Even after browsing through the system shop again, Nao still thought most of the items were pretty much useless junk.
3D Maneuver Gear?
Sure, the One Piece world had giants—but this kind of contraption meant for regular people? Nah, forget it.
He couldn't bring himself to care. Unless they solved the fuel problem and mass-produced it for common marines in the Four Blues, maybe then it'd have some marginal use.
As for the "Senbei Promotional Pack" and "Jo Family Cola", opening their item descriptions revealed nothing special. Just your run-of-the-mill junk food combo for lazy shut-ins. Nao had even less interest in those.
In the end, he settled on purchasing "Advanced Firearms Proficiency" and "Advanced Drawing Skill".
After all, you can never have too many skills. Sure, he was set on the path of becoming a dual wield swordsman, but having extra "crafts" in his arsenal was never a bad thing. Especially since these were both high-level skills and pretty cheap for their value.
Spending a total of 2300 points, Nao's gaze shifted to the Take-copter—his eyes showing a flicker of hesitation.
Name: Take-copter
Type: Consumable
Description: Just place it on your head and control your flight freely with your thoughts. Max speed: 80 km/h. Total usage time: 16 hours. No limit on usage frequency. Once the total time is used up, the item disappears permanently.
Note: Put it on and relive the joys of childhood.
("Suneo, I…" — you know the rest.)
...
To be honest, it was basically useless.
Flying at 80 km/h for a few hours might sound impressive.
But imagine him—Nao Natsuya of the Natsuya bloodline, future Marine Admiral—soaring through the sky with a spinning children's toy on his head?
What kind of image is that supposed to be?
Even Mihawk, if someone ever saw him paddling with his sword, would probably chase them all the way from the Grand Line to the East Blue just to shut them up.
Nao figured that if he was ever caught flying around with that thing on his head by some pirate... never mind the East Blue—even if the guy fled all the way to Raftel, Nao would hunt him down just to silence the witness.
"So…"
After weighing all this, he finally made a decisive move—
And bought it anyway.
Come on, as if he wouldn't!
This was a childhood dream come true! And it only cost 300 points—basically free when you round down!
Miss this chance and who knew when it would show up again? Worst-case scenario, he'd just find some deserted place to try it out in secret.
After closing the system shop, Nao checked his mission log again.
During the voyage, he'd tried flashing his "Radiant Smile" at every kind of sea creature they passed—hoping to cheese his way through the "Hundred-Heart Conquest" mission.
Didn't work.
But even so, the mission progress bar had been steadily ticking forward.
The real reason the mission progressed was thanks to the female trainees in the elite camp—specifically, the ones Nao hadn't already charmed during the earlier stage, even with Gion's help.
Nao's Charisma stat had reached 12, and combined with his spectacular performance in the assessment—clinching first place—he had unknowingly crossed the system's threshold for "initial conquest" with many of them.
By today, nearly all fifty-something female recruits in the elite camp had been marked as "initial conquest."
It honestly caught Nao off guard. Even he had to admit—high charisma was a terrifying thing.
So even though the sneaky shortcut plan had failed, Nao no longer felt rushed to complete the mission.
He still had a whole week before the deadline. No need to force it—just let it happen naturally.
Who knows? Maybe just strolling around base a bit would wrap the whole thing up.
After all, while this class only had about fifty female recruits, the elite camp included multiple generations. And compared to the vastness of Marineford, even the elite camp's population was small.
The potential for the "fangirl horde" to grow was virtually limitless.
That night.
After finishing his daily training—but before heading to bed—Nao took some time to try out his two new advanced skills.
The Advanced Firearms Proficiency skill really impressed him. He took a borrowed flintlock rifle and, somehow, nailed perfect shots over and over with it—like a seasoned sharpshooter.
He'd always been a bit unbalanced in his training, barely touching firearms. His aim wasn't just subpar compared to other elite trainees—he was worse than most ordinary base Marines.
But now?
He was easily at the level where he could serve as a shipboard sniper on a mission.
As for the Advanced Drawing Skill—
A quick test with pen and paper left Nao seriously impressed. His hand moved with practiced ease, each stroke confident and fluid. He honestly felt like he was on par with a professional art student from his past life.
Too bad he was in the One Piece world. If he were a pirate, maybe he could put those skills to use drawing maps or Jolly Rogers.
But as a Marine? The only use would be doodling for fun when he got bored.
Under the warm glow of a desk lamp, Nao doodled for about half an hour. He sketched familiar characters from past-life manga—like Ai Haibara, Mai Kujaku, Android 18…
Eventually, the novelty wore off. He crumpled the pages into a ball, tossed them in the trash, yawned, and went off to wash up for bed.
Next morning, around 9 a.m.
Figuring that Zephyr should be up by now, Nao ended his training early, left the training grounds, and headed straight to Zephyr's quarters.
As a former Admiral, Zephyr actually had a villa provided by headquarters in the rear part of the fortress town—but he almost never stayed there.
He usually slept in his elite camp office.
Of course, the office was more like a full suite with its own bedroom, decently spacious and well-equipped. Perfectly comfortable as a temporary residence.
Knock knock.
The corridor was empty and silent. After knocking gently on the wooden office door, Nao didn't barge in. He simply waited politely outside.
He was always someone with good manners.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!"
A crisp voice called from inside—one that sounded oddly familiar.
Nao blinked, caught off guard. Before he could connect it to a memory, the door creaked open from the inside.
Standing in the doorway was a small figure with bubblegum-pink hair. She looked up and froze for a moment when she saw him.
Then her round cheeks lit up with joy.
"Big Brother Nao?!"
PS: Read Advance Chapters at https://www.patreon.com/c/ReadJin