White Dove, the Ensign

[System installing...]

[Progress: 99%]

[Host, please avoid danger and do not die during this time.]

The East Blue, in the waters near Loguetown.

Rumble!

Thunder crashed, and lightning lit up the dark sky, making the approaching shadow clearer through the storm.

A moment later, another boom erupted near a medium-sized warship, but this time it was not thunder. It was a cannonball fired from a distant pirate ship.

"Ensign, bad news! The stem was hit by a cannonball and has been damaged!" A girl wearing glasses burst into the captain's cabin in a panic. She looked capable and full of energy as she addressed the young ensign inside.

The stem was one of a ship's most important structural components. If it was damaged, the ship's speed would drop drastically.

Normally, that would not be a problem. A shipwright could repair it with a little time.

But things were different now. They were on the run.

And a drastic drop in speed meant that the people behind them would catch up!

Despite hearing news that could not have been worse, the young ensign remained calm. He walked out of the captain's cabin onto the deck and looked through the storm at the pirate ship close behind the warship.

A woman stood at the bow of the pirate ship. She looked overbearing and fierce, and was enormously fat, with a large, round face. Her small eyes were fixed greedily on the young ensign.

When she saw him emerge from the captain's cabin, her eyes lit up. Her roar carried through the curtain of rain to his ears:

"Ivan, stop resisting and become my man! You can't escape! Hahahahaha!"

Faced with Alvida's provocation, the young ensign remained composed, his handsome face showing no reaction.

Ivan's adjutant, the energetic girl from before, Tashigi, stood nearby and secretly studied her superior.

Seeing Ivan's unchanged expression and confident bearing, she let out a long sigh of relief.

Just as I thought, Ensign Ivan must have a way out of this predicament!

After all, he's White Dove Ivan, the idol of the younger generation of marines in the East Blue!

As Ivan's most loyal fan, Tashigi had long since memorized her idol's record by heart.

Ensign Ivan had joined the Marines at fifteen. At first, his poor talent had made him unremarkable among the many young trainees.

But two and a half years ago, Ensign Ivan had suddenly begun putting in far more effort than the average person, and his strength had risen sharply in a short time.

Over those two and a half years, Ensign Ivan had repeatedly earned military merit. Along with being promoted to ensign, he had grown strong enough to rival pirates with bounties in the millions.

If Ensign Ivan had not still been recovering from a serious injury, they would not have had to fear Alvida, much less be hunted by the Alvida Pirates!

At that thought, Tashigi glared at Alvida in anger, her gaze so fierce it looked as though she wanted to eat her.

Ivan, the target of the provocation, was completely unmoved. In the two and a half years since joining the Marines, he had already learned how cruel this world was.

He had found himself on a battlefield against pirates as soon as he transmigrated. He had intended to rely on the system to survive that battle, but to his surprise, its installation had gotten stuck at 99%, one step from completion, and refused to budge.

Afterward, he had mustered his courage and survived the battlefield through his own strength. For the next two and a half years, he had worked dozens of times harder than ordinary people, earning his current rank and strength.

But this strength was not enough!

He could be injured merely fighting pirates with bounties in the millions, and when seriously wounded, he was hunted by Alvida. How could he become a powerhouse who ruled the seas at this rate?

At that thought, Ivan made up his mind. He turned sharply and walked into the captain's cabin, paying no attention to Alvida's taunts.

Soon, he reached a safe, opened it, and took out a strange-looking fruit.

The fruit was a black sphere: a Devil Fruit, the sea's secret treasure!

Ivan had stumbled upon it a month ago, but he had not eaten it immediately.

He still dreamed of becoming a powerhouse, and the obvious shortcut to that dream was to eat a powerful Devil Fruit.

Ivan had not seen this Devil Fruit in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia and did not know what it did. If he ate it and got a trash ability, such as the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Ordinary Person, he really would be beyond saving.

But the emergency no longer allowed Ivan to hesitate.

Ivan gritted his teeth and bit down hard!

In an instant, a stench filled Ivan's nostrils, as if expired milk, cheese, stinky tofu, and eggs had been mixed together and left to ferment for a year.

