Marine Grand Match

As time passed, a stir broke out among the new recruits.

"Look quickly, it's the Marine admirals! And Fleet Admiral Sengoku! Are they all here to watch us?"

"Hiss~ The vice admirals are here too! Why does this feel different from what Instructor Zephyr said? How can you expect me not to be nervous?"

Akainu, Aokiji, and Kizaru—all of the highest Marine combat powers were present!

The vice admirals arrived at the scene one after another, taking their exclusive seats and whispering to each other to discuss the quality of this batch of new recruits.

The admirals could choose the strongest new recruits and had no need to compete with vice admirals like them, nor could they win against them anyway, so they could only fight over recruits with other vice admirals.

It was common practice to argue until their faces turned red over a recruit of above-average potential.

"Whoa, I didn't expect Aokiji to come too! Well, are there any recruits here that catch your eye?"

Aokiji scratched his fluffy curly hair and said in a lazy tone, "I don't mind. What's this? Hearing you talk like that, you seem very interested in a certain recruit?"

"That's right! The old man is very interested in a recruit named Carl, so you two better not fight the old man for him later!"

Aokiji shrugged helplessly and said indifferently, "Whatever you say. Ooh~ Today's sunshine is so pleasant..."

Having said that, Aokiji pulled his sleeping mask down and began to sleep blatantly, under the fine-sounding pretext of conserving his energy and preparing for his next mission.

Akainu beside him seemed very dissatisfied with Aokiji's attitude, let out a cold snort, and said in an icy tone.

"Rest assured, Borsalino, naturally I won't fight you for people."

In fact, Akainu never held much hope to begin with; he came every single year, only to return disappointed every single year—Marine talent was truly withering!

So when Kizaru asked him not to fight for people, he agreed without the slightest hesitation. In his view, this year would be no exception, and they would still just be some mediocre recruits.

"Damn! Every named Marine is here!"

Looking at the high-ranking Marines sitting in rows, Carl couldn't help clicking his tongue. He didn't recognize many; the three admirals were the ones he was most familiar with, and the vice admirals were just Gion, Momonga, and Onigumo.

"Eh! Smoker and Hina actually came too! What are they here for? Just to join the fun?"

Smoker still wore the familiar attire of Carl's memory, chomping on three cigars. Beside him was Hina in a dark red suit wearing sunglasses; the two of them standing together actually had quite a good cp vibe.

Smoker exhaled a smoke ring and complained to Hina, "Why do you suppose Instructor Zephyr called the two of us here too? Could it be we also get a chance to pick a few subordinates?"

"Hina doesn't know, but if you hadn't talked back to your superior two months ago, you probably would have had a chance."

Smoker let out a disdainful scoff, wanting to retort, but thought better of it and stayed silent.

Time reached eight o'clock, and Zephyr walked to the front of the stage, holding a microphone to officially announce the start of the tests.

"First match, Mallory versus Joyce!"

The two who were called by Shuzo beamed with joy, their respective eyes filled with fighting spirit. After stepping onto the stage, at Shuzo's command, they howled and charged at each other.

Since this was a test, the goal naturally wasn't to decide victory or defeat; otherwise, if they ran into evenly matched opponents, they might fight until heaven and earth turned dark and the very Dao was worn away.

Therefore, a battle was limited to 15 minutes. Within fifteen minutes, regardless of whether victory or defeat was decided, the duel would automatically end and the next group would take over.

After all, watching mediocre fighters peck at each other wasn't very interesting; it was enough for them to display their full strength within those 15 minutes so the officers present could see it.

"This one named Mallory is pretty good. Although his physique is a bit lacking, he uses Rokushiki very skillfully. He's a piece of timber worth carving!"

"Mhm, what you say makes sense, but this Joyce is also fine. He fights very smartly!"

The vice admirals' discussion was extremely lively. Conversely, the three admirals had basically no interaction; Aokiji was sleeping, Akainu wore a dark face, and Kizaru was holding a nail clipper, leisurely clipping his nails.

Soon, the first match ended. The two looked at each other, panting heavily. Although victory and defeat had not been decided, after glancing at the expressions of the officers, they each stepped off the stage happily.

"Second match, Ain versus Ainz!"

Carl, who was currently drinking fat-person water, froze. Ain was fighting Ainz? Then who was he fighting? Surely this wasn't really just a newbie-bullying match, was it?

He cast a puzzled gaze toward Zephyr. Zephyr happened to be looking at him as well, as if he had long anticipated that Carl would be surprised, and nodded slightly at him, signaling him not to be impatient.

Joking aside, Carl was someone he had taught hand-in-hand, and no one knew Carl's strength better than him—Ain and Ainz combined might not even be able to beat Carl.

Just speaking of physical techniques, Carl was already capable of trading blows with Hina and Smoker, who had graduated long ago. It was only a pity that Carl had yet to awaken the two colors of Haki, so he could only think of a way to help him during the "internship period" after the tests concluded.

As Ain and Ainz stepped onto the stage, the vice admirals' murmurs instantly livened up.

"Hey, both of these are Devil Fruit users, right!"

"Yes, I heard about it long ago. Both are Paramecia users—one is a Return-Return Fruit user, and the other is a Shove-Shove Fruit user."

"Battle start!"

Ainz looked at Ain cautiously. No one knew Ain's strength better than him; that kind of return-power—once touched, he was bound to lose.

"Shove~ Shove~"

Ainz extremely quickly scattered a handful of plant seeds, then began doing a ritualistic dance. Following his dance, the seeds rapidly sprouted, and dozens of thick vines emerged from the ground, launching a sweeping attack under Ainz's control.

"Shave!"

Ain vanished from the spot, dodging the sweeping vines, and then slammed her palm against a vine.

The huge green vine rapidly shriveled, reverting back into a seed—one after another, leaving a trail of seeds all over the ground.

Ainz had long anticipated this outcome and remained completely unfazed. The seeds he brought today added up to a full several hundred grams, after all!

Then one could witness this scene: Ainz summoned plants, Ain beat them back to their original forms, and then the cycle repeated.

Carl was dumbfounded watching this. The two of them were going back and forth—were they honestly farming proficiency with each other?!

In the end, Zephyr couldn't bear to watch and gave a cough, causing the two to finally abandon their ability rivalry and use physical combat instead, only for the result to still end in a draw.

What else could they do then? Next group!

There were a total of 63 new recruits in the training camp. They fought from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon, and more and more people came to watch, yet Carl still couldn't get onto the stage. Subtracting meal times, Carl successfully slacked off as a spectator for 6 hours.

This led Carl to conclude that his name definitely wasn't written on Shuzo's duel roster.

"Kizaru, the fights are almost over. Has that recruit you fancied taken the stage yet?"

Kizaru said with a careless expression, "Doesn't matter. Anyway, Carl is going to be the old man's future adjutant."

Aokiji took off his sleeping mask, gazed sleepily toward the horizon, and muttered that he had overslept again.

"Final match! Carl versus... Major Smoker!"