"Remember, you trash! The fact that you're standing in this line means you're worse than everyone else! You're garbage!"
"Get the hell up and keep running! Are your legs broken?! Do you want me to break them for you?!"
"You at the back who fell behind! Have you decided whether you'll be cleaning toilets or chopping vegetables in the cafeteria?!"
As the main force fighting pirates, the Marines suffered an extremely high casualty rate. They had always believed that more sweat today meant less blood tomorrow; this was no ivory tower. As a result, training at Marine Headquarters' New Recruit Camp was practically hell. The instructors in charge looked fiercer than the last, and each one had a louder voice than the one before!
After a whole morning of training, Ron could accept the exhaustion, but the abuse his eardrums had suffered left him utterly speechless. Fortunately, the prospect of lunch diverted his attention, and he happily followed the main group to the cafeteria.
After picking up a tray, Ron was about to join the line when he suddenly noticed that the queue in front of him had automatically parted, leaving a clear path straight to the serving window.
What was going on?
Ron was completely baffled.
He had forgotten that, thanks to yesterday's "dormitory bullying" incident and the "Vice Admiral Garp goes to jail" incident that night, after a night and morning of gossip, everyone in the New Recruit Camp now knew that a monster had joined them.
Just like the legendary Three Admirals, and just like Smoker, the tyrant of the New Recruit Camp a few years ago, Ron was a Logia Devil Fruit User!
And... his personality was exceptionally awful!
Everyone in Dormitory 301 and the surrounding dormitories, along with a certain dorm manager who wished to remain anonymous, agreed on one thing: never provoke him... Everyone on the Grand Line knew the legend that Logia users were invincible in the early stages, let alone at Marine Headquarters. Besides, Ron wielded dangerous lightning. None of the recruits wanted to find out what being electrocuted felt like. So when they saw him coming, they decisively made way to avoid disaster.
Ron spotted a familiar figure among the crowd. It was Zoro, the one who had knocked his luggage to the ground earlier. Seeing the fear on his face, Ron suddenly understood.
"So that's how it is! So that's what this is!"
He had no time to bother with these bystanders. All he cared about was getting stronger. Since they had made way for him, he might as well take the shortcut. He immediately strode forward and pointed at the tray in his hand under the startled gaze of the cafeteria worker.
"Fill this up for me..."
"O-Okay."
The cafeteria worker froze for a moment, then remembered his duty. He decisively took the tray and piled it high with food. Then Ron reached out... past the tray, lifted the huge iron basin holding the dishes, and swaggered off with it on his shoulder to find a seat. He left behind a stunned cafeteria worker and the recruits still waiting in line.
Fuck!!
"Ron! What are you doing?!"
At that moment, a furious roar drew everyone's attention.
Hearing the voice, Ron shrank his neck. He turned around, saw Shuzuo charging over in anger, then looked at what he was doing and awkwardly explained.
"Instructor Shuzuo, it's not what you think..."
Training resumed in the afternoon. Ron shouldered his weights and was the first to arrive at the designated area. The instructor in charge had been waiting for some time. Without wasting words, he put a whistle to his lips.
"Count them yourself. Three hundred push-ups. Begin!"
Tweet!!
With the piercing whistle, Ron's afternoon training began. Three hundred push-ups were not the end, merely the beginning. After finishing the first set, Ron got five minutes of rest before starting the second set of five hundred.
By the time the sun dipped westward and night fell, Ron, having finished dinner, staggered toward the dormitories.
"Ah... I'm exhausted!"
Marine Headquarters was truly terrifying!
How should I put it?
No wonder they tailored training to the individual!
After a full day of training, every item on the chart had been completed, and every last bit of Ron's strength had been squeezed dry!
Even Ron himself could not estimate the limits of his stamina, yet others had seen through them with ease. If he had not filled his stomach and replenished his energy, he would have collapsed by now... This showed just how experienced the Marines were at training recruits!
Compared with the combat growth pirates gained through fighting, this method was undoubtedly safer, more convenient, and faster. It was suited for training large numbers of people. Marine Headquarters' New Recruit Camp truly deserved its reputation!
On the first day, Ron did not carry out his usual self-harming training for once. He collapsed onto his bed, his eyelids feeling as heavy as lead, and immediately fell into a dead sleep.
Time flew by. Three days later...
At dusk, on the roof of the New Recruit Camp building, Zephyr clutched a report with a twitching mouth and looked up. "Shuzuo, do you think I'm an idiot?"
I'd rather be the idiot!
Shuzuo thought in disarray. Then he noticed Zephyr's unfriendly gaze and hurriedly answered, "Teacher, these figures were recorded in real time. There was no falsification!"
"Of course I know they weren't falsified. Otherwise, do you think you'd still be standing here instead of lying in the back garden?"
Zephyr snapped irritably, then picked up the report again, his eyes full of shock.
"This rate of growth... there's no mistake! It's the effect brought by that thing!"
In truth, few recruits knew—or bothered to notice—that while they trained each day, the instructors in charge of each training item evaluated them, determined each person's progress, and ultimately compiled the results for Zephyr.
These figures were the main basis for adjusting the recruits' training programs.
Normally, it was impossible for someone to improve much in just three days. When Ron's report came in, Shuzuo had instinctively skipped over it, intending to file it away. But then he noticed the red mark at the bottom of the document indicating "urgent revision needed," and immediately pulled it back out in shock.
After reading it carefully, he had rushed straight to Zephyr's office and submitted the report.
Because...
"In just three days, he has adapted perfectly! And after training, he still has at least twenty percent of his stamina left! He was so exhausted before that he couldn't even crawl, yet today... Is he really human?"
The training programs set for recruits were designed to drain every last bit of their stamina. No one was an exception. Especially not Ron, whose program had been personally drafted by Zephyr. As a former Admiral, Zephyr's judgment could not possibly be wrong!
So if Zephyr was not wrong, the problem naturally lay with Ron...
It was not as though Shuzuo had never seen geniuses before, but "genius" was an adjective used to describe humans. With such a growth rate and adaptability, was Ron really not some other creature wearing a human form?
"Uh... probably...?"
Zephyr did not know how to explain that question. Decades ago, Kong had classified that matter as top secret. To avoid unnecessary trouble, even the World Government knew nothing about it.
After hesitating for a moment, Zephyr asked, "Where is Ron now? Has he returned to the dormitory?"
"Hm? Teacher, are you going to see him?"
Shuzuo paused, then answered, "No. He still had stamina left today, so he's continuing to use that lightning-stimulation training method of his. To avoid disturbing others, I left him in the training room."
"That self-mutilating training again!"
Hearing that phrase, Zephyr snorted. "Luckily, Ron has an extremely powerful Self-Healing Ability. Otherwise, training like that would have crippled him long ago! That bastard Garp knows this, yet he still doesn't stop him!"
As this concerned the "emotional entanglement" between two esteemed seniors, Shuzuo looked up at the sky, watched his nose, and focused on his heart, pretending he had heard nothing.
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