Second Life Simulation

"Ding, you have consumed one opportunity to use the Life Simulator. The life simulation is now beginning...

At 17, you have been at the Marine Academy for a year. You have mastered basic knowledge such as marksmanship, navigation, artillery, and helmsmanship, resulting in a significant increase in your strength.

At 18, because you completed the basic curriculum and met the physical requirements, you were permitted to begin training in the Navy Six Forms, mastering all six techniques within a year.

At 19, you hid most of your strength, graduating from the Marine Academy with mediocre grades and becoming an ordinary Marine.

After two years of honing your skills, your swordsmanship improved further, and you successfully unleashed an External Slash, becoming a Swordsman.

At 20, you, who have always kept a low profile, were just about to apply for a transfer when the Great Pirate Shiki the Golden Lion, who had been trapped on the sixth level of Impel Down, broke out of prison. You were part of the unit sent to intercept him.

Outmatched by Shiki the Golden Lion, you were ultimately killed in battle outside Impel Down..."

"This life simulation has ended. You have obtained the following rewards; please select one to claim.

1. Basic knowledge of marksmanship, navigation, artillery, and helmsmanship.

2. Training methods for the Navy Six Forms.

3. Swordsmanship and insights at the Swordsman level.

4. Four years of physical enhancement.

This was the second life simulation, and as usual, it ended in an untimely death. However, Wood no longer felt surprised.

This world was inherently fraught with danger. If he could easily simulate his life to the age of seventy or eighty, he would basically be invincible on the seas after a few rounds of simulations.

Compared to dying in a shipwreck during the first simulation, this one was at least a more decent way to go.

Moreover, Wood did not feel too surprised by this outcome.

Hiding his strength was indeed something he would do, and it was a strategy that could effectively increase his chances of survival.

However, he could only blame his poor luck for running into the captain of the Flying Pirate Crew, Shiki the Golden Lion.

The opponent was a man from the same era as One Piece Roger, and even a decade later, he remained a legendary and powerful figure among pirates.

As the first person in history to escape Impel Down, it made little difference whether Wood had hidden his strength or not; being taken out by him was perfectly normal.

Shiki the Golden Lion had fought the Marine Headquarters alone following the death of Roger, battling Karp and Sengoku for several days before finally being thrown into Impel Down.

And as for him choosing to cut off his own legs to escape Impel Down a few years later, the timeline was correct.

Returning to the matter at hand, looking at the four rewards appearing before him after the simulation, unlike the first time, Wood fell into a brief moment of hesitation.

Among the four rewards, the first could be immediately discarded; Wood had no interest in marksmanship or artillery, as he intended to follow the path of cold weapons.

As for the second reward, if it had been the Navy Six Forms themselves rather than just the training methods, Wood might have chosen it. But with only the methods, he abandoned it immediately.

He had already obtained the training insights for the Navy Six Forms from Kaji, and by exploring them himself, he could fully master the techniques ahead of time.

If he could learn them instantly, it would save time, but as mere training methods, they were as useless as chicken ribs to Wood.

The reason for Wood's hesitation lay primarily in the third and fourth rewards.

He had long coveted the Swordsman-level swordsmanship and insights that allowed for External Slash, but the four years of physical enhancement were equally tempting.

Under intense internal conflict, the system even began a countdown for claiming the rewards. To avoid ending up with nothing, Wood ultimately chose the third reward: the Swordsman-level swordsmanship.

The reason was simple: while the four years of physical enhancement were attractive, Wood could achieve that through steady, step-by-step training.

However, the same could not be said for Swordsman-level swordsmanship and insights, as these were inseparable from comprehension and talent, and relied heavily on luck.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Wood successfully learned External Slash and became a Swordsman in the second simulation.

If he were to live that life again, Wood might not necessarily be able to pull it off.

One was something that could be accumulated through time, while the other was a rare and precious insight. The choice was actually quite obvious.

After the reward was extracted, a vast amount of knowledge flooded into Wood's mind. This was not the first time Wood had experienced this, but he still found it quite miraculous.

Although there were no visible changes to his body, Wood could feel that many things had been added to his mind, and his understanding of the way of the sword had become much clearer.

If he were to encounter Iron Arm Cook again, Wood felt certain that he would not have to fight as arduously as last time.

Even without resorting to underhanded tactics, and even if the opponent used his Devil Fruit ability, Wood was confident he could take down Cook and the entire Iron Arm Pirates while sustaining only minor injuries.

He held his fingers together to form a hand blade and swung it through the air. A sharp sword aura instantly erupted from Wood's palm, leaving a shallow cut on the leg of the bed nearby.

External Slash! This was also a man's dream. After all, every man had a martial arts dream since childhood, and the ability to project sword aura was the hallmark of a master!

"It's a pity the sword I had before broke during the fight with Iron Arm Cook. Otherwise, I would really like to see how powerful the External Slash I unleash at full strength truly is!"

The Marines did provide standard-issue swords, but these mass-produced, inferior weapons could not withstand Wood's intensity.

So much so that whenever Wood practiced his swordsmanship daily, he used wooden swords weighted with rocks.

Don't ask why; it was because he could make wooden swords himself, but even the lowest-quality Marine standard-issue swords cost money.

"Getting a decent katana needs to be put on the agenda. Now that I'm a Swordsman, it's a bit unjustifiable not to have a proper blade."

His swordsmanship had reached the Swordsman level, and it wouldn't be easy to improve it further in the short term.

Since Kaji had provided the training insights for the Navy Six Forms, he should focus on high-intensity physical training in the near future to polish his body to the point where he could begin mastering the six forms.

Night had fallen. In the Marine Academy's freshman dormitory, the new students, exhausted from a day of heavy training and classes, were already sleeping like logs, their snores echoing loudly.

Wood, however, quietly got out of bed, changed into casual clothes, grabbed his training gear, and snuck out of the dormitory. He climbed over the fence with practiced ease and ran toward the forest behind the Marine Academy.