After a long while, their lips parted.
"This..." Chun-Li said in a small voice, face still red, "consider it... an advance payment for my partner bonus."
[Ding! Congratulations Host, all missions for "Dimensional Correction: Street Fighter Arc" have been successfully completed!]
[Final Rating: SSS!]
[World Line Correction: 100%!]
[Calculating rewards...]
[Key story character Chun-Li has agreed to join your team.]
[Team System activated! Congratulations Host on obtaining your first official team member!]
[As you are about to leave this world, would you like to initiate transfer now?]
"Transfer," Cloud silently commanded.
He took one last look at this land—scarred by war yet about to embrace renewal.
Then he firmly gripped the hand of the girl beside him.
"Ready, my partner?"
"Mm!" Chun-Li nodded emphatically, her eyes sparkling with excitement and anticipation for the unknown journey ahead.
"Then..."
"Next stop, let's go!"
A soft white light enveloped them both.
When the light faded, the two figures had long vanished from the ruins.
Leaving behind only a legend of the "Savior," and a romantic tale of the "Hero and the Fighter Beauty."
...
After bidding farewell to the heroes of the Street Fighter world and successfully abducting—ah no, recruiting—"Fighting Police Beauty" Chun-Li into his "Dimensional Janitor" team, Cloud finally set off on his journey "home."
Traveling through the space-time corridor was now as routine for Cloud as taking the subway.
He even had the leisure to explain "time relativity theory" and "wormhole theory" (his own mystically modified versions, of course) to Chun-Li, who was experiencing her first "interstellar voyage" and curiously watching the warped lights and shadows outside.
"Simply put," Cloud said, legs crossed, speaking in an "old driver" tone, "this kind of shuttle is like riding a dimensional bullet train. Each world is a station stop. It's just that this train isn't very reliable—sometimes it's late, or it just dumps you at some godforsaken temporary stop in the middle of nowhere."
"So... are we going back to your original world now?" Chun-Li looked at Cloud, those usually spirited beautiful eyes now carrying a hint of nervousness and curiosity, like a new bride meeting her in-laws.
She was fascinated by Cloud's descriptions of the KOF world, with its countless powerful fighters like Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami.
"Theoretically, yes." Cloud nodded. "But given my system's trash-tier luck where nine out of ten pulls go sideways, I suggest we mentally prepare ourselves for opening a blind box."
Sure enough.
When that familiar "landing" sensation came and the dazzling lights before them faded—
What appeared before them was not the South Town Cloud knew—chaotic but still maintaining some semblance of "order."
Instead, it was a South Town with an even more bizarre aesthetic, one that had completely let itself go.
Still towering skyscrapers. Still flashing neon lights.
But the air was filled with an even more oppressive, more hopeless atmosphere.
The streets were covered in graffiti featuring a strange "M"-shaped logo. Pedestrians hurried by, their faces mostly numb and fearful, as if living in a city without sunlight.
What really hurt Cloud's eyes was this world's fashion sense.
The streets were filled with young people in all sorts of outlandish outfits, sporting hair in every color of the rainbow—as if they'd just stepped out of an anime convention.
Some wore "beggar-chic" jeans with more holes than fabric, while others wore heavy metal rocker leather jackets covered in metal studs and chains.
The aesthetic was basically a large-scale "scene kid" renaissance.
"What the hell..." Cloud couldn't help but curse at this scene dripping with the tears of a bygone era. "System! Did you dump me in the wrong place?! This aesthetic is all wrong! This doesn't look like it was made by the same art department as my KOF world!"
[System: Ding! Return coordinates confirmed: KOF Main World, South Town.]
[Current Timeline: KOF Maximum Impact Era.]
[Time Flow Deviation: Due to Host's extended stay in alternate dimensions, a 1:0.5 time flow discrepancy has occurred with the main world... Simply put, you were out having fun for about a year, while half a year has passed in the main world.]
[Current Patch Notes: Since you previously, shall we say, physically transcended the former ruler of South Town, Geese Howard, a power vacuum emerged. An underground organization called "Mephistopheles" seized the opportunity to rise, becoming South Town's new overlord. The organization's leader is named Duke—a charlatan who likes playing with tarot cards.]
Hearing this "patch update" from the system, Cloud's face went dark.
Well, damn!
I worked my ass off "clearing dungeons" out there, and when I get home, I find my "hometown" has been stolen?!
I just swept Geese, that "remnant of the old era," into the dustbin of history, and immediately some "Mephistopheles" pops up, even taking some pretentious foreign name?!
This is like "getting discharged from the hospital only to find someone's taken my room and eaten my fruit basket"!
Unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable!
"Cloud, is this... your world?" Chun-Li asked with concern, looking at this city filled with oppression and decadence. "The atmosphere feels... even worse than Hong Kong back then."
"No, this is no longer the world I knew." Cloud shook his head, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. "This place has been contaminated."
He could sense a mixed energy similar to psychic power and magic permeating the air. That energy was cold, eerie, filled with the power to bewitch hearts.
