With his decision made, Ryū didn't waste any ti. He used the Skill Proficiency Upgrade Card on Observation Haki imdiately.
What had been Low-tier Observation Haki was instantly elevated to Interdiate.
The mont 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 beco sothing like a human radar. And the coverage range of his Observation Haki had expanded by an order of magnitude he couldn't even quantify.
Sowhat like divine sense from a xianxia novel? The concept was similar, at least.
"Interdiate Observation Haki is… kind of terrifying," Ryū murmured. "Compared to Low-tier, it's not even in the sa dinsion. You literally cannot compare the two."
"Just upgrading Observation Haki to Interdiate alone has sent my combat power skyrocketing by several tiers. No wonder in the One Piece world, the gap between soone who has Haki and soone 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 Paracia-type Decompose-Decompose Fruit.
A flood of information surged into his brain—new techniques, applications, refinents 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 ntal 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 fra 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 soone 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 ti gaming and watching ani. Good enough.
* * *
Just as he was about to fire up a ga he was on the verge of completing—
The Dinsional Chat Group's notification chi rang in his head.
Ding-dong.
Ryū's consciousness entered the chat group.
Soone had @'d him.
And that soone appeared to be… Tatsumaki?
Terrible Tornado: @Admin-dono …Did you say sothing weird to King?
Terrible Tornado: He ca up to 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 mber!
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 mbers trembling in fear. Waaah…
Terrible Tornado: Female group mbers trembling in fear. Waaah…
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden: Female group mbers gradually becoming degenerate. Heh heh heh…
Kaguya-sama: Hmm… did sothing weird just sneak into that chain?
Kaguya-sama: Yukari-nee-sama has revealed her… perv—I an, 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 sothing 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 comnt! How could anyone interpret that as a sincere confession?!
Ryū's face was a perfect portrait of bewildernt.
Terrible Tornado: It's over. I've explained it dozens of tis 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 so 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 fa, it'd be on every major dia 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 sche 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!
[mber "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 so ti to cool off.
He was confident the Sage of Youkai would get used to this particular combo al 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 confinent by Admin-dono.
Crazy Diamond: Yukari-senpai's daily routine: court death, get solitary confinent.
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 gaplay loop by now.
☆☆☆
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