"It's no problem at all, Mr. Zephyr."
The middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses shook his head repeatedly, smiling. "We've completed all preparations. How about we head inside, and we can talk as we go?"
"Alright, thank you, Dr. Ent."
Dr. Ent turned, just about to lead Zephyr and the others in, when he suddenly noticed something rather awkward—the iron gate had somehow closed tightly again, standing before them like a huge mountain.
"What's this?"
Zephyr turned to him, puzzled.
"..."
Dr. Ent's eye twitched. He looked up at the top of the gate and roared in frustration: "What are you doing, you little brat! What's the meaning of suddenly closing the door for no reason?! Open the gate!"
"No." A muffled voice came from the top of the gate. "The base has its rules. To protect research security, the gate must be closed when unfamiliar outsiders arrive."
"Outsider my foot!"
Dr. Ent's roaring voice made people turn their heads. It was hard to connect this with the refined image he had just presented with his gold-rimmed glasses: "This is Admiral Zephyr! Wasn't he among the people you admired most before?! Now that you've met him face-to-face, you don't recognize him?"
A rustling sound came from the top of the iron gate.
A plump-faced boy poked his head out, squinting suspiciously at Zephyr. He looked hesitant, but ultimately shook his head, stating gravely: "Appearance is the easiest thing to mimic. I will absolutely not open the gate without orders from above!"
"I am your superior!" Dr. Ent yelled in exasperation. "Now, I order you to open the gate immediately!"
"If you were still inside the base, I'd open it, of course."
The boy, plump as a sumo wrestler, crossed his arms and snorted coldly, looking at Dr. Ent with disdain.
"But you're outside now. Who can prove you weren't swapped when you went out? As the base's security captain, I'm responsible for the base's safety, and you need to prove you're you, Dr. Ent."
This logic is truly impeccable… Nao at the back of the crowd sighed, rubbing his forehead.
He had already recognized who this little kid was—undoubtedly, with that build, it could only be Sentomaru, who would later serve under Kizaru and also become the captain of the Marine Science Unit.
Roughly calculating, this kid was only fourteen or fifteen years old now, but he was already two and a half meters tall, fat and strong. Who knew what he ate to grow up like that…
In front of the iron gate, Dr. Ent's face had turned purple with rage, while Zephyr touched his head, letting out a wry chuckle: "An interesting little fellow. He actually makes even me prove my identity…"
"Don't mind him," Dr. Ent immediately said. "I'll call my deputy inside the base and have him come open the gate…"
"No need for that trouble."
Zephyr spat out the toothpick from the corner of his mouth, rolled up his sleeve, revealing his now blackened arm, and grinned. "It's still quite simple to make this kid believe I'm Black Arm Zephyr himself."
Boom!
Under Dr. Ent's astonished gaze, Zephyr suddenly threw a punch. The massive iron gate, over ten meters high, trembled violently, then collapsed backward with a crash.
Thud.
Sentomaru, who was clinging to the top of the gate, was caught off guard and cried out, falling directly from the air, getting firmly pinned under the iron gate.
"See?"
Zephyr clapped his hands, turned to the wide-eyed Dr. Ent, and said with a smile, "Didn't that open the gate?"
—Vice Admiral Zephyr!
Dr. Ent looked at the collapsed iron gate, on the verge of tears.
This kind of gate is a pain to repair!
However, Zephyr was already laughing heartily, leading his disciples to step over the iron gate and stride into the base.
Every time someone passed by, Sentomaru underneath the iron gate would let out a pitiful cry. This continued until Nao, who was at the very back, couldn't bear to watch anymore. He took pity, lifted the iron gate with one hand, and dragged Sentomaru out with the other.
"Tha… thank you," Sentomaru mumbled.
So miserable…
Looking at the plump kid whose face was swollen like a pig's head, Nao's sympathy was overflowing. He patted Sentomaru's shoulder:
"You really didn't have to block Zephyr-sensei… Got your payback, huh? Where's your infirmary? Want me to take you there?"
Sentomaru, whose eyes were swollen shut, instantly perked up, exploding in rage. He roared sharply:
"How dare you! You're clearly a spy who snuck in, daring to inquire about the base's layout!"
"I'm the tightest-lipped man in the Science Unit! Do you think just because you pulled me out, I'd tell you the infirmary is on the east side of the research building?!"
"..."
Nao stared at him for a moment, wiped the boy's spit off his face, then silently picked him up—and shoved him right back under the gate.
...
The commotion at the gate didn't cause any delays to the field assessment schedule.
