Norsha Was No Love Fool!

[Player requirements met]

[Love Cell Cultivation System activated]

[Character attribute panel loading...]

[Item shop loading...]

[Loading complete. Before starting the game, please remember:

As long as a person can forget himself and love others, he will not become psychologically unbalanced. He will be a happy and perfect person.]

[Enjoy the game]

The moment he finished his afternoon swordsmanship training, Norsha clearly heard a voice coming from above his head.

He frowned and ignored it. Pulling his white coat down from where it hung in the corner, he slung it over his shoulder and stepped out of the Marine Headquarters Elite Training Camp's training ground.

It was close to dusk.

The tree-lined road leading to the cafeteria was still full of Marine soldiers like him, fresh from the training grounds. They walked together, chatting and laughing, their faces young and full of enthusiasm.

Norsha walked alone beneath the trees. He had tried to keep a low profile, but he still stood out in the crowd like a firefly in the night.

His tall, slender frame stood at a full 195 centimeters. Beneath his medium-length black hair was a handsome face with a masculine edge, while his bare, bronze-colored upper body was covered in scars. The sweat and his natural charisma combined to give him the allure of a warm winter sun.

Women made up a small proportion of the Marines at Headquarters, but there were still plenty of them.

Quite a few young women kept sneaking glances his way. His handsome face, half-lit and half-hidden beneath the patches of dappled shade, left them entranced. Whenever their eyes accidentally met Norsha's, they would turn away like startled rabbits, blushing furiously.

Another dull day, as usual...

Norsha was used to those admiring glances hidden among the crowd. He pretended not to notice, while his mind returned to the voice he had just heard.

Wasn't this a little too late? The system was only awakening now?

Norsha had transmigrated into this world nineteen years ago. He had been born in 1482 of the Sea Circle Calendar, into an ordinary family at the 16th Branch in the East Blue.

His father was a branch lieutenant at the base, while his mother worked hard tending an orange grove.

Because he had shown extraordinary physical potential from a young age, his strict father had placed great hopes in him, training and honing him in the hope that he would one day enter Marine Headquarters and become an outstanding figure like Garp the Hero.

Back when Norsha was still a little kid, panting from his grueling training, he had imagined countless times that some transmigrator perk would fall from the heavens—something like a "Strongest Marine System" or a "Gale Swordmaster Inheritance System"—to help him get through those tough days.

Unfortunately, even that simple, modest wish hadn't come true by the time Garp happened to pass through a year ago, chose Norsha, and brought him to Marineford to join the Marine Headquarters Elite Training Camp.

He had no choice but to give up on that faint hope and put the idea out of his mind for good.

And now a system had suddenly shown up. Whether it was late or not could wait; what was with that ridiculous name—Love Cell Cultivation System?

Who did it think it was looking down on?

Norsha was no love fool!

It was true that he hadn't had much of a proper romantic relationship so far, but he had the looks to make up for it. Besides, back home, he had a beautiful childhood sweetheart. They had grown up together, and their relationship was built on a solid foundation.

Did someone destined to have a romance others would envy really need this sort of thing?

Before he knew it, he had reached the end of the tree-lined road.

Norsha entered the cafeteria. The delicious aroma of food filled his nostrils, making him forget everything else in an instant. He grabbed a tray and prepared to join the line.

Training at the Marine Headquarters Elite Training Camp was grueling. He had already been starving by the time he left the training grounds.

After taking a few minutes to get his food, Norsha found an empty table in a quiet corner and sat down. He had barely taken a couple of bites when two figures carrying trays sat down across from him, as if they did it all the time.

The one on the left was a burly young man with a cigarette dangling from his lips. His eyelids drooped slightly, and his features looked rather harsh and sinister.

The one on the right was a tall, skinny blond boy with delicate features. He looked perpetually troubled, and before long, he let out several deep sighs.

"Hey, this is the cafeteria, Shiryu! How many times have I told you to put out your cigarette while you're eating?"

Norsha glared at the burly young man, then turned to the blond boy with a teasing smile. "What happened, little Rossi? Why are you sighing the moment you get here?"

Shiryu and Rosinante.

They had both entered the Elite Training Camp around the same time as Norsha. One was four years older than him, and the other was a year younger. After sharing hardships over the past year, the three had grown close.

"It's because of the upcoming evaluation."

Shiryu stubbed out his cigarette and curled his lip. "Last month, this guy did poorly in the Six Powers and only came fifteenth in the overall evaluation. He cried like a baby, then declared in front of Instructor Zephyr that he'd make the top ten this month."

"But he hasn't made much progress with the Six Powers lately, and the evaluation's the day after tomorrow. Now he's lost his nerve again."

"I... I didn't cry!"

Rosinante flushed. "And what about you, Shiryu? A few days ago, you complained that Instructor Zephyr was teaching too fast and you couldn't keep up with the Six Powers. Are you really confident about the evaluation the day after tomorrow?"

"Sorry to disappoint you."

Shiryu glanced sideways at him, then slowly stuffed a rice ball into his mouth and chewed in small bites.

"I figured it out on my own the day before yesterday. I accidentally mastered both Geppo and Soru, so getting first or second in the evaluation shouldn't be a problem."

