Chapter 18 That's How You Use It

“Ha!” Accompanied by a loud shout, Gui Xiao's transformation was finally complete.

A rich, golden Dou Qi (fighting energy) condensed around him, reaching a certain level of saturation and then stabilizing.

His long red hair also transformed, sticking up and back, making him look like a golden-haired hedgehog from a distance.

“Heh… although the hairstyle looks a bit like Super Saiyan 3, it's still just Super Saiyan 1 at its core.” While speaking, Feng Bujue put away his snacks, clapped his hands, and brushed off the crumbs.

“As if you could beat Super Saiyan 1…” Gui Xiao retorted, unwilling to be outdone. “But, speaking of which… it's rare that you didn't take the opportunity to ambush me while I was transforming…”

“I said I'd let you fight to your ‘heart's content’,” Feng Bujue replied. “So… as long as you want to transform, I'll let you.” He paused. “Besides, considering the existence of ‘artifact suppression,’ the longer it drags on, the better it is for me. Why should I be in a hurry?”

“Don't give me that…” Gui Xiao continued, “You and I both know that the [Crown]'s continuous damage is just like tickling me through my boots…” As he said this, his expression changed slightly. “From what I can see… your unhurried attitude is probably some kind of conspiracy, right?”

“If you're scared, you can observe some more,” Jue Ge said with a smile.

“Arouse me with reverse psychology…” Gui Xiao wasn't stupid; he could see through this trick. “Hmph… whatever, since you want me to attack quickly, then I'll do as you wish!”

As soon as he finished speaking, a flash of golden light appeared, and a feeling of great energy surged.

Transformed into a Super Saiyan, Gui Xiao only had to charge at his opponent to cause the wind and clouds to change color; the huge energy on his body moved the particles in the surrounding space, and to others, it looked as if the scenery around him was twisted by the golden aura.

Bang—

In an instant, Gui Xiao threw a punch, and Feng Bujue met it with a punch of his own. The two men's fists collided head-on, unyielding, and created a loud bang.

“Ho~ this bald-headed form of yours is pretty strong…” Gui Xiao's attack was blocked, but his expression was still full of fighting spirit. Obviously, he was still holding back. “I just don't know where your limit is…”

With that, he turned around and swept his leg.

Seeing the move, Feng Bujue was not flustered. He took a step back and retreated half a meter, barely dodging the attack. He calmly said, “Have you misunderstood something?” He spread his hands. “Currently, I'm still warming up.”

“Then you can keep warming up… until you turn into coal!” Gui Xiao said, and his Dou Qi (fighting energy) suddenly rose, attacking at least twice as fast as before.

The lightning-like attacks were fierce and pressed in, and in an instant, they had exchanged more than ten blows.

Gui Xiao's speed was so fast that it was invisible. Every move he made was accompanied by Dou Qi (fighting energy), scattering everywhere. It was clearly just a close-quarters technique, but it caused the clouds to move, the wind to howl, the earth to crack, and the mountains to shake.

Feng Bujue, on the other hand, seemed to be dodging and blocking all the time, retreating step by step, but in reality, he hadn't suffered any damage. Relying on [Zero Hour Calculation], he was clearly fighting Super Saiyan Gui Xiao with ease.

“Tch… he can actually fight me to a standstill in this state.” During the exchange, Gui Xiao thought to himself, “And this guy is only defending and not attacking. He must have discovered the weakness of this form…”

“If I'm not mistaken…” Just as Gui Xiao was thinking, Jue Ge, who was retreating, said, “You've only mastered the ‘first stage’ of this transformation, right?”

His words hit Gui Xiao's sore spot—that's right, Gui Xiao only knew the "Super Saiyan 1 First Stage."

Even if Jue Ge didn't have a data perspective, he knew that… the [Super Saiyan 1] transformation had many different forms hidden within it.

