Chapter 3

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

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

She then issued another announcement: "This weekend, we'll continue hunting beasts inside the [Safe Zone]. I hope there won't be any more accidents next time."

The final sentence from Kumadori Yamamba was exceptionally cruel.

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

Adrian cursed inwardly.

What a beautiful face. It's just a shame she has an extra mouth.

[Chapter 4: 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 in charge of Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat, and the training method was simple and brutal. They paired off, with no need for verbal communication, and simply kept fighting, fighting, and fighting.

This simple training method also fit the basic situation of the Pirate King world perfectly.

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

People like Garp, Garp, and Garp!

According to Adrian's memories, the intricate technical styles in Pirate King were not popular at all. Very few people paid attention to training their skills.

After all, even the World's Greatest Swordsman only knew how to use basic attacks, didn't he?!

Adrian's opponent was an expressionless boy with short black hair. He wore an extremely simple set of brown linen clothes. He stood nearly three meters tall, and his knotty, muscular arms looked even thicker than Adrian's waist.

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

There was no doubt that this terrifyingly burly fellow was the opponent Kumadori Yamamba had deliberately "arranged" for Adrian. It was unclear whether she wanted to teach Adrian a simple lesson or make him leave the competition outright.

There was no exchange of words.

The Muscle Boy slammed his right foot against the ground, kicking up countless clouds of dust. In the blink of an eye, he crossed the distance of nearly three meters and appeared in front of Adrian. His muscular thigh, covered in coarse black hair, swept over with a howling wind, striking viciously like a massive pillar.

"His speed is extremely fast! But I can still see his movements!"

Adrian lightly lowered his toes, and his entire body drifted backward like a willow catkin. [Basic Swordsmanship Training] also recorded quite a few combat methods for Swordless Style, which happened to be useful at that moment.

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

Hiss!

Seeing his kick avoided, the Muscle Boy immediately threw a simple straight punch. Under the enhancement of terrifying force, the plain-looking fist tore through the air with ease, giving off the feeling that it was impossible to evade.

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

Adrian nimbly dodged again. His Strength was utterly incomparable to his opponent's. If he wanted to win, he had to find another approach.

During a gap between attacks, Adrian took the opportunity to cast the universal skill, Detection, at his opponent.

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

[Muscle Boy (?)] (Red Name)

[Level: LV17]

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

[Abilities: ?]

[Danger Level: High]

"He completely overwhelms me in every primary combat attribute!"

Adrian lost focus for a moment, and the Muscle Boy seized the opportunity. His vision blurred, and a fist slammed into his chest.

Under the Muscle Boy's terrifying force, Adrian's breastbone was as fragile as paper. If his opponent hadn't pulled his punch in time, Adrian would have had to lie in bed for another half a month.

Even so, Adrian's chest still creaked under the blow, clearly suffering a serious injury. His face turning deathly pale, he staggered back more than a dozen steps with the force of the impact, clutching his chest and coughing violently.

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

As expected of a combat Agent trained since childhood. I can't resist him at all right now!

And I already lack combat experience. I even lost focus during the fight. Getting hit by that punch is only deserved!

After resting briefly for a dozen or so seconds, the battle continued.

The Muscle Boy seemed tireless, endlessly throwing punch after punch.

Two hours passed. To Adrian, it felt as if two years had gone by. His entire body was utterly exhausted. His chest, arms, thighs... not a single part of him didn't hurt. When he checked the panel, his Health had fallen by a full quarter, while his Stamina had nearly bottomed out.

"Compared to these monsters, what I lack most isn't Strength or Agility, but endurance! It's Stamina!"

His legs weak from exhaustion, Adrian dropped onto the ground. He looked at his red, swollen arms, then at the Muscle Boy, who seemed to have merely warmed 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 didn't say a word. She turned and left. She was an outstanding assassin under the World Government, and the combat between the children looked to her like an absurd game of make-believe. It was completely incapable of holding her interest.

About five minutes later, an unfamiliar, thin man entered through the training ground's gate. He had short brown hair and an ordinary appearance, the type who would vanish into a crowd the instant he was thrown into one.

"I'm your Marksmanship instructor, Suzuki. For the next month, I'll be responsible for teaching you shooting techniques." The thin man briefly introduced himself, then gestured toward the boxes by 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, nor did he have any shooting skills to correct his trajectory. On top of that, he had just finished combat training, and both his hands were as swollen as pig's trotters. He could already predict how his shooting results would turn out.

Adrian selected a bolt-action rifle that looked fairly decent 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 struck the target belonging to a nearby team member. Only the final bullet could barely be considered a hit, leaving a charred black mark on the edge of the straw target.

There were almost no children whose skill was about equal to Adrian's, but no one performed especially outstandingly either.

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

CP9 was a place for cultivating elites. They practiced Marksmanship merely to familiarize everyone with it ahead of time.

Of course, if a child possessed especially outstanding talent, they could be trained as a Sniper in the future.

