An Unexpected Variable

Just like that, several days passed.

Rayne's cave gradually transformed from a quiet campsite into a "pirate purchasing station" and a "central kitchen."

The first trade was completed on the evening of the third day.

Keeping to their agreement, Hina's squad appeared outside the waterfall, dragging along two pirates with broken legs who had been tied up tightly.

Rayne merely calmly checked the quality of the goods before handing them three portions of sizzling grilled meat wrapped in enormous leaves.

After going hungry for two days, Hina and her teammates ate until tears streamed down their faces.

The news spread like a virus among the recruits, all of whom were starving so badly their eyes had turned green and spent every day living on insects and half-cooked meat.

"Have you heard? There's a cafeteria at the waterfall cave, and the food is insanely good!"

"You can trade pirates there for food! Real grilled meat! The kind with spices!"

"How many portions can one pirate get you?"

Thus, from the fourth day onward, more and more squads began coming to him on their own initiative. They dragged over all sorts of pirates who had been beaten half to death and lined up outside the cave like laborers waiting for their boss to hand out wages.

Rayne became the man at the top of the food chain on this deserted island.

He even established a clear exchange rate—depending on a pirate's strength, they could be exchanged for different numbers of grilled meat portions.

The entire ecosystem of this deserted-island survival training was completely changed by him alone.

As pirates, this hard currency, became increasingly scarce, conflicts even began breaking out among the recruits over them.

Deep in the jungle, two different squads simultaneously discovered a small pirate crew with only three members.

Before the pirates could even react, the two groups of Marine recruits started fighting each other first over these mobile dinners!

"We spotted them first! Those three portions of grilled meat are ours!"

"Bullshit! We were the ones who surrounded them! Don't even think about stealing our grilled meat!"

The little pirates squatted there with utterly baffled expressions, watching the two groups of Marines beat one another bloody over them as their entire worldview collapsed.

"Are Marines this competitive now? Even fighting over achievements shouldn't work like this, right?"

Meanwhile, Rayne watched the farce from a distance, the corner of his lips curling into an amused smile.

"Tsk, tsk. A perfect market economy model. When a resource becomes scarce, its value rises without limit and can even trigger vicious competition. If Chief Instructor Zephyr found out I turned his survival training into an economics practicum, I wonder if he'd jump up in fury."

On the evening of the twelfth day, a long line had already formed in front of Rayne's cave as usual.

The recruits from every squad tossed tightly bound pirates onto the ground like they were handing in homework, waiting for the cafeteria to start serving food.

Looking at the long string of N-rank and R-rank judgment records on his system panel, Rayne yawned in boredom.

"They're all fodder. Their Crime Indexes aren't low, but they can't provide anything valuable at all. This training is way too watered down. Did the instructors clear out all the real dangers?"

Just as he was thinking that, his Observation Haki, which had long become instinctive, suddenly caught a completely different signal.

An aura filled with pure killing intent and the stench of blood appeared with extreme abruptness on the other side of the island, like a beacon in the night.

That definitely was not the kind of training-dummy-level pirates these recruits in the camp usually dealt with.

Rayne's hand paused almost imperceptibly as he distributed the grilled meat.

He slowly raised his head and looked toward the depths of the pitch-black jungle, a trace of confusion appearing on his face.

"What's going on? Pirates of this level... isn't leaving them on the island a bit like forcing these recruits to grow too fast?"

"Or... is some expert secretly following them, planning to let the recruits grow through the thin line between life and death?"

Grand Line, an unknown sea shrouded in dense fog.

A Marine warship cut through the waves. Marine soldiers stood across its deck with wary expressions, while a grim, murderous air hung in the air.

Gion stood at the bow, sea wind stirring her smooth black hair like fine silk, several playful strands clinging to her fair cheeks.

She wore a pure white coat of justice, but beneath it was not a standard Marine uniform. Instead, she wore a well-tailored light pink shirt and pure white trousers that perfectly outlined her tall, Top-tier-model-like figure.

By her long legs rested her beloved blade—Kompira.

There was none of the usual lazy allure on that pretty face, enough to drive countless men mad. Instead, it carried a trace of gravity.

An adjutant with blood still on his face hurried forward and gave a standard Marine salute, his voice filled with heartfelt reverence.

"Reporting to Commodore Gion! The Skull-Crushing Pirates' ship used the heavy fog to flee northwest this morning... its current whereabouts are unknown. We lost them."

"Tsk. A bunch of crafty rats." Gion's beautiful brows furrowed slightly.

She extended a slender finger and lightly tapped the cold railing. Although they had lost sight of the enemy ship since that morning, confirming that the target had been completely lost still left her unwilling to accept it.

The adjutant looked at the young officer before him with deep respect.

She was only twenty-five this year, yet she was already one of the youngest commodores at Marine Headquarters.

In yesterday's fierce battle, Commodore Gion had practically beaten the other side so badly by herself that they could not raise their heads.

Against Skull-Crusher Koster, whose bounty was as high as ninety million Beli, she had needed fewer than ten moves to cut both him and his sword in half.

If they had not happened to encounter this fog, these pirates, who were fairly well-known even on the Grand Line, would have already been wiped out in one sweep.

"Commodore, look." The adjutant spread out a sea chart and pointed to a blank region on it. "There are no islands in these waters where they can resupply, and the nearest port is over a thousand miles away. The pirates' only possible landing point is the uninhabited island near Marine Headquarters—Gigantia. If they flee there, their damaged ship cannot be repaired, and they'll become trapped prey in a jar."

"Gigantia..."

Gion nodded and was about to give the order. But the name suddenly reminded her of something.

"Wait." She stopped the adjutant, her tone turning grave. "Contact Marineford immediately through the emergency line!"

A few minutes later, after learning that the Elite Training Camp was conducting survival training on Gigantia, Gion's expression changed.

"This is bad!"

She immediately issued the most urgent order. "Full speed ahead! Destination: Gigantia!"

Meanwhile, on the deserted island, inside the waterfall cave.

Rayne stopped handing out grilled meat and carefully sensed the powerful aura that had suddenly appeared, filled with pure killing intent and the stench of blood.

Fortunately, because it was mealtime, the vast majority of recruits on the island had gathered here. Those uninvited guests probably had not yet realized there were people on the island.

Rayne picked up a cup of hot tea beside him and took a sip to moisten his throat, then handed the task of distributing food to Rosinante, who was nearby helping him count people.

"You take over for me," Rayne said in a low voice. "Hand it out according to their contributions. Don't get it wrong."

Under everyone's puzzled gazes, he used the lame excuse of needing to use the bathroom. Then his figure flashed and silently vanished into the shadows of the jungle.

Rayne moved at high speed through the jungle shrouded in night like a ghost. Weeds and leaves brushed past his body without making the slightest sound.

Before long, he arrived atop a cliff overlooking the pirates' landing site and took a high-powered telescope from his ring.

Through the telescope, he saw a scene that made his brows knit tightly.