Chapter 308: A New Member Joins
Time kept ticking steadily onward, and before Ryū quite realized it, he'd already spent three full days and nights inside the Arena.
Across those three days, he'd revived a total of 10 times, burning through 200 Points in the process.
Not that it mattered much—those Points all came from his daily sign-ins over the same three days, which he'd made sure not to miss.
On top of the sign-in Points, his Premium VIP membership also handed out a small daily stipend, more than enough to keep him going in the Arena.
As for the free Arena hours that came bundled with Premium VIP? Those 96-odd free hours had already been completely used up earlier in the month.
Why would anyone save free stuff for later when they could use it right away? Not happening—Ryū certainly wasn't the type to hold back on it, especially since unused hours didn't carry over into the next month anyway; they'd just vanish and reset.
Even after three full days and nights, he still hadn't finished off this particular opponent—though based on how the fight was trending, he figured another two or three revives ought to be enough to finish the job.
"...Ordinary physical attacks don't do a thing to it, and on top of that it can pull out molten lava at hundreds of thousands, millions, even tens of millions of degrees. This thing is genuinely no joke."
Ryū glanced down at where his left arm used to be—vaporized entirely by lava north of ten million degrees, without even a flicker of pain.
Of course, if he'd had Armament Haki up as protection, his arm wouldn't have disappeared at all.
Problem was, his stamina was running on fumes at this point—he could barely even manage to activate Armament Haki anymore.
With zero defensive measures active, a few million degrees was more than enough to vaporize his entire body outright, let alone ten million-plus.
This kind of superheated lava was absolutely lethal. Right now, relying purely on his raw physical toughness with no techniques active at all, Ryū figured he could withstand somewhere around 3–4 million degrees.
With Armament Haki active, he could shrug off ten million-plus degrees without issue. Crank it up to hundreds of millions, and he could probably hold out for maybe ten-odd seconds. Throw the Dragon Ball world's Ki into the mix on top of that, and he'd last considerably longer still.
Of course, the whole point of this particular Arena trip had been to specifically test Armament Haki and Life Return, so he'd deliberately held back every other ability. Otherwise, there was no way he'd be in this rough a shape—if he'd thrown everything he had at this enemy simultaneously, it probably would've died a long time ago.
"Not much stamina left. Can't even manage Armament Haki anymore. No point dragging this out further—I'm just wasting time at this point."
Ryū reached up, grabbed his own throat with one hand, and yanked hard. A sharp crack rang out.
A massive red "DEAD" character flashed up in front of him, along with the usual prompt asking if he wanted to revive.
This time, though, he declined. He'd already gotten what he came for.
No point dragging out the fight against this particular Arena enemy any further—honestly, he just couldn't be bothered.
The moment he logged out of the Arena, his left arm snapped back to normal instantly. Even his torn clothes restored themselves completely, as if nothing had happened at all—his entire body and spirit surged right back to peak condition in an instant.
The scenery in front of him shifted—no more endless, searing lava. Just his familiar bedroom instead.
Back in Konoha once more, Ryū let out a small sigh of relief.
Rubbing his fully-restored left arm, he let out a resigned, wry little laugh. "Guess dying and getting hurt becoming routine in the Arena has left me pretty numb to both by now—even my sense of pain's gone kind of dull."
Whether that was a good change or a bad one, Ryū honestly couldn't say—and he didn't feel like agonizing over it, either. Rather than dwell on a question he couldn't answer, he figured he'd rather think about what to have for dinner instead.
After all, across three straight days and nights in the Arena, forget eating—he hadn't even had the chance to handle basic bodily functions the whole time.
Not like you could exactly eat, drink, or relieve yourself mid-Arena-fight, right? The mental image alone was something else—handling business while dodging enemy attacks at the same time? Yikes.
Shaking off those bizarre mental images, Ryū slipped his consciousness into the Dimensional Chat Group and found everyone already chatting away.
Just as he was about to jump in himself, a join notification suddenly popped up—a new member had entered the Dimensional Chat Group, and the newcomer's handle looked oddly familiar.
Ryū's expression shifted into something distinctly odd. Staring at the new handle for several long seconds, he murmured to himself in genuine surprise, "Oh ho? A familiar face just walked in, and one I've actually met in person before, no less. Didn't expect this one to join the chat group too."
"Looks like we've got another heavy hitter joining the ranks. Question is whether it's the movie version or the comics version. If it's the comics version, that's a genuine top-tier player—someone who'd rank near the top of the group's power scale the instant they walked in."
[Ding! "The Ancient One" has joined the Dimensional Chat Group!]
Terrible Tornado: Welcome, newbie! Permissions Hound #3, passing through.
Eternally Seventeen: Welcome, newbie! Permissions Hound #2, passing through.
RawrSoFierce: Permissions Hound #1, passing through, welcome to the group! throws confetti
RawrSoFierce: Didn't expect a familiar face to show up this time!
Kaguya-sama: The Ancient One? That name sounds so familiar! Emmm...wait! Isn't that the Ancient One from Mr. Stark's world? The one we ran into during the Mid-Autumn Festival group event?
My True Form Is Cola: Eh? No way it's that much of a coincidence, is it? Can something that coincidental actually happen?
Admiral Kizaru: Why not? Me, Whitebeard, and Sengoku-san are all from the same world too, aren't we?
My True Form Is Cola: Oh, good point! Ahem...totally slipped my mind for a second there.
Street-Corner Illustrator: Someone should tag @I'm Rolling In It right about now!
Little Sphere: Bowing down to the newcomer! Group ranking -1, eeeeh.
Crazy Diamond: I've heard Little Sphere go "eeeeh" plenty of times by now, but picturing an entire planet making that exact sound still makes my eyes hurt a little, somehow.
Little Sphere: Hm...what does sound have to do with eyes hurting?
I'm Rolling In It: Someone tagged Uncle Tony? What's up? Oh, wait, new member joined!
I'm Rolling In It: The Ancient One? WHAT? The... the Ancient One?!
The Ancient One: ...Finished reading the group announcement. Fascinating chat you've all built here.
Terrible Tornado: First newcomer I've ever seen actually read the group announcement without needing a reminder first. Guess that really is Marvel's strongest sorcerer for you.
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you