Chapter 809: The Plot Officially Begins, Top-Tier Plot Characters Enter
[Faction Score +3. Current: -5]
The sudden notification of the score change caused the expressions of both sides in the standoff to shift.
Several robots controlled by Monarch Ultron turned their heads simultaneously, their electronic eyes flashing red. It was clear they wanted to observe the battle tens of thousands of kilometers away.
Lady Crimson, floating in the rear looking somewhat disheveled, had a look of astonishment on her face.
"Thor has fallen?!"
Thor wasn't a Son of God like Ebito; he was a bona fide True God-level existence, and a True God who controlled thunder and possessed extremely strong combat power at that.
To think he was killed silently?!
BOOM~
At this moment, the golden tidal wave of Ki, mixed with divine power and electrical charges, crashed against Lady Crimson like a shockwave.
Information in the Space travels far faster than any energy flow. That's why they saw the notification of Thor and Tassadar's fall first, and then felt the aftershocks carrying the message of death.
Ki... incredibly overbearing Ki...
Is it Son Goku?
No, it's that God of Martial Arts!
Yoko, on the other hand, curled her lips into a smile. She looked at the crystal-clear wall of information in the surrounding air. This Monarch Ultron was probably the most top-tier expert among the Monarchs.
This efficiency in utilizing [Information] was probably close to the privilege of that certain individual among the Upper Seven Seats of Destiny.
Using [Information] to try and cut off her Concussive Pulse of the Spiritual Light that permeated the entire sea, thereby suppressing the power other Reincarnators received from her.
At the same time, preventing her from contacting the Straw Hat Pirates, who were less than seven thousand nautical miles away.
But...
"It's useless~"
Yoko felt the endless, crashing Ki. It carried the familiar scent of miracles, but more so, it was Mercenary Tao's overwhelmingly arrogant dominance and a madness completely intoxicated by power.
How wonderful, Mercenary Tao, to be able to unleash your power so unbridledly...
Yoko's voice was very soft, but Lady Crimson shuddered. In the previous battle, she had hoped to use her domain and Divine Words, combined with Ultron's information dominance, to forcefully encircle and kill this Infinite Dimensional Space trump card, Heaven's Pilgrimage, who had broken in alone.
But she hadn't expected that with just a single sword strike, the opponent nearly took her head off.
Unparalleled speed, unparalleled sharpness, and an even more majestic and imposing presence above all that.
Making an enemy of this woman felt like making an enemy of the world itself. Every action felt extremely unsmooth. Lady Crimson even thought the world beneath her feet had become the opponent's home ground.
As if the Alaya Consciousness and Gaia's Will were both standing behind her.
"Ultron, quickly abandon the outer battlefield! As long as we encircle and kill this woman, even if the world mission fails, the Space won't issue a penalty!"
Lady Crimson's tone was urgent, completely lacking her previous composure.
Within her divine consciousness, waves of trembling madness were surging. Especially seeing the smile on the corners of that human woman's mouth, it was like seeing some terrifying monster emerging from the mist.
Damn it, this woman hid her strength...
The next moment, Yoko spread her arms. The divine power on her body surface rapidly collapsed. Intricate divine patterns flowed across her skin, ultimately carving streams of light that gathered like sparks.
BOOM!
The golden Concussive Pulse of the Spiritual Light, divine power, and the terrifyingly intense Conqueror's Haki erupted simultaneously.
Like a breached dam, completely unstoppable.
The divine domain in front of Lady Crimson was instantly compressed. As her pupils trembled violently, she could hardly believe that a human's divine power and might could be this formidable.
Her red hair scattered backward, and her entire being was submerged by that overwhelming aura. It was as if she saw rushing rivers in an instant, where countless humans struggled to survive like insects; and as if heaven and earth were shifting, yet those insect-like humans still struggled to survive.
Constantly struggling, unceasingly. The Fire of Humanity had not extinguished for a single moment.
Whoosh!
Within the information domain, flames ignited from the ground. The surrounding information crystal walls quickly began to shrink. A massive amount of high-tier pheromones that couldn't be deciphered by 0s and 1s overwhelmed Ultron's blockade.
In just an instant, the golden tide directly broke through all boundaries, completely dominating the entire battlefield.
A massive number of intelligent robots fell directly from the sky, and countless streams of light shot towards the surrounding sky.
Standing in the center, Yoko was like a fairy blooming into the most brilliant flower.
Energy Tyrant Aka had gained a complete advantage in the battles against other Reincarnators and Machina Court members. He was already a type with powerful destructive capabilities, and with the amplification of Yoko's [Fire of the Heart], he became terrifying to the extreme.
The sky seemed to be ignited by him.
But in this instant, he couldn't help looking towards the blooming golden flower in the center of the battlefield.
"This is... Blossoming Tea Rose..."
