Fair skin, rosy cheeks, a high nose, enchanting eyes, and golden, wavy hair.
This was Empress Monika, the current Empress of Amazon Lily and Captain of the Nine Snakes Pirates, as seen by Kenji.
[Note: Monika doesn't exist in original story.]
"Monika, who just became the Empress of Amazon Lily this year, is skilled in archery, but her strength is relatively weaker compared to previous Empresses. Threat assessment: Minor?"
Kenji recalled the intelligence report on the Nine Snakes Pirates he had just read.
At this moment, he remembered the threat assessment of the Nine Snakes Pirates in the data and felt a bit speechless.
"Attacked and destroyed a Marine warship, captured a Marine Rear Admiral—is such combat power considered a minor threat?"
"Who on earth wrote this intelligence report on the Nine Snakes Pirates?"
Having served in the Marine for many years, Kenji naturally understood that there was a significant difference between killing a Marine Rear Admiral and capturing a Marine Rear Admiral on the battlefield.
If someone can subdue you and capture you alive as a prisoner, it means their strength far exceeds yours.
"The intelligence is too distorted, it doesn't match the actual situation at all."
Kenji looked at the pirate ship that had already sailed into the Calm Belt, a look of interest in his eyes.
"In her first year as Empress, she led the Nine Snakes Pirates to pull off a 'big job'…"
"Haha! She's quite strong!"
Kenji did not order a pursuit because the warship was already heading at full speed toward the pirate ship. Sakazuki was authorized to command the warship and troops, and with his temperament, not pursuing was impossible.
So, Kenji simply returned to his seat and continued drinking tea.
Soon, a system light flashed in his vision, and reward information appeared like code.
[You led the troops to arrive at the battlefield in time by warship, successfully rescued most of the attacked soldiers, and the Nine Snakes Pirates fled at the sight of you! This rescue operation greatly increased your prestige among ordinary soldiers!]
[Mission (Main): Provide nearby support to the attacked Marine, rescue at least 50 Marine officers and soldiers! —Over-completed]
[Reward increased!]
[Reward has been changed to: Upgrade a random owned trait 2 times!]
[Your Steel Balloon (Light White) has been upgraded... White... Dark White!]
[Current Steel Balloon (Dark White)!]
"Hmm, the upgraded trait is decent, not bad...?" Kenji quickly scanned the rewards, then his attention was drawn to some text.
"The system judged the Nine Snakes Pirates to have fled at the sight of me?"
"Haha, interesting. It seems that in the system's timeline, my strength is enough to make most pirate crews retreat."
Kenji stroked his chin, a smile appearing on his face.
In the system's timeline, he's only a Marine Commodore, while the Nine Snakes Pirates had just captured a Marine Rear Admiral. So, Marine Commodore is greater than Marine Rear Admiral?
At this thought, Kenji almost burst out laughing.
However, he had indeed heard that Rear Admiral Truger was a bit of a 'dud,' his strength was very mediocre, and his reputation was also poor, having been reported for extorting money from displaced people.
"He couldn't have used some backdoor connections to avoid being dealt with, could he?"
"Forget it, he's not the only corrupt officer... Ha! How can the Marine improve with these worms around?"
As Kenji pondered, the warship had already reached the boundary between the Calm Belt and the Grand Line.
Even Sakazuki had to order a halt to the pursuit at this point.
After all, ahead was the Calm Belt.
The nest of Sea Kings!
With Sakazuki's strength, dealing with Sea Kings was not difficult, but if hundreds of Sea Kings swarmed them, he might be able to escape, but the warship would have no chance.
Moreover, he hadn't asked for Kenji's opinion and dared not unilaterally order the warship into dangerous waters.
"The Calm Belt... it's the Amazon Lily Kingdom's natural protective barrier."
Kenji looked at the calm, waveless sea ahead, there truly wasn't a single breath of wind.
And the Nine Snakes Pirates' ship, after entering the Calm Belt, could not rely on wind and could only be dragged by two giant Sea Kings, slowing its speed.
Kenji withdrew his gaze, not intending to continue the pursuit. To catch up to the pirate ship, the warship was out of the question. He could only use powerful physical techniques to walk on water or fly through the air.
Using such a travel method for a long time consumed too much energy, and the Calm Belt's area was quite large.
Of course, he could also choose to be a swimming champion, but that would greatly increase the probability of being attacked by Sea Kings, by a factor of a billion.
Neither method was within Kenji's consideration. After a brief and careful thought, he finally decided: to provide all support except direct intervention.
As for the captured Rear Admiral Truger, he planned to report it to headquarters later and let Kong worry about it.
At the same time, he also knew that Truger's safety was not an issue. Since the opponent had captured him alive, they must be looking for some kind of exchange of interests.
The Amazon Lily Kingdom is located in the Calm Belt, and many supplies need to be obtained from the outside world. Even newspapers have to be acquired through plunder.
"?"
Just as Kenji withdrew his gaze, he suddenly noticed movement and turned to look in one direction.
Whoosh!!
The next moment, an arrow shot at high speed, piercing and shattering a small section of the ship's wooden hull.
This was an arrow enhanced with Armament Haki.
Kenji turned his gaze and saw that the Nine Snakes Pirates' ship had returned to the vicinity of the Calm Belt's border at some unknown time.
On the pirate ship's deck, the current Empress Monika held a bow and continuously fired arrows.
Whoosh... Whoosh... Whoosh...
Extremely destructive Armament Haki-enhanced arrows shot over at high speed.
"They actually dared to come back? Trying to attack our warship?" Sakazuki drew the long sword from his back, his eyes cold.
"You won't succeed!"
He suddenly leaped up, continuously swinging his sword in the air, cutting down all incoming arrows.
Kenji looked at the continuous rain of arrows from a distance, but in his mind, he recalled some of the system's previous judgments, and he couldn't help but secretly chuckle.
"Their retreat was just a feint, they turned right around to attack... Is this also called 'fleeing at the sight of me'?"
"Got slapped in the face, didn't you, system?"
Since the day the system had awakened, Kenji had rarely seen the system 'lose face.'
This time, being able to see the system 'lose face', he felt refreshed.
And just as Kenji was greatly mocking the system, a system mission prompt suddenly appeared.
[You discovered that the Nine Snakes Pirates were only feigning retreat and were suddenly attacked by them! You are very angry and have decided to subjugate this Nine Snakes Pirates!]
[Mission (Main): Successfully subjugate the Nine Snakes Pirates! Capture Amazon Lily Empress Monika!]
[Reward: Upgrade a random owned trait 3 times!]
"Haha! Is this out of anger and embarrassment?" Kenji didn't feel very angry.
On the contrary, he even felt like laughing at this moment.