God Valley Incident Begins

Ever since that conversation with Rock, Monkey D. Dragon seemed to have found his direction again.

He was no longer lost.

Not because his doubts had vanished—

Quite the opposite.

It was because he had finally understood that those doubts themselves were the reason and meaning behind his continued journey.

From that day onward, Dragon threw himself completely into the Marines' training and operations.

At dawn, before the sky had even brightened, he was already the first to enter the training grounds;

At night, after the lights went out and the whistles faded, he was still the last figure to leave.

Physical conditioning, combat, firearms, tactical simulations, navigation, and command—

Whatever could be learned, he missed nothing;

Whatever could be practiced, he never skipped a session.

His training methods were nearly harsh, especially toward himself.

Yet what truly began drawing people's attention was not merely his performance on the training grounds.

It was in actual combat.

On every mission, he charged to the front without hesitation.

Not for merit, not for promotion, and even less to prove anything.

For only one goal.

—Protecting civilians.

When battle broke out, his first concern was not "defeating the enemy," but "evacuating the people";

When orders conflicted with reality, he did not hesitate to stand in front of the civilians.

Even if that meant directly clashing with squad leaders who cared only about "meeting quotas," "avoiding trouble," and "not upsetting the higher-ups," he never backed down.

In Dragon's eyes—

If an order was destined to be carried out at the cost of innocent lives,

Then that order itself deserved to be questioned.

Yet the world had never favored idealists.

This style of his soon made him "an eyesore" to some lower-ranking officers.

Some mocked him behind his back, while others made trouble for him