After receiving the mayor's commission, Yang Yunzhi obtained another Devil Fruit from him.
This Devil Fruit was entirely pearly white, its color very similar to the previous Color-Color Fruit, but it was clearly not the same kind.
Moreover, the fruit was covered in cloud-like patterns, making Yang Yunzhi strongly suspect that it was a Logia Cloud-Cloud Fruit.
"Come to think of it, I'm not some lone fighter. I'm in the Marines! There should be something like a Devil Fruit Compendium in the Marines, right?" Yang Yunzhi suddenly thought of this and immediately returned to the Marine base with the Ox-Horse Brothers.
After they registered, members of the Recruitment Office naturally led them to collect their uniforms and assigned them dormitories.
Yang Yunzhi, meanwhile, hurried to the base commander's office to see Hina.
"What? You're saying you collected two Devil Fruits in town?"
"Keep your voice down. Do you want every Marine in the base to know?" Yang Yunzhi said speechlessly.
"Oh, sorry!" Hina hurriedly lowered her voice. "But there's no way they could hear us. The stones used to build this place are extremely thick, so the soundproofing is excellent! Still, Glazed Town actually has Devil Fruits? How did I not know?"
"Actually, I think that's perfectly normal!" Yang Yunzhi considered it before explaining, "Look, after Devil Fruits respawn, who do you think finds them first? Nobles who live in palaces all year round? Isn't it usually commoners at the bottom of society—woodcutters, fishermen, people like that?"
"When they see such strange-looking fruit, they usually wouldn't dare eat it, afraid it might be poisonous. But they'd also worry it might be valuable, so they hide it or hand it over to their village chief. Isn't that perfectly reasonable?"
Hina nodded. "That does seem reasonable! In that case, farmers, village chiefs, and town mayors across the entire sea should be holding quite a large number of Devil Fruits, shouldn't they?"
"That's right!" Yang Yunzhi nodded.
"Marine bases are spread throughout the Four Seas, with countless towns and villages under their jurisdiction. We could gather these Devil Fruits very conveniently!" 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 not?"
After thinking for a moment, Yang Yunzhi asked, "Major Hina, may I ask what your dream is?"
"Of course it's to uphold justice and destroy the Great Pirate Era!" Hina declared firmly.
"Then you absolutely cannot report the matter of these Devil Fruits!" Yang Yunzhi said.
"Why?" Hina asked in return. "If the Marines grow stronger, wouldn't we be able to suppress pirates faster?"
"But the problem is, we already discussed this. The conditions that give rise to pirates are right there. Even if you kill every pirate alive, what good would that do? As long as those conditions remain, pirates will be like weeds—cut down one batch, and another will grow!"
"But if we wipe out all pirates, surely that would deter others from going to sea!" Hina thought it over and countered.
"Then you'd become an accomplice to the nobles' oppression of the common people!" Yang Yunzhi said. "The people are oppressed at home, but if they aren't allowed to go to sea either, all they can do is endure. And when nobles face people who can only endure, they won't show mercy. They'll only become more brazen. Besides, people's threshold for pleasure keeps rising. Right now, they're merely content with squeezing money and wealth from others, but later on, they might start killing for fun!"
"You should know exactly what the Celestial Dragons are like!"
Hina immediately fell silent.
Why did new ideas always spread among students or newly formed military forces?
Because students had active minds, while the first troops selected for new armies were all the best of the best. They could read, understood reason, and had the ability to think independently.
Naturally, they would also yearn for truth!
Hina was such a person. Though she came from a commoner background, she had received an education. After eating a Devil Fruit, she joined the Marines. Not only had she received advanced Marine training, but she had also traveled far and wide, witnessing all kinds of pirates and even the atrocities committed by nobles.
People like her were precisely the ones 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 more than a decade, yet the Revolutionary Army did not even have a proper revolutionary ideology or program.
Even Luffy knew that if he wanted to become One Piece, he couldn't abandon his companions. Yet Dragon didn't understand such a simple truth. When his comrades were captured and thrown into prison, all he knew how to do was sweat.
Sometimes, Yang Yunzhi even suspected that Dragon was a World Government spy, specifically sent to attract people who wanted to resist the World Government, gather them all together, and wipe them out in one fell swoop.
But now, Yang Yunzhi had provided Hina with a new way of thinking.
And naturally, that idea had drawn Hina in.
Yes, she had joined the Marines to uphold justice.
But was upholding justice meant to help nobles oppress the common people?
"But what can we do about the nobles?" Hina asked. "We Marines have no authority to interfere with them! Wait, I understand!"
She suddenly recalled what Yang Yunzhi had told her before—the thing she was supposed 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, she would at least need to obtain from the World Government the authority to interfere with nobles!
But if she could manage the nobles, then what difference would there be between her and the World Government?
The World Government would never hand over that power.
In that case, the World Government really had to be opposed!
Realizing this, Hina looked at Yang Yunzhi with some shock in her eyes.
It had taken her 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 asked again. "If the Marines become stronger, wouldn't the chances of resisting the World Government increase as well?"
"But the question is, 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 the World Government's rule won't collapse. It'll only become even more secure!"
"Right!" Hina finally understood. Only then did she realize that she seemed to have very few companions—apparently, only Yang Yunzhi!
Wait!
Hina not only noticed that their hands were still pressed together, but also wondered how a perfectly respectable Marine major with such a bright future had somehow 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 so easily swayed by others. If she had been persuaded 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 instant the thought of change arose, the world suddenly seemed vast. As her thoughts surged, a bolt of lightning flashed, followed by a dense spiritual pressure bursting forth from Hina before vanishing in an instant.
But Yang Yunzhi was already stunned. "Wait, Conqueror's Haki?"
Perhaps because his spirit was resilient, or perhaps because of the system's protection, he had not been knocked unconscious.
"It is Conqueror's Haki!" Hina was equally 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 possesses? Isn't it only for those with the qualities of a king?"
"It seems the conditions for awakening Conqueror's Haki are a lie!" Yang Yunzhi considered it and said, "Maybe it isn't those who want to become kings who can awaken Conqueror's Haki. Maybe anyone who longs for freedom, opposes oppression, pursues fairness and justice, and doesn't want others to become kings can awaken it!"
"Simply put, you need the will to change the world!"
In that case, I should be able to awaken it too. I just don't know why I haven't.
Still, it wasn't a big deal. The system would probably reward it later.
"So that's how it is!" The corners of Hina's lips rose. Perhaps because she had awakened Conqueror's Haki, she seemed much more confident. "It looks like the World Government really must be opposed!"
"Let's put aside whether we're opposing the World Government. Shouldn't we hurry up and issue an alert?"
"An alert for what?"
"To warn everyone about some powerful person passing through who carelessly unleashed Conqueror's Haki!"
"What powerful person passing through? That was me—oh, right! That's right, there really was some powerful person passing through!" Hina hurriedly slapped the button on the desk and sounded the alarm.
In an instant, she understood what Yang Yunzhi meant. Her awakening Conqueror's Haki had to remain secret, because to outsiders, Conqueror's Haki represented the qualities of a king.
A Marine major wanting to become king—what did that mean? Was Fleet Admiral not enough for her? Did she want to become the King of the Marines?
The World Government would never allow someone that formidable to exist.
Before you continue