Chapter 35

But in this world, how would civilization react to sea monsters, superpowers, and the lack of communication between communities?

How would these people respond to the only stabilizing force they perceived in their world?

Bill found the answer. On small islands like Vallipo, people revered the government.

Rance's father was the town sheriff, and their family was well-off, but after explaining what Trapano offered, the family wasn't just willing to send their son—they were proud of it.

From their perspective, the Marines didn't just make Vallipo a prosperous island. The Fleet literally connected the entire ocean. The World Government was the only source of stability in this archipelago world.

Reflecting on this, Bill knew his own Earth history. Large bureaucracies were never efficient. While Vallipo was a well-managed economy, there were surely less successful ones. When he went out to sea, he would see how well this giant managed.

Exhaling slowly, Bill cleared his mind of thoughts.

"In nature, from the hair on your head to the vital organs and down to your fingertips, there is not a single part that cannot be controlled with consciousness," Trapano had told him.

He continued to explain that the Return of Life is enlightenment achieved through perceiving the body as an extension of consciousness. Essentially, they were one.

As far as Trapano knew, there existed only two ways to train to achieve this.

One way was to find oneself in a life-and-death situation. In such circumstances, the instinct for self-preservation might align with a conscious connection to reality. People who achieved enlightenment in this way often used a capability similar to Return of Life, albeit unconsciously.

The other method was to reach enlightenment through meditation and the loss of ego. In this state, without the ego, the body and spirit became a unified whole. That was the essence of the Return of Life.

Once this state was achieved, traditional concepts of strength became relative, as controlling the entire body allowed a person to strengthen every particle of their being and blood.

Additionally, Trapano told Bill about willpower and how it manifested during the process of enlightenment.

When Bill delved into this topic, which was so similar to what Miss Angie had spoken about in the past, Trapano simply shook his head and said that, for him and most others, the manifestation of will was not something that could be easily summoned.

However, he mentioned that for beings like the Commodore, it was possible.

As Trapano explained this, Bill started to differentiate between the word he knew as "will," used to describe a person's drive for success, and "Haki," which seemed to describe a person's spiritual influence on the world around them.

After all, Haki was not simply a person's desire to complete a difficult task, and will was not the physical manifestation of a person's will onto the external world.

Thus, in his mind, Bill separated these concepts. When he did this, many things began to make sense.

There was also the matter of his "Meditative Push-Ups." According to Trapano, the technique was useful but significantly inferior to the Return of Life. It was something he had developed to help Marine recruits better understand their bodies. As Trapano explained, most people would never be able to suppress their ego for long enough to achieve the Return of Life. This was especially true for children like Bill.

The ocean was dangerous, and those who practiced Meditative Push-Ups had a better chance of surviving their first encounter with danger.

Reflecting on the methods described by Trapano, Bill decided that the second method should be possible. After all, hadn't he died and been reborn? At some point, his ego must have disappeared, and if he could find that moment, he could master the Return of Life.

Sitting in meditation, Bill gradually cleared his mind. During the years when he was an infant, he learned to quickly enter a meditative state. Back then, thoughts appeared from nowhere, and he tried to understand them.

Now, he aimed to go even deeper. To a place where even random thoughts couldn't reach him.

As he delved into meditation, his perceptions and assumptions faded away...

First, the external world—it was a realm of dreams.

Then, the sense of awareness vanished. He returned to a state he had experienced many years ago.

The third to disappear was his sense of self. Time vanished along with it.

And he went further.

The fourth formed an unconscious mental landscape—was it real? Bill couldn't think; in this place, he had only... impulses. In this space, he could see, although there was no light. He could feel, but he did not think.

The fifth was a contradiction. He looked ahead without eyes, striving to return but was compelled to look forward.

The sixth—in dim obscurity, it glanced back.

HUUUUNNN COUGH COUGH COUGH

Coming back to reality, Bill inhaled so deeply that it triggered a coughing fit. Overwhelmed by everything happening, the boy lay on the ground next to his bed, gasping from exhaustion and fear.