“Guh…”

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

At that moment, his weapon was broken and his armor was covered in cracks. The only thing he could be thankful for… was that he still had a breath left in him.

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

As he muttered those words, he turned and prepared to leave the arena. It seemed he had no intention of finishing off his opponent.

“The martial arts performance is over.” In the fifth second after Honda lost consciousness, the arena statue announced the result of the match, “The winner, Rugal Bernstein. The loser, Honda Tadakatsu.”

This result was beyond many people's expectations…

In the Warriors Orochi universe, Honda Tadakatsu’s martial prowess was set very high, vaguely on par with Lu Bu (historically, it’s unlikely that Honda would have been compared to Lu Bu in terms of martial strength; according to historical records, the real Honda Tadakatsu was just over 1.4 meters tall… so even Hua Xiong would have easily defeated him, let alone Lu Bu). Who would have thought that he would be defeated after just one match…

But this result was also reasonable…

Because in the King of Fighters universe, Rugal Bernstein’s stats were also very high. His design concept was “the strongest, most ferocious KOF Boss”… Of course, when people talk about the Bosses of KOF now, the first guy that pops into their heads is definitely ’97’s Orochi; his “Sunlight Shower,” a move that can only be described as shameless, left an indelible mark on countless players' childhoods. But if you had to pick one Boss that could represent the entire KOF series… it would still have to be Rugal.

Perfect moves, insane attack power, quick recovery… perhaps he wasn’t a “god” like Orochi, but he was a fighting demon incarnate. 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 warrior with a longbow on her back and clad in battle armor leaped onto the arena and rushed to Honda Tadakatsu’s side.

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

“No, Father, you are the strongest!” Inahime cried out.

“Alas… the defeated are not qualified 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 entire arena was silent, with no one commenting…

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

Everyone present was an unparalleled 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 the victor and loser had both left the arena, the arena statue’s voice rang out again, “Saosser versus… Karne Chiguha.”

“Who?” When they heard these two names, Xiao Tan, Hua Jian, and Qisha all looked puzzled.

“I know Saosser… Nanto Phoenix Fist.” Qisha said, “But who is that Karne Chiguha?”

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

“I don’t know either of them…” Hua Jian shrugged.

“Heh…” At that moment, Feng Bu Jue sneered, “You are all too ignorant.”

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

“Of course I know.” Feng Bu Jue replied in a deep voice, “I also know that Karne will definitely win.”

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

“So what…” Feng Bu Jue said, “Karne is still 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 up in his universe.” Feng Bu Jue added, “If you compare him horizontally with other universes… Karne’s combat power at the age of five is about the same as Goku’s when he first became a student of Master Roshi, except that he can’t use Ki attacks…”

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

This person had spiky golden short hair, wore a dark blue outfit, a long white cloak with a red lining draped over his shoulders, thick, pointed metal shoulder pads on each shoulder, and a pair of metal greaves that went above his knees.

His height wasn’t particularly tall (compared to the other muscular characters in the martial arts competition), but his perfectly sculpted muscles were still visible beneath his clothes.

He was Saosser, one of the Nanto Six Holy Fists, the successor of the Nanto Phoenix Fist, and the “Holy Emperor” with a mysterious invulnerable body.

“Hmph… who’s here to die this time?” Saosser said arrogantly as soon as he stepped onto the stage.

His confidence wasn’t without reason. He had been on stage twice in the previous performances, and each time he had instantly killed his opponent, giving them no chance to surrender.

“Eh? So all I have to do is go up there and beat him?” The next second, a man in tattered karate clothes pointed at the arena and turned his head to say to the two people behind him.

“That’s right, you go, Karne.” One of the two people was the mysterious man who had previously repelled Jiao… the one who called himself “I am Cloud, Lightning is my relative.” His name was Loki, Karne’s friend. Overall… he was a very narcissistic fool who liked to make his entrance with his own background music and embarrassing dance; but his strength was indeed very high, his special move being the "Super Vajra Invincible Fist" that was said to be able to deliver fifty blows per second.