Just then—
"Get away! Don't touch me!"
A sharp cry full of wariness and anger came from a nearby alley.
"Ooh, little lady's got some fire! Hehe!"
"The boss likes 'em feisty! Come with us! We'll treat you real nice!"
Several thugs in matching uniforms bearing that "M" logo—clearly not good people—had cornered a young woman at the end of the alley.
"Another clichéd hero-saves-beauty scenario?" Cloud rolled his eyes, but still led Chun-Li over.
After all, as the self-proclaimed former guardian of South Town's underground order, he still had to intervene when he saw criminals committing evil on his turf.
When he saw the cornered girl clearly, his eyes brightened slightly.
She was a tall young woman with beautiful ash-blonde long hair.
She wore an extremely revealing, futuristic-looking tight combat suit that outlined her powerful yet curvaceous figure in every detail.
Her face carried an icy maturity beyond her years, and those sharp eyes were filled with vigilance and killing intent, like a leopardess ready to strike at any moment.
What drew Cloud's attention even more was the familiar yet somehow different aura about her.
That aura bore some resemblance to Leona's—both carrying the cold, murderous air of a soldier. But there was an added taste of vendetta.
"Hey, gentlemen, chatting up young ladies in broad daylight?" Cloud strolled into the alley with Chun-Li, wearing his "righteous passerby" expression.
The thugs turned around. Upon seeing Cloud and Chun-Li, they were first stunned by Chun-Li's stunning beauty and those heaven-defying long legs, then their faces twisted into malicious grins.
"Oh? Another one looking to die? And he brought a hottie too?" The lead thug with bleached hair sneered arrogantly. "Smart move would be leaving your girl behind and getting lost! Otherwise, you can both go meet Lord Mephistopheles together!"
"Mephistopheles?" Cloud smiled. "Sorry, I only know Ultraman. Which village is this guy from?"
"You're dead!"
The blonde thug was enraged by Cloud's dismissive attitude. With a roar, he threw a punch at Cloud's face! His fist was actually wrapped in wispy purple energy similar to Bison's Psycho Power!
"Oh? Knockoff psychic power? Looks like this Duke fellow is a tech specialist too."
Cloud didn't even bother dodging.
Behind him, Chun-Li had already moved.
"Unrepentant!"
With an elegant shout, a lightning-fast side kick precisely struck the blonde's wrist!
CRACK!
A crisp sound of bone breaking rang out!
The blonde let out a pig-like squeal as his entire arm twisted at a grotesque angle!
"What?!"
The remaining thugs were stunned. They hadn't expected this delicate-looking beauty to be a trained fighter!
"You're... fighters too?" The ash-blonde woman who had been cornered also stared at Cloud and Chun-Li in surprise.
"Get them! All of you! Take them down!"
The remaining thugs roared, pulling out knives and batons from their coats, swarming forward!
"Bunch of trash."
Disdain flashed through Chun-Li's eyes.
After being tempered by the Street Fighter tournament and Cloud's "personal instruction," her strength had long since transformed. Taking down these grunts who couldn't even use ki was simply dimensional crushing.
"Hyakuretsukyaku!"
Her long, slender legs once again became an impenetrable phantom!
THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK!
After a rapid succession of muffled impacts—
Those thugs collapsed one after another, foaming at the mouth, twitching all over, completely incapacitated.
The entire process was fluid and smooth, taking less than ten seconds.
"Beautiful." Cloud stood to the side like a proper cheerleader, giving a small round of applause.
Having dealt with the fodder, Chun-Li walked up to the ash-blonde woman with a friendly smile. "Are you okay?"
"...I'm fine. Thank you." The woman looked at Chun-Li, then at the relaxed Cloud nearby. The wariness in her eyes eased slightly. "My name is Lien Neville. And you are?"
"I'm Chun-Li, and he's Cloud." Chun-Li introduced them.
"Lien Neville..." When Cloud heard this name, the system immediately provided relevant character data.
[Ding! Key plot character detected: Lien Neville.]
[Identity: Female protagonist of the KOF Maximum Impact series. Her parents were killed by an organization called Addes when she was a child. She was then adopted by the organization and trained as a top assassin. Unable to bear the organization's cruelty, she defected and began investigating her origins and the whereabouts of her brother, Alba Meira.]
[Associated Organization: Addes, formerly the ancient "Jiao" organization that served Orochi.]
The Jiao Organization?! Cloud's heart stirred.
He recalled the Divine Tribe he had destroyed during the KOF 97 era.
So this organization still had "remnants," and they were connected to this world's plot?
"Interesting. This is getting more and more interesting."
"You're... not with Mephistopheles?" Lien looked at Cloud warily. She could sense that this man before her was unfathomably deep—one of the strongest she had ever encountered.
"Of course not." Chun-Li shook her head. "We're also enemies with them."
"I see..." Lien's eyes flickered, as if considering something.
...
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