"YES, SIR!"
Lieutenant Spacey snapped into a salute.
Perhaps it was because of his identity setting as a soldier, but he forcibly pulled himself out of his sorrow and saluted Red once more.
"Was it because the electric shock I released restarted him? So he subconsciously recognized me as his commanding officer?"
Seeing that Lieutenant Spacey was truly so obedient, Red immediately began pondering it.
"Come to think of it, in Enel's cover story, after he used electricity to activate all those little robots, they all seemed to start obeying his commands too, as if they had no concept of civilization or race."
"Could this also be a unique setting of these robots?"
Red thoughtfully looked toward the three little robot figures in the distance. Then blue electricity once again burst from his fingertips, striking the three bodies lying on the ground not far away.
With the replenishment of electrical energy, the other three figures quickly stood up as well, confusedly surveying the battlefield around them.
Only after they noticed Lieutenant Spacey beside Red did they seem to find their organization. They quickly trotted over and, just like Lieutenant Spacey, saluted Red.
Seeing his comrades actually come back to life, a flash of immense surprise suddenly crossed Lieutenant Spacey's eyes.
At the same time, however, this also made his attitude toward Red even more respectful.
Clearly, although these little robots possessed normal human emotions, there were still certain problems with their logic.
Perhaps it was because the human aspect within their consciousness was too strong, causing it to be out of sync with their robotic bodies.
"Lieutenant Spacey, tell me what you experienced after coming to the moon."
"Reporting, sir!" Lieutenant Spacey stood ramrod straight. After his companions returned, the grief on his face vanished instantly, replaced by the bearing of a solemn soldier as he answered, "In order to avenge Dr. Tsukimi, we found the culprits who created the massive explosion on the moon. They said they were a group of Space Pirates who had come here to search for lunar ruins that existed in history."
"Wait, wait, wait…"
Red suddenly interrupted Lieutenant Spacey's report and asked curiously,
"You're saying that group of Space Pirates spoke in a language you could understand, and they could understand what you said too?"
"Yes, sir," Lieutenant Spacey answered immediately without the slightest hesitation.
But when Red heard this, he fell into thought.
Cosmic life-forms being able to understand the language of Blue Planet was a rather thought-provoking matter.
From the perspective of an anime world, there truly was nothing strange about it. Perhaps, just like the existence of Devil Fruits and Haki in this world, it was simply one of this world's natural laws.
After all, the entire One Piece world spoke the same language. It would not be impossible for the whole universe to have a unified language too.
But if that was not the case, then either that group of Space Pirates possessed portable translation devices, or they had the ability to instantly acquire the language of whoever they were speaking to…
Or else, they themselves came from Blue Planet, or Blue Planet originally came from space?
This made Red think of many conspiracy theories from his previous life.
For example, the idea that Earth was merely the testing ground of some higher-dimensional being, which was why a creature like humanity could be born in such a short span of time.
If the One Piece world itself had connections to cosmic forces, that would explain why such a small planet could give birth to so many complicated races and life-forms at the same time.
"Damn it, I'm about to grow a brain!"
Even Red, who served as the Straw Hat crew's strategist, could not help feeling a headache at this moment.
After all, a large part of his intelligence came from his understanding of the One Piece world. Once things touched on information that had never appeared in the plot, even he could not help feeling troubled.
Temporarily setting aside his conjectures about the One Piece world, Red had Lieutenant Spacey continue his report.
And Lieutenant Spacey and the others' experiences were more or less as Red had guessed.
Because they had lost far too quickly, they had not even managed to scout out what abilities that group of Space Pirates possessed.
At most, they described to Red the Space Pirates' numbers, scale, and appearances.
"Still no useful information, huh…"
However, just as Red was feeling disappointed in this trip to the moon, one of the robots standing behind Lieutenant Spacey suddenly stepped forward and shouted,
"Reporting, sir!"
"I may have the information you need."
"Hm?"
Red raised his head in surprise and looked at that little robot.
Although Lieutenant Spacey and the other three robots all had identical faces, they could still be distinguished somewhat by the different clothing they wore.
