Blake's cheat had appeared in this world together with him.
But Blake was not Kozuki Oden. He had not been able to stand up the moment he was born.
During those first few years, even if he drew nothing more than random nobodies, he still was not strong enough to beat them. All he could do was grow up while quietly tempering his body.
Fortunately, Celestial Dragons usually had fairly good physical foundations.
An adult Celestial Dragon generally stood around three meters tall, roughly the height of an Admiral. Most of them simply looked bloated because they neglected training, and very few ever had the patience to cultivate themselves.
Thanks to Blake's excellent physical talent, he was already able to beat some of the weaker random opponents before the age of ten.
These people had no Devil Fruit powers, no special constitutions, and no mastery of any of the three forms of Haki. The ability cards they dropped could only strengthen Blake's physical body.
At that rate, if Blake wanted to use raw physical strength alone to contend with someone who possessed Armament Haki, he might have had to stack his physique all the way up to Charlotte Linlin's level.
The turning point had come when he was twelve.
That year, Blake awakened Observation Haki on his own.
With Observation Haki, dealing with opponents who lacked Haki altogether became far easier, and his physical strength improved rapidly.
Thanks to that near-precognitive edge, even when facing enemies stronger than himself, he could still maneuver and hold out for a while.
Then, at thirteen, with his physical condition improved and after intentionally training for it, Blake finally awakened Armament Haki as well.
From that point on, even if a so-called random extra turned out to be some New World fighter with two forms of Haki, Blake could still put up a real fight.
Three more years passed. Most of the cards he drew were still far stronger than he could handle, but thanks to the steady contribution of those nameless extras, Blake had still managed to grow strong enough to contend with Tina.
Blake opened his eyes. The obedient maid stepped forward. The familiar scene played out once again.
After breakfast, Blake began another aimless day.
"My strength has already reached the level of a Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral. Training causes bigger and bigger disturbances now, so practicing in the Holy Land is becoming more and more inconvenient. From now on, I'll probably have to rely mainly on actual combat inside the system space."
Blake's identity was, in truth, a somewhat awkward one.
Among the nineteen Celestial Dragon families—including the families of the Five Elders—there was not really much open struggle for power.
Aside from a few particularly ambitious people who wanted to join the Holy Knights, the rest of the Celestial Dragons were worthless parasites just coasting through life. At most, they would get into petty squabbles over who owned a certain slave, then forget all about it the next day.
Unless they happened to belong to the same family, someone from the elite circle and someone from the useless circle might spend their entire lives as nothing more than acquaintances who nodded in passing.
Blake, of course, moved among the useless circle as an unremarkable nobody. Lying low was the only way to develop safely. He could wait until the day he was able to casually defeat Imu in the card space before stepping into the spotlight.
The problem now was that Blake did not have any true direct subordinates.
The maids and guards in his estate were acceptable for chores, but if he wanted to train them into fighters worth using, he would have to spend ability cards on them.
According to Blake's plan, he would not begin using physique- or Haki-enhancing cards on subordinates until his own strength had at least reached Admiral level.
For ordinary tasks, Blake could naturally leave the work to Cipher Pol.
But for something like going to Birka to find the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, Blake truly had no trustworthy subordinate he could send right now.
If he let CP handle it, they would indeed bring the Rumble-Rumble Fruit back.
But they would also definitely report every detail of the mission to the Five Elders.
That would expose Blake directly to their notice. The Five Elders might not care all that much, and they probably would not try to seize his Devil Fruit for themselves.
Still, once he had drawn their attention, everything he wanted to do afterward would only become more troublesome.
With a sigh, Blake shifted his thoughts toward the wider sea.
Over the next few years, Crocodile and Moria would challenge Whitebeard and Kaido respectively. After their defeats, one would crawl back to Paradise and waste away, while the other would start digging up corpses everywhere.
A lot of transmigrators before him had won the loyalty of those two by promising revenge and things of that sort.
