"Brilliant~!"
After hearing Carina's idea, Moria first pondered it inwardly for a moment. Then, all at once, he let out a cry of admiration.
And the look he gave Carina became even brighter.
He had to admit, this new brain really was useful!
If he had let the few people in the Moonlight Pirates discuss this matter, who knew what Elbaf would have ended up becoming? Maybe some giant zombie gathering club, putting on a grand zombie-art exhibition for everyone under the Straw Hats.
But if they used Carina's method… then at the very least, this incident would definitely be handled beautifully enough to leave the whole world speechless!
As for those bastards in the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, he still had a lot of confidence in them.
No, he had to think of some way to make Carina stay with the Moonlight Pirates for good. People with brains like this were rare in the whole world!
Moria's thoughts quickly shifted onto Carina herself.
In this age where muscle-brained brutes flew all over the place and filled the world, any intelligent talent was a precious existence!
Once the plan of action was settled, Moria did not hesitate for long. He immediately made a call to Red.
…
…
Half an hour later.
In Wano Country, Red, who had just casually skimmed through the Grand Fleet captains' group chat, pursed his lips and hung up the call. Looking at the screen before him, he murmured softly,
"What's gotten into Moria? Why has he suddenly become so proactive?"
"But that works out just fine… When Pluton went to sea before, the media didn't manage to capture many meaningful photos. That really was a bit disappointing."
"It's been a long time since we stirred up any big news. Let's use Elbaf to liven up this world a little~"
"Otherwise, Morgans keeps using incidents from the virtual game as news every day. The World Economy News Paper is about to turn into a Pokémon game newspaper."
Red casually agreed to Moria's request.
For the current Red, these matters could not even be considered problems.
In fact, if it were not because he needed to nod in approval to avoid chaotic management and reckless behavior within the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, he truly wanted to delegate authority and let those guys make trouble on their own.
After all, for the current Straw Hat Pirates, whether they had Elbaf's support or not did not actually matter all that much.
The whole of Elbaf, aside from the imprisoned Loki, could not even put together an Admiral-level combatant. It had no influence on the world's overall balance.
He really had no idea how it had been rated as the "world's strongest nation."
Maybe the Giant Tribe really had once possessed quite a reputation in history.
However, since their purpose was to bring it under their command, bloodshed was certain to happen. The only question was how well Moria and the others could control the scale of it.
Making a group of giants who treated battle as their creed obediently listen was no easy task.
Even though Luffy's Nika form was already known to everyone, the Straw Hat Pirates had still never received a single letter from Elbaf.
To the Giant Tribe, rather than finding a "Sun God Nika" from outside, they would rather become the Sun God themselves.
How should he put it~
Red actually quite liked that kind of thinking—the idea that kings, nobles, generals, and ministers were not born as such.
That was why he handed the deputy command authority for this operation to Hajrudin as well, as a way of showing that he did not want Elbaf to suffer too much damage.
After that, he stopped paying attention to Elbaf and the Grand Fleet's affairs.
Just as stated before, he truly did not care about these matters at all anymore.
Compared to some warriors of Elbaf, what he wanted to test right now was Eternatus's power!
That was right.
Just a few days ago, he had finally waited until Luffy grew tired of playing Pokémon World and returned to real life.
Actually, Luffy had not really grown tired of Pokémon World. It was just that, thanks to Red cheating and giving him a divine starter Pokémon at the beginning, he had already obtained eight Gym Badges.
Unfortunately, as an internal member of the Straw Hat Pirates, and because he had cheated first, he did not have the qualifications to participate in the Indigo League.
Although the Pokémon World still had many places worth exploring, it no longer held much attraction for Luffy and the other Straw Hat Pirates.
Whoosh!
Red's figure suddenly flashed. He directly left the territory of Wano Country and arrived above an empty stretch of turbulent sea.
In the blink of an eye, Red transformed into a gigantic draconic Pokémon.
Only, although it was called draconic, Red's current appearance did not have much to do with the word "creature."
Compared to ordinary living beings, he currently looked more like a legendary silicon-based lifeform.
