Chapter 810: Mission Begins, the Absolute Good Kaito Shirogane of the Straw Hat Faction
"The Nameless God of Martial Arts?"
"Is this the answer you obtained after sacrificing a True God and several Sons of God?"
The atmosphere seemed to solidify. Lady Crimson felt a tightness in her chest, making it difficult to breathe. She didn't inherently need to breathe, but she was experiencing this sensation right now; it was a manifestation of her survival instinct being affected.
A man with azure-blue hair stood upon the sea, his gaze fixed on this vanguard force.
They should have been the strongest faction in this world, with multiple Authority-level Sons of God cooperating with Elite-level demigods. Yet, not only had they failed to gain an overwhelming advantage in a short period of time...
But after the start of a new round of deployment, they were completely beaten back, retreating in defeat.
The Thunder God pantheon, representing the Void Paradise with its fierce combat power and scarce numbers, had seen both a Son of God and a True God fall in succession.
This would cause a massive shockwave within the Paradise.
The Grand Lord who controlled thunder wouldn't accept some excuse about an "unnamed God of Martial Arts."
They had to provide a more concrete answer.
Lady Crimson looked at the furious God of the Sky, [Ouranos], before her. The other party was truly a veteran True God who had survived the previous Dimensional War. In terms of the intensity of his divine might alone, he was considerably stronger than Thor.
However, the fact that these two were drafted together clearly meant their ratings within the Paradise were close.
Ouranos hardly needed to use divine consciousness to guess Lady Crimson's thoughts. But weak as she might be, she was still a Fourth Sequence True God, and the Outer God pantheon standing behind her was much more vibrant than most veteran divine pantheons.
"Un-divinable, un-prophesiable. That God of Martial Arts from the Infinite Dimensional Space seems to possess unknowable traits, suspected to be... characteristic of the Outer God faction."
A white-haired Son of God spoke up at this moment. As the faction that had actually lost the most tragically and fallen the furthest behind among the three major factions, the current situation of these favored of the gods from the Void Paradise was quite dire.
In terms of the overarching plot trend, they had been played by Emperor Ultron, completely losing the initiative and the strongest trend in this world.
And in frontal combat, their True God-level powerhouse from the second round of deployment, Thunder God Thor, had fallen in a head-on battle.
Moreover, according to current intelligence, he and the Machina Court's Extinction Monarch Tassadar were both killed simultaneously in a two-on-one situation.
A group of favored of the gods gathered around another newly arrived True God, Ouranos, to discuss countermeasures. What they most wanted to figure out first was actually the identity of that Nameless God of Martial Arts.
Although Lady Crimson described the combat power of [Heaven's Pilgrimage], who appeared on the frontal battlefield, as extremely terrifying, suspected of hiding over-spec strength...
She ultimately hadn't fully displayed that kind of overwhelming pressure.
But in the unknown rear battlefield, the Extinction Monarch Tassadar—who came as reinforcements from the Machina Court along with two Champion-class Astartes and an Authority-level robot—and the Thunder God Thor were all killed on the spot by that God of Martial Arts.
The oppressive feeling brought by this actual lethality was far higher than the supposedly strength-hiding Heaven's Pilgrimage.
Therefore, this group of Sons of God was currently trying to obtain information about that God of Martial Arts through various means. But whether attempting long-range observation or utilizing Authorities for prophecy and divination, they all ended in failure.
"Ouranos, I think we should prepare the Divine Descent Ritual. The danger of this world far exceeds expectations. As the weakest Space, for the Infinite Dimensional Space to suddenly deploy two such powerful Reincarnators is definitely not simple."
Lady Crimson spoke up, interrupting their meaningless pursuit of the God of Martial Arts' identity. She actually agreed with Ultron's logic.
The order, rules, and rhythm of this world would not be determined by the Fourth Sequence.
No matter how strong that God of Martial Arts was, it was impossible for him to be stronger than the top-tier plot characters of this world.
And since Emperor Ultron had already seized the initiative and gained the favor of the IGO and Gourmet Corp, and that Heaven's Pilgrimage had clearly earned the goodwill of the plot character Ichiryu...
It would not be easy for their side to intervene through the plot characters.
Among the three core plot factions of this world, the Straw Hat Pirates were the weakest, lacking the ability to determine the world's direction. But trying to touch them could easily alter the timeline and trigger Son Goku's entry.
And although Son Goku was the true power ceiling of this world—an overwhelming character whose backing guaranteed complete victory in this world—a guy like him was definitely difficult to contact.
