Ten minutes later, Iron Man was embedded into the wall like a human-shaped ornament… and emotionally shattered.
At first, Tony had relied on his experience and the superior performance of the Mark VII to completely suppress King.
But as the fight dragged on, King's combat ability improved at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In the end, King used a four-generations-outdated Mark III to completely dismantle the Mark VII.
What kind of learning speed is this?! Are you even human?!
Losing to King's raw strength would have been one thing.
But losing to a Mark III?
That was a psychological nuke to Tony Stark.
"You… okay?" King hovered in front of him in the Mark III armor and lifted the visor.
He pried Tony out of the diamond-forged wall and gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.
As a veteran gamer, getting to wear an Iron Man suit and have an all-out virtual mech battle was peak enjoyment.
"No need to be discouraged," King said modestly. "I am a multi-time champion in competitive gaming, after all."
"…Was that a video game to you?" Tony muttered, dizzy. "Forget it. I concede. Not just strength—your gaming skill is insane too. No wonder they call you the Strongest Man on Earth."
King wisely chose not to comment.
This was the peak of his life's combat record—defeating a B-Class hero.
If this had happened back when he was an ordinary guy, he could brag about it for the rest of his life.
"I'll send you that armor we talked about later," Tony said. "Though with your strength, it'll just be a toy."
"Thanks."
The spar ended on friendly terms.
Everyone walked away with an excellent impression of King.
Powerful (?), absurd gaming talent, and—most importantly—humble.
From the judging platform, Aiden Cross watched King's performance with interest.
King's luck was off the charts. If a normal person's luck stat was 1, King's was 10086.
He could practically trip over miracles.
And Aiden Cross, who benefited from King's luck amplification, estimated his own effective luck had climbed into the hundreds of thousands.
Unfortunately, that absurd luck still didn't seem to help when pulling heroes…
"Still," Aiden Cross muttered, rubbing his brow, "we finally discovered King's real specialty."
King's true advantage lay in game-type systems. He could master anything that resembled an immersive game environment at terrifying speed.
An Iron Man suit, to him, was basically a full-dive VR game.
Outside of the legendary "Blank" duo, almost no one could compete with him in this field.
After all, King was the man who could destroy Saitama in video games using only two fingers.
With Child Emperor's engineering genius and Tony's armor expertise, building a custom full-dive combat armor for King shouldn't be difficult.
If they ever managed to summon something like Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, whose forms were literally game-based, and upgraded its stats a bit—
Even without S-Class strength, King might still reach A-Class combat level.
The Hero War continued.
Match 4: Seraphina (C) vs. Michael, Founder of Divine Fist (S / Above Dragon)
After a battle that was more instruction than combat, Seraphina—who had already been on the brink of becoming a Paladin—suddenly received what felt like divine revelation.
She entered her first awakening state:
Evangelist.
Her power stepped into B-Class territory.
She immediately spent all her accumulated energy points to raise her hero rank to B-Class.
And then, she promptly surrendered.
Facing the founder of Divine Fist, even a second awakening into Seraph wouldn't be enough.
Gaining breakthrough insight into Divine Fist and completing her Paladin awakening was already a huge win.
Match 5: Armored Titan (C) vs. Attack Titan (C / Tiger)
With his impenetrable armor, the Armored Titan brutally hammered the relatively fragile Attack Titan into submission.
Easy point.
Match 6: Black Swordsman (C) vs. Heroic Spirit Valerian Crowe (A / Dragon)
A complete one-sided massacre.
Black Swordsman's dual-blade sword style was full of flaws in front of Valerian Crowe.
The match ended instantly.
One strike exposed Black Swordsman's weakness. One strike took his head.
Match 7: Raven Blackwell (C) vs. Evan Vale (B / Demon)
A classic brother matchup.
Thirteen-year-old Raven Blackwell, still burning with hatred, activated his three-tomoe Sharingan the moment he saw the opponent and charged in with Chidori.
He was then warmly "greeted" by his big brother.
This was virtual-data Evan.
He did not hold back.
Raven Blackwell was crushed within seconds.
"The gap between three-tomoe and Eternal is absolute," Aiden Cross commented calmly.
As a Eternal wielder himself, he understood this better than anyone.
Add Energy reserves, experience, and ninja skill—
Evan didn't even need Lunar Illusion Power, Black Flame Power, or Armor Avatar Power.
Match 8: Captain America (C) vs. Zombieman (B / Demon)
Both declared confidently:
"I can do this all day."
And then they proceeded to literally punch each other for thirty minutes.
Two monsters with ridiculous stamina and regeneration, still going strong.
In the end, Aiden Cross, black-faced, forcibly stopped the fight and declared a draw.
Otherwise, they really might have fought all day.
"So… who's next?"
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Read Chapters ahead: [email protected] / KaiOynx