At the bedrock layer, Marcus led a small expedition consisting of Shira and Goliath.
He turned to Goliath. "Try using your Devil Fruit ability to eat the bedrock."
"Creator, you're telling me... you want me to eat bedrock? Are you serious right now?"
The image that popped into Marcus' head was so ridiculous he had to shake it off before responding. "The Munch-Munch Fruit can interact with Minecraft blocks, I've seen it work firsthand. You ate the fruit, so theoretically, you should be able to do the same thing."
Goliath stood there processing this information, then looked down at the bedrock beneath his feet. His jaw opened and closed a few times.
"I don't even know where to start. There's no... bite point from up here."
"Fair enough. Let's try from the side wall."
They moved to where the bedrock formed a vertical surface. Goliath stared at the unchanging gray-black stone. His mouth began to expand as he prepared to bite down.
SCREEEECH.
Sparks flew in every direction, briefly illuminating the darkness. The noise was so terrible that even Shira winced and covered her ears.
After what felt like an eternity of horrible scraping sounds, Goliath finally released his bite. He stepped back.
The result was pretty obvious, the bedrock was completely unmarked. Not even a scratch.
Marcus sighed, but there was no disappointment in his voice. "Yeah, I guess I was thinking too optimistically. If the Munch-Munch Fruit could actually consume bedrock, your body would evolve from an iron form to a bedrock form. You'd be basically indestructible."
He paused, thinking it through. "But that creates a logical paradox. If you could eat bedrock, that would mean you could destroy it. But bedrock is supposed to be indestructible. Can't have it both ways."
Goliath looked disappointed by the failure. He'd sensed what Marcus was hoping for, even though the Munch-Munch Fruit only temporarily changed the user's properties based on what they consumed, and it required stamina to maintain the transformation...
For him, who could be continuously supplied with iron ingots by Marcus, the possibility of maintaining a bedrock form indefinitely had been appealing. After all, he currently maintained his T-800 humanoid form at all times. The only reason was so he could board the Going Merry, his actual iron golem body weight would sink the ship instantly.
Marcus turned his attention to Shira, who'd been standing quietly nearby.
He'd brought her along for a specific reason, mushrooms could spawn on bedrock in Minecraft. Maybe she could affect it in ways that Goliath's brute-force approach couldn't.
Sensing Marcus' gaze, she stepped forward without needing to be asked, and pressed her hand against the bedrock surface.
White began spreading from her fingertips like frost creeping across a window. The white coloration consumed the gray-black bedrock, transforming its appearance entirely. When the white completely covered the section she was touching...
The bedrock vanished.
Just gone, like it had never been there.
"It works!" Marcus jumped with excitement. He could now create proper void spaces and perfect his void projects. But when he turned to celebrate with Shira, his enthusiasm died immediately.
Sweat was literally pouring down her forehead.
"You okay?"
"The Nether is... too hot," she gasped out. "Using that much power all at once made me feel sick. I need to get out of here."
Marcus mentally kicked himself. Of course, snow golems couldn't survive in the Nether in the game. They took continuous fire damage and would die within minutes. Shira had probably been enduring the hostile environment this whole time without complaining.
"Why didn't you say something earlier? Come on, let's get you back to the ship right now."
They hurried back through the Nether Portal. The moment they emerged into the normal world, Shira made a beeline for her ice house, practically stumbling through the doorway.
Her flushed cheeks and distressed appearance as she retreated into her room didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the crew. Within seconds, every single person on the Going Merry was staring at Marcus and Goliath with very strange expressions.
The three of them had just gone to the Nether together. And now Shira had come back looking tearful and fragile, immediately locking herself in her room?
What the hell had happened down there?
Sanji was the first to completely lose his composure. Seeing Shira's distressed state triggered every protective instinct in his body.
"Marcus! Even if Shira was created by you, that doesn't give you the right to... to... to treat her like that! You make me so jealous!"
By the time he finished shouting, Sanji was crying, as if he were the one who'd been wronged.
Marcus and Goliath exchanged completely baffled glances. What was he even talking about?
Then the women of the crew started advancing on him with dangerous expressions.
Marcus quickly raised his hands defensively. "Hold on! You've got this completely wrong. Nami, back me up here. You know what I mean, right?"
Being suddenly called out made Nami freeze.
"Know what? I don't know anything! I didn't see anything!" She shook her head vigorously, desperate to avoid getting dragged into whatever this was turning into.
Marcus sighed. "I mean, you've been to the Nether before. You should know exactly how hot it is down there."
At the mention of the Nether, Nami shuddered, clearly remembering the experience. The screaming souls, the heat, and the feeling that the very air was trying to kill you.
She nodded reluctantly. "Yeah... it's really hot."
