Brandon White and Uchiha Madara wore identical expressions of wordless incredulity.
Treating the Group Shop like a supermarket—she really was the first person to do that.
"Oh—right."
"I still need to start the livestream."
Roxie Vale suddenly remembered. She had promised the group members she would go live, and since things had only just begun, it wasn't technically a breach of that promise.
She quickly opened the group livestream. Group members who had been waiting what felt like an eternity poured in one after another.
It didn't take long before the conversation started flowing.
Dried-Fish Sister Xiao Mai: "Finally. I was starting to think the group owner forgot all about it."
Richest Man: "So the one fighting Marquis Voban is the crossover traveler? The fact that he can hold his own against the Marquis—his strength is no joke."
Richest Man: "The Marquis's authority has been pressing down on the other side, but it doesn't seem to be doing much actual damage."
Come Be My Son: "The Quake-Quake Fruit has been developed quite well."
Come Be My Son: "Even compared to what this old man had before, it's no worse."
Holy Lord: "The Medium-Low difficulty rating was spot on. He's in an entirely different league from the Demon Container we faced before."
Boil the Ancient One into Soup: "The Demon Container was just on another level entirely."
Boil the Ancient One into Soup: "Medium difficulty was already that strong—I'm genuinely curious how terrifying High difficulty would be."
Child of Nature: "Probably around the level of the Mysterious Four Ultras."
Boil the Ancient One into Soup: "Mysterious Four Ultras? What's that?"
Boil the Ancient One into Soup: "Are they Ultramen like me?"
Since there was only one Ultraman in the chat group—himself—Roxie Vale had only shared plot details related to Tiga when discussing the series. The other Ultramen, he only knew by a handful of names at best.
Dyna. Gaia. Seven.
He knew the names, but not even what they looked like.
The Mysterious Four Ultras?
They sounded incredibly powerful.
Child of Nature: "The four most powerful and most mysterious Ultramen in the Ultraman series. Each one possesses the ability to avert a universe-threatening crisis single-handedly."
Child of Nature: "To make it easier to grasp, you can think of them as the Gods of the Magical Index World."
Electromancer: "Gods? So the Ancient One's world is that outrageous too?"
Electromancer: "But isn't Tiga supposed to be the strongest among all the Ultramen of the Ultra Ancient Civilization?"
Electromancer: "Does that mean he can't win against them?"
Perfectly Ordinary Group Owner: "If it's Tiga as transformed by the Ancient One, then no—he definitely can't."
Perfectly Ordinary Group Owner: "If it's Dark Tiga on his own... honestly, I don't think he could either."
Perfectly Ordinary Group Owner: "Otherwise they'd just be called the Mysterious Five Ultras, wouldn't they?"
Perfectly Ordinary Group Owner: "I'm guessing here, obviously. I've never actually seen them fight. Whether he could win or not, I genuinely don't know."
Roxie Vale did genuinely like Tiga—but she didn't think the two could be placed on the same footing. Just as she had said: if Tiga's strength truly matched that of the Mysterious Four Ultras, wouldn't they simply be called the Mysterious Five Ultras instead?
She hadn't witnessed them fight, though. So she couldn't say for certain.
Electromancer: "Fair point."
Boil the Ancient One into Soup: "But I have the chat group now. Shouldn't I be able to grow strong enough to match them someday?"
Boil the Ancient One into Soup: "I'm really looking forward to that."
Come Be My Son: "What a shame—I don't have the chance to participate in this task."
Come Be My Son: "If he fought me, it would be far more entertaining."
White Mustache watched the livestream footage of Marquis Voban and Chen Yu's battle, his eyes blazing with an unmistakable hunger for combat.
He wished he could throw himself into the fray and trade blows with Chen Yu himself.
"Guahahaha—boys, set course for Wano! This old man is going to give Kaido a good beating!"
Chen Yu was out of reach now—but Kaido was still fair game.
If not for the fact that he had recovered his peak condition, and even pushed beyond it, his previous broken and battered body might not have been enough to defeat the man.
Richest Man: "Speaking of which—why is it the Marquis fighting the opponent? @Uchiha Dance King, @Child of Nature, @Perfectly Ordinary Group Owner—what are you three doing?"
Perfectly Ordinary Group Owner: "Watching the show, obviously."
Perfectly Ordinary Group Owner: "What else am I supposed to do? Throw myself in and get killed?"
Perfectly Ordinary Group Owner: "Just @ those two. Asking me is a waste of a message."
Richest Man: "..."
Richest Man: "I genuinely can't argue with that!!!"
Sacred Guardian Left Wing: "Isn't this even stranger, though?"
Sacred Guardian Left Wing: "Brandon White doesn't care because of his limitless potential and the fact that he has one guaranteed-success enhancement in reserve—so whether or not he participates in this task means nothing to him. But both Uchiha Madara and Marquis Voban have too much riding on this to simply pass."
Sacred Guardian Left Wing: "Uchiha Madara hasn't intervened at all? Doesn't he worry that Voban might... Oh. I think I understand why now."
Sacred Guardian Left Wing: "The God-Slayer's special nature."
Angel Yan pressed a hand to her forehead. How had she forgotten about that?
Dried-Fish Sister Xiao Mai: "What do you mean?"
Xiao Mai's eyes were brimming with confusion. What had Yan-neechan figured out?
Wuxia King: "Because Uchiha Madara doesn't believe Voban can kill this crossover traveler on his own."
Most Ancient God-Slayer: "Nonsense. This old man will have him dead before the day is out."
Most Ancient God-Slayer: "Just wait."
Most Ancient God-Slayer: "Hmph."
Dried-Fish Sister Xiao Mai: "..."
Richest Man: "..."
Electromancer: "He can chat in the middle of a fight? That's actually possible?"
Dongfang Buchi: "Can he really pull it off?"
Dongfang Buchi: "The situation seems to have reached something of a stalemate."
By now, Marquis Voban had thrown everything he had into the fight. And yet the battle still looked like an even match, neither side gaining a decisive edge.
The souls he had summoned from the Realm of the Dead had all been ground to dust by Chen Yu's Dark Space.
And both men possessed extraordinary stamina and regenerative ability. A fight like this, even if it eventually produced a victor, would take an extraordinarily long time to resolve.
Uchiha Dance King: "That's enough, Voban."
Uchiha Dance King: "From here on—it's my turn."
Uchiha Dance King: "We don't have the luxury of waiting for you to settle this."
Most Ancient God-Slayer: "Hmph."
Marquis Voban's expression grew ever colder. He had not anticipated that this opponent would prove so difficult to deal with.
Even Sodom's Eye had been blocked.
The unique properties of the Quake-Quake Fruit had apparently allowed Chen Yu to shatter his authority outright—something Voban had never anticipated.
Had it been only the two of them, he would have pressed on no matter how long it took.
But this task was not his alone to carry.
No matter how bitter the pill, he pulled back—and yielded the battlefield to Uchiha Madara. At the same time, the desire burning inside him to strengthen his God-Slayer position rank flared fiercer than ever before.
It was precisely because of his identity as a God-Slayer that he could not continue to elevate his own power.
Idealist will could indeed allow him to unleash force beyond imagination—but that kind of power, uncontrolled and unrepeatable, was not what he wanted.
What he needed was to perfectly convert the power that could only be drawn out through Idealist will into power that was truly his own. Power he could wield at will, on command, whenever he chose.
(End of Chapter)