Entering the Marine Academy for Advanced Studies

Under Karp's upward nod, Wood looked behind him with considerable confusion.

And what he saw finally made Wood understand why Karp had said what he did earlier.

Before Karp tested Wood, quite a few people had been standing behind him, many of them Marine officers who had set out to sea with Zephyr this time.

Among them, Rear Admiral Kadaru held the highest rank and had also been the closest to Wood just now.

As a Marine Headquarters rear admiral, Kadaru's strength, though vastly inferior to Karp's, was still at a certain level.

If it came to a fight, Kadaru would have no chance of winning at all, but when it came to mere pressure of aura, Karp's presence didn't affect him much—he stood there looking as composed as ever.

Aside from Rear Admiral Kadaru, the other Marine officers weren't so at ease.

Although Karp wasn't serious, the title of Marine Hero wasn't just for show—someone who had driven the Pirate King into a corner multiple times was no ordinary poser.

The Marine officers at the captain level could barely manage to stay standing, but their breathing was severely disordered, showing that resisting such killing intent wasn't easy for them either.

As for the Marine officers at the lieutenant level, their condition was about the same as Wood's—all of them were slumped on the ground, gasping for air.

When they saw Wood turn his head to look at them, one Marine Captain, not wanting to lose face in front of a new recruit, tried to force himself to stand.

But just as he barely straightened up, his legs gave out first, and he fell back to the ground.

If even Marine Captains were like this, the sergeants and ordinary soldiers were naturally even worse off.

Though at this point, they probably didn't even know whether they'd lost face or not, since they had already passed out unconscious.

Comparing the two, Wood understood why Karp was satisfied with his performance.

Wood was still a greenhorn new recruit, but in terms of willpower alone, he already matched a Marine Headquarters Captain—and because of the distance factor, he even had the edge.

If he still claimed he wasn't good enough, that would be too disrespectful to the other captain-level officers.

Thanks to Karp's personal actions, this year's Marine new recruit induction ceremony was truly unprecedented.

And a certain young man who had planned to keep a low profile ended up becoming the brightest star among this batch of recruits.

Gold shines wherever it goes, and the same goes for someone too dazzling.

From the supply department, Wood had just received his uniform as a new recruit, then found the room assigned to him.

New recruits gathered from various places wouldn't be directly assigned to Marine units—they had to be centralized first for several years of systematic training.

Wood received three sets of clothes in total, all white with blue trim, not much different from ordinary Marine uniforms.

As a proud new Marine recruit, these three sets of clothes would accompany him for the next few years.

Since he was a small fry, he had no right to wear special attire—the standard white-with-blue-trim uniform was the baseline. Marine Academy regulations also stated that unless it was a regular holiday, whether for daily activities or training, this uniform must be worn.

Don't ask how three sets of clothes could last years—Wood had already asked the supply department. If the clothes got damaged, he could buy replacements at his own expense.

But he had also checked the price—it was quite expensive. With their new recruit allowance, he could barely afford one set a month.

Staring at the standard small-fry uniform in his hands, Wood really couldn't figure out why this piece of junk cost so much.

"Although it's the standard Marine uniform, this was specially designed by a famous designer from the Grand Line at the Fleet Admiral's request.

Don't let the plain appearance fool you—it actually exudes grandeur, and the fabric choice is quite refined. Not only is it warm in winter and cool in summer, but the artistic value alone is two or three stories high..."

As if he saw the disdain on Wood's face, the supply officer immediately launched into a lengthy explanation of the uniform's special qualities.

The guy went from the artistic value of the clothes to the symbol of the Marines, and Wood had to admit—this guy was seriously wasted working here. In his old world, with that kind of silver tongue, he'd be a sales champion anywhere.

After his analysis, Wood even started to wonder if he had misjudged—maybe the background-actor uniform wasn't as simple as he thought—so he took out his wallet and bought another set.

The supply guy quickly took the money from Wood, handed him a brand-new "background-actor" uniform, and wore an expression that said "this one's teachable."

But just as Wood fiddled with the clothes and really couldn't find anything "special" about them, he was about to go back and discuss it with the supply guy when he saw him saying the exact same spiel to another new recruit.

That guy, getting hot-headed, pulled out all his savings and bought ten sets of clothes.

"Nice, looks like you've got a sharp eye. Buying so many sets of the Marine uniform shows how strong your sense of belonging to the Marines is.

I've got a good feeling about you—maybe in another ten years, you'll be the next Marine Admiral."

Smiling as he sent off the excited new recruit carrying a pile of clothes, the supply guy saw Wood coming back again, and his expression immediately dropped.

"These Marine uniforms are specially customized—once sold, no returns!"

The Marine Academy had existed for a long time. Karp, Sengoku, and Zephyr had all been students who walked out of here.

Most Marine soldiers were just ordinary people when they first joined, and Marine Headquarters naturally couldn't send them to fight vicious pirates like that.

If the Marines performed too weakly in battles against pirates, it would only damage the Marines' reputation and embolden the pirates' arrogance.

Moreover, untrained Marines going up against seasoned pirates who had long stirred up trouble on the seas would basically be throwing their lives away—they couldn't execute so-called justice at all.

And a high casualty rate wouldn't just affect the Marines' dignity—it would also make ordinary people think this was a job with an extremely high death rate, which would inevitably affect future recruitment.

After retiring from the front lines, Zephyr now served as the chief instructor of the Marine Academy.

Akainu and Kizaru were Zephyr's first batch of students, while Aokiji was from the third batch.

By the time Wood's batch came around, it was already the fifth.