"Brilliant!"
In the stands, Kure could not help applauding. As an Explorer, he had thought Lily—whose nickname was Tutu—was doomed for sure. Yet she had actually found a way out in a hopeless situation.
Face? What face? Explorers did not care about that stuff. Once this world was over, she would leave anyway. Who was ever going to run into her again?
Staying alive and completing the mission were what truly mattered.
There was nothing shameful about earning Endspace Coins.
"What the hell? Is she surrendering? And she calls herself a fighter?"
"Hahaha! This is Kouou Academy’s representative? What a joke. Some new-era female Kengan fighter—she dropped straight to her knees before the Fang of Metsudo."
"She was going to make history? Hahaha, she sure will—but it’ll be a disgraceful chapter of it."
"..."
After several seconds of initial silence, the audience erupted in laughter and ridicule.
The people from Kouou Girls’ Academy looked especially awful. Shion Soryuin’s fists were clenched so tightly they had turned purple. Staring at Lily’s kneeling figure below, she muttered, "What exactly are you trying to do?"
She had agreed to Lily’s request, assuming that Lily had simply been overconfident—that was why she had challenged the Fang of Metsudo in her very first match.
Shion was not afraid of Lily losing, but she had never imagined it would turn into this.
Could Lily have been sent by a rival faction to humiliate them? Had she deliberately done this just to make Kouou Academy look ridiculous?
It could not possibly be that Luke’s aura had crushed her so badly she could not breathe, forcing her to kneel the moment she entered the ring... could it?
The situation in the arena descended into utter chaos. Even host Sayaka Katahara was at a loss for how to salvage it. "Oh—what is happening? Could the Fang of Metsudo have already made his move before any of us noticed? The Ghost-Killing King has fallen to her knees! What could this bizarre scene possibly mean?"
Luke’s mouth twitched as he listened to Sayaka’s commentary. He wanted to know what the hell was going on too.
"What does this mean? If you don’t want to fight, surrender yourself. Or do you want me to send you out?"
Luke frowned. "Once you step into a Kengan ring, I won’t treat you differently because you’re a woman. You have three seconds to surrender."
Lily, meanwhile, breathed a sigh of relief. This monstrously powerful boss did not seem to be some bloodthirsty lunatic. He was someone she could talk to.
Thanks to Luke’s confusion and the crowd’s chatter, thirty seconds had already passed since the match began. Her main mission was complete.
Having earned the right to return, she could have Endspace extract her right now. As for the strange contradiction of vanishing in front of everyone, Endspace would smooth it over.
But she did not leave immediately, because that went against the teachings of the [Survival Handbook].
"Thank you for sparing me, boss. I’ll give you three thousand. Go easy on me and send me out of the ring."
Lily—or rather, the Explorer Tutu—spoke quietly.
She had used Luke to complete her mission. He would figure it out soon enough, and he was bound to be unhappy about it.
As Explorers of the same tier, they might meet again in another world someday. According to the [Survival Handbook], she needed to show some tact. That way, when they met again, he would not cut her down—and perhaps she could even keep riding his coattails.
"Huh?"
Luke was completely dumbfounded. He had not expected to gain an unexpected income while fighting in the preliminaries. Why was his opponent giving him Endspace Coins?
He could not make sense of it for the moment, but money offered up on a silver platter was still money. The instant he heard there was cash in it for him, Lily suddenly looked much more pleasing to the eye. What a lovely, beautiful girl.
So he sprang into the air and kicked the just-rising Lily in the abdomen, sending her flying more than ten meters.
The kick looked heavy and devastating, but he had used a clever application of force. Lily would not be injured, and she landed lightly.
Still, Lily played along perfectly. After hitting the ground, she tilted her head to one side and rolled her eyes back until only the whites showed, just short of foaming at the mouth.
The referee stood there blankly for several seconds before he came to his senses. He walked over to inspect Lily’s condition, then announced the result. "The winner: the Fang of Metsudo, Luke!"
Yet the atmosphere in the venue was deeply strange. There were no cheers, because the Fang of Metsudo had not displayed any superhuman strength. To the many fighters present, Luke’s kick had not seemed powerful at all, yet Lily had gone down.
Could this be a fixed match? Was there some kind of backstage deal?
