"Lieutenant Kuro, we will never forget you!"

Port area.

Cass and the rest of the navy were filled with tears.

Cass held Kuro's hand tightly, his voice choked with emotion.

They were guest troops, essentially belonging to the 153rd Branch. After delivering Kuro, their mission was complete, and they needed to return to the 153rd Branch.

“Cass, I will never forget you.”

Kuro forced a stiff smile and gave a perfunctory reply.

"Warrant Lieutenant, don't worry, we will never forget your teachings when we get back. We will train hard, become noble naval officers, and strive to join headquarters and serve under you." Cass cried.

Absolutely not!

Kuro instinctively clenched his fist. With someone like you, who has such a vivid imagination, how could he possibly live his life?

Because of your overthinking, he had to go to headquarters. On the way, he even encountered Hawkeye. If you come to headquarters with me again, then I'll have to go to the New World and fight the Four Emperors to the death.

Cass's hands ached, but he assumed Kuro was reluctant to part with him, so he cried even harder.

Kuro finally breathed a sigh of relief after getting rid of Cass.

He could finally have a moment of peace.

Rogge Town is back on track.

The recruitment of Lida and Crowe was easy to handle. Smoker, as a colonel at headquarters, was qualified and approved their recruitment directly. They were just waiting for the recruitment ship to arrive so they could enter headquarters together.

In terms of rank, he was a private, the kind who was waiting for training from headquarters.

They are Kuro's direct subordinates.

However, in Loguetown, there are always pirates who want to go to the Grand Line. You can just grab one and then go to the headquarters to get promoted.

This was their own business, and Kuro couldn't be bothered to interfere. After all, a private was too low a rank, and they needed to earn enough merit to be promoted to sergeant or something.

Smoker was quite confident in these two, as they were both very strong fighters. As for Kro, he had heard of him before, and his fighting strength was more than enough to guarantee his abilities.

As for Lida, she is a Devil Fruit user, and after spending some time with Kuro, he realized that she was a talented person with a strong presence, so he naturally let them go and team up with Tashigi to catch any reckless pirates.

Bang!

Bang bang bang!

On the training field, Smoker is sparring with Lida.

After learning that Rita's Haki was quite formidable, Smoker seemed to be somewhat spurred on, and started challenging Rita to duels whenever he had the chance. Rita didn't want to, but the food in the Navy mess hall was just too delicious.

Smoker actually wanted to find Kuro, but Kuro's words made him change his mind.

"What? You're asking me how I train on a daily basis? Let me think... I get up at eight o'clock every morning, have a smoke, and then start carving mountains until eight o'clock in the evening before going home. After that, I spend two hours developing my Observation Haki to fully unleash its power."

I go to bed promptly at 11 PM. Before bed, I always have a glass of red wine followed by an hour of physical training to ensure my body is properly exercised. Once in bed, I fall into a deep sleep and sleep soundly until dawn, never carrying fatigue or stress into the next day. The military doctor says I'm perfectly normal.

Why is such a monster still in the East China Sea?!

Doesn't the navy have anyone with the discerning eye to recognize talent?

Smoker certainly has some Haki, but his Armament Haki hasn't reached the level of 'sukkomi' yet. His Observation Haki is decent, but it's far inferior to Rita's, let alone Clow Reed's.

However, he is a naturalist, so he cannot be judged by common sense.

Logically speaking, with Rita's abilities combined with Armament Haki, she should be able to hit her target every time. However, Smoker is no ordinary person. With his Logia-type abilities, he possesses great mobility.

Furthermore, the ability to cover one's own body with Haki is extremely rare, unless it involves physical combat or the covering of matter.

Lida is a contact-type user, but Haki is an invisible armor. When Lida is covered in Haki, she cannot activate her own abilities. Without Haki, she cannot catch Smoker.

Furthermore, she expends a great deal of energy in battle; she is a burst-type fighter and cannot sustain it for long.

In a fight, without using the Seastone Jitte, Smoker could go toe-to-toe with Rita.

Smoker gets very irritable every time he loses.

"Hey, Chloe, let's practice. I'll guide you in practicing 'Shave'!"

Smoker lost again, and then he looked at Crowe with a livid face.

Kro: "?"

Why, why am I always the one who gets hurt?

He made a request to improve his strength, and Smoker said that his physique was capable of withstanding the training of the 'Shave' technique. But what he wanted was training, not to be beaten up!

"Too slow!"

"Are you a snail?!"

"Your proud 'spoon' is nothing more than a 'shave' that can't be steered in direction; plenty of people in the Navy can do that!"

"You haven't even mastered Observation Haki yet; you need to train harder!"

Then, Kro lay on the ground with a bruised and swollen face, looking at the sky and questioning his existence.

"I was wrong, I was really wrong. I should never have agreed to join the Navy in the first place. If I hadn't joined the Navy, I wouldn't have been beaten so badly, and I wouldn't have ended up like this."

Clod was filled with sorrow.

...

Base office.

Kuro leaned back on the sofa, comfortably smoking a cigar, feeling the gentle breeze blowing in from the window, and closed his eyes to exhale a puff of smoke.

Life is peaceful.

He put his feet on the table, and with a 'crack,' the stones Smoker was stacking instantly fell apart.

"Hey, Kuro!"

Smoker roared.

"Shh, feel this peace, Smoker."

Kuro straightened up, stubbed out his cigar, and casually pulled one from Smoker's chest, lighting it as well.

“I have a higher rank than you, so show some respect. Besides, don’t you have the money to buy it yourself?” Smoker’s forehead veins bulged.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!