Chapter 21: King's Ultimate Technique Is Named...
Only after the thugs had completely fled...
A teacher, who had just been beaten by the thugs, stood up with a face full of anger and pointed at king, questioning him, "King, why did you let them go? They are nothing but a gang of thugs! Letting them leave is like releasing a tiger back into the mountains. They will harm more people! How can you call yourself a hero for doing this?"
"That's right! This scum of society should be cleaned up immediately, otherwise more people will be harmed."
"King, why did you let the bad guys go? Aren't heroes supposed to defeat all the bad guys and protect the good people?"
king's brow furrowed slightly, his face flushing a faint red. Without answering, he left the assembly hall as if fleeing.
His escort, Mike, watched king's lonely figure, feeling extremely annoyed at the teachers. King saved you, and not only are you ungrateful, you use your words to stab at King's heart. This is too much.
"King, don't think you can escape! We'll write a complaint letter to the Hero Association to hold you accountable!"
"Taking our taxpayer money and not doing your job! We won't let this go!"
"To think I used to see you as my idol. Now you're just a disgusting object to me, ugh~ blegh!"
king was long gone, but the teachers continued to chatter incessantly.
Mike's temper flared. "Enough! Why did King let those thugs go? Can't you see? King let that gang of thugs go for your sake!"
"..."
The teachers were stunned into silence by Mike's shout, staring blankly at the agitated Mike.
Mike roared emotionally at the teachers, "With King's power, he could have easily killed all those thugs. But! That gang of thugs was armed with assault rifles. If they had started to resist, how many of you and the children would have died under a hail of bullets? Have you ever thought about that? King is the strongest man on earth! No matter how strong the monster, no matter how cruel the villain, no one has ever survived an encounter with him. But today, to save you, he watched with his own eyes as the thugs left! This is the first time... the first time any villains have walked away from King alive! This incident will become a stain on King's combat record, do you understand? King was thinking of you, but what did you do? You used your sharp tongues to deeply wound King's heart! The harm done to King by monsters and thugs is nothing compared to the words from your mouths..."
The teachers stared blankly at the emotional Mike, a glimmer of understanding flashing in their eyes. So, King had sullied his own perfect record to save them. And they, in turn, had deeply wounded King's righteous heart. What had they done?!
Thud!
The first teacher who had accused king suddenly dropped to his knees, his face streaming with tears as he cried out in anguish, "King, I was wrong..."
"We were wrong too!"
The teachers lowered their heads in shame.
...
Pshhh!
Inside a restroom at the Sunflower Kindergarten, the continuous sound of urination could be heard. king let out a sigh of relief. He had been scared into needing to pee just now. Fortunately, he had relied on his composure and quick wits to handle the problem with the thugs.
"Hmm, right. Those few teachers just now seemed very agitated and asked me something. What was it? Oh well, my attention was completely focused on holding my pee, so I didn't hear clearly. How embarrassing. How am I supposed to answer when I go back? Forget it, I'll just leave directly. It'll save me the trouble of dealing with the children and teachers who are fanatically worshiping me."
As for the hero promotional event... sigh, in this situation, with the teachers and children scared silly, who would still be in the mood to listen to him make up stories?
He left the restroom and quietly returned to the car. After waiting for a while, he saw an indignant-looking Mike return.
"King, are you alright?" Mike said excitedly. "I've already taught them a lesson. They know they were wrong now." This group of teachers were supposed to be cultured people! To think they couldn't see King's deeper meaning. All their education was for nothing.
"It's nothing. I can understand them. Everyone has moments of confusion. Once they calm down, they'll regain their rationality."
For teachers to lose their composure like that in front of students would set a bad example. They really did need a good talking-to. However, rabid fan worship was something that existed throughout history, both in the 2D and 3D worlds. He was in no position to blame these fans who were madly obsessed with him.
Of course, one thing had to be said: rabid fandom was unacceptable! Just a few days ago, a fan of the Underpants Monster had fallen into a coma and was imprisoned because of it. That was a tragic lesson. Here, he would once again tell everyone to be a rational fan—it's better for you, for them, and for everyone.
king thought to himself.
Mike said with deep respect, "King, you are the most magnanimous person I have ever met. Perhaps only with your invincible strength can you possess such a broad-minded and humble disposition."
"Huh?"
king didn't reply. He felt Mike was exaggerating too much. Isn't it normal for a celebrity to forgive their own crazed fans? Sigh, he's praising me so much, it's a little embarrassing.
...
After dropping king off at the train station, Mike returned directly to headquarters to report on the day's events.
king boarded the train alone. Sitting down, he pulled up his attribute panel.
Name: king
English Name: King
Level: 4
Experience: 713/1500
Stamina: 4
Strength: 3
Speed: 13
Defense: 2
Luck: Hidden attribute, unviewable, unchangeable
Attribute Points: 5
Skill: Liquid Ejection Lv1: Ejects liquid to attack the enemy.
