Chapter 1 God's War Begins

Beneath Guzi Castle, the God War had begun.

Feng Bujue, Li Ruoyu, Taira no Kiyomori, Dong Zhuo... and even Lu Bu, who stood beside the arena with a stunned expression, were all witnesses to this battle.

"An evil seed from another world, eh..." Facing the Yamata no Orochi, Qitian Di's face finally showed a trace of solemnity. "So you reveal your true form to withstand divine might?"

Before his words faded, the giant serpent answered Qitian Di's question with action.

The eight serpent heads moved with a roar, launching a multi-layered, fierce, and violent assault with clear gradations.

The massive size didn't affect the Serpent Demon's attack speed. The eightfold combo with the force to uproot mountains and rivers came in a continuous stream, breaking the sound barrier and stirring up gusts of wind in all directions.

Seeing this, Qitian Di didn't dodge or evade. With a light shout of, "Ha!" he unleashed his ultimate move, "God's Light!"

As the divine light appeared, the sun and moon dimmed, and earth-shattering power exploded forth.

At that very instant!

Chich—

Suddenly, two purple beams of light shot from Qitian Di's side and rear, directly striking him.

At this moment, Qitian Di's attack was still in motion, leaving him no time to worry about this sudden, near-instantaneous assault.

However...

Buzz buzz—

The next second, two strange sounds created ripples in the air.

Frieza's sneak attack was easily blocked by Qitian Di's protective aura, failing to harm the latter in the slightest.

"Hmm?" With his move completed, Qitian Di turned his head to look at Frieza. His gaze seemed to say... "You dare to plot against me?"

"Heh heh..." Frieza chuckled sinisterly. "A man who calls himself a god... indeed has some tricks up his sleeve." As he spoke, he once again gathered energy, raising his combat power several levels. "Those last two attacks... were just to say hello. Next... I won't be so polite."

"Say hello?" Qitian Di replied expressionlessly, "A man who calls himself the emperor of the universe... only dares to say hello behind my back?"

"Ugh—" Qitian Di's mockery left Frieza speechless. What enraged him even more was that the other party always maintained that calm, superior attitude. "Ha!" At the height of his anger, Frieza roared and shot out hundreds of purple beams at his opponent at super speed.

"The same trick will yield the same result no matter how many times you use it." Qitian Di stood still with his hands behind his back, treating Frieza's continuous waves as nothing.

Buzz buzz buzz buzz...

The transparent ripples constantly spreading on his protective aura proved that the strength of the attack was not enough to harm him.

"Tch..." Seeing this, Frieza stopped attacking, thinking about using a stronger move to break through that protective energy.

Just then, on the other side... the Yamata no Orochi, struck by the God's Light, revealed its form again from the dust. It... was also unharmed.

"Eight岐 Calamity!" Next, Orochi's voice sounded from within the giant serpent's body.

As he called out the name of the move, purple-black energy lit up in each of the eight serpent heads, and attacks containing the eight forces of "wind, earth, thunder, flame, fang, darkness, beast, and death" burst forth, turning into eight demonic light balls that shot towards Orochi and Frieza.

"Nani!" Frieza's expression changed drastically upon seeing the move. He immediately sped up and ascended into the sky, unwilling to take the demonic light head-on.

As for Qitian Di... though he didn't dodge, he immediately used "Reverse Magic Source."

[Reverse Magic Source] was a move that could be described as shameless in terms of its setting. It could absorb the enemy's moves, mix them with its own true energy for amplification, and then reflect them back.

Judging from the foundation of Qitian Di's main body... the moves that he couldn't reflect would have to be at least star-busting level.

But never in a million years would anyone expect...

"Ugh... This!" After coming into contact with the demonic light, Qitian Di's expression... changed!

Faced with the "Eight岐 Calamity," Qitian Di's double-layered protective aura didn't work at all, and Reverse Magic Source couldn't absorb this demonic energy. For a time, all he could do was circulate his palms and meet force with force.

But this was, after all, an emergency measure. The hastily gathered true energy gradually showed signs of being unable to withstand the impact of that vast demonic energy.

"Idiot... can't you see the power of this move..." Frieza floated in the sky, looking down at Qitian Di. "Hmph... Judging from his previous speed... he could have avoided it, but he chose to take it head-on... simply confident to the point of foolishness."

"Good..." Unexpectedly, after a few seconds, Qitian Di regained his calm expression, put away one hand, changed to using a single palm to emit essence, and urged his divine power again. "...Well done, Orochi, you certainly have the capital to be arrogant!"

Even though he said that, he didn't show any mercy... with a wave of his sleeve, he dispersed the Eight岐 Calamity in front of him.

