After receiving their undercover mission, Smoker and Tashigi were both frustrated, their faces turning green with worry. They had no choice but to lower their heads and gather information.

  Soon enough, their frowns turned into smiles.

  Just a few days before Zea sail, the G2 base had just gohrough a major shakeup. Navy officers were reassigo various bases within the jurisdi, while new personnel were being brought in to fill the vacies.

  With so many ges happening at once, G2 received an urgent mission, and they didn’t have time to properly s recruits. In desperation, they decided to send the top 100 performers based orainis, without much thought.

  This meant that on board the ship, many of the sailors didn’t even know each other, and they weren’t much strohan Smoker and Tashigi.

  The two of them were now feeling more optimistic. They immediately split up to iigate.

  Smoker took it upon himself to gather intel from the crew. Every day, he wandered around, chatting with everyone he could find.

  “Hey, Lieutenant Shuen, good m!” “Hey, Kez, want to go throw a couple of shots?”

  Being a Navy man himself, Smoker found it easy to blend in. Soon, he was on friendly terms with nearly everyone.

  As for Tashigi, her striking looks made her a bit too noticeable, so she stayed in the . She used her elemental powers to slip into the data room and search through information.

  While Smoker and Tashigi were busy with their iigations, Zean was about to lose her mind.

  In her office, she sat behind the desk, staring at a report, her face shifting from red to green to pale.

  In front of her stood a group idly upright soldiers, all with proud, fident faces, their eyes gleaming with naive arrogance.

  Zean slowly set the report down and lifted her head.

  “Is this the report you’ve written for the week?!” she asked.

  The soldiers puffed out their chests. “Yes! Major Zean! Thank you for the pliment!”

  “I... sigh...”

  Zean had inteo say, “I didn’t pliment you,” but she couldn’t bring herself to.

  At that moment, she had none of the elegance or sharpness she had when fag Dofmingo. All that remained was an overwhelming sense of helplessness, like a hen struck by disease.

  Zean had bee on this mission uhe pretense of proteg Navy stists. She had brought along the stro soldiers and put them on the ship.

  But little did she expect that, although they were elite fighters, they all seemed to have muscles but no brains.

  They were fearless when fighting pirates, but o came to handling administrative tasks, they became pletely useless.

  For example, when assigning dormitories, they didn’t sider ranks enders, they just drew lots.

  And the one responsible for supplies bought dozens of barrels of liquor and pletely fot about food and fresh water.

  Now, this week’s report was a disaster—just two pages, half filled with typos and the other half scribbled with nonsense.

  Even worse, after sailing for half a month, they discovered that dozens of sailors were missing from the crew roster.

  Zean stared bnkly at the ceiling, tears sliding down her cheeks.

  “If I’m wrong, thehe pirates kill me. Why do I have to suffer through this with these idiots…”

  But no matter what, these were the soldiers she had chosen. Even if she cried, she had to lead them.

  So, Zean wiped away her tears and forced a gentle smile.

  “Don’t you have anything to say?”

  “Uhm... Major Zean, should we be eating now?” one of the taller sailors asked, stepping forward.

  Zean’s face stiffened, and her eyelid twitched slightly.

  Another soldier, a bit smarter, awkwardly asked, “Uh... Major Zean, is our report not good enough?”

  The other soldiers, sensing the tension, nervously g Zean.

  Zean’s expressiouro a calm one.

  “No, I’m not angry…”

  “Phew...” the soldier sighed in relief. “As long as you’re not mad, I’m good!”

  The others shared relieved smiles.

  Zeran slowly stood up, her firansf into five sharp spikes.

  “I’m not angry. But with a group of people who are about to die, what’s there to get angry about?”

  The soldiers froze in fear.

  ...

  In the hallway, Smoker and Tashigi were chatting as they walked.

  “I haven’t found anything suspicious so far. The key to this mission still lies with Zean.”

  “But she’s a Major, and with our positions, it’ll be hard to make direct tact…”

  “If we push too hard, we might raise suspi…”

  Suddenly, a loud scream echoed from a nearby room.

  “Help!!”

  “Major Zean has gone crazy! She’s killing people!!”

