Boom!!!
After Torkoal, already mired in confusion, mishandled a Flamethrower and caused it to explode inside its own mouth, even a Pokémon famed for its stamina could no longer endure the prolonged torment. Its head swam, and it collapsed to the ground with a thud.
"How is it, Merry? You're okay, right?!"
Seeing that they had finally managed to wear down and defeat one of the opponent's Pokémon, a flash of delight appeared in Red's eyes.
After all, a level gap of more than ten was no small difference.
The fact that Little Merry could defeat the opponent was due not only to the boost from Dynamax, but even more so to proof of her extraordinary talent.
At only level 52, her stats were already enough to stand toe-to-toe with a Gym Leader's Pokémon in the sixties.
"As expected of you!"
After recalling Torkoal, Raihan let out an admiring sigh. Then, in the next moment, he sent out his second Pokémon.
A level 64 pure Dragon-type Goodra.
The battle continued.
Raihan displayed the fine qualities of a Gym Leader-level Trainer. His mood was not affected in the slightest by his recent loss, and he still shouted passionately:
"Goodra, use Draco Meteor!!!"
"Starting right away with such a powerful move, huh?"
Red raised an eyebrow.
After Dynamaxing, it was practically impossible for Merry to dodge such a wide-range attack.
On top of that, Dragon-type Pokémon had far greater resistance to status conditions than normal Pokémon, so using the same tactic again would not be very effective.
Fortunately...
Little Merry's methods were not limited to that alone!
As the sky filled with falling energy meteors that were just about to crash down on Merry below, Red suddenly shouted:
"Little Merry, change forms!!!"
"Understood!"
Little Merry answered softly.
In the next second, a mysterious bright white radiance, like the light of evolution, burst forth from her body, and her form began to transform.
In the blink of an eye, the giant ghostly little girl turned into an enormous warship hovering behind Red.
Ship spirit Little Merry transformation—Battleship Going Merry!
Boom!!!
The blazing meteor shower rained down like a curtain of fire, crackling against the outer hull of the Going Merry, while the scattering sparks blossomed like dazzling fireworks.
And yet...
When all the noise faded and the smoke cleared, Raihan instantly revealed a stunned expression, staring in disbelief at the practically unharmed Going Merry before him.
"Th-... What is going on!?" he asked in shock.
He was asking both why the Going Merry had taken almost no damage, and why a perfectly good ship spirit had suddenly transformed into the shape of a warship.
Though Pokémon came in all sorts of bizarre forms—even refrigerators and washing machines could become Pokémon—so a ship becoming one did not seem that strange...
Something like Little Merry still left him utterly astounded.
"Heh, sorry, but I can't answer that question either." Red spread his hands helplessly and smiled.
Because even he did not know why the system had designed Merry with two separate forms.
And in warship form, after undergoing multiple material upgrades, the Going Merry's outer defense was strong enough to withstand attacks at the level of a Seven Warlords of the Sea member without suffering the slightest damage.
A mere Goodra's Draco Meteor was nothing more than this!
"Go, Little Merry!"
"Let the people of this world witness just how vast the sea truly is!!!"
Bzzzt~!
The battleship Going Merry suddenly adjusted its bow, and from beneath the prow extended a long, rugged cannon barrel.
In an instant, dazzling lightning radiance burst from the deep black muzzle, rapidly expanding as an overwhelming light that seemed as though it would swallow all darkness in the world.
Raihan's eyes widened as he stared in astonishment at the gathering energy, not knowing what to do.
Dodge!?
What a joke!
In its Dynamax state, the Going Merry's cannon caliber already occupied nearly half the battlefield. No matter how they dodged, where could they possibly go?
Not to mention that mobility had always been Goodra's weak point.
"Goodra, use Protect!!!"
With no other option, Raihan finally gave the command in despair.
And in the next moment, that massive blast of energy instantly pierced through Goodra's body, pinning it hard against the ground without the slightest chance to struggle.
As expected, Raihan's Goodra failed to endure the baptism of artillery fire born from the technology of the Ancient Weapon, Pluton, and directly lost the ability to battle.
By now, the core power source inside the Going Merry had long since changed from Enel to the Mother Flame, capable of providing limitless energy.