“Good luck, Karne, we’ll be supporting you from the sidelines.” The other one was wearing a dark blue Japanese middle school uniform and had a face like a “demon”… a square face, square eyes, an inverted trapezoid-shaped mouth, and two pointed fangs in his mouth, but… his appearance didn’t give people a terrifying feeling. On the contrary… it was quite comical. His name was Xido (originally translated as Kado Gaii), the young master of the violent group "Kado-gumi," a very violent person who often skipped school, so no one knew his real age. He was also Karne's friend.

“Okay! Okay, I’ll do my best!” Karne responded with a harmless, innocent smile and then jumped into the arena.

Karne Chiguha (originally translated as Kuniho Kenichi, and along with the two above, came from the gag manga Moeyo! Great Tenkai!, or translated as Jungle no Ouja Taa-chan), he was a child who grew up in the deep mountains and was (always) thirteen years old. He had waist-length black hair and a pair of Ultraman-like oval eyes, wearing a white karate uniform with torn sleeves and pant legs, and a black belt around his waist. He was kind by nature, and his IQ and EQ were close to that of a child. On weekdays, he would turn into a small, chibi version of himself, and even his sister could easily pick him up and put him in a bicycle basket; but in a serious state, Karne would transform into a muscular giant, one meter ninety in height, becoming… the strongest man on Earth.

“Huh? Are you serious?” When Saosser saw Karne leap onto the arena, he immediately revealed an undisguised look of disdain.

“Hello! I’m Karne.” Karne raised one hand and greeted the other party with a smile.

“Hmph…” Saosser closed his eyes and sneered, “Kid… you should just surrender, I’m too lazy to kill you…” In his opinion, the unremarkable Karne in front of him was basically a “villager”-level small fry; killing him wouldn’t give him any sense of accomplishment.

“Eh?” Karne scratched his head, thought for a few seconds, and then said, “‘Avatar’ is what?”

“It’s ‘surrender’… not ‘avatar.’” Saosser corrected.

“Sur… render…” Karne said with a puzzled look.

“It’s surrender…” The veins on Saosser’s forehead bulged, but he still stood in place with his eyes closed, pretending to be calm.

“Sur… render…” Karne wasn’t pretending to be stupid, he was really stupid.

“You little brat!” Saosser opened his eyes, “Are you making fun of me?”

Before he could finish speaking, the Holy Emperor suddenly lunged forward and punched Karne in the face.

Bang—

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

Saosser didn’t use any special moves, he just threw a punch with all his might, because he didn’t think it was necessary to use any “ultimate techniques” on the kid in front of him.

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

He believed that Karne, after taking that punch, wouldn’t be able to stand up again, even if he wasn’t dead.

However…

“Ah—” A scream quickly rang out, “It hurts so much~ Ouch~”

“Hm?” Saosser turned his head when he heard the sound, and saw… that Karne had already gotten up from the ground and was running around in circles, covering his nose.

“It hurts so much~ I’m bleeding!” Karne stared with his big eyes, running around and yelling like a headless fly, still looking very lively.

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

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

“Idiot! Your opponent is a heartless martial artist, you’ll die if you keep this up!” Xido, whose IQ was close to normal, was quite anxious watching from the sidelines and quickly shouted.

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

“Original life…” When Karne heard this, he stared blankly at the sky, and many beautiful memories of the past with his family and friends flashed before his eyes, causing his fighting spirit to burn.

“Ah… it’s so hot, so hot!”

While I was saying “burn,” his hair actually 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 perplexed by this fight, “Why did his hair catch fire for no reason?”

“Because he’s a character from a gag manga, he’ll experience phenomena such as ‘falling to the ground after hearing a funny remark,’ ‘acting under the influence of the narrator,’ and ‘physical changes that violate the laws of physics for the sake of comedy.’” Feng Bu Jue explained, “Of course… the strongest attribute of this kind of character is probably… ‘immortality.’”

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

“Kid.” Saosser stared at Karne, “It’s useless to play tricks in front of the Holy Emperor…” His expression gradually turned fierce, and his whole body tensed up, “Since you like to act smart, I’ll let you experience what despair is…”

“Okay! For everyone’s sake, I won’t lose!” At this moment, Karne had also become serious. He adopted a basic karate stance, faced his opponent, and prepared to fight.

At this point, the battle had truly begun…