The "Super Saiyan 1 First Stage" that Gui Xiao was using now was a basic form, which had the effect of increasing the user's normal combat power by fifty times. However… this stage of transformation had the disadvantage of consuming a lot of stamina. The golden flames swirling around Gui Xiao looked very cool, but frankly speaking… they were all energy that was leaking out of his body and being wasted.

And above this stage, there were also Super Saiyan 1 Second Stage (muscle expansion, speed and strength become stronger, but energy consumption is faster, not suitable for long battles), Super Saiyan 1 Third Stage (muscles extremely expand, strength greatly increased, but will quickly consume a lot of energy, and seriously affect speed), and Super Saiyan 1 Full Power (the complete form of Super Saiyan 1, also the strongest form of Super Saiyan 1, the appearance is the same as the first stage, but the energy is restrained in the body, only released at the moment of battle, and the mind becomes more calm), etc.

Gui Xiao hadn't mastered any of these stages… it wasn't that he didn't want to master them, it was just that he didn't need to use even the first stage most of the time, and he was already hard to beat, so even if he wanted to cultivate, he didn't have the opportunity.

“Stop talking nonsense!” Gui Xiao's attack increased again, provoked again, and he retorted, “I don't believe it… does your bald-headed form have no consumption at all!”

Now that things had come to this, Gui Xiao was in a difficult position… Just now, under Jue Ge's provocation, he had taken advantage of the situation and transformed (one of the conditions for Super Saiyan transformation is anger). He thought that he could quickly determine the outcome, but he didn't expect that, with his Swallowing Heaven Ghost Xiao's fifty times normal combat power, he couldn't take down this "bald head" in front of him. In other words… Feng Bujue's form was at least equal to Super Saiyan 1.

After deducing this, Gui Xiao couldn't help but feel lingering fear when he recalled the punch that [Treading Night] had taken not long ago… If Treading Night had been a little smaller, he might have really been killed in one hit.

In short, at this point, Gui Xiao definitely wouldn't cancel his transformation, after all, he didn't want to be punched to death.

In addition, considering the opponent's combat power, Gui Xiao, who had already lost one-third of his stamina, couldn't use other summoned creatures anymore… Summoning things that would be punched to death by the opponent would be meaningless other than further wasting his stamina.

He could only pray—that the other party's transformation, which possessed combat power no less than Super Saiyan 1, also had consumption no less than Super Saiyan 1.

But what was the truth?

Causality abilities, how could there be any consumption? Just like Gui Xiao's "left and right hands," from a data level, they didn't use the normal calculation method at all.

“Stop lying to yourself.” After fighting for more than ten rounds, Feng Bujue replied in a relaxed tone, “How is my consumption, can't you see for yourself?”

Both of them had data perspectives, and many things were tacitly understood.

“Now your stamina is being consumed faster than mine, and your survival value… although you have extremely strong recovery power, the impact of the [Crown] can't be completely erased after all.” Jue Ge said as he fought, “I've already told you that ‘a war of attrition is good for me,’ you'd better take out some other methods, otherwise it won't be interesting.”

“Um…” Between punches and kicks, Gui Xiao let out a depressed groan, “This calm attitude… really makes me angry!”

As he shouted, his right hand turned into a palm, raised his move, and swung it out.

Jue Ge knew that the other party wanted to force him back to find space for the next action, so he followed the plan and leaped backward, jumping out of the range of the palm force.

In the next second, Gui Xiao took out a strange prop from his backpack…

[Name: Sega Sanshiro's Black Belt]

[Type: Other]

[Quality: Legendary]

[Effect: Gain the Power of Sega Sanshiro]

[Remarks: A black belt used by Sega Saturn's master, the legendary man Sega Sanshiro, who is proficient in many martial arts.]

[p.s.: I'll hit anyone who plays products other than Sega.]

[p.s. of p.s.: Nintendo fans must die!]

After Gui Xiao took out this item, he quickly tied it around his waist with his Super Saiyan-level hand speed.

