Chapter 65:

Usopp

One Piece: The Black Ledger

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After grounding Corvin, Sol stopped going to the red-light district for his morning workout.

Instead, he stayed in the weapons shop all day, constantly supervising Corvin's training.

The reason was naturally the embryonic swordwork Corvin had shown that morning.

Sol would not doubt Sunny's judgment.

That meant Corvin had taken Dark Crow and, in a single day, stepped over the threshold into swordsmanship and blooded the blade.

In that moment, Sol saw something precious in Corvin: talent.

Talent for guns, and talent for blades.

It startled Sol. On the surface, he remained calm and casual. Inwardly, he was anything but.

Out of selfishness, he did not want Corvin walking down a road of no return. He wanted Corvin to follow the path of a gunman.

So he threw Dark Crow onto a shelf and turned it into merchandise.

Fortunately, Sunny still had some conscience. In private, she set Dark Crow's price at two million Berries.

That absurdly inflated price was enough to drive away any potential buyer without a sharp eye, so there was no need to worry about someone else buying Dark Crow.

From that day on, Corvin could only stay obediently inside the weapons shop.

Under Sol's supervision, Corvin spent almost every daytime hour on high-intensity physical training.

His leg training in particular reached an almost insane level.

Whether by coincidence or by design, Corvin discovered that this sudden surge in training volume was exactly the maximum his body could endure after physique reached one star.

After several days of grueling training in rotating forms, Corvin realized Sol must have noticed something. That was why Sol arranged training that suited his current limits so precisely.

Otherwise, the beginner-level exercises from before the grounding would have done nothing for him now that his physique had reached one star.

At first, once Corvin was sure of that, he hurriedly prepared many possible explanations.

But Sol never asked.

Every day, he only supervised Corvin's physical training.

Even during the evening lessons on firearm modification and the drills for increasing reload speed, Sol never once asked about the changes in Corvin's physique.

After it continued like that for a while, Sol's silence made Corvin deeply uncomfortable.

Honestly, Corvin would rather Sol put the question openly on the table. Then Corvin could at least try to talk his way around it.

Even if he could not convince Sol, that would still be better than this complete refusal to ask.

The weeks crawled by.

Two months went by in a blink.

During that time, Sol did not go to the red-light district even once. He spent almost all his time on Corvin, perfectly fulfilling his duties as a teacher.

With that all-around training, Corvin could not go out and hunt for returns, but his physical strength still grew to a certain degree.

Compared with the direct gains from Hunter's Ledger, this kind of high-intensity, monotonous training was much slower.

In truth, Corvin wanted both.

Train and hunt at the same time.

Unfortunately, he did not dare sneak out.

Over those two months, if he had not been able to borrow Sunny's newspaper every day, he would have been truly cut off from the world.

Under Sol's careful guidance, however, Corvin learned a great deal about firearm modification, maintenance, and repair. He could already perform simple modifications on flintlock pistols.

At the same time, his reload speed made enormous progress.

According to Sol, the Marines required soldiers to compress their reload time below ten seconds.

That ten-second mark was only the most basic passing line.

By comparison, Sol required Corvin to reload a smoothbore within three seconds and a rifled gun within five.

When Corvin finally met that requirement, Sol did not force him to keep refining his reload speed under the same strict standard.

The damn old man used one simple action to show Corvin what it meant to stay true to one's roots.

He performed an instant reload in front of Corvin.

Corvin did not even see how Sol measured the powder and packed it into the barrel. He only saw Sol use one finger to press the softer lead ball perfectly into the rifled barrel.

It really happened in the blink of an eye.

The reload was complete.

That level of skill was not far from Yasopp's.

Perhaps that was already the fastest a reload could be.

At the time, Corvin thought that even if he could not reach instant-reload territory, as long as he could reload within half a second to one second, he could make enemies sick with frustration.

Only after forming that fighting style in his mind did Corvin truly understand why a gunman had to train his legs.

Running away when things looked bad was one thing. That could not really be called fighting.

But firing while moving, again and again, could make close-range enemies despair.

One day, Corvin modified two rifled pistols and increased their power slightly.

Then he wanted to try improving Usopp, only to realize he had nowhere to start.

Knowing his modification skills were not good enough, he brought Usopp to Sol and asked Sol to improve its overall performance.

When Corvin made the request, Sol only glanced at Usopp before reaching a conclusion.

"The model is too old. After passing through Yasopp's hands, there's no room left to modify it."

"Is that so?"

Corvin was somewhat disappointed.

After gaining a deeper understanding of firearms, he had started to feel dissatisfied with Usopp's power and range.

Since it could not be modified further, replacing it was the only logical next step.

Corvin knew that Sol had always been generous when it came to firearms.

If he asked, he could probably choose any gun from the shelves.

Sol's eye was too sharp. Even though Corvin had not shown obvious signs that he wanted to switch guns, Sol saw through him at a glance.

"Don't think about replacing it. Even if this gun is old and worn, it's still better for you than anything on those shelves."

"That can't be right, can it?"

Corvin was no longer a beginner when it came to firearms.

With his current understanding, the few rifled long guns on the shelves completely surpassed Usopp in power and range alone.

"You don't know a damn thing."

Sol cursed, then picked up Usopp. "For you, replacing your gun will happen sooner or later. But not now."

"Why?"

Corvin did not understand.

He had used Usopp several times and knew its power and range were real weaknesses.

"Brat, you don't know how lucky you are."

"Do you know how many gunmen who have just stepped onto the path dream of a seasoned gun like this, one tempered by a top-tier marksman over and over? And that's without mentioning that this gun was Yasopp's partner from the day he set out."

"Why do you think Kid is so obsessed with Kinu's gun?"

"Because Kinu's gun and Yasopp's gun are both rare veteran weapons. Over the years, through the hands of their previous gunmen, they've developed a special feel that can't be bought."

At this point, Sol deliberately glanced at Corvin before continuing.

"When you use this gun, doesn't it feel unusually natural? Like it points exactly where you want it to?"

"Now that you mention it..."

A jolt ran through Corvin. The pieces clicked into place.

No wonder the first time he used Usopp, the gun had felt so comfortable in his hands.

No wonder he had never touched a smoothbore before, yet it had not affected his marksmanship at all.

Only now did Corvin understand the value of Usopp.

That line of thought made Corvin remember something, and he perked up as he looked at Sol.

"Master."

Sol's face twitched.

This was the first time Corvin had ever called him master. It was probably nothing good.

Sure enough, Corvin said seriously, "Could I take a look at your veteran gun?"