Hearing this voice, the originally still-sitting-on-the-bed Riven was the first to excitedly stand up and rush out the door.
Instead, it was Buggy, that kid, whose face was full of bitterness.
He truly didn't enjoy bitter, exhausting training. Anyway, there were plenty of experts on the ship, and when it came time to snatch treasure, it wouldn't be his turn to exert himself.
Looking at Riven and Shanks rushing swiftly toward the stern, not wanting to be left behind, he still forced a calm expression and followed, saying, "Wait for me, you two!"
The few of them ran out from the ship's cabin toward the stern. Along the way, they could still see a few strong men who had drunk too much and passed out on the ground.
As for this situation of partying everywhere, the three of them had long been used to it, and each began looking for their own weapon in the storage room.
Buggy chose throwing knives; Shanks preferred a rapier.
As for Riven, he considered for a moment and picked up a flintlock gun.
This was the result of his careful deliberation.
Besides matching his innate strength in Observation Haki, making it suitable for being a stealthy "number six", there was another point.
The swordplay field was too crowded.
In the past, there were Golden Lion, Roger, Rayleigh. In the middle, there were Red-Hair and Hawkeye. In the future, there would be Three-Sword-Style Zoro.
Trying to stand out in the sword circle, Riven felt the cost-performance ratio was a bit low.
If he was going to do it, he'd be the world's number one. That was worthy of his rare overpowered starting point. On the path of the great swordsman, not to mention whether he had the talent for swordsmanship, even if Riven endured countless hardships to become the so-called world's number one great swordsman, he might still be endlessly chased and challenged by those two, Mihawk and Zoro.
With a constant ringing in his ears, ["Accept my challenge! I'm the man who will become the world's number one swordsman."]
So annoying it could kill him. Might as well become the world's number one gunner instead.
After all, as someone who was once from Earth, Riven naturally yearned for using guns. Plus, he had innate Observation Haki.
The most important point was this path wasn't crowded.
In the future, well-known snipers were no more than Yasopp, Usopp, Van Augur, maybe add one Ben Beckman. The track was niche and not crowded.
Riven felt he was no worse than others.
Once he developed Conqueror's Haki coating, Observation kill or future sight, and bought some Seastone bullets, one shot might not be enough for a Yonko. But one shot for a Yonko Commander wouldn't be too much, right? Shanks could still one-shot a 3-billion guy with a slash.
Once his divine skill was mastered and he had Yonko-level strength, he'd travel the whole world and enjoy life, visit various iconic scenes, and in old age buy a few maids and get himself a small manor to live in.
Having suffered so much as a workhorse before, this life must be a bit more enjoyable, a life worth enjoying.
But ideals are fat and reality is skinny. Right now, he was still just a kid with awakened Observation Haki and slightly stronger-than-average physique.
Although Rayleigh was indeed a misleading and poor teacher, laying the foundation should still be okay.
Might as well learn it.
Next came Riven's first lesson after boarding the ship.
"Physical combat is the foundation of all fighting methods. Whether you use a sword or fists, even if you're using a ranged weapon like a gun, you still need strong reaction speed and Haki to stand undefeated."
For these three little fellows living in the New World, the term Haki wasn't unfamiliar, so Rayleigh didn't explain too much.
He immediately looked at the weapons each had chosen.
"And beyond physical combat, each person will pursue the fighting method they're best at. Then...", Rayleigh looked at them and took a sip of wine, "Tell me what you want to learn. If it's something I know, I can teach you experience and techniques."
"I want to learn swordsmanship," Shanks was single-minded from the start, or maybe influenced by Roger and Rayleigh, he had a preference for longswords.
"Swordsmanship?", Rayleigh smiled, "Then starting today, slash five thousand times daily, and learn the most basic way to hold a sword first."
Then he looked at Buggy, "Short blades and longswords are basically the same. Start with swinging practice."
Lastly, he looked at Riven with bright eyes. Since he didn't understand this child well, Rayleigh asked what he wanted to learn.
"Can I learn anything?"
"Of course. But if you want to learn gunmanship, the sniper Bittam on the ship is a hundred percent marksman…"
"Then I want to learn Conqueror's Haki coating."
"Pfft!"
Riven's astonishing words almost made Rayleigh spit wine five meters away.
After a while, he wiped the corner of his mouth and grumbled, "Kid, I don't know where you heard that term, but even setting aside how advanced that skill is, at the very least, you need to have Conqueror's Haki."
Implied meaning: Riven might not even have Conqueror's Haki, how could he talk about Conqueror's coating?
But Riven didn't care and held the attitude of trying anyway, "Then... if I do have Conqueror's Haki, Uncle Rayleigh, would you teach me?"
"Why not?", Rayleigh just assumed it was a child's ignorance and casually agreed.
Not long after the idle chat, the three began their most basic training.
Carrying a huge iron plate as weight, Riven lay on the ground doing one-arm push-ups while reading the newspaper on the floor.
At the same time, he didn't forget to train his Observation Haki.
In his perception, Shanks was doing sword training with a sweat-drenched face and a very serious expression on his immature face.
Though Buggy was also training, from his deliberately slowed movements, it was clear this guy was slacking off.
"Shanks, this guy, seems like each slash is sharper than the last," After finishing his strength training, Riven saw that Shanks had finally completed his daily sword training.
Should he say, worthy of a swordsmanship genius?
Visible improvement, Riven, like a sneaky number six, secretly observed Shanks's progress, silently memorizing his techniques.
When Shanks was doing strength training, he picked up the longsword Shanks left on the ground and, thinking of Shanks's force application and airflow changes as sensed earlier, he also began doing sword training.
———
"What a greedy little brat," On the lookout tower, a long-haired, muscular man wearing small sunglasses looked at the hard-training Riven at the ship's stern and chatted to the blond fatty beside him, "Wants to learn guns and also swords. If he comes to ask me to learn the axe next, I won't teach him."
"Although I don't really acknowledge sniper playstyle," as the Observation expert and sniper of Roger's crew, Bittam could see some clues, "This kid Riven, is stealing Shanks's effort."
———
Indeed, that was true.
Shanks slashed five thousand times to summarize and master the improved technique, yet Riven perfectly mimicked it after only a thousand times. This discovery made Riven both amazed and thrilled.
"Damn, is this Sharingan-version Observation Haki?"
The naturally awakened Observation Haki wasn't broad in range. After years of effort, Riven had only managed to extend it to a few dozen meters.
But Riven's Observation Haki was different from others. While not as detailed as a microscope, it was naturally maxed out.
Every tiny change and technique couldn't escape his eyes.
Therefore, besides raw power, learning any technique was twice the result for half the effort.
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