At that moment, although his appearance didn't change, the flames overflowing from his body immediately disappeared, and the huge aura that made the world tremble was gone, as if he had instantly become an ordinary person with a black belt and a shamate hairstyle. (杀马特, shamate, a gaudy and non-mainstream fashion style in China)

“As expected…” Seeing the other party's change, Feng Bujue couldn't help but become serious.

He had known for a long time that Gui Xiao had something like [Sega Sanshiro's Black Belt] in his backpack, but the other party had never taken it out to use it. From the item description alone, it was impossible to know its specific effect, but… based on experience, Jue Ge could basically determine that this was probably a "super-limit item" similar to [Chuck Norris's Razor].

At this moment, Gui Xiao, who was wearing a black belt, verified Jue Ge's speculation. His data strength also came to the realm of "unknown"... From this second on, neither of them could judge the strength of the opponent and themselves through intuitive "numerical values."

“Sega!” Just as Jue Ge was still thinking about how to test the other party, Gui Xiao suddenly let out a violent shout. Although the content of the shout was inexplicable, it didn't affect his attack.

At that moment, for some reason, all the live broadcast screens had a "cut"-like jump. After the "screen turned," Feng Bujue had already fallen to the ground, and Gui Xiao's movements looked like he had just thrown Feng Bujue over his shoulder.

“What the hell?” This time, Feng Bujue was also surprised, because from his point of view, his life seemed to have been "cut" for a few seconds due to editing. When he came back to his senses, the process of being hit had already passed, leaving only the pain and the fact that his survival value had been damaged.

…………

“What did he do?”

At the same time, in the viewing space, the members of the Hell Front were also unable to see anything, as if the scenery in their eyes was edited and jumped like what they saw on the screen.

“Could it be… he stopped time?” Hua murmured thoughtfully.

“That's impossible…” Xiao Ling said, “Abilities related to time should only affect the players on the battlefield. Even if he ‘stopped time,’ from our viewing space, it would be synchronized with him, not with the ‘stopped party.’”

She was right. Even if Gui Xiao stopped time, it would only affect the opponent on the battlefield. How could the viewers who were watching the live broadcast be hit across the screen?

So… this was obviously not time stop, but another ability.

…………

Looking back at the battlefield.

After the shoulder throw, Gui Xiao's attack didn't stop at all. He grabbed Jue Ge's wrist and immediately followed up with a combo.

“Sega!”

Just like the previous move, he had just shouted out the sound, and the "attack" had already been "completed"...

The scene in front of people's eyes turned, and Feng Bujue had already been put into a "Kataha Juji Jime" (片羽絞, a Judo move) from behind.

“Playing ground techniques with me?” Although he was the one being strangled, everyone knew about Jue Ge's tolerance for pain… Moreover, he immediately thought of a way to fight back.

“Desert Coffin!” As soon as Feng Bujue shouted out the name of the move, he grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground with his right hand and splashed it on Gui Xiao's face behind him.

Leaving aside why he had to shout a name when using this kind of despicable method, judging from the results… he succeeded.

Gui Xiao, who was covered in sand, instinctively turned his head and closed his eyes, and the strength in his hands also relaxed. Feng Bujue seized the opportunity, used his rich experience in ground combat to break free from his opponent's stranglehold, and pounced on Gui Xiao to give him a "Kesa-Gatame" (袈裟固め, a Judo move).

“Se—ga——” Gui Xiao, whose eyes were full of sand and who was being suppressed by Jue Ge, cursed on the spot, but… presumably everyone has seen that after wearing [Sega Sanshiro's Black Belt], Gui Xiao lost the ability to speak normally. No matter what he wanted to say, he could only utter the two syllables "sega" in the end.

“Ha! No wonder you were so conflicted before using this prop… so there's such a funny side effect.” Feng Bujue would never let go of this opportunity to make fun of his opponent. While suppressing Gui Xiao, he said, “Are you afraid that I'll give you another nickname called ‘Timmy’ outside of ‘one meter six’?” (一米六, one meter six, refers to short people. Timmy is a pejorative)

“Se——ga——” Gui Xiao's face turned red with anger, and he attacked again.

