Chapter 93: It's All Admin-dono's Conspiracy
With his decision made, Ryū didn't waste any time. He used the Skill Proficiency Upgrade Card on Observation Haki immediately.
What had been Low-tier Observation Haki was instantly elevated to Intermediate.
The moment it upgraded, Ryū felt as though his entire sensory apparatus had undergone an earth-shaking transformation.
It was hard to put into words, but even with his eyes closed, he felt confident he could effortlessly thrash Kakashi all over again. Or Kakashi and Guy together—he'd still dominate.
His entire being had become something like a human radar. And the coverage range of his Observation Haki had expanded by an order of magnitude he couldn't even quantify.
Somewhat like divine sense from a xianxia novel? The concept was similar, at least.
"Intermediate Observation Haki is… kind of terrifying," Ryū murmured. "Compared to Low-tier, it's not even in the same dimension. You literally cannot compare the two."
"Just upgrading Observation Haki to Intermediate alone has sent my combat power skyrocketing by several tiers. No wonder in the One Piece world, the gap between someone who has Haki and someone who doesn't is a one-sided slaughter."
Ryū suppressed the surprise welling up inside him and cleared his mind.
Then he poured the 3,000 Points from the Gift Pack into developing his Paramecia-type Decompose-Decompose Fruit.
A flood of information surged into his brain—new techniques, applications, refinements in fruit mastery—all of it erupting at once.
His head didn't hurt, though. If anything, there was a sensation of clarity—like the mental fog lifting all at once, the way a headache suddenly and completely vanishes.
"So where does my strength actually stand now?" Ryū wondered. "Stronger than before—absolutely. But by exactly how much… I still have no frame of reference."
He mulled it over briefly, then gave up thinking about it entirely.
Because there was simply nothing to think about. No data, no baseline.
Unless someone of roughly equal strength appeared and fought him right now, no amount of introspection would tell him where his actual limits lay.
But where was he supposed to find an evenly matched opponent?
* * *
The Third Hokage?
The Fourth Hokage?
Danzō, the Pot-Stirrer-in-Chief?
Orochimaru?
Currently in Konoha, aside from those four, the only noteworthy fighters were Kakashi, Guy, Itachi Uchiha, and a handful of others. As for the old-guard Jōnin, Ryū had no idea—the manga hadn't exactly featured them.
"But I can't exactly go around picking fights for no reason, can I?"
Ryū sighed lightly. Being a salted fish was probably still the way to go.
Outside of practicing his Six Powers, Haki, and Fruit abilities, he'd spend the rest of his time gaming and watching anime. Good enough.
* * *
Just as he was about to fire up a game he was on the verge of completing—
The Dimensional Chat Group's notification chime rang in his head.
Ding-dong.
Ryū's consciousness entered the chat group.
Someone had @'d him.
And that someone appeared to be… Tatsumaki?
Terrible Tornado: @Admin-dono …Did you say something weird to King?
Terrible Tornado: He came up to me today and asked if you were my BOYFRIEND. Aaaargh, it was so embarrassing! And the other heroes all heard it!
RawrSoFierce: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ Huh?!
RawrSoFierce: No. Absolutely not. I definitely did NOT say anything weird.
RawrSoFierce: It's definitely just King headcanoning way too hard.
Terrible Tornado: …Why does that sound approximately zero percent credible?
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: BREAKING: Admin-dono lays his villainous claws upon a female group member!
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Is it the degradation of human nature? Or the erosion of morality? Find out tonight at 8 PM on… The Yukari Yakumo Talk Show!
Kaguya-sama: Female group members trembling in fear. Waaah…
Terrible Tornado: Female group members trembling in fear. Waaah…
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Female group members gradually becoming degenerate. Heh heh heh…
Kaguya-sama: Hmm… did something weird just sneak into that chain?
Kaguya-sama: Yukari-nee-sama has revealed her… perv—I mean, refined lady attributes!
* * *
Ryū nearly coughed up blood. That one thoughtless remark he'd tossed out—King had actually taken it at face value.
This was something he had absolutely not anticipated. A blind spot in his knowledge.
Why were people in the One-Punch Man world so obsessed with headcanon?
Even King was like this? It was a throwaway comment! How could anyone interpret that as a sincere confession?!
Ryū's face was a perfect portrait of bewilderment.
Terrible Tornado: It's over. I've explained it dozens of times and the S-Class heroes all just keep saying 'you're 28, getting a boyfriend is perfectly normal, no need to be shy about it.'
Terrible Tornado: SHY? SHY ABOUT WHAT?! I wanted to blow their heads off!
Terrible Tornado: And some A-Class heroes heard it too!
Terrible Tornado: No… I have to shut them up. I absolutely cannot let this rumor spread. With my level of fame, it'd be on every major media outlet on the planet within days.
* * *
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: This is actually all part of Admin-dono's master plan!
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: First, he uses a calculated scheme to throw you off balance. Then he lets the rumor spread until everyone believes you're his girlfriend.
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: And then later, once your relationship with Admin-dono has gotten… passably decent, he swoops in with a confession…
Kaguya-sama: …There's actually… a play that devious?
Kaguya-sama: That's not just Yukari-nee-sama's headcanon, is it?
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: No! This is DEFINITELY what Admin-dono is thinking!
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Hssss… Such a profound stratagem! Absolutely a guaranteed one-scam-one-girlfriend technique. And then Admin-dono begins his grand harem route!
[Member "The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden" has been muted by an administrator for 30 minutes]
Ryū silently hit the 30-minute mute button, giving Yukari some time to cool off.
He was confident the Sage of Youkai would get used to this particular combo meal eventually.
As for whether she'd lose her mind over it—well, that wasn't his problem.
Kaguya-sama: Pfft… Just as I predicted—Yukari-nee-sama successfully courted death once again and has been thrown into solitary confinement by Admin-dono.
Crazy Diamond: Yukari-senpai's daily routine: court death, get solitary confinement.
Kaguya-sama: I have a feeling Yukari-nee-sama is about to lose it again.
Kaguya-sama: But then again, this is probably just her normal cycle at this point: Yukari-nee-sama provokes Admin-dono → Admin-dono reaches his limit → Yukari-nee-sama gets muted → Yukari-nee-sama loses her mind → Yukari-nee-sama respawns at full HP. It's a complete gameplay loop by now.
☆☆☆
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