Damon flicked his sword to remove the remaining sparks from the blade, then sheathed it and turned to leave.
Behind him, the ashes of a pile of corpses drifted slowly in the sea breeze.
The ashes from the burnt-out flames drifted away in the wind. The group of students gazed at the figure bathed in sunlight. The small man was covered in wounds, and the scars on his body seemed to tell others about the hardships he had encountered.
All the trainees asked themselves if they could have achieved the strategic goal of tying down enemy cadres, just like Damon did, if they had been in his shoes.
For a moment, everyone looked at Damon with a sense of awe and respect.
Smoker stomped hard on Foxy the Silver Fox beneath his feet. He had also heard Damon's words and muttered to himself:
"No matter how many times you're knocked down, will you get back up?"
Smoker's heart was filled with passion and fighting spirit, as if ignited by those words. His pupils reflected Damon's figure, and his gaze was fixed on him.
"I really look forward to the day when I can have a good fight with you!"
Damon stood still, his chest gradually calming down.
When he uses the Flame Breathing, inhaling a large amount of oxygen into his chest cavity, mobilizing the blood flow in his body, and enhancing his explosive power, he will experience a brief period of weakness.
A wave of discomfort washed over him, a mix of aches and pains from being ganged up on by the pirate officers and fatigue from the heavy strain of using the Iron Body multiple times.
A group of students who arrived late walked towards him. Damon smiled slightly as he looked at Drake and the others in the front row.
"My good sons, you've finally decided to come see your dad?"
Drake and the others, veins bulging on their foreheads, roared:
"Damn it, give us back the emotions we felt!"
Damon's source of happiness was that simple: seeing his three roommates, Drake and his two roommates, looking furious, finally allowed his tense nerves to relax a lot.
Many veterans who have been on the battlefield are prone to post-traumatic stress disorder after war, either due to the shock of the deaths of their comrades and enemies or the nerve stimulation caused by their own killing.
If one cannot adjust oneself in time, this situation is unavoidable.
In addition to regular training programs, naval schools have also conducted similar educational courses.
Everyone has a different way of dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.
For example, Garp distracts himself by constantly eating snacks, and Aokiji travels around the world by bicycle to relieve the negative emotions that have accumulated in his heart.
If you don't do this, it can easily lead to a drastic change in your temperament.
Damon once heard Chief Instructor Zephyr mention that among the first batch of students he taught 21 years ago, Akainu was not as hot-tempered and incorruptible as he is now. At most, he was a man who hated evil and loathed pirates who disrupted peace.
Later, due to his long-term battles with pirates, Akainu witnessed his comrades and innocent civilians dying tragically at the hands and cannons of pirates. Under such high pressure, he gradually developed his current paranoid personality, believing that only by implementing absolute justice and eliminating all pirates from the world can world peace be achieved.
Despite the tragic deaths of Chief Instructor Zephyr's family members at the hands of vengeful pirates, he did not betray his sense of justice by seeking revenge against those pirates. Instead, he chose to train a new generation of naval talent, finding solace in this endeavor.
Everyone has different perspectives and experiences, leading to vastly different views on justice.
Damon escorted Silver Fox Foxy onto the training ship.
When Foxy the Silver Fox saw the tall and imposing figure of Chief Instructor Zephyr, he immediately recognized him as the former admiral who had once been a former force on the high seas.
In an instant, Foxy the Silver Fox's face turned ashen.
He knew he had been terribly betrayed by Doflamingo!
Chief Instructor Zephyr glanced at Damon with satisfaction, then picked up Silver Fox Foxy and walked towards the interrogation room temporarily set up on the training ship, saying without turning his head:
"You all go and rest and recover. I need to interrogate this guy properly."
Due to the large number of wounded, the original medical room on the training ship was used to treat the seriously injured, so Damon had to stay on the deck.
Hina came over carrying a medical kit and saw Damon casually tying scraps of cloth to the wound, so she hurried over.
"Damon, let me bandage your wound."
A pleasant fragrance wafted over, and perhaps because she had run a little too fast, waves surged in front of Hina.
Hina took out cotton swabs, medical disinfectant alcohol, gauze and other items from the medical kit and carefully treated Damon's wound.
Seeing the hideous wounds left on Damon's body, Hina's heart trembled violently.
She couldn't imagine how the boy in front of her could remain silent despite suffering such severe injuries.
The moment the cool, disinfectant alcohol came into contact with the everted wound, it was like chili powder being sprinkled on it, instantly sending a burning pain through Damon's face, causing him to frown.
There were many wounded soldiers on the deck, who were being treated by their comrades and were constantly wailing and howling.
In this way, the injured can focus their attention elsewhere.
Damon seemed a bit different; he shifted his attention to the system's prompts from earlier.
"Ding!"