Accompanied by a roar, the screen jumped for the third time. After the jump, Feng Bujue became the one being suppressed, and the scene became Gui Xiao using an "Ude-Hishigi-Juji-Gatame" (腕挫十字固, a Judo move) on him.

“Hmm… I basically understand…” A piercing pain came from his arm, but Feng Bujue's mind was still calmly thinking, “It doesn't seem to be a time-based move, but a causal ability that ‘skips the process and directly generates the result.’ The disadvantages are the loss of language ability and… becoming only able to use some Judo moves.”

In the past few tens of seconds, Feng Bujue's every response had been meaningful.

At first, he also guessed that his opponent was using a time ability, so he immediately used several methods to test the specific effect of Gui Xiao's skill. But from the situation of the sand falling before and after the "cut," and the transition of the ground fighting posture between the two… he found that "time" was not affected. What was affected was other factors.

Crack—

While thinking, Jue Ge's arm was broken.

Please note, it was "broken," not just "fractured"... At that moment, Feng Bujue's left arm broke in the opposite direction from the elbow, and half of the ghastly white bone poked out from the broken flesh... The sound of the bone breaking could even be heard by the audience in front of the screen. It was painful just listening to it, not to mention the visual impact of the protruding bone and the blood spurting out of the wound.

But, at the same moment, Feng Bujue's other hand had grabbed Gui Xiao's right ankle.

“Sega…” Gui Xiao didn't care at first, and was preparing to make another move to cripple the other party's other hand, but unexpectedly…

“Sega?” A second later, he was surprised to find that this time, the ability had failed to activate.

“Hehe… a little surprised, aren't you?” Feng Bujue's voice, which was gasping for breath, immediately came over. The pain still had an impact on his body, but it wouldn't reduce the cheapness in his tone. “Perhaps this is God's will… I happen to have something on hand that can deal with your sega ability.”

With that, he grabbed Gui Xiao's foot with his right hand wearing the [Energy Gauntlet] and "threw" the latter out.

“Sega!” When Gui Xiao was thrown into the air, he bent his legs and stepped into the air, turning around and looking back.

He saw that Feng Bujue had stood up with a carp jump and activated a skill.

[Greed Grimoire], can "randomly summon a weapon of at least perfect quality from the void," the price of its activation is 35% of maximum stamina and spirit, and "a pint of human blood."

Right now, Jue Ge had ready-made blood at his wound, and his stamina and spirit were almost infinite in his shaved head state, so he might as well use it.

The originally "random" skill could be directly modified from the data level when used by Feng Bujue today, so he directly took what he wanted—[Super Scope] (a short-lived peripheral for the Super Nintendo console, shaped like a handheld cannon, requires six AA batteries to drive, and like the energy gloves, it was an early useless product of the video game industry)

After summoning this "handheld cannon," Jue Ge immediately used rewrite to repair his arm, and then picked up the weapon with both hands and aimed at Gui Xiao and fired.

Chew—

Suddenly, a beam of light flew out with the unique low-quality sound effects of early video games.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Gui Xiao quickly turned his body in mid-air, avoiding the vital point, but was still grazed by the beam of light on the outside of his thigh, leaving some minor injuries.

“Sega!” Gui Xiao wouldn't give the other party a chance to shoot continuously. He launched another attack before landing.

The ability was activated, the screen turned again, and in the blink of an eye, Feng Bujue was grabbed by the neck from behind again.

But this time, Jue Ge wouldn't be so passive. He grabbed Gui Xiao's arm with his right hand wearing the energy glove, successfully pried open his opponent's arm, and rolled forward again to escape the stranglehold.

“It's really difficult to deal with…” While rolling, Feng Bujue thought to himself, “He can still activate the ability when ‘the energy gauntlet is not in contact with him.’ I have to get some more NES equipment to strengthen my defense…”

Thinking of this, he activated [Greed Grimoire] again.

Some people may wonder, why could he use this skill again immediately when it clearly had a cooldown time of twenty-four hours?

