Actually, the way to solve the problem was not as aimless and clueless as a headless fly.
With his fused memories, Eleco knew the exact year and date of his current whereabouts as clearly as a mirror—it was June 26, 1517 of the Circular Calendar.
Recalling just last month, major newspapers had swarmed with reports of major news regarding a rookie in the pirate world: that pirate possessing the ability of the Logia Mera Mera No Mi, known by the moniker "Hiken" Ace, had burst onto the scene like a comet!
I must say, the timing of his transmigration was a match made in heaven, undoubtedly providing him with an extremely vast margin for maneuver.
Look at this moment, Trafalgar Law, the user of the Ope Ope No Mi who was still quietly building up his strength in the North Blue, was like a bright pearl hidden in the darkness.
Bartholomew Kuma, the Revolutionary Army member running about everywhere and bitterly searching for a cure for his beloved daughter's Blue Scaled Jade disease, was just like a traveler desperately looking for an oasis in the desert.
And there was also the dwarf princess Mansherry, who possessed the healing power of the Chiyu Chiyu No Mi and was tightly grasped in the palm of Doflamingo... The unique abilities of these figures might perhaps be helpful to Eleco, who was in a tight spot at the moment, acting like a bright lamp in the dark to guide him forward.
If all the above avenues failed, there was no need to worry excessively either.
After all, in the land of the North Blue, the cloning technology and Lineage Factor modification technology controlled by the infamous Germa 66 were also a viable path, seeming like a mysterious passage leading to hope.
If magical methods such as memory transfer or soul swapping could be successfully employed, then prolonging life would no longer be an unreachable dream for Eleco, but a reality close at hand.
If none of the above technologies worked, it meant that Eleco had to move quickly like an arrow on the bowstring, using the resources in his hands to obtain Perona's blood and utilize Vegapunk's Green Blood technology to replicate her ability.
After that, he would just become a ghost.
Speaking of which, Perona's ability was truly bugged; if she weren't timid and easily fooled, Luffy and the others would probably have been done for long ago.
In a soul state, Perona belonged to a category where others couldn't touch her, yet she could touch things at will.
She might fear Big Mom's Devil Fruit ability in terms of the soul, but the offensive skills she developed were genuinely good.
There was both psychological damage and physical explosive damage.
Therefore, this fruit was truly very suitable for Eleco, who might become a vegetative person in the future.
"There will definitely be a way! Even though the genius scientist Vegapunk asserted that besides memory transfer no other viable means could be found, I firmly believe that we will definitely find a way to solve the problem, just like finding an exit of light in the darkness."
Stephie said in her rare, gentle tone, while tightly holding Eleco's hands, attempting to give him a trace of warmth and comfort.
You must know that, relying on the soaring power of Eleco's parents, Eleco had once had the good fortune to receive a personal diagnosis from Vegapunk, a legendary figure in the scientific world of the King of the Pirates world.
However, even this titan of the scientific world had only one countermeasure left when facing the chronic illness afflicting Eleco.
At that time, Vegapunk had suggested that advanced cloning technology could be utilized to clone a healthy original body, and then through the method of memory transfer, the original body's life could be prolonged.
Regrettably, however, the original body had unexpectedly refused this proposal without the slightest hesitation.
As for the reasons behind this, outsiders could hardly know.
Perhaps the original body felt that after this operation, he would seem as though his soul had been extracted, no longer being the original, pure individual, and thus could no longer accept this approach no matter what.
However, for the transmigrator Eleco, who had now usurped the magpie's nest, the situation was completely the opposite.
He knew it as clearly as a mirror; as long as he could live, that was enough, and in fact, a solution still existed.
It was just that Vegapunk, for certain unspeakable reasons, was unwilling to make these methods known to the world.
For example, utilizing his unique Green Blood technology to replicate Perona's Lineage Factor, so that Eleco could possess the powerful ability of the Sube Sube No Mi.
Once this ability was successfully acquired, it might perhaps break the present deadlock and find the key method to cure his own illness.
