Chapter 234: This Freedom Feels a Bit Strange!

Chapter 234: Chapter 234: This Freedom Feels a Bit Strange!

...

Kaido’s dragon mouth opened wide and swallowed Luffy in one gulp. This scene terrified quite a few children watching the light screen......

"Ah!"

Outside the light screen, countless children covered their eyes in terror. According to common sense, Luffy could be said to have been eaten alive by Kaido. How could they not be afraid of this scene?

"That Straw Hat big brother got eaten!"

"The big bad guy must have chewed him up!"

"So scary... That bad guy eats people!"

...

There was a crying tone in the children’s voices. Their small bodies hid behind their parents, not daring to look at the light screen anymore.

But only a few seconds passed...

"Hm?"

One bold child secretly peeked through his fingers, then he froze. Immediately after, he shouted to his little companions in great joy: "That Straw Hat big brother... seems like he’s not dead?"

Hearing their companion’s words, the other children slowly lowered their hands and stared wide-eyed at the light screen.

Kaido’s expression changed!

That originally ferocious dragon face was now twisted like a crumpled rag.

Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, flowing down along his dragon scales.

His eyes were wide like bronze bells, and his expression was extremely ugly. His pupils trembled violently, and his dragon body twisted wildly in midair.

"Gulp... Gulu gulu..."

Strange sounds came from his throat, as if he wanted to vomit but could not.

And inside his stomach...

"Hehehe!"

Luffy’s laughter clearly transmitted from within Kaido’s body. That laughter echoed among Kaido’s internal organs, causing his dragon body to twitch repeatedly.

Mixed within the laughter were also Luffy’s signature "gomu gomu no" shouts, and the sound of running footsteps.

That’s right—running!

Luffy was actually running inside Kaido’s stomach. He treated Kaido’s long dragon body as a racetrack, madly sprinting up and down inside.

One moment he was jumping while stepping on the stomach wall, the next he was grabbing the intestines and swinging like on a swing, then sliding down the esophagus like a slide before running back up again.

Kaido’s dragon body had turned into a giant rubber playground inside him.

His internal organs had all been rubberized because of Luffy’s ability, so no substantial damage was caused...

But that did not mean Kaido was not in pain!

On the contrary.

Precisely because they had been rubberized, every one of Luffy’s steps, every collision, every bit of mischief was amplified several times over, clearly transmitted to Kaido’s nerve endings.

"Wuu!"

Kaido let out a miserable scream.

His dragon body curled up into a ball in midair. His dragon tail swung wildly, his dragon claws waved about randomly, yet he could grab nothing.

Whimpering sounds came from his mouth, just like a bullied wild beast.

"Hehehe! Kaido, your stomach is so spacious!"

Luffy’s voice came from inside, carrying an infuriating cheerfulness: "I’ll run a few more laps!"

"You dare...!"

Before Kaido could finish speaking, his miserable scream had already resounded through the heavens.

Outside the light screen, those children who had just been covering their eyes now lowered their hands.

They stared blankly at the painfully twisted Kaido on the light screen, listening to Luffy’s laughter coming from within Kaido’s stomach...

"Pfft..."

One child could not hold it in and laughed out loud.

Then two.

Three.

Ten.

"Hahahaha!"

"That big bad guy is so miserable!"

"Straw Hat big brother is running inside his stomach!"

...

The children’s laughter rang out once more—louder and more cheerful than before. However, this only made things worse for Kaido.

The adults looked at each other and smiled, helplessly shaking their heads.

These little ones really were...

God Valley.

The corners of the pirates’ mouths had not stopped twitching since earlier.

"This..."

One pirate swallowed with difficulty: "What kind of fighting style is this?"

No one could answer him, because everyone had been stunned by the scene before them.

They had also witnessed countless battles.

Some were tragic, some were heroic, some were fought with everything they had, some were life-and-death struggles.

But they had never seen a battle where someone ran around inside the enemy’s stomach!

"What the Five Elders said earlier..."

Rayleigh slowly spoke, his tone carrying a trace of emotion: "That ’utterly absurd power’ of Nika—I finally understand it now."

Absurd. It truly was absurd.

But within that absurdity, there was something that could not be ignored... and that was freedom!

It was freedom completely unbound by anything.

Freedom unrestricted by any rules, any common sense, any dogma of "this is how one should fight."

It was the freedom of imagination.

"Such a fighting style..."

Roger murmured, a strange light flickering in his eyes: "Only he could have thought of it."

Whitebeard gripped Murakumogiri, the corner of his mouth slightly raised in an arc.

At this moment, Garp was already laughing so hard he could not straighten his back. Right now, the more he looked at his own grandson, the more he liked him!

Sengoku held his forehead with a helpless expression. Zephyr shook his head, yet there was also a smile at the corner of his mouth.

Even the usually gloomy Rocks could not help but glance at the light screen a few more times at this moment.

That brat... was somewhat interesting.

Holy Land Mariejois.