In the previous cycle, the West District's Yoko Ekaterina was always called [Blossoming Tea Rose]. That was her Sovereign Monarch title, and could be considered a respectful moniker others gave her.
Many who had fought Yoko were immensely impressed by the vividness of this title.
Aka felt the same at this moment.
A flower blooming to its end should look exactly like this...
That ultimate aura accompanied by divine power and energy—everything mixed within, yet not appearing chaotic.
This was clearly also an ultimate technique.
Even more terrifying was that, obviously, this Blossoming Tea Rose-like effect, unlike the rumors, was not Yoko's Sovereign Authority.
Everyone knew that in this cycle, Yoko's Sovereign Crown was named [Heaven's Pilgrimage], a powerful crown overwhelmingly stronger than the other two Crowns in the agility domain.
Hum~
Aka felt the abnormally vigorous power within his body. For a moment, he was filled with heroic passion and clapped his hands fiercely together.
In the sky, a crimson lotus flower similarly exploded. The massive flame, spanning over thousands of meters, melted countless intelligent robots in an instant. With a push of his hands, he ignited an aerospace battleship.
"Kill all these sons of bitches! For... humanity!"
Aka roared, his expression turning savage.
Roar!
Under the amplification of the Fire of the Heart, the Demon Wolf Fenrir, over a thousand meters long, opened his mouth and spewed an icy blue breath. With a sweep, the sea froze.
On the other side, Snow was not to be outdone. He left hundreds of phantoms across the sea. With a single point of his finger, the phantoms exploded, completely freezing everything in the surroundings.
His enhanced X-Men mutant ability was Iceman's power. The upper limit was terrifyingly high, though the resource requirement was equally terrifying. At this moment, with the amplification of the Fire of the Heart, he was experiencing the sheer power of the next tier of his mutant ability in advance.
Standing within the flower, Yoko held Caliburn in front of her, her expression uncharacteristically unbridled.
"Let me also... be a little willful. With a monster like Mercenary Tao around, that disgusting gaze should be drawn away somewhat, right?"
Screech!
A loud sword hum rang out. Yoko unleashed a diagonal slash.
Heaven and earth were directly sliced open by the golden ray of light. At the end of that tangent line, stood Lady Crimson and a seemingly inconspicuous robot.
Pfft~ Bang!
Yoko's expression changed, and she abruptly leaped backward.
What blocked her sword was actually... a pair of chopsticks?!
But Yoko's expression returned to calm in an instant. She had indulged herself slightly for a moment, drowning in that unparalleled power. That instant gave her pleasure but also nearly made her lose control.
Seeing her return to calm so quickly and extricate herself from that monster-like power, a hint of gratification appeared in the eyes of the man with yellow hair and beard, but it vanished just as quickly.
The man wore a red jacket. In Yoko's eyes, his taste was simply awful. Coupled with his dark brown complexion and yellow hair and beard, his image completely failed to match his strength and status.
"It truly has been many years since I've seen such powerful aura~"
IGO President, top disciple of Gourmet God Acacia, Ichiryu!
Also hailed as the world's strongest man after Gourmet God Acacia.
Yoko's expression was indifferent. Her gaze swept the surroundings, finding that the sky full of robots had almost been completely wiped out. The crash of several aerospace battleships seemed to mark the end of this great battle.
The only pity was that her prey—the Monarch-level Ultron and that red-haired True God—had survived.
In the sky behind Ichiryu, a special robot shimmering with blue-white luster appeared, grabbing the head of the robot Yoko had identified as holding Ultron's core consciousness.
The information transfer complete, the true Emperor Ultron now revealed himself.
His mechanical eyes scrutinized Yoko coldly. It was partly to record this over-spec combatant of the Infinite Dimensional Space, but it also held the indifference of crushing mortals from a cognitive level.
These human Reincarnators and those divine Contractors always fixated on personal valor and immediate victories. Their vision was far too narrow. This was the inescapable limitation of individual lifeforms.
Only a mechanical entity like him could think from a truly macroscopic and holistic perspective.
Take the battle just now, for example. Lady Crimson indeed possessed considerable combat power. But even if he cooperated with her and took down Heaven's Pilgrimage, what then?
It would merely be eliminating the weakest of the three factions.
Afterwards, the Machina Court and Void Paradise would still have to wage rounds of battles in this world.
This world was rich in resources and had enough higher-tier existences. What determined the ownership of this world wasn't Monarch-levels like him or True God-levels like Lady Crimson at all.
It was the IGO, the Gourmet Corp, those terrifying monsters with capture levels over ten thousand. Not to mention... it was now confirmed that this world was linked to that dimension—the dimension where [Ki] alone was enough to sweep away everything.
Reincarnators and Contractors both misunderstood one point: the factor determining victory and defeat in this world was always the overarching trend.
As long as one grasped this point, regardless of whether this particular battle was won or lost, the Machina Court had almost already touched victory.