Son Goku was not a character easy to manipulate. Although he wasn't exactly smart, his power was too overwhelming. Having minimal contact with such characters was an [Iron Rule] in Dimensional Wars.
A single misstep could easily lead one's faction to anger a super enemy, causing unimaginably massive losses.
In a past Dimensional War, the Chosen Ones of a certain Space wanted to use Goddess Athena's blood, Authority, and enhancements to influence the inclination of the Gold Saints and thereby alter the battle's outcome.
Ultimately, they were slaughtered by several Gold Saints, wiping out their entire faction and directly causing their defeat in that Dimensional War.
In "long-standing" Spaces like the Void Paradise, such counterexamples were almost all recorded, hence the formation of this [Iron Rule].
"Since we cannot obtain the opportunity to ally with characters of that level, we can only create opportunities to have our own powerful gods enter, while simultaneously trying to interfere with the timing of Son Goku's entry."
Lady Crimson's words quickly gained the approval of most of the Sons of God. Ouranos looked expressionlessly at this young deity, who acted somewhat erratically relying on her pantheon's backing.
But finally, he smiled and agreed.
That smile made Lady Crimson feel incredibly uncomfortable.
She had also heard some rumors about Ouranos. Lowering her eyelids, she sensed an intense crisis within her divine consciousness.
However, as long as they could initiate the Divine Descent Ritual and have an existence of the Third Sequence descend, regardless of which pantheon they came from, Ouranos's schemes would be rendered useless.
[You have opened Drop Card: Extinction Monarch Tassadar]
[You have obtained A-Rank Singularity Point * 1, Dimensional Points * 18,000]
[You have obtained Bloodline Item: Protoss (World's Rarity)]
[You have obtained Ability Scroll: Grasping Heaven and Earth (S)]
[You have opened Drop Card: True Thunder God Thor]
[You have obtained A-Rank Singularity Point * 1, Dimensional Points * 20,000]
[You have obtained Material: Eye of the True Thunder God (Unidentified)]
[You have obtained Divine Word: Thunder (Special)]
Kaito Shirogane crushed the two Drop Cards. High-level Singularity Points seemed somewhat exceptionally easy to obtain in this kind of world.
Killing enemies of this level wasn't actually too difficult for the current Kaito Shirogane.
Given ample time and a suitable location, even without activating the Key of Miracles, Kaito Shirogane considered himself capable of defeating these two.
It would just drag on for a bit longer.
And upon entering the Martial God's Ultimate Intent, Kaito Shirogane possessed a special intuition. Although it still couldn't compare to the rumored [Flash of Inspiration] of the King of Miracles...
The intuition of the Martial God, combined with the effect of Miracles, possessed a special effect surpassing most Observation Haki; it was a perception on the destiny side.
While fighting the two, Kaito Shirogane foresaw that if the battle dragged on, it would highly likely be terminated by some external force.
Therefore, he directly activated the Key of Miracles and the Sixteen-Fold Kaio-Ken, choosing to instantly kill the two.
Based on the Space's Faction Score prompts, it was clear that Yoko hadn't killed any True God-level or Monarch-level opponents on the frontal battlefield.
Judging from the oppressive feeling the Extinction Monarch and Thor gave him, Kaito Shirogane didn't believe Yoko couldn't kill enemies of this level.
Monarch-level and True God-level were, at best, equivalent to the mid-to-upper tiers of Sovereign Monarchs.
Within the Infinite Dimensional Space, there were still some Reincarnators capable of matching them.
The targets Yoko and Kaito Shirogane were meant to deal with should be more than just this.
"Yoko is like that; she likes to plan before acting, so she always ends up missing some opportunities."
As a younger sister, Ritsu didn't respect her older sister as much as many outsiders did. Because she was obsessed with Mercenary Tao's power, her evaluation of Yoko also became increasingly direct.
The overwhelming power Mercenary Tao displayed was the realm she truly wanted to reach.
Not like Yoko, who always seemed weighed down, as if carrying the entire world on her back.
Unpleasant. It's far too unpleasant!
"Your Lordship, why didn't we follow Son Goku? It's rare to be able to make contact with a guy like that. If we could get a few pointers..."
Ritsu was very puzzled by Mercenary Tao's and Midora's actions of not trying to stop him at all. Although Midora was just a plot character and shouldn't be able to comprehend Son Goku's strength...
Lord Mercenary Tao shouldn't be like that!
Furthermore, His Lordship was enhanced by the Dragon Ball world's [Ki] system. Being able to contact Son Goku was an unimaginable opportunity.
Kaito Shirogane didn't explain. He simply watched the guy walking further away across the sea.
