Pirates: I Loaded the Game Panel

"Is that so?" Kumadori Yamamba narrowed her eyes and asked no further questions.

She turned to look at the children who were nearly assembled. "Starting today, Adrian will resume his regular training."

Immediately afterward, she issued another notice: "This weekend, we'll continue hunting beasts in the [Safe Zone]. I hope there won't be any more accidents next time."

The last thing Kumadori Yamamba said was exceptionally malicious.

She stared straight at Adrian and said coldly, "If someone really has to die, it would be best if they died cleanly."

Adrian grumbled inwardly.

What a beautiful face. Too bad it came with a mouth.

[4. Chapter Four: Grueling Training]

Adrian remained silent, ignoring the mocking and sarcastic looks directed at him, as if he had neither heard nor seen anything.

Kumadori Yamamba said no more and began the formal training.

She was responsible for basic hand-to-hand combat. The training method was also simple and brutal: two people formed a group, with no need for verbal communication whatsoever. They just kept fighting and fighting.

This simple training method also fit the basic circumstances of the One Piece world very well.

Physical monsters emerged one after another across this sea. No matter where one went, one could find people with astonishing physiques. Fists and strength were their weapons of confrontation.

People like Garp, Garp, and Garp!

According to Adrian's memories, the exquisite and complicated technical styles in One Piece were not popular at all. Very few people paid attention to practicing technique.

After all, even the World's Greatest Swordsman only knew how to spam normal attacks, right?!

The opponent assigned to Adrian was an expressionless boy with short black hair. He wore an extremely simple brown hemp outfit, stood nearly three meters tall, and had such thickly muscled arms that they looked even wider than Adrian's waist.

Oh, it seemed this had not been mentioned before. Thirteen-year-old Adrian was only 1.5 meters tall, an unmistakable "little runt." Who knew whether he would ever have the chance to grow to two meters in this lifetime...

Without a doubt, this terrifyingly burly fellow was the opponent Kumadori Yamamba had deliberately "arranged" for Adrian. It was unclear whether she simply wanted to teach him a lesson or wanted him eliminated outright.

There was no communication at all.

The Muscle Boy slammed his right foot into the ground. As countless clouds of dust flew up, he crossed the distance of nearly three meters in the blink of an eye and appeared in front of Adrian. His muscular thigh, covered in coarse black hair, came whipping over like a giant pillar with a howling wind.

"Very fast! But I can still see the movement!"

Adrian lightly lowered his toes, and his entire body drifted backward like a willow catkin. [Basic Swordsmanship Training] also recorded quite a few methods for fighting without a sword, which happened to be useful now.

[Agility] was Adrian's highest attribute. Although the Muscle Boy opposite him was strong, his Agility was not necessarily higher than Adrian's.

Whoosh!

Seeing his kick dodged, the Muscle Boy immediately threw a simple straight punch. Under the boost of his terrifying strength, the plain-looking fist easily tore through the air, giving the impression that there was nowhere to evade.

"Could this muscle monster's Strength already be over 20?"

Adrian nimbly dodged again. His Strength could not compare with his opponent's at all. If he wanted to win, he had to find another approach.

During a gap in the attacks, Adrian seized the opportunity to throw the general skill—Detection—at his opponent.

[Based on your level and attributes, you have obtained the following information.]

[Muscle Boy (?)] (Red Name)

[Level: LV17]

[Attributes: Strength 21, Agility 10, Stamina ?, Intelligence ?, Charisma ?, Luck ?]

[Abilities: ?]

[Danger Level: High]

"His primary combat attributes completely overpower me!"

Adrian's mind wavered for a moment, and the Muscle Boy seized the opening. Before Adrian could react, a fist struck him in the chest.

Under the Muscle Boy's terrifying strength, Adrian's sternum was as fragile as paper. If his opponent had not pulled his punch in time, Adrian would have been forced to lie in bed for another half a month.

Even so, his chest still creaked from the blow, and he had clearly suffered a serious injury. His face turning deathly pale, Adrian staggered back more than a dozen steps with the force of the hit, clutching his chest and coughing violently.

"Cough, cough!" Adrian spat out a mouthful of blood and glared coldly at the Muscle Boy.

No wonder he's a battle agent trained from childhood. I can't resist him at all right now!

And I already lack combat experience. I even let my mind wander during a fight. Getting hit by that punch was entirely my own fault!

After resting briefly for more than ten seconds, the battle continued.

The Muscle Boy seemed tireless and kept throwing punches.

Two hours passed. To Adrian, it felt as though two years had gone by. He was exhausted from head to toe. His chest, arms, thighs... there was not a single place on his body that did not hurt. Looking at his panel, he found that his Health had dropped by a full quarter, while his Stamina was nearly depleted.

"Compared with these monsters, what I lack most isn't Strength or Agility, but staying power! Stamina!"

