After hanging up the Den Den Mushi, Kenji stood up and walked to the window, gazing at the distant sea with his hands behind his back, silently recalling and searching for any abnormalities in the entire situation.
On the surface, the mission to support Elbaph as instructed by Kong seemed perfectly reasonable and normal.
Elbaph had been providing the Marine with talents for many years. Over the years, there were already a large number of Giant officers and warriors in the Marine, and there was even a special combat unit composed entirely of Giant warriors.
Now that their homeland was in crisis, wasn't it very reasonable for them to ask for help and support?
And for a powerful pirate like Charlotte Linlin, wouldn't it be unreasonable not to dispatch an Admiral to deal with her?
In fact, the Marine's only choice was an Admiral. Sending a Vice Admiral would be akin to 'delivering food' to her.
The World Conference was currently in session, and Sengoku was still in Pangaea Castle.
Therefore, the highest combat power the Marine could deploy was Kenji, an Admiral. Everything seemed so normal and logical.
However, Kenji still vaguely felt a subtle sense of strangeness about the whole affair.
"It seems a bit too coincidental… Garp could have been sent to handle the incident."
"Moreover, with the Giant race's combat power in Elbaph, it's basically impossible for Charlotte to take over that place by war."
Kenji knew that Charlotte had wanted the Giant race to join her Totto Land forces for a long time.
To achieve this ambition, she had resorted to all sorts of extreme measures, trying many methods, and even almost succeeded through marriage.
You should know, Charlotte was not an easy person to talk to. If she could conquer Elbaph by force, would she need to go through so much trouble?
A quick and satisfying all-out attack would be much faster.
This was also the point Kenji was most suspicious about.
Of course, for Kenji, who was destined to evolve into a Giant, Elbaph was a place he still needed to visit.
Even if there was some huge conspiracy behind this incident, he could adapt to the situation and also take a good look at who was causing trouble.
"Kuzan, go inform the troops to prepare for sea, destination: the Land of Giants, Elbaph." Kenji put Kuzan, his newly appointed subordinate, to work.
Kuzan, on the other hand, was very proactive, standing at attention and saluting, shouting energetically, "Understood! Kenji-san!"
"When working, address me by my title." Kenji frowned slightly, waving his hand with a hint of disdain, telling the grinning Kuzan to go deliver the order.
"This kid… I feel he's not very reliable."
Although Kuzan had great potential, Kenji felt that this kid was not very reliable as a subordinate, not as good as Marie.
"Bring Sakazuki and Magellan along for this operation too."
"Hmm, let them each lead a battleship, it's time to train their leadership skills."
Kenji walked and pondered, and when he made his decision, system mission prompts slowly appeared in his vision.
[You heard about the 'Land of Giants Incident' and decided to accept this Headquarters mission, accompanying the main force to the Giant Kingdom - Elbaph! You realize this mission is very dangerous and must focus your attention to deal with potential enemies!]
[Mission (Main): Lead the fleet to the Giant Kingdom - Elbaph, with troop losses not exceeding half!]
[Reward: Upgrade a random owned trait once!]
"The mission content… isn't it to resolve the Giant Kingdom incident?"
Kenji was surprised after reading the entire mission description, almost thinking there was an error in the mission content.
"Under normal circumstances, the mission the system would issue at this point should be to resolve the Elbaph incident, or to deal with and expel the Big Mom Pirates…"
"Is the mission changed due to certain factors?"
Having dealt with the system for over half a year, Kenji had somewhat grasped the mission patterns of this tricky system.
And this time, the 'unconventional' mission quickly caught his attention, but with limited information, he could only guess the reason for now.
"I can look for the reason from the mission itself…" Kenji re-examined the specific mission content, his eyes gradually becoming thoughtful.
"The difficulty of the missions issued by the system is linked to the rewards, so the mission itself must have a certain difficulty, at least for me, who is a Marine commodore in the system's timeline, it is difficult."
After completing the missions to assist in the subjugation of the Roger Pirates and the Maiden Island related missions, the system did not continue to 'exceptionally promote' Kenji. His rank in its timeline still remained Marine Commodore.
However, Kenji was happy about this. The rank in system's timeline did not affect reality, and besides, the lower the rank judged by the system, the greater the contrast between mission difficulty and reality, and the more rewards he could get for completing the missions.
At this time, he put himself in the position of a Marine Commodore and re-evaluated the mission difficulty.
"Elbaph is located deep in New World… So, there might be unexpected dangers on the way to the Land of Giants?"
Thinking of this, Kenji's thoughts gradually became clear.
Going deep into the New World meant a greatly increased risk of encountering powerful pirates, and many powerful pirates in the New World were not necessarily weaker than a Vice Admiral, let alone a mere Commodore like him.
Soon after, Kenji arrived at the Marine G-1 Branch Base port, boarded the battleship, and immediately ordered his subordinates to bring a New World map for inspection.
"So that's how it is."
"To reach Elbaph, one must pass through the territories of some powerful pirates, and even the territory of a Legendary Pirate…"
Kenji nodded slightly, looking at the map on the table, understanding dawned on him.
On the map, Wano Country was in New World's deep region, yet Elbaph was even further east of Wano Country.
And these two countries had always been places unreachable by the World Government.
"For a Marine Commodore, going to such a place is indeed a bit difficult."
In fact, not just a Marine Commodore, in the past, when Kenji was still a Vice Admiral, he wouldn't even bother looking at the deep regions of the New World, because those were not places he could casually go.
Someone like Kenji, who loved brothels, had never been to Wano Country, the 'Land of Courtesans', for so many years.
"Hmm, how about, after this mission, I stop by Wano Country for a visit?" Kenji pondered, stroking his chin, quite tempted.
At the G-1 Branch Base port, three battleships were quickly prepared and officially set sail.
With an Admiral overseeing the journey, there were not many twists and turns along the way, even though they passed through the territories of two Legendary Pirate crews.
Perhaps it was because they passed by the edge of their territories, or perhaps those Legendary Pirates were not at home.
Several days later, the three battleships led by Kenji successfully arrived in the waters near Elbaph.
At the same time, Kenji also received a reply from an acquaintance in CP0.