Combined with the great cannon technology of the Ancient Weapon, Pluton, if not for the cannon barrel's materials not yet having reached their optimal state, Little Merry would already have been able to destroy an island with a single shot!
Even so, the current Going Merry's power was not to be underestimated.
A hull with peerless defensive capability, flexible movement across land, sea, and air, and artillery attacks that required some charging time but possessed terrifying power...
Red felt that even if the original Pluton were to reappear, it probably would not be much stronger than the Going Merry.
As for Enel, the Goro Goro no Mi user who had been hypnotized?
Cruel though it might be, once he lost his value, Red sent him directly to the Scientific Research Corps on the research island, where he continued to contribute to their projects and serve as a tool.
Perhaps only one day, when the Straw Hat Pirates no longer had any need for him at all, would his true release come.
Still... compared to all the Sky Island residents Enel had harmed and killed during his tyranny there, this punishment—which involved nothing but humiliation and no real physical suffering—was hardly anything at all.
Back on the battlefield, after Goodra's defeat, Raihan's expression finally changed slightly.
After that, he successively sent out Turtonator, the Fire- and Dragon-type; Flygon, the Ground- and Dragon-type; Ampharos, the Electric- and Dragon-type; and finally his ace, the Steel- and Dragon-type Duraludon.
Unfortunately, though these Pokémon were all incredibly powerful, they all shared one fatal weakness—
Their mobility was terrible!
And Red and Little Merry no longer bothered with any fancy tricks. They simply chose to blast every last one of them away with a single cannon shot.
Judging from their stat panels alone, each of them was far stronger than the Going Merry.
But inside Merry there was not only the energy and physique of a Pokémon, but also the pinnacle scientific power of the pirate world!
Amid one resounding cannon blast after another, the only fate awaiting those Pokémon was to fall unconscious in resentment.
This method was admittedly a bit shameless, but Red had not brought Merry here to train her battle experience anyway, so who cared?
And just like that, the mighty Raihan, strongest Dragon-type Gym Leader, was defeated by Red in such a manner.
A pity, though, that Gym Leaders did not hold the office of Elite Four. As a result, even though in other games they were essentially equivalent to members of the Elite Four, they still could not grant Red the achievement reward for defeating one.
Fortunately, Red no longer cared much for those achievement rewards.
"So next... it's the Champion challenge, right?"
Skipping over the plot dialogue that offered little value, Red lifted his gaze toward the figure seated at the center of the audience stands.
The Champion of the Galar region—Leon!
According to the effect of the achievement [We Are the Champions!], as long as he defeated Leon as well, he would afterward be able to carry three Pokémon with him at the same time, greatly increasing his leveling efficiency.
Only...
Amid the deafening cries of expectation from the surrounding audience, Red softly murmured:
"If I remember correctly..."
"The Eternatus event happens before the battle against Champion Leon."
"In other words, it's now!!!"
As though responding to Red's thoughts, the instant he lifted his head, the entire stadium suddenly shook violently.
And the sky, which had just been fairly clear, darkened in an instant.
A huge pink-and-purple energy vortex—the kind that only appeared during Dynamax—began forming in the sky, continuously gathering toward some place in Wyndon.
"What happened!?"
Now back in her ship spirit form, Little Merry immediately floated to Red's side and asked curiously.
Laboon also swished his tail and came to Red's other side, vigilantly watching the surroundings as if protecting him.
Knowing that this was merely one of those long plot animations, Red smiled slightly and reassured the two little ones beside him:
"Relax. It's just some cutscene CG, that's all."
"Oh~"
Though she had no idea what CG meant, from Red's tone it did not seem like anything important, and Little Merry immediately calmed down.
In the blink of an eye, the chaos settled.
And, following the iron rule that villains always had to personally explain the plot, the mayor of Wyndon successfully used the giant stadium screen to lay out the full story from beginning to end.
He even included suspiciously specific information about where they could find him.
And as expected, next Red and the others would need to go find the mayor, battle him, and then fight the summoned Eternatus before this section of the plot would be complete.
However...
"Forget it. Eternatus's event is about to begin. I'll wait until Luffy gets here before dealing with it."