The main trunk of his entire body was formed from a mysterious deep-purple substance, connected together in the shape of rhombus-like crystalline structures.
A slender, toothed lower jaw, sharp three-clawed giant talons, and an overall body made up of little more than a single spine.
At this moment, Red was like an invader from beyond the stars, descending upon a world ruled by carbon-based lifeforms.
[Pokémon: Eternatus]
[Level: 70]
[Gender: None]
[Nature: Serious]
[Type: Poison, Dragon]
[Ability: Pressure]
[Moves: Poison Tail, Dragon Tail, Dynamax Cannon, Recover, Cosmic Power, Draco Meteor, Meteor Beam…]
[Base Stat Total: 1300]
[Special Ability: Eternamax]
…
[Pokémon: Eternamax Eternatus]
[Level: 70]
[Gender: None]
[Nature: Serious]
[Type: Poison, Dragon]
[Ability: Pressure]
[Moves: …]
[Base Stat Total: 1900]
The above was Eternatus's stat panel.
It could be said that this was the strongest stat panel Red had ever seen so far!!!
Of course, a base stat total of 1300 was indeed not low. It was even 100 points higher than Mewtwo's normal form.
But compared to Eternamax Eternatus, everything seemed so small and pitiful.
In fact, Red had already tried Eternatus's normal form once when he first obtained it.
Perhaps because he was human, when using the complete Eternatus template, he actually felt that it was not as easy to use as the Mewtwo template.
But when he saw that Eternamax Eternatus had a base stat total as high as 1900…
Even Red, who had already witnessed countless grand scenes, was still greatly startled.
Once stats reached a high enough level, every single point created a clear gap.
Let alone a base stat total as high as 1900.
In Eternatus form, Red already felt that one full-power strike from him could easily shatter Wano Country.
If he entered Eternamax form, who knew how terrifying it would become?
That was why Red had specially found a sea area far away from Wano Country.
The next moment, with a movement of his will, he activated Eternatus's Eternamax transformation.
In an instant, the originally clear sky abruptly darkened. Surging mysterious energy filled the entire sky, severely interfering with the surrounding seas.
A tremendous sound suddenly came from the heavens. A rift that seemed as though it would tear the whole sky apart appeared, radiating dazzling light like a gate of apocalypse, gathering all the energy between heaven and earth into it.
A massive pitch-black dragon, its entire body wreathed in deep-purple light, slowly emerged from within that rift.
"So… this is the power of Eternamax?!"
The giant dragon suddenly spoke, letting out a voice that seemed to come from ancient eternity.
At this moment, Red could clearly feel that even if he moved his body only slightly, he could instantly create a world-shaking wave in this sea area.
The Tremor-Tremor Fruit? The Nika Fruit?
Red only felt that, at this moment, he was the strongest existence under heaven!!!
Of course, the consumption required by such great power was also astonishing.
The electricity Red had accumulated over a long period was currently plummeting at a frantic speed.
Fortunately, during this recent period, all the Straw Hats had been immersed in Pokémon World. Even when bringing Laboon and Merry along to level up, they would not spend too much time each day, so he had accumulated quite a bit of electricity.
With this electricity, fighting an evenly matched battle in the form of Eternamax Eternatus was almost impossible.
But if he was only doing some simple tests, then it was more than enough.
With a thought, the enormous mysterious dragon shot into the sky, instantly crossing the atmosphere and entering outer space at extreme speed.
He looked at the boundless dark world and the sparse starlight that seemed dotted across black cloth.
For some reason, Red suddenly had a feeling…
Only mysterious places like this were truly worthy of being called regions for him to adventure through.
"Honestly~ I couldn't have been assimilated by Luffy, could I? How could I have thoughts like this?!"
"An adventurous spirit or whatever doesn't suit my steady character setting!"
Red gave an amused sigh inwardly.
In the next instant, his giant dragon body shot out like a spring, twisting continuously like a water snake.
Everywhere Red's body passed, countless cosmic meteorites were instantly reduced to dust and scattered in all directions.
In the blink of an eye, Red arrived on the planet closest to the pirate world—the moon.