Led by Dr. Ent, the group passed through several strangely shaped buildings before arriving at the rear of the testing facility.
What greeted them was a vast stretch of dense, primal forest. The beastly roars they'd vaguely heard earlier were now clearly audible—and unmistakably coming from within.
Is the practical combat assessment going to be held in this forest? The Marines frowned, looking at each other, a rough guess forming in their minds.
At that point, Zephyr decided there was no need to keep things secret any longer. He turned to the group and spoke with a smile:
"All right, we've arrived. Time to explain the rules."
"Within this forest, there are numerous mimic combat robots produced by the Headquarters Science Division. Some resemble giant apes, others rhinos. All of them have been endowed with combat abilities similar to their external forms and species."
"Your assessment content for now is to enter this forest and battle these robots."
Zephyr paused here, then looked at the white-coated man beside him. "Dr. Ent, if you would please demonstrate."
"No problem."
Dr. Ent had regained his composure. He nodded, took a remote control from his pocket, and after a few simple operations, a commotion suddenly arose from the edge of the forest.
Three robots stepped out from the bushes, standing side-by-side in front of everyone.
From left to right, they looked like a baboon, a mammoth, and a Giant.
Their heights were also arranged from shortest to tallest. The shortest baboon-shaped combat robot was less than two meters tall, while the mammoth was five or six meters high.
And the massive, giant-like robot stood silently at a towering fifteen or sixteen meters, as sturdy as a small mountain, making everyone feel they could only look up at it.
"AE-86…"
Nao noticed the numbers inscribed on the giant's abdomen. His eyes flickered, and he looked thoughtful. "Are these combat robots the predecessors of the future Pacifistas?"
Pacifistas were primarily developed under Dr. Vegapunk. He wondered if this second test base had any connection to that genius scientist, said to be five hundred years ahead of his time.
He remembered that Pacifista models all started with PX. These robots, however, began with AE. There were probably at least dozens of generations between them, right?
Technological development always needed to progress step-by-step, Nao naturally understood this. He just hadn't expected that as early as nineteen years ago, Marine Headquarters had already begun attempting to develop such combat-capable humanoid weapons…
The future Pacifistas, after so many years of upgrades and modifications, each one was a terrifying war machine, possessing strength comparable to pirates with bounties in the hundreds of millions.
Deployed alone, they could easily capture Supernovas with bounties over 100 million, walking unimpeded through the first half of the Grand Line.
But how much combat power did these ancient, clearly crude "old models" possess?
Fortunately, Dr. Ent soon provided the answer.
"While the combat robots produced by our research institute, as Mr. Zephyr said, come in various forms and encompass most fierce beasts, they can generally be divided into three tiers."
"The first tier, like the baboon you see, is the weakest of the three types of combat machines."
"Robots in this tier are all numbered starting with AC. According to our previous tests, they can easily defeat several seasoned Headquarters Elite Marines."
Upon hearing this, no one's expression changed much. As prospective graduates of the Elite Camp, enemies of this tier clearly posed no threat to them.
"The second tier, like this mammoth, is numbered starting with AD. The strength they've demonstrated in tests can already contend with Marine Captains and Lieutenant Commanders from Headquarters."
This certainly made them pay attention. Many Elite Marines couldn't help but look at the mammoth robot, their gazes serious, as most of them, after graduation, would only be assigned to ranks around this tier.
"As for the third tier, numbered starting with AE, they are not only powerful—almost comparable to a Marine Commodore—but also possess a certain degree of intelligence. They can scan faces to confirm whether someone is on a bounty list."
Dr. Ent paused, then smiled, "Of course, creating such large units is not easy, and their cost is extremely high. Our Second Test Base only possesses eight of them in total."
Buzz!
As expected, when Dr. Ent's words fell, a sudden uproar of discussion swept through the crowd.
No one cared how many of these things there were or how difficult they were to build. The Marines present were completely captivated by Dr. Ent's previous statements, their faces filled with shock and disbelief.
These oversized hunks of metal were supposed to match the combat strength of a Headquarters Commodore?
What a joke!
Sure, maybe a few soft officers from the Four Blues didn't live up to the standard—but anyone qualified to serve as a Commodore or higher at Marine Headquarters had earned their rank through serious battle experience and proven strength.
Even the ten Commodores who had arrived with them—along with Doberman and Dalmatian—were now frowning as they stared at the towering robot, their expressions clearly uneasy.
The idea that machines could replace them was, ultimately, hard to accept—
and for some, it shook the very foundation of how they saw the world.