"Duke... is it?"
A voice as cold as if it came from the depths of the Nine Hells echoed through every corner via the building's broadcast system.
"You enjoy playing with powers that don't belong to you."
"And just like my foolish opponents before, you also fancy yourself a god."
"Well then..."
On the screen, Cloud slowly raised his head.
Those pitch-black eyes had, at some point, transformed into indifferent platinum vertical pupils!
An absolute divine might that made all of South Town tremble descended with a crash!
"Let me show you."
"What a true god actually is."
"And..."
"The consequences of blasphemy!"
The moment Cloud's vertical pupils met Duke's gaze through the building's surveillance screen—
Duke, the underground emperor who had lorded over South Town and styled himself the "Godfather of the New Era," felt true terror from the depths of his soul for the first time.
It wasn't the fear of facing a stronger opponent, nor the fear of death.
It was something more primal, more instinctive—like the insurmountable gap between a paramecium facing a human being, a chasm in the very hierarchy of existence!
He felt like he wasn't looking at a pair of eyes.
But rather a void that devoured everything!
"Urgh... ahh..."
Beside him, the artificial human codenamed "Jiao," who possessed the degraded Orochi Power, was in even worse shape!
"Jiao" clutched his head, falling to his knees in agony, his body trembling violently beyond his control, unintelligible wails escaping his lips!
Those originally cold, emotionless electronic eyes now flickered with the terror of prey encountering its natural predator!
The "knockoff" Orochi Power within him, upon sensing the pure divine might of the "genuine article," was like a pirated Windows system suddenly connecting to the official servers for activation, discovering countless bugs and vulnerabilities, instantly crashing into a "blue screen of death"!
"What... what the hell... is happening?!" Duke stared at his prized "creation" in its pathetic state, as if seeing a ghost, completely dumbfounded.
"Jiao! Stand up! Get up! You're my most perfect creation! How can you..."
However, his words were mercilessly cut off by a voice as cold as if from another dimension.
"Quiet down, despicable thief."
"Enjoy watching your so-called perfect creation turn to dust before your eyes."
As those words fell, on the ground floor of the building, Cloud slowly raised his right hand.
He didn't even bother walking through the door he'd punched open.
He simply looked at the hundreds of mass-produced bio-soldiers who had swarmed out to surround him, and lightly snapped his fingers.
Snap.
A will representing the law of "Nothingness" spread outward like ripples on water, silent and invisible.
Then something happened that Chun-Li and Lien would never forget.
Those bio-soldiers who had just been so fierce, their bodies wreathed in ominous purple-black energy—the instant that invisible ripple passed over them—
Their bodies, like pencil drawings being erased, began vanishing into thin air inch by inch, starting from their feet.
Every trace of their existence was completely wiped from this world!
Not even a single scream remained.
In less than three seconds.
Hundreds of powerful bio-soldiers had silently evaporated.
As if they had never existed at all.
The entire world fell silent.
Chun-Li's sexy little mouth hung open as she stared dumbly at the now-empty plaza, feeling her brain had completely given up on comprehending this reality-defying phenomenon.
Lien's usually frost-covered pretty face had twisted slightly from the extreme shock. The ring blades in her hands clattered to the ground as their owner's mind went blank.
"This... this... this..."
"I told you, it's a crackdown on counterfeits." Cloud withdrew his hand, the Orochi's cold indifference slowly fading from his face, replaced once again by that lazy smile.
"Using a genuine system to purge pirated software—isn't that standard procedure? Stay calm, stay calm."
[System: Ding! Detected Host using high-authority Rule-type abilities to conduct dimensional crushing against low-level units of this world.]
[Successfully eliminated all Jiao Organization mass-produced bio-soldiers.]
[Plunder protocol initiated... Successfully parsed and plundered partial immature bio-modification technology and genetic cloning data from residual energy signatures.]
[System database updated. Congratulations Host, you've unlocked another small section of the tech tree.]
"Mm, not bad. Waste recycling—eco-friendly and healthy." Cloud nodded with complete nonchalance.
Meanwhile, in the top-floor office—
Duke had completely collapsed into his boss chair.
He watched on the screen as those hundreds of soldiers—his "ace legion" that he had poured countless resources and efforts into creating—were just... deleted like some kind of joke.
His face held nothing but ashen despair.
"A god... he's... he's really... a god..."
He was finished.
He knew he was utterly finished.
He had provoked an "existence" that he didn't even have the right to look up to.
...
What followed wasn't so much a "battle" as a one-sided "demolition project."
Under the now-numb gazes of Chun-Li and Lien, Cloud strolled into the Mephistopheles building like a domineering CEO inspecting his own property—hands in pockets, taking his sweet time.
Along the way, all the security personnel, gang members, and even hastily-activated combat robots that tried to stop him were nothing more than paper before him.
He didn't even bother doing it himself.
A single thought.
"Divine Technique: Soul Control."
Everyone obediently put down their weapons, stood at attention, bowed ninety degrees toward him, and shouted in unison: "Good day, Boss!"
A single glance.
"Divine Technique: Erasure."
Every combat robot instantly became a pile of scrap metal.
Just like that, he brought his two "fangirl bodyguards" along, riding the "CEO express elevator" all the way to the top floor without a single obstruction.
When the elevator doors opened with a ding—
What he saw was Duke, completely drained of all fighting spirit, slumped in his chair like wet mud, and that knockoff "Alba" still kneeling on the ground, trembling.
...
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