The registration area on the 200th floor seemed to have some kind of strange pull to it—there were always a few disabled fighters lingering there.
Like hyenas, their green-tinged eyes locked onto Ronin the moment he arrived.
But when they noticed the steady Ten surrounding his body, two of them turned their wheelchairs and left without hesitation.
Clearly, these failures only preyed on rookies who hadn't mastered Nen yet. They didn't even have the courage to challenge fellow newcomers who had learned Nen.
In Ronin's opinion, people like that might as well leave Heaven's Arena early and find some other job.
The remaining two, however, carefully sized Ronin up and actually followed him. From the looks of it, they'd pegged him as an easy target.
The receptionist handed Ronin a form.
It listed in detail the available dates for match registration. Ronin had already discussed this with Milia—she wouldn't interfere with his matches, but he had to give her enough time to promote them and stir up buzz.
Only then could they maximize the profits generated by each fight.
The people edging closer were all mentioned in the intel Milia had given him. Ronin didn't think he'd lose to any of them.
So he filled in April 25th on the declaration form.
Five days from now.
Without trying to hide anything, he submitted the form right under the watchful eyes of several ill-intentioned onlookers.
When he turned around, sure enough, the two who had followed him were also filling out their own forms—both selecting April 25th.
One of them wore a cloak, but when he lifted his arm, it was obvious he was missing one.
The other had a vicious, torn scar across his mouth, and half his head was a chaotic mess of damage. The fact that he was even alive looked like a miracle.
Ronin knew exactly how they'd ended up like that.
They'd recklessly challenged Nen users after reaching the 200th floor—or gotten set up by veterans.
On the ring, they'd been subjected to malicious Nen. They survived, and even gained Nen as a result, but were left with irreversible physical damage.
"What are you staring at, kid?!" Garegg—whose face was only about a quarter intact—snapped the moment Ronin looked his way. His single eye burned with anger and ferocity.
"Ever thought about wearing a mask?" Ronin replied coolly. "You're really ugly. And you stink."
Since the guy had already shown hostility, Ronin had no intention of indulging him.
The calm Ten around Ronin instantly flared into explosive Ren. Rage surged through Garegg as his powerful body lunged forward, one hand reaching straight for Ronin's collar.
It looked like a street punk brawl.
Ronin grimaced in disgust. He stepped back, dodging the grab, and casually waved a hand in front of his face as if fanning away a bad smell.
"Save your strength for the ring. I don't want my first win to die below the stage."
With quick steps, he brushed past the stunned Garegg, leaving only that disdainful remark behind.
Garegg didn't attack again.
Or rather, his provocation had always been a disguise.
It was meant to create an opening—to test Ronin's strength. Now that Ronin had dodged the sudden strike, Garegg had a rough read on his opponent's level.
Pushing further would only escalate things.
He could tell that although Ronin had avoided the attack, it hadn't been completely effortless. He'd caught the flicker of panic in Ronin's eyes in that instant.
A cruel smile spread across Garegg's face. Victory felt assured.
He would make that sharp-tongued brat pay on the ring. A rookie should act like a rookie—endure the baptism. That was the proper path to surviving on the 200th floor.
Not strutting around like he owned the place just because he'd learned Nen early.
With that thought, Garegg ignored Ronin as he left and submitted his declaration form.
Beside him, the one-armed Jared did the same.
Riding the elevator up, Ronin reviewed his own performance.
Not great.
The only thing he thought he'd pulled off decently was the hurried exit at the end. Garegg's movements had been painfully slow to him—dodging had been pure instinct.
If that guy hadn't gone on to submit the form, Ronin would've felt like he'd taken a loss instead.
After leaving the registration area, Ronin also received a room key card—Room 2333, a single-occupancy room he'd be staying in for a while.
The room was luxuriously furnished, with attendants on standby outside at all times.
Standing by the window and looking down, he could take in most of the city below. It was genuinely refreshing.
There was a large LCD screen in the room.
Not long after Ronin returned, a notification appeared on it.
"Match Date Confirmed:
227th Floor Arena
April 25th, starting at 3:00 PM."
His opponent didn't disappoint him—it was Garegg.
The guy really had submitted the form.
Ronin didn't underestimate him. Even if he believed Garegg wasn't his equal, a lion still uses full strength to hunt a rabbit. Besides, he wasn't planning to reveal the Sharingan just yet.
By comparison, Ronin was more interested in Uvogin's Big Bang Impact. He wanted to use this match to try reproducing it.
His fight with Uvogin had been brief, but every time Uvogin unleashed Big Bang Impact, Ronin's Sharingan had captured it perfectly.
Actually reproducing it, however, wasn't easy.
The problem wasn't the technique itself—it was that once Ronin entered the Sharingan state, all of his Nen transformed into chakra.
And chakra and Nen were fundamentally different in how they were used.
Chakra circulated internally within the body, while Nen was an energy projected outward.
That meant that once his Nen became chakra, Ronin couldn't use the copied Big Bang Impact.
So the question was—was there a way to enter the Sharingan state while still retaining Nen?
If he could fuse Nen abilities with ninjutsu, wouldn't the result be far more powerful?
What Ronin envisioned was layering Super Destructive Fist with Cherry Blossom Impact—one being an outward Nen explosion, the other an internal chakra amplification.
One internal, one external—complementing each other to produce a one-plus-one-greater-than-two effect.
After all, the ninjutsu he could currently use was limited to C-rank and below. If he wanted to grow stronger, ninjutsu training wasn't the answer.
That meant improvement had to come from Nen.
And using Nen to enhance the effectiveness of his ninjutsu—wasn't that perfectly aligned with his Enhancer-type Nen?
After notifying Milia about the match, Ronin began experimenting.
The simplest approach was to repeatedly enter the Sharingan state and control the energy conversion at the moment it activated—creating a kind of "interception."
He only needed to stop part of his Nen from transforming into chakra to achieve the effect he wanted.
It wasn't easy.
But through constant attempts at activating the Sharingan, Ronin could sense that it was possible.
He just needed to find the right balance.