Adrian's legs were so weak that he collapsed onto the ground. He looked at his red, swollen arms, then at the Muscle Boy opposite him, who seemed to have done nothing more than warm up, and was instantly speechless.

The only thing that comforted Adrian was the system notification.

[Through combat, you completed several basic hand-to-hand combat exercises. [Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat Technique] learning progress: 5%]

After the combat training ended, Kumadori Yamamba did not say a word and turned to leave. She herself was an outstanding killer under the World Government. To her, the combat sparring before her was as childish as playing house, and it could not arouse the slightest interest in her.

About five minutes later, an unfamiliar, thin man walked in through the training ground's entrance. He had short brown hair and an ordinary appearance, the sort of person who would instantly vanish into a crowd.

"I'm your marksmanship instructor, Suzuki. For the next month, I'll be responsible for teaching you shooting," the thin man briefly introduced himself. He gestured toward the boxes at his feet. "Now, everyone come over and collect a firearm from me. We'll officially begin marksmanship training."

Adrian had never touched a firearm before and had no shooting skill to correct his trajectory. What was more, he had just finished combat training, and both his hands were swollen like pig's trotters. He could already predict the results of his marksmanship training.

Adrian picked out a bolt-action rifle with a fairly decent appearance from the box at Instructor Suzuki's feet. He walked to the shooting range, raised the firearm with his aching arms, and shakily aimed at the target ten meters away.

As expected, of the ten bullets, the first seven missed the target entirely, and the next two hit a neighboring team member's target. Only the final bullet could barely be counted as having grazed the edge, leaving a charred mark along the rim of the hay target.

There were almost no children whose skill was about the same as Adrian's, but there was no one who performed particularly outstandingly either.

Instructor Suzuki did not seem surprised by the result. Marksmanship was not highly valued in this world to begin with. Aside from ordinary people who lacked strength, few experts chose to follow this path.

CP9 was a place for cultivating elites. Practicing marksmanship was merely intended to familiarize everyone with it in advance.

Of course, if a child possessed exceptional talent, they could also be trained as a sniper in the future.

Compared with the suffocating combat training, marksmanship training was relatively simple. Adrian also successfully unlocked the progress bar for [Basic Marksmanship]. Limited by his poor physical condition and atrocious accuracy, [Basic Marksmanship] had only reached 2%, far below [Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat].

The daily training of the CP9 reserves was even more difficult than Adrian had imagined. As elite members of Cipher Pol, besides the most basic combat and marksmanship skills, the training squad also had to study navigation, tracking and countertracking, traps, codes and decryption, and a whole series of other subjects.

The heavy and complicated daily training severely squeezed the time available for swordsmanship practice. Fortunately, everything outside training counted as free time. Adrian had no intention of wasting even a moment. He needed to save up enough experience as soon as possible.

Then, he would wait until the right opportunity arrived.

[5. Chapter Five: Leveling Up by Killing Monsters]

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

To reduce the pressure of combat training, Adrian was forced to use his accumulated experience to raise the level of [Apprentice Swordsman] once. His total level became LV3.

At the same time, his attributes became: Strength 6, Agility 10, Stamina 4, Intelligence 7, Charisma 6, Luck 1.

In addition, Adrian had accumulated 8 free attribute points and 4 skill points in preparation for unforeseen circumstances.

During this week, Adrian also successively unlocked the [Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat] and [Basic Marksmanship] skills, improving his combat ability to some extent.

What surprised him slightly was that through this week of agent training, he had also unlocked the progress bar for the [Agent] profession. Its current progress had reached 15%.

Compared with the previously simple-to-obtain [Apprentice Swordsman] and [Navigator], the difficulty of obtaining the [Agent] profession had increased by an unknown amount. Adrian had once asked the system and received the reply: [The difficulty of obtaining certain professions is directly proportional to the complexity of the profession]. It sounded rather reasonable.

That day, outside the training base, in the [Safe Zone].

The [Safe Zone] was an outdoor activity area that the training base's supervisors had divided up. With the training base at the island's center as its core, it was divided from inside to outside into the [Safe Zone], [Danger Zone], and [Deadly Zone]. Different areas were home to beasts, poisonous creatures, and other life-forms of different danger levels.

On one hand, this provided the children at the training base with sufficient practical training grounds. On the other, it prevented those who yearned for the sea and freedom from escaping the base.

Apart from the supervising agents and Field Assignment personnel who went out to perform missions, no one knew about the safe route hidden deep within the forest.

Late morning, in a dense thicket in the southwestern corner of the [Safe Zone].

Adrian lay prone in the thicket, wearing simple camouflage. His face was painted with green dye matching the surrounding environment, and he gripped a standard-issue dagger from the base. His eyes calmly watched the beast feeding in the open area nearby, making him look like an emotionless killer.

Out of caution, Adrian used Detection first.

[Based on your level and attributes, you have obtained the following information.]

