One Piece: Control Fruit

Early the next morning, the red-haired boy was already shirtless, doing handstand push-ups.

"4951, 4952, 4953..."

Sweat pooled into a small puddle between Rono's hands—his goal: 10,000 handstand push-ups. Sweat dripped from his soft red hair into the puddle, which, surprisingly, had formed entirely from his perspiration. (Honestly, it makes you want to say, "Terrifying, truly terrifying," LOL)

Hell Training (Part 2):

10,000 handstand push-ups

10,000 weighted sit-ups with 50kg

30 km sprint (modified to a stationary bike, system-tracked)

2 hours of meditation

Time limit: 30 days

Penalty for failure: Erectile dysfunction for six months.

Evaluation:

Training that makes you break into a sweat—just break into a sweat.

(Note 1: If you can't even complete this, forget about becoming the Pirate King!)

(Note 2: This system stands by its word. Just try not completing it and see what happens.)

(Note 3: Yes, penalties can stack.)

Friendly reminder: All final interpretations belong to the system.

"..."

Rono stared at the words "Pirate King" and was about to complain: "I don't even want to be Pirate King!"

And besides, who said doing all this training would make you one?

Then he saw the punishment and instantly felt a chill down there. Forget complaining—he went full throttle into training mode.

When Vice Admiral Burning Mountain walked into the training room with a cigar in his mouth, he saw Rono doing handstand push-ups.

"9981, 9982, 998...3."

Two puddles were on the floor—one directly under Rono's head, another about a meter away. Vice Admiral Burning Mountain was shocked.

He hadn't expected this. He didn't expect Rono to be this dedicated. He didn't expect Rono to bounce back instead of falling into despair after being beaten. He didn't expect... that Rono truly had the potential of an admiral.

No one is born strong (well, maybe a few are). Even the strongest had to face enemies far more powerful on their path to strength.

True strength lies in a heart that grows braver with every setback—a strong heart.

And that heart doesn't just fuel fearlessness; it fuels perseverance and hard work.

Well... Rono wasn't quite that amazing. "Growing braver after setbacks?" Eh, let's go with that. Mostly, he just had nerves of steel.

As for perseverance and diligence? LOL.

If it weren't for the system's threats, Rono would still be snoring in bed.

But that didn't affect Burning Mountain's perception—he didn't know about the system's existence.

A strong heart. Natural talent. Isn't that what makes an admiral?

In the end, it was a beautiful misunderstanding.

"Wolfe (Rono), about what happened before... I am sorry. I'm a Marine after all—following orders comes first..."

He paused.

"How about this: There's still about two months until we reach Marine HQ. I'll teach you Haki. Yeah, that black and hard stuff."

Burning Mountain added an awkward explanation, just in case Rono didn't get it.

He felt a little guilty and wanted to make it up to Rono.

But mainly, he saw potential in the kid.

"Is that so? Huff—"

Rono casually replied as he finished the last handstand push-up and moved on to the next goal: weighted sit-ups.

Rono had zero goodwill toward Burning Mountain. The guy hadn't said a word when his comrades were beaten and even helped defend outsiders.

Just seeing him was annoying. Rono had no desire to learn Haki from him.

"So you're saying..."

Burning Mountain frowned, sensing Rono's displeasure from his tone. But he still asked.

If Rono refused his training, it didn't cost him anything, right?

While doing sit-ups, Rono suddenly paused, turned his head, and looked at him.

"Of course I forgive you… pfft, just kidding. Of course, I'll learn Haki from you!"

"Alright, if you don't want to learn—wait, what? You agreed?"

Burning Mountain nearly dropped his cigar.

What the hell is going on? What was with that dismissive attitude just now? Are you messing with me?!

Rono had his reasons. Just moments earlier, the system had issued its first-ever mission:

Accept Burning Mountain's guidance and develop both types of Haki.

Reward: One Hell Training (Part 2) session will be waived.

So Rono immediately tossed aside his pride and agreed to learn from Burning Mountain.

Hearing the sweet system "Mission Complete" chime gave Rono a small rush of excitement.

Burning Mountain shook his head speechlessly.

"Alright then, you can stop training for now. I'll teach you Haki in a bit."

"No, no, I can't stop now!"

Rono quickly weighed the pros and cons.

Letting Burning Mountain teach him Haki was to reduce the chance of failing training.

If he paused training now…

Forget it. What's the point of training if that gets turned off for six months?! Everything else would be meaningless!

Rono firmly refused, then came up with a reason on the spot:

"Vice Admiral Burning Mountain, this is a goal I set for myself. I'm working hard to achieve it. You want me to give up halfway?"

"Uh... but the training time won't be enough," Burning Mountain said, voicing his concern.

"I'll finish the training in the morning!"

Rono responded with determination.

He could save meditation for the evening.

As for the rest... he remembered an old phrase from his previous life:

"Take the risk—maybe your bike will turn into a motorcycle."

The system had just issued another mission: Master both types of Haki, with the reward being one failure immunity token.

The system was quite humane—when Rono was shipwrecked or knocked unconscious, it didn't assign any missions. Rono was genuinely moved by this.

Without hesitation, Rono accepted the new mission—after all, there was no penalty attached.

"Alright then, see you this afternoon."

Vice Admiral Burning Mountain wasn't the type to drag things out. He waved goodbye and left.

Immediately after, the training room echoed with Rono's loud "Aaaah!" cries, followed by the bang bang bang of gym equipment colliding.

Two hours later, Rono dashed into the energy room and, without a word, jumped onto the power bike (a piece of tech used to convert bio-energy into kinetic energy for propulsion when there's no wind). He began the next round of training.

The warship's speed instantly increased, its hull carving out a trail of frothing white waves behind it.

The crew didn't mind at all—the sooner they arrived, the sooner they'd get their vacation.

Vice Admiral Burning Mountain had originally been out on assignment but rushed to the Seventh Division after receiving the notice. Along the way, he picked up an unexpected passenger—the man in sunglasses. His transfer order had been delivered at lightning speed by a Special News Seagull since talents with admiral-level potential were exceedingly rare—and too many ended up becoming pirates. For context, even Lucci was once evaluated as an admiral-level talent—an occurrence said to happen only once every 800 years.

Alright, now that we've closed that narrative loop, let's shift our focus back to the main character.

Noon.

The sun blazed mercilessly over the sea, so hot it made you want to die.

Rono sat on the deck, shirtless and blindfolded with a strip of black cloth. Behind him, Vice Admiral Burning Mountain was lounging on a deck chair, dressed in a flashy red Hawaiian T-shirt, beach shorts, and red sunglasses.

Beside the chair rested a thick, solid wooden staff—about the width of a person's arm.

Burning Mountain took a puff from his cigar, sipped an iced drink, and asked,

"Is it ready yet?"

"Almost, almost!" Rono replied aloud, but in his mind, he asked the system,

"Is it ready yet?"

"Beep... 89%... 92%... 99%... Load complete—System Buff: Meditation."

As soon as the system uttered the last word, Rono immediately felt a shift.

His heart became as still as water. With each breath, he gradually attuned himself to nature.

"Oh! This talent... tsk tsk," Burning Mountain clicked his tongue as he stubbed out his cigar, picked up the wooden staff, and approached Rono from behind. Without warning, he brought the staff down hard on Rono's head—

"Crack!"

"Clunk."

The sound of the wooden stick snapping, followed by half of it falling to the floor.

"..."

Burning Mountain looked a little awkward.

He hadn't expected this guy's head to be so ridiculously hard.