Lu Li felt completely powerless to mock this world's execution methods. He wanted to tell them they should really learn from the Megacorporations back in his home world... actually, scratch that. The Corps' execution methods were equally twisted, highly inefficient, and usually ended with him slaughtering the executioners anyway.
Having calmed down, Lu Li reconsidered his situation. The Terminus Space might have actually handed him a decent starting hand.
If his memory served him correctly, there was a specific martial artist introduced in the canon storyline who was exactly like him—a notorious Death Row inmate housed in Saishu Prison whose execution had repeatedly failed. His name was Yohei Bando.
Assuming he had been dropped into the timeline just before the Kengan Annihilation Tournament began, someone from the outside would eventually come to recruit a fighter from this prison. When that happened, Lu Li could effortlessly hijack the proxy fighter slot and legally enter the tournament.
The Terminus Space's logic was sound, but it slightly conflicted with Lu Li's personal agenda.
As a kid, he had loved this manga. He used to daydream about learning some of the "superpowered" martial arts depicted in the story.
Yes, in his eyes, this manga was filled with borderline superpowers. For instance, there was Julius Reinhold, a muscle-bound freak who could literally pull F1 race cars like toys; Takeshi Wakatsuki, a mutant with muscle fiber density 52 times greater than an average human; the Kure Clan's [Removal] technique; and the protagonist Ohma Tokita's [Advance].
Numerical anomalies like Julius and Wakatsuki didn't faze him much; after all, his own stats were already massively over-tuned. What truly caught his interest were explosive, potential-unlocking techniques like the Kure Clan's [Removal] and the protagonist's [Advance].
To Lu Li, these were techniques designed to violently shatter the human body's biological limiters and unleash explosive kinetic output. Mastering them would provide a massive, immediate power boost for his future inter-dimensional travels.
Therefore, rather than politely waiting to officially enter the tournament, he was vastly more interested in actively hunting down these premium "skills" first.
Clack—
Lu Li's thoughts were interrupted by the heavy steel door groaning open. The prison guard standing on the other side was sweating profusely, his hands trembling so violently that the heavy iron keys rattled loudly against the lock.
"I-Inmate 404... s-step out," the guard stammered, clearly terrified of the notoriously unkillable monster inside.
Lu Li stood up. Under the guard's horrified gaze, he casually flexed his legs and violently tore straight out of the heavy-duty reinforced canvas straitjacket. Stepping completely free of the restraints, he calmly walked toward the door.
Seeing that Lu Li's hands were still heavily cuffed behind his back, the terrified guard barely managed a sigh of relief and hurriedly led the way down the corridor.
They stepped out into an open, enclosed courtyard. On the second-floor balcony overlooking the yard stood two figures: the pale, sweating Warden of Saishu Prison, and an older, sharply dressed man in a tailored suit who was smiling down at the courtyard with deep amusement.
Two other inmates had already been released into the yard before him. Unlike Lu Li, they were only wearing standard handcuffs.
To Lu Li's left stood a gloomy, sinister-looking man wearing a hood. To his right stood a massive, heavily built giant sporting a deeply unstylish balding haircut.
Up on the balcony, the Warden was wiping buckets of sweat from his forehead. "Releasing these three into the same yard is pure insanity. Do you have any idea who they are?! That is Ginji Nagashima, the 'Fanatical Ghost', a cultist who slaughtered 56 people! That is Yohei Bando, the 'Bloody Tusk', who tore 17 Yakuza members apart with his bare hands! And that is Lu Li, the 'Berserker', who butchered 28 human traffickers!"
Just standing on the balcony made the Warden's knees knock together. Even though he was safely elevated on the second floor, merely sharing the same airspace with these three apocalyptic mass murderers sent a freezing chill down his spine.
The man in the suit picked up a megaphone, his smile widening as he looked down at the yard. "The rules are very simple. A fight to the death. The sole survivor will be granted a temporary reprieve of freedom... and the absolute right to destroy human bodies to your heart's content."
Still keeping his hands casually behind his back, Lu Li looked up at the man in the suit. He immediately recognized him as Seisuke Takada, the CEO of Tenma Communication.
How utterly repulsive. Everything about the man—his tailored suit, his arrogant aura, his condescending tone, and the literal pedestal he stood on—deeply irritated Lu Li.
But what pissed him off the most was being treated like a monkey in a cage for the amusement of a corporate suit. What the hell does he think martial artists are? What does he think martial arts are?
SNAP. To Lu Li's left, the Fanatical Ghost casually snapped his heavy steel handcuffs. He shattered the reinforced steel like it was peanut brittle, showcasing an absolutely inhuman grip strength.
In the Kengan universe, standard scientific common sense did not apply—much like the Baki universe. Furthermore, considering this specific world was currently undergoing a violent "mutation," the physical baseline of the locals had likely skyrocketed even further.
