In that singular breath, a staggering torrent of power erupted within Ryuu once more.
Simultaneously, a rapid succession of vivid memories flashed through his consciousness at the speed of light. The protagonist of these visions was, naturally, Hawkeye Mihawk.
After defeating a powerful adversary and formally ascending to the realm of a Grand Sword Master, Mihawk had advanced into the New World—the treacherous second half of the Grand Line.
Even in this graveyard of conquerors, his foundational strength remained peerless. Most of the enemies he encountered were utterly incapable of matching his blade. Yet, curiously, almost every prominent adversary he faced in the New World wielded two distinct, supernatural forces.
One was a sensory ability that allowed them to predict an opponent's movements with absolute clarity, facilitating flawless dodges and pinpoint counters.
The other was an invisible mantle of armor, capable of both amplifying offensive output to devastating levels and hardening physical defense.
After a period of constant conflict, Mihawk ultimately learned the true names of these twin disciplines: Observation Haki and Armament Haki!
Through relentless discipline and training, he eventually unlocked and mastered both forces himself. Consequently, his combat efficacy spiked to an unprecedented tier, his name echoing with terror across the New World!
The sequence of memories came to an abrupt halt. Ryuu, fully maintaining his Hawkeye persona, let out a slow, deliberate breath.
As expected... when my baseline stats aren't high enough, I have to rely entirely on my acting chops to bridge the gap.
He muttered to himself, a brilliant, piercing light igniting in his eyes.
Just as Fubuki had observed, Vaccine Man's absolute physical stats and defensive scaling had undergone a terrifying spike after mutating into its titanic form. An Intermediate level of Hawkeye's strength truly was incapable of piercing that monstrous hide—a reality made crystal clear when Ryuu's maximum output failed to leave a single scratch.
Therefore, the moment he was blasted backward, he had chosen to escalate his performance without a second's hesitation.
The monumental broadsword he now held was none other than Mihawk's signature weapon—one of the Supreme Grade Blades, the Black Blade: Yoru!
In reality, this legendary weapon was merely the common dagger transformed by his shapeshifting ability. Having maxed out the role-playing value of a basic pocket knife, it was time for Yoru to take center stage.
What caught Ryuu by surprise, however, was that the moment the dagger reshaped into the World's Strongest Black Blade, his role-playing completion rate didn't just crawl—it violently surged forward, leaping straight from 40% to a whopping 60%!
An epiphany struck him. To truly embody the World's Strongest Swordsman, one absolutely had to carry the world's strongest black blade. The weapon itself was an inseparable part of the mythos.
With his synchronization hitting the 60% threshold, Ryuu's status page registered another massive leap.
[Role-Playing System]
Host: Ryuu
Strength: 200
Agility: 200
Spirit: 200
Physique: 200
(Note: 10 is the average attribute score for an ordinary human.)
Current Character Template: Hawkeye Mihawk
Current Role-Playing Completion Rate: 60%
Current Character Power Unlocked: Advanced
Acquired Ability: Shapeshift
His attributes had doubled yet again, soaring to roughly twenty times the baseline of an ordinary human! His current mastery level had officially graduated from "Intermediate" to "Advanced."
Feeling the sheer density of the power flowing through his veins, a knowing smile surfaced on Ryuu's chiseled face.
On the other side of the crater, both Fubuki and Vaccine Man finally snapped out of their brief daze.
While Fubuki watched with bated breath, Vaccine Man's frustration boiled right back into a towering rage. This wretched human insect had just been battered across the dirt, yet he still dared to talk down to a god? Did he honestly think pulling out a fancy oversized sword would change his fate? What an absolute joke!
With its features twisting into a savage grin, Vaccine Man raised its massive, armored leg and slammed it violently into the concrete.
Rupture!
The earth fractured wildly as dozens of titanic rock spikes erupted from the ground, racing in a lethal cluster directly toward Ryuu's position.
Yet, this time, a profoundly surreal scene unfolded.
Ryuu didn't sprint or leap away. Remaining exactly where he stood, his torso and shoulders swayed in a series of micro-adjustments, fluidly weaving through the chaotic thicket of spikes. Every single jagged rock missed him by a hair's breadth, as though he were casually walking through rain without getting wet.
"What?!" Fubuki's jaw dropped in sheer disbelief.
Vaccine Man, too, froze mid-stride.
The execution was uncanny. It looked as though Ryuu possessed a complete blueprint of the spikes' trajectories before they even broke the surface, effortlessly bypassing them without a single wasted motion.
But how was that even fundamentally possible? Those subterranean spikes erupted at random with zero fixed pattern. How could any human predict their path?
Refusing to believe its eyes, Vaccine Man slammed its feet into the ground repeatedly, unleashing multiple waves of catastrophic eruptions.
Yet, the result remained entirely unchanged.
Ryuu stepped through the shattering earth with the casual elegance of a man taking a stroll through a private garden, completely untouched by the carnage.
At this point, both Fubuki and Vaccine Man were utterly convinced of the impossible reality: this swordsman was genuinely reading the intent of the attacks before they materialized. How he achieved such a divine feat, however, remained an absolute mystery to them.
In reality, Ryuu was smiling inwardly. While it appeared miraculous to the onlookers, it was simply the mechanical application of Observation Haki. Under its extrasensory perception, every minor shift in the earth and atmospheric pressure was laid bare to his consciousness. Against such a radar, a localized area-of-effect attack couldn't touch him.
Now that Observation Haki is verified, it's time to test Armament...
With a shift in focus, Ryuu began to channel a secondary, denser source of energy dwelling within his core.
Armament... Haki!
In that singular instant, a profoundly heavy, supernatural aura began to ripple across Ryuu's frame. The invisible force flowed down his shoulders, pooling into his arms before seamlessly coating the massive length of the Black Blade: Yoru
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