The natural system started off strong, but the navy finally reached its peak!

But for some reason, the corners of my mouth involuntarily turned up.

After all, isn't this exactly what I've been hoping for?!

“Interesting… This is so interesting!” Gern suddenly burst into laughter, his laughter filled with an unprecedented madness.

Zephyr and Garp both raised their eyebrows; Gern's reaction was clearly unexpected.

"Zeff's Absolute Defense..."

"Vice Admiral Garp's Iron Fist..."

Under the watchful eyes of the two legends, Gern suddenly spread his arms wide, "I will devour everything you have! And then..."

"To create a domineering path that belongs exclusively to me, Gern!"

Garp paused for a moment, then burst into a deafening laugh: "Hahaha! Good lad!"

“This arrogance is quite to my liking!” He slapped Gern on the back hard, almost knocking the boy into the ground.

Zephyr, however, wore a thoughtful expression: "To merge two completely opposite ideologies...?" His gaze deepened, "This is also the kind of person I hope to teach!"

“However…” Garp suddenly stopped smiling, and Armament Haki instantly covered his entire right arm. “Let me see if your bones are as hard as your mouth!”

Before Gern could react, the legendary "Iron Fist of Love" of the future had already come hurtling towards him.

In the last moments before losing consciousness, he vaguely heard Zephyr's rebuke.

"Garp, why did you suddenly attack?! And you even used Armament Haki?!"

"Haha, my first thought was, oh dear, I didn't expect him to be so fragile..."

Chapter 33 Baptism of Hell and Steel

In the days that followed, Gern began his first ever Haki training under the alternating tutelage of Zephyr and Garp...

At 3:50 a.m., the port of Marineford was still shrouded in deep darkness.

Gern stood on the deck of the warship, his hands and feet bound by heavy chains, the cold metal pressed against his skin.

The sea breeze, carrying a salty, fishy smell, swept over us, and a faint glimmer of light appeared on the distant horizon—the boundary of the doldrums.

"Kid, scared?" Pu, who was chewing on a large meat bun, asked in a muffled voice.

"Scared?" Gern smirked. "I'm scared you won't be able to catch up with me later."

"Hahaha!" Garp laughed, slapping him on the back so hard he almost fell into the sea. "You've got guts! Let's go straight for the intensity!"

"I'm used to the intensity, but why would I need to wear chains when I'm running? It's just..."

"Because this is the real purpose!" Before he finished speaking, Karp suddenly grabbed Gern's chain and hurled him into the sea like a sandbag!

"Splash!" The icy seawater instantly submerged Gern's head.

The oppressive force of the seawater made it almost impossible for him to activate his Devil Fruit powers, and his limbs felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead.

"Weren't we supposed to be running?!" He struggled to the surface, gasping for breath, only to hear Garp shouting from the bow of the boat.

"I don't like wasting time; you've already been training for a while now."

"If you can show Armament Haki, I'll pull you up; if not... then you'll be food for the Sea Kings!"

"Damn it..." Gern gritted his teeth and started paddling frantically.

However, Devil Fruit users really can't resist the sea.

Ten minutes later, Gern felt his muscles begin to weaken and his breathing became rapid.

Just then, a huge shadow suddenly appeared beneath the sea.

Gern's pupils suddenly contracted. It was a sea king, as big as a warship, slowly approaching him!

"Hey! Vice Admiral Garp!!" He looked up sharply at the warship, only to find Garp leisurely pouring something into the sea.

blood.

A strong stench of blood instantly spread, the sea king's eyes turned crimson, and it suddenly accelerated and charged forward!

"Damn it!!" Gern cursed, the sea king's massive jaws opening wide, its fangs bared, a stench wafting towards them.

Death is at hand.

At the critical moment, a scorching power exploded from his body, and dark red Armament Haki wrapped around his legs like flames!

The sea king's sharp teeth snapped down, but it felt like biting into steel, producing a piercing metallic scraping sound!

"Oh?" Garp raised an eyebrow, a grin spreading across his face. "Isn't it usable?"

With that, Garp leaped off the warship, blasting the Sea King away with a single punch. Then, he picked up the half-dead Gern and, laughing, shouted to the recorder:

"Write this down! This kid took 17 days to awaken Armament Haki, which is 2 hours faster than Kuzan!"

"Throwing a Devil Fruit user into the sea, Vice Admiral Garp, that's wrong!" Gern collapsed on the deck, soaking wet, panting heavily.

"You'll be court-martialed for this! I'm going to file a complaint against Sengoku no Nakazan!"

"Hehe, you've already awakened Armament Haki." Garp squatted down and patted his face. "Then don't waste any more time~"

Gern: "..."

........

The scorching sun beat down on the training grounds on the volcanic island.

Bare-chested and muscular, Gern braced his hands against a ten-ton granite boulder, attempting to push it up a steep hillside.

Sweat rolled down his back, evaporating into white mist on the scorching rocks.

"Too slow!" Garp stood on the mountaintop, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, and shouted impatiently, "Where's your Haki? Use it!"

Gern gritted his teeth and tried to cover his arms with Armament Haki, but his newly awakened Haki was extremely unstable, sometimes strong and sometimes weak.

The weight of the rock nearly crushed his spine, and his knees trembled from the excessive force.

Just then, the sound of something cutting through the air came.