"This is quite troublesome. I'm not some crazed thrill-killer... but I don't particularly want to die either. I suppose I'll have to fight for that 'right'," Yohei Bando sighed. Standing at nearly two meters tall and weighing 147 kilograms, he looked like a small giant. Yet, his joints possessed a bizarre, unnatural flexibility. As he spoke, his arm whipped backward behind his head, coiling like a fleshy, bone-crushing whip preparing to strike.
"Heretics must be purged! Face my divine judgment!" the Fanatical Ghost bellowed, dropping into a combat stance.
Strangely, as the two massive serial killers locked onto each other, they completely ignored Lu Li standing nearby. Lu Li remained perfectly still, looking exactly like a polite spectator enjoying the show.
Up on the balcony, the Warden and Seisuke Takada subconsciously ignored him as well. Compared to the two towering two-meter behemoths, Lu Li's frame looked remarkably small and unimposing.
Even though they had read his terrifying casualty reports, visually, Lu Li simply didn't project the same overwhelming, monstrous "intimidation factor" as the other two.
BANG—!
Following a sickeningly heavy sound of physical impact, the Fanatical Ghost's body violently collapsed to the floor. His entire head had been brutally driven directly into his own ribcage. Blood erupted everywhere.
Yohei Bando slowly turned around. Under CEO Takada's euphoric gaze and the Warden's absolute terror, Bando casually flicked the gore off his hand and locked his eyes onto Lu Li. "Don't worry. I'll make it quick."
"Wait..." The prison guard standing a few paces behind Lu Li nervously raised a hand. "I haven't unlocked his handcuffs yet..."
Before the guard could even finish his sentence, Lu Li's handcuffs violently exploded.
The guard didn't even see Lu Li move. Unlike the Fanatical Ghost who had used raw grip strength to snap the chain, Lu Li's handcuffs completely disintegrated into dozens of jagged shrapnel pieces, as if they had been blown apart from the inside by a micro-explosive.
Under the thoroughly shell-shocked gazes of the guards and the VIPs, Lu Li casually rolled his shoulders and shook out his wrists. He cracked his neck, the joints popping like firecrackers.
"Don't worry," Lu Li replied evenly. "When I carry out an execution, I don't fail."
The exact microsecond the words left his mouth, Lu Li completely vanished from his spot. The ordinary humans watching couldn't even process what was happening.
A faint blur flashed directly through the space Bando occupied. In the very next instant, Bando's gargantuan 147-kilogram body was violently launched into the air.
As the victim, Bando's hyper-flexible body instinctively tried to contort mid-air to stabilize his posture. But before he could even begin to curl his spine, a thunderous, lethal strike connected.
It was Lu Li's knee.
CRACK. The horrifying sound of shattering bone echoed through the courtyard. Bando's throat and cervical spine were violently pulverized in a single strike. His head snapped backward at an impossible, grotesque angle.
THUD—!
The massive corpse slammed heavily into the dirt courtyard, kicking up a cloud of dust and splattering blood across the concrete.
Lu Li landed gracefully. Despite wearing a standard-issue prison uniform, not a single drop of blood had touched him.
Completely ignoring the paralyzed, stunned silence gripping the courtyard, Lu Li dropped into a slight crouch and violently exploded upward, leaping directly onto the second-floor balcony.
"D-Don't you dare move!"
The Warden was absolutely terrified by Lu Li's monstrous jumping power. They had dared to watch the fight from the balcony precisely because they assumed they were safe. The prison architecture was specifically designed for maximum security; the balcony was over four meters off the ground. How the hell did a human just jump four meters straight up from a standstill?!
"Guards! Shoot him! Shoot him!" the Warden shrieked. But the prison guards were only equipped with rubber riot rounds. Even if they somehow managed to miraculously subdue this demon, the man was already standing less than a meter away. The Warden knew he was a dead man.
The guards remained entirely frozen, completely paralyzed by the suffocating, invisible pressure radiating from the man in the prison uniform.
He wasn't nearly as tall or massive as the Fanatical Ghost or Yohei Bando, yet his sheer aura completely dominated the entire space. It felt like this balcony was his absolute domain; within striking distance, he held the absolute authority of life and death!
CEO Takada's face initially twisted in terror, but that fear rapidly contorted into a manic, euphoric grin. "Incredible! Absolutely magnificent! You'll make an outstanding hound! With you... with you, I can completely dominate the..."
His words were cut violently short. Just like his twisted ambitions, his life was abruptly terminated.
CEO Takada collapsed backward, a look of profound disbelief frozen on his face. The very last thing reflected in his eyes was the absolute, freezing apathy in the man's gaze.
"Go find your new hound in hell."
Lu Li stated coldly, casually stepping over the corpse and walking past the violently trembling Warden.
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