Marcus decided to speak up before the two bounty hunters could make up their minds.
"If you guys are just worried about being too weak, then after these past few days you should already know what I'm capable of, right?"
Johnny and Yosaku both nodded slowly.
Johnny cleared his throat, looking a bit embarrassed. "The thing is, you and the others are destined to become great pirates someday. But Yosaku and I... we actually have a different dream."
"We want to become powerful bounty hunters," Yosaku continued. "Just like the unknown bounty hunter who once saved our hometown when we were kids. That person showed us what we wanted to be."
Johnny nodded earnestly. "So in the future, we may walk down different paths. Rather than put you guys in a difficult position later, it's better we say our goodbyes here."
This was clearly the result of long, careful consideration between the two men.
"If that's your dream, then I guess there's nothing more to say," Luffy said, giving up on trying to convince them further. After all, everyone had the right to chase their own dreams.
"Speaking of which, what are all your dreams anyway? I don't think we've ever actually talked about this."
The original five crew members exchanged glances, then began sharing their aspirations.
Zoro straightened up, hand resting on his swords. "To become the World's Strongest Swordsman."
Sanji took a drag from his cigarette. "To find the All Blue, the legendary sea where fish from all four oceans gather."
Nami spread out one of her maps on the nearby table. "To draw a complete map of every island in the world."
Usopp puffed out his chest, trying to look brave. "I... I want to become a brave warrior of the sea!"
After the original crew finished, attention turned to Marcus' group.
Alvida flipped her hair confidently. "To become the strongest and most beautiful woman in the world."
Kira fidgeted nervously, speaking almost in a whisper. "I... I want to change myself and become... someone people notice."
Finally, all eyes turned to Marcus. He found himself thinking back over his entire journey, not just in this world, but his previous life as well.
"My turn, huh? My dream..."
Before he'd been transported to this world, he hadn't really had a dream at all. Or rather, his so-called "dreams" had just been basic survival needs like wanting food when hungry, shelter when cold, entertainment when bored.
But dreams... real dreams were different. Even after joining Luffy's crew, he hadn't given it much thought. But during this journey, traveling with these people and seeing this world up close, something had gradually taken shape in his mind.
"My dream is change."
"Change?" Nami asked, tilting her head.
"Yeah, to change this world."
Several crew members looked confused, so Marcus elaborated.
"Because this world isn't the way it should be. People might never be completely equal, but at the very least, more people should be able to choose how they want to live their lives. They shouldn't be forced to become pirates for no reason, and children shouldn't be born only to lose their parents right away. People should be able to live more freely, don't you think?"
He finished explaining his thoughts, and for a moment the entire ship fell silent.
Such a dream was incredibly ambitious, no less lofty than becoming Pirate King itself.
"Shishishishi! That dream is awesome! I love it! Yeah! People should live more freely!" Luffy burst out laughing and clapping.
The others all began smiling as well.
Alvida and Kira had particularly complex expressions, but soon they too were smiling. Alvida had become a pirate without any real choice in the matter, and Kira had grown up in an orphanage, timid and unable to interact normally with others. If she'd had parents, she might have been just a happy, confident girl.
"Your ideals... seems to me you should join the Revolutionary Army," Alvida said with a laugh.
But Marcus simply shrugged. "Who says only the Revolutionary Army can change the world? Can't pirates do the same?"
Johnny and Yosaku both had tears in their eyes by this point.
"Your dream is truly magnificent!" Johnny said, wiping his face.
Yosaku nodded firmly. "Yeah, if such a dream could really be realized, maybe the world would become a better place. Maybe that would even mark the true end of the Great Pirate Era."
In the end, Johnny and Yosaku disembarked as planned, but not empty-handed.
Marcus gave them parting gifts that would help them on their journey: each received a Minecraft-crafted boat, along with a chest containing MC fishing rods and two stacks of tropical fruit.
"Take care of yourselves!" Luffy called out, waving enthusiastically from the ship's railing as they prepared to set sail.
"You too! We'll see you again someday!" Johnny and Yosaku called back.
The crew had no idea Dragon had been listening from a nearby alley. As the ship began to move, he quietly slipped away.
"Change, huh..." he murmured to himself before disappearing into the crowd.
---
The sails unfurled and caught the wind, and the Going Merry set course for the Grand Line.
In less than half a day of sailing, the weather began to shift. Thunder rumbled overhead, and storm clouds gathered.
Ahead of them was the Red Line, stretching straight up into the sky.
Through the rain, they could see the entrance to Reverse Mountain.
"So high! That's the Red Line?!" Luffy exclaimed, standing at the bow.
Nami frowned as she studied their course, rain streaming down her face as she squinted through the downpour. "Something's not right! Steer a little to the right!"
Usopp was at the helm, gritting his teeth as he fought against the wheel. "I'm trying!"
