As Vegapunk pressed the switch, a rainbow-colored path of light instantly flowed along the pipelines, surging toward the virtual helts worn by the Straw Hats.
In the blink of an eye, Luffy and the others' minds were enveloped by a mist of seven-colored light.
At the sa ti, their bodies began to tremble to varying degrees.
Red watched the scene before him, anticipation rising in his heart as he wondered how many of his companions would pass this test.
The mbers of the Straw Hat Pirates might all be extraordinary people with unique skills, but Red, who had communicated with Vegapunk about this device before, knew very well just how terrifying it was.
Even for people like Luffy and the others, if half of them could pass the test, that would already count as a pleasant surprise.
And that was also one of the reasons Red had chosen not to participate.
Whether his willpower was strong or weak, he did not really care.
What he feared was seeing so image inside the virtual world created by the Sunstone that might stir up his mories.
He had finally managed to bury those things deep within his heart. He could not allow sothing like this to disturb his mind.
After all, no matter how rich and varied the scenes of desire Luffy and the others saw might be, for them, those desires still had the possibility of being realized.
But the desire buried in Red's heart… was sothing that might never have a chance to co true in this lifeti.
Earth… he could no longer return there.
...
...
Pffft!!!
Just as Red was silently lost in nostalgia, a scarlet spray of blood suddenly flashed before his eyes.
Red froze, then hurriedly looked toward the source of the bloody light. In the next mont, however, he imdiately broke into a smile sowhere between laughter and helplessness.
"That guy Sanji…"
Red shook his head and murmured softly.
There was no need to ask. Just by looking at the lecherous grin showing on the half of Sanji's face exposed from beneath the helt, it was obvious he had been having so kind of spring dream that every man longed for.
Seeing that absurd amount of blood loss, Red hurriedly said to Vegapunk,
"Doctor, shut Sanji's device down quickly. If this keeps up, a fighter whose combat power is not inferior to an Emperor of the Sea is going to die from excessive blood loss."
"Got it~"
Vegapunk, who had never expected soone to be eliminated for this kind of reason, also revealed a strange expression. He imdiately pressed a button and directly shut down Sanji's virtual device.
In the next instant, Sanji's gushing nosebleed abruptly vanished, and his whole body shot upright.
"No!!! Don't leave !!!"
Whoosh!!!
Because of his violent movent, the helt on Sanji's head fell straight off. When Sanji opened his eyes again, what he saw was Red and Vegapunk staring at him wide-eyed, both wearing inexplicably wicked smiles.
Realizing sothing, Sanji's old face instantly turned red.
"Ahem…"
He reached out and wiped the blood beneath his nose, then looked around. When he saw that Zoro was still lying there and had yet to wake up, a flash of "I won" imdiately lit up in his eyes.
But when he recalled the scenes from his dream, he could not help letting out a sigh.
"Ahh~ I really want to live in the dream world forever."
Sanji shook his head lightly, then looked up at Vegapunk expectantly and asked,
"Was I the first one out? Does that an I escaped the dream first!?"
"Uh…"
Vegapunk, who had also not expected Sanji's situation, glanced at the ntal fluctuation curve on the screen, then replied dryly,
"From what the data shows, there doesn't seem to be much of a problem with your willpower."
"Although your degree of imrsion was extrely high, and you sank into the dream space in an instant, judging from this fluctuation curve, if you were given enough ti, you indeed would have been able to break free from the dream on your own."
"And after coming out, you didn't imdiately demand to return to the dream world. That's enough to show that your willpower is still rather good."
"Hm?" Sanji, who had originally assud his willpower was very strong, frowned. The smile on his face also disappeared. "So… what's going on? Why do I feel like there's sothing hidden in your words, Doctor?"
"It's like this, Sanji…" Red took the initiative to help Vegapunk explain, an amused expression on his face.
"Although your willpower isn't exactly weak, there probably won't be a spot for you among those entering Heaven World this ti."
"Huh? Why?" Sanji asked in confusion.
Red simply pointed at his body and at the side of the window where he had been lying.
Perhaps because Sanji had an astonishing physique as an enhanced human, his nosebleed had actually sprayed nearly ten ters just now.
Red had no idea what he had done in the dream world to make a lifelong virgin like him spray blood to such an absurd degree.
