“Gu——”

Accompanied by a muffled groan, a strong man was sent flying and crashed to the ground.

At this moment, his weapon was broken, and his armor was covered in cracks. The only fortunate thing was… he still had a breath left.

“Hmph…” Looking at Honda Tadakatsu, who had lost consciousness after falling, Rugal Bernstein sneered, “If you had given up earlier, you wouldn’t have lost so badly…”

As he muttered these words, he turned around and prepared to leave the arena. It seemed he had no intention of going forward to finish off his opponent.

“The martial arts performance is over.” Five seconds after Honda lost consciousness, the arena statue announced the result of the match, “Winner, Rugal Bernstein. Loser, Honda Tadakatsu.”

This result was unexpected by many…

In the Warriors Orochi universe, Honda Tadakatsu’s martial power was set very high, faintly comparable to that of Lü Bu (historically, Honda should not have been compared to Lü Bu in terms of martial power; according to historical records, Honda Tadakatsu was just over 1.4 meters tall in reality… so let alone Lü Bu, even Hua Xiong could easily beat him). Who would have thought that he would lose after only one match…

But this result was also within reason…

Because in the King of Fighters universe, Rugal Bernstein’s setting was also very high. His design concept was the “strongest and most ferocious KOF Boss”… Of course, when people talk about the Boss of King of Fighters now, the first guy that comes to mind is definitely Orochi from KOF '97. His “Sunshine Purification” move, which can be described as shameless, left an indelible shadow on countless players' childhoods. But if you had to choose one Boss to represent the entire KOF series… it would still have to be Rugal.

Perfect moves, abnormal attack power, fast recovery… Perhaps he wasn’t a “god” like Orochi, but he was a fighting demon incarnated by a human. Perhaps he didn’t have the overwhelming power of a god, but his power could still make people despair and tremble…

“Father!” After the result was announced, a female general with a longbow on her back and clad in armor leaped onto the arena and rushed to Honda Tadakatsu’s side.

“Ugh…” After a moment, Honda Tadakatsu slowly woke up at his daughter’s call. He looked at his daughter, then at the weapon beside him that had been broken in two, and sighed, “Alas… my martial skills… are still insufficient after all…”

“No, Father, you are the strongest!” Inahime said with a sob.

“Alas… the loser has no right to say such things…” Honda sighed again, “Help me down… this arena should be left to those who can still fight.”

Before long, Honda, like the other losers, walked off the arena in dismay.

The audience was silent, no one commented…

This was a tournament without applause or boos. In this martial arts tournament, no one would despise the losers, but no one would sympathize with them either.

Everyone present was a peerless warrior. They didn’t need to prove how strong they were; they came here just to find out… who was the strongest among the strong.

“Next match.” After both the winner and loser had left the arena, the voice of the arena statue sounded again, “By… Souther, versus… Kanegiki Guha.”

“Who?” When they heard these two names, Xiao Tan, Huajian, and Qisha all showed puzzled expressions.

“I know Souther… the Nanto Phoenix Fist guy.” Qisha said, “But who is this Kanegiki Guha?”

“Could it be… a character from King of Fighters or Street Fighter?” Xiao Tan muttered, “There are so many people in these two series… I can’t remember all their names.”

“Anyway, I don’t recognize either of them…” Huajian shrugged.

“Heh…” At this time, Feng Bujue sneered, “You’re all too ignorant.”

As soon as he said this, the three of them narrowed their eyes and cast a meaningful glance at Brother Jue: “So… you know who he is?”

“Of course, I know.” Feng Bujue replied in a deep voice, “I also know that Kanegiki is going to win.”

“What?” Qisha was shocked when he heard this, “No way…” He turned his head to look at the arena, “Souther is the strongest of the Nanto Seiken…”

“So what…” Feng Bujue said, “Kanegiki is the strongest on Earth…”

“Huh?” The three of them were stunned again when they heard this.

“There’s nothing strange about it, that’s how it’s set in his universe.” Feng Bujue added, “If you compare it horizontally with other universes… Kanegiki’s combat power at the age of five is about the same as Goku’s when he first joined Master Roshi, except he doesn’t know how to use ki blasts…”

While they were talking, an arrogant figure had already leaped onto the arena.

This person had golden spiky hair, wore dark blue clothes and pants, a long white-on-red cape, thick, jagged metal pauldrons, and metal greaves that went above the knees.

His height wasn’t particularly tall (compared to the other strong men in the martial arts tournament), but his sculpted muscles were still clearly visible beneath his clothes.

He was Souther, one of the Nanto Six Sacred Fists, the successor of the Nanto Phoenix Fist, the “Holy Emperor” with a mysterious immortal body.

“Hmph… who’s here to die this time?” As soon as Souther came on stage, he said arrogantly.

His confidence wasn’t without reason. He had already been on stage twice in the previous performances, and each time he had instantly killed his opponent, who didn’t even have a chance to surrender.

“Eh? As long as I go up and beat him, right?” The next second, a man wearing tattered karate clothes pointed at the arena and turned to say to the two people behind him.

“That’s right, go ahead, Kanegiki.” One of the two people was the mysterious man who had previously repelled Jiao… the one who called himself, “I am Yun, lightning is my relative.” His name was Loki, Kanegiki’s friend. Overall… he was a very narcissistic idiot who liked to enter with his own BGM and dance embarrassingly; but his strength was actually very strong. His special move was the “Super Diamond Invincible Fist,” which was said to be able to throw fifty punches in one second.

