"...I see. So Master needs my life to accomplish some goal?"
After listening to Zuke's explanation, Garou fell silent for a moment—because his features had been replaced by a starry sky, Zuke couldn't tell what expression Garou currently wore.
Garou had specifically guided Zuke to Hero Association because he'd guessed Hero Association was also Zuke's territory. "God" couldn't reach inside here, so he could have a proper talk with Zuke.
But "God" seemingly hadn't expected Hero Association was also Zuke's sphere of influence, so it had watched helplessly as Garou was kicked into Hero Association by Zuke, unable to extract Garou's power.
When "God" realized the problem and wanted to extract Garou's power, it discovered it could no longer do so, only able to helplessly watch Garou converse with Zuke.
However, Garou clearly hadn't expected Zuke's purpose to actually be his life—Zuke didn't hide his goal, directly telling Garou he needed to personally kill Garou.
"Although I need to take your life, I can revive you afterward."
Zuke looked at the seemingly contemplative Garou, smiling as he spoke to him—being able to project Dragon Balls, Zuke's words carried much more weight.
"How about it, Garou? What's your choice? Hand your life over to me, or choose to resist?"
Zuke had no interest in playing trust games with Garou, deliberately hiding that he could revive Garou with Dragon Balls to test Garou's loyalty. In Zuke's view, that would be pointless.
"...Ha, actually even if I resist, it wouldn't mean much, right?"
Garou was silent for a moment, finally unable to help but chuckle lightly. Judging from his tone, he was still quite relaxed—or rather, he knew even resistance would be meaningless.
"If Master wanted, I fundamentally couldn't strike at you, right? Just now's 'battle' was purely Master cooperating with me."
Indeed, after joining Monster Association, Garou had already become a member of Zuke's "King's World." As long as Zuke gave an order, Garou had to obey.
So even if Garou's strength had now improved considerably, as long as Zuke was willing, saying one word "kneel down"—Garou, even if unwilling in his heart, could only obediently comply.
The battle just now was purely Zuke detecting Garou's little scheme, so he'd accompanied Garou in a few exchanges, then sent Garou to Hero Association.
Moreover, even if Garou had already thought "use full force to see if I can force out Master's true power," he still couldn't make Zuke use his full power.
Looking at Zuke's ease, he clearly still had many cards he hadn't used. Even after Garou "Mode: Saitama"-ed him several more times, he probably still couldn't catch up to Zuke's full power.
"If Master needs this life, then take it."
Finally, Garou stood up, standing upright before Zuke—in his view, Zuke had helped him improve so much in strength. Just "dying" for a while was nothing at all.
Zuke had already said he could revive him. Garou naturally believed what Zuke said.
It must be said, Garou's change during this time was indeed quite significant—probably those days on Planet Sadala truly ground away Garou's pride.
Although in the original, Garou was full of pride, after suffering sufficiently large setbacks, he would become dejected, even having thoughts of giving up.
Zuke had thrown Garou onto Planet Sadala. Although initially he hadn't intended to grind away Garou's pride, judging from results, it seemed to have achieved similar effects.
Otherwise, Zuke truly had difficulty imagining that excessively proud Garou from the original would actually willingly hand over his life.
"Since you've said so, then I won't be polite."
Zuke looked at the prepared Garou, a smile curling at his lips, then unceremoniously raised his hand, viciously piercing Garou's heart.
BANG!
Garou's chest was instantly pierced by Zuke—his sturdy body was like paper before Zuke's power, getting punctured through.
Instantly, an icy sensation seeped into Garou's limbs. His vision went black as he thus collapsed powerlessly before Zuke, losing all sound.
When Zuke pierced Garou's body, he'd used "ki" to shatter Garou's internal structure—although it looked like Garou's corpse remained intact now, actually inside was already a pile of mush.
After all, this way Garou could die more quickly, at least without feeling pain.
"Whoa... you really killed him?"
Sayomaru, standing to the side, had watched the entire process. Seeing Garou get pierced through the body then fall, she couldn't help covering her mouth as she spoke.
"Speaking of which, you said you could revive him. Is that really true...?"
Sayomaru looked at Zuke with somewhat doubtful eyes—even the Security Police Squad, with their cross-timeline technology, still had no method to revive the dead.
"Do I sound like I'm joking?"
Zuke retracted his blood-stained hand, then gently clenched it—like firecrackers, crackling explosive sounds rang from his hand.
That was Killer Queen transforming the blood on his hand into bombs. After a series of explosions, Zuke's hand instantly became spotlessly clean, not a trace of blood remaining.
Although he could project a Dragon Ball now to revive Garou, Zuke first needed to confirm whether the mission was complete.
Thinking this, he opened the system's mission panel.
[Current World: "One Punch Man"]
[Special Mission 1: Eliminate Boros (Meteoric Burst form)]
[Special Mission 2: Eliminate Garou (Cosmic Fear Mode)]
[Special Mission Time: 21 days 17 hours 20 minutes]
[Player Zuke's strength synchronization status: 100%]
[Please work hard to advance the main mission and unlock strength synchronization]
[Congratulations Player Zuke, successfully unlocked "One Punch Man" world 100% synchronization rate!]
[You may choose 1 reward from the following to bring out of this world]
[1. Tornado of Terror]
[2. Divine Power (Ninja King version)]
[3. Divine Power (Garou version)]
"Good thing. As long as one special mission is completed, synchronization rate rises to 100%... otherwise I'd really need to find a way to revive Boros and kill him once."
Zuke's mouth twitched—although with Dragon Balls now, reviving Boros wasn't difficult for him.
But projecting Dragon Balls once nearly drained his stamina. That feeling was still quite unpleasant.
"Moreover, once again it's only choosing one reward... I really don't know what principle triggers two rewards."
To be continued…