Officer, Please Leave Us Some Kills!

At dawn, the sky over the Grand Line had yet to fully brighten.

A cold, salty sea fog still shrouded the skies above the G-8 Branch.

"Beep—!!!"

An exceptionally shrill and miserable emergency assembly whistle pierced the tranquility of the branch fortress like a cold steel needle.

Five hundred elite soldiers carefully selected from Headquarters kicked open the doors of the smoke-filled branch dormitories like a pack of wolves.

"Get up! All personnel, assemble! You have thirty seconds! Anyone who fails to get dressed will have their legs broken!"

The Headquarters veterans roared viciously.

More than a thousand branch Marines, who had long lived in comfort and were steeped in the habits of old hands, scrambled out of bed in terror and rushed toward the central training grounds.

By the time they stood in formation on the training field, disheveled and panting,

Rochi was already standing expressionlessly atop the platform, draped in a broad Navy Colonel's coat of justice like a grim reaper looking down upon ants.

"So this is your closed-door training?"

Rochi's deep black eyes slowly swept across the gang of military slackers below, who could not even stand properly. A cruel sneer curled across his lips.

"From today onward, all the bullshit rules of the G-8 Branch are abolished."

"Here, there is only my rule!"

Rochi turned to Major Lace, the adjutant at his side. His voice did not fluctuate in the slightest. "Lace, announce the training plan."

"Yes, Colonel!"

Lace adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses, took out a document, and read aloud:

"First training exercise: military posture!"

"Everyone will remain absolutely still under the blazing sun for four hours! Whether flies land on your eyes or sea ants chew through your flesh, you are not allowed to move at all!"

"Second exercise: armed cross-country march!"

"Each person will carry one hundred kilograms of raw Iron Body and march thirty kilometers around the island! Anyone who falls behind will go without food for the day!"

The entire training field instantly erupted.

"Are you insane?! Is this kind of training meant for humans?!"

"We can't move for four hours, then we have to run thirty kilometers carrying a hundred kilograms? This is practically murder!"

"I'm done! I joined the Marines for a salary, not to be a slave and die!"

A burly platoon leader who had once thrown his weight around at Deputy Branch Commander Bard's side suddenly threw his sailor cap to the ground. Relying on his own strength, he pointed at Rochi on the platform and roared angrily.

Yet his voice had barely faded.

Boom!

Rochi vanished from the platform as though he had teleported.

The next second, a terrifying pressure like an avalanche crashed down upon the platoon leader's head!

Crack—!

Rochi stomped hard on the platoon leader's knee, and the bone-splitting sound made everyone's teeth ache!

"Ahhh! My leg!!!" The platoon leader collapsed to his knees with a miserable scream.

Rochi's face was as cold as ice as he looked down at him, as though he were staring at a piece of garbage.

"Break this trash's other leg too and throw him into solitary. Once he has recovered, make him crawl the full thirty kilometers!"

"Hiss—"

The sound of everyone drawing sharp breaths merged into one. Every complaint and curse was forcibly swallowed back down, and everyone tensed in terror. Not a single person dared move even an inch.

This was not training at all. He was squeezing them to death!

The brutal physical torment of the morning had just ended. As the branch soldiers lay sprawled on the ground like dead dogs, gasping for air,

a shrill Level One combat alarm suddenly blared!

"Report, Colonel! A warship from the Blood Shark Pirates, with a bounty of twelve million Beli, has been spotted ten nautical miles southwest!" the communications soldier reported loudly.

At the words "pirates," a frenzied, sickly flame instantly ignited deep within Rochi's dead-water-black eyes!

"Headquarters elites, board the ship! Follow me into battle!"

The warship cut through the wind and waves.

It quickly caught up with the pirate vessel.

"Gunners, take position! Rifle squad, prepare the first volley for cover!"

A Headquarters captain drew his command saber and skillfully issued combat orders.

"All of you! Put your guns down!"

Rochi roared, erupting with a terrifying blood-sea killing intent that immediately halted all fire preparations.

"Without my orders, no one is allowed to fire! No one is allowed to make a move!"

"All these pirates are my prey!"

Before his words had faded, Rochi explosively pushed off with both legs. With a boom, he shattered the edge of the deck and crashed single-handedly into the pirate ship opposite like a cannonball!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The dull sound of fists striking flesh and the pirates' miserable screams instantly intertwined into a violent symphony.

Yet Rochi, standing at the center of the slaughter, frowned more deeply by the moment.

[ Ding! Killed an ordinary pirate (worthless). Due to the excessive level gap with the host, EXP +0! ]

[ Ding! Killed a Soldier Level pirate. EXP +1! ]

"A bunch of trash that can't even be squeezed for experience. What a waste of my strength!"

Rochi crushed the pirate captain's throat in one hand. After barely hearing the system prompt, [EXP +20], he flung the blood from his hand with a disgusted expression.

When he returned to the warship, all that remained for the Headquarters elite soldiers was a ship full of severed limbs. Not even a single survivor remained.

Over the next two days,

the same scene played out three times in a row!

No matter what level of pirates they encountered, Rochi always gave the absolute order, "No firing, no moving," before charging in alone and slaughtering them as easily as chopping vegetables.

At last, the five hundred Headquarters soldiers who had followed him could no longer hold it in.

Late at night on the deck, a group of Headquarters soldiers surrounded Major Lace, grinding their teeth as they complained bitterly.

"Major Lace! We know Colonel Rochi is powerful, and life has indeed been easy following him. We haven't even taken a single bullet."

"But... but this makes no sense! We came out here to earn achievements and military merit!"

"For three encounters in a row, we've just stood on the ship watching the colonel perform by himself! We haven't even touched a pirate's hair! Is there really an officer who leads by stealing all his subordinates' kills?!"

Lace adjusted her glasses. Listening to the soldiers' frantic complaints, her face was also dark with frustration. She had no idea how to explain the colonel's near-obsessive thirst for slaughter.

"Alright, alright. Next time... next time, I'll definitely try to persuade the colonel to leave everyone some scraps!"

However, reality proved that Lace's promise was completely useless.

The fourth encounter!

The moment a pirate ship foolishly entered their sight, before Rochi even had time to give an order,

"Brothers! Charge!!!"

"Don't let the colonel steal all the kills! Hurry up and grab some military merit!!!"