One had to know that the current Sanji had not experienced the two-year okama calamity from the original tiline. In his daily life, whenever he went out, he could still see top-tier beauties like Nami, Robin, and Uta.
Under circumstances like that, for Sanji to still spray blood like this…
It even made Red a little curious to experience Sanji's dream world.
"I wonder if there'll be a chance to make sothing like braindance in the future."
Looking at the virtual helt, Red secretly pondered.
The "braindance" he was talking about was, of course, not the Pokémon wtwo with a base stat total of 680 in its normal state and 780 after ga Evolution.
It was the advanced technology from Cyberpunk 2077 that could give people an imrsive, lifelike experience!
The thought flashed by in an instant, but it did not delay Red's explanation. He continued,
"With the desires in your heart and your body, if you were even slightly affected by dream energy in Heaven World, the nosebleed you sprayed would probably fill up your entire protective suit~"
"So for this operation, you should obediently stay behind like and wait for the others to complete it!"
"Damn it~! How could this happen!?"
Sanji blinked blankly.
He had once worried that his willpower might not be as good as Zoro's, and he had also considered the one-in-ten-million possibility that his willpower might fail to et the standard.
But he had never, ever imagined…
That he would be eliminated for a reason like this.
"No… no, Red!"
Sanji instantly turned into a walking corpse, staggering as he waved his hands and walked toward Red.
"If everyone finds out that I can't enter Heaven World for this kind of reason, I'll be laughed at by everyone!!!"
"Well…" Red put on a troubled expression.
"There's nothing I can do about that!!!"
"I'm begging you! When the ti cos, just say… just say my willpower didn't et the standard. That'll be enough."
Red asked, "Uh… is that really okay? If we tell the truth, your bet with Zoro would at most count as a draw. Are you sure you want to wash Zoro's socks for a whole year?"
"Yeah!" Sanji nodded firmly. "It's not like I haven't washed them before."
Anyway, it was nothing more than burning all of Zoro's socks to ash, buying identical new ones, and running them through water once.
It was not like he was actually going to wash any stinking socks.
Sanji expressed that he could accept it.
"Fine then~"
Looking at the pleading Sanji, Red waved his hand and used Psychic Power to clean away all the nosebleed Sanji had sprayed above. Then he said,
"Then lie back on the bed in a bit. After the test results co out, just get up together with the people who didn't pass."
"No problem~!"
Sanji's eyes lit up. He imdiately obediently lay back down and even asked Vegapunk to turn on the lights on his helt so he would look exactly the sa as the others still inside the dream world.
"This day, honestly~"
Red sighed with a helpless chuckle.
Then he quietly waited with Sanji, who was pretending to be imrsed in the dream, for the rest of their companions.
Soon, so of the companions began waking up one after another.
Only, what Red had not expected was…
The first person to wake up was not Luffy or Zoro, the two with the strongest combat power, but the oldest mber of the entire pirate crew—Brook!
"Yohohoho~"
"What a dream that made one reluctant to leave~"
Following that classic laugh, the helt on Brook's head abruptly went dark, and he slowly sat up from the bed with his afro, then placed his top hat on in a gentlemanly manner.
"Red, I should have passed the test, yes?" Brook asked as calmly as ever.
But sharp-eyed Red accurately caught the tear that flashed through Brook's hollow skeletal eye sockets.
The dancing flas of his soul exuded a faint sorrow, yet that sorrow was instantly covered by the hope that burst forth afterward.
Perhaps, in the dream world, Brook had shared a beautiful ending with his companions.
However…
"As expected of a guy who spent fifty years imrsed in loneliness and solitude without ntally collapsing~"
Red could not help sighing in his heart.
Although, because of the different flow of ti inside the dream space, the order in which people woke up could not completely represent the strength of their willpower, the fact that Brook had awakened before Luffy and Zoro…
Perhaps Brook's willpower truly was the strongest in the entire Straw Hat Pirates.
"Maybe in the future, Brook can undergo specialized training in this direction."
"When sailing through the universe, the importance of willpower is definitely in the top-tier category."
As a Trainer, Red instinctively began thinking about it in his heart.
However, after countless thoughts flashed by, Red imdiately acted as though he had not noticed anything and smiled as usual.
