As dusk gave way to night, in this hour when demons roamed.
The battle between Noah and the West Blue pirate "Giant Bear" Sano, who carried a bounty of 52 million Beli, ended with Noah's victory.
And with that, this practical assessment came to a perfect close.
All the Elite Training Camp members who had completed the assessment, still reeling from the shock of witnessing that astonishing battle, began to leave the battlefield of their own accord and converge on the warship at the harbor.
The instructors hidden in the shadows, along with the rest of Aokiji's Marine Headquarters soldiers, also revealed themselves one after another. They mobilized in full force and began sweeping up the remaining pirates in the town.
There were not many accompanying instructors, but every one of them had once been an elite Marine who fought on the front lines, with the weakest among them possessing at least the strength of a Marine Headquarters colonel.
They had only moved to support roles for various reasons—injuries, old age, or an inability to leave their families behind—and followed Zephyr in contributing to Marine Headquarters' training of talent.
With these people involved, the pirates in town naturally did not even have a chance to flee. One after another, they were captured.
Even the officers with sizable bounties were basically unable to fight back, instantly defeated by the immensely powerful instructors.
Only then did they belatedly realize, in despair, just how unusual those young Marines had been.
From the moment they set foot on this island, their fates had already been sealed.
At the edge of town.
A door suddenly appeared at the base of a moss-covered marble statue.
Big Black Hat Roan, clad in a black trench coat, cautiously poked his head out from inside. Only after confirming that the squad of Marines that had just passed by was already far away did he let out a breath.
He had ended up at the outskirts of the island while fighting and fleeing from Rosinante after failing to defeat him.
"Good thing I ran fast, or I'd have been caught too..." Roan cursed under his breath, clutching the wound at his waist. "Just where did these Marine brats come from? Why are there so many monsters?"
There was no need to mention the black-haired beautiful youth who had defeated Sano. From the moment Noah had instantly defeated Kaku, Roan had known he was not someone to provoke.
And the other man, the one who liked to keep a cigarette in his mouth and squint his eyes, looked like a ruthless bastard just from his face alone. Roan did not want to face him either.
So, when the last of the three to challenge him to a one-on-one fight was that tall, skinny blond youth, Roan had actually been secretly delighted, thinking he had picked the softest target.
But the final outcome... had clearly not been quite so satisfactory.
"Forget it. I can't waste any more time. Before those Marines notice me, I need to get back to the ship first."
Roan strained his eyes toward the distant horizon and began searching desperately for any trace of his Big Black Hat.
The Door-Door Fruit's power had limitations after all. Even after developing it for more than a decade, if he wanted to teleport over a long distance, he first had to lock onto the location at the other end within his line of sight.
Crossing several kilometers, opening a door from the ship to the island was easy. But returning from the island to the deck was not so simple. He had to be extraordinarily careful.
If anything went wrong, then when he pushed open the door and returned from the alternate dimension to reality, he would be swallowed directly by the endless seawater. By then, regret would be too late.
"Hm? Strange..."
After searching carefully for quite a while without spotting the Big Black Hat, Roan immediately frowned in confusion. "That shouldn't be possible. I clearly remember dropping anchor around there earlier..."
Could the damned Marines have already discovered it and sailed it away?
Still unwilling to give up, he looked around for a moment before an idea suddenly struck him. His gaze landed on the towering solitary peak to the north.
That mountain was several hundred meters tall, so the view would be far broader than it was here. And there was no way Marines would be on those barren cliffs.
If he opened a door straight to the top, wouldn't he be able to use the height advantage to find his ship on the sea?
Now that was quick thinking...
Roan gave himself a mental pat on the back, then focused and locked onto a massive protruding boulder at the mountain's summit. He activated his power, opened a door in the wall before him, and strode inside.
When he pushed open the door again, he had arrived on the giant boulder at the mountaintop.
Sure enough, his field of view was vastly wider, and the surroundings were silent and empty. Only the faint sound of trickling water could be heard...
Hm, trickling water?
There was no forest stream on this bare mountaintop. Where could that sound of running water have come from?
Following the sound to the other side of the boulder, Roan looked down in confusion, only to see someone relieving himself against the rock wall below. The man also looked up at him in a daze.
He was a towering man nearly three meters tall, dressed in a white coat of justice, with thick, curly black hair.
"Oh my..."
Upon seeing him, the man narrowed his eyes and made that incomprehensible sound.
The surrounding temperature suddenly plummeted. Whether it was an illusion or not, Roan seemed to see bone-chilling white frost rushing toward him.
And then...
There was no then.
Elsewhere.
After returning to the warship, Noah made his way through the crowd and back to his room beneath countless fervent gazes filled with envy and admiration.
The final assessment rankings would still require several days of tallying before they could be determined. They would most likely have to wait until the warship returned to Marine Headquarters for Zephyr to announce them personally.
But there was one thing nearly everyone could be certain of: the first place in this assessment could only belong to Noah!
No one could question that.
Whether it was his dazzling record or the astounding combat power he had displayed in the final battle when he defeated Giant Bear Sano, the other Elite Training Camp members of his class could only look on in despair, utterly unable to compare.
Some girls who had secretly admired Noah for quite some time even had stars in their eyes. They watched him leave the deck and return to the cabin almost reluctantly.
Other than that, no one had any particular thoughts about it.
After all, Noah had always gotten along well with people, and his previous assessment results had consistently been above average. Coupled with the increasingly insane training he had been putting himself through lately, it was not impossible to accept that he had suddenly shone this time and taken first place.
If it had been some lazy, carefree bottom-ranker suddenly erupting and taking first place outright, that might well have drawn all kinds of suspicious looks.
When Noah returned to the room, he found that Rosinante and Shiryu had already gotten back before him.
Their stamina completely spent and exhaustion at its peak, the two had long since fallen asleep, snoring away in their beds.
Noah still had plenty of stamina left, but after fighting all day with his mind constantly taut, he simply climbed into bed as well, intending to sleep and properly restore his spirits.
When he woke up, it was exactly five thirty in the morning. His absurd biological clock, accurate down to the second, was still functioning.
Noah got up, glanced at his two still-sleeping friends, and did not wake them. He left the cabin alone, washed up briefly, and came to the railing on the deck.
The boundless azure sea stretched out around him, while Citrus Island had vanished from sight.
Clearly, while these recruits had been sleeping and resting, the warship had silently left the harbor and embarked on its return voyage to Marine Headquarters.
"Oh, right."
After breathing in the sea breeze for a while and fully clearing his head, Noah suddenly remembered that once midnight had passed last night, it had become a brand-new week. The random items in the shop should have refreshed by now.
He hurriedly opened the system panel and entered the shop. A quick glance confirmed his suspicion: the random items in the shop had been completely replaced.
[Gravity Training Field (Permanent): 70,000 points] [Taijutsu Training Acceleration Card (60 days): 10,000 points] [Blue-Eyes White Dragon Summoning Card (Consumable): 1,500 points] [Infinite Luosifen: 8,000 points] [Rokushiki Iron Body Skill Scroll (Intermediate): 2,000 points] [Clock-out Reminder: 500 points]
Second update is here. Good night, everyone!
P.S. Thank you to Seriously Yet Timid, Being Alone Is Pretty Good Too for the generous 10,000 reward. That makes one extra chapter owed in total.
And thank you as well to Book Friend 20200706210038838, Ancestor of the Wolf King, Bright Glasses Bro, A Youth Naturally Unmatched in Grace and Talent, Fengliu Yunmeng, and Book Friend 20200706210038838 for their reward support. Many thanks!
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