Chapter 410: What NESTS Behavior!
If Iori Yagami was obsessed with Kyo Kusanagi, then why wasn't Kyo Kusanagi the same?
However, when obsession reaches fanaticism, it might quietly evolve into a strange possessiveness.
When Iori Yagami was obsessed with only himself being able to defeat Kyo Kusanagi, it also meant that he would never allow anyone else to defeat Kyo Kusanagi.
This logic was strange, but it was Iori Yagami's true thought, as if he hadn't considered that if someone could truly defeat Kyo Kusanagi, then theoretically they should also be able to defeat him, his formidable rival.
But the surging viewership at this moment clearly indicated that the bloodthirsty audience was also very knowledgeable and didn't want to miss this exciting battle.
This, in turn, made Cheng Tian a small supporting character.
"Don't rush, meow~ Your opponent is me~"
But just then, Nero Cat, who had been on Cheng Tian's shoulder, still like a silent doll, suddenly spoke, drawing Iori Yagami's attention. His eyes instinctively widened.
The one he had pinned in place was some kind of clone!?
What a cunning cat!
However, upon realizing this, another thought immediately popped into Iori Yagami's mind.
"So... you and this talking cat are working together, right?"
As Iori Yagami spoke, the Pale Flame in his hand was already flung towards Cheng Tian.
The Pale Flame, released outwards and moving along the ground, turned into the commonly known Dark Ankokuken, rapidly approaching!
As soon as he made up his mind, Iori Yagami would attack directly; he didn't need any explanations.
But as the pale Ankokuken approached, a crimson Ankokuken, identical in its ground-traveling form, forcefully intervened from an oblique direction, directly colliding with the differently colored flames and canceling them out!
"Wait a minute! I'm the one who should finish you, Yagami!"
Kyo Kusanagi, who had released an identical Ankokuken using the Kusanagi flame, also directly issued a challenge.
Although in the King of Fighters '97 game, Kyo Kusanagi's projectile move was removed to create a sharper contrast with Iori Yagami's fighting style, from a story perspective, he still retained his projectile ability. And if a special operation was used during character selection, "Riot of the Blood Kyo" could be chosen, with moves fully returning to the '94 and '95 styles.
"...Then let your death end it!"
There was no reason to refuse a challenge from an arch-rival. Iori Yagami, almost instantly forgetting the existence of Cheng Tian and Nero Cat, decisively charged towards Kyo Kusanagi.
In their eyes, there was only each other, no room for any other presence.
"Emmmm~ That's not bad~"
Cheng, finding himself completely ignored, also showed his sensible side.
Anyway, his goal was Kyo's gloves. This situation of a clam and a snipe fighting while the fisherman profits was actually more advantageous for him.
By the way, it seemed Eileen hadn't gotten around to collecting Kyo's blood yet, so... Cheng Tian whispered into Nero Cat's ear. The cat nodded, and black mud slimes that could transform into various Beast King clones silently began to secrete from its body, flowing down Cheng Tian's shoulder and pant leg.
One ding was a bite, two was also a bite. Since he had already taken Yagami's blood, to complete the CP, Kyo's blood also had to be sipped.
Cheng Tian became a live audience member here, but the organizers started to worry.
Indeed, two destined rivals who had been very active in previous tournaments clashing in the preliminary round, while boosting viewership, also, to some extent, prematurely depleted future viewership.
Originally, they had planned to use artificial guidance to avoid a Kyo vs. Yagami encounter during the preliminaries and then subtly intervene in the subsequent official matches to postpone their ultimate showdown as much as possible. This way, the audience's excitement threshold would continuously rise, preventing viewership from easily declining.
But one could only say, they thought too much.
The organizers could guide and manipulate the audience with a herd mentality, but they couldn't truly treat every unique and powerful fighter as a puppet!
Just as they couldn't prevent (not that they didn't try to prevent) those hyped preliminary teams from attacking the clothes of the female fighter team...
Although the current King of Fighters UGEN entry had become an intrusive scenario, the NPC protagonists of this world were undoubtedly Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami. Their battle was highly anticipated, so much so that many preliminary and seeded teams who could spare the time, upon learning of the situation, unanimously chose to rush to the location of their battle.
It was getting livelier and livelier.
But it was precisely this power to siphon off others' attention that created excellent conditions for Cheng Tian to fish in troubled waters.
With the cooperation of the grateful Nero Cat, small-bodied Poison-Winged Vampire Mosquitoes began to silently suck the blood of the fighters.
After all, Nero Cat's prototype was one of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors; in terms of "vampirism," indeed few could surpass it. It could extract others' blood through forceful frontal attacks, or it could collect it by hiding undetected.
Its proboscis, as fine as an ox's hair, the anesthetic substance secreted during bloodsucking, the infinite reserves that could be re-summoned even if discovered and killed, plus Cheng Tian's presence, like a mobile base vehicle that could complete resource recovery with a mere touch, all meant that the portable laboratory suddenly had many unscheduled fighter blood samples.
Given the current laboratory technology and the amount of blood obtained, it was clearly not yet usable. But if NESTS' cloning technology could be acquired, then that would likely be another matter.
"Hm?"
Nero Cat's sudden straightening of its back made Cheng Tian look sideways, and its subsequent words made Cheng Tian's eyes widen slightly.
"There are fellow travelers, meow... and more than one."
Nero Cat, having said this, paused and subtly glanced at Cheng Tian.
In fact, the first time it saw Cheng Tian, it also thought Cheng Tian was some kind of vampire. This was actually an effect brought about by loading the Dio Brando template.
However, Cheng Tian loaded an enhanced version, and it was essentially a template specialized for fighting games, so it erased Dio's negative traits like fear of sunlight and Hamon energy.
Cheng Tian, maintaining the loaded template, had indeed temporarily switched to a vampire bloodline, but he was a vampire without weaknesses and without any urge to suck blood.
"Appearance or approximate location, I'll try to pinpoint it."
Cheng Tian, pressing his sword fingers to his right temple, began searching with his Dominator.
It didn't take much effort for Cheng Tian to successfully pinpoint the shapes and outlines of the two "fellow travelers" Nero Cat mentioned.
One was a muscular man with too much hair gel, hidden in the shadows.
The other was a small figure elegantly sipping tea, seated in a cafe.
"...Tonight, something is definitely going to happen!"
This was Cheng Tian's conclusion after pinpointing the targets' outlines.