S-Rank Gift Box

T Bone?

Noah's expression flickered. He took a closer look at the shy youth and realized he did indeed bear a striking resemblance to the person in his memory. If he traced it back twenty years, the age matched up as well.

There was no mistake; this had to be the Ship Cutter, T Bone.

In the original timeline, this guy was the Marine Headquarters Colonel responsible for escorting Nico Robin during the Water 7 incident.

He didn't have much screen time, appearing in only a chapter or two. He was the type of minor character easily forgotten in the corners once the arc concluded.

But Noah hadn't forgotten.

"If the criminals I escort are released back into this world, I don't know how many innocent people will bleed and weep because of them!"

"Even in this unjust world, I will prove that justice and righteousness still exist in this place!"

A guy who could say such things and uphold those convictions, putting them into practice, was not someone who should be forgotten.

"How old are you this year, kid?" He asked with a blank expression, intending to test him.

"Fif... fifteen years old."

With a "big shot" from Headquarters speaking, T Bone grew even more nervous, lowering his head to answer in a small voice.

"Just enlisted?" Noah feigned a frown. "Citrus Island is a two-day voyage from here. Have you sailed a ship before? Can you handle it alone?"

"How about we swap him for someone else?" Colonel Bako, standing to the side, read the situation and immediately gestured toward the other Marines behind him. "I brought several men along; you can pick anyone you like from them."

Noah didn't respond, instead watching T Bone quietly.

"I... I can do it!"

Seemingly stung by the doubt, T Bone suddenly became urgent. He snapped his head up, staring straight at Noah with burning eyes, his voice much louder:

"I've been enlisted for two years. I'm very skilled at navigation, and I'm from the West Blue, so I'm very familiar with the nearby waters. Please... please trust me!"

That was more like it.

"Very well."

Noah nodded, satisfied with the courage and confidence T Bone had displayed, and pointed at the youth while speaking to Colonel Bako beside him:

"No need to swap. He's the one."

You never know how terrifying a self-disciplined person can be.

The fifteen-year-old T Bone had always considered himself among the most diligent and self-disciplined people in the world, but after meeting Noah, he realized how wrong he had been.

2:00 AM, board the ship, depart.

2:00-4:00, training, exercise.

4:00-6:00, training, exercise.

6:00-8:00, training, exercise.

8:00-8:01, couldn't hold it anymore, went to take a leak.

8:01-12:00, training, exercise.

Throughout the journey, while T Bone steered the ship, he watched in a daze as Noah trained relentlessly on the deck.

Aside from a brief pause to take care of his physiological needs at the stern, there was almost no break or rest.

Ten full hours.

Was this even human?

As time passed and the afternoon arrived, T Bone stared at Noah's back as he practiced his swordsmanship for a while, feeling it was time to step up and remind him of something.

"Um, Mr. Noah..."

He didn't know Noah's specific rank, so he couldn't address him by title and had to call him that instead.

When Noah turned to look at him, T Bone feared he was interrupting and spoke with some trepidation: "Aren't... aren't you hungry? Did you get too absorbed and forget to eat?"

"Hm?"

Noah finally looked up, bewildered, and glanced at the blinding sun overhead. "Huh? When did the sun come out? Is it time for breakfast already?"

"It's lunch," T Bone corrected. "It's already one-thirty in the afternoon, sir."

"It's been that long, huh." He muttered, heading into the cabin. When he came out, he was holding a pile of canned goods and tossed a few to T Bone. "Here, have some."

"No need, sir." T Bone hurriedly shook his head to decline. "I brought my own rations. These in the cabin were prepared specifically for you by Colonel Bako; I don't have the qualifications to—"

"Eat if I tell you to eat. Why so much talk?"

Noah shoved the cans into his arms, refusing to take no for an answer. "I've served at a local branch, too. I know what kind of stuff your rations are. What if your nutrition doesn't keep up and you get lightheaded and steer the ship off course? Eat!"

"..."

T Bone didn't dare push them away again. Besides, the canned food smelled far more tempting than his dry rations, and his stomach was indeed growling with hunger.

So, after timidly thanking Noah, he opened a can and began to wolf down the food.

Noah smiled and opened his own can, digging in.

Compared to the starving Bone, his table manners were much more refined—or, to put it another way, given his looks and temperament, it was impossible for him to look anything but elegant.

