Chapter 276: Yukari's Shock
Dragon Ball's "Ki" was conceptually simple and blunt as a system, but its ceiling was incomprehensibly high.
By mid-series the fights were rearranging geology. Protagonists and antagonists trading energy beams generated splashback that threatened the planet. The Dragon Ball world's Earth had been destroyed and wished back more times than any reasonable person should count. If a prize existed for the most frequently obliterated planet in all of fiction, it would be uncontested.
Master Roshi's understanding of Ki was foundational to the entire setting. By the mid and later Dragon Ball timeline his raw power couldn't compete with Super Saiyans and various alien combatants, but the title "God of Martial Arts" stuck to him for a reason. His theoretical comprehension of Ki had reached a kind of mastery that transcended his own physical ceiling.
The physical ceiling was the problem — human constitution, human talent, the inherent limits of the species. Against Super Saiyans and Namekians and whatever else the universe kept producing, the human body simply hit walls.
He wrote quickly. Page after page, characters dense enough to be slightly illegible but individually recognizable. When the fifth and sixth pages were complete, he set the pen down and exhaled.
"Everything I have. Three thousand characters, give or take." He looked at the stack of paper, then at the Chat Group interface. "Now, how exactly do I upload this?"
He navigated to the group files and found the answer immediately — a pinned tutorial at the top of the directory, authored by the Admin, with step-by-step screenshots.
He also found, while he was there, what others had already contributed.
Whitebeard had uploaded: Six Powers Complete Guide with Personal Notes, Two-Sword Style Fundamentals, One-Sword Style Fundamentals, Armament Haki Complete Guide, Observation Haki Complete Guide, Basic Physical Training Methods.
Kizaru had uploaded: Devil Fruit Development Concepts and Directions, Life Return Complete Guide.
And Yukari — Yukari had uploaded thirty-something files. Gensokyo Magic System Complete Guide, Spell Card Creation and Usage, How to Absorb Spiritual Energy, Elemental Magic Beginner's Compendium, Curse Magic Beginner's Compendium, Meditation Fundamentals… and on, and on.
"The group Admin uploaded an upload tutorial too. Thoughtful."
Following the instructions, Master Roshi uploaded his document and titled it: Turtle Hermit School — Ki Cultivation, Application, and Techniques.
The title made clear he'd included the Kamehameha and related techniques alongside the foundational cultivation theory.
That explained the three thousand characters.
[Member "Master Roshi" has uploaded a group file: Turtle Hermit School — Ki Cultivation, Application, and Techniques. Click [Link] to view.]
Wandering Little Planet: Turtle Hermit School? What's this? Is the new member's world also one where cultivation is possible?
Master Roshi: …Well, calling it cultivation isn't wrong. Ki can only be built up through practice.
Eternally Seventeen: File received — let me take a look at the new member's cultivation system.
Eternally Seventeen: …HOLY. This is real?! The tiers and structure of this "Ki" system — this absolutely scales to star-busting capability!
Kaguya-sama: S-star-busting? The new member is actually a powerhouse — bowing in reverence!
Crazy Diamond: Master Roshi-dono, please take me under your wing! I can serve tea, I can do anything!
Eternally Seventeen: This is a cultivation system on a genuinely higher tier than Gensokyo's. Significantly higher.
RawrSoFierce: You've been overestimating Gensokyo's system, actually. Master Roshi's world is called Dragon Ball — a series where by the midpoint characters can use planets as marbles. His Ki document describes the system at a level that looks only slightly above Gensokyo's, because in Dragon Ball terms, he's at the bottom of the power rankings. And the character at the bottom of the Dragon Ball power rankings can destroy the Moon with a single full-power attack.
Edward Newgate: Hss… old Whitebeard downloaded the file immediately without another word. Still have 5,000 Points left, learning it right now. Hmm — requires 20,000 Points for instant acquisition?
Admiral Kizaru: …I spent every last Point and now I'm watching this unfold with profound regret~
"…"
Several members who'd held back some Points were looking at the situation with something between interest and discomfort. Several who had spent everything were experiencing something closer to despair.
If Ryū himself was calling it a star-busting cultivation system — and the midpoint capability was casual planet destruction — what did the late stages look like? Galaxy-scale?
Even Yukari, the gap youkai sage, had let out an exclamation of genuine shock. If she was reacting like that to the file, the system's quality was not in question.
And Yukari was, in fact, deeply unsettled.
She hadn't expected the new member's world to be at this level. Destroying planets casually.
Before the Chat Group, she'd lost a war against the Moon. It had taken a six-figure Point windfall from the Void Beast mission to bring her to the point where she felt she might be able to destroy the Moon.
And now a new member arrived who could already do that — as his floor performance, from the bottom of his world's power rankings.
What have I been doing with several thousand years of existence?
She caught herself.
"I am only seventeen years old. Seventeen, and already at this level — I'm a genius among geniuses. Yes. That's the story."
The internal pep talk helped somewhat.
She was the Chat Group's previous number-one combatant, and the Void Beast mission's Point rewards had pushed her to a new tier. In Arena testing, she estimated her current full-power strike could destroy a Moon. She'd been ready to gloat about this.
The timing was unfortunate.
"So if I want to learn this with Points… instant acquisition costs 20,000 Points? Wait — the system notification doesn't say 'instant acquisition at Beginner level.' It says instant acquisition means you already know it. No proficiency mechanic. Either you cultivate Ki the traditional way, or you pay Points to jump-start your Ki reserves."
This was different from most skills in the Chat Group's system, but not unfamiliar — the spiritual energy absorption from Gensokyo's magic system worked the same way. When she'd been teaching Umaru, Eriri, and Sakura, she'd noticed that absorbing spiritual energy had no proficiency tiers.
Points could buy instant knowledge, but the depth of one's reserves only came from practice or direct Point investment in capacity.
The framework had a pattern: "techniques" had proficiency and ceilings; "cultivation methods" had neither — they were the root, and their ceiling was wherever the practitioner could take them.
Ryū's physical training sat in the "cultivation method" category — his constitution had no ceiling by definition. His Armament Haki, Observation Haki, Six Powers, and Life Return were "techniques" — proficiency levels, ceilings, the whole structure.
"Afterimage Fist, Kamehameha, Drunken Fist — those have proficiency tiers, can be advanced from Beginner through Mastery to Perfection. But the problem is I've spent almost everything. I have 2,000 Points left."
First time Yukari had genuinely felt broke.
She wasn't discouraged. Paying 20,000 Points for instant Ki acquisition was a shortcut born of impatience, and if the shortcut wasn't available, the direct path remained. Yukari did not believe for a moment that a youkai sage of her caliber couldn't learn to cultivate Ki by working through the group file at her own pace.
Ridiculous. She was a youkai sage. She was unstoppable. The money issue was irrelevant.
Ryū's reasoning ran along similar lines. His Points balance was also insufficient for instant acquisition — but that was fine. Manual cultivation over time. With his current constitution, the learning curve for Ki would probably be shorter than average.
Because his bare physical strength, without Armament Haki, without anything — was already at a level where he could, with a single casual punch, shatter the Grand Line's Reverse Mountain.
Shatter. Not topple. Shatter.
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