Headquarters shaken!

"What? You're saying Ron defeated Shuzuo in the test field?!"

Inside the Fleet Admiral's Office, Sengoku slammed his desk and shot to his feet, eyes bulging: "Do you know the consequences of falsifying military reports?!"

"I know, Fleet Admiral. But..."

The messenger was on the verge of tears: "It's true!"

How the hell did a recruit defeat Brigadier General Shuzuo of Headquarters? That man was a true powerhouse! As someone who'd come through the New Recruit Camp, the messenger had trained under Shuzuo—he knew full well how terrifying that monster was!

Yet, it had happened.

The New Recruit Camp instructor, Vice Admiral Garp's adjutant Traine, and Admiral Kizaru had all confirmed the result simultaneously. Brigadier General Shuzuo was still in the medical ward on oxygen. After the report came in, the messenger had triple-checked he wasn't hallucinating before rushing in panic to deliver the news.

"Hiss... how did he do it?! Give me the report!"

Sengoku sucked in a sharp breath, took the documents, and waved his attendants away. Before he could even return to his seat, he keenly sensed an intensely murderous aura and whipped his head around.

"Uh..."

Twitching his mouth in speechless exasperation, Sengoku looked at the robust old man with sunglasses and thick purple hair seated there—the black aura behind him was visible to the naked eye, ferocious as a demon. After three seconds of thought, he decided not to touch that issue and silently sidestepped.

Back in his seat, Sengoku distributed the documents: "Timely coincidence—I was just about to call the meeting adjourned... Everyone take a look and give your opinions."

With that, Sengoku raised his papers, equally curious about the report.

First came the basic physical fitness tests.

[Maximum single-arm strength: 400 jin]

Barely passable, even somewhat substandard.

Sengoku frowned slightly, gave his assessment, and moved to the next item.

[100-meter sprint: 8.5 seconds]

Same assessment!

[5000-meter weighted run: 19 minutes]

Assessment still the same!

[Attack power: 60 Power Level]

Assessment...

Just from these few items, Sengoku felt the news of Shuzuo's defeat was the world's biggest joke! How could such a nobody defeat Shuzuo? The two were worlds apart—one in heaven, the other on earth!

Brigadier General Shuzuo's Power Level was close to 4000. He could send a hundred-ton Sea King flying with a single blow, possessed boundless strength. His 100-meter sprint was under 3 seconds, faster than most Rokushiki users. He also mastered Two Types of Armament Haki and had rich combat experience—he was the strongest instructor in the Navy's New Recruit Camp, second only to Zephyr!

A superman among supermen!

Ron's physical test data showed he was just a slightly stronger Ordinary Person, translating to a Power Level of at most 50. Defeating Shuzuo in a direct fight was absolutely impossible!

The Colonel in charge of statistics had also given a fair rating...

[Comprehensive evaluation: 50 Power Level—Pass]

Fail, and it's back where you came from... Headquarters' New Recruit Camp only accepted geniuses and the strong. Ordinary soldiers with a Power Level of 10 weren't even qualified to enter Headquarters' New Recruit Camp for training. As the "fast track to promotion" where graduates started at least as Lieutenant Commanders, the strict requirements were only natural!

But the next data from the Fruit Ability tests made Sengoku raise an eyebrow.

[Lightning attack power: 228 Power Level]

[Lightning 100-Meter Dash: 2.5 seconds]

[Practical combat test: Full marks]

[Comprehensive evaluation: 80/100!]

"Power Level" was a term standardized by the World Government to reflect a person's combat strength, but it couldn't fully determine one's actual power—too many factors influenced victory in real combat, so it served only as a reference.

Since it was a World Government regulation used by its intelligence agency "Cipher Pol" and the Marine Headquarters, Sengoku understood perfectly what it meant for Ron to deliver a "228" Power Level attack with a physical body rated at 50 Power Level!

That was four and a half times his own strength—a freakish anomaly!!

Since it represented combat power, a well-trained Navy soldier with a Power Level of 10 could deliver a maximum attack of 10 as well. So logically, Ron's normal attack Power Level should only be around 50. The fact that he'd previously hit 60 was already proof of exceeding his physical limits!

In their minds, having only possessed the Rumble-Rumble Fruit for a month, if Ron could deliver attacks of 50-100 Power Level with his Fruit ability, that would be impressive enough. They never expected...

228!

Four times his own strength!

It completely shattered their understanding!

Lightning was indeed powerful, no question, but such an extraordinary number couldn't be explained away by Fruit advantage alone!

This was a genius!

He had terrifying talent with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit!

Staring at that number, the entire room was stunned for a moment, then burst into praise.

"Truly astonishing! Sakazuki was a few years older than Ron back then... and his first test was only around 240, right? And that was just double his own strength..."

"Yes, I remember Borsalino's Power Level was 270, and Kuzan's was only 200."

The current Three Admirals were all Logia users who had come through the New Recruit Camp, so it was inevitable they'd be compared.

Although Kuzan had scored a "200" with an initially harmless block of ice—three times his own Power Level—Ron's first test result was four times that, and he was far younger than those three. Given time, his achievements would be unimaginable!

While everyone else expressed shock, Garp sat in his seat, uncertain.

"No! What's going on?... That brat who discharges electricity spends all day training his body, yet he still has such a high Fruit Development?"

On the return trip, Garp knew exactly what Ron did all day, and he couldn't figure out how Ron had produced such an astonishing number.

"Could it be... he's been training behind my back?!"

That damn brat!

