Hina Awakens Conqueror's Haki

After receiving the mayor's trust, Yang Yunzhi obtained another Devil Fruit from him.

This Devil Fruit was pure white all over. Its color resembled the previous Color-Color Fruit, but it was clearly not the same kind.

Moreover, this fruit was covered in cloud-like patterns, making Yang Yunzhi strongly suspect that it was a Logia-type Cloud-Cloud Fruit.

"Come to think of it, I'm not fighting alone. I'm in the Marines. There should be something like a Devil Fruit encyclopedia in the Marines, right?" Yang Yunzhi suddenly thought of this and immediately took the Ox-Horse Brothers back to the Marine base.

After registering, members of the recruit office naturally led them to collect uniforms and assigned them dormitories.

Yang Yunzhi, meanwhile, hurried to the base commander's office and met Hina.

"What? You said you collected two Devil Fruits in town?"

"Keep it down. Do you want every Marine in the base to know about this?" Yang Yunzhi said helplessly.

"Oh, sorry!" Hina quickly lowered her voice. "But there's no way they could hear us. The stones used to build this place are incredibly thick, so the soundproofing is excellent! Still, Glazed Town actually has Devil Fruits? How did I not know?"

"Actually, I think it's perfectly normal!" Yang Yunzhi thought for a moment and explained, "After Devil Fruits regenerate, who do you think finds them first? Nobles living in palaces all year round? Isn't it usually ordinary people at the bottom, like woodcutters and fishermen?"

"When they see fruits that look this strange, they generally wouldn't dare eat them because they'd be afraid they were poisonous. But they'd also worry they might be valuable, so they hide them away or hand them over to their village chief. Isn't that perfectly reasonable?"

Hina nodded. "That does sound reasonable! If that's the case, then farmers, village chiefs, and town mayors across villages throughout the sea should be holding a large number of Devil Fruits too?"

"Exactly!" Yang Yunzhi nodded.

"Marine bases are spread throughout the Four Seas, with countless towns and villages under their jurisdiction. We can collect these Devil Fruits very easily!" As Hina spoke, she pulled out a Den Den Mushi from her chest. "I'm contacting Marine headquarters!"

"Don't!" Yang Yunzhi lunged forward and pressed down on Hina's hand. "You can't report this!"

"Hm?" Hina frowned. "Why?"

Yang Yunzhi thought for a moment before asking, "Major Hina, may I ask what your ideal is?"

"Of course it's to uphold justice and eliminate the Great Pirate Era!" Hina answered resolutely.

"Then you absolutely can't report the Devil Fruits!" Yang Yunzhi said.

"Why?" Hina countered. "If the Marines become stronger, won't we be able to suppress pirates faster?"

"But that's the problem. We discussed this before. The soil that breeds pirates is still there. What's the point of killing every pirate alive? As long as that soil remains, pirates will keep springing up like chives. Cut one crop, and another will grow!"

"But if we kill all the pirates, surely we can deter everyone else from going to sea!" Hina considered it and asked.

"Then you'll become an accomplice to the nobles oppressing the people!" Yang Yunzhi said. "The people are oppressed in their own countries, yet they can't go to sea, so they can only endure it. And when nobles face people who can only endure, they won't show mercy. They'll only become more and more unscrupulous. Besides, people's threshold for pleasure keeps rising. Right now, they may only be satisfied with exploiting money and property, but later, they might kill people for amusement!"

"You know what the Celestial Dragons are like!"

Hina fell silent.

Why did new ideas always spread among students or newly formed armies?

Because students had active minds, while the earliest new armies were all carefully selected elites. They could read, understood reason, and were capable of independent thought.

Naturally, they yearned for truth as well!

Hina was one such person. Though she came from commoner origins, she had received an education. After eating a Devil Fruit, she joined the Marines, where she received advanced Marine education and traveled far and wide, witnessing all kinds of pirate crimes and even the atrocities of nobles.

People like her were the most likely to accept new ideas.

But the question was, why hadn't she joined the Revolutionary Army in the original story?

The reason was simple. The uprising had been going on for over a decade, yet the Revolutionary Army did not even have a proper revolutionary ideology or platform.

Even Luffy knew that if he wanted to become Pirate King, he couldn't abandon his companions. Yet Dragon didn't understand that. When his companions were captured and thrown into prison, all he did was sweat.

