Boom!
It wasn't until Roger had been sent flying a great distance, almost plummeting towards the distant coastline, that the thunderous sound of the heavy punch finally echoed.
Accompanying the booming sound waves were dense Haki and an impact wave more violent than a massive tsunami.
Bang!
Roger crashed heavily, creating another large crater on the coastal ground.
However, even if this land had consciousness, it probably wouldn't care at this point. After all, you humans are not acting human at all.
There were countless deep craters both inside and outside the battlefield, one more wouldn't make a difference.
"Ugh, pfft…"
Roger lay in the center of the crater, still spitting blood even in his unconscious state.
Even though his body had been struck by immense force, it didn't awaken him.
"Captain! Captain Roger!"
An anxious shout came from nearby as a pirate ship rapidly approached the spot where Roger had fallen.
It was the Oro Jackson, which its crew had previously maneuvered to the coast to pick up the Roger Pirates personnel.
At this moment, the pirate ship broke through the waves and, before it had fully docked, the crew members on board could no longer wait and jumped off, sprinting to assist the unconscious Roger.
At the same time, Anna also led the Marine to Kenji's side.
"Do we need to prepare a warship?" Anna looked at the distant Oro Jackson and asked Kenji.
"Forget it, let Garp chase him." Kenji said, sweeping his gaze and seeing Garp getting up and chasing towards the sea, then waved his hand with a smile.
"Since I stole his opponent, I won't interfere with the clean-up."
"I can't leave him with no sense of participation at all."
Actually, Kenji didn't mention two other points.
If he went too far this time, it would be difficult to ask Garp for help next time.
And, most importantly, he had already received the system mission reward.
"This reward came quite quickly. Is it because the system judged Roger to have lost combat capability? Or for other reasons?"
Kenji thought casually, his gaze falling upon the lines of system prompts that suddenly appeared in his vision.
Just then, Anna, who was beside him, suddenly reminded him, "Ugh, Vice Admiral Garp is running towards our warship. It seems he plans to ride our warship."
"…What?!"
Kenji quickly closed the system interface upon hearing this and turned to look in the direction Anna was pointing.
In the distance, Garp's figure was as swift as lightning, sprinting with full force, and his direction of travel, besides the sea, was Kenji's warship.
As for the Roger Pirates' Oro Jackson, it had already set sail and was nearly two miles away by now.
"Stop him quickly!"
Kenji hastily got up, intending to chase him, but soon realized it was too late.
Before reaching the seaside, Garp pushed off with both feet and leaped high into the air, jumping onto Kenji's warship.
Bang!
The warship shook violently from Garp's landing, almost getting overturned by him again.
A large hole appeared on the warship's deck, and shattered wooden pieces splattered everywhere.
"That Garp!"
Seeing the warship set sail while he was still far away, Kenji could only stop helplessly and said in annoyance, "If he wants to chase Roger, why doesn't he use Geppo himself?!"
Geppo, as a practical technique, was learned by many Marine officers, but this technique could not keep one airborne for long, and even when traversing the sea, it consumed a good deal of stamina.
If one could easily spiral into the sky or travel long distances just by stepping on their own feet, then the Admirals and Legendary Pirates wouldn't bother with the trouble of taking a ship.
"Sigh, it seems this warship can't be saved."
Kenji shook his head, turned back, and instructed Anna, "Later, notify Marineford to dispatch a warship from a nearby branch base."
Previously, Kenji was worried that Garp would damage his warship and secretly warned himself, "Never let Garp board my warship."
But now, in an unguarded moment, that old fox ran onto his warship and sailed away immediately.
Kenji knew that Garp usually asked for permission before boarding someone else's warship. Today, he was clearly in such a hurry that he couldn't bother with such courtesies.
"What is all this…?"
At this moment, Kenji's peripheral vision caught sight of large sections of the island's ground that had collapsed due to the battle.
Cracks in the earth extended all the way to the vicinity of the training camp, and the empty training ground was covered in dense, fine cracks.
Kenji knew that repairing the training camp and the island's dock next would mean another major drain on his wallet, a huge gold explosion.
He felt annoyed by it and simply shifted his attention to something that could make him happy.
"Fortunately, this time wasn't a total loss." Kenji brought up the system interface and checked the system prompts again.
After reading just two or three lines of text, his mood quickly improved.
[You shone brightly in the battle to subjugate the Roger Pirates. Your attacks heavily wounded the Legendary Pirate Gol D. Roger, as well as 'Pluton' Silvers Rayleigh, 'Mountain Eater' Scopper Gaban, and others. Your performance was perfect!]
[Your achievements have shaken the Marine high command. Marineford is urgently researching the possibility of another exceptional promotion in military rank!]
[Mission (Main): Deeply assist the Marine's top combat power in subjugating the Roger Pirates and survive until the end of the battle! Over-completed!]
[Reward increased!]
[Reward has been changed to: Randomly evolve owned traits 2 times! (2 independent evolutions)]
[Reward being distributed...]
[Your Iron Body (Blue) has evolved into Steel Balloon!]
[Current Steel Balloon (Light White)!]
[Trait effect is changing...]
"Steel Balloon? I think I've heard of it…"
Kenji paused at the words, feeling a sense of familiarity, frowned in thought, and then realized.
"Is it Charlotte Linlin's type of Physique?
"Hmm, Iron Body's effect is already very strong. The evolved trait shouldn't get worse, right?"
In reality, Kenji had previously only thought "Steel Balloon" was a description of Charlotte Linlin's special Physique.
Moreover, he knew very well that the term "Steel Balloon" far from captured the true power of Charlotte Linlin's Physique.
To become a strong person, one relies either on talent or on effort.
However, to go further and become a world-class powerhouse, effort alone is not enough, talent is also required.
On the growth path of every top-tier powerhouse, effort and talent, if not balanced, are at least not far apart.
And Charlotte Linlin, in Kenji's view, belonged to the talent-type, the kind where talent far outweighed effort.
As long as she grew normally, she could become one of the Four Emperors just by lying down and relying on her powerful talent.
"I wonder if this [Steel Balloon] refers to Charlotte Linlin's special Physique, or if it's…"
Kenji couldn't determine the specific ability of the trait for a while, so he decided to test it.
He looked around, finally selected a small mountain, got up, and walked towards it.