Sure enough, a rough-looking old man wearing sunglasses appeared.
Ren kept a calm face, but Dal, Simba, and the others couldn't hide their excitement.
That was Zephyr—the legendary instructor who had trained countless Marine officers. Who wouldn't want guidance from him?
Ren, however, knew both Zephyr and his own teacher Garp too well to be impressed.
"Listen up," Zephyr said, wasting no time. "Don't think that just because you've entered the Elite Division, you'll automatically get my personal guidance."
He spoke straight and sharp, no flowery speech, just the raw truth.
"Even in the Elite Division, you advance through your own effort. I don't care if you're a general's son or the fleet admiral's nephew. If I don't acknowledge you, you can get lost and train with the regular recruits!"
Ren couldn't help but respect him. Only a man like Zephyr could have raised the three Marine admirals.
Zephyr's tone grew heavier. "Every six months, I'll test you again. Only those who meet my standards will be qualified to enter my true Elite Corps."
"Now listen carefully—your first task today is to run fifty laps around the academy perimeter!"
"What?! Fifty laps?!"
Everyone turned to stare at the massive outer wall of the academy, their jaws dropping.
"W–wait, not the training field? The outer wall?"
"You've gotta be kidding! That's several kilometers for one lap!"
"Yeah, that's impossible!"
"This is insane! Is this really the Elite Division's training?"
"Tch, it's only a few hundred kilometers," Ren scoffed, glaring at the whining cadets.
"You can't even compare to ten-year-old Luffy and still call yourselves Marines?"
Back in Foosha Village, Ren, Ace, and Luffy had trained far more brutally than this every single day.
People in this world weren't ordinary humans—their bodies were naturally strong enough to live to eighty or ninety even without training, and they could develop incredible abilities beyond imagination.
A few hundred kilometers might sound like hell on Earth to his past self, but here? It was nothing.
"Enough whining! Anyone who can't handle it, quit now!" Zephyr roared, raising his thick, muscular arm. "If you've got complaints, you can come talk to my fist!"
Seeing those arms thicker than their heads, everyone immediately went silent.
"Now start running! Anyone who doesn't finish gets no dinner tonight!"
"Heh, this old man's way too cocky. I'm surprised no one's ever ambushed him in the bathroom," Ren muttered under his breath.
"Boss, that's a good idea. Maybe we should—"
Simba grinned slyly, his mischievous nature showing.
"You guys better not try anything stupid," said a cold voice.
It was Ain, standing right next to Ren. She had overheard everything and walked over with a warning look.
She knew how strong Ren was—yesterday, he'd taken down hundreds of students by himself.
"Come on, Ain, we're just joking. How would we ever dare lay a hand on Instructor Zephyr?" Ren said with a grin, pretending to be innocent.
"I don't believe you. I'm keeping an eye on you," she said firmly.
Men's words are lies—she wasn't falling for it.
Ain started running right beside him, step for step.
"Oh? You think you can keep up? Fine, we'll just run at this pace then," Ren said casually.
"Hmph, I won't lose to you!" Ain shot back, determined, her blue hair flowing as she ran—strong and confident, like a blade of the sea.
"Boss really is something else," Clark said enviously, watching from behind. "Even during training, he's flirting!"
"Shut up!" Ain snapped angrily.
Ren laughed. "Hmm? Today feels weirdly easy. I'm not even tired."
Before long, the two of them had run more than a dozen laps without slowing down.
Ain suddenly realized she wasn't exhausted at all—her pace was still steady.
"This must be the power of teamwork," Ren teased. "When a man and a woman work together, everything feels easier."
"Wow, you smell nice. What perfume are you using?"
He leaned closer and took an exaggerated sniff. "Mmm, really fragrant."
"You—shut up! I'm not wearing perfume!" Ain's face flushed red as she tried to move away, but she couldn't lose him.
"You're such a rogue! Stay away from me!"
"Relax, the road's wide enough for both of us. Let's just run together," Ren said with a grin, keeping a smooth, even pace.
His footwork was perfectly precise, every stride identical in length—as if measured with a ruler.
With each step, his toes pushed off the ground lightly, propelling him forward effortlessly, like wind gliding over the sea.
Unknowingly, Ain got caught in his rhythm, running faster without realizing it.
To others, it looked as though Ren was merely jogging calmly, yet there was an almost supernatural fluidity to his movement.
Ain and the others didn't notice anything unusual—but Zephyr, watching silently from a distance, did.
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