Li Ke: "..."
A c-crossover anime world?!
Li Ke's brain buzzed. He instantly grabbed the punk by his collar once again.
"Are there Angels in this world?!"
He was genuinely shocked. Although his current combat power was impressive, getting involved in a fight against Angels? Besides, Angels were not something he could just mess with anyway; everything about that was completely predetermined by fate!
"What Angels?! Big bro, I don't know anything about that!!"
Staring at Li Ke's fierce, contorted expression, the punk finally lost control of his bladder.
Li Ke pressed on with a few more questions and only then confirmed that this world was not an Evangelion set. There had been no First Impact or anything of the sort near the South or North Pole. Tokyo-3 was being built solely because the previous Tokyo had been completely wiped out twice by unknown forces...
Breathing a sigh of relief, a disgusted Li Ke let go of the punk. He casually pulled out three thousand dollars from his wallet and slapped it onto the punk's face.
"Go buy yourself a new change of clothes. Besides, there's no future in being a triad thug. If I ever catch you acting like a punk again, I'll beat you up every single time I see you!"
Having finished all of this, Li Ke turned around and headed back to the motel.
"As things stand now, I need to figure out whether I should head to Japan first, or take a trip to the Mainland."
Li Ke was highly curious about the state of China in this world. After all, managing to develop nuclear fusion while heavily protecting the natural environment...
To be honest, Li Ke was a little dazed.
"Still, if my life were a novel written by an author, a plotline like this would get banned pretty easily, wouldn't it..."
Li Ke could not help but complain internally, ultimately deciding it was best not to visit the Mainland.
After all, he genuinely lacked an identification card. Trying to go there without one would only bring unnecessary trouble.
"I need to figure out a way to get my hands on some legitimate identity documents."
Stroking his chin, Li Ke peered out at the bustling night market. His eyes quickly locked onto a group of people who were visibly triad thugs. If he guessed correctly, these guys would definitely have a way to forge them—and even if they didn't, they could easily find someone who could.
Plus, they were a walking wallet.
"The web novel protagonists who came before me truly did not lie!"
Li Ke checked out of the motel. The moment he stepped through the main entrance, he began trailing the obvious gang members as they headed toward a narrow alleyway. But before he could even make a move, a man bearing an eighty percent resemblance to Stephen Chow, alongside another man who looked eighty percent like Ng Man-tat, came sprinting out of the dark, chased by a raging mob.
"Help! Uncle Tat! Didn't you say they wouldn't actually hack us to death?!"
The abrupt appearance of these main characters caught Li Ke completely off guard. By the time he snapped out of his brief daze, the two leads had already vanished around the corner. Right after that, a man wielding a pair of nunchucks suddenly cut off the path of the triad thugs he had been tailing.
Yet, before Li Ke could even get a proper look to figure out who the guy was, the man introduced himself out loud.
"Listen up, you lot! I, Wang Xiaohu, am not afraid of you!"
D-Dragon Tiger Gate?
Li Ke watched as the self-proclaimed Wang Xiaohu effortlessly wiped the floor with the thugs in a few swift moves before strutting away, leaving his mind in utter chaos.
"I need to sort this out first..."
During the day, there hadn't been a single clue in sight. Yet now, all kinds of iconic protagonists were practically materializing right in front of him. Li Ke walked over to a roasted pork rice stall and had just sat down when an arrogant voice rang out nearby.
"Mix them together to make Pissing Beef Balls, obviously! Idiot!"
He whipped his head around, and sure enough, there was yet another Stephen Chow character. When he turned his head the other way, he spotted a remarkably handsome, limping man speaking intensely to someone else.
"I've waited three years just for a chance! I want to fight for my dignity, not to prove that I'm amazing, but to tell everyone that I will absolutely take back what I lost!"
Li Ke: "..."
He took a deep breath. The char siu rice he ordered was placed right in front of him at that exact moment, and the stall owner spoke up with an apologetic expression.
"Um, excuse me, sir. These gentlemen would like to share a table with you."
"Sure."
Without even lifting his head, Li Ke agreed. It was only after the group settled into their seats that Li Ke finally looked up, finding himself staring at three incredibly miserable, long faces.
One was Stephen Chow, one was Andy Lau, and the last was Uncle Tat.
To make matters worse, all three of them let out a synchronized, heavy sigh the second they sat down.
"..."
Staring at their gloom-ridden faces, Li Ke asked tentatively.
"Are all three of you... trapped by the shackles of love?"
"Exactly!" x3
Tricky Brains or All's Well, Ends Well?
This exact question flashed across Li Ke's mind.
Shaking his head, Li Ke decided to drop the thought for now and clear his head with some late-night food. But then, a Jackie Chan lookalike walked right past him. Before he could even process his surprise, a Jet Li double approached from the opposite direction.
"..."
Setting down his chopsticks, Li Ke fell into deep thought as he watched the three men at his table start bickering and blaming one another.