But Blake did not consider himself some master of talk-no-jutsu. He could not just wave a hand and have powerful figures from across the sea flock to his side. Besides, neither of those two had the kind of personality that would willingly submit to someone else.
Bartholomew Kuma, Jinbe, and Hanafuda could all make good subordinates, but the first two stood in fundamental opposition to Blake's position, while the last had deep ties to Kaido—close enough to entrust a child to him.
As for the Marines, there was even less to say.
Though the Navy under Kong was not yet as independent as it would become after Sengoku took over as Fleet Admiral, the signs were already beginning to show once Zephyr started serving as an instructor.
Unless Blake fully revealed his talent and earned the support of the Five Elders, trying to get the Marines to hand over people to him was pure fantasy.
"Forget it. Better to focus on leveling up first. Once I get Charlotte Linlin's Iron Balloon, I won't have to worry so much about safety at sea."
Blake let out another sigh and returned to his room.
"System, activate!"
After gaining Tina's Armament Haki, Blake's strength had risen by leaps and bounds. He decided to challenge Charlotte Linlin's card once again.
If he could obtain Charlotte Linlin's Iron Balloon, then even if his strength still fell short of an elite Vice Admiral's, he would at least be able to hold out until reinforcements arrived.
At that point, he could finally leave Mary Geoise and head out to sea in search of suitable subordinates.
Blake reappeared inside the card space. This time, the setting was a town.
He did not even need to search deliberately. A mountain of flesh nearly four meters tall soon appeared right in front of him.
Strangely enough, Charlotte Linlin looked almost the same as a child and as an old woman, yet she had been stunningly beautiful in her youth.
Oda had once said that the most beautiful woman on Hachinosu was Shakky, but Blake thought the real winner was Bakkin, with Charlotte Linlin in second place and Shakky only third.
Before he could say anything else, a fist the size of an iron wok smashed straight toward his head.
Blake hurriedly dodged.
"No sense of martial honor!"
The fist crashed into the ground and blasted a deep crater into the street.
Then came another punch, and Blake could only keep evading. He had no room to counterattack at all.
Charlotte Linlin's strength and defense were both inhuman. Even with Blake's improved Armament Haki, the last thing he should do was meet her head-on.
Blake had never really understood the way people in this world fought. A style built on fist-against-fist clashes did look passionate, sure—but why not just dodge?
It was horribly inefficient.
During all his years of fighting inside the card space, Blake had developed a combat style uniquely his own.
There was nothing especially mystical about it. He used footwork and his forearms to avoid or deflect incoming attacks, then aimed for the opponent's head and liver to inflict effective damage.
It sounded simple.
Yet in some ways, it already put him ahead of almost everyone on the sea.
Why did so many people in this world seem absurdly tanky?
Because the dominant style of combat on the seas was all brute force. You used your ultimate move, I used mine, and then we slammed head-on into each other.
Dodging? Impossible.
Anyone who dodged was a low-class pirate.
By the time an attack actually landed, much of the damage had already been burned away against the opponent's own force, and the target usually was not even a vital point.
In a world where everyone was built like a health bar with legs, injuries like that naturally did not kill people.
Charlotte Linlin smashed another fist into the ground, and a sharp gleam flashed through Blake's eyes.
His feet struck the ground in rapid succession. In an instant, he was on top of Charlotte Linlin's arm. Another burst of movement, and he was right in front of her.
He raised both fists together like a hammer, pushing his Armament Haki to the limit.
A ruthless—brutal—single blow!
Charlotte Linlin was sent flying backward, her entire body toppling over as smoke and dust exploded upward.
The moment Blake landed, he did not pose dramatically or stand there watching like the so-called experts of this world.
He rushed straight after her.
Following up was important.
When your enemy is down, you finish them.
Did she think she could pull that nonsense where there's smoke but no damage, then stand right back up?
"Drop me Iron Balloon already!"