The storm was making navigation difficult. The wind kept trying to push them off course, and the wheel was fighting him every step of the way.
Seeing Usopp struggling, Sanji rushed over to help. But the moment he put his hands on the wheel alongside the sniper, he realized just how difficult it was to steer through these conditions.
The two of them worked together, putting all their strength into turning the ship toward the correct channel.
The stress proved too much for the equipment, and the helm snapped with a sharp crack.
"Damn it!" Sanji cursed as they stared at the broken steering mechanism.
Marcus immediately rushed forward and placed stone blocks above the broken rudder, creating a makeshift extension they could grab onto.
"Quick, steer using this!"
All three of them pushed together, and finally the Going Merry adjusted its course toward the upward current of Reverse Mountain.
"Whew! That was terrifying!" Usopp was drenched in sweat. He didn't even want to imagine what would've happened if they had crashed into the Red Line at full speed.
"This is only the first challenge of entering the Grand Line," Nami said, though she was clearly relieved they'd made it through. "Just this alone eliminates pirates whose ships aren't up to the task."
But Marcus felt a pang of disappointment, not because they'd avoided crashing, but because certain storylines would never happen now.
He'd been curious about the Whisper-Whisper Fruit and the Scythe-Scythe Fruit from the Warship Island arc. He'd even wondered if he could somehow obtain one of those Devil Fruits and test whether his conversion system could duplicate it. If that worked, wouldn't that mean he could supply Devil Fruits infinitely?
He could imagine forming an entire squad of Scythe-Scythe users. When facing enemies, they'd all swing in unison, summoning massive cyclones.
As for the Whisper-Whisper Fruit, if developed properly, wasn't that essentially like having the Voice of All Things? If pushed further, could it let someone hear the whispers of non-living objects? What if it could hear the "whispers" of an enemy's muscles, wouldn't that be similar to Observation Haki? And if taken to extremes, if it could hear the whispers of the wind itself, then wouldn't you know exactly where everyone was at all times?
But that was all speculation now. Those opportunities were lost.
He sighed quietly to himself as these thoughts ran through his mind.
Meanwhile, the Going Merry had caught the upward current and was being carried along the waterway, rising higher and higher above sea level. They pierced through the storm clouds, climbing toward ten thousand meters above the ocean.
Suddenly, sunlight broke through the clouds.
"WOOOHOOO!" Luffy sat at the bow with his arms spread wide, vibrating with excitement at the incredible view.
Usopp clung to the railing, his legs still trembling from the earlier near-disaster, but his face showed the same expression as his captain's.
Zoro stood calmly on the deck.
Sanji silently lit a cigarette.
Nami pulled off her soaked raincoat and waved it in the air, laughing with pure joy at their successful navigation.
Alvida spread her arms wide, feeling the wind rush past her.
Kira squeezed her eyes shut and clutched tightly onto Nami, still terrified by the height but trying to be brave.
Driven by the powerful current and mountain winds, the Going Merry gradually turned on its own, automatically aligning itself with the waterway that would carry them down into the Grand Line.
"Here we go!" Nami called out as she felt the ship begin to tip forward.
That strange, stomach-dropping sensation of weightlessness hit everyone at once.
Every crew member grabbed onto the nearest solid object, holding on for dear life as the ship began its descent.
Going up Reverse Mountain had been fast. Going down was even faster.
In less than thirty minutes, the Going Merry had already plunged back through the cloud layer, racing toward the sea at incredible speed.
When sunlight once again shone on their faces and they could see clearly again, Usopp's eyes went wide.
"What is THAT?!"
"A mountain?!"
"No, it's a whale! A whale bigger than a mountain!"
"Stop the ship! We're gonna crash!" Alvida shouted in panic, though she knew as well as anyone that stopping was impossible.
"We're falling from ten thousand meters, how exactly do you expect us to stop?"
"We're dead, we're dead, we're dead!" Usopp was convinced he could see his mother waving at him from the afterlife.
Instead of panicking like the others, Marcus began pulling out stone blocks and placing them. Not for protection, but simply to anchor the ship to the outside rock.
Just as collision seemed inevitable, a cannon fired.
It was Luffy, trying to slow their descent. Unfortunately, the Going Merry's speed didn't decrease at all. Against the momentum built up from falling thousands of meters, the recoil from a single cannon was meaningless.
Seeing this, Marcus hurriedly placed his final connecting block.
The impact hit.
He could hear the ship's wooden hull creaking and groaning under the stress. Fortunately, the blocks he'd placed were Minecraft-converted, so they held together. Otherwise, the ship would've split apart completely on impact.
But in the very next moment, even his reinforcement reached its limits.
The connecting stones cracked under the pressure and broke apart.
Perhaps guided by fate itself, the Going Merry's ram figurehead finally broke off and tumbled onto the deck with a crash.