Reputation

I stood quietly at the side with my arms crossed, observing as the marines remove the bodies, or pieces of people, and started identifying them. It's been a few hours since my small massacre, so the smell is not helping it. It doesn't bother me much, but a few marines had thrown up multiple times.

I also wasn't just waiting the past few hours before they arrived, but was working on destroying a few bodies. Especially those of the children and some of the women, although I left some of the women to not be too suspicious.

The reason I did was simple. I don't want to be flagged so early in the marine, especially with such a low rank. Besides, the Marines won't look too deeply into it. Some might suspect a thing or two, but no commotion will arise. That's the political side of things. As long as no one cared, it never really happened. And there's no knight in shiny white armor to care about what I did.

But I did notice a few covert gazes from the marines on me. It could not be helped, the scene is indeed quite gory, with severed limbs all over the place.

I might need to get a better sword yet again, this is already dull from all the cutting.

'sigh. I wonder when I will have a meito in my hands.'

Between my musings, I noticed the captain walking towards me.

"Good job, Nero. With this, I'm sure the headquarters will announce your completion of the test. I have already conveyed the message to them."

"Thank you, captain."

"Although..." He looked around, scrunching his eyes. ".. you could have done it in a somewhat more cleaner manner."

"I could not help it. The pirates were strong so I had to fight with all I had."

'That was a lie. With my Haoshoku Haki, I paralyzed all but one at a time and slaughtered them.'

"Sigh." He shook his head, then threw a serious gaze at me. I met his gaze with my own. "Nero, are you sure there were only those pirates on this island?"

'Hehe, he suspects something.'

"Yes, captain. I surveyed the entire island and they were the only ones in it."

He looked deeply at me for two seconds before nodding. Saying nothing more, he turned around and walked away.

'Hu Hu Hu. Politics, huh? My status as a headquarters candidate sure is showing its effectiveness here. This will certainly be addictive. I better be careful.'

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Four days later. At the sea.

It's been a few days since we dropped the bodies at the nearest Marine base and I was able to cash in a bit of money. The higher-ups announced that my test was complete and I just need to wait for the four months to be over and I will be promoted.

Everything turned out to be as I planned, even the obvious reverential gazes thrown towards me now. It's been a while since I've been trying to get a reputation on the Marine side, and I finally achieved small success. The next step is to be recognized by the pirates.

Don't underestimate the power of reputation. In my opinion, is the most powerful weapon in the world. Just look at the Four Emperors, they don't even need to be present for people to respect and fear them. No one would ever dare to talk loud in front of a child of Big Mom, for example. That's the power of reputation.

Even if we look at the Marine, we can see the workings of a good reputation. Garp is not even an Admiral, but does anyone even dare to treat him as a mere Vice Admiral? Of course not. So building up a reputation is needed.

My only hurdle in recent times is my training. I'm stuck. Without actual combat with powerful opponents, it will take years for me to have any meaningful improvement. So, I'm preparing to use my status as headquarters' candidate once again.

Walking towards the cabin of the captain, I knocked on the wooden door. A few seconds later, the voice of the captain could be heard.

"You may come in."

Entering the room, I noticed that it was dimly lit, there was only a lamp at the captain's table giving light to a few documents he's currently reading.

"Oh, it's you, Nero. Come in, take a seat." He points to a chair at the side. "What brings you here?"

Taking a seat, I spoke. "Captain, I will be frank. I'm stuck. My training hit a block and I can't seem to improve. I need more real-life combat to hone my skills even further."

"Hmm... I was just now reviewing a few reports of pirates we have received. I'm sure we will find a good candidate for your needs. There are still more than three months until we get back to the base."

"Captain. I was thinking if you would let me go on a solo expedition. I have a few training plans in mind that I want to carry out."

He frowned. "You want to go out on a solo expedition?"

"That's right."

"Hmmm... and where are you planning to do this solo expedition of yours?"

"Treasure Isle." Seeing the look on the captain's face, I added. "Don't get me wrong, I don't care about the treasures. What I want are the birds that guard the treasure. They seem to be strong enough to aid me in my training."

"I see. I've read some reports of those birds before. They are protective of the treasure and will gang up on anyone who tries to steal them."

"That's my plan."

"It's a horrible plan. You will get yourself killed."

"Maybe. But if I don't get killed, I will become stronger." I said as a matter-of-fact.

"Why? You could slowly train and still become strong. With your training speed, you might even get to become a Vice-Admiral. Don't waste your life on such things like that."

"Haha. But that's not a very interesting life, is it?" His frown became deeper as confusion appeared on his face.

"Interesting life?"