Who the fuck is the main character here?
In just this short span of time, Li Ke felt like he had plummeted from having an abundance of clues straight back into being a headless chicken. He couldn't help but bury his face in his hands, wondering if he genuinely had some kind of curse on his luck.
"How am I supposed to find the storyline I'm meant to explore and the actual protagonist?"
Li Ke felt a strange itch in his skull, as if his brain was trying to force its way to a solution.
If there were only Japanese anime characters, he wouldn't hesitate for a second to head straight to Japan to look for clues. The problem was that he had dropped right into Hong Kong. With so many protagonists from Hong Kong manhua and classic Hong Kong cinema running around, who among them was the one carrying the World Fragments? Who exactly was the invader of this universe, and where were they hiding right now?
Looking at the three men arguing in front of him, Li Ke let out a helpless sigh.
"If only I could just go on a killing spree."
If these people were all monsters, Li Ke wouldn't hesitate for a single second to slaughter every last one of them.
Unfortunately, they weren't.
But immediately following that thought, a sudden flash of inspiration struck him.
"Wait, this might actually work as a different approach. As long as I cause a massive enough scene, whatever anomaly is hiding out there will naturally come looking for me. That's a perfectly viable strategy."
No matter how he sliced it, it was a hell of a lot better than being completely clueless and wandering around like a blind man.
"So, first things first: let's wipe out those triads."
Li Ke took a deep breath. Since he was going to make trouble, he might as well make it monumental. If he was going to kill people to kick over the hornets' nest, what could possibly be safer—and entirely free of any moral dilemmas—than wiping out these so-called underworld bosses, triad thugs, and drug pushers?
"Yeah, I guess I'm really just not cut out for these overly complex missions."
Gripping the gun at his waist, Li Ke threw down the money for his char siu rice and began marching straight toward the bar where Chan Ho-nam and his crew had been earlier.
Even though he couldn't remember whether Chan Ho-nam belonged to Hung Hing or whatever the hell that triad was called, it didn't matter. Since it was a gang, every single one of them had blood on their hands. He might as well start his killing spree with Chan Ho-nam.
It was true that Li Ke used to quite like the character of Chan Ho-nam back in the day. But thinking about it critically, Chan Ho-nam had started pushing drugs when he was barely a kid, and he had never shown a single shred of remorse.
A guy like that absolutely deserved to die.
"Sorry about this, but who told you guys to be the perfect targets? Killing you lot won't make me uncomfortable in the slightest—in fact, my conscience will be completely at ease."
A bloodthirsty gleam flickered deep within Li Ke's eyes. Ever since he arrived here, he had already witnessed countless gang members oppressing innocent civilians. He was thoroughly disgusted by the whole atmosphere of this place.
Since these triad thugs prided themselves so much on loyalty and brotherhood, then...
They could go right ahead and join their fallen predecessors in hell!
With too many overlapping clues and a completely tangled web of information, he had no family or connections here, making it impossible to find anything quietly. In that case, he would force the plot to come to him!
He, Li Ke, had long since become a lawless madman anyway!
Besides, this wasn't even the real Earth!
With a violent kick, Li Ke slammed open the bar's heavy doors. He instantly bared the M16 strapped to his back and opened fire without warning on the group of brothers surrounding Chan Ho-nam.
The head of the guy named either Chicken or Pou-pan was the very first to burst like a rotten tomato. Li Ke intentionally held back against Chan Ho-nam, choosing not to kill him on the spot, but instead shattering one of his arms and one of his legs with precise shots.
The bar instantly erupted into absolute chaos. Li Ke fired a few more rounds, putting down the remaining triad thugs, before activating his Observation Haki and stepping calmly toward the mangled Chan Ho-nam writhing on the floor.
"Yo! Kid, if you want to keep your life, tell me where the other triads' strongholds are, and where your boss's rival hangs out... See? I'm not even asking you to betray your own gang. Pretty generous of me, wouldn't you say?"
With a smirk, Li Ke patted Chan Ho-nam's face with his gun. The blistering heat of the barrel sent a sharp twitch through the handsome face. After a brief silence, Chan Ho-nam cracked under the pressure of the firearm and spoke up, revealing the strongholds of several rival gangs. However, he kept his mouth completely shut regarding his own boss's nemesis.
"Hmph, trying to be clever."
Li Ke did not say another word, nor did he bother finishing him off. Chan Ho-nam was already done for; even if the ambulance arrived right this second, it would be impossible to save his life.
Without missing a beat, he rushed to the next venue, where he indeed ran into several familiar faces.
Some looked exactly like Louis Koo, while others resembled other highly iconic celebrities. In any case, Li Ke couldn't tell you their names, but he did manage to corner a few big bosses.
He immediately used his machine gun to wipe out the underlings who clearly had blood on their hands. He then suppressed those bosses to squeeze out information about their competitors. Once again, Li Ke charged forward without a moment's delay and completely leveled the locations they spat out.