Even so, Ivan opened his mouth as wide as he could, stuffed the rest of the Devil Fruit inside, and swallowed it whole.

Soon, Ivan felt a change in his body.

A scorching current flowed through him, and immense power surged from within!

But just before that power fully formed, it suddenly stopped. The system installation progress before Ivan's eyes, which had not changed at all for two and a half years, suddenly jumped again!

[System installing...]

[Progress: 100...]

[Installation successful!]

[Ding... Devil Fruit detected. Sacrifice its Devil Power to draw a character template?]

[Yes/No]

Wait, the system!

Ivan had not expected the system to activate at a time like this. Was there even a choice to make?

He could vaguely sense that the Devil Fruit he had eaten seemed to let him control his own weight. It was undoubtedly an inferior version of the Press-Press Fruit, with limited potential and a major flaw.

So of course he would choose the system!

"Yes!" Ivan said without hesitation.

Soon, an elaborate system panel appeared before Ivan.

[Name: Ivan]

[Draws: 1]

[Template: None]

[Skills: None]

[Consume Devil Fruit abilities in exchange for draws to obtain character templates from all the myriad worlds.]

At the bottom of the system panel was a deck of cards, with the words "Draw" engraved on the top card.

With a thought, he selected the word, and the cards rapidly began to flip.

As the cards flipped, Ivan caught occasional glimpses of familiar character templates.

Yujiro Hanma, Ichigo Kurosaki: Hollowfication, Naruto Uzumaki: Incomplete, Shinichi Kudo, Iron Man: Armor Technology, Hulk: Incomplete...

Soon, the result emerged, and a card appeared before Ivan.

[Congratulations! You have obtained the template: Satoru Gojo: Echo!]

[Congratulations! You have obtained the skill: Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue!]

[Please perform actions that earn the template character's approval to increase your approval rating. You will receive a corresponding percentage of the template's power and unlock more skills.]

[Note: A dead shell, missing its soul and some limbs, can only grant echoes of its skills.]

It was Satoru Gojo!

Ivan was very familiar with this immensely popular character from the world of Jujutsu Kaisen. He was the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer, and with his strength, he would have been comparable to an emperor's second-in-command even in the world of Pirate King!

Even an incomplete Satoru Gojo template would let him defeat Alvida with ease!

Ivan opened the system panel to check his current status.

[Name: Ivan]

[Draws: 0]

[Template: Satoru Gojo: Echo (Approval: 17%)]

[Skills: Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue: Compresses gravity at a single point to cause destruction. Its maximum output can reach negative infinity, approximating a miniature black hole.]

Ivan stared at his current approval rating: 17%. That also meant he could wield 17% of the power on this panel.

He also had some ideas about how to increase the Satoru Gojo template's approval rating.

To increase it, he first had to understand what kind of person Satoru Gojo was.

Without a doubt, his great strength made him relaxed, confident, and arrogant.

He was also exceptionally cold toward his enemies, but he never lacked kindness.

To some extent, he had things in common with the Marines!

Rumble!

Another explosion sounded outside the captain's cabin. Tashigi rushed in again and said anxiously:

"Ensign Ivan, bad news! The Alvida Pirates are about to come alongside us!"

A few minutes ago, Ivan would have taken that news very seriously.

But now...

Who did Alvida think she was?

Ivan walked over to Tashigi and ruffled her hair, speaking gently:

"Tashigi, you must never lose your composure, whatever happens. Don't worry, I'll defeat Alvida!"

Ivan threw on his Marine coat and headed for the deck.

The coat billowed wildly in the wind and rain. Thunder crashed, and lightning illuminated the dark sky, making the word "Justice" on the coat stand out all the more.

Tashigi stared blankly at the sight, unconsciously touching her mussed hair, her cheeks already bright red.

She suddenly came to her senses and jumped. "Ensign Ivan, wait for me!"

At that moment, the deck was in chaos.

The Alvida Pirates had come alongside the warship.

Dozens of pirates swarmed onto the warship's deck and fought the marines.

Behind all the other pirates stood the fat Iron Mace Alvida, with a short, mushroom-haired pirate behind her.

