14: Power Up? Escaping from the marine ship

December 9, 1495, Age of the Sea Circle.

Orion observed the closed door of the room, and the two guards standing on either side of it.

He had decided to wait until nightfall to facilitate his escape under the cover of shadows.

The plan was to seize the power source, then race to rescue Galette and escape before the marines could react. If he managed to escape from the marines' sphere of vision on the ship, it would be easy for him to escape to one of the nearby islands and hide there until Galette's family came looking for her.

Now, after observing the situation for a few hours, the time had come to act.

He emerged from the corner where he had been and ran at full speed down the hallway. In an instant, he arrived in front of the two marine guards, who were unable to react in time and collapsed to the ground after receiving a heavy blow to the head from Orion.

"Luckily, the level of these soldiers isn't too high," Orion thought, sighing in relief.

He had to admit that when he'd seen the power of the vice admiral who could transform into mud, he'd feared he wouldn't be able to seize the power source or complete the mission to save Galette.

But luckily for him, it seemed that only Vice Admiral Grodiger was truly dangerous on this ship. At least if he stayed hidden and didn't attract the attention of a group of soldiers, he probably wouldn't have any trouble handling the situation.

Orion took the room key from one of the guards' clothes and opened the door.

Then, without wasting a moment, he dragged the bodies of the unconscious marines into the room.

He closed the door and began inspecting his surroundings. As soon as he saw the large number of books in the room, as well as all kinds of maps and scrolls, Orion began to salivate with greed.

This was what he had been longing for for a long time!

In his previous life, he was a scholar, and one of his favorite activities was reading. It was hard to explain the suffering it represented for him, growing up in a village where not a single book was available!

His thirst for knowledge was particularly strong right now, as he didn't feel safe without more information about this peculiar world he found himself in.

Orion didn't let himself be consumed by greed. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to acquire these books now. He had to seize the source of power and then rescue Galette and flee quickly. There was definitely no way he could take these books with him.

Seeing the treasure before him, which he was destined to never obtain, Orion could only sigh bitterly.

He shook his head and pushed aside the useless thoughts that plagued him, then opened the system screen and saw the location of the power source on the map.

The room wasn't very large, and he quickly found the small chest he had seen in the vice admiral's hands a few hours earlier.

He nervously took the chest in his hands; finally, the moment had arrived. He had managed to get his hands on the power source!

He opened the chest, revealing a pinkish spherical fruit. As he placed his hand on it, the system finally reacted and issued a notification:

*A power source compatible with the Global improvement System has been found: Devil Fruit, Toshi Toshi no Mi . Do you wish to absorb it? Yes/No*

Orion selected "yes" without hesitation, and a powerful suction force appeared in the palm of his hand. In just a second, the Devil Fruit had completely disappeared.

He felt a great wave of heat spread throughout his body, and new notifications appeared on the system screen.

*The Devil Fruit Toshi Toshi no mi has been absorbed. It will be refined to remove its impurities. The process may take a moment…*

A classic loading screen suddenly appeared, and the fruit refinement process completion percentage was extremely fast. In less than a minute, the process was successfully completed.

*The source of power has been successfully absorbed. Two abilities from the Devil Fruit have been refined*

*The ability "Frozen Time (incomplete)" has been obtained*

*The ability "Age Change (incomplete)" has been obtained*

*The remaining power has been transformed into system points. 917 system points obtained*

*The system has been updated. Two new functions have been unlocked: Hint Screen. Accessory Shop*

Seeing the notifications that had suddenly appeared one after another, Orion felt a great joy. He had finally obtained a power-up! Now he could hold his head high in front of all the reincarnated beings in the universe!

First, he looked at the system's two new features.

*Hint Screen:

The task of improving the world and leading it toward the best possible outcome is undoubtedly one of the most arduous tasks possible. It's normal to feel disoriented along the way. The hint screen will occasionally present possible actions the Host can take to improve the world.*

*Accessory Shop:

Items and accessories that may be useful to the Host in their mission of global improvement will appear here. System Points are required to obtain items from this shop. The inventory will change randomly after an indeterminate amount of time.*

Orion looked at the descriptions of the new features and noticed that both screens were completely empty, and his mouth twitched slightly in annoyance.

If the system was going to offer a new feature, at least it could make it useful immediately!

As soon as he saw the appearance of a new feature named "shop," he thought the time had come to start cheating like a true hero, but he was finally slapped in the face by reality. The shop didn't have any items at the moment.

He sighed and looked at the description of his new abilities, which had been synthesized from the Devil Fruit.