"Congratulations, host, for reciting a classic line. You have been awarded one chance to draw a prize. Would you like to start the prize wheel?"
A lottery wheel slowly appeared in Damon's line of sight.
Even though it was right within reach, Hina, who was standing next to him, seemed oblivious to it.
Damon had already discovered that only he could see the lottery wheel; no one else could see or touch it.
There are only two types of prizes on the lottery wheel: fighting skills and special abilities.
Fighting techniques: Multi-layer Punch, Spiritual Discipline...
Special abilities: Gourmet Cells, Primal Senses...
Noticing that Hina was staring at him, Damon turned around abruptly and saw Hina resting her chin on her hand, staring straight at him.
With Hina's help, Damon's upper body was bound with white gauze, making him look like a mummy.
"What, is there a wound on my face? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Seeing that Damon seemed a little troubled, Hina covered her mouth and smiled.
Then, she took out a handkerchief and gently wiped the remaining blood from Damon's face.
"I just think that you're clearly just a child, yet you unexpectedly possess a masculine quality!"
"I am a man!"
Damon answered truthfully.
"Yes, yes, you little man."
Hina couldn't understand the true meaning behind Damon's words and mistakenly thought that Damon was only saying that because he wanted to save face.
Hearing the muffled thud from Damon's stomach, Hina, like a friendly older sister, gently stroked Damon's nose with her delicate fingers and smiled sweetly.
"I just applied the medicine to your wound. Don't move around too much, or the wound will break open and get infected. I'll go to the cafeteria to get you some food. Wait here for me, okay?"
After saying that, Hina put the miscellaneous items back into the medical kit and turned to return to the cabin.
Damon gave an awkward smile.
Feeling the lingering fragrance on the tip of his nose, Damon was momentarily speechless.
Fortunately, the lottery results have been released.
[Gourmet Cells]: After being implanted into the human body, human cells are activated, and human life can evolve after consuming food, thereby breaking through the limitations of the gene lock and surpassing the limits of humanity.
The nourishing cells subtly and silently seeped into Damon's body. Damon did not feel any obvious changes, but in fact, they had already begun to subtly transform Damon's body at the cellular level.
Humans are a unique species, capable of creating all sorts of incredible miracles.
However, humans are also a species with limits. Once they reach a certain level of maturity, no matter how much they train, they can no longer make any progress.
However, everyone's physical condition is different, and their growth potential also varies.
In the original story, Johnny and Joseph were once pirate hunters alongside Roronoa Zoro, but in the end, they were just unknown pirate hunters in the East Blue, and might die in some remote corner of the world at any time.
Those individuals with extremely high growth potential are often labeled as geniuses with talent and ability.
As for those humans who have little room for growth, they are often referred to as ordinary people.
This is the cruelty of reality.
Although Garp and others always viewed Damon as a genius, only Damon himself knew that he was hardly a genius; he was just someone with an extra system cheat code compared to others.
Now that Gourmet Cells have been integrated into his body, it means that Damon will no longer be troubled by the physical limitations in the future!
only...
There's a problem here!
Damon must eat delicious food to trigger the effects of the Gourmet Cells.
Just then, Hina slowly walked over carrying a food basket.
Along the way, Hina attracted a lot of attention.
Hina herself is top-notch in appearance and figure, coupled with her lively personality, she can be said to be the most beautiful girl in the naval academy. Not only are her classmates envious, but even the senior students who stayed in the naval academy in the previous two years have many suitors for Hina.
Unfortunately, Hina never showed any interest in other men.
Therefore, when they saw Hina gently feeding Damon, all the trainees on the deck felt their hearts break.
If looks could kill, Damon would probably be restless and uneasy right now.
As soon as the food entered Damon's stomach, he felt a slight dissatisfaction from the Gourmet Cellsin his body.
It seems that these large-scale cooking methods cannot satisfy a gourmet's definition of "gourmet food".
This made Damon realize that he had to put finding a cook on his agenda.
Otherwise, if he wants to become stronger in the future, he will have to cook for himself, which will be too troublesome.
After a hearty meal, under the resonance of Flame Breathing and his internal recovery techniques, Damon felt his injuries had improved. He estimated that his body would be fully recovered in about three days.
Chief Instructor Zephyr's interrogation of Foxy the Silver Fox went smoothly, seemingly as a form of revenge against Doflamingo. Foxy confessed everything clearly.
Chief Instructor Zephyr emerged from the makeshift interrogation room, holding a notebook filled with handwriting, his face radiating a chilling aura.
He summoned six top students—Damon, Smoker, Hina, Drake, Jonathan, and Daddy Masterson—and said in an unusually serious tone:
"I'm going to give you a special mission. This mission is extremely dangerous, and you could lose your lives if you're not careful. You haven't officially joined the army yet, so you can think about it carefully first."