It's very simple, because he immediately used rewrite after using the skill, and "partially rolled back" his character, so the fact that this skill "entered cooldown" was also rewritten.

In this way, he summoned his next "composite weapon"—[Laser Scope] (First of all, whether you believe it or not, this crappy thing was issued by Konami... Secondly, this is undoubtedly one of the bizarre peripherals of the NES. Like Super Scope, it is a "light gun" used on game consoles, but it is head-mounted and voice-activated. It can even be used as headphones on a Walkman or Gameboy, of course, provided you don't think you'll be seen as a weirdo for wearing such a thing on the street).

After putting this item on his head, Feng Bujue was already equipped with three "NES garbage peripherals" at the same time, and even he himself didn't know... After meeting this condition, the hidden ability of this series of items would be triggered.

Just like "Infinity Stones" attract each other (this setting can be found in the Avengers Illuminati series of comics), Jue Ge's three pieces of equipment also summoned their companions when they gathered together...

Deng deng deng deng deng deng deng deng deng deng deng deng…

As a result, to the surprise of the audience, a piece of BGM played by an electric guitar suddenly sounded. After a short prelude, a song sung by a male voice began to play—

he's_gonna_take_you_back_to_the_past~

to_play_the_shitty_games_that_suck_ass~

During the playing of this song, Feng Bujue... began to "transform."

There was no doubt that this was a special effect similar to "Useless Uncle Magical Girl Transformation," that is, it came with the ability that "the opponent must stand and watch before they can move."

In short… in a melody of about 53 seconds, composed of many foul words and complaints, Feng Bujue was "gorgeously" armed.

At the end of the transformation, he was wearing [Laser Scope] on his head, [Power Pad] on his shoulders (imagine the alpha test version before the invention of the dance mat), [U-Force] hanging in front of his abdomen (a black technology game controller with infrared as its core technology, the shape is roughly a foldable black panel, p.s.: although the name has force in it, it has nothing to do with the Force), [Power Glove] (i.e., the energy gauntlet) on his right hand, and [Super Scope] on his left hand... A full set of [A.v.g.n Combat Equipment] was assembled.

“Se……ga~” Looking at the opponent in front of him, Gui Xiao couldn't speak as he wanted, but judging from his tone, the word he was saying at this moment should be—“Damn it.”

“Hehehe… hahahahaha!” Feng Bujue looked down at his condition, and then burst out laughing. After laughing for a few seconds, he suddenly raised his right hand wearing the energy glove, raised his middle finger to Gui Xiao, and shouted, “Fuck!”

When this pure and round English swear word was uttered, the launch port of the [Laser Scope] on his head actually sprayed a beam of light in response. It seemed that it was really a veritable "voice-activated weapon."

“Sega!” Gui Xiao screamed miserably from the attack. He did a backflip in place and dodged the blow in a panic or a suave manner.

What he was thinking at this moment was: "Are you kidding me! This guy can be immune to my abilities just by wearing something like an asshole? And he's raising his middle finger and swearing... is there anyone who cares?"

“Hahahahaha…” Of course, no matter what Gui Xiao thought, Feng Bujue was having a great time at this time. He burst out with an extremely detestable laugh while flying up and shooting at his opponent with the two beam weapons on his hands and head.

For a time, the sounds of "chew chew..." and "bang bang..." rose and fell on the stage.

For the audience, the feeling of watching this "peak duel" was definitely a big up and down. A few minutes ago, they were watching an epic duel at the Dragon Ball level, and unknowingly it transitioned to a bloody and rude ground fight, and now... just listening to the sound, those who didn't know would think they were watching a tournament of Famicom games.

“Pushing people too far!” A dozen seconds later, Gui Xiao, who was being chased, undoubtedly realized that [Sega Sanshiro's Black Belt] was being countered by the other party, and it was meaningless to maintain it, so he quickly undid the black belt, restored his ordinary Super Saiyan 1 state, and shouted back while dodging, "Eat my [Judgment Left Hand]!"