"Huh?" Rosinante froze. "You've mastered them all? I still haven't quite gotten the hang of Kami-e..."

Norsha ate in silence, sighing inwardly.

Those two... They were great in every way, except that every so often they'd casually say something incredible in that nonchalant tone. It was so enviable and infuriating that he wanted to pin them down and beat them up.

What place had he come in during last month's evaluation again?

Fifty-sixth, or fifty-seventh?

Norsha couldn't quite remember. The Marine Headquarters Elite Training Camp had a little over two hundred recruits in his cohort, and ever since he'd arrived, he'd consistently ranked somewhere between fiftieth and sixtieth.

Overall, he was barely above average. But compared to the two across from him—especially Shiryu, who regularly ranked near the top—he didn't stand a chance.

Norsha knew his physical abilities were far beyond those of ordinary people. Back home at the 16th Branch in the East Blue, few people his age could match him. But this was Marine Headquarters, where the elites gathered, and there were far too many geniuses.

The world had never been fair, and the sea was worse than most places. Take Big Mom, for example: even as a child, she had possessed a level of strength that most people could never hope to reach in their entire lives.

Norsha's parents were both ordinary people with average talent. Since entering Headquarters, he had relied on his terrifying self-discipline to put himself through hellish extra training every day. Reaching his current level was already an impressive feat.

As for closing the gap between himself and all these geniuses, aside from getting his hands on a powerful Devil Fruit, his only option was probably to rely on a system and cheat, right?

Yet the system he had waited so long for turned out to be anything but normal...

Taking advantage of the meal, Norsha tried to open the system's attribute panel with a thought. A translucent panel glowing with a faint blue light instantly appeared in front of him.

[Name: Romanov Norsha]

[Age: 19]

[Strength: 7]

[Agility: 6]

[Stamina: 9]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Charm: 10]

[Current points: 1501 (welcome gift)]

[Skills: Two-Sword Style Swordsmanship (Beginner), Six Powers (Entry Level), Firearms Shooting (Beginner), Combat Fighting (Entry Level), Self-Discipline (Master)]

A note at the bottom stated that the average score for an elite Marine Headquarters soldier was five.

Looking at it this way, aside from his unsurprisingly high Charm, his other basic physical attributes were quite ordinary. His Agility in particular was only one point above average.

But as a member of the Elite Training Camp, his actual combat strength far surpassed that of an ordinary soldier. In a straight-up brawl, he estimated he could take on more than a dozen people at once.

Clearly, attributes weren't calculated through simple addition and subtraction. They probably followed some kind of exponential curve: the higher they went, the greater the difference in strength represented by each additional point.

As for his skills...

Norsha looked over his shabby list of skills and was at a loss for words. He hadn't expected the system's standards to be so strict.

For one thing, he thought he had gotten pretty good at shooting, but it had only earned him a Beginner rating. The Six Powers and Combat Fighting were even worse, having both been rated at the lowest level: Entry Level...

The rating for Self-Discipline was absurdly high, but did that even count as a skill?

Norsha picked up his soup bowl and downed the hot borscht in one go.

So far, the system seemed pretty normal, but he hadn't forgotten its bizarre name.

On his guard, he searched the bottom of the attribute panel, eventually finding a button. He opened it and brought up a second page outlining the rules of the game.

[Love Cell Cultivation System Rules]

{1. This system aims to help players who have transmigrated for more than eighteen years without ever experiencing romance feel the warmth of love again and avoid becoming gloomy and extreme;}

{2. The system's intelligence is limited. Everything will be displayed on the panel in text form. Please explore the other functions on your own;}

{3. Establishing an ambiguous relationship with another person counts as completing the initial stage of a pursuit and will grant the first point reward. Establishing an official romantic relationship counts as completing the final stage and will grant the second point reward. Maintaining the relationship for a certain period will grant the third reward in the form of daily check-in points;}

{4. The more difficult the target is to pursue, the greater the points reward will be in proportion to the difficulty;}

{5. Aside from fixed exchange options, the shop will randomly refresh various items every week. Items can be purchased with points;}

{6. Points can be used to exchange for basic attribute points. The number of points required varies depending on the attribute and its current level;}

{7. Targets for pursuit include all things in the world, not just humans;}

{8. The system will issue temporary side quests from time to time. There is no penalty, and accepting them is entirely up to the player;}

{9. To help the player get started as soon as possible, the system will provide one free use of the Character Detector each day during the one-year novice period. After the novice period, the player will need to purchase uses from the shop with points;}

...

There were plenty more minor rules below, but the important ones were all near the top. Norsha quickly finished reading them.

Ignoring the first rule, which was full of ridiculous implications, he went over the rest several times in his mind, then opened the shop button on the right side of the system panel.

The interface was simple and clear, with no need to turn pages. There were only six items displayed in the shop.

[Taijutsu Training Acceleration Card (7 days): 200 points]

[Apparition Skill Scroll (requires Intelligence 11): 200,000 points]

[Wind Wall Skill Scroll (requires Advanced Swordsmanship): 300,000 points]

[Six Powers: Kami-e Skill Scroll (Intermediate): 1,000 points]

[Devil Fruit Identification Device (permanent): 80,000 points]

[See-Through Telescope (consumable): 6,000 points]

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