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

The daily training of the CP9 reserves was even more arduous than Adrian had imagined. As elites within Cipher Pol, aside from the most basic combat and shooting skills, the training team 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 Swordplay practice. Fortunately, everything outside of 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 for the right opportunity to arrive.

[Chapter 5: 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, bringing his total level to LV3.

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

In addition, Adrian had accumulated 8 free attribute points and 4 Skill Points, keeping them in reserve for emergencies.

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

What surprised him slightly was that, through that week of Agent training, he also unlocked the progress bar for the [Agent] class, which had currently reached 15%.

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

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

The [Safe Zone] was a wilderness activity area that the training base's supervisors had divided out. Centered around the training base at the island's center, it was divided from inner to outer into the [Safe Zone], [Danger Zone], and [Deadly Zone]. Different areas housed beasts, poisonous creatures, and other life forms of varying danger levels.

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

Aside from the supervising Agents and Field Assignment personnel who went out to perform missions, no one knew about the safe routes hidden deep within the dense forest.

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

Wearing simple camouflage, Adrian lay prone in the thicket. His face was coated with green dye matching the colors of the surrounding environment, and he tightly gripped a standard-issue dagger from the base. His eyes calmly watched the beast feeding in the open area not far away, making him look like a heartless assassin.

Out of caution, Adrian first cast Detection.

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

[Long-Horned Deer] (Yellow Name)

[Level: LV7]

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

[Skills: Charge, Sprint]

[Danger Level: Low]

The Long-Horned Deer seemed to sense something. It suddenly stopped eating and raised its head, its black eyes darting around as it observed its surroundings, ready to flee at any moment.

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

After about two minutes, no ominous sounds came from the surroundings. The Long-Horned Deer relaxed again and calmly walked toward Adrian, preparing to investigate this "thicket" that looked inexplicably more lush than usual.

"Although the Long-Horned Deer is a docile herbivore, all three of its primary attributes are higher than mine. Even if I restrain it, it may 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—at least theoretically—hunter should possess. He continued waiting.

The Long-Horned Deer lowered its head without the slightest wariness and sniffed at the scent. It was just about 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 drove it into the left side of the deer's neck, stabbing diagonally upward.

The blade went in white and came out red.

The dull sensation of the metal blade piercing through flesh traveled solidly along the hilt and into Adrian's palm.

[You struck a lethal vital point! Basic Attack transformed into a Deadly Attack!]

[You killed the beast—Long-Horned Deer. Based on the difference in level and attributes, you gained 480 experience!]

The Long-Horned Deer's still-warm body struggled weakly in Adrian's arms for a moment before finally losing its strength.

Adrian drew a deep breath. That fierce, concise attack had actually been simulated in his mind more than ten times.

Killing the beast did not make Adrian feel uncomfortable or nauseated. Perhaps this was due to the influence of the body's residual memories.

After all, his predecessor had been a well-trained reserve Agent. Death and blood were everyday sights to him.

"Low-level beasts give too little experience. That's only equivalent to a dozen or so practice swings..."

Adrian threw the Long-Horned Deer's corpse onto the ground, squatted down, and awkwardly skinned it, dismembering it and removing the meat.

Today's training team assignment was for every person to hunt three beasts in the [Safe Zone] as their "food" for the day. Anyone who failed to hunt successfully would simply have to go hungry for a day.

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

"But now that I think about it, leveling up really is fast at low levels!"

The Apprentice Swordsman class had a level cap of LV20. Adrian's current level was LV3, and he needed 800 experience for the next level. In other words, this single Long-Horned Deer had filled more than half of his experience bar.

Still, Adrian had no intention of leveling up. His current attributes were already sufficient for him.

The training would certainly become stricter step by step in the future. Adrian planned to gradually display "progress" within the limits of what ordinary people could understand, rather than suddenly rise several levels in a single week.

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

But if he did that, it wouldn't fit Adrian's plans.

Starting from the bottom and gradually improving until he stabilized at a level slightly above the middle—that was Adrian's preliminary plan.

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

"It seems I need to unlock a few more life classes if possible, such as [Cook] and [Fisherman]. If I sail across the sea in the future, I can't have no one to cook and live on northwest wind and sashimi..."

"Right. Although I'm not planning to increase my level for now, experience can still improve skill proficiency! Raising skills isn't as obvious as leveling up directly. I'll do it!"

With that thought, Adrian spent 120,000 experience to raise [Basic Swordsmanship Training] to the max 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 constantly surging through the depths of his mind, Adrian sighed. "Leveling up feels great for a moment, but experience leaves you poor just as quickly!"

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

In the evening, Adrian deliberately made himself dirty and disheveled before returning to the training base with 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 even more time and energy to accumulating experience and practicing Swordplay. 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. At that time, he wouldn't have the leisure to lament, "If only I'd known back then!"

[Chapter 6: Doriki Test]