[Long-Horned Deer] (Yellow Name)

[Level: LV7]

[Attributes: Strength 8, Agility 13, Stamina 8]

[Skills: Charge, Dash]

[Danger Level: Low]

The Long-Horned Deer seemed to sense something. It abruptly stopped feeding and raised its head, its dark eyes keenly surveying the surroundings as it prepared to flee at any moment.

Detection could also be sensed by certain beings with sharp senses.

After roughly two minutes, no ominous sound came from the surroundings. The Long-Horned Deer relaxed again and calmly walked toward Adrian, preparing to inspect this strangely abundant-looking "thicket."

"Although the Long-Horned Deer is a mild-tempered herbivore, all three of its primary attributes are higher than mine. Even if I restrain it, it might break free. And once it discovers me, it'll definitely bolt first. I still need to wait until it comes closer..."

Adrian tightened his grip on the standard-issue dagger and maintained the patience an excellent (theoretical) hunter should have. He continued waiting.

The Long-Horned Deer lowered its head without the slightest wariness and sniffed the air, preparing to tear off a tender shoot that looked lush and green.

At that moment, Adrian moved.

He wrapped one arm around the Long-Horned Deer's neck. While the beast was startled, his other hand drew the dagger with lightning speed and stabbed it into the left side of the deer's neck, angling upward.

The blade went in white and came out red.

The dull sensation of the metal edge piercing through the deer's flesh traveled firmly along the hilt into Adrian's palm.

[You struck a fatal weak point! Your normal attack has changed into a fatal attack!]

[You killed the beast, Long-Horned Deer. Based on the level and attribute difference, you obtained 480 experience points!]

The Long-Horned Deer's body, still warm, struggled briefly in Adrian's arms before finally losing its strength.

Adrian sucked in a deep breath. That sharp, concise attack had actually been rehearsed in his mind more than a dozen times.

Hunting the beast did not make Adrian feel uncomfortable or nauseated, perhaps because of the influence of his body's residual memories.

After all, his predecessor had been a well-trained reserve agent. Death and blood were nothing unusual to him.

"Low-level beasts give too little experience. It's only equivalent to more than a dozen sword-swinging exercises..."

Adrian threw the Long-Horned Deer's body onto the ground, crouched down, and awkwardly began skinning it, removing the bones and cutting out the meat.

Today's training squad mission required everyone to hunt three beasts in the [Safe Zone] as their "food" for the day. Anyone who failed to hunt successfully would have to go hungry for a day.

Adrian was fortunate. He had found this Long-Horned Deer without much effort.

"But come to think of it, leveling up really is fast at low levels!"

The level cap for [Apprentice Swordsman] was LV20. Adrian's current level was LV3, and the experience required for the next level was 800. In other words, this Long-Horned Deer had nearly filled most of his experience bar.

Even so, Adrian still did not intend to level up. His current attributes were already sufficient for him.

The training would certainly become stricter step by step in the future. Adrian planned to reveal "progress" that ordinary people could understand little by little, rather than suddenly rising several levels in a short week.

One had to know that from the moment he obtained the [Apprentice Swordsman] profession until now, Adrian had already accumulated nearly 200,000 experience—probably enough to raise him directly to Level 20!

But doing that would not fit Adrian's plans.

Starting as the bottom-ranked trainee and improving little by little until he stabilized at an upper-middle level of ability—that was Adrian's initial plan.

Frowning, Adrian finished eating the slightly charred roasted venison as his thoughts wandered.

"It seems I need to unlock a few more life professions if possible, such as [Cook] or [Fisherman]. If I sail the seas in the future, I can't go without anyone to cook. I can't just drink the northwest wind and eat sashimi..."

"Right. Although I don't plan to increase my level for now, experience can still improve skill proficiency! Raising skills isn't as obvious as leveling up directly. If I'm going to do it, I might as well start now!"

With that thought, Adrian spent 120,000 experience to raise [Basic Swordsmanship Training] to the maximum level of LV10, obtaining two skill points. He then spent another 30,000 experience to raise [Basic Swordsmanship Affinity] to LV6.

Feeling the swordsmanship knowledge continuously surging through the depths of his mind, Adrian sighed. "Leveling up feels great for a moment, but then you're poor on experience!"

A moment later, Adrian began that day's [Basic Swordsmanship Training].

Toward evening, Adrian deliberately made himself filthy and returned to the training base carrying the Long-Horned Deer carcass, most of which he had eaten. As expected, he received a low-grade evaluation and barely passed. Fortunately, there was no punishment.

In the days that followed, Adrian devoted more time and energy to accumulating experience and practicing swordsmanship. He understood one thing very clearly: CP9 was not a charitable organization. One day, he would leave the so-called [Safe Zone] and head deeper into the [Danger Zone] and [Deadly Zone], perhaps even carrying out missions on the vast, turbulent sea. When that time came, he would have no time to lament, "If only I had known!"

[6. Chapter Six: Doriki Test]