Sometimes, Yang Yunzhi even suspected that Dragon was a World Government mole, specifically there to lure in people who wanted to resist the World Government, gather them together, and wipe them out in one sweep.

But now, Yang Yunzhi had provided Hina with a new way of thinking.

And naturally, that way of thinking attracted Hina.

That was right. She had joined the Marines to uphold justice.

But was the purpose of upholding justice really to help nobles oppress the people?

"But what can we do about the nobles?" Hina asked. "We Marines have no authority to interfere with nobles! Wait, I understand!"

She suddenly remembered what Yang Yunzhi had told her before, about what she needed to do.

He wanted to become Fleet Admiral, then resist the World Government.

Looking at it that way, if justice was to be carried out, they at least needed to obtain from the World Government the authority to interfere with nobles!

But if you could govern nobles, how would you be any different from the World Government?

The World Government would definitely never hand over such authority.

In that case, the World Government really had to be opposed!

Realizing this, Hina looked at Yang Yunzhi with shock in her eyes.

It had taken me so many days to understand this, yet he had thought of it from the very beginning?

"But what does that have to do with not reporting this to the Marines?" Hina thought of this and asked again. "If the Marines become stronger, won't the chances of resisting the World Government also increase?"

"But how many people in the entire Marine force actually want to resist the World Government?" Yang Yunzhi countered. "If we report these Devil Fruits and they end up in the hands of people who support the World Government, then not only will the World Government's rule not collapse, it will become even more secure!"

"I see!" Hina finally understood. Only then did she realize that she seemed to have rather few companions. Apparently, Yang Yunzhi was the only one!

Wait!

Hina also realized that their hands were still pressed together. And how had she, a promising Marine major with a bright future, been talked into resisting the World Government by him?

Just as she was about to say something, another thought suddenly occurred to her.

Was it really that she wanted to resist the World Government?

No, it was that in order to carry out justice, she had no choice but to resist the World Government!

She was not someone who could be talked into things so easily. If she had been convinced now, it could only mean that what he had told her was the truth!

As long as she held fast to her dream, she would inevitably come into conflict with the World Government.

Since they would clash sooner or later, what difference did it make whether it happened early or late?

The moment the thought of change arose, the world instantly widened. As that thought moved, a bolt of lightning flashed, followed by an overwhelming spiritual pressure that burst forth from Hina before vanishing in an instant.

But Yang Yunzhi was already stunned. "Wait, Conqueror's Haki?"

Perhaps because his will was resilient, or perhaps because the system protected him, he had not been knocked unconscious.

"It's Conqueror's Haki!" Hina was also shocked by the Conqueror's Haki she had awakened. "Why did I awaken something like this? Isn't this something only one person in a million has? Isn't it only possessed by those with the qualities of a king?"

"It seems the conditions for awakening Conqueror's Haki are a lie!" Yang Yunzhi thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps it isn't people who want to become kings who can awaken Conqueror's Haki. Rather, anyone who yearns for freedom, opposes oppression, pursues fairness and justice, and does not want others to be kings can awaken it!"

"In short, you need the will to transform the world!"

By that logic, I should be able to awaken it too. I just don't know why I haven't.

But it wasn't a big problem. The system would probably reward it someday.

"So that's how it is!" Hina curled her lips into a smile. Perhaps because she had awakened Conqueror's Haki, she seemed much more confident. "It looks like the World Government truly must be opposed!"

"Let's put aside whether to oppose the World Government for now. Shouldn't we hurry and issue an alert?"

"Alert for what?"

"Alert everyone about a powerful person passing through who just carelessly released Conqueror's Haki!"

"What powerful person passing through? Wasn't that me? Ah, right! Yes, that's right, there really was a powerful person passing through!" Hina hurriedly slapped the button on the desk, setting off the alarm.

In an instant, she understood Yang Yunzhi's meaning. The fact that she had awakened Conqueror's Haki had to remain secret. After all, in the outside world, Conqueror's Haki represented the qualities of a king.

A Marine major wanting to become a king? What did that mean? Was Fleet Admiral not enough for you? Did you want to become the King of the Marines?

The World Government would definitely not allow someone that formidable to exist.