Brugurasu's eyes were filled with shock and anger.
She had initially guessed that Kenji wanted to face the Roger Pirates alone with that empty warship.
Such an action seemed more fitting for an Admiral, the Marine's highest combat power. However, after she had transferred all the troops, she realized something was amiss.
It turned out Kenji only wanted to leave an empty warship.
An empty warship without soldiers?
Wouldn't that just be waiting for the Roger Pirates to come and pick it up for free?
"I cannot approve of your decision, Shirojishi Admiral!" Brugurasu exclaimed, a mix of shock and fury in her voice, as she loudly voiced her opposition.
Kenji ignored her fierce opposition, a cold sneer in his heart. 'You caused this trouble, and now you want me to clean up your mess?'
'You want to freeload an Admiral as a free thug, huh?'
Seeing Kenji ignore her,Brugurasu grew even angrier and immediately prepared to lead her troops back to her own warship.
However, by this time, the two warships were already quite far apart. Returning would require turning around and approaching the empty warship again.
"Please turn around and let us return to the warship, Shirojishi Admiral!" Brugurasu's expression and tone turned completely cold, her eyes flashing with anger.
"Rear Admiral Brugurasu, if you want to die, I can send you back right now, but don't drag your subordinates to their deaths with you!" Kenji's voice turned cold for the first time.
Kasu, standing nearby, frowned and walked in front of Brugurasu, briefly explaining the situation to her: important criminals were being held on board.
"...I was impulsive, I'm sorry." Brugurasu was silent for a long time, a look of guilt appearing in her eyes.
Kenji merely pursed his lips, unconcerned by the situation.
The Marine, guided by 'Justice,' naturally attracted countless hot-blooded and impulsive individuals, and even among the officers, there were many with fiery tempers.
Having been a Marine for fifty years, Kenji had seen countless impulsive and hot-blooded officers and soldiers, so he was quite accustomed to it.
He didn't dislike Brugurasu's passion and impulsiveness. In his youth, he too was one of those hot-blooded youths.
What truly angered him was her intention to drag a group of soldiers to their deaths.
Knowing that the enemy was too powerful to defeat, yet still insisting on dragging a large group of people to their deaths.
This was not Kenji's 'Path of Justice.'
However, Kenji realized he had miscalculated: his Observation Haki suddenly sensed multiple powerful auras.
Moments later, a majestic, hearty laugh suddenly echoed from deep within the sea fog.
Kenji recognized Roger's voice instantly, his brow furrowing. "One warship isn't enough?"
"When did that kid Roger's appetite get so big?"
Just as he frowned, Roger's voice rang out again from deep within the fog.
"I'm not interested in fighting you, Patrick!"
"I have something very important to do right now... Get out of my way, don't block the path!"
At this moment, another voice spoke, arrogant in tone, one Kenji was equally familiar with. It was Red Count, Patrick Redfield, whom he had encountered in a pirate town not long ago.
"Are you going to find that Shirojishi Admiral, Roger?"
"With his strength, he isn't even worthy of meeting you, is he?"
"Hahaha! Don't just casually evaluate others, Patrick!"
The moment his words fell, everyone on the warship suddenly felt an extremely powerful presence.
The next moment, they witnessed the source of this presence with their own eyes.
A light appeared deep within the fog, instantly cutting through and dispersing the thick mist.
Then, a figure flashed across everyone's vision, sent flying far away, and at the same time, a pirate ship appeared at the edge of their sight.
"The Oro Jackson! It's the Roger Pirates!"
The enemy's identity was confirmed.
Almost the instant the pirate ship appeared, lines of text flashed within Kenji's vision.
[You have encountered the Legendary Roger Pirates! You are in great crisis!]
[Mission (Side): Successfully retreat or survive until the Roger Pirates leave, with troop losses not exceeding half!]
[Reward: 3 Assignable Upgrade opportunities!]
Each word glowed, conveying a sense of urgent crisis.
"The rewards are generous…" Kenji finished reading the mission reward, but there was not much joy on his face.
The rewards given by the system were directly related to the mission difficulty. The greater the difficulty, the more generous the reward.
A reward like this '3 assignable upgrade opportunities' was unprecedented.
The only time Kenji had previously received this kind of reward was from overcompleting a mission which only offered 1 assignable upgrade opportunity.
Moreover, the system's current assessment of Kenji's strength was vastly different from a month or two ago.
"It seems the system judges that my troops will most likely be completely wiped out in this crisis."
Kenji closed the system interface, looking at the pirate ship opposite with a blank expression, while also roughly confirming some things in his mind.
"The system's standard for judging mission difficulty is largely correlated with the enemies in the mission, with other factors having less influence…"
Just as Kenji was silently contemplating, the people on the Oro Jackson in the distance also saw Kenji's warship.
Roger stood at the bow, looking at Kenji from afar, and grinned. "Yo!"
Immediately, he rapidly swung his sword, Ace, with his right hand, and unleashed a powerful slash towards the warship.
Divine Departure!
The slash, wreathed in lightning-like Conqueror's Haki traces, was terrifyingly powerful, tearing apart everything in its path.
"Ugh, I… I can't move…"
Kasu was intimidated by the intense Conqueror's Haki, her body found it difficult to move.
Brugurasu next to her fared even worse. Her body was so oppressed by the Conqueror's Haki that she kept bending over, almost about to prostrate herself on the ground.
As for the other soldiers and officers on the warship, they had long been knocked unconscious by the oppressive aura, lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
"Sigh, is that really necessary?" Kenji sighed helplessly, though he wasn't angry.
He had already seen that Roger was greeting him, greeting him with 'Divine Departure'.
Why did he think it was a greeting? Because Roger's slash wasn't aimed at the warship at all.
Kenji had already foreseen through Observation Haki that the slash would pass by the warship, not causing much substantial damage to it.
However, the huge waves stirred up by the slash along its path would be enough to capsize a warship with too deep a draft.
Originally, this well-built warship wouldn't have been capsized by a few giant waves... but then again, who would have expected this ship to be loaded with a large amount of treasure?
"He really knows how to cause trouble."
Kenji raised his hand and clenched his fist, high-intensity Armament Haki wrapped around it, with traces of Haki swirling around his fist.
Before the slash approached, he unleashed a reinforced punch with Armament Haki, boosted by the basic strength of a sea beast.
"Titan Impact!"