"What a strange match. Unfortunately, we were unable to witness the Fang of Metsudo’s true strength. We can only wait for his challenger in the second round!"
Sayaka Katahara tried to smooth things over and hype up the crowd, but everyone was still whispering among themselves, suspecting Chairman Katahara of arranging a fixed match.
As Chairman Katahara’s daughter, Sayaka knew better than anyone that her father would never pull such petty tricks. Besides, with Luke’s freakishly overwhelming strength, why would he need a planted opponent?
Even if they were going to arrange a fixed match, they would not put on such a clumsy opening act where someone immediately dropped to their knees.
After leaving the arena and arriving backstage, Luke found Lily already waiting for him. The moment they met, she sent him a trade request.
"Oh? You’re pretty well-off."
Luke was somewhat surprised. The trade panel clearly displayed three thousand Endspace Coins. Ordinary Explorers generally would not have the spare funds to keep that much money before entering a world.
"It’s all I have left. To be honest, I’ve made quite a bit in this world already. I could only survive by getting past you, so I have to thank you for letting me go, boss."
Tutu explained that her main mission had several stages, and she had also completed a side mission at Kouou Academy. She had already earned over ten thousand Endspace Coins in this world.
But the penalty for failing the final stage of that damn main mission was execution. She had no way out. If she fought Luke, she believed she would certainly die.
"Not bad. You know how things work."
Luke nodded with satisfaction. It was his first time meeting such a tactful Explorer. Compared to Kure, this female Explorer was far more sensible.
"Just call me Tutu, boss. I think there are plenty of hidden dangers here, so I’m heading back. If fate allows it, we’ll meet again."
With that, Tutu turned and ran off. At the other end of the corridor, Shion Soryuin was rushing after her, clearly intending to demand an explanation.
Holding his Endspace Coins, Luke returned to the lounge in high spirits and quietly waited for the real show to begin.
...
Twenty nautical miles off Kengan Island, a submarine floated silently beneath the deceptively calm sea.
Through surveillance cameras, its occupants watched the preliminary matches live and monitored every development on Kengan Island in real time.
"The Fang of Metsudo has actually been replaced. That’s interesting news. Looks like that guy you trained was worthless."
A burly blond man with slicked-back hair and sunglasses spoke with a grin as he lit a fresh cigar.
If Erioh Kure had been there, he would have recognized him immediately. This was the Kure Clan traitor and leader of the Westward Faction, Edward Wu.
"He was nothing but trash who ran away halfway through the Gu ritual. He was never my disciple. He only learned the superficial basics of the Niko Style."
On the other side, a white-haired middle-aged man lounged lazily on a sofa. He was one of the last surviving Tokita Nikos, a high-ranking officer under Shen Wulong—and a monster among monsters.
"Heh. But I heard that Kiryu Setsuna, whom you trained quite well, is dead too. Is the Niko Style really good for anything?"
Edward Wu’s mockery was utterly merciless, and veins bulged across Tiger Niko’s forehead.
He sat upright and glared at Edward Wu. "Edward, do you want to die?"
"Huh? Do you know who you’re talking to?"
Edward Wu leaned forward as well. Their invisible auras collided, leaving the lower-ranking members of the Worm inside the submarine too terrified to utter a word.
"Stop. This is not the time for infighting."
Just as the two were about to come to blows, a weary voice interrupted them. It belonged to a handsome man with pale golden hair.
He was Xavier, the Worm’s supreme leader and a close associate of the Connector, Shen Wulong.
Xavier held his forehead with one hand. "The Tiger’s Vessel has been killed. The situation is bad enough already. Do you two have to give me an even bigger headache?"
At those words, the killing intent around Edward Wu and Tiger Niko dissipated. They were not afraid of Xavier, but they feared the Connector, Shen Wulong.
Xavier looked at the two powerful men before him. "Do you remember our objective this time?"
Edward Wu smiled. "Of course. The Tiger’s Vessel was destroyed, so naturally we must strike back. An organization like the Kengan Association has reached the end of its road."
That was right. The Worm had mobilized a massive force for this operation, deploying three top-class experts for one purpose: to wipe out the Kengan Association’s upper ranks on Kengan Island in a single stroke!
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