"What is the point of living if life is not interesting? If you have to watch out for every step you take, you will quickly start to hate walking. The same happens with life, if I always take the safest path, afraid of taking risks, I would eventually get bored of such life and would stagnate. There are no benefits without risks."

"Are you not afraid of death?" I smirked at the question.

"Death is not terrifying. When I someday get killed along the path I took, it was because I was weak. I will not hate, nor will I scream injustice. Today, I'm killing the weaker, tomorrow I might be the one killed. When that happens, I will die with a smile, knowing I did everything I could."

"When that happens? So, you know you will eventually die. You just don't care." Then he stops for a moment, thinking of the deeper meaning of what I jut said. His face turned into a horrified one. "No! It's not that you don't care. You don't want to live. You want to die! Death is your ultimate goal, and life is only a theatre play in your eyes. Such... such..." He abruptly stood up.

'Bingo. Talking to intelligent people really is nice.'

"Go. You have my permission to go on your solo experience. Just... leave me alone for now."

"Captain. I also want permission to bring a Den Den Mushi with me to receive reports during my expedition."

"You have my permission. Now GO!"

I turned around and started leaving. Before going through the door, I turned slightly and said. "You shouldn't worry too much, captain. You should be glad instead... that I am at the Marine side." I turned and walked out, closing the door behind me.

'And just like that, he will never recuse a request from me again as long as it's not a completely unreasonable one. Reputation, I simply love my newest power. And I don't need to worry if it reaches the ears of other people; it will actually benefit me by increasing my reputation. And it's just a life philosophy, no one will have second thoughts about it. Besides, I need to slowly show a little of my true thoughts to give them a sense of control over me, so that it may be easier for me to act without being restricted.'

A confident smile surfaces on my lips.

'Hu Hu Hu... the future will surely be interesting.'

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Six days later. Somewhere in the middle of South Blue.

After a few days, I was finally able to get a glimpse of Treasure Isle. The gigantic tree in the middle of the island surely is an interesting view.

I had to geppo my way through various islands in the past week to get here. I would rest for about six hours on each island before going to the next. Quite a monotonous travel, but was relatively fast, considering I'm not dependent on wind speed and direction like a traditional ship.

Stepping my foot on the sandy beach, I quickly got down to a kneeled position. My brows slightly furrowed as I endured the pain on my legs because of the abusive use of geppo.

"This time I may have overdone it. I may need to rest for at least an entire day to get back to working conditions."

At this time, an enormous shadow passed through me. Looking up, I was able to see one of the giant birds that live on this island. It was huge. In the Marine records of them is said that they are the size of a ship, but never specified the type of the ship. They are easily the size of a Marine warship, not even counting the wingspan.

And in the next few months, I will be fighting them. I smiled.

"No pain, no gain."

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One and a half days later. At the beach.

My legs are still in process of healing. I underestimated how much I misused geppo. That means I can't do much heavy training at all. I spent the last hours resting and looking out to the natives of this island. I don't want to encounter one of them without being in peak conditions.

I'm at least already able to walk, so I decided to use the time more efficiently and try out one of my plans I've had in the past few years.

You see, aside from the more common hardening and enhancement uses of Busoshoku Haki, there are also more advanced uses, such as imbuement and emission. I've already mastered imbuement, being able to imbue an object with my Haki. I also have been training emission, and I'm capable of projecting my Haki to about 30 centimeters from my body.

What I have in mind was a less battle-oriented use of this Haki. If I combine both emission and imbuement, would it be possible to walk on the water? Or maybe go a step even further, and walk on the air? In theory, as long as I can imbue the water or air particles with my Haki and control it through emission, it is possible.

That's what I'm about to do. Setting my feet on the seawater, just above my ankles, I closed my eyes and tried to imbue my Haki on the water. I failed in the first couple few hours but was met with a familiar sensation just before the night arrived.

'Yes! This is it. It's definitely possible. From now on, I will spend my morning hours on this training regime and try to improve on that sensation.'

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A few days later.

"Arrgh." I grimaced as a huge wing hit me head-on and send me spiraling towards the ground. A gully was formed as my body got deeply entrenched on the ground. I used Busoshoku Haki to lessen the damage of the fall.

With an arrogant cry, the bird that hit me and its other three siblings threw a cocky glance at me and flew back to the giant tree, where its nest lays.

"Stupid... bird. I will roast you... someday."

These birds are stupidly strong. I also decide to not use any offensive Haki, as what I want is to increase my combat effectiveness. Using Haki would defeat the purpose of the training.

I am also not using a sword, but not because I choose to. But the fact is that the damn bird broke it with a thrust of its beak after I tried to block it.

"I should get something to eat... later. Now... I will lay down here. Yes, right. No problem."