【One Piece】Dawn in the Darkness

Chapter 290 Dream

A boy pulled his hand and kept running forward. He couldn't see the boy's appearance, nor did he know why they were running. His breathing was rapid and panting, and his body was tense. They were running in a forest shrouded in thick smoke. The sense of urgency in his heart kept putting pressure on him, and he moved by instinct in this place that was both familiar and completely unfamiliar.

He didn't know why he was running, nor did he understand where they were going, but a voice deep inside kept urging him to speed up, keep moving forward, keep running, and he kept speeding up, even though he didn't know what he was running towards or away from.

Everything around changed again. Under the smoky sky, there was ruins and chaos. Sparks were everywhere, trees had fallen, and the soil was covered with bloodstained marks. The sounds of pain, wailing and despair continued to float in the air along with the smoke.

A group of strange figures surrounded them and blocked their progress. He couldn't see their faces clearly, but his heart was filled with rage, a rage that kept boiling over him. He couldn't understand or ignore it. The arm holding the pipe was waving at the figures around him almost desperately, hitting those who blocked his way.

Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded in the chaos. The despair and powerlessness in the voice frightened him. He turned around, his heart pounding. A white light flashed, and the boy who had been fighting side by side with him fell in a pool of blood. In an instant, the crying, wailing, human figures and smoke disappeared. Sadness instantly overwhelmed his heart. He gasped, his breathing trembled, and his heartbeat became more and more violent. Everything around him turned blank, and everything disappeared, including the boy's body. He tried desperately to catch him "No!!"

Lucci woke up suddenly, his heart beating violently, despair seemed to linger in his mind, and the nightmare was like a shadow tightly wrapped around his heart. For a moment, he felt like he was trapped between two worlds, reality and imagination, but the cheers outside the cabin pulled him back to reality.

Sitting up and looking around, he was in Merry's boys' bedroom. Everyone else had already gotten up. Lucci covered his forehead with his hands, got off the hammock, slid down against the wall, and couldn't help burying his face in his hands, trying to calm his pounding heart. The noise coming from outside the cabin and the slight shaking of the waves hitting the boat soothed his tense nerves.

"Lucci?"

Lucci raised his head and squinted in the sudden harsh white light, and soon Luffy's worried face appeared in his field of vision.

"Lucci, are you okay?" Luffy asked worriedly, extending his hand.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he responded, accepting Luffy's extended hand and standing up from the ground.

Luffy noticed that Lucci's face was a little too pale "Really? I feel like you need Chopper."

"It's okay, just a nightmare." Lucci said with a weak smile.

"What did you dream about?" Luffy asked. He wanted to know what kind of dream made Lucci act so vulnerable.

Lucci frowned, trying to recall and think hard, but the fear that enveloped him took away most of his memory. He seemed to only remember a certain sense of despair. "I'm not sure."

Lucci thought for a moment and continued, "It seems that I am trapped in a forest covered by smoke. I just feel that I must leave there, otherwise something terrible will happen. I just keep running."

"Is that so?" Luffy asked doubtfully.

Lucci shook his head and walked towards the stairs. "It was just a weird dream."

"Only grandpa's fist makes us want to escape." Luffy touched his chin thoughtfully and grinned, "Maybe you are escaping from grandpa's iron fist of love in your dream."

"What is that?" Lucci asked with a smile.

"It's Grandpa's fist! Oh, I see!" Luffy hit his palm with his fist and said in shock, "Grandpa has been hitting us with Haki!"

"That sounds painful." Lucci said with a frown.

"Yes, grandpa's fist hurts!" Luffy took a breath, his face wrinkled deeply, as if he had just been punched. "Although I love grandpa, I will never miss his iron fist of love."

Seeing the look on Luffy's face, Lucci chuckled and climbed up the stairs "It seems to have left a shadow on you."

Luffy frowned, stopped thinking about his grandfather's iron fist, and followed Lucci out of the cabin.

Seeing the scarred frog swimming freely in front of him, a frog swimming freely? Zoro, who was chewing fried potatoes, paused for a second, then reacted and immediately shouted to Luffy who came out of the cabin, with a shocked tone, "Luffy! There's a frog swimming freely ahead!!"

"What!?" Luffy heard Zoro's shout as soon as he came out of the cabin. He immediately rushed to the railing and looked at the huge frog swimming freely in shock.

Noticing that the frog was about to leave, Luffy shouted anxiously "Catch up, brothers!! Row towards the two o'clock direction of the ship!! Quickly!!"

"Oh!!"

Zoro and his companions immediately took action and began rowing the boat to chase the frog.

Nami, who was drinking tea with Robin in the restaurant, felt the boat turn and immediately rushed out, shouting at Luffy who was rowing, "Don't change the direction of the boat casually!!"

"Listen to me, Nami, we found a seriously injured frog!" Luffy shouted firmly while rowing hard, "We must catch it and make a roasted whole frog!"

"So it's going to be grilled!" Zoro and Chopper looked at Luffy in shock.

"There really is a free-swimming frog." Nami raised the telescope and looked at the free-swimming frog, her tone slightly shocked. "But there is actually a lighthouse in the middle of the sea over there."

"Nami, where did that frog go? Tell us the direction of the frog!" Luffy shouted anxiously while looking at the telescope in Nami's hand.

"No!" Nami refused. The record pointer did not point to the lighthouse. That was not their route. If she told him the direction, Luffy would definitely catch up with him given his personality. She had to make sure the route was correct.

"The frog is swimming towards the lighthouse." Robin, who was standing next to Nami, didn't care about Nami's thoughts at all and spoke directly.

Sanji slowly blew out a smoke ring and quickly thought about how to cook this giant frog for the captain. "First, wash the frog with white wine to remove the slime on its body, then coat it with flour and fry it until it is browned."

"Sanji!" Nami shouted angrily at Sanji

"The captain said he wants to chase him, so we have no choice but to go." Robin said calmly.

"Robin..." Nami wanted to cry but had no tears. She didn't expect these two people to be so uncooperative.

"Full speed ahead!!" Luffy shouted immediately after getting the direction.

"Oh!!"