Seeing her pirates gradually gain the upper hand against the marines, Alvida burst out laughing.

"Hahahahaha! Good work, you bastards! Show them what the woman pirate Iron Mace Alvida can do!"

"That's right!"

"Kill them!"

"Take them down and seize that pretty-boy ensign!"

After boosting their morale, Alvida spotted the mushroom-haired Koby hiding behind her and roared:

"Koby, you coward, what are you doing? Get in there!"

Koby trembled as he watched the blades flashing across the battlefield ahead. He was only fifteen, and malnutrition had left him much smaller and thinner than others his age.

If I charge in, the marines will kill me!

Koby did not dare disobey Alvida's orders, but neither did he dare charge into battle, so he could only say timidly:

"Captain Alvida, but I'm not good at fighting..."

Before he could finish, the impatient Alvida grabbed him and hurled him toward the warship.

"Coward! Even if you die, you'll die on the battlefield!"

"Aaaaaah!" Koby's piercing scream rang across the battlefield, briefly drowning out the shouts of marines and pirates alike.

Ivan had just stepped onto the deck when he heard the rapidly approaching scream.

Besides granting him a skill, the Satoru Gojo template had greatly strengthened his physique.

That allowed him to instantly make out the figure flying rapidly toward him. Just as he was about to use Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue to tear the figure apart, he suddenly paused.

He had realized the figure looked like Koby, a character from the story whom he knew!

Ivan reached out, seized Koby by the collar, and lifted him up. Then he narrowed his eyes and asked:

"Hey, kid, are you a pirate too?"

Koby looked up. He had never expected to escape the tiger's den only to land in the tiger's jaws.

Thrown over by Alvida, he had actually landed in the hands of the marines' highest-ranking officer, Ensign Ivan!

Koby remembered the information about Ensign Ivan clearly.

Though Ensign Ivan could not compare with those monsters, he was something of a legend among ordinary people.

What had made him most famous, however, was his stunning beauty.

His handsome looks and graceful bearing had even earned him a title of his own on these seas: White Dove.

Koby could not worry about Alvida now. He knew that if he surrendered, Alvida would likely settle the score with him later, but if he did not, he would die immediately!

So Koby hurriedly waved his hands and denied it with a trembling voice:

"Of course... of course not, Lord White Dove! I'm a civilian Alvida kidnapped by force. I've always wanted to join the Marines!"

Hearing Koby's answer, Ivan nodded in satisfaction.

Though the whole "deserter king who worked two hundred times harder" thing was a bit absurd, there was no doubt Koby was talented.

With training, he might become an Admiral-level subordinate in the future.

Of course, if Koby remained a deserter even after his training, Ivan could only kill him to uphold military discipline.

Ivan casually tossed Koby behind him. At 1.97 meters tall, he looked somewhat slender, but the coat of justice billowing behind him made him appear even taller.

Koby was staring blankly at Ivan's back when Ivan's calm voice came from ahead:

"Good. I think you've got some potential. After this battle, come work under me. I'll give you a chance to join the Marines!"

Koby had not expected not only to be spared, but also to be recognized. He clenched his fists, his expression full of excitement.

He could finally become a marine!

"Yes!" Koby answered excitedly.

Just then, however, a figure suddenly leaped from the pirate ship and slammed onto the deck in front of Ivan.

The deck cracked at once under the tremendous impact, and a tall, fat figure emerged from the dust.

Alvida's face was angry and fierce. She glared at Ivan and Koby and said through gritted teeth:

"Koby, I heard everything. How dare you betray me? You know I hate betrayal more than anything!

Don't make me laugh. You'll never get the chance to join the Marines, because I'm going to smash you into a pulp right now!"

Koby trembled as he looked up at the towering figure approaching him.

If that thick, long spiked club hits me, I'll die!

Damn it!

I just found hope of escaping this predicament and joining the Marines. Was I going to be killed already?

I can't accept this!

Just then, however, a figure that was not particularly strong stepped in front of Koby, blocking all the fear and pressure for him.

Ivan raised his voice and shouted:

"Alvida, if you want to kill my future subordinate, you'll have to get through me first!"