Advancement to Private First Class · Plotting for Robin

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

"Here!"

"What's this?"

"Your private first class 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 deserve a reward!" Hina rolled her eyes. "Actually, the chief of staff suggested promoting you directly to lieutenant junior grade. But didn't you say you preferred climbing up one rank at a time? Then I'll promote you once a day until you reach lieutenant junior grade!"

Yang Yunzhi was instantly a little moved. He had met plenty of people with an excessive sense of self, and one major trait they shared was that they did not care in the slightest about what others thought. They only centered everything around themselves.

A typical example was Garp.

Right, the Garp from novels. In most novels, Garp was the type who would seize the protagonist and force him to join the Navy the moment they met, without caring at all what the protagonist wanted.

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

On top of that, she was beautiful, listened to what others had to say, and never looked down on him just because he was only a private third class.

A superior like this, if she were in the Three Kingdoms, would practically be the dream lord of countless strategists!

"But wasn't I going to trade 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 can even enter the Marine Elite Training School!"

Yang Yunzhi nodded. Ever since Mythical Zoans had appeared, Logias seemed to have fallen from grace.

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

The reason was simple. By the later stages, Mythical Zoans were nearly everywhere, while Logias were still exceedingly rare.

Which was more valuable went without saying.

But no matter how strong Logias were, Yang Yunzhi would still choose spatial abilities.

After all, spatial abilities could also be developed into something like the intangibility of a Logia. But storage space and portals were abilities that Logias could never develop, no matter how hard they tried.

After returning to his office, Yang Yunzhi immediately chose to claim his promotion rewards.

[Congratulations, Host, on advancing to private first class]

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

[Your Dao Power has increased to 80]

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

[Your portable map radius has increased to 800 meters]

[Your Justice Gauge maximum has increased to 800]

[You have received one lottery draw]

There was actually another change the system had not mentioned: his Byakugan vision had also doubled along with his Dao Power.

Now, his field of vision covered a radius of 8,000 meters!

It felt like he no longer needed Observation Haki.

There was nothing much to say about Dao Power, space, the map, or the Justice Gauge. But this Basic Body Arts was another matter.

Yang Yunzhi recalled the new knowledge that had appeared in his mind, then blurted out an astonished 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 sorts of methods for using the body.

It could be put this way: only in the One Piece World could it be called Basic Body Arts. In any other setting, such as a modern city, this [Basic Body Arts] could even be called [Master-Level Combat Arts]!

Previously, Yang Yunzhi had Dao Power but did not know how to use it. If he encountered a fight, he would probably only be able to throw wild punches. But now that he had [Basic Body Arts], his fighting immediately gained structure!

"Knock, knock, knock!" He had just finished familiarizing himself with his power when someone suddenly knocked on the door.

Yang Yunzhi used his Byakugan to see through the door and found that it was Hina.

She held a document in her hand, and its title was none other than the Navy Code.

Yang Yunzhi opened the door, and Hina rushed in briskly. Then she said, "Didn't I say I was setting up the Military Law Office? Well, 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 did not have the saying about punishing people without teaching them first, Hina understood the general meaning.

If they could not read and did not understand the Navy Code, on what grounds could they be punished for violating it?

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

The contents of this Navy Code were quite extensive. At first glance, its coverage was broad, and it was generally compiled around the word "justice."

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

"Before this, I never saw anyone enforce it!" Hina thought for a moment, then asked in surprise, "That's right. No one in the Navy ever managed military law before?"

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

"How could no one break it? Nobody cared!" 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 somewhat speechless, yet it also seemed perfectly normal.

This whole world was a giant ramshackle operation. The Navy did not even know to use newspapers for recruitment, so why would it be strange that no one enforced the Navy Code?

"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. Their guns will shoot more accurately, they'll know where to strike with their blades, and they can even transfer into artillery. Naturally, there won't be any issue of them not understanding the Navy Code anymore!"

At that point, a saying from an earlier generation slipped naturally from his lips. "An illiterate, uneducated army is a foolish army, and a foolish army cannot defeat its enemies!"

Hina nodded. She agreed with that view as well.

The benefits of soldiers being literate naturally outweighed the benefits of them remaining illiterate. Illiterate soldiers might not even be able to tell left from right. When fighting, they did not think much and only knew how to charge forward recklessly.

Once they could 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 her command became smarter, their superior officers would naturally save more effort and energy.

Of course, some rulers did not want their subjects to become literate because they feared they would develop ideas of their own. That was because those rulers themselves lacked legitimacy, so once the people started 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. And Hina was now against the World Government too, so naturally she would not oppose teaching the soldiers under her command how to read.

"Then... can you lead a literacy class too?" Hina asked somewhat cautiously.

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

But there was no helping it. Talent was hard to come by!

Eh?

Yang Yunzhi suddenly thought of a talented person. She was not only literate, but also understood history, possessed photographic memory, and happened to be in the West Blue.

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

Nico Robin was practically a secretary chosen by fate!

He had to find a way to locate this talent and recruit her into the Navy!

What, she had already been wanted by the Navy?

Not a big problem. Girls changed greatly as they grew up. Robin had been wanted at eight years old, and she was already eighteen now. She looked completely different from when she was a child.

Other than Aokiji, that perverted old man who had been following little girls around, who else could recognize her at a glance?

As long as he recruited her, changed her hairstyle—say, swapping her long straight black hair for big waves—and gave her a new name, who could possibly recognize her?