The Flower Room. This place, throughout the years, had basically never been stepped foot in by any stranger except for Rocks.

And at this moment, Imu—that true ruler of the World Government, that "god" who had lived for hundreds of years and manipulated the course of history—was staring fixedly at the light screen before him.

The light screen had actually appeared here as well, so Imu had cut off contact with the Five Elders. No one knew what he was thinking...

However, what was clearly visible was that Imu’s body was trembling. From the moment he saw that youth, it had not stopped trembling.

It was not because of fear—at least, he was unwilling to admit that it was fear.

The reason he was trembling was because it was too similar!

Too similar to that person he feared the most. That person from a hundred years ago who had nearly destroyed the world order.

That person whom he had no choice but to ally with twenty kings and use every possible means to barely suppress.

"Joy Boy..."

Imu softly uttered this name. The instant the words fell, his pupils suddenly contracted.

Within those ripple-shaped eyes, astonishing killing intent emerged!

Along with a trace of unconcealable dread.

Too similar.

Almost exactly the same!

That smile, that gaze, and that thing called "freedom" which had terrified him for eight hundred years.

"The danger level of this guy..."

Imu’s voice dropped even lower: "Is completely incomparable to Rocks’ ancestor, Davy D. Jones."

Davy D. Jones—that was another legend.

But at this moment, in Imu’s eyes, the danger level of that youth surpassed Jones.

Because what Jones pursued was power, conquest, and domination.

While what that youth pursued was liberation.

It was allowing everyone to laugh freely. It was breaking all restraints, all shackles, all unreasonable orders.

An existence like that was the true threat to the World Government. That was his true nightmare.

Imu’s hand slowly clenched. He wanted to do something. He wanted to stop it.

He wanted to kill that youth, just like he had killed Joy Boy eight hundred years ago.

But he could not.

That light screen—he could not interfere with it. That youth—he could not touch.

He could only watch. Watch that figure which was exactly like Joy Boy laughing, fighting, and awakening within the light screen!

Within the light screen.

Luffy had finally played enough.

"Alright, time to get out!"

He stood firm inside Kaido’s body, took a deep breath, then his body instantly began to swell.

"gomu gomu no ...!"

His body rapidly grew larger like an inflating balloon, stretching Kaido’s dragon body until it looked like a round, rolling ball.

Kaido’s dragon scales were stretched open. His dragon body twisted into a bizarre shape, floating and drifting in midair.

"Wuu!"

Kaido let out a mournful wail. Right now he really did look like a balloon.

A blue balloon floating in midair...

Luffy swelled to the limit, then suddenly grabbed Kaido’s eyes and pushed with all his strength.

"Pop!"

He drilled out from within Kaido’s body, completely drenched, yet with that smug smile on his face like a mischievous child who had succeeded in his prank.

"Hehehe! I’m out!"

Kaido returned to his original form, so nauseated he kept sticking out his tongue: "You brat... cough cough... are too absurd... cough cough..."

Before he could finish, Kaido suddenly discovered that Luffy had actually used the breath in his mouth to fly toward the thunderclouds in the sky above!

Luffy was causing trouble again.

"Hm?"

Yamato happened to return to the dome at this moment. She raised her head and just happened to see the scene of Luffy being blown into the thunderclouds.

Momonosuke had also flown back. His massive dragon body hovered in midair, similarly looking up toward that thundercloud.

"Luffy he..."

Before Yamato could finish speaking, a voice came from within the thunderclouds.

That voice penetrated the cloud layer, penetrated the thunder, penetrated all obstacles, and clearly fell into the ears of the two.

"gomu gomu no..."

Yamato’s pupils suddenly contracted. Momonosuke’s dragon body violently shook. Kaido’s heart also trembled!

The three of them simultaneously raised their heads. They saw the thunderclouds being torn apart. A gigantic figure slowly emerged from within the clouds.

This was no longer the Luffy of before. At this moment, Luffy was a giant!

A true giant.

So enormous that he was in no way inferior even before Kaido. Luffy’s head nearly touched the higher cloud layer. His feet stepped upon the ruins of Onigashima, causing the entire island to tremble.

His clothes had also grown larger. His shoes had grown larger. His straw hat had grown larger. Everything had grown larger.

He had become as huge as a member of the giant race.

"Gi... Giant...!"

Yamato’s voice was trembling.

Momonosuke’s dragon body froze in midair. He looked at that giant, then looked at his own "massive" dragon body...

Suddenly he felt that he was so small. Truly so small.

"That is... Luffy?"

His voice trembled, as if confirming something.

Yamato did not answer him, because she too had been stunned by the scene before her.

Luffy lowered his head and looked at his own body. He looked at the now "smaller" Kaido. He looked at the samurai and pirates who looked like ants.

Then he smiled.

That smile appeared even more brilliant, even more dazzling, even more like a sun on his giantized face.

"Hehehe!"

His voice had also become enormous, echoing through the sky like thunder.

...