Promotion to Private First Class · Scheming for Robin

Little Bean had only just eaten the Link-Link Fruit when Hina gave Yang Yunzhi another surprise early the next morning.

"Here!"

"What is this?"

"Your private first class shoulder insignia!"

"I'm a private first class now?" Yang Yunzhi was speechless. "Wait, I got promoted just like that?"

"You found a Logia Devil Fruit for the Navy. Of course you should be rewarded!" Hina rolled her eyes. "Actually, the chief of staff suggested promoting you to lieutenant junior grade, but didn't you say you liked climbing up one rank at a time? So I'll promote you once a day until you reach lieutenant junior grade!"

Yang Yunzhi was suddenly a little moved. He had met plenty of people with an excessive sense of self-importance. One defining trait of such people was that they cared nothing for what others thought and only centered everything around themselves.

A typical example was Garp.

Well, the Garp from novels. In most novels, Garp was the sort who would seize the protagonist the moment he met him and force him to join the Navy, completely unconcerned with what the protagonist wanted.

But Hina was different. He had only mentioned once that he did not want to skip ranks, yet she had actually taken it to heart!

On top of that, she was beautiful and willing to listen, and she did not look down on him just because he was only a third-class private.

A superior like that would have been the dream lord of countless strategists in the Three Kingdoms era!

"But wasn't I going to exchange Devil Fruits with the higher-ups? Does that count as merit too?" Yang Yunzhi asked.

"A Paramecia isn't as valuable as a Logia, so of course it counts!" Hina said. "And once you eat the Door-Door Fruit, you'll become one of the Navy's key trainees. When you're promoted to captain, you'll even be able to enter the Marine Elite Training School!"

Yang Yunzhi nodded. Ever since Mythical Zoans had appeared, Logias seemed to have fallen out of favor.

In reality, that was not the case at all. Even after Luffy defeated Kaido and became one of the Five Emperors, there were only two people in his entire pirate crew who could reliably deal with Logias.

The logic was simple. By the later stages, Mythical Zoans were practically everywhere, while Logias remained exceedingly rare.

Which was more valuable went without saying.

But no matter how powerful Logias were, Yang Yunzhi would still choose a spatial ability.

After all, spatial abilities could also be developed to produce intangibility similar to a Logia's, but no Logia could develop skills like storage space or portals even if its user worked himself to death.

Back in his office, Yang Yunzhi immediately chose to claim his promotion rewards.

[Congratulations, Host, on your promotion to private first class]

[You have obtained the basic reward: Basic Body Arts]

[Your Doriki Value has increased to 80]

[Your Portable Space capacity has increased to 8 cubic meters]

[Your personal map radius has increased to 800 meters]

[Your Justice Gauge limit has increased to 800]

[You have obtained one lottery draw]

There was another change the system had not mentioned: his Byakugan vision had also doubled along with his doubled Doriki Value.

Now, his field of vision had expanded to a radius of 8,000 meters!

It felt like he no longer needed Observation Haki.

There was nothing much to say about his Doriki Value, space, map, or Justice Gauge. The noteworthy part was this Basic Body Arts.

Yang Yunzhi recalled the new knowledge in his mind, then blurted out a curse.

This Basic Body Arts was anything but ordinary. It actually included fist techniques, palm techniques, elbow techniques, leg techniques, kicking techniques, footwork, and all manner of methods for using the body.

It could be said that this was only considered Basic Body Arts because this was the One Piece World. In any other setting, such as a modern city, it could even be called Master-Level Combat Arts!

The old Yang Yunzhi had plenty of Doriki Value but no idea how to use it. If he encountered a fight, he would probably have been limited to flailing wildly. But now that he had Basic Body Arts, his fighting finally had structure!

"Knock, knock, knock!" Just as he finished familiarizing himself with his strength, someone knocked on the door.

Yang Yunzhi looked through it with his Byakugan and saw that it was Hina.

She held a document in her hand, and its title was unmistakably Navy Code.

Yang Yunzhi opened the door, and Hina rushed inside in a whirlwind before saying, "Didn't I say I was setting up the Military Law Office? Then I discovered a problem. A lot of the soldiers we recruit can't read! They can't even understand the Navy Code. How are we supposed to enforce it?"

Although this world had no idiom for punishing people without first teaching them the law, Hina understood the general meaning.

If they could not read and did not even understand the Navy Code, what right did the Navy have to punish them for violating it?

"Then how did the Navy normally enforce the Navy Code?" Yang Yunzhi casually took the Navy Code from Hina's hand and asked as he flipped through it.

The Navy Code was quite comprehensive. At first glance, it covered a broad range of matters, and it was generally compiled around the word "justice."

It was clear that the person who drafted it was no amateur. The problem was that such a fine code had never been put into practice.

"Before this, I never saw anyone enforce it!" Hina thought for a moment, then asked in surprise, "Right, how did the Navy never have anyone in charge of military law before?"

"Was it because no one violated it and there was no need to manage it, or what?" Yang Yunzhi asked.

"How could no one violate it? There was simply no one managing it!" Hina said. "The Navy does have a Criminal Investigation Division, but it seems to be just for show too. I've never seen anyone from that division!"

Yang Yunzhi was speechless, but it also seemed perfectly normal.

This whole world was a massive amateur operation. The Navy did not even know to use newspapers for recruitment. Was it really strange that no one enforced military law?

"It really is a problem that the soldiers can't read!" Yang Yunzhi said. "I think we can set up literacy classes internally and teach the soldiers under our command to read. Once they can read, they'll understand what they're fighting for, shoot more accurately, know where to strike with a blade, and even transfer into artillery units. Naturally, there won't be any issue of them being unable to understand the Navy Code anymore!"

As he said that, the words of a wise predecessor came naturally to him: "An illiterate, uneducated army is a foolish army, and a foolish army cannot defeat its enemy!"

Hina nodded. She agreed with that view as well.

The benefits of soldiers being literate were naturally greater than the benefits of them being illiterate. Illiterate soldiers might not even know left from right. When battle came, they would have little sense to speak of and only know how to charge forward and fight blindly.

Once they learned to read, they would think. They would find ways to make themselves stronger or find ways to survive on the battlefield.

They would fight more intelligently, and once the troops under one's command became smarter, their superiors would naturally save both effort and energy.

Of course, some rulers did not want their subjects to learn to read, fearing that they would develop ideas of their own. That was because those rulers themselves lacked legitimacy, and once the people began thinking, they would oppose them.

In the One Piece World, even if the people developed their own ideas, the ones they would oppose would be the World Government. Hina was now opposed to the World Government as well, so naturally she would not oppose teaching her soldiers to read.

"Then... will you lead another literacy class?" Hina asked somewhat cautiously.

Yang Yunzhi was also a little speechless. The Military Law Office, the Recruitment Office, the Intelligence Office, and now a literacy class too. He had more and more work on his hands.

But there was no helping it. Talented people were hard to come by!

Eh?

Yang Yunzhi suddenly thought of someone talented. She could read, understood history, possessed a photographic memory, and was in the West Blue.

She was none other than the former Devil Child and survivor of Ohara: Nico Robin!

Nico Robin was practically a secretary chosen by heaven!

I need to find a way to locate this talent and bring her into the Navy!

What, you say she's already wanted by the Navy?

Not a big problem. Robin was wanted at eight years old, and she's eighteen now. She no longer looks anything like she did as a child.

Aside from Aokiji, that perverted old man who had been following a little girl around, who else could recognize her at a glance?

As long as I recruit her, change her hairstyle—say, trade her long straight black hair for big waves—and give her a new name, who would recognize her?