As midnight approached, the once lifeless Thriller Bark began to stir, and even the ever-present fog seemed to seethe with activity.
Gin walked silently through the eerie forest. From time to time, the dead silence was broken by the ghostly wails and howls of unknown creatures in the distance. In such an oppressive atmosphere, the tree branches stretching out in the mist and darkness resembled clawing specters. For an ordinary person, just walking through this place would require immense courage.
However, Gin was unfazed by it all. Still, he played the part of an ordinary sailor who had lost his companions, cautiously moving step by step. Whenever a strange sound echoed nearby, he would feign a frightened glance in its direction.
William and Gecko Moria were like two assassins in a dark room, knowing very little about each other. Yet, William held a slight advantage—he had identified Moria's location and had the element of surprise.
William, Gin, and Selkirk had been pretending to be ordinary civilians, keeping a low profile to avoid drawing attention. Their goal was to maximize this advantage, ensuring Moria remained unaware of their presence until they struck, catching him off guard.
Gin understood William's plan. He wasn't sure how many of Moria's spies might be on the island, so he maintained a cautious demeanor throughout, just in case.
As he walked, Gin's ears suddenly twitched. A faint sound of a dry branch snapping reached him. Pretending not to notice, he continued moving forward cautiously. Soon, a dim light emerged from behind a tree.
"Wait!" A hoarse voice called out from behind Gin, stopping him in his tracks.
Turning around, Gin saw an old man in tattered clothes, his face deeply wrinkled like ravines. His body was wrapped in dirty bandages, and he held a kerosene lamp, carefully observing the ground beneath Gin's feet.
"You're not a zombie?" The old man squinted at Gin and asked suspiciously.
Gin puffed his cheeks slightly, forcing a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?"
As he spoke, the old man hobbled toward him. As the distance between them closed, the faint light from the lamp illuminated Gin, casting a long shadow on the ground. Seeing this unmistakable shadow, the old man let out a sigh of relief.
"Good, you have a shadow. It's not too late," the old man muttered to himself.
Gin, however, remained wary, his eyes fixed on the old man. "Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm a victim aboard this ship," the old man replied. "I don't know how you got onto the island, but I suggest you follow me and hide immediately. Midnight is almost here," he said, glancing nervously at the sky. "The night raid is about to begin. If the zombies catch you and Moria takes your shadow, you'll end up like me—trapped in this sunless place forever."
Gin's heart stirred, but he feigned confusion. "Moria?"
"Follow me into the woods, and I'll explain on the way. There's no time to waste," the old man urged, turning and limping away.
...
Finally, the clock struck midnight, its chime echoing through the mist. Zombies that had been dormant across the island began to awaken, summoned by Moria's officers, and they marched toward the survivors from the Starlight who had landed on the island.
Among the prey, only the skeleton swordsman Brook posed a significant threat. However, even he was countered by Perona's abilities. Everyone, including Moria, believed this night raid would be an easy victory.
As the bells tolled, Moria sat at his "dining table," waiting for his feast to arrive. A napkin was tied around his neck, and a group of zombies carried in Joey Fello, bound tightly in spider silk, along with several other Starlight crew members who had been captured near the trench.
The greatest contributors to their capture were the zombie spiders. Naturally, spider silk was already one of the strongest and most durable materials in nature. But these zombie spiders, enhanced by the genius surgeon Dr. Hogback, produced silk that was even tougher and more resilient.
The captured crew members struggled desperately. When they saw Moria's towering, grotesque figure, they thrashed even harder. But the spider silk cocooned them like giant larvae, and their efforts were in vain.
Seeing the number of captives, Moria let out an excited, eerie laugh. At the same time, he produced an oversized iron pair of scissors from seemingly nowhere, its size larger than a person.
Joey Fello was the first to be dragged before Moria. Though Joey was far from short, he looked like a large doll in front of the nearly seven-meter-tall Moria, who easily lifted him into the air with one hand.
Moria absentmindedly clicked the scissors twice, producing a chilling snip-snip sound. Having witnessed countless terrifying and bizarre events since landing on the island, Joey Fello couldn't help but imagine the worst. He thought Moria was going to dismember him with the scissors and screamed in despair, "You—you're Gecko Moria, aren't you? I've seen your bounty poster. You're one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, right? We're a legitimate merchant ship, not pirates! You can't attack us, and you can't kill us!"
"Kill you? Am I that merciful?" Moria's sinister laughter grew even more piercing. "I'm going to turn you into my slaves!"
At that moment, a spotlight suddenly illuminated Joey Fello, casting a sharp shadow on the wall behind him.
Moria curled two fingers as if gripping a poster stuck to the wall. To Joey's horror, his shadow began to peel away from the wall, as though Moria were tearing it off. Slowly but surely, Moria pulled the shadow free, leaving only its feet still connected to Joey. Finally, with a swift motion of the massive scissors, Moria severed the connection.
As Moria lifted the shadow, Joey's mouth gaped open in terror, his face frozen in disbelief at the incomprehensible power. When the scissors cut through the connection, Joey's eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.
Moria discarded Joey, who was now useless to him, and examined the struggling shadow in his hand. Annoyed by its resistance, he barked, "Quiet down!"
Strangely, the shadow immediately fell silent. Moria, unfazed by this phenomenon, turned to a row of beds covered with white sheets behind him. Lifting one of the sheets, he revealed a corpse stitched together from various body parts by Hogback.
"You will be reborn as a zombie," Moria said in a hypnotic tone to the shadow. "And you must remember, it is I who gave you a voice and a body. From now on, I am your master! Forget all your past relationships and become a soldier who obeys only me!"
The shadow, which had been bowed as if asleep, slowly nodded.
"The contract is sealed!" Moria declared with a grin. With a casual toss, he flung the shadow into the corpse. The shadow merged into the body, and moments later, to the shock of the Starlight crew witnessing the scene, the corpse, riddled with stitches and clearly lifeless, suddenly sat up on the bed with a sharp motion.
(End of Chapter)
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