  The door smmed open, and several battered sailors rushed out, crashing into Smoker.

  “Hey!” “Argh!!”

  It was so sudden that Smoker barely mao prevent himself from transf, and the sailors fell into a pile.

  One of the sailors dropped his report.

  “Ugh, ugh...” Smot up and helped the sailors to their feet.

  Tashigi bent down to pick up the papers. “Your files are all over the pce…”

  Then she curiously g the tents and sighed with relief.

  “Phew, it’s just waste paper…”

  The Navy sailors looked fused.

  Ihe room, Zean heard this and suddenly rushed to the drabbing Tashigi’s shoulders.

  “You think this is just waste paper?!”

  “Uh? Ah?” Tashigi was caught off guard and asked, “Isn’t it?”

  “Hahahaha!!” Zean suddenly burst out ughing, her eyes glistening with tears.

  She spped Tashigi’s shoulder heavily.

  “Exactly, just a pile of waste paper!”

  “Hmm, you seem unfamiliar. What’s your name?”

  “Ah, T-Tashigi,” Tashigi quickly so attention. “Major Zean, Navy Ensign Tashigi rep in!”

  Zean nodded, extending her hand to the side. “Roster!”

  A sailor quickly handed over a book filled with names.

  Zean flipped through it quickly, her eyes dartiween the book and Tashigi.

  Smoker and Tashigi’s hearts leaped into their throats.

  Uh-oh…

  After receiving their undercover mission, they had quickly prepared false identities. Even in the G2 base, their files were already there.

  The only problem was the crew roster.

  Their names were missing!

  They could expin it away by saying it was a mistake and that they would call the G2 base to verify, but that might raise suspi!

  To their surprise, Zean finished looking through the list and tossed it at the sailor’s face, turning it into a thorn and whipping it as she scolded.

  "Asshole! Where's Tashigi's name in it?! Give me another t!"

  "If I make another mistake, I'll jump into the sea ahe sharks myself!!"

  "Ah! Ah! Yes...yes!"

  Several marines picked up the list and ran away in a mess.

  Smoker and Tashigi were stunned. Is this okay?!

  Zean threw the list to the thorns, turned back, and looked at Tashigi up and down.

  Whether it was temperament or appearance, she felt that Tashigi seemed fitting. More importantly, she also thought the files were just waste paper!

  For a moment, there was a feeling that the heroes were looking at the same thing...

  "Warrant Officer Tashigi, from today on, you are my personal assistant."

  Smoker and Tashigi: "?!!"

  At this moment, there was another noise in the corridor.

  "Where's Zean? I want to see Zean!"

  Hearing the sound, everyone looked over curiously.

  Only Zean looked like she had a toothache.

  After a while, several old men with white beards trotted rily, followed by a dejected sailor.

  "Majeneral Zean! I said I wanted an assistant, what kind of idiot are you looking for?!"

  "I asked him to get gunpowder, but this bastard actually took a torto the explosives warehouse. Does he want us to blow up the sky?!"

  "That's right! And there's more..."

  Several other stists also began to pin, as if hundreds of ducks were quag.

  Zea like her head was going to explode.

  She wasn't afraid of pirates, she could just fight them.

  She wasn't afraid of her superiors, she could argue with them.

  She wasn't afraid of her subordinates, she could just beat them.

  But she was afraid of these naval stists.

  They couldn’t be beaten or scolded, and they still acted like they were tough and unbothered.

  The worst part was that every time they looked at her, they made her feel like she was mentally challenged, when iy, she khey were probably smarter.

  At this time, a tall and thin old man raised his hand, and the others immediately fell silent.

  "Majeneral Zean, we don't want to embarrass you, but without an assistant, the progress will definitely be affected!"

  Zealy had a headache.

  The new artillery shell tests needed adjustments while beied.

  Her ship was not an experimental ship like those used by the stific corps, so the equipment and ditions weren't ideal...

  Additionally, many tasks required the help of Navy personnel, but she khe soldiers were just rough and not suited for delicate work.

  But Zean couldn’t think of that right now; she just o stop these old men from pining!

  Suddenly, she noticed Smoker.

  pared to the dull soldiers around him, he seemed much smarter.

  So, she pulled Smoker over.

