Sea Calendar, 1517.
The Grand Line, in a certain sea.
Two Marine warships were anchored here, the Marine flag with its seagull and scales fluttering in the sea breeze.
One warship was marked with the standard 'MARINE' insignia.
It symbolized an ordinary Marine warship.
The other warship also bore the marking 'DT-31'.
This symbolized a special logistics team within the Marines, the 'Custody Unit,' responsible for transporting defeated and captured criminals.
"Bounty: 47,000,000 Belly. 'Gladiator' Antolia's transfer is complete—the warship responsible for his capture is T-14551, under the command of Headquarters Commander Gushir."
At this moment, Roy Amos was watching the burly man being escorted onto his ship while speaking into the Recording Transponder Snail in his hand.
After finishing the recording, he looked at the Marine officer on the opposite warship. "Thank you for your hard work, Commander Gushir."
"All for the sake of justice."
The Marine named Commander Gushir chuckled, then added a reminder, "But I have to warn you, Captain Roy—this guy is a pretty tough character. You'd better make sure those Seastone cuffs stay on for the entire trip."
"I don't mind capturing him again, but I'd rather not hear news of your warship being sunk by a criminal at sea... Hahahaha!"
He burst into loud laughter as he finished.
Hearing this, the faces of the Custody Unit marines behind Roy darkened.
But Roy didn't seem to mind the teasing tone in the other man's words, simply smiling and nodding. "Thanks for the warning."
With that, he turned and leaped back onto his own warship. "Returning, back to Marineford."
"Yes! Captain Roy!"
His subordinate marines saluted in unison, then began to busy themselves with setting sail for their return journey.
However...
"Seriously, what's that guy so proud of? Fal, tell me, aren't we all Marines? He gets all smug just because he got lucky and caught a 40-million-bounty guy. Admiral Kuzan caught a 300-million-bounty great pirate last time and he wasn't this cocky!"
A Marine officer from the Custody Unit grumbled to his companion as they escorted the criminal into the specially made temporary prison in the ship's hold.
"Keep it down, Hans... It can't be helped. We're the Custody Unit, after all."
The Marine named Fal shook his head helplessly upon hearing this.
It was clearly not the first time they had been treated this way.
The reason was simple—their affiliation with the Custody Unit was rather special within the Marines.
They were primarily responsible for escorting captured criminals from various seas. Under normal circumstances, they did not participate in frontline combat, yet they could receive a portion of the corresponding military merits after successfully escorting the criminals back.
Therefore, in the eyes of many Marines, the Custody Unit was seen as a bunch of 'slackers' who were afraid of dying and avoided battle, yet still insisted on showing up to share the credit.
"What's wrong with the Custody Unit?"
The Marine named Hans became even more disgruntled. "It's not like we don't encounter danger while escorting criminals, and we don't even get that much credit each time."
He mimicked Commander Gushir's tone of voice, "'I don't mind capturing him again, but you'd better be careful...' What kind of crap is that!"
But before he could finish, a low shout was heard. "Sergeant Hans!"
"Yes, Captain Roy!"
Hans immediately straightened up, instinctively saluting the person behind him.
Behind him, the black-haired, blue-eyed captain had appeared at some point.
"What did I tell you before?"
Roy looked at his subordinate with a faint smile.
"Complain less, do more..." Hans said, feeling a little guilty.
"Too quiet, I can't hear you at all!"
"Complain less, do more! Sir!"
"Good! That's the spirit!"
Roy waved his hand. "Now get to the helm—same as always, I'll personally handle the first night's watch over the prisoner!"
"Yes, sir!"
Hans, as if granted amnesty, quickly shot a look at Fal beside him.
The two of them ran out of the temporary prison, but before leaving, they didn't forget to ask, "Sir, should we bring you something to eat when dinner is ready?"
"Pizza and cola, thanks."
Roy waved his hand, emphasizing, "The cola has to be iced!"
"Yes, sir!"
The marines left the ship's hold.
Only the massive 'Gladiator' Antolia, wearing Seastone cuffs, was left, leaning against the prison bars and looking at Roy.
"Sounds like you and your subordinates aren't very popular within the Marines?" he chuckled.
"You could say that."
Roy sat down on a sofa in the hold, casually taking an hourglass from his pocket and placing it on the table.
The sand in the hourglass began to flow as he casually turned his head to look at Antolia.
"But I heard Fleet Admiral Sengoku is already considering raising the status of the Custody Unit... Hmm, what? Is there something you want to say?"
He didn't seem to mind having a chat with the criminal.
