Starting from One Piece: Multiverse Simulation

Wood: "..."

Gion: "(′?Д?)」

Wood, who was completely indifferent and planning to intentionally lose to Gion later, and Gion, who was full of fighting spirit and ready to avenge her previous defeat with a handpicked gun, were both stunned when they heard the colonel's command!

"Everyone else is already getting ready. What are you two still standing there for?"

Seeing that the other recruits had begun moving and loading cannonballs, but Gion and Wood, who had been assigned to the same group, were still standing still, the colonel immediately shouted at them.

"Sir, I request to be paired with someone else. You mentioned earlier that this test requires teamwork, right? I feel that I have no chemistry with this person!"

Gion had a certain resistance to teaming up with Wood and even thought she could complete the loading and aiming of the cannon by herself. It wasn't a problem for her to work solo.

"Silence! I'm the instructor here, and before becoming an excellent Marine, you should first learn to follow orders! Do you plan to defy your superior's orders in battle when you officially become Marines?"

"If you lack chemistry, then you can work on developing it. If you don't want to participate in this training, you can leave now, but know that your test score will be marked as zero."

The colonel stared at Gion with a stern expression. After learning from Vice Admiral Tsuru that Gion had contradicted her during the last test, he had been specifically instructed to not give Gion any special treatment. At the Navy Academy, there were no exceptions, and Gion was just another recruit. If she violated the rules, he had no obligation to go easy on her.

A score of zero in the test didn't really bother Wood at all. He had always wanted to be a background character, someone unremarkable. As long as his scores weren't so bad that he got kicked out of the academy, he didn't care about standing out after graduation.

Wood wasn't like Tokikake; he had no desire to put in effort to win Gion over. So, when he was about to give up on this test and walk away, he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going? Didn't you hear what the instructor said? If we don't cooperate, we'll get the lowest rating for this test!"

Unlike Wood, Gion cared deeply about her scores. Her performance in the previous shooting test had already been mediocre, and if she ended up with the worst score in this cannon test as well, she wouldn't dare face Vice Admiral Tsuru.

"I heard, but Gion, you seem to dislike me. Even if we force ourselves to work together, we won't have as much chemistry as the others. Wouldn't it be better to just give up from the start rather than trying hard only to end up losing?"

Gion, who had initially been a bit annoyed, suddenly became stern and serious after hearing Wood's defeatist logic.

"What nonsense are you talking about! If you give up so easily, how can you ever become an excellent Marine?"

"And how do you know we'll lose if we haven't even tried? Chemistry isn't just about relationships; it's about personality too. Sometimes, rivals have better chemistry than friends. And it's not that I dislike you, it's just that..."

"Anyway, you can't leave on your own. If you cause us to fail this test, I won't forgive you!"

A few minutes later, Wood and Gion stood behind a cannon. Wood hauled box after box of cannonballs and loaded the black spherical projectiles into the barrel, waiting for Gion to adjust the firing angle.

Yes, in the end, Wood gave in...

After all, Gion would become "Momousagi" in the future, and Wood had decided to stay low-key. He couldn't afford to offend someone who was at the level of a future admiral candidate.

If her goodwill was already in the negative, at least he shouldn't make it worse. Even if he couldn't cozy up to her, he should at least avoid making an enemy of her.

Moreover, Tokikake had asked him to take care of Gion before leaving the academy, and he had already paid Wood for it. Ignoring the job after accepting the money didn't seem right.

"Boom——!"

The cannon emitted a burst of dazzling light, and the gunpowder exploded, propelling the black cannonball out of the barrel.

In a near-perfect parabolic trajectory, the cannonball landed tens of meters away from the target marker…

These antique cannons from a bygone era had a kill range of only a few meters, and missing by such a large margin rendered them almost useless.

"It seems the cannon angle was still a bit too high. Let me adjust it again. I'm sure I'll hit the target next time."

Looking at the large crater formed by the explosion in the distance, Gion appeared confident. She believed she had made significant progress compared to the beginning, and with a bit more practice, she was confident of acing the test.

"Wood, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and load the next cannonball. At this rate, you won't be able to keep up with my firing speed."

It had been a full minute since Gion last fired, and yet Wood was still standing there. Clearly unhappy with how he was holding her back, Gion couldn't help but voice her dissatisfaction.

"It's not that I don't want to load the cannon, but we've nearly run out of cannonballs. If we keep shooting, we might not have enough ammo left for the actual test."

The Navy Headquarters wasn't made of money; ammunition costs money, and they couldn't provide an endless supply for new recruits to practice with.

Each group had been given two boxes of cannonballs along with a cannon—twenty shots per box, for a total of around forty shots.

Aside from the three shots required for the test, that left them with 37 practice shots.

Gion's previous barrage had already used up nearly two-thirds of the ammunition, and yet the little marker flag stuck in the dirt was still defiantly waving in the wind.

"I've made significant progress since the beginning. Next time, I'll definitely hit it..."

"Next time, huh? But you've said that at least ten times already."

"Each time, you do improve, from missing by fifty meters to missing by about forty meters now.

Based on the twenty cannonballs you've fired, you're improving by about half a meter per shot. So, by my rough estimate, even if you use up all the cannonballs, the chances of you hitting the target are still slim."

"Of course, there's always a chance you might get lucky and hit the target, but I doubt that kind of luck will hold up during the test."

Gion, who had been full of confidence, couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed after hearing Wood's emotionless analysis.

But when she remembered that Wood's shooting score had been just as bad as hers, she retorted, "You talk like you're some expert. Why don't you fire a shot and show me what you've got!"

Note: If you are interested, you can read up to chapter 50 at patreon.com/Betek.