Year 1490 of the Sea Calendar.
The Marine Headquarters Base in Marineford was filled with the scent of gunpowder, and the Marines entering and exiting had solemn expressions.
In the Fleet Admiral's office at the Headquarters Base, the current Fleet Admiral, Kong, had a cloud cast over his face as he sternly said to the legendary hero Vice Admiral Garp, who was in front of him, "Zephyr has already submitted his resignation. It seems he's unwilling to continue serving as an Admiral..."
"Those damn pirates! How dare they ambush and kill Zephyr's family! We must find out exactly who did it!"
"With Zephyr's resignation, Sengoku is the only Admiral left in the Marine. The Headquarters' combat strength is severely lacking. This time, you can't avoid it anymore. Garp, you must step up and become an Admiral!"
"Hey! I haven't finished speaking. Get back here, you bastard..."
Garp walked out of the office, digging his ear, and before pulling the door shut, he waved his hand with a chuckle, "The pressure of being an Admiral is too much for me to bear. You wouldn't want me to transfer to be an instructor and become colleagues with Zephyr, would you?"
"You bastard!" Kong slammed his fist on the table and it took him a long time to calm his anger.
"Admirals are the face of the Marine's combat strength, there can't be too many vacancies. At least two Admirals must be present simultaneously."
"Sigh, there's no other way. Let's carefully check the candidates again to see if there's anyone qualified."
Kong opened a roster, which recorded the names of famous Marine officers who had achieved outstanding military exploits.
Unfortunately, in Kong's opinion, the resumes and strength of these individuals were not sufficient to serve as an Admiral.
When he turned to a certain page, Kong suddenly stopped. The roster showed an old Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral, Kenji.
Kong looked at Kenji's military record, his expression turning complex for a moment.
Frankly speaking, Kenji's military achievements and seniority were no weaker than Zephyr's, who had just stepped down as Admiral.
However, four years ago, when promoting a new Admiral, Kong ultimately chose Zephyr because Zephyr was only 38 at the time, younger and more promising compared to the 62-year-old Kenji.
"Unknowingly, you're 66 now." Kong said with a reminiscent look.
Scenes of him and Kenji entering the Marine School together in their youth, diligently training, and going out to sea to hunt pirates, flashed before his eyes.
...
In a Vice Admiral's office at the Marine Headquarters Base.
Kenji stared at the Den Den Mushi in shock, not even noticing his cigar burning down and scorching his hand.
"You're not joking, Kong?"
"I never joke! Listen carefully, Vice Admiral Kenji! The Marine Headquarters has decided that starting today, you will serve as the second Headquarters Admiral, codenamed: Shirojishi (White Lion)!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the call immediately ended.
"Still so straightforward and without wasted words. It's definitely Kong's style."
Kenji put away the Den Den Mushi, feeling both joy and a bit of exasperation.
"You didn't choose me four years ago but now when I'm about to retire!"
Kenji was a transmigrator. When he joined the Marine as a youth, he originally sought shelter in this dangerous world, but he unexpectedly met some good friends and worked hard with them to train and eliminate pirates.
Along the way, passion and danger were constant companions. Overall, his life was quite fulfilling.
His only regret was not being able to retire from the position of Admiral.
Four years ago, he had an opportunity for promotion, but he ultimately missed it. He was angry for a while, but he soon let it go.
He knew that his talent was mediocre. No matter how much he trained, his strength hadn't increased for a long time, so he could only reach this point. It was indeed a bit whimsical to think of being promoted to Admiral based on his strength.
Now he had no obsession with the Admiral position. This was the good thing about playing with Garp for a long time—always having an optimistic mindset.
Anyway, his current mindset was very stable. He clocked in and out of work every day, basically slacking off. He felt much younger and was just waiting for his upcoming retirement.
But then, suddenly promoting him to Admiral now felt a bit like telling him to 'get up and work overtime, no slacking allowed.'
Perhaps it was also a way to take care of him, an old Vice Admiral at the Headquarters, giving him an honorary promotion before retirement.
After all, Kong wouldn't expect an ordinary Vice Admiral with mediocre talent to show outstanding performance at nearly 70 years old. He, Kenji, wasn't Garp or Sengoku.
"Forget it, no matter what, the retirement benefits for an Admiral should be higher than that of a Vice Admiral."
"Hmm, I'm 66 this year. I'll go find Kong to retire in a few years... Huh? What's this light spot?"
Kenji suddenly noticed a light spot appearing in his vision. He reached out to wipe it, but not only did it not wipe away, more light spots appeared.
He thought he was seeing things due to recent physical weakness until those light spots converged in his vision to form lines of text.
[System loading complete, loading time: 50 years]
[Comeback Trait System officially activated!]
"Comeback Trait System? The system will turn character abilities and talents into traits? Completing system tasks can upgrade and evolve traits?"
Kenji carefully read the text and quickly got a general understanding of the system's functions.
He first checked his own status.
[Name: Kenji]
[Traits: Armament Haki (Dark Purple), Observation Haki (Dark Purple), Conqueror's Haki (White), Physique (Super Blue), Hand-to-Hand Combat (Light Purple), Swordsmanship (Light Blue)]
[System Hint: Traits are divided into four rarity levels: White, Blue, Purple, and Gold. Each level is further subdivided into Light, Normal, Dark, and Super. Higher rarity indicates greater power]
Kenji compared the system traits with his own strength and nodded.
"For many years, I've mainly trained Armament Haki and Observation Haki, fighting with hand-to-hand combat. I'm not very good at swordsmanship. The rarity status of these traits seems quite reliable, and there's also this Conqueror's Haki..."
His awakening of Conqueror's Haki was a recent event, and no one else knew about it, yet the system still displayed it, which made Kenji have to believe in the system's ability.
"My strength should be top-tier among all Marine Headquarters Vice Admirals, so this Dark Purple Armament Haki is roughly equivalent to a frontline Marine Vice Admiral? Then an Admiral must at least have Gold traits."
Although Kenji didn't believe that strength could be perfectly represented by data, as anything could happen on the battlefield, he also believed that paper data could reflect a person's raw strength.
Take him for example. No matter how hard he trained in the past ten years, he could clearly feel that his strength wasn't improving, stuck at a certain level.
"It seems my talent is indeed insufficient to be an Admiral."
"Good thing I have a system!"
Kenji continued to scan the system tasks displayed on the system interface.
[You joined Marine School but were ridiculed by your classmates for slow progress and poor grades.]
[Task (Main): Make a name for yourself in the Marine School!]
[Reward: Upgrade 1 random owned trait once]
"Joined Marine School? What the hell?!"
Kenji was stunned when he saw the first line of text. He patiently read through all the task content and completely lost it.
"Make a name at Marine School? Are you kidding me? I graduated 50 years ago!"
"Eh? Wait! The system just showed it had been loading for 50 years..."
"So, this thing started loading 50 years ago when I first entered Marine School, and it's only finally activated now?"
Kenji raised his hand and touched his head full of white hair, barely holding back a laugh of exasperation.
"Interesting, this damn system is deliberately messing with me, isn't it?!"