"I don't want to die yet, Stephie, I suddenly don't want to die..."
"There will be a way, I will stay with you, Imperial Brother."
"I don't want to die yet... Stephie."
"Mm..."
"No, Stephie, listen to me, I seem to, I might have a way..."
"Mm, what?"
Looking at Eleco, who was able to speak calmly for once, Stephie also reined in her temper, not being as impatient as she usually was, and tried her best to choose silent companionship.
You must know that in the past, because Eleco's illness was becoming increasingly serious, Eleco's temper became more irritable day by day, and even those close to him rarely spent time with him.
"I had a dream, it should be a prophetic dream. In the dream I, we all died..."
"Did you have a nightmare?"
Seeing Eleco, who was usually overbearing and tyrannical, acting scared at this moment as if recalling something terrifying, Stephie guessed that he must have had some kind of nightmare.
"No, it's not, that's not..."
"Shall I sleep with Imperial Brother tonight?"
"I..."
Eleco knew that matters could not be rushed too much, or else things would flip over, so he ultimately chose to agree.
Accompanied by wave after wave of sleepiness washing over him, Eleco knew he was about to fall into a deep slumber.
Because his awakening this time relied entirely on the soul from another world, and he had woken up rather late to begin with, it wasn't yet his usual time point, yet today he was plunging into deep sleep once more.
Come to think of it, it's only past 3 PM now, right?
"Sleep, Imperial Brother, I will always accompany you..."
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, over half a month had passed. During this seemingly short period of time, Eleco had gradually grown accustomed to the waking moments that amounted to less than two hours a day.
Although these waking moments were fleeting, relying on his stubborn perseverance and determination, he had still accomplished many eye-catching things.
In the eyes of the original body's parents and his beloved wife Stephie, the current Eleco seemed to have rediscovered hope in life, radiating exuberant vitality.
And the facts were indeed as they saw them; thanks to his deep understanding and mastery of the original plot from his past life, Eleco had cleverly woven a thrilling prophetic nightmare.
This was what he told his family.
Every time he fell into a deep sleep due to illness, he would always step into a nightmare.
Facing his worried family members, Eleco said with a solemn expression: "I don't know what on earth is the reason, but ever since that day, whenever I fall ill and lose consciousness, I repeatedly have the same nightmare.
Although the nightmare keeps repeating, the ending of the nightmare is always him being crushed to death by a huge boulder.
Yet it never advances an inch further, always remaining stagnant at the terrifying moment when my life is taken by the boulder."
Then, he took a deep breath, lowered his voice, and continued: "What's even more terrifying is that I saw in my dream that on a certain day five years from now, a group of people would slaughter their way into that sacred Mary Geoise just like Fisher Tiger once did!
They will hoist the banner of liberating slaves and launch a crazy attack on those aloof Celestial Dragons with the force of a thunderbolt..."
Regardless of what kind of actions those Celestial Dragons might have committed in the past, those who attacked Mary Geoise always firmly believed that as long as one was a Celestial Dragon, the blood flowing in their veins was inevitably tainted with filth and sin.
During that illusory deduction of a dream, he at that time, after careful consideration, had ultimately given up on utilizing the method of cloning to transfer consciousness and receive treatment.
And so, he eventually turned into a vegetative person who could only lie on a hospital bed day after day without any sensation.
He seemed to be placed in a God's-eye perspective, coldly watching everything.
He witnessed that thrilling scene unfold: his parents died tragically in a sudden, massive explosion.
As for Stephie and the other elite Celestial Dragons, despite bravely stepping forward in an attempt to block the enemy's advance, they still could not escape their doom and lost their lives one after another.
As for his daughter Livina, she suffered even more wanton humiliation from the group of people who waved the banner of justice.
And what about himself? In the end, he did not escape unscathed either, being heavily pinned down by a huge boulder sent flying from the house collapsed by the explosion, thus ending his life.
