Marine Headquarters Base, Marineford.
Inside the Fleet Admiral's office.
Kong had just returned from Pangaea Castle, his face grim, looking very angry.
"During the World Conference, he actually left the Headquarters Base without authorization and even claimed he was pursuing the Roger Pirates..."
"That bastard Garp!"
Kong slammed his fist on the desk, making the documents and stationery jump.
As most of the Marine's top combatants were out at sea, it led to the rare situation this year where only one Admiral was guarding Pangaea Castle during the World Conference.
For this, Kong was severely reprimanded by the Five Elders, the world's highest authority.
"And Kenji..."
Compared to Garp, Kong found Kenji even more troublesome.
If Garp's actions were considered spontaneous, then Kenji's recent behavior, in Kong's eyes, was simply reckless.
"He actually took over Kubo Island without authorization, and there was no request or report afterwards."
"He even openly seized properties related to the Celestial Dragons..."
Kong repeatedly looked at a document on his desk, and no matter how many times he looked, he still found it unbelievable.
The moment he first saw this document, he almost thought it was recording the deeds of a Legendary Pirate.
"He's simply too audacious, acting without any regard for the law."
What angered Kong the most was that Kenji only informed Headquarters afterwards that he was heading to East Blue, and then his Den Den Mushi became unreachable. Even now, Kong couldn't contact him.
This, however, prevented Kong from angrily holding him accountable.
Tap, tap, tap!!
Hurried footsteps quickly arrived outside the door.
The office door was pulled open, and a Rear Admiral rushed in to report, "Fleet Admiral Kong, Admiral Shirojishi's Den Den Mushi... it's connected!"
The bearded Rear Admiral's tone was very excited. One could feel the joy of finally succeeding after repeated failures in his voice.
Kong took the Den Den Mushi with a grim face and asked coldly, "Kenji, where are you now?"
"Hmm, I just arrived in East Blue, what's up?"
"What's up? Don't you know the quadrennial World Conference is about to begin? Return to Marineford immediately!"
"That's difficult. I need to stay in East Blue for at least half a month to handle some important matters."
"You... Remember this! When you return, you must give me a complete report on the Kubo Island incident that I approve of."
Kong struggled to suppress his anger, resisted the urge to slam the table again, and gave the order in a deep voice.
"You are not on vacation now!"
"According to intelligence, a Legendary Pirate has recently appeared in East Blue. Currently, we know of the Roger Pirates and Red Count, Patrick Redfield!"
"Since you're already in East Blue, go investigate Red Count's whereabouts."
"As for Roger, Garp will handle him."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the Den Den Mushi before Kenji's slightly strange voice came through again.
"Is that so? Alright, I'll keep an eye out."
Then the Den Den Mushi hung up, leaving Kong with a face full of indignation.
...
East Blue, near Loguetown.
Kenji leaned against the ship's railing, casually hung up the call, and gently tossed the Den Den Mushi to Marie.
"Kenji, Fleet Admiral Kong seems very displeased..." Marie put away the Den Den Mushi, frowning, clearly having heard Kenji's conversation with Kong just now.
"There's nothing I can do." Kenji sighed.
'Running all the way to the East Blue, I'm also very helpless!'
He was equally depressed inside but couldn't articulate it.
Because even now, the system prompt that suddenly appeared a few days ago was still flashing red in the corner of his vision.
This system prompt was special. Even the text was red, instinctively making him feel tense and a sense of crisis.
And the specific content was also like that.
[Friendly Reminder: You have been away from your mission Garrison location - Loguetown for over three weeks this month!]
[Warning: You must return to the mission Garrison location as soon as possible, otherwise the subsequent monthly public security rewards will be canceled!]
"This broken system, even a mission requires checking in!"
Kenji didn't expect that even when doing a system mission, he couldn't avoid 'checking in'.
This time, he had been outsmarted by the system.
Fortunately, he had already mastered very mature slacking techniques and made proper arrangements in advance, only needing to check in as routine.
So, at this moment, he simply drank tea first. He sipped his tea while quietly waiting for the warship to dock.
Soon after, the warship successfully entered Loguetown's port.
Kenji stayed in Loguetown for a day, successfully checked in, and received this week's public order compliance reward.
[In the past week, you have once again successfully maintained the peace of Loguetown, and the public order level has met or exceeded the assessment standard!]
[Mission (Main - Long-term): Protect Loguetown, capture pirates! - Completed!]
[Reward: Ugrade a random owned trait 1 time (Basic Reward)!]
[Last week's public order rating - 7 out of 10!]
[Reward Increased!]
[Reward has been changed to: Upgrade a random owned trait 3 times!]
[Reward being issued...]
[Berserk (Super White) has been upgraded... Light Blue... Blue... Dark Blue!]
[Berserk has advanced! Current Berserk (Dark Blue)!]
...
[Name: Kenji]
[Traits: Armament Haki (Super Gold), Observation Haki (Light Gold), Conqueror's Haki (Dark Gold), Physique (Gold), Hand-to-Hand Combat (Light Gold), Swordsmanship (Super Blue), Sea Beast Power (Light Blue), Superspeed Regeneration (Super Blue), Iron Body (Blue), Future Vision (Blue), Berserk (Dark Blue), Pressure of All Things (Light White)]
"Oh? The upgraded trait is [Berserk], my luck isn't bad!"
Kenji glanced at the status and nodded in satisfaction.
[Berserk] can amplify all current abilities, and most of the side effects after use can be offset by [Superspeed Regeneration].
After this advancement of [Berserk] to 'Dark Blue' rarity, the side effects had been significantly reduced.
Kenji briefly tested it. Activating [Berserk] for one minute resulted in only a few seconds of weakness.
He estimated that at this rate, once it advanced to purple rarity, there wouldn't be much of the weakening effect left.
After closing the system interface, Kenji headed straight to the port, preparing to set sail on the warship.
"Hmm, since I'm here, I might as well check on the training camp."
"A few days ago, Anna reported that some promising talents had arrived at the training camp..."
As he was thinking, a flash of light appeared in his vision.
A sudden line of system prompts made him stop in surprise.
[Attention! Main mission is about to change!]
(End of Chapter)
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