Aside from Lieutenant Spacey, who looked like an American soldier from World War II, the other three little robots were respectively dressed as a samurai from the Warring States period, a medieval European knight, and a sharp, black-hooded agent-spy who seemed to have come from the German military.
And the one who had taken the initiative to speak now was precisely the last little robot, the one who looked the sharpest.
"What intel do you have?" Red looked at him with a bit of anticipation.
And that little robot lived up to expectations. He took out a tiny needle-point test tube from his chest. Inside the test tube was a full measure of bright red blood.
"This is?"
At that moment, Red felt as if a ray of light had suddenly pierced the darkness in his mind, but he did not immediately realize where that flash of inspiration had come from.
Instead, the agent little robot spoke first.
"This is blood I extracted from the enemy through a sneak attack during the battle!"
"If we can use this blood to make a Vivre Card, perhaps we can find that group of Space Pirates' whereabouts!!!"
Whoosh!!!
The blood in the agent little robot's hand suddenly disappeared and appeared directly in Red's palm.
Stars shone in Red's eyes. He carefully examined the blood inside, then directly used Psychic Power to create a crystalline barrier, protecting the tiny test tube.
Whether the blood of Space Pirates could be used to create a Vivre Card through the technology of the One Piece world or not, and whether a Vivre Card would remain effective once the distance exceeded a certain limit or not…
No matter what, this was their best chance yet to make contact with cosmic forces!
If Luffy learned about this, he might not even want to become the Pirate King anymore.
Through his repeated training in the Pokémon game world, Luffy had also absorbed a portion of more advanced knowledge. After learning how vast the sea of stars truly was, how could he possibly turn back and care about tiny Blue Planet, a mere corner of the universe?
Lord of a planet? Holder of authority!?
Not even a dog would want that!
He was… the man who would become the King of the Star Sea!!!
Of course, all of the above was merely Red's own imagination, but Luffy's current state was indeed showing signs of such a direction.
Even his old favorite slogan, "I'm the man who will become the Pirate King," had not been heard among the Straw Hats for some time now.
Solemnly putting away the Space Pirates' blood, Red once again lowered his head and looked at the four little robots.
But at this moment, no matter how he looked at them, he felt that these little fellows were incredibly adorable.
Reward them!
Reward them handsomely!
If this blood could really be used to create a useful Vivre Card, then these little guys would have rendered an extraordinary service.
Even if there was something wrong with the Vivre Card that was made, this blood alone would allow Red and the others to learn more about cosmic life-forms.
His thoughts flashing, Red's face suddenly bloomed into a friendly smile. He smiled at the four little fellows and said,
"You guys… have you heard about infinite energy?"
…
…
Boom!!!
With a cloud of dust billowing into the sky, the land of Wano Country suddenly shook violently.
Whoosh—
A mysterious gale suddenly rose, scattering all the spreading smoke and dust.
Red, who had returned from his Eternatus form, took the four little robots with him and, without the slightest pause, instantly entered Hyperspace Hole.
When they appeared again, they had already arrived on the deck of the Going Merry.
"Huh… Red!?"
The moment he appeared, Usopp, who was doing something on the deck, immediately noticed him.
Strangely enough…
Whether it was Luffy, Zoro, or the others, their Observation Haki almost seemed to have a switch. It only worked when they were using it and on guard.
At most, during ordinary times, they could sense killing intent and hostility.
Only Usopp was different. Perhaps because he was too cowardly and constantly vigilant, or perhaps for some other reason, his Observation Haki was able to remain constantly active—even while sleeping.
This could not really be considered an advantage, since this state placed no small burden on Usopp's mental condition.
But at least judging from the current state of the One Piece world, there were almost no people who could successfully sneak attack Usopp.
First, their movement speed would have to exceed Usopp's reaction speed by several times or more before they could possibly form an effective sneak attack.
"Usopp—hm!?"
Red casually greeted him.
But in the next second, his gaze suddenly froze. He looked at the little fellow beneath Usopp, then widened his eyes in astonishment.
