When the Marines boarded Island 17 of Sabaody Archipelago, they found the island in chaos, with lavishly dressed people fleeing everywhere and pirates gleefully looting.
Lieutenant Marie brows furrowed with a heroic spirit, and her bright eyes scanned her surroundings, her delicate face revealing a look of disgust.
She turned and suggested to Kenji, "Let's stabilize the situation here first, then go meet up with Vice Admiral Tsuru, Kenji-san?"
Kenji casually nodded in agreement. He hadn't intended to bring too many people to meet up with Tsuru anyway, as the latter's location was the main battlefield for the Supernovas' great battle, and ordinary soldiers would only be cannon fodder and not much help.
He simply ordered Marie to stay and command the troops, while he himself took only a small number of elite officers to reinforce Tsuru.
Bang! Whoosh!
Just as Kenji gave the order, a bullet shot from somewhere, grazing Kenji's ear and stirring up a gust of wind.
"Damn it, did I miss?!"
From behind a broken wall in the distance, a pirate with a scope on his gun was full of remorse, then unwillingly fired several more shots, all of which missed. Every bullet grazed Kenji without exception.
This scene made another young pirate with long yellow hair nearby scoff, "You always call yourself a marksman, but now someone is standing there motionless and you can't even hit him. It's ridiculous!"
"Besides, he's an Admiral. How could a gun kill him? You'd need a cannon! Just open your eyes and watch how I make a name for myself!"
While ridiculing his companion, the yellow-haired pirate didn't forget to aim the cannon in front of him at Kenji in the distance, then lit the fuse.
At this moment, a group of pirates had just finished robbing nobles and were preparing to return to their ship.
On the way, they bumped into the two pirates hiding in a corner secretly planning something big, almost scaring them to death.
"You two idiots, are you crazy to provoke an Admiral? Even if that Admiral is weak, he can easily kill us, you idiots!"
Meanwhile, the Marines had long been alert and searching for hidden enemies. Marie immediately spotted the group of pirates clutching gold and silver treasures in the distance, and her face instantly showed murderous intent as she ordered, "Enemy attack! They're the Blood Wolf Pirate Crew!"
Boom!!
No sooner had Marie finished speaking than a cannonball violently slammed into the ground near Kenji, exploding and sending debris flying and smoke rising.
The next moment, Kenji emerged from the smoke unharmed, scanning around but unable to find a suitable long-range attack tool for a moment.
"Not much time, no time to slowly play with these kids... Hmm, I've got it."
His eyes suddenly lit up. He walked to a pirate ship next to the Marine warship, then reached out and grabbed the wooden plank at the bow.
"This thing will do... Huh?"
Originally, Kenji only intended to break off and grab an entire piece of the bow, but he didn't expect that with a single pull, the entire pirate ship would be lifted.
He simply used the pirate ship as a cannonball, throwing the entire thing towards the Blood Wolf Pirate Crew in the distance, also taking along the two who were sneak-attacking.
The pirates of the Blood Wolf Crew could only look up, watching despair descend, and the pirate ship bringing that despair was their own.
At this moment, they had already cursed the two pirates who caused trouble in the shadows countless times in their hearts, but in the end, they still went on their way together with those two pirates.
Rumble~!!
The pirate ship crashed down heavily, shaking the nearby ground. The panicked crowd on the island was startled by this impact, and their chaotic fleeing figures froze, like a still frame in a movie.
Of course, the most shocked were the Marine soldiers who landed with Kenji. Their eyes almost popped out.
"Admiral Shirojishi is actually this formidable? The rumors were misleading!"
It wasn't surprising for an Admiral to take down a pirate crew with one move, but casually lifting a large pirate ship with one hand was incredibly shocking.
In fact, Kenji himself was a bit surprised. Although he had long known he possessed the Power of a Sea Beast, this was the first time he had used it on the battlefield, and grabbing that enormous pirate ship just now didn't feel strenuous at all, clearly not reaching his limit.
As for the fate of the Blood Wolf Pirate Crew and the two hidden attackers, Kenji didn't bother to check, also because the system had provided the answer.
[As a Marine School cadet, you have killed 'Blood Wolf' Sava, a pirate with a bounty of 17,000,000 Berries, in your first actual combat! Your strength has been initially recognized within the Marine!]
[Mission (Main): Hunt pirates with bounties of over one million Berries in actual combat!]
[Reward increased!]
[Reward content changed to: Upgrade the lowest rarity owned trait 3 times!]
[Reward distributed...]
[Sea Beast Power (Light White) has been upgraded to Sea Beast Power (Super White)!]
...
The first time Kenji saw the system's reward prompt, he was stunned.
'When did this damn system change its ways? It actually learned to automatically arrange rewards for the host, giving out rewards without being asked? Has it matured?'
He realized something was unusual, and only after careful thought did he suddenly understand, slapping his head.
"So it was that system mission from half a month ago. I almost forgot. No wonder..."
Accustomed to his daily routine of slacking off, he naturally wouldn't suddenly become full of vigor just because the system awakened—
'I'm just an old man nearing retirement. No matter how many system rewards there are, they only boost combat power. They can't make me younger. In a few years, my sense of taste might degenerate, and food might not even taste good anymore...'
After discovering that the previous few mission rewards basically only improved combat power, Kenji's interest in the system waned a bit, but he wouldn't mind completing missions when it was convenient.
However, overall, he was quite happy. Casually throwing a pirate ship earned him a considerable reward, which was definitely a pleasant surprise.
"It's a pity the awarded trait upgrade was used in the wrong place."
Since they all improved combat power, compared to upgrading Sea Beast Power, Kenji definitely wanted to upgrade some other traits that looked more powerful.
"Forget it. It was just a pirate with a bounty of ten million. This reward is already very good."
Kenji was, after all, a dignified Admiral. Normally, he wouldn't even bother to look at pirates with bounties in the tens of millions of Berries. He could send any subordinate to defeat ten such small fry.
Today could be considered a pleasant surprise born of anger. He even had to thank those two who launched the sneak attack.
"Counting the time, a new system mission should be coming out soon, right? This time I'll make sure to remember it a bit more seriously..." Kenji thought to himself.
Then he got up to instruct Lieutenant Marie to lead the team in cleanup, while he himself led a small number of elites to Island 1.
Indeed, as he expected, on the way to Island 1, a new system mission appeared, still displaying itself in the center of his vision without warning.
[Marine School has started a practical combat competition. Rankings will be based on the bounty of hunted pirates, lasting one month!]
[Mission (Main): Surpass at least half of the cadets in the practical combat ranking competition!]
[Reward: Upgrade a random owned trait once]
"Hmm? This mission, it wants me to compete in a ranking competition with a group of Marine School cadets?"
Even with Kenji's strong mental fortitude, his old face flushed slightly at this moment.
Among this generation of Marine School cadets, apart from two 'monster' cadets, the others struggled to even defeat pirates with tens of millions in bounties, let alone those with over a hundred million.
And even when Kenji was a Vice Admiral not long ago, pirates with bounties below 500 million Berries weren't even worthy of his attention.
Of course, the two 'monster' cadets, Sakazuki and Borsalino, could indeed fight against pirates with over a hundred million Berries.
Just like now.