this moment, when everyone looked at the sky, it was already covered by a large area of thunderclouds, with thunder crackling and looking gloomily terrifying.

"What... on earth is going on?" Facing Facing Nami said, shocked.

"This definitely can't be explained by the strange weather of the Grand Line anymore," Usopp also looked at Lord Lord Sima Di.

Everyone looked at Lord Lord Sima Di with astonished eyes, and Lord Lord Sima Di herself was still shaken, cold sweat pouring down.

"Maybe some things... really can't be said." Lord Lord Sima Di slowly looked at the sky, then raised her volume and shouted, "I know! I won't say it! Is that okay!"

As soon as Lord Lord Sima Di finished speaking, the large area of thunderclouds in the sky quickly dissipated under everyone’s astonished gazes.

"Ah! That’s amazing! Lord Lord Sima Di, how on earth did you manage to control them!" Luffy looked at Lord Lord Sima Di with star-eyes. "Is it that if you say that spell, you can have the ability to control them? Good, I’ll try too!"

Luffy immediately cleared his throat, put on a mysterious look, and repeated in a strange tone.

"I actually come from~ I actually come from~ I actually come from~"

"You actually come from the Idiot Planet!" Facing Facing Nami punched Luffy on the head without hesitation.

Sanji looked at Lord Lord Sima Di and muttered, "Maybe Miss Lin really is a celestial being... no, Miss Lin is too strange. It should be called Immortal Lin!"

"Immortal Lin... that’s even stranger," Usopp didn't forget to retort.

"Haha, it seems our Vice Captain really comes from an incredible place," Robin said with a smile.

"Eh... I also discovered it’s incredible. Mainly, the guys from the generations of Spades come from the same place as me." As soon as Lord Lord Sima Di finished speaking, she covered her mouth, but looked up at the sky, and everything was still normal.

Lord Lord Sima Di felt inexplicably relieved. It seems that as long as she doesn't touch information about the original world, it’s fine.

"Lord Lord Sima Di... why don't you just not say it," Facing Facing Nami looked at her with some concern. "How to say it in your writing... it’s the Heavenly Dao, right? The Heavenly Dao of this world doesn't let you say these things."

"Heavenly Dao? Who is the Heavenly Dao? What right does it have to not let Lord Lord Sima Di speak! Tell me where the Heavenly Dao is! I’m going to beat it up!" Luffy immediately said angrily.

"The Heavenly Dao isn't a person!" Zoro helplessly pulled Luffy, who was about to rush out. "The Heavenly Dao is a more ethereal existence than gods."

"Ah? Zoro knows about the Heavenly Dao? It seems you’ve also read Lord Lord Sima Di’s?" Robin asked.

"Just bored, bored," Zoro argued.

"In your words, instead of reading, you should go train! Master Zoro." Lord Lord Sima Di got up, patted the grass off her body, and said with a smile, "Don't worry. It seems that the Heavenly Dao guy just doesn't let me talk about my hometown, but I can still tell you about the Spade matter. Next, I just need to carefully avoid things about my hometown. Luffy, sit down and listen carefully, this is about your future enemy."

"Enemy? I know!" Luffy sat cross-legged on the ground, his face serious, but no matter how you looked at it, he looked like he could jump up and beat someone in the next second.

Spade, although the Marines externally claimed this organization was the highest scientific research organization, unlike Vegapunk’s scientific direction, it was a place purely for studying human psychology.

The research methods of this organization were vastly different from those of general psychologists; they didn't observe humans, but directly gathered experimental subjects in a relatively closed space and formulated special rules for these people to execute, and the time was limited.

By observing the actions of these people, they recorded human reactions in various situations, such as under extreme fear, in isolated and helpless situations, and in situations of betrayal by loved ones. Through the integration of these data, certain conclusions were drawn.

Due to the particularity of this experiment, namely the closed nature and the negative rules, 99% of the experimental data was about various negative human emotions, which led to some extreme situations, such as the mass death of experimental subjects.

The executors, that is, the generations of Spades, liked to call this experiment—Death Game.

"And I am the sole survivor of the 98th Death Game and took over the position of Spade. That is, the tenth generation Spade, known as Heart Lord Lord Sima Di."

"What kind of experiment... this is clearly locking people together and letting them kill each other!" Facing Facing Nami shouted.

