"Waaaaah!"
Accompanied by Nami's scream, the Dream Chaser charged straight into the waterway, racing up the mountain driven by the powerful current!
Seeing the danger had passed, Nami didn't bother asking what Goku had just done. She threw her arms up in excitement.
"Yeah! We made it up! Now, as long as we follow the current, we'll reach the Grand Line!!"
Her eyes were filled with excitement and joy.
The Grand Line—the place she had always dreamed of visiting. Now, she was finally on the threshold, just one step away!
Sanji took out his lighter and lit a cigarette, exhaling a cloud of smoke with a cool, composed smile.
"The legendary sea, All Blue... I wonder where in the Grand Line you are. Wait for me; I'll definitely find you."
Goku kicked off and flipped back over the railing from the outside. "Close call, close call," he muttered. Like the other two, he began to look around curiously.
"Whoa! We've already reached such a high place!"
He hopped onto the mast and looked back at the ship's wake. The ocean was nowhere to be seen, replaced only by the straight waterway they had just traveled.
"Of course! We're currently climbing the Red Line! This is the highest place in the world, supposedly ten thousand meters high!" Nami explained with a smile, hands on her hips.
"Ten thousand meters? That's incredible!" Goku gaped in surprise.
Once her excitement about summiting Reverse Mountain had settled, Nami recalled Goku's ship-saving move and couldn't help but ask.
"By the way, Goku, what did you do back there? What was that blue light?"
She looked at him with curiosity.
Sanji did the same.
The situation had been dire. Caught in the current, their ship had been moving like an arrow shot from a bow—terrifyingly fast.
If Goku hadn't acted in time to correct their course, they would have crashed head-on into the Red Line.
The ship would have been smashed to pieces, and they certainly wouldn't have fared much better.
"Hehe, that was the Kamehameha! I used it to push the ship," Goku replied, rubbing his head with a grin.
"The Kamehameha?"
Nami and Sanji were both bewildered.
"It's a really powerful move that Master Roshi taught me."
"A powerful move? Then why haven't we seen you use it before?" Nami asked, crossing her arms in surprise.
"Because I didn't need it to beat the other guys."
Goku tilted his head, wondering why Nami was asking such a strange question.
"Uh..."
Nami paused.
Thinking back, Goku had defeated most of his opponents in a single blow, and even the ones that took more effort didn't seem to push him very hard.
Did that mean Goku's true strength was even greater than she realized?
She and Sanji exchanged looks, both reaching the same conclusion.
For a moment, they were speechless.
Goku was already impressive; if he was even stronger, what would that look like?
Whoosh!!
Suddenly, the three felt themselves and the ship take flight, followed by a heavy sense of weightlessness.
Then, the hull slammed back down onto the waterway, sending a spray of water across the deck.
"Ah! We've reached the top of Reverse Mountain!" Nami cried out after the shock wore off.
They were no longer climbing at an angle; they were level again.
This meant they were at the summit. Next, they would surge down the waterway all the way to the Grand Line!
Sure enough.
Before long, the path ahead curved sharply downward. The fast-moving Dream Chaser shot into the air again before gravity pulled it back onto the slope, racing downward like a runaway horse!
"Waaaaah!!"
Nami clung to the railing, her body fluttering like a flag as the ship plummeted.
Goku was in the same position, but instead of panic, his face was bright with a joyous smile.
"Hahaha! This is fun!"
"Nami-san! Don't worry! I'll protect you!" The loyal knight Sanji stayed close to Nami, ready to save his goddess at a moment's notice.
Unfortunately, though Nami was terrified, she held onto the railing with a death grip, leaving him no opportunity to help.
The waterway rushing down Reverse Mountain was like a waterfall hanging from the heavens, its roar like thunder and its momentum overwhelming.
Atop this, the Dream Chaser was like a sled on an ice slide, accelerating faster and faster like a vehicle with no brakes.
"Wahahaha! Go, go, go!!"
Goku had somehow jumped onto the bow. The howling wind blew his spiky hair into a mess, but he didn't care, cheering with his hands in the air.
In sharp contrast, Nami was clutching the railing behind him, watching in horror as the ship sped up.
Hearing Goku's cheers, she immediately roared, "Go where?! At this rate, the ship is going to fall apart!!"
However, as everyone knows, Goku couldn't hear her from the front. He just kept cheering.
A few seconds later, the seemingly endless waterway finally reached its conclusion.
Nami's face lit up. She thought they had finally reached the bottom and the ship would slow down before breaking apart.
However—
As the saying goes, the weather is unpredictable.
And as another saying goes: calamity often follows joy.
Just as the smile touched her face, a massive shadow emerged from the ocean where the waterway met the sea.
Its size was beyond exaggeration, like a massive mountain blocking much of the path. Given the ship's trajectory, they were going to crash straight into it!
"Waaaaah!! What on earth is that?!"
Terror returned to Nami's face. All she wanted was to go to the Grand Line. How could she encounter such a terrifying monster before even arriving?
Sanji was also staring wide-eyed at the sudden behemoth, his cigarette falling from his mouth.
He didn't care about the cigarette. He sprinted into the cabin and grabbed the helm, trying to swerve.
But just like before, the current was too strong. Even putting all his strength into it only shifted the ship slightly.
That slight angle change was nowhere near enough to avoid the massive creature!
"Hey! Goku! Can you use that move again?!" With the ship about to exit the waterway and collide with the monster, a pale Nami screamed at Goku.
Standing on the bow, Goku had his tail wrapped around the railing to keep from falling. Without needing Nami to tell him, he had already crouched down and took his stance.
Then, gathering all his strength once more, he fired a Kamehameha in the opposite direction of Sanji's turn.
BOOM!!!
Under the force of the Kamehameha, the bow's direction shifted noticeably, and the ship sped past the massive creature's side.
The crisis vanished into thin air.
Before long, the Dream Chaser gradually came to a halt under the water's resistance. Not far from their side was the massive creature that had emerged from the sea.
Only now, after calming down, did the three realize that this giant mountain was actually a whale of unimaginable size.
"Whoa! That's one huge whale!"
Goku looked up with a look of pure amazement.
"I wonder if it tastes good."
He rubbed his empty stomach. Those two Kamehamehas had taken quite a lot out of him.
Nami and Sanji also looked up in awe at the largest living creature they had ever seen.
'Is this the Grand Line? To encounter such an unimaginable creature the moment we arrive...'
Just then, a red shadow caught the corner of their eyes.
They looked closely and saw Goku approaching the whale using the extending Power Pole!
!!!
"Goku!! What are you doing?!"
The two screamed in terror.
A second later, Goku gave them his answer through action.
"Chomp!"
When he got close to the whale, Goku hooked his feet around the Power Pole, grabbed onto the whale's side, opened his mouth wide, and bit down hard!
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]