"Hehehe hahaha..." Orochi's laughter came from within the snake monster's body. "As expected... you weren't using your full strength just now..." He paused for a moment. "And the Emperor of the Universe over there... you're only at about 70% of your state right now, aren't you?"

"This guy..." Frieza didn't reply, but thought to himself, "How did he know..."

"It seems... none of you understand..." Orochi's tone suddenly turned cold. "I (from this sentence onwards, he never referred to himself as 'this king' again)... am not the kind of half-baked opponent." As he said this, one of his eight heads suddenly moved and seized a corpse on the edge of the arena, swallowing it along with the yellow earth beneath it into its belly. "Challenge me with all your strength..." At this moment, his voice no longer had a "heavy tone," and the timbre sounded somewhat different. "...You ignorant... arrogant data..."

…………

At the same time, south of Guzi Castle.

On the battlefield, two Hyperdimension Army soldiers suddenly fell to the ground in pain without suffering any injuries.

"Cough... So... so painful..." Chris knelt on the ground, purple flames floating all over his body, his life withering rapidly.

"Ugh... This... this is..." Yashiro Nanakase, not far from him, also fell down. He seemed to know what was happening, but was unable to resist the impending death.

…………

Guzi Castle, west end.

"Why... could it be that there is also..." Shermie twitched all over, and the lightning that wrapped around her uncontrollably poured into the ground beneath her feet.

"Is this... the fate of us Eight Hakkesshu..." Goenitz revealed a relieved expression. "Well... as long as it is... the will of Orochi..." Before he could finish speaking, this Boss-level figure in the King of Fighters world had already breathed his last...

…………

Tenshukaku, top floor.

"Ugh... Quick..." In the stone coffin, the man who looked exactly like Orochi said painfully in his heavy-toned voice, "...Kill me... Otherwise... it will... be too la..."

However, the WindTrace and the other two, who were still in shock, did not take action in time.

Orochi in the stone coffin couldn't even finish this sentence before he died of exhaustion.

"What... what's going on?" Yuan Wuzang asked suspiciously.

"Perhaps... he is a clone of Orochi hidden here?" WindTrace said, making a possible guess.

"But how did he die?" Kuroko stroked his chin and continued, "Could it be because we opened the coffin?" He shook his head. "That's not right... He was already close to death, why did he ask us to kill him?"

Kuroko's questions were probably impossible for anyone to answer.

Only Orochi in the stone coffin himself knew that he wanted the three people in front of him to end his life before his own "Orochi Power" was drawn away, so that... at least it could delay the "Orochi" under Guzi Castle from obtaining this power.

…………

The scene... returns to the arena again.

"What is he doing..." Lu Bu, who had retreated to outside the arena, had recovered slightly at this moment. As a person with a relatively strong mind, he had now accepted the fact that the combat power of those three monsters was not in the same league as his at all. "Why eat Rugal's corpse..." His gaze moved upwards, looking at the sky. "Also... that power swimming in from the direction of Guzi Castle is..."

"Hey hey... Monk." On the other side, Dong Zhuo didn't consider these questions. Practical as he was, he simply made a suggestion to Taira no Kiyomori. "I see... it's not advisable to stay here for long... how about..."

"This humble one also has the same intention." Taira no Kiyomori agreed with the other party before Dong Zhuo could finish speaking.

The two didn't care what would happen to their "Great King Frieza" and turned around and ran. Their behavior once again confirmed that... traitors have no integrity to speak of.

The third party next to the arena, namely the two players, focused on something completely different from the NPCs.

"Did he just... say... 'data'?" It was rare for Ruoyu to ask such a question, only because the situation in front of her was really unexpected and unbelievable.

But Feng Bujue's expression at the moment seemed to say—"As expected."

"Hmph..." Jue-Ge opened his mouth and replied, "When Cang and the others appeared alive in front of me... I felt that something was wrong."

No wonder his first sentence when he saw Cang was "Xianshou, what are you doing here." It turned out that he was surprised that these guys hadn't died yet.

"According to the basic settings of the game, Qisha and Huajian, who stayed on the arena and were not teleported, should have encountered a more dangerous situation than us..." Feng Bujue continued, "So, the plot here should be... Orochi breaks the Profound Astral Sword Formation in a short time, and then starts attacking the surrounding NPCs and players." He changed the subject. "But... the situation that Cang told me was completely different. I noticed something strange at the time..."

Hearing this, Ruoyu already understood what Jue-Ge meant, and she continued, "But... in Killing Game, no matter how many players there are, Derivative will not be mixed in."

"Yeah... I don't understand this either. However, there is no evidence to show that this 'Orochi' must be a Derivative..." Feng Bujue said, looking at the serpent demon who was absorbing and digesting Orochi's power. "The truth... can only wait for him to tell us himself."