"Exactly! Shira's body is made of snow. How comfortable do you think she could be in a place like that? She was probably suffering the entire time and didn't want to complain."
Chopper, of all people, was the most qualified to sympathize. Even in Arabasta's heat, he'd been miserable. If he went to a place that was "Hell," he'd probably melt.
Luffy finally couldn't hold back anymore.
"When can we go see it?"
The rest of the crew showed mixed reactions. After all this time aboard the ship, only Nami had visited the Nether, and her dramatic retelling of that brief encounter had painted it as a nightmarish hellscape.
The place carried a shroud of mystery and dread in everyone's minds now.
Marcus, who'd actually spent quite a bit of time down there working on various projects, looked at their expectant faces and sighed.
"Fine, if you really want to see it, we can go. But I'm setting some ground rules first." He pointed at them sternly. "Everyone wears their diamond armor. No exceptions. And especially you two, Luffy and Zoro."
He still vividly remembered the final fight in Arabasta where both of them had taken off their diamond armor mid-battle for absolutely no good reason. Did they have some kind of death wish? Did they need to be half-dead before they could show off properly?
Both of them nodded obediently and equipped their diamond gear without complaint.
He took the lead, heading toward the soul sand portal chamber. "Alright, follow me. And stay close, the Nether isn't like the normal world."
---
When they arrived once more at the soul sand area, Marcus felt nothing in particular. He'd remodeled this section into a safe cube-shaped room months ago. Creating the void project hadn't changed much about this particular spot.
More importantly, he'd discovered that this specific area had different properties from the soul sand found elsewhere in the Nether. It was unique, special, worth preserving rather than harvesting.
When the entire Straw Hat crew finally gathered in the chamber, curiosity filled every face.
"So this is Hell?" Zoro muttered first, looking around. He immediately felt the scorching heat, but beyond that... it seemed rather ordinary. The lighting was dim, and there were some eerie blue flames flickering in the corners, but overall? Kind of underwhelming.
Luffy was fascinated, his head swiveling in every direction as he tried to take in everything at once.
"Why is the fire that color? Is it special?"
His shout drew everyone's attention to the blue flames.
Marcus looked over and thought about it for a moment. The flames burning on soul sand shouldn't behave like normal fire, at least not according to the game mechanics.
"Because it's soul fire."
The others looked confused by the strange name. Soul fire? What the hell did that even mean?
"P-People! There are people down there!"
Everyone immediately turned to look at Chopper, who was trembling violently and clinging to Zoro like his life depended on it.
"What people?" Zoro asked, trying to pry the reindeer off his leg.
"Yeah, what's there to be afraid of?" Usopp added.
Chopper's eyes were filling with tears. "I-In the ground! There are faces, human faces!"
Everyone quickly looked down at their feet.
On the surface of the soul sand, twisted human faces were writhing. Their expressions were anguished, mouths open, as if venting endless resentment toward the living above them.
Usopp, being Usopp, made the mistake of making direct eye contact with one of those faces in the sand. The moment their gazes locked, he felt like his very soul was being seen through. A ringing filled his ears that sounded like the shrieks of the dead, and every hair on his body stood straight up. His legs started trembling uncontrollably.
"Wh-What IS this?!" he screeched, backing away from the patch of soul sand he'd been standing on.
The others were also feeling their scalps prickle. Even the usually unflappable crew members felt unsettled by those faces.
Nami, who was entering this cursed place for the third time, felt an involuntary chill run through her entire body. Cold sweat dripped from her forehead and landed on the soul sand below, instantly evaporating with tiny wisps of white smoke.
"Relax," Marcus said, waving his hand to draw their attention away from the ground. "You're all wearing diamond armor, it blocks the interference from the soul sand. You're safe as long as you keep it on."
Nami tore her gaze away from the faces and said seriously, "Whatever you do, don't take off your diamond suits down here. If you do, these souls will drag you down with them. And then..."
"So this really is Hell," Robin murmured.
The others nodded in agreement, suddenly understanding why Nami had been so dramatic about her previous visits.
"Alright, this soul sand chamber is the most dangerous part," Marcus said, already moving to dig open a passage. "The rest of it is relatively safe. Come on."
Intense red light poured through the opening he'd created, and the crew filed out of the soul sand box one by one.
Luffy was the second person out after Marcus.
"Whoa! This place is huge!"
The crew now stood on a floating island made entirely of soul sand. Above them, the ceiling was composed of rough gray-brown stone stretching as far as they could see. The ground beneath their feet was paved with the same type of stone bricks they'd seen on their ship.
"You hollowed out this entire area?"
Though Nami hadn't ventured far from the soul sand chamber during her previous visits, she'd looked out at the surrounding landscape. It definitely hadn't looked like this back then.
