Wood's Growth, The Girl on the Island (Seeking Collections, Seeking Reads)

Over the course of a year, life on Maple Leaf Island still hadn't returned to its former peace. With the arrival of the Great Pirate Era, more and more people were setting out for the Grand Line.

Now, on Maple Leaf Island, most of the original residents had already left. The frequent visits from pirates had driven the majority of the island's inhabitants away, forcing them to relocate to other nearby islands.

During this time, Wood's system had been as good as dead. Aside from when it issued missions, it remained completely silent the rest of the time.

If it hadn't given him a second mission before, Wood would have suspected that his "cheat" had completely shut down.

After his previous Simulated Life, Wood had gained swordsmanship and insights comparable to a "Swordsman."

However, despite possessing the corresponding sword techniques, mindset, and a "Cutting Steel" level of swordsmanship, Wood still couldn't actually cut steel in practice.

At the root of it, although his swordsmanship had improved, his physical constitution was simply too poor.

For three months, he swung his axe day and night, chopping trees. Under the high-intensity training, Wood's physical fitness had improved quite a bit, but it was still only slightly better than an ordinary person's.

So, during this year, aside from absorbing the sword-related insights in his mind, Wood spent most of his time honing his body and engaging in brutal physical training every day.

A year ago, Wood had looked like a rather thin young man. But now, a year later, his skin had taken on a healthy Komugi-colored tan, and from his bare upper body, it was clear that he was no longer the same person.

His healthy Komugi-colored skin glistened in the sunlight, the streamlined muscles on his body bursting with explosive power. His height had also shot up from 1.8 meters to about 1.9 meters.

During this time, while training alone, Wood had also tried to push his body to a Superhuman Physique, like the World Government's CP Organization, in hopes of learning the so-called "Navy Six Forms."

But as it turned out, although long-term training had strengthened his physique considerably, even knowing the principles of the Navy Six Forms, he still couldn't grasp the key points.

Wood believed there were two reasons for this. One was that his current physical condition was still far from meeting the standard required to master the Six Forms.

The other was that the so-called "Navy Six Forms" might require a special training method.

After all, the Navy Six Forms were, in the end, the combat techniques of most Navy officers. As a unique Navy skill, the chances of someone like him, a wild card training alone on an island, successfully learning them were obviously slim.

If the Navy Six Forms were that simple, then plenty of pirates had seen them too—wouldn't most people just pick them up instantly?

"Brother Wood, it's mealtime! Come back and eat!"

Wood, who had just finished his morning physical training by swimming several nautical miles bare-chested in the sea, saw a little girl with a ponytail carrying a lunch basket on the shore. He immediately broke into a smile, splashing up a huge spray of water as he swam to the shore at an astonishing speed.

"Aine, didn't I already tell you? You don't need to bring lunch all the way here.

It's too dangerous. What if you run into pirates? The area around the island isn't safe these days."

Swimming back to shore, Wood tried to minimize his movements to avoid splashing seawater onto the girl's pretty floral dress.

"Brother Wood is always lying. You promised Aine before, but every time you start training, you forget the time completely, and sometimes you don't even eat all day.

And Aine isn't afraid of pirates! As long as Brother Wood is here, those pirates are no match for you.

Brother Wood will save Aine from the bad pirates again, just like a year ago, right?"

The girl who had called out to Wood was named Aine. She was an adorable child of about seven or eight, with a blue ponytail.

Aine was also a resident of Maple Leaf Island. A year ago, Wood had saved her from a pirate grunt, which had triggered the system's activation.

"Because I know Brother Wood trains like crazy every day, Mom made a lot of meat dishes today.

And this fruit—Aine picked it herself in the forest today. It's really sweet."

Because of the pirate raid before, Aine's father had died protecting her, so now Aine lived only with her mother.

Wood, fitting the standard isekai protagonist mold, was alone with no parents. To repay Wood for saving Aine's life, Aine's mother, Stia, had taken him in.

Living together, and with the added gratitude from saving Aine, Wood quickly became as close as family with them.

With her father killed by pirates, Aine hated pirates more than anyone. But at the same time, she was grateful that after her father was gone, she had gained a strong and extremely protective older brother.

After obtaining "Cutting Steel" level swordsmanship from the Simulated Life, Wood didn't rush to show off his strength. Instead, he kept a low profile and trained in secret.

After all, on this vast sea, there were countless powerful people. His current level was nothing to write home about.

The result of his previous Simulated Life had shown that he died young precisely because he wasn't cautious enough.

This time, Wood was determined: until he had trained his strength to a level where he could act without fear in the first half of the Grand Line, he absolutely would not stick his neck out.

But sometimes, things just don't go as planned.

Over half a year ago, a group of pirates came ashore. Not only did they ransack the island again, but they also set their sights on the beautiful Stia and Aine, planning to capture them and sell them to the Slave Market.

Seeing his "family," whom he had lived with day in and day out, about to be taken away, Wood naturally couldn't keep lying low. He turned around and easily disposed of the pirates in front of him.

But as luck would have it, among the pirates he killed, one seemed to be a crew officer. He was fairly strong, but before Wood could finish him off, the guy managed to escape too far.

If a pirate captain did nothing after one of his officers was killed, how could he still lead his crew?

So, the pirate captain came after Wood. After a fierce battle, the captain ended up dead too...

A pirate captain with a bounty of 8 million Belly, killed by a kid who looked like he hadn't even grown a full beard yet.

The other crew members, seeing Wood's still-young but fierce face, all showed terrified expressions. They scattered and fled without even bothering to collect their captain's body.

It was because of this incident that the people of Maple Leaf Island realized Wood was no longer the same person.

If most of the islanders hadn't watched Wood grow up, they wouldn't have believed that this teenager, who could kill a wanted pirate captain at just over ten years old, was the same Wood they had known before.