[System installing...]
[Progress: 99%]
[Host, please avoid danger and do not die during this period.]
...
East Blue, waters near Loguetown.
Boom!
Thunder roared, lightning illuminating the gloomy sky, also making the approaching dark silhouette clearer amidst the storm.
The next moment, another explosion rang out near a medium-sized naval warship, but this time it wasn't thunder—it was a cannonball fired from a pirate ship in the distance.
"Lieutenant, it's bad! The stem post has been hit by a cannonball and is damaged!" A girl with glasses, looking efficient and full of energy, rushed into the captain's cabin in a panic, addressing the young lieutenant inside.
The stem post was one of the most important components of a ship. If damaged, sailing speed would drop drastically.
Normally, this wouldn't be a big issue; a shipwright could repair it with some time.
But now was different. They were in the midst of fleeing.
And a significant drop in speed meant they would be caught by their pursuers!
Upon hearing this worst-possible news, the young lieutenant remained calm. He walked out of the captain's cabin onto the deck, his gaze piercing through the storm to land on the pirate ship closely following the warship.
A woman stood at the prow of the pirate ship. She looked fierce and savage, exceptionally obese with a round, large face. At that moment, her small eyes were fixed greedily on the young lieutenant.
Seeing the young lieutenant emerge from the captain's cabin, her eyes lit up. Her shout cut through the curtain of rain, reaching the young lieutenant's ears:
"Ivan, stop resisting! Become my man! You can't escape, hahahahaha!"
Facing Alvida's provocation, the young lieutenant's expression remained unchanged, his handsome face showing no ripple of emotion.
Ivan's adjutant, the energetic girl from earlier, Tashigi, stood to the side, secretly observing her superior.
Seeing Ivan's calm demeanor and confident air, she let out a long sigh of relief.
Surely, Lieutenant Ivan must have a way to resolve their current predicament!
After all, he was the idol of the younger generation of naval soldiers in the East Blue—White Pigeon Ivan!
As Ivan's most loyal fan, Tashigi had long memorized every detail of her idol's career.
Lieutenant Ivan joined the Navy at fifteen. Initially, due to poor talent, he was unremarkable among the many trainee sailors.
However, two and a half years ago, Lieutenant Ivan suddenly exhibited extraordinary diligence, his strength increasing dramatically in a short time.
Over these two and a half years, Lieutenant Ivan repeatedly earned military merits. Upon promotion to lieutenant, his strength was already comparable to that of pirates with bounties in the millions.
If not for Lieutenant Ivan still recovering from serious injuries, they wouldn't have needed to fear Alvida at all, much less be pursued by the Alvida Pirates!
Thinking of this, Tashigi glared angrily at Alvida, her gaze fierce as if she wanted to devour her.
As for Ivan, the target of the provocation, he remained completely unmoved. Because in the two and a half years since joining the Navy, he had already learned the harshness of this world.
After crossing over, he found himself in the midst of a battlefield against pirates. In that battle, he had hoped to rely on the system to survive, but unexpectedly, the system got stuck at 99% installation progress—just one step away from completion, yet it refused to budge.
Afterward, he mustered his courage and relied on his own strength to survive the battlefield. Over the next two and a half years, he worked dozens of times harder than the average person, ultimately earning his current military rank and strength.
However, this level of strength was far from enough!
Merely facing pirates with bounties of a few million berries would leave him injured, and in a severely wounded state, he was even pursued by Alvida. How could he ever become a powerhouse capable of dominating the seas with such limitations?
With this thought, Ivan made up his mind. He abruptly turned and strode into the captain's cabin, completely ignoring Alvida's taunts.
Soon, he reached a safe, opened it, and retrieved a strangely shaped fruit.
The fruit was a black sphere—the secret treasure of the seas, a Devil Fruit!
Ivan had obtained it by chance a month ago but hadn't eaten it immediately.
He still harbored a dream of becoming a powerhouse, and the shortcut to achieving that dream was undoubtedly consuming a powerful Devil Fruit.
This particular Devil Fruit wasn't one Ivan had seen in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, so he had no idea what its abilities were. If he ate it and ended up with a useless ability, like the Human-Human Fruit: Commoner Model, he would truly be doomed.
However, the current emergency left Ivan no room for hesitation.
Gritting his teeth, Ivan took a fierce bite!