*Frozen Time (incomplete): Slows a person's aging to the limit, simulating a complete stop. Can only be used on people anchored to the system (currently 0). System points required for activation: 10 points per day*

*Age Change (Incomplete): Changes the Host's age. Once the ability takes effect, it can be used for the next 24 hours. Cooldown: 30 days. System Points required for activation: 10 system points per minute

Orion: "…"

He read the description twice, to make sure he wasn't making a mistake or suffering from a hallucination. And upon confirming the content of the descriptions, Orion took a deep breath and contained his anger.

Finally, he couldn't help but curse

"Duck!"

The two abilities that had appeared, the power-up he'd been waiting for, were garbage! It wasn't that they weren't good abilities. The ability to change his age was simply a blessing for him, who had been trapped in a child's body for six years. The problem was... He needed System Points to activate these abilities!

Orion didn't know much about Devil Fruits. His grandfather had told him they were fruits that gave powers in exchange for taking away the ability to swim, and he didn't know much more than that.

But if there was one thing he was sure of, it was that no Devil Fruit user had to pay System Points to use their powers! Why did he have to spend his precious points, which were so hard to come by, just to activate his powers?

"If I had known this would happen, I would have eaten the fruit directly!" Orion thought indignantly.

Immediately after making that statement in his mind, a system notification suddenly appeared.

*Dangerous behavior has been detected on the part of the Host*

*Warning: The Host cannot consume Devil Fruits as their existence conflicts with the existence of the Global Enhancement System. The Host is strongly advised not to attempt to consume Devil Fruits, as doing so could cause an adverse reaction resulting in death*

*Some Devil Fruits can be refined by the System. When the opportunity arises, a notification will be issued warning the Host of this possibility*

Seeing the system warning, Orion finally calmed down.

It was true, his main power was the System. He wasn't even 6 years old yet, and he was already quite strong. He could definitely reach the top of the power ladder in this world with the help of the System. It didn't matter if he couldn't obtain a massive power-up right now to make everything easier.

He had to be satisfied with any improvement he could get. It wasn't advisable for him to get used to being constantly dissatisfied with his situation.

Orion stabilized his thoughts and revised his perspective.

Then he looked at Galette's location on the system map and planned his next moves.

..............................…

Inside the small room used as an interrogation room, little Galette was being beaten by a marine officer.

Bam!

A slap hit the little girl squarely, her head whipping forcefully to the side.

Galette gritted her teeth and glared at the marine officer in front of her with a stubborn stare. A little blood oozed from her lips, the result of the man's continued attacks.

"Why are you looking at me like that? You little shit! I see you still need me to loosen your muscles a bit!"

The marine saw the girl staring at him with a cold and indifferent gaze, as if she were merely looking at a pile of garbage, and he couldn't control his emotions.

Vice Admiral Grodiger hadn't ordered him to interrogate the girl, but he wanted to curry favor with his superior officer, and he had made the decision to do so on his own. After all, no one would mind if he tortured a criminal a little. As long as she wasn't irreparably harmed, he wouldn't have to accept any further questioning for his actions.

The marine continued beating the girl, while asking her questions about her mother's crew, but got no answers from her. Only silence, accompanied by an indifferent expression, was the girl's response.

Frustrated, his emotions began to cloud his judgment. Little by little, he stopped caring about the information he could obtain for his superior officer, and his motivation became getting a reaction from the girl. He wanted to see her humiliated, pleading, or mired in pain.

The marine saw that no matter how much he hit her, he couldn't get the reaction he wanted from her, so he decided to change the way he was dealing with her. If violence didn't work, perhaps there were other ways to subdue her.

He locked the front door with the internal lock, then began to unbuckle his belt. It had been a long time since he had let his darkest instincts out. Since he had joined the Navy ten years ago, he had only given free rein to his depraved inclinations on three occasions.

He didn't dare make big moves and be discovered. After all, even though the Navy was completely rotten inside, there were still some idiots who kept talking about justice and other such concepts.

He didn't want to end up being expelled from the force just for a moment of pleasure.

Now, however, he couldn't avoid it. Just thinking about humiliating Big Mom's daughter, a famous pirate, especially when her daughter was a little girl, made all his blood gather tightly, preparing for a great battle.

Galette noticed the marine's movements, and for the first time, her expression changed to one of anger and revulsion.

Growing up in one of the most famous pirate crews in the world, her knowledge of worldly affairs was far more developed than that of an ordinary child. She knew what the man was planning to do, and she felt a great anger at the thought.