Skill Points: 3
Cards: One-Star Card: Vaccine Man (Young), Two-Star Card: Fanta Man, Four-Star Monster: Vaccine Man
Friendly Reminders:
1. A normal person's attributes are all 5! The maximum value is 100!
2. Skill power depends on its level and is not affected by the character's own stats, but the number of times a skill can be used is affected by the Stamina attribute!
"Hm? I comprehended a skill."
king smiled with satisfaction. The situation had been urgent, so he had used a Two-Star Card, Sprite Man, and gained over a thousand experience points. What surprised him even more was that he had finally succeeded in comprehending a skill from a card character, something he had never managed before.
"Skill power depends on its level?"
He continued reading down. After finishing the friendly reminders, his eyes lit up. He eagerly asked the System, "Hey, System, what's the highest level for a skill? Are there any restrictions on adding skill points to skills?"
"Ding! According to the System's settings, the maximum level for all skills is Level 5. A skill's power increases with its level. However, the number of times a skill can be used is affected by the host's Stamina. Each use of a skill will consume the host's Stamina. If Stamina is insufficient, the skill cannot be used. Additionally, it should be noted that from host Level 1-10, skills can be upgraded to a maximum of Level 1. From Level 11-20, skills can be upgraded to a maximum of Level 2... and from Level 41-50, skills can be upgraded to the maximum Level 5."
"I have an F-bomb to drop, and I don't know if I should."
king's expression went blank. This System setting was such a rip-off. Based on his observations, the System's various settings actually corresponded to the real world. For instance, Mysterious Beings had Wolf, Tiger, Demon, Dragon, and God levels—five levels. Cards also had five stars, and skills had five levels. This meant a Level 1 skill was equivalent to the power of a Wolf Level Mysterious Being, a Level 2 skill was equivalent to a Tiger-level Mysterious Being, and so on, making a Level 5 skill equivalent to the power of a God-level Mysterious Being.
What infuriated him was that the System had strictly limited his opportunity to raise his skill levels. According to the System's settings, before he reached Level 10, no matter how much he struggled, his skill level could only be Lv1, which was equivalent to the power of a Wolf Level Mysterious Being.
In other words, it was currently impossible for him to rely on skills to crush Demon, Dragon, and God-level threats. To possess the strength to defeat such beings, he could only level up honestly and raise his attributes along the way. Because without Stamina, even if your skill reached max level, you would just have a big cannon without any cannonballs.
Of course, raising his Stamina in the early stages wasn't very useful, as the skill level restrictions meant it wouldn't help much.
After sorting through this, he knew where he should put his future attribute points.
Previously, he believed that in all of martial arts, only speed was unbeatable, so he had put all his attribute points from leveling up into speed. But after several crises with Mysterious Beings, he found that he never had a chance to use his running speed.
Therefore, he decided that in the future, he would mainly add attribute points to defense. As the saying goes: Let the raging waves crash against the shore, I remain unmoved. Let blades and axes fall upon my body, my diamond-like form is indestructible.
Hmph, when my defense is maxed out, just you try to touch a single hair on my body. If you can pull one out, I'll admit defeat!
...
While king was heading home, Mike had already returned to headquarters and was reporting the day's events to Sitch in the Operations Department's strategy room.
When he heard that king had opened his mouth and spat out an energy wave with the power of a hand grenade, Sitch's golden eyebrows furrowed. "Describe the process of King's move in detail."
"Yes, Director."
Mike spoke fluently, "The situation at the time was extremely critical. The thug leader with the mushroom-cut hair raised his gun to shoot at King. In the nick of time, King suddenly opened his mouth. It was as if a high-power light bulb had been stuffed inside, emitting a dazzling light. The next second, like a flashlight being turned on, a ball of light shot towards the thug leader, blasting and heavily injuring him."
Hey, buddy! All king did was spit. How did it become an energy wave of immense radiance when you tell it? Won't you get fined for spreading such nonsense?
"Hiss~"
After hearing Mike's description, Sitch and the others gasped. They had seen Tatsumaki's psychic powers, Atomic Samurai's swordsmanship, Bang's martial arts, Superalloy Darkshine's pure physical strength, Metal Knight's mechanical power, Flashy Flash's demonic speed, and Pig God's stomach that could swallow an elephant.
But this was the first time they had heard of a hero who could fire energy waves. Combined with the confirmation last time that King possessed psychic abilities, they realized that the more they dug, the deeper and more mysterious King became.
"Ke Erhe, you're in charge of hero information management. Verify what Mike has said as soon as possible." After calming down, Sitch instructed, "If the information is correct, then this ultimate technique of King's shall be named..."
"King Style Ultimate Ki Technique—Emperor's Mouth Cannon!"
...
Just twenty or thirty more favorites until we hit 200! Please add it to your collection! I'll release an extra chapter at 200! (Rolling around on the ground, begging for more collections~)
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(end of chapter)