The world's best-selling manga has turned itself into a real-world treasure hunt. To mark the moment One Piece crossed 600 million copies in circulation, creator Eiichiro Oda did something unprecedented: he wrote down the answer to the question that has driven the series for nearly three decades.
On 8 February 2026, Oda sat in his studio and committed the secret to paper. He then tore the page in half. One fragment, containing the complete truth, was sealed inside a specially designed treasure chest, placed in a pressure-resistant glass sphere, and dropped into the ocean.
The sphere now rests 651 metres below sea level at an undisclosed location. The Reddit community wasted no time investigating the official video that documented the drop. Using clues visible in the footage, fans geolocalised the boat's position within 12 hours. One user pinpointed the drop site as Suruga Bay in Shizuoka, analysing everything from the Japanese coast guard vessel's appearance to the position of the sun in the sky.
Oda had assistance from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, the same outfit that operates deep-sea research vessels. The location coordinates are now public knowledge. The question is whether anyone can actually retrieve what lies below.
The depth presents a formidable barrier. For context, the deepest scuba dive on record reached 332 metres in 2014. At 651 metres, the pressure alone would crush standard diving equipment. Fans posting on social media have already calculated the cost of a professional recovery effort: roughly 15 million yen per day, or approximately 82,000 euros, accounting for vessel charter and submersible fees.
Internet streamer IShowSpeed has publicly committed to launching a recovery expedition and livestreaming the attempt. Other influencers have similarly signalled their intent to pursue the treasure. Whether any of these attempts will materialise remains unclear; the financial and logistical barriers are substantial. So too is the risk of spoiling the manga's ending for the entire fanbase if someone retrieves the capsule before Oda publishes the series' conclusion.
The central mystery of One Piece concerns the nature of the legendary treasure left behind by the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger. Oda has confirmed that the treasure is real, not metaphorical, and that he determined its identity from the very beginning of the manga in 1997. For 29 years, that secret existed only in the creator's mind. Now it sits on the ocean floor.
The capsule will not be opened until the manga ends. Oda has not announced a timeline for that conclusion, though the series is currently in its final arc. The arrangement transforms a commercial milestone into something stranger: a genuine mystery with physical stakes. Fans cannot simply wait for the manga's ending; someone might find the answer first. Or they might not find it at all.