"Not bad, Brook!"
"To think you could break free from the dream world before Luffy and Zoro. Looks like I'll have to help you properly mock them later."
"Yohohoho~ Perhaps not, Vice Captain!"
"I don't want Luffy dragging into ntal strength competitions every day."
"Hehe~"
The two looked at each other and smiled, as though a great deal of conversation had been completed through their gazes. In the end, however, they tacitly fell silent, leaving everything unspoken.
Ti slowly passed.
A few minutes later, Luffy and Zoro broke free from the dream world almost at the sa ti and quickly woke up.
Seeing Sanji still lying on the machine beside him, the nostalgic look in Zoro's eyes was suddenly covered by a flash of joy that said, "I won."
Before he could speak, however, Luffy beside him complained first.
"What the heck? This machine's no good at all!"
"Red, space wasn't as interesting as you said at all. Why was it still just a bunch of Devil Fruit users fighting back and forth?"
"Huh?"
Red was slightly stunned. He glanced at Luffy's virtual device and suddenly seed to realize sothing.
He hurriedly turned his head to look at Vegapunk.
Vegapunk clearly had not expected that after Sanji, there would be yet another master.
He quickly adjusted the detailed data from Luffy's device and began checking it.
Logically speaking, the dream world created by the Sunstone would reflect the strongest desires within a person's heart. Even soone with firm willpower should still feel a slight lingering attachnt to the dream world after breaking free from it.
Even if a person's willpower was invincible and they did not feel attached to the dream world, they should simply be indifferent to it.
But soone like Luffy, who had developed the negative emotion of boredom, was sothing Vegapunk had completely failed to anticipate.
Soon, after reviewing Luffy's data, Vegapunk slowly revealed a trace of understanding. Yet his tone was also sowhat baffled as he said,
"It seems that Luffy's desire was too vast, but there wasn't enough information to support it. As a result, even under the power of the Sunstone, the dream could not guarantee absolute attraction for him."
"Interesting~ I never imagined the Sunstone's dream world could actually be broken through in such a way!"
After finishing his explanation, Vegapunk's eyes suddenly lit up. He imdiately interlaced his fingers and saved Luffy's data, preparing to keep it for further research later.
Luffy, however, was completely confused by Vegapunk's explanation.
Red's eyes also flickered slightly. After thinking for a mont, he understood why Luffy had said it was boring.
To put it simply, Luffy's dream was like that of a young, inexperienced boy who knew absolutely nothing about the structure of the opposite sex's body or related knowledge, yet whose greatest desire was romantic innocence. In the dream world, he encountered the girl he liked most, but because he did not understand anything, even in the dream world, all he could do was rub against her as much as possible.
Once or twice would be fine. But as ti passed, the boy grew tired, and his desire evolved. Yet because he did not know how to proceed to the next step, the dream world ultimately beca uninteresting.
As for Luffy, it was because he had never understood any real knowledge about space. He had only heard Red constantly say that the universe was extrely mysterious and was a place of adventure even more exciting than the sea, but he had no idea where exactly that excitent lay. In the end, under circumstances where his desire could not be satisfied, he actively left the dream world.
In other words, even without any protective suit, there was a high chance that Luffy could move freely inside the dream space of Heaven World.
Should he be called the protagonist of this world after all?
Even the Luffy from the original tiline might have beco immune to the dream space because he did not know what he should do after becoming the Pirate King, thereby gaining the chance to touch the Road Poneglyph.
"So… does Luffy's willpower count as high or low?"
Red muttered inwardly.
But just as Red was about to ask Vegapunk, two soft, bell-like voices sounded from the side.
Robin and Nami had also awakened from the dream space one after another.
Compared with Luffy, Brook, and the others, Robin and Nami's eyes were especially red, with faint crystal tears glimring inside them.
Having guessed roughly what they had dread of, Red gentlemanly handed the prepared tissues to the two won, receiving two soft "thank yous" in return.
Although the dream world was incredibly beautiful, Robin and Nami, who had experienced countless darknesses since childhood, still displayed astonishing willpower and were not swallowed by the dream space filled with beauty.
And this also made Red realize that perhaps his companions' willpower was even stronger than he had imagined.
(End of Chapter)
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