Garp felt he'd uncovered the truth, and instantly ground his teeth in anger.

"I'll go ask him tonight!"

After that, the Lightning 100-Meter Dash result... no one cared about that number.

At the speed of lightning, running 100 meters in 2.5 seconds was slow. Kizaru's record in the New Recruit Camp was 0.3 seconds!

For the Glint-Glint Fruit and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, the value of this test wasn't to measure their speed... Could an ordinary person's movement ever compare to lightning?

That was utterly meaningless!

When speed was already at the peak, why test it?

If it were a pure speed test, sending Kizaru now would yield no time interval—he could arrive instantly, surpassing the test device's reaction limit! Once Ron learned Enel's teleportation within an Electromagnetic Field, there would be no time interval either.

So this number primarily reflected how quickly they could release their Fruit Ability, their dynamic vision for tracking targets at high speed, and the coordination between Fruit use and body movement—an overall test.

The Test Field's 100-meter run wasn't just about charging through; you had to stop in a designated area to count. The New Recruit Camp didn't teach Observation Haki, so without self-awakening, you could only rely on eyesight for positioning.

Understandably, within 2.5 seconds, besides wasting time at the start transforming into lightning to move, Ron must have slowed down mid-course to confirm his position. A sharp-eyed Instructor spotted it and deducted 20 points. Otherwise, the time would definitely be around 1 second, earning a perfect score.

Finally, the full-score combat test...

"Ahem, let's just see how he... uh... how he defeated Shuzuo?"

Calming the atmosphere, Sengoku coughed dryly and sneakily glanced at someone.

The moment he finished, Zephyr, who had been marveling a second ago, immediately darkened his face and snorted coldly: "No need to look! Put nicely, Shuzuo was careless and underestimated his opponent; put bluntly, he was stupid!!!"

A towering black aura surged, and Zephyr stood up, his face black as oil.

"Just watch me go back and give him a proper beating!!"

As Shuzuo's mentor and a disciple he favored, Zephyr had scanned the battle details the moment he got the data. Discovering Shuzuo was toyed with and ultimately defeated by suffocation inside an Iron Ball, Zephyr's fury nearly erupted—he was absolutely enraged!

If this weren't the Fleet Admiral's Office and the meeting wasn't officially over, he would have rushed out, dragged Shuzuo from his sickbed, and sent him to Hell Island for extra training!

"Calm down, calm down!"

Sengoku offered dry comfort, but noticing Zephyr's gaze, he knew words were useless. So he silently mourned for a second, turned, and looked at the woman beside him—stooped, face lined with wrinkles, but eyes shining with wisdom.

"Tsuru, what do you think?"

"Very good!"

Vice Admiral Tsuru, the Marine Headquarters' Chief of Staff, a legend among all female soldiers, the goddess these men had chased in their youth, praised without regard for Zephyr's feelings.

"This is a textbook case of the weak defeating the strong! It deserves to be entered into the curriculum! I recommend immediately revising the teaching materials to let those brats at the military academy, who complain day and night, know what it means to persevere and win!"

Tsuru's first words were high praise, even proposing a curriculum revision! Yet no one objected, because if they put themselves in Ron's shoes, they couldn't have achieved a more perfect record than his!

Taking a breath, Tsuru picked up the data and looked kindly at Ron's photo.

"...No matter how strong the enemy, they are still human and need oxygen to breathe—a well-known weakness. But how easy is it to exploit? At least if I went up, I couldn't think of any method."

"...But Ron is different! He must have had an idea the moment he discovered the underground steel! So he first angered Shuzuo, lured him into the more advantageous Steel Tunnel environment, used speed to contain him; then slowly laid his trap without revealing his Iron Tempering ability, step by step leading Shuzuo into the snare; finally, even when exhausted to the point of collapse, he maintained the Iron Ball intact, waiting for Shuzuo to suffocate and lose! Such flexible thinking, decisive judgment, and tenacious character... I have to say, Garp, you finally did something good!"

"Tsuru-chan, what do you mean by that?"

Garp immediately bristled, glaring at Vice Admiral Tsuru indignantly.

"After all my years of risking life and limb, that doesn't count as something good?!"

In response, Vice Admiral Tsuru didn't even look at him, simply uttering a name.

"Flower Capital..."

Garp instantly... visibly deflated, slumping back into his seat without a word, taking out his frustration on a doughnut.

"Ahem, regardless, Ron defeating Shuzuo is an established fact."

Sengoku stood up to summarize: "From now on, his training will be handled by Zephyr. Ensure he develops comprehensively, leaving no gaps! Four months from now... it's up to him!"

Though Zephyr was furious about Shuzuo's defeat, he certainly wouldn't take it out on Ron. On the contrary, he liked this seedling very much and felt a strong sense of mission to nurture him.

"Understood!"

Nodding, Sengoku slapped the table and continued: "Additionally, strengthen defenses and spare no effort in searching for traces of Baroque Works!"

"Since they dared to strike once, there will definitely be a second and third time... Crush them in the Grand Line. I don't want to hear about this happening in the Four Seas or the New World, understand?!"

"Yes!"

No matter how good their relationship was, Sengoku was still the Fleet Admiral.

The three of them rose at the same time and saluted in unison.

"The protagonist is a character created by the author, an avatar of the author himself—praising him is praising yourself."

Big Tree had never understood how to show a supporting character's admiration for the protagonist. Recently, while exchanging ideas with a certain master, he came across this brilliant line, and suddenly everything clicked!

Before he knew it, he'd praised himself for three thousand words!

Ah, so embarrassing...