According to the records, merely descending into the world had caused Orochi to trigger tsunamis, shake the entire Japanese archipelago, split the earth apart, and cause Mount Fuji to erupt.
And that was only the aftermath of his appearance.
Afterward, victory had supposedly only been achieved by piling up the lives of the Three Sacred Treasures families.
But if Ryuji remembered correctly, the Orochi that descended during the King of Fighters tournament hadn't demonstrated power on that level at all.
Sure, the weather and atmosphere had changed dramatically, but Japan's geography itself hadn't been altered.
"Hmm… so why did it become weaker? If its power really depends on human resentment, it shouldn't have declined this much, right? Or is it because untouched natural environments became fewer, causing its power to weaken?"
Ryuji wasn't very sure, because the whole thing felt wrong to him.
"So then there are only two possibilities. One is that the power of nature really did decline because of humanity's expansion, but that's honestly ridiculous. The power of nature in this era is still far beyond what humanity can fully resist… does that mean human resentment must reach a certain level before it can actually take effect?"
He came up with a hypothesis.
Fear and hatred have 'purity.'
If a modern person has a bag of grain stolen, they'd probably just think, "What a piece of shit." And if they saw it was stolen by some ragged homeless person, they might even bring them some cooked food afterward, then call the police to have them taken somewhere safe.
But if it were ancient times, and some ragged starving person stole your bag of grain, your first reaction would definitely be to kill them. And if you couldn't find the person, you might carry resentment over the incident for the rest of your life.
The emotions produced by the same event in ancient times and modern times were completely different.
Sure, modern people still have plenty of problems, but it's impossible for them to produce fear and hatred toward every little thing the way ancient people did.
But the problem was that this theory also had a flaw.
"Hmm… but even if the quality isn't enough, shouldn't sheer quantity still produce the corresponding effect? Or is it that in this world, there's simply no way to refine resentment on a large scale?"
Ryuji simply couldn't figure it out.
"Forget it. Trying to understand the operational laws of a world like this is way too troublesome… In any case, it's enough to know that the current Orochi isn't as strong as the ancient one, but still possesses the power to destroy Japan."
Nodding to himself, Ryuji tossed the matter aside and continued flipping through the historical records documented by the Shiranui-ryū.
But the more he read, the deeper his frown became.
Because the records contained countless stories about gods, and many of them actually had corresponding historical references. The Three Sacred Treasures families even matched perfectly with the gods of Takamagahara…
But judging from the historical descriptions, they should've merely been powerful martial artists from ancient times.
Yet divine power undeniably existed in this world.
"If there were just some kind of universal cosmic force behind everything, I wouldn't be this conflicted. At least the worldview would be easier to explain."
Ryuji put down the scroll in his hands.
Trying to understand the laws of the world purely through the records of the Shiranui family was obviously impossible.
Still, he had learned quite a few things.
The world of King of Fighters definitely wasn't that simple.
According to the records, the ancestors of the Shiranui-ryū had encountered octopus-like creatures in ancient times. Those beings called themselves Martians.
And Earth itself was hardly peaceful either. Hell, the Demon Realm, and the Divine Realm/ the Realm of Gods truly existed.
Vampires and demons frequently appeared throughout the world, and there were even many active individuals who claimed to be visitors from other worlds. Compared to that, the identities of himself and Tifa were honestly nothing special.
"This is definitely not a simple King of Fighters world! I need to get more information!"
The more Ryuji read, the stranger the world felt to him.
So, after storing away the scrolls, he quickly left the Shiranui residence and headed straight for an internet café.
After paying for access, Ryuji quickly began browsing information about the world, especially urban legends, strange incidents, and anything related to martial artists.
Then he saw several headlines that left him genuinely speechless.
'The weapon known as Metal Gear has entered testing. This new type of tank possesses unimaginable combat performance. The structure of the world will be rewritten by "Metal Slug"!'
'Dr. Fessenden has successfully cloned large numbers of dinosaurs using their DNA. Jurassic Park is about to become reality.'
Looking at the two hottest news topics in the world, Ryuji couldn't help but take a long breath before immediately searching through this world's history, especially Japanese history.
'The Past and Present Lives of Shrine Maiden Hitomiko: Just How Powerful Was the Legendary Demon-Exorcising Priestess?'
'The Legend of the Manslayer: Does the Makoto Sword Style Truly Exist in This World?'
'Do Demons and Vampires Really Exist? We Discovered These Things Inside the Legendary Vampire Castle.'
At this point, Ryuji no longer merely had a headache.
"So this is a Capcom and SNK crossover world… or rather, the world of arcade games in general?"
Ryuji was completely speechless. He genuinely didn't know what to say about a worldview like this anymore.
"In that case, I'm probably not actually invincible here?"
Ryuji couldn't help muttering to himself, because if this really counted as an arcade-game world, then that also meant worlds like Knights of the Round existed too. And not that weak fanfiction-version King Arthur either, but the giga-chad version of Arthur: over 1.9 meters tall, capable of jumping off cliffs and swimming in full plate armor, and able to slash his way from the streets of Camelot all the way to the northern roads of Rome.
And the world of that giga-chad Arthur had an actual God in it, which made the entire setting absurd beyond belief.
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