The Shameless Senior Was Actually This Strong?

Because of the shooting and artillery examinations, Wood and Gion had quite a bit of interaction.

Gion was highly competitive. After being thoroughly defeated by Wood in both shooting and artillery, she had made a point of looking into him.

For an ordinary person, obtaining detailed information about Wood might have been difficult, but for Gion, it was not too challenging.

Vice Admiral Tsuru was not only a vice admiral of Marine Headquarters but also the "Chief of Staff" of the entire Navy, making her one of the few senior officers with real authority.

Although Gion and Tsuru were vastly different in age, they were as close as sisters.

With Tsuru's help, Gion obtained extremely detailed information about Wood and gained a better understanding of the man standing before her.

Wood had been born on Maple Leaf Island in the first half of the Grand Line. His life before the age of fifteen had been utterly unremarkable—or rather, not much different from that of an ordinary boy.

However, at the age of fifteen, he killed a band of pirates who had come ashore on the island, and from then on, he became unstoppable.

Between the ages of fifteen and sixteen, a total of eight pirate crews landed on Maple Leaf Island. Five of them were completely wiped out by him, while the other three fled in panic after their captains were killed.

Before coming to Marine Headquarters, he had single-handedly slaughtered nearly half of the Iron Arm Pirates and killed their captain, who had a bounty of twenty million Belly.

On Maple Leaf Island, Wood enjoyed an excellent reputation. Not only was he deeply loved by the islanders, he was even known as the "Guardian of Maple Leaf Island." The residents unanimously considered him a good kid.

When he came to Marine Headquarters, he had faced the pressure of Marine Hero Vice Admiral Garp's aura head-on. Both his willpower and his bearing had earned the praise of Vice Admiral Garp and Admiral Zephyr.

After seeing the information about Wood in her hands, Gion was utterly stunned.

The Wood described in the intelligence differed far too greatly from the Wood she knew.

According to the intelligence, Wood possessed outstanding talent. Whether in willpower or character, he could only be described as excellent for someone his age.

But what about the Wood Gion knew? Leaving aside his mediocre grades, he was extremely timid and afraid of trouble. As for his character, saying he was devoid of virtue would almost be giving him too much credit!

The gap between the intelligence and reality was so great that Gion even thought for a while that she had identified the wrong person.

However, throughout the entire Marine Academy, there was only one person named Wood whose age matched.

Clearly, it was impossible for a person to have two personalities. Either he had dissociative identity disorder, or he was deliberately pretending.

Wood had lived on Maple Leaf Island for more than a decade, and his personality had never changed much during that time. It was only after arriving at Marine Headquarters that he became the way he was now.

The matter was therefore easy to understand. Wood's mediocre grades and his disgraceful personality had both been deliberately crafted by him.

Gion did not know why Wood was doing this, but she also understood that everyone had their own secrets. She would not deliberately question him about anything. As long as Wood was not bad by nature, that was enough.

To verify whether the information was accurate, Gion had even secretly tested Wood several times. His physical strength, reactions, speed, and other abilities were astonishingly strong.

Moreover, as a "Swordsman" herself, Gion could still faintly sense from Wood, despite how perfectly he concealed his aura, the feeling of a cold gleam sheathed within its scabbard.

There had been a reason Gion had regarded Wood as a rival when they first met.

Although Wood's shooting score at the time had not been the best, Gion had still taken notice of him. Looking back now, it was probably because she had been influenced by the aura he carried.

When one "Swordsman" encountered another, no matter how perfectly one side hid their strength, the feeling of meeting an evenly matched opponent could never be mistaken.

Gion did not know why Wood concealed his strength, but she believed that as long as Wood remained at the Marine Academy, they would eventually have a chance to fight.

After all, the Marine officers' advanced training included practical combat courses. When the time came, no matter how deeply Wood hid his strength, she was confident she could force him to reveal it.

That was what Gion had initially thought. However, a year passed, and even during the final examination, Wood still achieved only mediocre results. He had also submitted his graduation application and was preparing to become an ordinary marine soldier. At last, Gion could not sit still any longer!

According to her original expectations, Wood should at least have revealed some of his strength during the final examination and ultimately stayed on as an elite recruit.

Yet despite clearly possessing such extraordinary strength, this guy had actually chosen, without any ambition whatsoever, to become a marine soldier!

The "Swordsman" duel she had been anticipating had yet to take place. Gion naturally would not let Wood run away. Moreover, she felt that with Wood's strength, becoming an ordinary marine soldier would be a terrible waste of his talents. Thus, she told Tsuru about the matter and asked for her help.

That was why the marine colonel had said earlier that he had received orders from both Admiral Zephyr and Tsuru, the two big shots, telling him to keep Wood.

"Classmate Gion gives me far too much credit... The three people lying over there all have much better scores than I do.

"If it's shooting or artillery, I do have a little confidence.

"But if it's hand-to-hand combat, then as a weakling like me, let alone the three of them—even in a one-on-one fight, I wouldn't have much chance of winning."

Upon hearing Wood's words, Gion immediately looked at him with contempt. With Wood's level of shooting and artillery, he actually had the nerve to claim that he was somewhat confident?

"Don't pretend to be a harmless little rabbit in front of me. If you didn't have the ability, I wouldn't have gone out of my way to ask someone to keep you..."

"So it was you! I was wondering why someone with my examination scores, which had absolutely nothing to do with being an elite, had been kept behind. So you were behind this.

"We've never had any grudge between us, past or present. I just wanted to be a marine soldier. Why the hell did you have to ruin this for me?!"

Hearing what Gion said, Wood, who had still been wearing an innocent expression, suddenly looked enlightened and furious. So the problem had not come from Zephyr after all—it had been Gion.

"Because I haven't defeated you yet, and because you're actually very strong. You killed a pirate with a twenty-million bounty before even entering the Marine Academy.

"With credentials like that, even if I hadn't interfered, do you think Admiral Zephyr would have let you become an ordinary marine soldier?"

The speaker had meant nothing by it, but the listener had taken it to heart.

When Wood heard Gion's words, his expression had not changed much. However, the two little ones beside him were already staring at him in shock.

Tina aside, the battered Smoker stared at Wood with an expression of utter disbelief. He simply could not believe that such a shameless person could actually be so incredibly powerful.