Stretching lazily, Red—completely unlike the panicked audience in the venue—walked unhurriedly toward the stadium exit.
Just after this plot section ended, a new area would open up in the game.
Originally, it was the mandatory route to the mayor's location, but the place was filled with wild Pokémon above level 50.
It was practically perfect for leveling Merry and Laboon!
And level 50 Pokémon also had a pretty decent drop rate.
Once he burned through a batch of Poké Balls, he could both give Merry and Laboon more experience and gather some decent items and TMs at the same time.
Killing two birds with one stone!
...
...
For the next two days, Red kept taking Merry and Laboon around the Pokémon World to grind levels.
And the results of those two days were extremely fruitful.
Merry, who had originally been level 52, directly gained three levels under the stimulation of double experience and reached level 55.
It might not sound like much, but this was leveling speed after level 50.
To fill that bottomless experience bar three times in just two days was already incredibly fast.
Laboon's level also rose by one, reaching level 68.
Just like Merry, the increase in levels did not seem large, but the improvement in strength had already become quite obvious.
Because Vegapunk and his satellites were overseeing the Pokémon World's operation, there was no need for Red to do much there for the time being.
So Red had intended to use this opportunity to set everything else aside and wholeheartedly focus on improving his partners' strength.
However, just as that thought had arisen—and also on the third day since the launch of Pokémon World...
Not long after waking up, Red unexpectedly received a Den Den Mushi call from Moria, far away in Wano Country.
"What? Pluton has already been excavated!?"
"That's right!" Moria reported excitedly from the other side. "And we have to thank Lord Red for providing those detection robots and the clones of the Push-Push Fruit users. That's why the excavation of Pluton went so smoothly!"
"Pluton has now been successfully unearthed and is currently placed on the outskirts of the Flower Capital."
"Um... Lord Red, what do you think?"
The great Gecko Moria, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea who had once contended with Kaido over the seas, now wore an expression so obsequious it could not have been more obvious, looking at Red with pleading eyes.
Seeing this, Red smiled faintly and replied:
"Don't worry. Since I said I would compensate you for handing over Thriller Bark, I naturally won't go back on my word!"
"From this day onward, ownership of the Ancient Weapon belongs to you, Moria!!!"
"Thank you, Lord Red!!! Thank you, Lord Red!!!"
The more conflicted he had once been, the greater his joy now.
Previously, Moria had still harbored some resentment over inexplicably becoming subordinate to the Straw Hats. But now, he only wished he had been a member of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet ever since he first set sail!
It could only be said... karma always punished every stubborn mouth, and the law of "it smells so good" was an inescapable natural principle.
The Ancient Weapon, Pluton!
How many mighty figures in this world dreamed of obtaining such a weapon!?
Even in his wildest dreams, Moria had never imagined that one day he would become the new captain of this battleship.
At that moment, Red's voice sounded again:
"In a few days, I'll send some technical personnel over to help you study how to activate Pluton."
"With Dr. Vegapunk's Mother Flame, I imagine the hardest step has already been solved."
"But if you want to control Pluton, it'll probably be difficult with just you members of the Thriller Bark Pirates. Over the next little while, you'd better think carefully about whether..."
"You want to recruit some new crew members, or raise some zombies capable of operating Pluton."
"As for crew members, Lord Red needn't worry."
Hearing Red's reminder, Moria grinned.
"During this time, quite a few people from Wano who want to head out to sea have already come to me, asking to join our pirate crew."
"Even some of Kaido's former subordinates now intend to enter my service, hoping to deepen their ties with the Straw Hat Pirates."
"If it's just operating Pluton, it should be enough. And if not, I can always make some more zombies."
"Mhm." Red nodded. "If that's the case, then that's for the best."
"Zombies have too many drawbacks, and they're hard to cultivate."
"If you have enough manpower, then there won't be any problem."
"Alright then. I'll see you in Wano in a few days!"
"I shall await your good news, my lord!"
Moria answered humbly.
The call ended. Red finished the stretch he had only gotten halfway through, then looked up at the clear sky overhead. With a thought, he said within the spirit world to Merry and Laboon:
"Merry, Laboon, let's pause the leveling for two days~"
"The two of you, come with me to Wano one more time."
(End of Chapter)