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Marineford, inside the Fresh Department Store.
The shop owner, Grandma Kara, smiled as she watched the lively crowd in front of her store.
“As expected of the boss, hic! Another drink!”
“If you want a drink, get it yourself! Don’t bother Grandma Kara!”
“The boss was way too awesome today! That Hasshoken…. whoosh! Did you see it? Even Commodore Bastille’s mask shattered! They say that when he woke up in the infirmary, he declared that the boss would definitely become an admiral someday.
“Vice Admiral! Vice Admiral!”
Soldiers from the Marine Detention Unit were sprawled all over the floor, completely drunk.
In fact, among all the Marines in this place, only one could barely be called sober.
“Hic… Hina thinks she might’ve drunk a bit too much!”
“Yeah, yeah, me too!”
“What are you talking about? Can someone who drinks cola even get drunk?”
Right now, the one awkwardly holding a cup and drinking alongside Hina was Roy. Roy’s expression was far from pleasant at the moment.
“We agreed that Smoker would pay the bill…”
He gritted his teeth.
“And whose fault is that? You hit way too hard today. Smoker’s still in the infirmary. Though he did say you could put it on his tab.”
Hina’s face was flushed, and her words were slightly slurred.
Roy: “… ”
No…. Smoker still had his arm in a cast. Even the cigars on his uniform had been smashed to pieces. In that kind of condition, making him pay was something even Roy couldn’t bring himself to do.
“But honestly, even though Hina already heard about it from Smoker, it’s still really frustrating.”
Hina continued speaking drunkenly.
There was a hint of unwillingness in her tone.
Hearing that, Roy quickly comforted her. “It’s not like that. Your elimination isn’t entirely your fault. You were practically about to beat the ‘White-Winged Knight,’ Hasmod, weren’t you?”
He knew that, of all the islands today, the Fifth Island, where Hina was, had the weakest overall opposition.
Yet, the fighting there had been the fiercest.
In the end, the victor was the “White-Winged Knight” Hasmod, whom Roy had seen listed in the booklet earlier, but it was a hard-fought, narrow victory.
After having his arm and abdomen pierced by three of Hina’s black pillars, he stood back up unexpectedly and kept fighting. Ultimately, when Hina failed to react in time, she was blasted off the island by the giant hammer in his hands.
“Who’s talking about that?”
Hina shot Roy a glare. “Hina knows her own strength. Even though the training intensity has been high lately, making it to the final assessment was always going to be difficult.”
“I’m talking about you. Just how much strength were you hiding before? The speed at which you’re getting stronger is way too fast!”
Dissatisfied, she grabbed Roy’s collar with one hand while pulling down her wine-red sunglasses with the other.
“You bastard, just how strong are you right now? Hina feels like you’re basically on the same level as Vice Admiral Gion!”
She had seen Roy’s punch earlier that day, of course. After waking up on the medical ship, she also heard what happened on the Seventh Island.
What happened on the Seventh Island could barely be called a battle. Roy’s performance was just like Momousagi Gion’s on the First Island, a complete, overwhelming suppression of everyone else.
“By the way, I’ve wanted to ask since earlier, aren’t wine-red sunglasses hard to see in at night?”
Roy thought for a moment while being grabbed by the collar and decided not to argue with a drunk person. He replied casually instead.
“…”
Hina didn’t answer.
When Roy looked over in confusion, he realized, that the entire department store had somehow gone completely quiet.
Upon taking a closer look, he noticed that everyone in the Marine Detention Unit, including Hina, had fallen asleep.
Roy: “… ”
After reluctantly paying the bill and going to great lengths to send the completely drunk Marines back to their dorms, Roy…
Unable to sleep, Roy poured himself a cup of cola and went up to the rooftop of the dormitory building.
Glug.
After downing the cola, Roy recalled Hina’s question.
‘How strong was he?’
That was something even he couldn’t answer.
He was strong, there was no doubt about that. But exactly how strong he was, Roy honestly wasn’t sure.
The reason was simple.