Emperor Ultron simultaneously hindered Yoko from contacting the Straw Hat Pirates, the weakest plot faction, delaying her entry into the plotline.
While cooperating with Lady Crimson to encircle and kill these Reincarnators, success would be ideal, but failure wouldn't matter either.
His true body had already used cosmic ingredients to establish a connection with the IGO and Gourmet Corp.
He was the first to enter the plotline!
Therefore, seeing the frontal battlefield collapsing due to Heaven's Pilgrimage erupting with over-spec combat power, Emperor Ultron introduced a plot character to forcefully end the battle.
Ichiryu felt nothing towards the bizarre robot behind him. He only looked at the golden streams of light on Yoko and the gradually dying flames.
"Young one, are you also here to participate in the World's Number One Gourmet Tournament?"
[Legendary Plot Character: Ichiryu invites you to participate in the World's Number One Gourmet Tournament. Do you accept?]
Gourmet Tournament? Shouldn't Ichiryu of the IGO be hostile to the Gourmet Corp? Why would he invite me to participate in such an event?
Yoko sensed the anomaly in the timeline, but still chose to agree.
[Faction Score +7. Current: +2]
With the crash of the final aerospace battleship and the destruction of the information storage devices within, the Infinite Dimensional Space faction score finally turned positive.
But Yoko knew very well that the battle between the three factions in this world couldn't be resolved by a few points. It was an endless war of extinction.
At this moment, Ultron showed no reaction either, because he had calculated this as well. A plot character like Ichiryu would highly likely have a better affinity with the humans of the Infinite Dimensional Space and the Sons of God of the Void Paradise.
But it didn't matter. He had already grasped the most powerful overarching trend. He had made contact with that person!
"Oho, it seems I'm late?"
"The guy that boring robot mentioned has already been eaten by you?"
Bare-chested, with perfectly sculpted muscles, long purple-black hair cascaded from the back of his head, wrapping around the man's back like some sort of monster.
Kaito Shirogane turned around and saw the boss of the Gourmet Corp, who was also, in a sense, one of the great enemies of this world—Midora.
Kaito Shirogane looked at the two Drop Cards in his hand, invisible to plot characters. In a sense, this terrifying man, obsessed with devouring all ingredients, was right.
Thor and Tassadar had indeed been eaten by him, just in another form.
In wars between Spaces, the information of the deceased would be plundered by the opposing Space and used to enhance the opposing Space's warriors in another form.
This was quite similar to the Toriko world, where devouring various delicious foods enhanced oneself.
"Hmm, yeah. Eaten by me."
Midora's tongue was abnormally developed. As it moved within that mouth, Kaito Shirogane could almost feel the power tearing the air.
He remembered his first "teacher" who taught him martial arts, the Mercenary Tao from Dragon Ball. He, too, was an expert at killing with his tongue.
However, compared to the person before him, Mercenary Tao was no longer as terrifying in terms of absolute power.
The effect of the Key of Miracles had disappeared. Kaito Shirogane hadn't even immediately noticed the speed at which Midora appeared.
This was an extremely terrifying enemy.
But Kaito Shirogane turned around, facing Midora head-on, his expression calm. That highly unique special realm—as if he existed there, yet did not exist there—made Midora's expression turn slightly more serious.
The two stared at each other. One harbored greedy appetite within, while the other began to manifest the crimson Omen of the Evil God on his body surface.
Swoosh!
At this very moment, a figure appeared out of thin air.
The speed of appearance was so fast that neither Kaito Shirogane nor Midora reacted at all.
It wasn't until the newcomer spoke that the two were suddenly startled.
"Huh, disappeared?"
"I clearly sensed a pretty good Ki here..."
"How strange."
The man who appeared looked around completely unguarded. He showed absolutely no wariness towards Kaito Shirogane and Midora, who were merely seven or eight meters away from him.
Allowing the two, who had already begun to reveal malicious intent, to stand behind him, he even turned his head, looking at the two curiously, and said, "Did you see anyone else around here?"
At this moment, both Midora and Kaito Shirogane—these two powerhouses who couldn't be considered righteous in the slightest—were rendered speechless.
Midora still felt a bit eager to try, but Kaito Shirogane, who had entered the Realm of the Martial God, slowly relaxed. Looking at Son Goku appearing before him, he spoke up, "The guy you're looking for left earlier. It will probably take a while before he appears again~"
His tone carried no attempt to conceal his desire for battle, but Son Goku only cast a strange glance at this martial artist who gave him a peculiar feeling.
He wouldn't say he was strong, but there was indeed a very special feeling, just like the feeling he had facing Master Roshi in his youth.
Very strange, unpredictable.
"Then do you know where to participate in the World's Number One Gourmet Tournament?"
"I heard there will be a lot of delicious food. I'm really looking forward to it!"