Instantly, a foul stench—like a mixture of expired milk, cheese, stinky tofu, and eggs left to ferment for a year—assaulted his nostrils.
Despite this, Ivan forced his mouth wide open, shoved the remaining Devil Fruit inside, and swallowed it whole.
Soon, Ivan felt an unusual sensation in his body.
A scorching heat flowed through his entire being, and a powerful force surged from within!
But just before this force fully manifested, it suddenly halted. At the same time, the system installation progress, which had shown no movement for two and a half years, abruptly leaped forward!
[System installing...]
[Progress: 100...]
[Installation successful!]
[Ding... Devil Fruit detected. Sacrifice demonic power to draw a character template?]
[Yes/No]
Wait, the system!
Ivan hadn't expected the system to activate at this moment. Was there any need to hesitate?
He vaguely sensed that the Devil Fruit he had eaten seemed to allow him to control his own weight. This Devil Fruit was undoubtedly an inferior version of the Gravity Fruit, with limited potential and significant drawbacks.
So, of course, he would choose the system!
"Yes!" Ivan declared without hesitation.
Soon, an intricate system panel appeared before Ivan's eyes.
[Name: Ivan]
[Draws: 1]
[Templates: None]
[Skills: None]
[Devour Devil Fruit abilities to exchange for draw chances and obtain character templates from across the multiverse.]
At the very bottom of the system panel was a deck of cards, with the top card engraved with the words "Draw."
With a slight thought, Ivan tapped on the words "Draw." Instantly, the cards began flipping rapidly.
As the cards flipped, Ivan occasionally caught glimpses of familiar character templates.
Baki Hanma, Ichigo Kurosaki (Hollowfied), Naruto Uzumaki (Incomplete), Shinichi Kudo, Iron Man (Iron Man Suit Technology), Hulk (Incomplete)...
Soon, the lottery results emerged, and a card appeared before Ivan's eyes.
[Congratulations, you have obtained the template: Satoru Gojo · Echo!]
[Congratulations, you have obtained the skill: Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue!]
[Please proceed to perform actions recognized by the template character to increase recognition, gain a percentage of the template's power, and unlock more skills.]
[Note: A dead body, having lost its soul and some limbs, can only obtain echoes of skills.]
It was actually Satoru Gojo!
Ivan was very familiar with this highly popular character from the world of Jujutsu Kaisen. He was the strongest jujutsu sorcerer, and with his power, he could be considered at the level of a Yonko Commander even in the world of One Piece!
Even an incomplete Satoru Gojo template could easily defeat Alvida!
Ivan opened the system panel to check his current status.
[Name: Ivan]
[Lottery Draws: 0]
[Template: Satoru Gojo · Echo (Recognition: 17%)]
[Skill: Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue: Causes destruction by compressing gravity at a single point, with maximum output approaching negative infinity, akin to a small black hole.]
Ivan stared at the current recognition level: 17%. This meant he could wield 17% of this template's power.
At the same time, he had some ideas on how to increase the recognition of the Satoru Gojo template.
To improve recognition, he needed to understand what kind of person Satoru Gojo truly was.
Undoubtedly, he was relaxed, confident, and arrogant due to his immense strength.
He was exceptionally cold toward his enemies, yet never lacking in kindness.
To some extent, he shared similarities with the Marines!
Boom!
Outside the captain's quarters, another explosion rang out. Tashigi rushed into the room again, anxiously saying:
"Lieutenant Ivan, it's bad, it's bad! The Alvida Pirates are about to board us!"
If this news had come a few minutes earlier, Ivan would have taken it very seriously.
But now...
What was Alvida worth?
Ivan walked over to Tashigi, patted her head gently, and said in a calm tone:
"Tashigi, you must never lose your composure, no matter the situation. Don't worry, I will take down Alvida!"
Ivan draped his Marine cloak over his shoulders and headed toward the deck.
Amidst the raging storm, the cloak billowed dramatically. Thunder roared, illuminating the dark sky and making the word "Justice" emblazoned on the cloak stand out even more.
Tashigi stared blankly at the scene, unconsciously smoothing her ruffled hair, her cheeks already flushed red.
Suddenly snapping back to reality, she jumped up. "Lieutenant Ivan, wait for me!"
At that moment, chaos reigned on the deck.
The Alvida Pirates had officially boarded the Marine ship.
Dozens of pirates swarmed onto the deck, clashing with the Marines.