Midora was extremely powerful. Although theoretically, he shouldn't have developed to his late-stage level yet, he himself couldn't activate the Key of Miracles right now and lacked true, ultimate destructive power.
As for Son Goku, Kaito Shirogane had absolutely no such plans.
From the first glance Son Goku cast at him, Kaito Shirogane was certain that the Son Goku of this timeline definitely came from a rather late-stage timeline. His strength was already in a different dimension from theirs.
It could be said that he might be the strongest guy he had seen so far.
Moreover...
Son Goku's affinity with him was very average.
Although Son Goku had a pure and naive personality, people like that were ironically harder to interact with.
Especially after the other party had acquired power of that level, trying to force contact through external means usually didn't end well.
Just like in the B711 world, Eternal Destiny forcibly schemed against Saitama, and the final result was that Saitama shattered all his past accumulations with a single punch, causing him to vanish without a trace.
Yet that weak Reincarnator—whose name and appearance Kaito Shirogane had now forgotten—was able to gain Saitama's favor, and perhaps even managed to keep his body intact because of the other party's presence.
Affinity was something that was sometimes unsolvable when dealing with overly pure individuals.
Kaito Shirogane wouldn't fuss over such things. He looked towards a certain spot in the ocean, then took off directly from the sea surface. Ritsu plunged her Sea King Trident into the sea, and a massive ocean wave carried her rapidly in that direction.
After Ritsu sailed swiftly across the sea for a moment, she finally saw the traces of a pirate ship under the sunlight.
And scattered around the pirate ship were the parts of various mechanical creations, currently smoking and sinking.
As Ritsu approached riding the sea wave, she heard a heart-wrenching scream coming from this pirate ship flying a straw hat flag.
"But... but that was a robot! A ROBOT!"
The exaggerated voice dragged out the trailing note, as if expressing just how unwilling he was.
Following that, three more voices echoed in agreement.
"Yeah, that was a robot that could really shoot lasers and transform! Nami, that's... a man's romance... ah!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After a succession of three knocks, the pirate ship quieted down.
The sea wave beneath Ritsu surged, lifting her body up.
She saw the King of Monsters currently leaning casually against the railing of the Golden Sunny, holding a cup of black tea brought over by that gentlemanly cook. The captain of the pirate crew, a long-nosed human, and a cyborg were all slumped to the side. A small reindeer hid fearfully behind a green-haired swordsman.
Only that swordsman kept his right hand on the hilt of his sword. Clearly, the swordsman remained wary of this guy who suddenly appeared and destroyed the powerful robot that had been tailing their pirate ship with a single strike.
Oh, and the woman named Robin, leaning against the second-floor deck, was also scrutinizing Lord Mercenary Tao below.
"What nonsense are you talking about? Didn't you understand it earlier? That robot was controlling our course!"
Nami lectured her troublesome captain while expressing her gratitude to the newcomers, but her attitude actually contained wariness as well.
This exceptionally handsome man exuded a very special aura at a glance.
Kaito Shirogane sipped his black tea. Suddenly, his aura changed, and his hair instantly turned from pure black to pure white.
[Reversal of Good and Evil: Absolute Good]
In this instant, everyone was stunned.
Nami almost thought she was hallucinating.
Luffy, however, rubbed his chin, looking at Kaito Shirogane whose hair color suddenly changed. He was a creature of pure instinct; he merely felt that the guy before him seemed like a completely different person.
But before he could figure out what that feeling was exactly, he caught sight of Ritsu standing on the water waves from the corner of his eye.
Actually, he should have noticed Ritsu's presence much earlier, but Kaito Shirogane, who had previously been emitting a faint, bizarre aura, had unconsciously drawn most of his attention.
Luffy was far more perceptive than most people thought.
He could sense who the true enemy was better than Zoro or Robin.
Previously, in his perception, Kaito Shirogane clearly wasn't a good person, but he didn't harbor any animosity towards them either. But now, in his perception, the other party felt like someone so good it made him uncomfortable.
Like he was glowing...
"Hey, look, Usopp! She's standing on the water!"
Luffy's attention was easily diverted, his curiosity piqued by Ritsu's novel ability.
Kaito Shirogane sat calmly on the Golden Sunny, feeling the scrutinizing gazes gradually fade.
He proactively chose the weakest of the three plot protagonist factions, waiting for those guys who considered themselves strong to come.
[You have initiated Special Mission: World's Number One Gourmet Tournament]
[Mission Description: Please arrive at the venue of the World's Number One Gourmet Tournament within three days to initiate the subsequent mission.]
[You have activated Faction: Straw Hat Pirates. Current Reputation: 65/100 (Friendly)]