Chapter 90: Games > Women
That said, circling back to the topic of conquest difficulty—Ryū genuinely believed Kaguya Shinomiya was the easiest route. Bar none. Not even close.
Of course, that was only the current state of affairs. Whether an even more innocent member might join later—
That, he couldn't say. In any case, the chat group was currently running a pretty severe gender imbalance.
Male members significantly outnumbered female members.
As it stood, the Dimensional Chat Group's female roster consisted of exactly three: Kaguya Shinomiya, Tatsumaki, and Yukari Yakumo.
Then there was Ryū himself, Josuke, Whitebeard, Wolffy, and Ying Zheng—all male.
As for the Little Wandering Planet… that was a special case. Gender: unclear.
* * *
If we call it "Mother Earth," then what's Mount Everest supposed to be?
And if we call it "Father Earth," then what's up with those Grand Canyons?
In any case, as the Admin of the chat group, making moves on his own members—
That would be utterly shameful.
That would be universally condemned.
Ryū silently admonished himself. The entire conquest-ranking exercise had been pure headcanon anyway, and right now, he really didn't want to be directing his attention toward that sort of thing. After all, he was only "seventeen" years old.
A minor talking about romance? Gaming makes me happy. Games > women.
An intense survival instinct told Ryū—
He absolutely could not cross that line.
Otherwise, he'd run into a certain mythical beast.
* * *
Reeling in all the wild thoughts rattling around in his head, scattering the inexplicable train of thought that had somehow sprouted—
Ryū steadied himself, then turned his gaze to the so-called "Strongest Man on Earth's Surface" standing before him.
"I'm not Tatsumaki's boyfriend," Ryū clarified. "We're just regular friends."
"Yeah, right—" King caught himself mid-scoff, hastily adjusting his tone. "Ahem! Oh, I see. My apologies for the presumption."
King scrambled to course-correct, apparently oblivious to the fact that he'd just completely blown his cover.
Not that it mattered—Ryū, who'd read the original, already knew King was just an ordinary person.
But Ryū didn't say anything about it.
He didn't have that kind of mean streak.
Sure, King's whole situation was a bit problematic, but it was none of Ryū's business. He'd be in the One-Punch Man world for three days at most.
If it didn't concern him—
If it didn't affect the chat group's interests—
Why would he expose the guy?
What, was he bored?
* * *
An awkward silence settled over them, though inside King's head, his imagination was running wild.
He still didn't know the name of this young man—who looked underage, who clearly had some kind of special relationship with Tatsumaki, and who was extremely likely to be Tatsumaki's boyfriend.
But the one thing he was now convinced of: this kid was almost certainly Tatsumaki's boyfriend.
Under the relentless engine of King's headcanon, that probability had climbed to ninety percent.
As for Ryū's denial just now? King had selectively ignored it.
"Little Tatsumaki has a boyfriend now, huh…" King mused to himself. "Maybe I should think about getting a girlfriend too?"
He mulled it over briefly, then abandoned the idea.
Girlfriends could wait.
What kind of girlfriend could possibly be more fun than video games?
Gaming > girlfriend!
* * *
Time ticked by, minute by minute. Ryū kept his attention on the battle's progress, and it wasn't until Whitebeard had effortlessly and definitively killed Boros's officer that he finally looked away.
As for the fight between Saitama and Boros—that was now reaching its climax.
From this position, the actual combat was impossible to see.
But from the way the spaceship was convulsing violently, shuddering like it was about to fall out of the sky at any moment—
It was obvious that a battle of absolutely terrifying proportions was raging up there.
Ryū naturally wasn't suicidal enough to go up for a closer look.
He had at least that much self-awareness.
At his current power level, getting anywhere near that fight meant even the shockwaves alone would be more than he could handle. This Group Event had honestly been a bit of a raw deal—what were the odds they'd land right in the middle of Boros's invasion of Earth?
If the One-Punch Man world didn't have Saitama—that walking cheat code—holding down the fort—
The entire chat group would probably have had to rally behind Tatsumaki to save her world.
And the one fighting Boros would have been a member of the Dimensional Chat Group instead.
Though realistically, probably only Yukari could have gone toe-to-toe with Boros.
She was the group's undisputed top-tier combat asset, after all.
As for Old Man Whitebeard—sure, he'd been enhanced with Points too.
But the gap between Whitebeard and Boros was still massive.
* * *
The ending didn't require any guesswork on Ryū's part.
Because the fight between Saitama and Boros couldn't possibly last more than ten minutes.
When the clouds in the sky above vanished in an instant—
Ryū murmured quietly: "Looks like our hot-blooded youth has met his tragic end at the hands of the Overlord."
And just like that—from start to finish, the battle had been blisteringly fast.
Compare that to fights in the One Piece world, where combatants routinely slugged it out for days and nights on end.
The two weren't even in the same league.
If he remembered correctly, in the anime, Boros had debuted midway through Episode 10, the ship was mostly wrecked by Episode 11, and Boros had collected his lunch box by Episode 12. So he'd survived all of two and a half episodes.
Meanwhile, in One Piece, even a throwaway side-character captain could drag out a fight with the protagonist for a good ten-plus episodes before finally going down.
Ah, classic OPM pacing. The combat tempo really was something else.
Ryū marveled at it for a moment.
Then had nothing more to add.
All he could say was: Saitama, you absolute monster.
Those cheats were no joke.
* * *
He shifted his consciousness into the Dimensional Chat Group.
RawrSoFierce: @Everyone — Hot-Blooded Youth Boros has been blown to smithereens. Looks like we can finally relax for the remaining two days.
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Huh? He got blown up that fast?
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: This one assumed it would take at least a few hours.
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: No matter—this one has more or less finished dismantling the ship anyway. Anything that looked remotely useful has been confiscated.
Kaguya-sama: Yukari-nee-sama has transformed into a ruthless demolition profiteer.
Green Grasslands Wolf King: Jealous…
Edward Newgate: That was one satisfying fight! Looks like this old man's strength has fully recovered to his prime—no, surpassed it!
Crazy Diamond: So with the boss dead, does that mean we can actually go sightseeing now?
Crazy Diamond: Problem is, City A is a pile of rubble…
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Relaaax. This one can just open a gap corridor and we can go to any city we want.
Kaguya-sama: Yukari-nee-sama is incredible!
Terrible Tornado: Surfacing… Just finished watching the fight between Saitama and Boros from a distance. Recorded the whole thing on video. A fight on that level is absolutely terrifying.
Terrible Tornado: Video has been uploaded to Group Files.
Kaguya-sama: Tatsumaki-nee-sama is incredible!
Terrible Tornado: Pfft… Can't you come up with a different line, Little Kaguya?
Kaguya-sama: Tatsumaki-nee-sama is incredible (voice cracking)!
Terrible Tornado: How is that any different?!
☆☆☆
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