At the rear of the pirate group stood the obese Iron Mace Alvida, with a short, mushroom-haired pirate behind her.
Seeing her pirates gradually overpowering the Marines, Alvida burst into laughter:
"Hahahaha, you bastards are doing well! Let them witness the might of the female pirate Iron Mace Alvida!"
"That's right!"
"Kill them!"
"Take them down and capture that pretty-boy lieutenant!"
After boosting morale, Alvida glanced at the mushroom-haired Koby hiding behind her and roared:
"Koby, you coward, what are you doing? Get up there now!"
Watching the chaotic battlefield ahead, Koby trembled with fear. At just fifteen years old and malnourished, he was far skinnier than others his age.
If he charged forward, he would surely be killed by the marines!
Koby didn't dare disobey Alvida's orders, but he also couldn't bring himself to rush into battle. So, he could only stammer meekly:
"Captain Alvida, but I'm not good at fighting…"
Before he could finish, an impatient Alvida grabbed him and hurled him toward the warship:
"Coward! Even if you die, die on the battlefield!"
"Aaaaaah!" Koby's piercing scream echoed across the battlefield, momentarily drowning out the roars of the marines and pirates.
Ivan had just stepped onto the deck when he heard the rapidly approaching scream.
The Gojo Satoru template not only granted him skills but also greatly enhanced his physical abilities.
This allowed him to instantly spot the figure flying toward him at high speed. Just as he was about to use Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue to tear the figure apart, he suddenly paused.
Because he realized this figure seemed familiar—it was Koby, a character from the story!
Ivan reached out, grabbed Koby by the collar, and lifted him up. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he asked:
"Hey, kid, are you a pirate too?"
Koby looked up, never expecting to escape one danger only to fall into another.
Thrown by Alvida, he had landed in the hands of the highest-ranking officer on the marine side—Ensign Ivan!
Koby remembered everything about Ensign Ivan clearly.
Though he couldn't compare to those monsters, among ordinary people, Ensign Ivan was something of a legend.
What made him most famous, however, was his astonishing beauty.
Thanks to his handsome appearance and elegant demeanor, he even had a special title on these seas—White Dove.
At this point, Koby couldn't worry about Alvida anymore. He knew that if he surrendered, Alvida might come after him later. But if he didn't surrender, he would die right then and there!
So, Koby frantically waved his hands, trembling as he denied:
"Of course… of course not, White Dove, sir! I'm a civilian who was forcibly taken by Alvida. I've always wanted to become a marine!"
Hearing Koby's answer, Ivan nodded in satisfaction.
Though the idea of a "two-hundred-times-effort deserter king" was a bit far-fetched, there was no doubt that Koby had talent.
With proper training, he might one day become a top-tier subordinate, perhaps even admiral-level.
Of course, if Koby still turned out to be a deserter under his guidance, Ivan would have no choice but to execute him to uphold military discipline.
Ivan casually tossed Koby behind him. Standing at 197 centimeters tall, he appeared somewhat slender, but the Justice cloak fluttering behind him made him seem even more imposing.
As Koby stared blankly at Ivan's back, a calm voice came from ahead:
"Good. I see some potential in you. After this battle, come work under me. I'll give you a chance to join the marines!"
Never expecting to not only survive but also be recognized, Koby clenched his fists, his expression filled with excitement.
He could finally become a marine!
"Yes!" Koby responded eagerly.
But just then, a figure suddenly leaped from the pirate ship and landed on the deck right in front of Ivan.
The deck cracked instantly from the tremendous impact, and from within the cloud of dust emerged a tall, obese figure.
Alvida's face was twisted with rage and fury. She glared fiercely at Ivan and Koby, grinding her teeth as she spat:
"Koby, I heard everything! How dare you betray me? You know how much I hate betrayal!
Don't even joke about it—you'll never get the chance to join the Navy, because right now I'm going to smash you into pulp!"
Looking up at the towering figure approaching him, Koby trembled uncontrollably.
If he got hit by that thick, long spiked club, he would definitely die!
Damn it!
Just when he had glimpsed hope of escaping this predicament and joining the Navy, was he really going to be killed now?
How infuriating!
But at that moment, a not-so-strong figure stepped in front of Koby, shielding him from all fear and pressure.
Ivan raised his voice and shouted:
"Alvida, if you want to kill my future subordinate, you'll have to get through me first!"