Everyone was a little confused. They looked at the crazed man and compared him with the corpse. To their shock, the two had the exact same wrinkles on their skin.
In other words, it was just one person!
"How can this be?!"
Gaban's eyes widened in disbelief.
Two identical people—one lying on the ground as a corpse, the other still alive but laying there as well.
"Could they be twins?" Rayleigh asked cautiously.
Marco seemed to realize something terrifying, and his face grew grim: "Have you ever seen a pirate crew made entirely of twins?"
No one responded at first, but Larson seemed deep in thought.
Marco looked at the corpses on the ground, his expression bitter: "When I came back, I saw a lot of bodies. They were identical to these people. Even their clothes and weapons were the same."
"Hiss…"
Gaban took a sharp breath. "What's going on here?"
Everyone's eyes shifted to Larson. Every time they faced something incomprehensible, Larson always seemed to have an answer.
Larson didn't speak. Instead, he silently picked up the corpse and threw it in front of the crazed man, observing the man's reaction.
The man, lying there like a madman, was startled upon seeing the body. His face filled with disbelief: "No... no, this isn't true… this can't be real… How could I be dead…? I'm clearly alive and well…"
But then, he suddenly paused. He stared blankly at his fingers as they began to disintegrate into dust, gradually dissipating—from his fingers to his palm, then slowly up to his wrist.
The man's eyes cleared, and a tear rolled down his face. "So… I really am dead…"
He raised his head, looked at Larson, and whispered with a trembling voice, his smile uglier than crying: "Though it may be an excessive request… if you could… please bury my body."
And with that, under everyone's gaze, the man slowly turned to dust and completely disappeared.
The air was eerily quiet. No one seemed shocked by what they had just witnessed.
"What in the world is going on?" Gaban repeated for what felt like the hundredth time today.
Larson, standing at the front, sighed helplessly and closed his eyes.
"Marco."
"Yes!"
"Go bury him."
"Understood!"
Even though Larson was the one who had earlier ordered them killed, it didn't stop him from fulfilling this man's final request.
Marco knelt beside the body, deep in thought. Whitebeard and Rayleigh, standing a little distance away, didn't disturb him.
At that moment, Larson had much on his mind.
From the beasts they had first encountered, beasts that couldn't be killed, to the people slain by those beasts, and now this pirate who inexplicably came back from the dead—
All of it seemed connected by some invisible thread.
Larson closed his eyes, trying to grasp it.
Yerug Island, the beasts, immortality, resurrection…
Suddenly, Larson's eyes snapped open, and he stared at the body Marco was preparing to bury: "I've figured it out!"
Marco was startled, frozen midway between laying the body down and lifting it up again. He stared at Larson, unsure of what to do.
In the end, he cautiously asked, "So… should I still bury him?"
"Bury him!" Larson confirmed firmly.
Marco exhaled in relief and continued with his task.
"Larson, what did you realize?"
Rayleigh, Whitebeard, and the others gathered around, curious.
Larson excitedly pulled everyone into a seated circle, eager to share his discovery.
"I've uncovered the secret of this island!"
Roger, Whitebeard, and the others exchanged stunned looks. Could Larson have truly figured out Yerug Island's mystery in such a short time? What was the truth behind this island and its inhabitants?
"Tell us already!" Gaban urged, impatient.
"Hey, no rush."
Larson slowly picked up a dead branch from the ground and drew a large circle in the dirt.
Pointing to the circle, he said, "This is Yerug Island, where we currently stand."
Everyone nodded, indicating they understood, allowing Larson to continue.
Larson then drew a circle inside the outer edge of the first one: "This is the perimeter of Yerug Island, where we first landed."
This time, Larson didn't wait for them to respond and continued speaking.
"We also encountered those beasts in this area."
He then drew another circle inside the first: "And now, we're here. We've left the island's outer edge and reached its deeper region, but we're still not at its core. I call this part the island's formal area."
Now came the crucial point. Larson took a deep breath, lowering his gaze to the outermost circle: "Those unkillable beasts we encountered earlier—did any of you notice something strange about them?"
He looked up at the group, but most of their faces showed confusion.
Sighing, Larson decided to explain further: "Haven't you noticed that ever since we entered this area, we haven't encountered a single wild beast?"
Suddenly, everyone's eyes lit up with realization.
Gaban frowned in thought: "That… does seem to be true!"
The others were similarly struck, now realizing that the beasts they had fought earlier seemed to have vanished once they'd reached this part of the island.
Larson continued: "The corpses we saw earlier were all killed on the outermost edge of the forest, and their injuries show that they were all attacked by those wild beasts. But here, in this inner area, the people we've encountered have come back to life!"
Larson narrowed his eyes: "You all saw what happened just now—the man turned to dust the moment he saw his own body. His corpse was at the island's edge, but he himself was here, in this deeper area.
And he didn't remember anything about what had happened to him. But when I casually mentioned it, it was like he lost his mind—as if it's a forbidden subject, something they can't bear to acknowledge."