“Good luck, Kanegiki, we’ll be supporting you from the stands.” The other person was wearing a dark blue Japanese middle school uniform and had a face like a “oni”… a square face, square eyes, an inverted trapezoid-shaped mouth, and two pointy fangs, but… his appearance didn’t give people a terrifying feeling; on the contrary… it was quite comical. His name was Shito (originally translated as Kazetou Gai), the young master of the violent group “Kazetou-gumi.” He was very violent and often skipped school, so no one knew his real age. He was also Kanegiki’s friend.

“Oh! Okay, I’ll do my best!” Kanegiki replied with a harmless, innocent smile and then jumped onto the arena.

Kanegiki Guha (originally translated as Kanesada Kenichi, and, like the two above, came from the gag manga *Burn Up, Big Brother*, or *Jungle Boy*), was a child who grew up in the mountains and was (eternally) thirteen years old. He had waist-length black hair and a pair of Ultraman-like oval eyes. He wore a white karate uniform with torn sleeves and trouser legs and a black belt around his waist. He was kind by nature, and his intelligence and emotional intelligence were close to that of a child. Usually, he would turn into a small, chibi version of himself, and even his younger sister could easily lift him up and put him in a bicycle basket; but in a serious state, Kanegiki would transform into a muscular man standing 1.9 meters tall, becoming… the strongest man on Earth.

“Huh? Are you serious?” When Souther saw Kanegiki jump onto the arena, he immediately showed an undisguised expression of disdain.

“Hello! I’m Kanegiki.” Kanegiki raised one hand and greeted his opponent with a smile.

“Hmph…” Souther closed his eyes and sneered, “Boy… you should surrender quickly, I’m too lazy to kill you…” In his opinion, the unremarkable Kanegiki in front of him was basically a “villager”-level trash, and killing him wouldn’t give him any sense of accomplishment.

“Eh?” Kanegiki scratched his head and thought for a few seconds before saying, “What’s a ‘head image’?”

“It’s ‘surrender’… not ‘head image’.” Souther corrected.

“Sur… river…” Kanegiki replied with a puzzled look.

“It’s surrender…” Souther’s forehead veins bulged, but he still stood there with his eyes closed, pretending to be calm.

“Both… want?” Kanegiki wasn’t pretending to be stupid, he was really stupid.

“You bastard!” Souther opened his eyes, “Are you making fun of me?”

Before the words were finished, the Holy Emperor exploded forward and punched Kanegiki in the face.

Bang—

The next second, a punch that could split gold and shatter stone solidly hit Kanegiki’s face, sending him flying backward.

Souther didn’t use any moves; he just punched with all his might because he didn’t think it was necessary to use any “special moves” on the kid in front of him.

“Hmph… boring.” After retracting his fist, Souther flicked his cape and turned around to leave the stage.

He believed that Kanegiki, who had taken this punch, would not be able to stand up again, even if he didn’t die.

But…

“Ah——” A scream quickly rang out, “That hurts~ ouch~”

“Hmm?” Souther turned his head when he heard the sound, only to see… Kanegiki had already stood up from the ground and was running around in circles while holding his nose.

“That hurts~ I’m bleeding!” Kanegiki stared at him with his big eyes, running around and screaming like a headless fly, still looking as lively as ever.

“This kid…” Souther’s expression changed slightly, and he thought to himself, “Is he pretending to be weak?”

He was also a man of some strategy and wouldn’t use the excuse of “it was an accident” to excuse himself. In any case, the fact that this kid was “unharmed” after taking his punch… was a fact. This showed that Kanegiki was by no means an ordinary person.

“Idiot! The opponent is a merciless martial artist, you’ll die if you keep doing that!” Shito, whose IQ was close to that of a normal person, was also quite anxious watching from the stands and quickly shouted.

Loki also said, “Kanegiki, you have to do your best, don’t forget… only by defeating Orochi in the end can our world be restored, and everyone can return to their original lives… For that, you can’t lose.”

“The original life…” When Kanegiki heard this, he stared blankly at the sky. Many beautiful memories of his past with his family and friends flashed before his eyes, igniting his fighting spirit.

“Ah… it’s hot, it’s hot!”

As I said “igniting,” his hair really caught fire, so he rolled on the ground a few times to put out the fire.

“Hey, hey… what’s going on on stage…” Xiao Tan, who was watching the fight, was quite puzzled, “Why did his hair catch fire for no reason?”

“Because he’s a character from a gag manga, phenomena such as ‘falling to the ground after hearing a retort,’ ‘acting under the influence of the narration,’ and ‘physical changes that transcend the principles of physics to create a comedic effect’ will occur on him.” Feng Bujue explained, “Of course… the strongest attribute of this kind of character is probably… ‘immortality’.”

While they were talking, Souther on the stage… had taken off his cape.

“Boy.” Souther stared at Kanegiki, “It’s useless to play tricks in front of this emperor…” His expression gradually became fierce, and his whole body tensed up, “Since you like to be clever, I’ll let you experience what despair is…”

“Oh! For everyone, I won’t lose!” At this time, Kanegiki had also become serious. He adopted a basic karate stance, faced his opponent, and prepared to fight.

At this point, the battle could be considered to have truly begun…