Even sitting in a restaurant and eating with the Luffy-style method, he couldn't stop the young women passing by from casting admiring glances his way.

While dining, Noah silently ruminated on the grueling training he had just completed.

The massive boost to his physical stats after adding points was reflected in every aspect, and it was especially beneficial during training; the feeling of being able to do ten thousand push-ups in one go and practice thousands of sword swings, only to remain full of energy afterward, was simply exhilarating.

Perhaps to Bone, the fact that he had trained bitterly for over a dozen hours without a break was a terrifying and monstrous feat, but in Noah's eyes, this level of intensity hadn't even begun to test his current physical limits.

"I feel like I need to adjust my biological clock."

Noah pondered, sensing that with his current monstrous physique, the daily training routine of over fifteen hours he had maintained previously was no longer enough to exhaust him.

In other words, it seemed he didn't need to go to bed every single night anymore.

There was a guy named Blackbeard who had a unique constitution and could go decades without sleeping; he couldn't do that yet, but in the future, barring special circumstances, resting one night every two days should be perfectly fine.

As the saying goes, why sleep so much while alive, when you are destined for a long slumber after death?

Using the time others spent sleeping to improve himself was a fantastic feeling.

In truth, for an ordinary person, after having just experienced a crazy doubling of stats through point allocation, it would be difficult to settle down and continue the dull, monotonous daily grind.

If one could wait for a rabbit to hit a tree stump every day, who would want to hoe the fields until sunset?

But Noah was different; he understood the principle that one must be strong to forge iron. Adding points could not replace bitter training, because the latter tempered not just the body, but also the human will.

Furthermore, a strengthened body still needed to be solidified and adapted through rigorous training.

"Every time I add points to reach the next stage, my body's potential seems to be further unlocked, and the ceiling of my bottlenecks rises along with it."

Noah thought to himself as he opened another can. He peered inside—yellow peaches. He was already about seventy or eighty percent full, so it made for a nice post-meal fruit.

"This way, even if the points required for future upgrades become higher and higher, I can still improve my base physical stats through training."

It was a pity that the item shop hadn't stocked a Taijutsu Training Acceleration Card this week; hopefully, one would show up next week. That item was cheap and effective, truly a great tool.

After finishing the canned peaches, Noah checked the time. It wasn't even two o'clock yet. After a moment of thought, he looked at Bone and asked, "If the voyage goes smoothly, can we reach Celeste Island by tomorrow night?"

The warship carrying the Elite Training Camp should have already arrived at Celeste Island by now. Noah estimated that the 48-hour practical assessment would officially begin by sunset today at the latest.

He didn't expect to arrive at the very first moment, but he should at least make it to the assessment within the first 24 hours.

"I'm afraid not, sir." Bone shook his head helplessly. "Even though our ship is a fast cutter, the earliest we can reach Celeste Island is the early hours of the day after tomorrow."

"The early hours of the day after tomorrow, huh..."

Noah sighed. This answer was within his expectations, but it meant there wouldn't be much time left for his assessment.

He hoped that by the time he arrived, the officers of the Bege Pirates on the island hadn't all been wiped out by Shiryu and the others. They needed to hold on a bit longer, at least leave him a scrap of meat, right?

After his meal, Noah lay down on the wooden platform beneath the mast, arms folded behind his head, squinting at the sky. He appeared to be taking a nap in the sea breeze, but in reality, he had opened his inventory, preparing to look through that notebook of Ryuma's sword insights.

During his sword practice this morning, he had encountered a few problems he couldn't quite grasp, and he intended to find the answers in this book.

Opening the inventory, he saw another icon shaped like a golden treasure chest next to the tattered golden scroll. Noah then remembered the gift box he had received as a reward for completing the side quest, which he hadn't opened yet.

Come to think of it, he had actually claimed this item into his inventory a long time ago.

However, he had been in Momousagi's body at the time, and to be cautious—avoiding any rewards that might directly affect his body, like stat points—Noah had refrained from opening it.

Now that his body was back and the points were all allocated, he had nothing to do while lying on the deck, so he might as well open it to see if his luck was that of a lucky winner or a total loser.

I finished writing the first chapter at 10 o'clock and originally thought I could update the second chapter before 12, but I ended up with a stomachache and fell asleep on the toilet 〒▽〒. Sorry for the delay, everyone...