Up until now, he had never fought at full strength.
Restricted by the need to hide his identity, he had always had to hold back in previous battles.
The strongest enemy he had defeated so far was the “Lizard King” Hanafuda. The former warlord might have once possessed power rivaling Kaido’s and is still a formidable figure on the seas, but he doesn’t belong in the top tier of the strongest.
But now, things were a bit different.
After obtaining the Human-Human Fruit, he could use his power freely.
With four clones of “The Twelve Zodiac” tirelessly working to earn Beli, his strength grows stronger with every passing moment.
Not only Hina…
Even Roy himself was curious about how far he could go.
“What am I even thinking!?”
But he soon let out a laugh and shook his head.
While he was muttering to himself…
On the distant coastline, the first faint ray of morning light appeared, illuminating the enormous artificial island far out at sea.
On that island, towering forests were densely packed.
That was the location of the final assessment.
Its name was… “Martial Island.”
Three days later:
On the distant coastline facing Martial Island…
There were just as many spectators as there had been three days ago, if not more.
“They’re here!”
“After three days of recovery, the final assessment of the Three-Forces Military Exercise on Martial Island is next!”
“The nine winners of the second round will enter the island’s forest through nine different entrances. We will have to wait for Fleet Admiral Sengoku to announce the specific content of the assessment. But before that…”
The commentator was still as fired up as ever.
“Let’s introduce the nine participants!”
As he spoke, nine massive banners were raised.
“The winner of Island One is Vice Admiral ‘Momousagi’ Gion!”
“The winner of Island Two is Vice Admiral ‘Greatest Swordsman’ Hamo!”
“Winner of Island Three… Guernica!”
“The winner of Island Four is ‘Wicked Tongue’ Sora!”
“Winner of Island Five… the ‘White-Winged Knight’ Hasmod!”
“The winner of Island Seven is the ‘Marine Supernova,’ Roy Amos!”
Each time he announced a contestant, the corresponding group in the crowd erupted in cheers. And when he announced Roy, however, the cheers practically exploded into a boiling frenzy.
Roy’s performance three days ago had been so dazzling that he had surpassed the originally most popular contestant, “Momousagi” Gion.
If someone had paid close attention at that moment, they would have surely noticed…
On the podium where the Navy top brass were seated, one seat beside the three Admirals was missing its occupant.
That was Zephyr’s seat.
On the other side…
“You don’t realize it until you really look; this island is huge.” I heard these artificial islands were all funded by ‘Fukujin.’ As expected of the ‘King of Loan Sharks,’ he’s damn rich.”
Roy stood on a battleship positioned at one of Martial Island’s entrances and clicked his tongue in amazement. As he muttered to himself, he also swept his eyes toward the area near the island…
He could see other contestants approaching from different directions within his range of vision.
“Wicked Tongue, Sora, the White-Winged Knight, and that giant vice admiral… hmm?”
As he spoke, Roy quickly noticed a battleship in the distance. The ship was farther from the island’s coastline, and the letters on its hull read:
“SSG.”
“A science division battleship…? I didn’t hear that anyone from the science division was among the nine contestants.”
Roy frowned, confused.
“Could the previous battles have been so intense that they specifically prepared a team to repair the island?”
Just as he was guessing…
Woooo!
A massive horn sounded.
He then saw a screen rise from the top of the island along with an enormous loudspeaker.
On the screen, a number was displayed.
9
Beneath it was a countdown timer.
3:00:00.
“Nine contestants. Next, I will announce the rules of the final assessment.”
Sengoku’s voice came through the loudspeaker as straightforward as ever.
“On the screen is a three-hour countdown. Anyone who survives for three hours without being defeated will be the final victor of this Martial Exercise.”
The test he described still sounded simple enough.
But clearly, after experiencing the first assessment, no one here would believe his words so easily anymore, no one here would believe his words so easily anymore.
Gulp.
No one knew how many people swallowed hard at that moment while staring into the silent forest of Martial Island.
“What the hell is inside that forest?”
(End of Chapter)
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