  "Dr. Aubrey, I'm sorry these bastards are b you!"

  "This... Smoker is the new assistant I found for you. He's very ied in researd quite talented. Let him follow you!"

  After saying that, Zean whispered in Smoker's ear in a voio one else could hear.

  "I don't care what method you use, you use the people, money, and materials on the ship as you wish, but there is ohing..."

  "Don't let these old guys bother me anymore!!"

  Smoker: "..."

  Dr. Aubrey frowned and looked at Smoker.

  Two meters tall, with an ied triangle figure, thick arms, and marble-like muscles, he didn’t seem like someone who would be ied in sce.

  In the past, Dr. Aubrey would never have asked for su assistant.

  But after spending half a month on the warship, his patience had worn thin.

  He looked at the intelligen Smoker's eyes and sighed slightly.

  "Okay, just him..."

  And so, Smoker was taken away by the stists.

  Zean looked at Smoker's bad let out a long sigh.

  "I hope he st longer..."

  Then she said to Tashigi, "Follow me!"

  ...

  Smoker followed Dr. Aubrey to the rear of the warship.

  inally, it was just the deck, but now a house had been built as a boratory, making the whole ship look a bit strange.

  There were ons and several onballs of different shapes o the b, with several people in white coats dois.

  At this moment, an explosion occurred in the boratory.

  A group of people in white coats ran out, terrified.

  As soon as they emerged, streams of purple-green smoke began p out of the boratory.

  Dr. Aubrey rushed forward and grabbed one of the young men. "Songmiao, what happened?!"

  "Cough cough cough cough..." Songmiao coughed violently before finally managing to speak.

  "Sorry, Dr. Aubrey, the gas bomb failed..."

  Before Dr. Aubrey could respond, Smoker's eyes widened. "Gas bomb?!"

  Is the Naval Sce Corps researg such dangerous things?!

  Dr. Aubrey was also shocked.

  "fused! How you study this kind of on?!"

  Songmiao looked dejected.

  "A few days ago, Dr. Caesar Courant of MAD published a research paper on poison gas bombs. I just wao try it out..."

  Dr. Aubrey poi Songmiao with trembling fingers. "Stupid! Do you know how terrifying this on is?"

  Smoker nodded slightly. "Yes, although there is no good or evil in ons, things like biological and chemical ons should be avoided..."

  Dr. Aubrey: "With the ditions of this ship, how is it possible to study poison gas bombs?! Why didn’t you wait until we returned?!"

  Smoker was stunned.

  Was that the reason?!

  Okay, now he uood. He had been mistaken before...

  These stists only focused on teology aing. Whether the results would be used or how they would be used had nothing to do with them...

  Songmiao looked at the boratory in frustration.

  "What should we do now? The highly toxic material has leaked and there's no way to it up!"

  "It doesn't matter if this b is destroyed, but if it keeps leaking, the other bs will also be affected..."

  Smoker was stunned. Such a big safety act had just occurred! This couldn’t be happening.

  So, he stepped forward, and the darkness from his hands spread, soon c the entire boratory.

  The naval stists stared in awe.

  Dr. Aubrey asked in fusion, "Smoker... are you an esper?!"

  "Um... it's a bit plicated to expin. Just think of it as a gravity fruit."

  Sman to withdraw the darkness, and after a while, the entire boratory had been ed out.

  Smoker had no fear of being poisoned.

  When Bckbeard had broken into the sed floor of Impel Down, he used darko absorb Mageln's poisonous wall and wasn't affected at all.

  As long as the body didn’t e into direct tact with poison, there was no problem.

  Songmiao grabbed Smoker's hand.

  "Thank you, Mr. Smoker, you’ve really helped us!"

  Dr. Aubrey also nodded with a smile.

  Smoker secretly felt pleased. These stists were so easy to handle!

  But soon, his mood ged.

  When the stists realized that Smoker's darkness could absorb and release things, their eyes lit up with excitement.

  The b had bee incredibly crowded.

  Now, they used Smoker as a ste unit.

  Everything was stuffed into him and taken out whenever needed.

  By the end of it, they were even using him as a trash .

  Smoker: "..."

  (End of Chapter)