It wasn't just Facing Facing Nami; the others’ faces didn't look good either.

"I had heard of this before, but I didn't expect it to be true..." Robin also had two drops of cold sweat on her forehead.

"I don't know how many times it was held here. But in my hometown... I judged based on the records they left behind that the first Death Game took place fifty years ago, and by my time, a total of 100 had been held," Lord Lord Sima Di said. "Usopp, Zoro, do you remember the Hage Island we accidentally entered before?"

Speaking of Hage Island, the bad memories of the two were awakened.

"Lord Lord Sima Di, you mean..." Usopp said.

"Eh, that’s right. That was a Death Game. For the organizers, it’s a game, but for the participants, it’s death."

Everyone saw deep guilt on Lord Lord Sima Di’s face.

"Then... the guy I saw back then, was he the organizer?" Zoro suddenly remembered the guy who was skinny as a rail but looked extremely dangerous.

"Yes. What I want to say next is about this."

Lord Lord Sima Di stepped aside to reveal the whiteboard behind her, with their names written in detail.

"It’s likely that some of them possess the ability to awaken human souls from the underworld, so even the dead can be awakened. Like the person Zoro saw on Hage Island, that was the third generation Murder King Lucas, but this guy was executed forty years ago for murder. Because his sins were too heavy and the impact was bad, his execution was public, so it was absolutely impossible for him to survive by luck. But now he appeared on Hage Island; there is no explanation other than a special Devil Fruit user."

"In other words, from the first generation to the eleventh, except for me, whether dead or alive, they are all working within Spade and continuing to conduct so-called experiments here. The worst thing is... Lucas can make Zoro feel like a dangerous person, which means at the very least, the strength of the first to third generations will be above us, and perhaps even above Luffy."

Lord Lord Sima Di drew a black line under the third generation with a whiteboard marker and proposed the worst-case scenario.

Then Lord Lord Sima Di told everyone about meeting the seventh generation Orta and his Holy Envoy Machinaga in Alabasta, the eighth generation Evelyn on Long Ring Long Land, and the third generation Holy Envoy Blade at Enies Lobby.

"...Although Blade was easily taken down by you three at the time, he didn't show his true ability. His ability is biased towards control, paralysis, mental illusions, etc. If it weren't for your sudden attack, and I also crippled one of his forms. Once he reacts, we will be the ones in trouble," Lord Lord Sima Di said. "Judging from today’s newspaper, this guy should still be alive. And when we meet for the second time, he will be even harder to deal with."

"So our enemies are these fifteen guys..." Zoro said.

"And endless Marines, and even figures at the Admiral level," Sanji added.

"Yes... that’s roughly the situation," Lord Lord Sima Di nodded.

"But... Lord Lord Sima Di, what is their purpose in doing this?" Facing Facing Nami was puzzled. "Even if it’s an experiment, they can't be so lawless!"

"It’s an experiment to convert emotions into energy."

Lord Lord Sima Di explained the SMILE to everyone, along with the artificial Devil Fruit matter.

"Artificial Devil Fruit?" Usopp could even imagine how powerful an artificial Devil Fruit army would be.

"However... they collect this data, not entirely for how to better produce SMILEs. For them, perhaps this is just a side matter," Lord Lord Sima Di’s face was gloomy.

Subsequently, the Straw Hats were all shocked as Lord Lord Sima Di told them.

If the Spade guys really succeeded, this world would no longer be what it is now. And that kind of future was something no one wanted to see.

"No time to lose! Then let’s set sail for Spade Island now! Let’s wipe those guys out!" Luffy’s adrenaline was surging, and he couldn't hold back.

"Before participating in the game, I was just an ordinary person. I didn't know swordplay, didn't know any fighting techniques, had no Devil Fruit ability, hadn't awakened Conqueror’s or Observation Haki, just someone who didn't even dare to kill a chicken. There was only one reason I was chosen as a participant in the Death Game, and that was because of my writing. Before I wrote fantasy and romance, my writing style was more biased towards suspense and horror. They felt this was very much to their taste, so they chose me. In that game, I survived to the end by luck. But the previous generation Spade committed suicide in front of me after the game ended. So I was forced to take the position and became the tenth generation."

"Of course, I refused to agree no matter what. I tried to escape, even commit suicide, but all failed. Later, that guy even used my parents’ lives as a threat..." ===== CHAPTER 431 =====