Cloud stared at this email in silence for a full three seconds.
Then...
"What the actual fuck!"
A roar full of "grass"-flavored rage echoed across the entire island!
"Cancel my champion privilege?!"
"Make me fight in the preliminaries?!"
"I'm not Yun Ying—who exactly are you looking down on?!!"
Cloud felt his blood pressure spike instantly.
He was the dignified four-time champion, the savior who ended Orochi, the ceiling of the KOF world!
And now they wanted him to fight in preliminaries against a bunch of... "newbies" who didn't even know what "Ultimate Power" was?!
This was like making a max-level, fully-geared "Final Boss" return to the "tutorial village" to fight players wearing "cloth armor" and wielding "wooden sticks" over "goblin" kills!
Wasn't this just bullying?!
This was... an utter disgrace to his champion status!
[Ding! System Sassy Mode activated: Host, calm down, calm down.]
[According to this system's analysis, this actually demonstrates how much the organizers (NESTS) fear you!]
[They're trying to use wheel-battles to drain your stamina! They're using human wave tactics to collect your data early!]
[They're scared!]
Listening to this analysis that "seemed like comfort but was actually fanning the flames," Cloud not only didn't calm down but got even angrier.
"Fine, very good!"
A benevolent smile appeared on Cloud's face.
"NESTS, is it?"
"You want to see my data, is that it?"
"Fine, I'll let you see your fill!"
"Let's see whether your servers crash first, or you finish collecting my data!"
...
One month later. KOF 99 Preliminaries, Americas Region.
When Cloud arrived at the venue with his "divine squad" composed of three "peak beauties"—
The entire scene instantly exploded.
Camera flashes strobed like thunderstorms.
Cheers, screams, and whistles nearly blew the roof off the stadium.
"Oh my god! It's Cloud! It's really Cloud!"
"He... he really came to fight in the preliminaries?! Am I dreaming?!"
"Mom! I saw a living legend! He's... he's actually going to compete in the same bracket as us mortals!"
"Stop just looking at Cloud! Look at the three girls with him! My god! A million times more beautiful than the posters! That blonde one is mine! Nobody fight me for her!"
Meanwhile, the fighters about to face Team Cloud all looked ashen-faced, legs trembling, feeling their lives had turned gray.
Their mood was like...
You're in ranked matches, happily thinking you're about to climb.
Then you get matched in and see the enemy IDs are Faker and Uzi...
Why even bother playing?!
Just take your hands off the keyboard and prepare to hit "surrender" in fifteen minutes!
"Sigh, getting grouped with Team Cloud—our bad luck."
"Don't overthink it. Just treat it as valuable experience getting destroyed. When you get home, you can brag to your grandkids that back in the day, Grandpa here got personally beaten up by the world champion!"
"I just hope... Lord Cloud goes easy on me. Don't make me look too bad—my mom's watching me on TV..."
...
The tournament began in this bizarre atmosphere filled with "pilgrimage" and "funeral" vibes.
First match: Team Cloud vs. Canada's "Maple Leaf Squad."
"First match—who's up?" Cloud looked at the three girls beside him.
"Me!"
Shermie was first to volunteer.
She swayed her snake-like waist and walked onto the stage.
Her opponent was a two-meter-tall, muscle-bound lumberjack who looked like a brown bear.
"Little girl!" the lumberjack brother boomed. "I suggest you surrender. My axe... ugh, I mean my fists don't have eyes!"
Hearing this, Shermie just gave him a flirtatious smile.
Then, the moment the starting bell rang—
She didn't even activate her Dark Power.
She simply raised one hand lightly.
"—Shermie Flash!"
A lightning-fast, seductive grappling technique!
The two-meter-tall lumberjack didn't even have time to react before Shermie grabbed him in an extremely "improper" position, then executed a gorgeous shoulder throw, slamming him hard into the ground.
[K.O.]
Instant kill.
The entire venue—dead silence.
Shermie stood up, dusted off her hands, and even blew a kiss to the audience, as if she'd just done something trivial.
...
Second match: Goniko took the stage.
Her opponent was a cryokinetic esper.
Result: Before the "Wind Priestess," his "refrigeration" abilities were like child's play.
Goniko didn't even move her hands.
Just one thought.
"—Wind's Binding!"
Gale winds rose from flat ground!
Spinning that esper like a top in the sky for seventy or eighty rotations. By the time he landed, he couldn't tell east from west.
[K.O.]
Another instant kill.
...
Third match: Leona took the stage.
Her opponent was a seemingly formidable ninja.
Then...
There was no "then."
Leona just gave him one look.
That ninja felt like he'd been targeted by a primordial beast from hell. His legs went weak, and he dropped to his knees on the spot, raising his hands in surrender.
[K.O.]
Victory without a fight.
...
In the end, Cloud didn't even get a chance to step in.
His team had won their first preliminary match in what could only be described as a "crushing," "bullying" fashion.
And this "crushing" became the norm in subsequent matches.
No matter what opponents they faced, Cloud's three "harem members" always won easily in ways that left opponents feeling "despair."
Their individual strength already far exceeded most fighters.
Add to that Cloud—the "Final Boss"—providing "real-time tactical guidance" through mental links from the sidelines.
"Shermie, he's about to do a low attack—use your rising dragon technique to break him!"
"Goniko, don't trade blows with him—use your speed to kite him!"
"Leona, good, just like that—use your ice-cold gaze to make him feel terror mentally!"
This was simply... dimensional crushing!
...
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