Internship Over

Watching the flames swallow the pirate ship, Carl let out a faint sigh.

"It was finally over..."

Zephyr had not lost his students or his arm, and Weevil had no chance to become a Shichibukai. Then Teacher Zephyr probably would not end up dying at the hands of the Navy!

As for disappointment with the Navy, Carl did not think it mattered much. As long as she did not expect anything from the Navy, she would not be disappointed.

She had been like this since the day she joined the Navy. It was not as if she had never considered changing the current situation, but she was too insignificant for anything she said to matter.

She still lacked the ability to change the Navy's current state, but Carl believed that day would not be far off. She was still young, only twenty-four.

Several Navy warships slowly approached across the sea in the distance, transferring everyone from the Training Ship onto the warships. This officially marked the end of their internship.

After returning to Marine Headquarters, they would officially take up their posts and contribute to the Navy.

Two days later, Marineford.

Zephyr sat before Sengoku with a calm expression and handed him the report on this internship mission.

"This is the internship mission summary for the twenty-fourth Recruit Training Camp. Take a look, Sengoku."

Sengoku accepted it and opened it, silently flipping through the pages. Zephyr said nothing, and the only sound left in the office was Sengoku turning pages.

When he saw the record of Carl commanding the recruits to wipe out the Musket Pirates and Hunting Knife Pirates, as well as assisting Zephyr in defeating Edward Weevil, he could not help but smile.

"Hahaha, Zephyr, you've taught another excellent student! This Carl is truly talented."

"She has extensive combat experience, commands troops in an orderly manner, and even possesses outstanding strength. Wait, she even awakened Two-Color Haki during battle!"

Sengoku looked at Zephyr in disbelief. He simply could not believe that a marine could awaken Two-Color Haki so quickly during an internship. Even Akainu and the others had only gradually awakened Haki through countless later battles before soaring to greatness.

Yet Carl had awakened Two-Color Haki at the same time in a single battle. What kind of genius was that?

The only question was, why had such a talent remained unknown all this time?

Hearing Sengoku praise Carl, a proud smile appeared on Zephyr's face.

"Actually, she had already shown signs of awakening before. She was merely lacking some pressure. Weevil happened to provide enough pressure, so she awakened. I'd say that's perfectly normal."

"If she still couldn't awaken under the pressure of life and death, then I wouldn't know how she ever could."

Sengoku nodded in satisfaction. At last, the new generation of the Navy had produced a genius, and Carl's ability could also support and strengthen the Navy's top combat power. Once she grew stronger, the Navy's strength would rise to another level.

Such a talent deserved better treatment and faster promotion. After pondering for a while, Sengoku made up his mind.

"Zephyr, how about this? I'll first grant Carl the rank of HQ Lieutenant Commander. Once she spends some time under Kizaru, accumulating military merits and seniority, we'll let her lead a unit on her own and build up her reputation."

"That way, her future promotions will convince everyone and draw no criticism. What do you think?"

Zephyr nodded. Sengoku's words made sense. Promotions within the Navy depended first on strength, second on military merit, and third on seniority. Only by meeting all three requirements could one advance further.

HQ Lieutenant Commander was not an overnight rise to the top for Carl, nor would it invite criticism. After all, she had previously been a Lieutenant, so she had only been promoted one rank.

No matter how strong Carl was, she still had to advance step by step. It was not as though someone could be promoted directly from Lieutenant to Commodore, right?

Carl said, "Heh! You'll see it in the future. I'll go straight from civilian to Admiral."

"You're the Fleet Admiral. Your word goes. As long as you know what you're doing, that's enough. I'm leaving."

"Ding~ [Career Mission—Training Camp Turmoil] has officially ended. Calculating rewards..."

"The host has accumulated a total of 732 hours of slacking off and has exceeded the mission requirements. Drawing random reward... Congratulations, you have obtained the Devil Fruit—Zoan Bird-Bird Fruit: Raven Model."

"[Career Mission—King of Slacking Off] has been activated. Mission requirement: accumulated slacking-off time reaches 500/1000/2000/3500/5000 hours."

"Rewards: based on accumulated slacking-off time, receive corresponding stage rewards (Advanced/Special Attribute Enhancement Card + random rare reward)."

"Detected that the host's current rank is HQ Lieutenant Commander. Daily mission rewards have been upgraded to 3 Designated Attribute Enhancement Cards + 3 random rewards, and the probability of obtaining rare items from random rewards has increased to 3%."

Carl, who had been reading the newspaper, was stunned by the system's string of chimes and could not help blurting out, "Holy shit."

"Five thousand hours... If I slack off eight hours a day, five thousand hours comes to 625 days! That's less than two years. Easy!"

Carl did a quick calculation before putting it out of her mind. There was no use rushing this; she could only accumulate it gradually. What she cared about more was the improvement to her daily rewards. That was the real prize.

"Oh, right. It seemed I got another Devil Fruit just now."

Carl checked the system storage. It was a round, purple-black Devil Fruit, but when she saw that it was merely an ordinary Zoan, she lost interest.

"I currently have ten Advanced Attribute Enhancement Cards and eight Ordinary Attribute Enhancement Cards. System, use them all to enhance my physique!"

Her physique was already C+. These should be enough to push it to B-rank. After the enhancement was complete, Carl's attributes were as follows.

Host: Carl

Age: 24

Physique: B-

Perception: D

Will: C-

Haki: Armament Haki Lv1, Observation Haki Lv1

Special Abilities: [Still as a Virgin] [Quick as a Rabbit]

Holy Light Fruit: 13.6% (awakening progress)

Active Skill: Frailty (usable)

Her physique now far surpassed her other attributes. More accurately, it far surpassed her perception, because her will automatically increased along with her strength, meaning she did not need to invest much in Attribute Enhancement Cards for it.

So Carl's next strategy was to focus on perception. Perception affected her reaction speed and insight, and it greatly boosted Observation Haki. In short, Carl's goal was to become a well-rounded fighter.

"Hey, Smoker, did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"I'm an HQ Lieutenant Commander now! Oh, and I also awak—"

"Smack~"

Smoker decisively hung up. He knew Carl too well. Calling him at a time like this was obviously just to mock him, wasn't it? Trying to show off in front of Smoker? No chance!

That night, Smoker stood by the window, his room filled with smoke, three cigars clenched between his teeth.

He thought about it all night but still could not understand it. When he graduated, he had only been an Ensign. How had that bastard Carl directly become his equal in rank?