Little Cheat

Louis felt every hair on his body stand on end, a chill shooting from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head. A warm fingertip pressed against his forehead—it could have been lovers fooling around, or an elder scolding a junior. But at this moment, the finger on Louis's forehead felt like Death's scythe laid across his throat. One wrong move, and he would be sent to the underworld.

Wade held the restless Dylan down with all his strength. He understood perfectly well that even with his help, trying to save Louis from the Instructor's hands would be nothing but a fool's dream. This Instructor, who oversaw the South Sea Training Camp that trained reserves for the entire CP series, including CP0, was undoubtedly a major figure even within the CP series. He was absolutely not someone a few newcomers could challenge.

Not to mention the many Instructors around them, watching like tigers eyeing prey. These people had taught them the Six Powers, and every one of them was quite formidable.

"You can only rely on yourself now!! Louis!!"

Wade gritted his teeth.

Frank lay on the ground, his chest pierced through by Louis, blood still pouring from the wound. He had been completely ignored. Let him bleed for a while—people in this world had absurdly tough bodies, so it would not matter. Everyone's attention was on Louis.

"Life Return? What is that?"

Louis spoke softly. "Instructor, sorry, I don't really understand what you're talking about."

Louis knew very well what awaited him if he gave even the slightest wrong answer. Of course he knew what Life Return was. The Rokushiki—though it was nominally called the Six Powers, even excluding its many derivative techniques, it was not actually limited to six. The Six Powers had seven moves. Wasn't that common knowledge?

The extra move was Life Return. Many believed that Life Return was a technique one could comprehend only after reaching a certain level in Rokushiki training, but that was not the case. Strictly speaking, Life Return was the foundation of the Rokushiki. Training in the Six Powers required users to constantly temper their bodies, then control them—exploding with strength, twisting their bodies, hardening them. All of it required control over the body, and Life Return was precisely that control.

The only difference was that the Six Powers controlled the body passively, through subconscious control guided by specific training methods, and could only be achieved while using the Six Powers. Life Return, on the other hand, was active. By pouring one's consciousness into the body, one could control one's hair, skin, muscles, internal organs, and even bones.

It truly was the seventh technique of the Six Powers, connected to them yet independent of the Rokushiki system. Louis even believed that only the Six Powers mastered after gaining command of Life Return were the true Six Powers—like his earlier technique of using Tekkai on his hair.

"Pouring consciousness into the body, thereby controlling one's hair, body, and internal organs..."

The Instructor's voice was low, carrying an indescribable killing intent. Louis felt his scalp go numb. In a world where the aura of the strong alone could easily bring down an army of a hundred thousand, killing intent was something that truly existed. "So that is Life Return. Are you going to say that you can control your hair because you're a Devil Fruit user?"

The Instructor naturally knew that Louis was not a Devil Fruit user. The identities and backgrounds of everyone admitted into the training camp had undergone thorough CP investigation. It would have been far too embarrassing if a professional intelligence agency allowed enemy spies to infiltrate it. Louis's past had been investigated down to the smallest detail, and even during this graduation mission, Instructors had been monitoring him at all times.

"Oh! So this technique is called Life Return."

Louis looked enlightened and smiled. "I thought I was the only one who could use it, that it was my personal technique. Apparently not."

"So what you're saying, Louis,"

the Instructor frowned, "is that without receiving any instruction, and without even knowing about it, you comprehended Life Return—the hidden technique of the Six Powers—on your own?"

"More or less."

Louis nodded.

"Hahahahaha!! Hahahahaha!"

The Instructor suddenly burst into laughter. He withdrew the finger pressed against Louis's head and clutched his stomach as he laughed. "Are you trying to make me die laughing, Brat? From nothing to something? Do you know how much effort from how many people went into this?"

Though he was laughing, his killing intent grew even stronger. Goosebumps instantly covered Louis's body, and he shuddered—but his answer was somewhat playful. "Because I'm a genius."

After crossing over, Louis was not without cheats. Though he did not have a convenient system or an old grandpa like others did, the cheats he possessed were rather primitive and crude. The first was this body. It was not bragging—when it came to physical talent, Louis feared no one. Of course, bugs like Charlotte Linlin and Kaido did not count.

The first cheat barely counted as a cheat, but the second one did: mental strength. Or rather, perhaps because he had crossed over and lived two lives, Louis possessed exceptionally powerful mental strength. It manifested in his memory, thinking, reaction speed, and control.

His initial grasp of Life Return had only been an accident. Because his body was still very young, learning Tekkai was truly difficult for Louis. But his powerful mental strength allowed him to observe every corner of his body as though he had an endoscope, letting him alter the way he exerted force through careful observation and speed up his training.

While constantly observing his body and adjusting his exertion of force to train Tekkai, he accidentally discovered that as his attention kept concentrating on a certain part, that part of his body became increasingly sensitive. Once he shifted his attention away, the sensation immediately faded.

But after repeated experiments, repeatedly concentrating his attention on one spot for long periods, a change finally occurred. It was as though his consciousness had broken through some barrier, as though new nerves had formed. A part of his body that he had once been unable to control became as nimble as his fingers.

He immediately realized that this was Life Return. Relying on mental strength far beyond that of ordinary people, he had stumbled into it by accident. Perhaps the real cheat was not his mental strength itself, but this Life Return!

Of course, he could currently control only a few parts of his body, limited to his hair and portions of his skin. After all, he had been figuring it out on his own, and it was far from complete.

"Genius? Oh, interesting. A genius?"

The Instructor laughed. "How interesting. Are you serious?"

"Of course. You know that I have some talent when it comes to controlling my body."

Louis nodded as if it were only natural. "My life history was thoroughly investigated when I joined the training camp. Instructor, you know that I never had any chance to receive training from another organization. Besides, the Rokushiki is a secret technique never passed outside the government. Other organizations would not know it either."

This was when the benefits of usually displaying outstanding talent became clear. Pretending to be weak to overpower others might be fun, but when something like this happened, it would become impossible to explain.

The Instructor naturally knew about Louis's talent. He was a genuine genius. Even Wade, after learning Kami-e, had yet to develop so many variations, while Louis truly possessed great talent for training in the Six Powers. The essence of the Six Powers was tempering and controlling the body. Viewed that way, what Louis said was not impossible.

"You've put me in a difficult position, Louis."

The Instructor tucked a folder under his arm and scratched his head. "Your situation is really troublesome—hard to judge. Ah, ah, maybe I should just kill you. That would save me some trouble."