(Note: Although Celestial Dragons indeed deserve to die, I myself do not think the Revolutionary Army are good people either; the revolution of the Revolutionary Army is not some true revolution, but a violent revolution, believing that it is enough just to overthrow the rule of the Celestial Dragons and the rule of kings. As those of us who have studied history know, such a revolution is not a revolution.)
Next, when he, standing at the God's-eye perspective, witnessed this series of tragic encounters, the scene before his eyes abruptly cut off.
Interestingly enough, the characters in those scenes unexpectedly and simultaneously had wispy, faint threads emerge from their bodies. These threads were like agile snakes, continuously intertwining and wrapping around each other in the air.
Being in the dream, an uncontrollable curiosity welled up in his heart.
And so, he subconsciously manipulated himself, cautiously reaching out his hand to touch those mysterious threads.
The moment his fingertips made gentle contact with the threads, he was astonished to discover that he could clearly peer into the past experiences of those people, just like flipping through living history books.
Because everything was too real, in order to verify the information, he selected one of them as a verification target, mobilizing the resources in his hands to continuously probe toward the direction of the North Blue.
Under his calculated guidance, the information of the Ope Ope No Mi user—Trafalgar Law—was exposed before his parents and Stephie like a dazzling pearl.
All of this was thanks to Buck, the son of Law's second benefactor, Wolf.
After Rosinante met a tragic end at the hands of Doflamingo, Law fainted in the ice and snow like a leaf in a withered wind during his escape, fortunately being rescued by an inventor named Wolf.
Later, it was also Wolf who meticulously crafted the Polar Tang for Law.
However, Wolf had a son who was a pirate named Buck. He was an extremely brutal pirate and also the user of the Paramecia Sabi Sabi No Mi.
He could not only quickly dissolve enemies' swords (rumor has it that this ability is superior to the Rust-Rust Fruit, and the Rust-Rust Fruit is precisely the Devil Fruit that rusted Zoro's precious sword), but could even dissolve intangible things, such as human hearts and thoughts, thereby achieving the goal of controlling others.
This was undoubtedly a Paramecia ability powerful enough to leave one tongue-tied.
Law, Wolf, Bepo, and the others exhausted all their strength and went through nine deaths and a lifetime before barely defeating this brutal fellow who had returned in defeat from the Grand Line.
Later, Law and his companions sent him into a large Marine prison in the North Blue.
What was astonishing was that after being arrested by the Marines, this fellow was not sent to Impel Down, but was instead imprisoned in the North Blue prison all along, becoming a benchmark used by the Marines to deter other pirates.
It was precisely because of this person that Eleco had the supreme opportunity to present the information; after all, during that fierce battle at the time, Law had inevitably exposed his ability.
You must know that Wolf's son Buck had numerous subordinates. Eleco only needed to skillfully deploy his network of connections to lean in that direction, and crucial information regarding finding the whereabouts of the Ope Ope No Mi user would arrive like snowflakes and be placed on their desk.
Then he repeatedly explained that this was the dream he had had that day, and that he was merely trying to verify whether it was a nightmare or a prophetic dream, since that dream was truly too real.
The result was that the sensational news that the Ope Ope No Mi user might appear on Swallow Island in the North Blue burst forth just as Eleco had anticipated.
This news was like a bolt from the blue, causing Eleco's parents and Stephie to begin attaching high importance to it.
If everything was true, then whether it was for curing Eleco's stubborn illness or for dispelling Eleco's mysterious and unpredictable prophetic dream, it appeared extremely crucial.
Immediately following that, Stephie wasted no time and personally embarked on the expedition to the North Blue.
In her own words, after all, that was the Ope Ope No Mi user, involving the coveted ability of eternal youth; the stakes involved were truly intertwined in a complex web, and she had to go personally to feel at ease.
Faced with such a deeply loving wife of his, what more could Eleco say? He could only hand over some key information about Law to her and devise strategies for her.
Of course, most importantly, the lie he had meticulously woven also officially kicked off from this moment onward...