"No, it has nothing to do with that!" Antolia said in a low voice. "It's just because you're too weak. If you were strong enough, no one would dare to look down on you."
"Status, money, power, all require sufficient strength to obtain... Look at me!"
He struggled to sit up straight. "If it weren't for these cuffs..."
As he spoke, he looked at a huge iron plate not far away—on top of the plate was a protrusion that looked like a 'handle.'
It was his weapon, which had been handed over along with him.
"With my 'Iron Jun,' I could easily kill you with a single full-power strike and then shatter this prison," Antolia sneered.
But he found that Roy seemed completely unfazed by his 'provocation.'
"Ah, yes, yes, you're right."
Instead, Roy nodded with a serious expression.
And then...
"But..." his tone shifted. "Your full-power strike can only shatter this small prison? You're a muscle man who ate the Strength-Strength Fruit, are you really that weak?"
"...Huh?"
Antolia was almost stunned into silence.
It took him a moment to realize what Roy had said, and then fury visibly ignited in his eyes.
This Marine, this guy named Roy—how dare he humiliate him like this?
"What did you sa—"
But before Antolia's curse could leave his mouth, the words caught in his throat, and his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
Because he saw that Roy had casually picked up the massive iron block, the 'Iron Jun,' that was placed nearby.
That heavy, massive iron block, whose weight alone was enough to crush a small building, was now being held by Roy as if it were a balloon.
"Hmm... judging from the weight of the weapon you use, you can at most enhance your muscle strength by about twenty times? Your development of your fruit's ability is pretty poor, isn't it?"
He delivered his sharp critique.
"You... you... you..."
At this moment, Antolia could barely speak.
The scene before him almost made him feel like he was dreaming.
"No, wait..."
A moment later, he snapped out of it as if waking from a dream.
"How do you know I ate the Strength-Strength Fruit?"
"Ah, about that..."
Roy casually put the giant iron block down and sat back in his seat.
"I know a tiny little bit about Devil Fruits."
He said casually, his gaze shifting to the hourglass on the table.
The sand in the hourglass was already one-third of the way through, which made Roy nod in satisfaction.
"Hmm, perfect timing."
"Timing? What timing?"
Hearing this, Antolia grew even more confused.
But in the next moment, he saw Roy extend a hand toward him.
"It's nothing—get some rest."
As his words fell.
Antolia felt a massive impact suddenly strike him.
Then, his vision went black.
"Thud!"
His huge body collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
Roy didn't spare him another glance.
He just looked up at the air in front of him.
And in his vision, a translucent screen of light was hovering there.
[Devil Fruit user 'Antolia' has been discovered]
[Devil Fruit confirmed as 'Paramecia-type: Strength-Strength Fruit', now analyzing and storing in 'Fruit Encyclopedia']
[Fruit Ability - Can strengthen and control one's own muscle strength]
[Effects at each level]
[LV1: Gain weak fruit effect, strengthening muscle power by 2~5 times]
[LV2: Gain partial fruit effect, greatly strengthening muscle power by 5~10 times. Requires 60,000,000 / 20,000,000 Belly to unlock permanently/temporarily]
[LV3: Gain full fruit effect, massively strengthening muscle power by 20~40 times. Requires 300,000,000 / 100,000,000 Belly to unlock permanently/temporarily]
[LV4: Deep fruit development, can freely control muscles to form shields and blades, freely control specific muscles for hardening and high-speed regeneration. Maximum muscle enhancement can reach 100 times. Requires 1,000,000,000 / 300,000,000 Belly to unlock permanently/temporarily]
[LV5: Fruit Awakening - Muscle Mastery, can absorb the life force of living beings within range to strengthen one's own muscles, can control the muscle tissue of all living beings in the surrounding area. Requires 6,000,000,000 / 2,000,000,000 Belly to unlock permanently/temporarily]
[Analysis Progress: 33%. Upon completion, the LV1 level of this fruit's ability will be obtained]
Looking at this screen of light, Roy's expression was calm.
'Gladiator' Antolia, in his eyes, was just an ordinary, mediocre fruit user.
But there was one thing he said that Roy truly agreed with.
And that was...
"Strength is everything. On this chaotic sea, without strength, you're never truly safe anywhere."
He looked at the unconscious Antolia.
"The difference between you and me is our perspective."
"I know how vast this sea is, so I choose to stay in the Custody Unit."
"You, on the other hand, are ignorant of this, which is why you said those foolish things—go and further your education in Impel Down. The people there are very interesting, and they're great talkers. You'll definitely like it there."