"Bang!!" A shell struck the rock with pinpoint accuracy, and the shockwave from the explosion sent Gern flying!

"Cough!" He fell heavily to the ground, his chest felt tight, and a trickle of blood escaped from the corner of his mouth.

"Unsatisfactory!" Garp appeared in front of him instantly, his fists wreathed in black Armament Haki. "What kind of special training is it if the bones aren't completely broken? Try again!"

"Boom!" Another punch sent Gern embedded in the rock wall, sending debris flying everywhere.

He coughed up blood, then chuckled softly and slowly got up.

"Again... then again."

......

Naval Special Training Ground.

With wooden swords in his hands, Gern faced a thick steel shield, his hands already bloodied and mangled from repeated slashing.

"Your breathing is erratic." Zephyr's voice suddenly rang out from behind.

“Professor Zefa.” Gern turned around abruptly, only to find Zefa already standing behind him, his gaze behind his sunglasses as sharp as a knife.

“Dominance isn’t about brute force.” Zephyr approached, his finger touching Gern’s trembling wrist. “It’s about precise will.”

He grasped Gern's hand, and Armament Haki spread across the wooden sword like ink.

“Feel it.” Zephyr’s voice was deep and firm. “Not ‘chop’, but ‘let the blade cut through the gaps in the material.’”

Gern held his breath and, following Zephyr's guidance, covered his wooden sword with Armament Haki and then lightly sliced ​​it across the steel shield.

"Whoosh." Without the harsh sound of metal colliding, the steel shield was silently sliced ​​open like tofu, the cut surface as smooth as a mirror.

“I see…” Gern stared at the cross-section, a flash of understanding in his eyes.

"Add 20000 repetitions tomorrow." Zefa released his grip, turned, and left. "If the error exceeds 1 millimeter, redo it."

"Armament Haki is the 'will to protect,' not a weapon of killing!"

Control is more important than strength, and precision is more deadly than rage!

.......

Several months later...

Gurn stood blindfolded at the entrance of a narrow metal passage, with sharp spikes on the walls on either side.

At the end of the passage was the sea, and Garp stood on the deck of a warship, weighing a cannonball in his hand and grinning.

"The rules are simple." Garp's voice was particularly clear in the sea breeze. "Blindfold yourself, walk through this passage, and don't get hit by my shells—one scratch means ten more repetitions."

Gern swallowed hard, his gaze sweeping over the sharp iron spikes.

This is not training, this is torture.

"Ready?" Garp's smile widened. "Let's begin!"

"Boom!" The first shot came hurtling in, the blazing flames leaving a crimson trail in the air.

Gern suddenly bent over, the shell grazed his back and hit the spikes, the blast wave knocking him over.

"Too slow!" Garp roared, already grabbing the second cannonball. "Where's your Armament Haki?! Where's your Observation Haki?! Use it!"

Gern gritted his teeth and got up, instantly covering his arms with Armament Haki, while calming his mind to sense it.

A moment later, a second shell followed. This time, Gern dodged to the side, but was still thrown against the wall by the shockwave of the explosion.

"Sss!" A sharp pain shot through his right shoulder as an iron spike pierced his skin, and blood instantly soaked through his sleeve.

"Ten more repetitions!" Garp's voice was like a pronouncement. "Continue!"

Gern steadied himself, panting, and nodded.

When the third shell came flying, he stopped dodging and instead swung his fist violently.

"Bang!" The fist, brimming with domineering energy, collided head-on with the incendiary shell, which exploded in mid-air, scattering sparks everywhere.

Garp raised an eyebrow, then burst into laughter: "That's more like it! But don't get too excited!"

In the days that followed, Gern traversed a hell of burning and steel.

His body was covered in abrasions, but his movements became faster and faster, and the range of his Armament Haki and his Observation Haki perception became more and more accurate.

When the last shell was deflected by his knee, Garp finally put down the shell.

"Barely passing." Karp jumped off the warship and walked up to the panting Gern. "Do you know why we had to train like this?"

Gern wiped the blood from his forehead and shook his head.

“In the New World,” Garp said, his expression unusually serious. “Sometimes you have to move forward even knowing you’ll get hurt.”

Pain will slow you down, but dominance...” He pointed to Gern's healing wound.

"It's an armor that lets you forget pain and the ability to predict and dodge all damage!"

Chapter 34 Hell and the Baptism of Steel (Part Two)

Abandoned warship berthing area.

Gern and Kuzan stood together in front of the armor plating of a decommissioned warship, their fists already wrapped in bandages.

Garp leaned against the turret, leisurely sipping his drink.

"20000 times, with all your might," he mumbled. "You two remember this: if your fists aren't strong enough, you can't even withstand one of my punches."

Gern took a deep breath and assumed a fighting stance.

The first punch landed

"Thump!" A dull impact echoed, leaving a shallow dent on the armor plate.

A piercing pain shot through his finger bones, but he didn't stop, and immediately followed with a second punch, a third punch...

By the 300th punch, the bandage was soaked with blood.

By the 500th punch, Gern's knuckles were a bloody mess, and each impact made his arm tremble uncontrollably.

"You can't use Haki!" Garp suddenly shouted. "Your current Haki is just roaring! Roar for me!!"

The 800th punch had left a dent two inches deep on the armor plate.