Chapter 435

Red Line, Holy City of the Sky.

Inside the banquet hall exclusively belonging to the King of the World, Seven was entertaining the Red-Haired Pirates who had returned to the Holy Land.

“This time you’ve come back, stay.”

After all, they were brothers raised together; Seven naturally wanted to secure a good position for his dear friend Shanks within the United Kingdom.

“Mm, I won’t leave.”

Shanks nodded, his gaze occasionally drifting toward Luffy, whose eyes sparkled with excitement, as if listening to Bocker’s tales of the sea.

“That’s Captain Karp’s grandson?”

“Yeah.” Seven couldn’t resist teasing: “Shanks, you look just like some old man gawking at a little brat with yellow hair.”

In truth, Seven himself was deeply confused.

After taking in Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Uta, Reiju, and others as adopted children, the kids entered the second cohort of the Daoqi Kindergarten.

Luffy had Perona, Nami—the adopted daughter of the Golden Lion—and Nokigai, among other girls around him.

Yet Luffy was closest to Uta.

A look of worry creased Shanks’ brow.

“I have only one precious daughter, and Uta is still young—how could I bear letting her get too close to that boy?”

“That kid from Karp’s family? Clearly no ordinary troublemaker.”

“True enough.” Seven shifted tone and proposed: “Shanks, let’s run a test—see who it will choose.”

With the Gum-Gum Fruit finally in hand, Seven had finally settled one long-standing matter.

As for who would consume this Devil Fruit, Seven intended to conduct a test—to see whether the Nika Fruit’s will would continue choosing Luffy.

Or whether it would choose someone else.

“Huh?” Shanks finally realized something: “Seven, is the one destined to inherit Nika’s will among these kids?”

“Try and see.”

With that, Seven stirred his will.

A jet-black demonic aura rose behind him, seizing both the Gum-Gum Fruit and its wooden crate, then gently placing them on the banquet table nearby.

“Don’t blink...”

Shanks had already pulled out a Den Den Mushi watch and was filming the wooden crate containing the Gum-Gum Fruit, then smiled and explained:

“I learned it from you—when something happens, don’t panic; record it first, then watch it slowly.”

“By the way, where’s Buggy?”

As three brothers raised together in Roger’s crew, both he and Seven were present—but Buggy was nowhere to be seen. This absence left Shanks with an inexplicable sense of loss.

Seven couldn’t help but laugh and sigh.

“Don’t mention it. That Buggy insisted on joining the geological survey team, babbling about digging up treasures from the Ancient Kingdom era.”

The known history of the pirate world spans roughly five thousand years; the history before the Ancient Kingdom was erased and repeatedly altered by the World Government at its founding eight hundred years ago.

Almost entirely buried beneath the dust of time.

Even though Seven personally overthrew the World Government, restoring that lost truth remained as impossible as scaling heaven.

Because civilization had been severed, its lineage broken—countless records and documents had vanished without a trace.

From this, it’s clear how grievously the World Government had sinned over eight centuries—directly severing an entire civilization’s lineage.

Though Elbaf preserves murals depicting the First and Second Worlds, even Elder Aruru doesn’t fully understand what those murals actually record.

Instead, fragments of ancient kingdom secrets linger faintly in fairy tales.

As the saying goes: only by writing stories into fairy tales can you evade the World Tree’s revisions.

“This...” Shanks paused: “That’s exactly the kind of thing Buggy would do.”

Back in Roger’s crew, everyone was obsessed with long voyages and the pursuit of freedom—except Buggy, who was fixated on hunting, digging, and seeking treasure.

It must have been because Seven became King of the World, and Buggy had traveled the seas with the Red-Haired Pirates, that he finally mustered the courage to chase his dream.

“That’s good.” Shanks smiled with relief.

“At least Buggy hasn’t forgotten his original heart.”

As the two chatted, Luffy had been sitting intently beside Bocker, listening with Zoro, Sanji, and others as Bocker recounted tales of the sea.

Perhaps he grew hungry.

Suddenly, Luffy ran to the banquet table, picked up two plates of fruit, and brought them to Bocker, Zoro, and the others to taste.

After repeating this several times, Luffy finally noticed the wooden crate on the banquet table, opened it curiously, and pulled out the deep purple Gum-Gum Fruit.

Seeing this, Shanks widened his eyes.

“It... really... chose him.”

Yet Luffy did not, as in the anime, choose to eat the Gum-Gum Fruit. Instead, he picked it up and hurried to Seven’s side.

“Papa, this is your favorite Devil Fruit.”

“Good son.” Seven beamed with joy.

He was delighted that his beloved son Luffy still remembered his fondness for Devil Fruits—and mocked the so-called Nika consciousness trapped within the fruit.

Nika, who had struggled for a thousand years to defy fate, was ultimately a failure, a defeated pawn of Imu.

Once the God of Liberation, now a prisoner bound within a fruit, leaving only shattered remnants of rebellion.

But Barzab Seven—himself the one who overthrew the World Government’s eight-century rule, crushed the Celestial Dragons’ divine authority, unified the Four Seas, and founded the United Kingdom—is the King of the World.

The delusions of the defeated will always be buried in dust.

Only the victor can reshape the world’s order and command the ocean’s new future.

You, a defeated one, just stay where you are.

“Luffy, this is a reward from Papa.”

“Remember to eat it all.”

“Alright.” Luffy bit into the Gum-Gum Fruit with huge mouthfuls; though he didn’t know what type of Devil Fruit it was, Papa would never harm him.

After all, Luffy had been raised by Seven—his trust in his adoptive father surpassed even that for his grandfather Karp.

Karp: My grandson! My great grandson!

As Luffy finished devouring the Gum-Gum Fruit, Seven still had not obtained the only remaining Devil Fruit: the Logia-type Dark-Dark Fruit.

Nika and Nidhogg—two god-tier Mythical Zoan users—were, respectively, Seven’s adopted son and his subordinate.

“So disgusting, Papa.”

“Worse than dog shit.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Seven, Shanks, and even Luffy fell silent together.

Fortunately, Bocker sensed the anomaly, soothed his audience, and came over to break the silence.

“Shanks, where’s the Gum-Gum Fruit?”

Shanks gave Luffy a disgusted look, then sighed and explained to Bocker:

“It chose Luffy.”

Bocker blinked: “Alright, I’ll go back to telling stories to the kids.”

Luffy then followed Bocker away.

Soon after, Shanks stared at his precious daughter Uta, walking shoulder-to-shoulder with Luffy, and grew even more depressed.

Seven rubbed his temples as if suffering a headache.

Luffy would never actively try something on his own—someone must have guided him.

Who else but Ace, Roger’s own beloved son?

Never before had Seven so desperately wanted to drag Roger from the underworld and hand the troublemaker Ace over to Roger for discipline.

“This brat... has been spoiled rotten.”