Discipline Brings Strength

Chapter 033: Discipline Brings Strength

Leo almost wanted to laugh, but he kept a straight face and held it in.

He felt a bit like an officer in the *** right now, holding a stick and smacking anyone standing incorrectly. He wasn't holding back; he was hitting them hard, and everyone who was hit shuddered.

They were furious and wanted to retaliate, but seeing the snake-like hair around Leo, they obediently and quietly began to stand as Leo demanded.

Some thought, It's just standing, what's there to be afraid of?

Ten minutes later, they all wanted to slap themselves. How did this person find such a method of torture? He was a devil.

"It's just standing, why are they so uncomfortable?" Ran, with snakes wrapped around her and a puzzled look on her face, asked Leo, who happened to be passing by on his inspection.

"If you want to know, try it yourself," Leo chuckled, not explaining the reason directly, but maliciously suggesting Ran try it.

Seeing the mischievous grin on his face, Ran felt indignant. She was an Amazon warrior; how could she possibly fail at just standing?

She reluctantly moved away from the ship's railing where she was leaning. After only five minutes of standing, she could already feel the suffering of these crew members.

"Violence can make you submit, but only discipline can make you strong," Leo said, no longer paying attention to Ran.

He lightly tapped his palm with his stick as he patrolled the ranks.

Fifteen minutes under the scorching sun had already left them all drenched in sweat.

If they weren't in the Calm Belt, where even large waves were scarce, they wouldn't have been able to stand so uniformly.

Now, Leo walked through the neat formation and asked, "Do you know why I'm making you line up?"

It's because you want to torture us, the pirates grumbled inwardly, but they didn't dare say a word.

"Report!" Barbaro shouted. This was a rule Leo had established: no matter who spoke, they had to get his approval first.

He was now determined to implement the concept of modern armies, treating the crew as a great furnace where they would be tempered into steel or turn to dross. No one was getting out of it.

While the current methods of high pressure and violence were not ideal, they were a practical approach for these pirates.

"Speak!" Leo said sternly, showing no leniency just because it was Barbaro.

"To train our bodies," Barbaro stepped forward and shouted loudly.

"Correct!" Leo nodded. Barbaro stepped back and rejoined the formation.

"Deep in the Grand Line, there's an advanced combat technique called Haki. It requires a strong body and a firm spirit to learn. And you, this bunch of dregs, are still a hundred thousand miles away from Haki!"

Did he just insult me too? Never mind.

"And Sandersonia's hair is an advanced application of this Haki (Not really, Life Return isn't something everyone can learn)." Sandersonia's hair had been following Leo the entire time.

Her hair nearly reached her calves. Although she was four meters tall, having such long hair wasn't strange. What was strange was that as Leo moved through the crowd, her hair seemed to extend infinitely, following his steps and accompanying him like a living creature as he patrolled the ranks.

This was likely her advanced application technique for her Devil Fruit combined with Haki, making it look so effortless.

"And Armament Haki, which makes your body incredibly hard, and Observation Haki, which allows you to clearly hear an enemy's attack position, are all beyond your reach."

"Report!" someone shouted loudly.

Leo looked closely. It was Todlin.

"Speak!"

"Then what's the point of us training our bodies like this?" he asked, glancing sideways at Leo. He held no good feelings for the man who had defeated him. He wasn't a supporting character in a novel who would immediately pledge allegiance, nor did he think this man, who had gotten involved with the Kuja Pirates, was anything special.

He felt the "I could do that too" sentiment. With that mindset, he found Leo's act of "borrowing prestige" even more distasteful, especially since Leo was "pointlessly" tormenting them, which made him even more annoyed.

Although he couldn't resist, he was happy to get a few verbal jabs in and expose Leo's hypocrisy.

His words represented the thoughts of a significant portion of the crew.

Forget advanced stuff like Haki; with this kind of training, they probably couldn't even defeat their captain, William, if they trained their whole lives.

And their captain undoubtedly didn't know Haki.

"You're right, this training volume is indeed very low, and it has nothing to do with Haki."

Leo's words caused anger to flash across the faces of all the pirates. Fortunately, after fifteen minutes, he had already "corrected" them to the point where they didn't dare to speak out of turn.

"But you idiots, use those little brains that haven't moved in decades and think carefully: with this formation, and everyone armed with a flintlock, what kind of destructive power can you unleash!"

"Your individual strength is weak. Even with hundreds of people wielding swords, you can barely contend with a Devil Fruit user. But with this formation, even your captain William couldn't withstand a single volley from you."

The entire ship fell silent. Apart from the cries of seagulls following the ship, everyone's breathing slowed. Sweat trickled down their temples, beards, and cheeks.

Along with their sweat, their captain, William, was also sweating.

They were a ragtag pirate crew and had never imagined a scenario where everyone would have a flintlock. In reality, except for "Gang" Capone, most pirates in the One Piece world had insufficient firepower. When they did have enough firepower, powerful Mink like Borsalino could be killed on the spot. Most pirates with bounties under 100 million generally couldn't withstand a single volley of flintlock fire.

Leo's reason for making them practice formations was, therefore, self-evident.

That's right, Leo's secret weapon for them was a tactic born in the Great Age of Pirates to compensate for flintlock marksmanship.

Three-stage firing.

This shooting technique naturally relied on the formation and discipline of the entire army. As long as they maintained their formation, they would be virtually invincible in close-quarters combat.

PS: Regarding yesterday's full melon-eating situation, the S&P 500 directly triggered a circuit breaker at the opening. Within 30 minutes of opening, it fell over 8%, directly triggering the circuit breaker and halting trading for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, it continued to fall. It seemed like national capital intervened, and there was a tug-of-war, pulling from the circuit breaker's drop at 1880 to 1300. After 3 AM US time, when the last drop of national funds was used up, it plummeted from 1300 to 2016, a drop of 2016 points in a single day. Of course, it wasn't just the US; countries other than China were falling. This directly led to a surge in the Chinese stock market today, as a large amount of international capital, fleeing risk and losses, rushed into the Chinese stock market... Awesome~

PS1: However, as the lifeblood of the US, the stock market actually saw a retaliatory rise today. A sinking ship still has three pounds of nails; they can't be defeated in one go. The miracle of '91 that I was hoping for didn't happen, but I still witnessed history. Perhaps this is just the beginning. People in our line of work are always sensitive to historical progress. Yesterday can definitely be considered a day that will go down in history.

PS2: There's one more chapter, still typing.