The man approached smiling to the little girl who lay helpless on the ground, her hands bound by the Kairoseki handcuffs. The expression on his face was truly disgusting at that moment.

He reached out with his trembling hand, trying to touch the girl's skin, but before he could, he felt a breeze in front of him, and his arm fell to the ground, separated from the rest of his body.

The marine didn't react immediately. He saw a bleeding stump where his arm had been, and his mind couldn't grasp the situation; the pain hadn't yet registered in his brain.

Orion, who had entered the room unnoticed only to witness a grotesque act, had momentarily lost his composure and attacked with a thoughtless sweep of his sword.

Now that he saw the marine staring at his severed arm in confusion, he knew he had to act quickly if he wanted to avoid trouble. If the marine started screaming, he would alert the other marines on board, and his escape plan would be ruined.

Orion stepped forward and with a precise sweep of his sword, slashed across the marine's throat, who could only desperately clutch his neck, trying to stem the gushing blood.

Then, still feeling anger at the man who was worse than a beast, he slashed again with his sword, this time transforming the already dying marine into a eunuch.

It didn't make much of a difference, but at least he could vent his anger a little.

He approached the little girl who was staring at him in surprise from the floor and said with a friendly smile.

"Don't worry, I've come to save you."

The girl didn't respond. She was still stunned by the scene that had suddenly unfolded before her a moment ago.

Orion didn't waste any time; he had prepared his escape route before entering the room, and he had to leave quickly to avoid unexpected problems.

He focused his mind on one of his new abilities and said to himself, "Age Change!"

His body began to grow before Galette's surprised gaze, transforming into an adult. His muscular body and handsome face, which was that of a man in his thirties, formed a stark contrast to the immature and tender appearance of his childhood self.

Orion took the little girl in his arms, left the room, and began running at full speed toward the small boat he had prepared.

As he felt the power of his adult body, which was three times stronger than a normal person's thanks to his "Strong Body (Level 2)" skill, he couldn't help but smile from ear to ear, thinking how great it was to have an adult body again!

Now that he had a fully developed body, his swordsmanship could also show its full power. Obviously, he wouldn't stand a chance against a mid- or high-ranking officer, but if he had to face the common officers, who made up the majority of the marines on this ship, he probably wouldn't have any trouble fighting a large group of them.

He reached where he had prepared a small boat and lowered it into the sea to use for his escape. Then, he boarded the small boat with Galette and began rowing with all his might, trying to get as far away from the marine ship as possible.

The darkness of the night helped to keep their position hidden, and unless the marines noticed Galette's absence and decided to actively search for her, there would be no problem hiding in the shadows and moving away silently.

In his adult form, Orion could exert much greater strength, allowing him to row much faster. The only problem was that his system points were being consumed rapidly with every passing minute. He couldn't afford to spend all his points just rowing, as he needed them to maintain his adult form in case something happened and he had to engage in combat.

After just five minutes of rowing at full speed in the opposite direction the marine ship was traveling, Orion finally escaped from the vicinity of the large vessel. In the darkness of the night, he could no longer see the large ship, but even if the midday sun were overhead, the marine ship would only be visible as a small dot on the horizon.

Still, Orion didn't let his guard down. The mission wouldn't be complete until Galette was completely out of danger. If he relaxed and the Marines circled back to search the area, they would likely be able to find him.

What he needed now was to escape to some distant location. Once he reached a remote island, he could hide there without any problems and contact Galette's family to come and get her.

Orion checked his available system points and saw that they were 1078. With this number of points, he could maintain his adult transformation for 107 minutes, within the next 24 hours.

Galette, who was leaning against the side of the small boat:, watched Orion intensely. She hadn't expected that just when she least expected it, a strange man would appear to help her escape from the Marines, and she still didn't know how to feel about it. She was suspicious by nature, and she couldn't completely trust the unknown man rowing vehemently.

Orion, thinking it best to ration the use of his system points, canceled the effect of his ability, returning to his usual childlike body.

He continued rowing tirelessly, looking at the map on the system screen.

He hadn't explored this area, so everything around him was obscured by fog. He would have to rely on his luck to find an island where he could hide from the navy.

The small boat continued moving forward in the darkness, while its two occupants maintained absolute silence. Galette remained alert to the presence of the strange person in front of her, and Orion simply wanted to complete the mission and return home without any further trouble. The girl in front of him was obviously not simple, and her favorability was still horrible, so he didn't want to interact with her any more than necessary. He planned to finish the mission without speaking to her, if possible.

Once the mission was over, they would each go their separate ways and never see each other again. That would undoubtedly be the best outcome.