Chapter 76: The Gathering

Marine headquarters.

On the square.

Many recruits were scattered, because it was not yet the gathering time. Recruits were still coming one after another, so the atmosphere was relatively loose.

“Have you heard that the Fuji Pirates Group was instantly destroyed by that recruit, Ron!!”

Some of the recruits gathered in little groups spoke excitedly.

They were the recruits who did not meet the requirements and didn’t go with Zephyr that day. They were envious and frustrated at first, but they did not expect to hear such news afterward. They were shocked, but a little gloating, after all, the group which accompanied Zephyr didn’t get to do anything and had no military achievement points.

“I heard that he had a fight with Instructor Gumir not long ago and that the latter couldn’t hold his ground against him.”

The recruit responded next to him.

“I heard that Ron had only 27 points on his physical examination. The reason behind his strength is definitely a devil fruit”, said the first recruit with envy.

“These lucky people…”

Someone said with a sigh. In the barracks, there were also other devil fruit users, and basically, they were the strongest.

A thick muscular recruit frowned and retorted: “It also depends on what kind of ability it is. If it was a poor one, it wouldn’t enhance the strength that much. That way, instead of wasting time developing your ability, it would be better to spend your time improving your physique.‘’

“That’s true.”

“I heard that Ron possesses the ‘Fantasy Fruit’. It gives the ability to turn his imagination into reality… it is said to be one of the strongest devil fruit abilities, if not the strongest!”

“Fantasy fruit? Is there such a devil fruit? I heard that Ron wasn’t a devil fruit user, and uses some kind of sorcery.”

“Who knows…But what matters…he is very strong.”

Some recruits shook their heads and said: “The admirals, they have the strongest Logia devil fruits (T/N: Magma, Light, and Ice). If only we could put our hands on getting devil fruit ability of that level, we would easily have the power of a vice-admiral…”

The recruits were talking to each other…all envious.

The fleet commander Sengoku was also mentioned in their discussions, although most of them did not know what ability he had, but it was said that he was also a capable man.

And just as everyone was talking about that, a steady and stern voice came.

“Don’t overestimate the devil fruit’s power!”

Zephyr came over with a sullen face and scolded many recruits: “It is true that the current admirals possess the strongest devil fruits, but this powerful devil fruit isn’t that easy to obtain.”

“And the power of devil fruit is also based on physique strength! The same devil fruit exerts different powers depending on its user! “
Seeing Zephyr coming over, with a strict tone, no one dared to say another word.

Zephyr glanced at the many recruits, did not order them to get in lines, instead continued to say in a deep voice: “In addition, if your body is strengthened to a certain extent, you will be able to go against devil fruit users! And even crush them!”

“Garp isn’t a devil fruit user, and he was the opponent of Gol.d.Roger!”

“This old man in front of you, isn’t a devil fruit user, and I was once an admiral! I managed to arrest countless pirates, including famous ones, and a lot of them were devil fruit users! Despite their tremendous devil fruit powers, they ended being arrested by a non-devil fruit user!”

Hearing Zephyr’s words, many recruits nodded.

No one could deny, or cast doubt on his words.

Relying on his pure physical strength and techniques, Zephyr was able to become an admiral, and most of the present recruits never dreamed of such a thing, their best shot or goal was a vice admiral at most.

Seeing the appearance of many recruits, Zephyr’s expression slightly loosened a bit, but as he remembered Ron’s existence, he sneered again.

He learned yesterday that Ron was originally a pirate hunter. After hunting many pirates in East Blue and receiving a large amount of bounty, he joined the marine headquarters as a recruit, he wasn’t just a random talent found by Garp.

After the world government came up with the Shichibukai system, to form an alliance with pirates, allowing them to legally plunder with limits, he was already very disappointed with the world government and the marines, let alone pirate hunters.

These were the roots of chaos!

For Zephyr, the elders of the world government lost their minds and lost control over the world order. The marines became unable to stop pirates from running wild, and even permitted them to do so… And in addition, pirate hunters became able to join the Marines as high talents. No wonder that the marines fell to this point!

If it wasn’t for Garp, his remaining little faith, and hope for the marines, he would completely leave.

Zephyr walked through the recruits with a cold face and came to the front of the crowd.

Many recruits were afraid to even look at him in the eyes.

The instructor in front of the recruits looked at Zephyr and couldn’t help but sigh. Back in time, when Zephyr was his instructor, he was very patient and earnest, but in recent years, Zephyr’s character changed a lot, he became stricter and had a grumpy temperament.

He couldn’t forgive the recruits with a lousy history. He even expelled a trainee, who was a bandit in his early years, from the recruit camp.

The instructor secretly sighed, but he did not dare to say a thing, nor was he qualified to persuade Zephyr.

The recruits kept coming one after another, and there were more and more people in the square. The instructor looked at them and determined that should be it. He stepped forward and was ready to give the orders.

But at that time, a recruiter stepped forward from the crowds, walked straight towards Zephyr, holding a document in his hand.

“… What’s the matter?”

Zephyr saw the recruit approaching, his face became stiffer.

It was Ron!

He calmly handed over the documents to Zephyr and said: “This is my application to become a marine trainee, they told me that it should be approved and signed by instructor Zephyr.”

Zephyr was too close to snap, but he held his composure and pretended as if nothing happened. He took over the document and glanced at it.

He read this document many times, and didn’t actually need to look at it, but that time, he had no envy to sign it for Ron, so he held the documents in his hands, and was lost in his thoughts.

After a few seconds, Zephyr put down the document and said in a deep voice: “Applying to become a marine trainee requires certain requirements, and you are not qualified physically. Putting aside your strength level, such rules shouldn’t be broken.”

“Let this old man explain to you why body skills and abilities are important. Come, use your strongest attack and let the old man see how strong you are.”

Ron narrowed his eyes slightly.

Ron’s strongest attack?! Zephyr already witnessed it when Ron destroyed the Fuji Pirates a few days ago, but here he was asking him to use it against him. Ron was sure that Zephyr was planning something, there was no way that he could ask for something like this in front of the other recruits.