Chapter 308: Moon Mission: The Undying Light Above the Sweets Sea

If you looked down from outer space at night, the entire Sweets Sea would look like a city that never sleeps.

Messages poured across the screen, flooding the whole livestream until nothing else was visible.

Perospero the Windmaster sent you a flower.

Katakuri the Cool Guy just gifted you a battleship.

Brûlée the Not-So-Sensitive sent you a little heart.

“……”

Karl, suave and dashing as ever, spoke up. “Alright folks, stop spamming the chat with random nonsense. One more and you’re getting kicked out.”

“Hurry up and explore the moon already! I want to see what’s really up there.”

The moment Karl’s big, bold red message appeared, everyone fell in line and the silly comments stopped cold.

All those flashy gifts disappeared and the screen cleared up instantly.

In the distance, a high-tech city shimmered in and out of view.

It’s wild to think—how did the Moonfolk advance this fast? Down here it’s still the age of muskets, but up there they’re crossing star systems for Earth-to-moon travel.

Ledfield shook his head with an exasperated grin. “Karl, my friend, your one statement cut my earnings in half. You owe me for this!”

“Otherwise, I might have to give you a hard time.”

With that thick stage makeup, Ledfield looked a bit like a western vampire from a comedy flick—almost exactly the way Yueyue played one.

Combine that with his deliberately gross antics, and Karl actually felt his stomach turn.

Now that’s taking ‘won’t bite you but sure will make you sick’ to a whole new level.

“If I’d known it’d turn out like this, maybe I should’ve held off on launching the makeup and streamer programs for a bit.”

“Enough small talk! Get exploring already. Don’t forget, this is your job.”

Ledfield stepped down from the Ark Maxim, facing the camera with a theatrical sigh. “Boss says work, so work it is.”

The video panned to a city buried halfway under the lunar soil.

It looked almost exactly like the alien bases you’d see in a sci-fi movie—except you could tell nobody had set foot inside for hundreds of years.

It was odd, though—why was there oxygen on the moon at all?

Is the One Piece World really so tiny? Maybe there’s actually no such thing as outer space.

But then again, last time we boarded the Heavenly King Uranus, it was pure vacuum. Maybe the moon and One Piece World are somehow connected, letting oxygen flow between them? Or maybe they were part of the same world all along.

Karl, ever the dashing leader, said, “If I remember right, this moon base is loaded with traps, so be careful.”

“Just imagine what I’ll say when you set one off.”

If memory serves, in one version of the story, Enel flew Ark Maxim to the moon and found some still-charged robots—then put together his robotic army.

After all, this was the alien base that built the Heavenly King Uranus—the ultimate weapon. If these robots can do that, you can bet they can fight.

These things were clearly designed to defend against invaders.

I think Enel powered them up with his Rumble-Rumble Fruit, which is how he managed to take control of most of them.

Ledfield gave the camera an ‘OK’ sign with his hand.

As the scene drew closer, Ledfield led hundreds of observers right into the heart of the city.

Everything bore the marks of time—worn down and eroded—making it impossible to tell what might have happened here before.

But from the markings they could decipher, it was clear this had once been a thriving metropolis, packed with skyscrapers over a hundred meters tall.

There were archaeologists and sentries, forming squads of dozens and fanning out across the city as they advanced.

Ledfield led the way, followed by a small group of Skypieans, and soon they reached the city center where a statue, several dozen meters high, stood tall.

But years of weathering had erased any trace of what the statue originally looked like.

Click click click!

“What was that noise?”

“Hey everyone, did any of you catch what that sound was?”

Perospero the Windmaster: “Sounds like some kind of mechanism.”

Katakuri the Cool Guy: “I think it’s more like bones creaking.”

Brûlée the Not-So-Sensitive: “Nope, you’re both wrong. That’s a door opening, clear as day.”

“…”

Though Ledfield glanced at the chat, he had silently unleashed his Observation Haki, just in case.

The video shifted, focusing on the back of the statue.

A hidden door to an underground passage slid open.

Ignoring the archaeologists fussing with the statue, Ledfield dove headfirst into the opening.

Once he landed, he yanked out a powerful flashlight and scanned the area.

Something must’ve triggered, because the lights in the room clicked on one after another.

Before him stretched a vast hall, ten meters high, extending farther than the eye could see.

Strange equipment and devices lined the walls, most completely unfamiliar. When the camera panned out, Ledfield was standing on a platform looking down on tens of thousands of robots.

Karl, ever the charismatic boss: “Ledfield, figure out a way to bring those robots back with you.”

“They’ll be a huge help for our plans.”

Ledfield stared at the big, bold message, struggling to find words.

“It’s not about whether I can bring them back—they’re…”

“They’re what? Cut it out! I want all of them, now.”

“I just have this feeling they’re actually alive.”

Holding up his image Transponder Snail, Ledfield walked straight up to the lineup of robots.

They were all about 1.5 meters tall, with perfectly uniform builds.

Their surfaces gleamed silver-white—not even a hint of rust after all this time, which just showed how advanced Moonfolk technology was compared to the One Piece World.

Ledfield rapped his finger gently on one of the robots.

It sounded heavy and solid—definitely not hollow. You could hear the dense thud echoing inside.

Bzzz!

But then, right when he tapped it, the robot’s eyes snapped open, glowing bright red.

“Alert! Intruder detected!”

“Alert! Intruder detected!”

A red beam shot out of the robot’s mouth. Ledfield dodged to the side just in time.

The red laser burned straight through the platform, leaving a hole as wide as a fist.

Even molten iron dripped down from the edges.

“Whoa, that’s one seriously hot attack.”

Ye Linzhi: “Uncle Ledfield, bring one of those robots back for me! I want to play with it.”

Ye Linhu: “Don’t do it, Uncle Ledfield! He’s so annoying already.”

As soon as that message popped up, Karl’s kids and everyone else watching the stream couldn’t help but nod the same way.

Ever since Ye Linzhi got his Calabash Little Titan template, he’d turned into the island’s ultimate menace.

He had skin like copper and bones like iron, all without even eating a Devil Fruit.

He shot birds out of the sky, dove down to hunt Sea Kings—he was just eight years old, yet he’d already turned the whole island upside down.

Ye Linzhi: “Say that again and I’ll come clobber you.”