"Cat… Caterpie!?"
"Huh? Hahaha, as expected, even you find it unbelievable, right!?"
Usopp seemed to have long since expected Red to react this way and had prepared his laughter in advance.
Then he reached out with a beckoning gesture. The Caterpie below obediently spat out a strand of silk, wrapped it around Usopp's arm, and landed directly on his shoulder.
"No, wait… what is going on here!?"
"I was only away for… half a day in total, right?"
Red raised his head and looked at the sky. He had left the Going Merry fairly early in the morning, and after leaving, he had entered space within just a few minutes.
Aside from wasting some time sailing through space, he had barely stopped at all.
Now the sun had only just begun to set.
How had Usopp gotten a Pokémon after he went to the moon and came back?
Did I land on the wrong planet?
For a moment, the excitement Red had felt at the prospect of exploring space was suppressed quite a bit.
With a face full of doubt, he asked Usopp, "What is going on?"
"Ahaha~" Usopp continued laughing sheepishly, then explained, "Actually, this is just a little experiment of mine~"
"I've been pretty bored these past few days, right? Then inspiration suddenly struck me. Since willpower can condense into fruit and turn ordinary fruit into Devil Fruits…"
"And Zoan Devil Fruits can make the eater transform into the corresponding animal."
"So I was wondering whether we could skip the Devil Fruit step and directly inject willpower into a living creature. I wanted to see what would happen."
"This morning, not long after you left, I went to look for Pythagoras and brought up this idea."
"Pythagoras seemed very interested in it too, so he took out some of the willpower currently accumulated and injected it into an insect…"
"Then the original bug turned into what you see now~"
Usopp pointed at the Caterpie on his shoulder.
Although it had the appearance of a Pokémon, it did not seem to possess intelligence like a Pokémon. Instead, it remained like an ordinary insect, enjoying the Bug-type energy radiating from Usopp's body and greedily absorbing it.
"So… with a sudden flash of inspiration, you actually created Pokémon in this world!?"
"What are you, Arceus reincarnated!?"
"Uh…" Usopp, who understood Pokémon well enough, naturally heard the teasing in Red's words. He awkwardly scratched his cheek.
"Actually, it can't really be considered a complete Pokémon~"
"Because we just tested it at Pythagoras's place. This Caterpie's current state is just like those guys who ate artificial Devil Fruits. It can only maintain its current appearance and can't return to its original form."
"But Pythagoras also said that the advantage of this is that it can successfully bypass the rule that only one user of the same Devil Fruit ability can exist."
"In other words, if time allows, he could even create an entire Caterpie population."
"Ah, this…" A sharp glint flashed in Red's eyes. "Isn't that perfect!?"
Usopp suddenly grinned. "That's what I think too!"
But immediately afterward, he continued,
"However, Pythagoras also said that the reason this Caterpie succeeded was thanks to how weak and common it is."
"Because Viridian Forest can be considered one of the most deeply memorable locations for all Pokémon World players, and Caterpie is very weak. Almost every newbie player captures one to raise…"
"So the willpower related to Caterpie is relatively abundant among the types that have condensed."
"But even so, condensing this Caterpie consumed more than half of the Caterpie willpower."
"If we want to create more Pokémon, we'll need more players to enter Pokémon World."
"That's easy enough!"
Red's eyes flickered.
He had not expected that the Pokémon Fruit he had been anticipating would appear in this kind of form.
But directly creating Pokémon and creating Pokémon Fruits did not conflict with each other.
After all, the real world had no Trainers, nor did it have the Pokémon world's rule where losing the ability to battle did not mean death…
So Pokémon appearing in reality could at most pleasantly surprise Red.
But what could truly bring power, and even help them enter space, still had to be the Pokémon Fruits he was looking forward to the most!
Of course, it should be perfectly normal for the virtual online game Pokémon World to sell some Pokémon as peripheral merchandise, right!?
Looking at the little fellow on Usopp's shoulder, Red seemed to see an entirely new trade route!
(End of Chapter)