The moment he entered the moon's shadowed layer, Red could not help gaining an intuitive understanding in his heart.
"As expected! If my senses aren't wrong, then a full-power strike from me in this state should be able to destroy the entire moon with ease!"
"Good thing I'm not King Piccolo, nor am I Jackie Chun from the martial arts tournament…"
"Moon, your little life is safe!"
Moon: I have an 8 a.m. class!
Whoosh~
The giant dragon landed, smashing a deep crater into the moon, where gravity was not particularly obvious. Dust and smoke billowed out, surging in all directions as though they were about to cover the whole moon.
But immediately afterward, the massive figure that caused all of this disappeared.
A young figure flashed out from within the smoke.
"This speed is much faster than Luffy's Nika power."
"It's rare to come to the moon. I might as well take a look and see whether there really are ruins of those little robots here."
"If the ruins exist, then that would basically prove that the Shandia and Sky Island people, and even the Lunarian race that once lived on the Red Line…"
"Should all be descendants of moon people."
Vast mental power poured out of Red's body like a tide, exploring the entire moon.
The moon of the pirate world was not particularly large, and it was also closer to the pirate world's home planet, so it looked roughly the same size from the ground.
But no matter how small it was, it was still a planet. Even with Red's current mental power, covering the whole thing was still somewhat difficult.
But it did not matter.
Red's figure suddenly blurred, and he abruptly entered Mewtwo Y form, obtaining the support of Psychic-type Mewtwo's power.
With powerful mental power filling him, a pink ripple suddenly flashed through Red's eyes.
And the full appearance of the entire planet appeared in his consciousness as expected.
"Found it!"
"It actually exists!"
Red withdrew from the Legendary Pokémon template, and a look of astonishment flashed through his eyes.
After all, whether the cover stories counted as official One Piece plot had always been a rather tangled question.
Because things were too vague, Red had always held some expectations toward the moon that appeared in the cover story.
He had not expected that he would actually find mysterious ruins on the moon!
And this also meant that the Space Pirates who once appeared in the cover story might also truly exist!
Thinking of this, Red immediately raised one hand and summoned a Hyperspace Hole.
With one step, his body appeared in the ruins zone thousands of miles away.
Only, compared to the ruins shown in the cover story, this place was slightly different.
The ruins area at this moment had already been destroyed beyond recognition. Huge craters were everywhere.
Judging from the scorched earth around the edges of the craters, these holes should all have been caused by massive explosions.
And when Red looked inside the ruins, all he saw was an empty, devastated area.
The little robot soldiers that should have appeared in the ruins had all vanished.
"So… because Enel never came here, this place was looted by the Space Pirates?"
"What a pity~ At that point in time, we still hadn't reached the moon or obtained the power to explore the stars…"
"Otherwise, we could have taken the chance to make early contact with cosmic forces."
Red shook his head with some regret, but his steps did not stop as he walked into the ruins.
After casually summoning an orb of energy to illuminate the entire ruin, he began reading the murals on the walls.
It was truly hard to imagine that a civilization without even widespread written records could create robot warriors with autonomous consciousness.
But when he thought about the Sky Island people who relied on dials for their lives, the Shandia who were still in a primitive tribal society, and the Lunarian race who had not revealed much but probably were not much better either…
All he could say was that it was unscientific, but very One Piece.
And this technology for manufacturing little robots immediately made Red connect it to that mysterious ancient robot, Emeth, still lying in the Pokémon Sea.
"Could it be that Joy Boy from eight hundred years ago also obtained mysterious technological support from the moon?"
"Was that why he came up with the idea of connecting the world into one?"
Red pondered silently, but he had no way of knowing the history that existed eight hundred years ago.
All he could say was that this really was an anime world. Otherwise, before impending destruction, pulling off this kind of reckless operation instead of writing multiple copies of important historical content and distributing them across the world…
Unless there had been a prophecy foretelling that the world's fate followed a fixed trajectory, he really could not see any desire to win from Joy Boy eight hundred years ago.
What the hell was he doing?
Since he was afraid they would be destroyed and even made Poneglyph stone tablets, did he not know to write something useful on the tablets?
(End of Chapter)