Marcus had clearly done some serious remodeling.
"Just a little reconstruction project. I'd say it's about... halfway done now."
"Can I go down there?" Luffy asked eagerly, already eyeing the space below.
Marcus nodded. "Sure, just don't attack the creatures carrying swords. They won't bother you if you don't bother them."
"Yahoo!"
With an excited shout, Luffy launched himself off the edge without hesitation.
But apparently, Minecraft's fall damage mechanics didn't quite apply to rubber boys. He hit the ground running and immediately sprinted across the open area toward the first interesting thing he spotted, a zombified piglin wandering aimlessly near a cluster of nether wart.
He circled the creature, examining it from every angle.
"Hey! Want to join my crew and be my nakama?"
The zombified piglin completely ignored him and continued its mindless wandering pattern.
"Huh?"
Luffy leaned in closer, practically nose-to-snout with the creature. "Hey~ can you even understand what I'm saying?"
Still no response. The zombified piglin just kept shambling along its path like he didn't exist.
Luffy looked baffled by this development. In his experience, even the weirdest creatures could usually be reasoned with or at least fought with.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew stood on the soul sand island, quietly watching this bizarre interaction.
"Is it really okay to just let him run around down there unsupervised?" Nami asked worriedly. Everyone knew Luffy had a special talent for finding trouble in the most unexpected places.
Marcus thought about it for a moment, then waved dismissively. "Even if he causes some chaos, it'll be fine. The creatures down here can't actually hurt him anyway."
Rraaaaaaahhhh!
A strange shriek echoed up from below.
Everyone immediately looked down to see Luffy running at full speed with a pitch-black creature teleporting after him in pursuit.
"How does that idiot always manage to cause trouble?" Nami groaned. "We just told him this place was dangerous!"
She turned to Marcus, expecting him to fix the situation.
Instead, Marcus cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted down, "Luffy! Take down that creature!"
"Hey! Didn't you just tell him not to attack anything?!" Nami protested.
"This is different. That thing is called an Enderman. It's a creature that will hunt you endlessly once you make eye contact with it. So technically, this isn't Luffy's fault. He just looked at it wrong."
Hearing that he had permission to fight, Luffy's expression immediately shifted. Facing unknown opponents always got his blood pumping, and this creature was radiating such pure hostility that it made the air vibrate.
"Gum-Gum Jet Pistol!"
His fist rocketed forward like a bullet. But just as it was about to hit the enderman, the creature simply... wasn't there anymore.
It had vanished into thin air.
"What?!"
Hia Observation Haki immediately picked up on the creature's new position, and he whipped around to face it. The enderman had reappeared directly behind him, its long arms already reaching out.
"You're fast! I couldn't even see you move!"
Nothing excited him more than a challenging fight.
This time he focused seriously, his Observation Haki locked onto the figure like a targeting system.
"This time you won't dodge it! Gum-Gum Jet Gatling!"
This was an evolved form of Jet Pistol, combining Life Return techniques with his rubber physiology to unleash a storm of punches.
But just as the overwhelming barrage was about to hit, even as his Observation Haki told him success was imminent, the enderman vanished again.
Luffy's eyes narrowed. His attack had been dodged at the last possible instant.
He spun around immediately, finding the enderman reappearing several meters away. Without hesitation, he fired off another Jet Pistol. And again, at the moment of contact, the creature simply ceased to exist at that location.
By now, the watching crew members had noticed the enderman's extraordinary capabilities.
"That creature is fast," Zoro muttered.
Sanji nodded grimly, taking a drag from his cigarette. "It's like Soru. But even Soru leaves traces. This thing leaves nothing. It just... appears somewhere else."
Marcus watched the battle below with a hint of confusion. Are Luffy's attacks being counted as ranged attacks somehow?
That was bizarre. The enderman's core programming made it immune to projectiles and ranged damage, but Luffy's attacks should absolutely count as melee. His fists were physically making contact, or trying to, every single time.
What a weird interaction between game mechanics and real-world physics.
He continued watching.
The more Luffy fought, the more excited he became.
He took a deep breath and inflated himself like a balloon, then blasted air downward to launch himself high into the air above the enderman.
"Gum-Gum Storm!"
The moment Luffy shouted the attack name, Marcus sensed something was about to go wrong.
Oh no.
But it was already too late to warn him.
A storm of fists rained down from above like a meteor shower. The enderman darted through the barrage, moving so fast that even from the observation platform above, it looked like there were afterimages scattered across the battlefield.
"How?!" Alvida shouted in disbelief.
Luffy's fists were moving so fast that nobody present could have dodged them. The sheer volume alone should have guaranteed at least some hits.
And yet that creature was avoiding every single blow with minimal effort.
"What kind of monster is that?!"