Chapter 148: A Pink Balloon, Drifting and Floating
Unlike games built around the standard template of defeating monsters, slaying a demon lord, rescuing a princess, and saving the world, the Nekketsu Series was entirely a civil war among a group of delinquent high school students who had no talent for anything useful.
No monster units. No behind-the-scenes villain pulling strings. From the protagonists to the people starting each incident, everyone was a delinquent belonging to one school or another.
And calling them delinquents was only partly accurate, because in certain areas these people were considerably more rule-abiding than you would expect.
Outside of titles like Nekketsu Tough Guy and Nekketsu Story, which covered outright street brawling, most of the Nekketsu Series resolved its conflicts through sports competitions.
Fighting during those sports competitions was standard, and the fighting itself was probably the primary form of competition. But that was simply part of delinquent street culture, and as long as everyone accepted the result afterward, the whole thing ran smoothly. That was the behavioral code of that particular era's delinquents.
Which meant the real-world Secret Realm produced by Creator Authority over the Nekketsu Series was nothing like the Tower of Druaga, which just spawned monsters and let them overflow into the surrounding area. It also wasn't going to be like Castlevania, with a concrete BOSS unit holding dominion over everything.
What kind of Secret Realm it actually was, he was about to find out.
Nekketsu New Record Secret Realm stage. Fifth event. Open-weight judo. Final round.
Ross had his opponent, a member of the American seeded team named Alex, pinned down and forced to one knee. Judgment registered. Pass.
Then Alex felt a tremendous upward force, and found himself launched into the air.
Ross leaped high, swung his arm like a whip, blending the spike technique from Super Dodge Ball with Trevor's whip mechanics, and brought it down hard on top of Alex's head.
Fireball Spike.
Alex went straight into the tatami mat. HP zero.
Ross took a deep breath, then expelled every last bit of air from his lungs in a shout at the ceiling.
Nekketsu High School team only. Kunio abilities only. 99 gold medals, 99 silver medals, 99 bronze medals collected. First place in every event. No damage in any event. Zero shop purchases.
Six vows. Half a year of training and repeated clear attempts. And right now, satisfying all six simultaneously, Ross had cleared the Nekketsu New Record Secret Realm stage.
When Ross stepped up to the first-place position on the podium, the Little Tyrant finally produced its notification.
[You have obtained the highest level of authority over the Nekketsu New Record Secret Realm stage: Creator Authority.]
[You may now permanently map Kunio (Nekketsu New Record version) and gain all of his abilities.]
[Due to the special nature of the Nekketsu New Record Secret Realm stage, this real-world Secret Realm will manifest as a general sports arena constructed and funded by the Todo Group, a criminal organization.]
[However, since you do not yet hold all of the Famicom Nekketsu Series game titles, the Nekketsu Series combo cartridge cannot deploy the corresponding protagonists or antagonist units into the real world.]
[Therefore, you, as the holder of Nekketsu New Record Creator Authority, will become the acting fully-authorized representative of both the Todo crime group and the Nekketsu New Record General Sports Arena in the current world. Please stand by for relevant communications.]
[Your cartridge-derived ability, Competition Roulette, has received a combined effect upgrade. Please tap to view details.]
Ross froze with the gold trophy raised mid-celebration, because the chain of notifications was considerably more than he had expected.
Dracula had effectively become a formidable new force in organized crime through his absorption of the Nostrad family. And now Ross had stepped into the criminal underworld himself through clearing Nekketsu New Record.
The Todo Group was a criminal organization. The Todo Conglomerate was on the surface one of the island nation's largest corporate groups, but in practice it was just a convenient public-facing identity for the Todo Group itself.
The Todo family's eldest son, Togo, was the kind of person who, when a friend mentioned wanting ramen, would simply buy out the entire ramen restaurant on the spot so his friend could eat to his heart's content. An absurdly wealthy young man.
Togo had a strong personal dislike for Kunio, or more precisely he looked down equally on all delinquents, and for that reason mostly remained a background figure rather than personally participating in any delinquent competitions. He considered it thoroughly beneath him.
If he ever found out that the Todo Group's representative in this world was Ross, someone who had Kunio's abilities mapped onto him. Togo would probably drop to his knees in front of his father and sob.
When Ross returned to the real world, his email inbox had been instantly flooded. Most of it was Todo Group correspondence, and his title had been transformed overnight into Acting Group Leader, Acting Head, Acting Boss.
With no actual group leader present, and the trouble-making heir Togo also absent, the acting boss was the real boss.
Ross kept his guard up, though. The current situation didn't qualify as a clean exchange, but it was close enough to a vow and restriction that he couldn't just feel good about suddenly becoming a criminal organization's acting head. There was probably something in the details that wasn't obvious at first glance.
Or more precisely: the identity of criminal organization acting head was itself the trap.
Because in the Hunter world, even the Ten Dons, heads of criminal organizations powerful enough to command armies, had been killed in an instant when they ran into sufficiently capable Nen users. Being a crime boss carried no prestige against real power.
Sure enough, buried somewhere in the flood of emails, Ross found a formal invitation.
An invitation to the Yorknew City underworld auction. From the Ten Dons.
Ah.
Ross's expression was briefly strange, but curiosity quickly replaced it.
He was very curious whether the Phantom Troupe, after the losses they had taken, would still proceed with the original plan to raid this auction.
His personal guess: yes, they would. That group was too proud to let a beating from Ging completely break their spirit. An A-class criminal organization wasn't just a label handed out casually, and against ordinary crime outfit members and even the Dons' prized Shadow Beasts, their elite unit composed entirely of Nen ability users, the Troupe still held overwhelming combat advantage.
There was a saying about wise people not standing under unstable walls. But Ross genuinely wanted to watch this particular spectacle up close.
It would also be a good opportunity to acquire a property in Yorknew City, move the Nekketsu New Record Secret Realm entrance there, and extend the fast travel map one more node.
What nobody knew at that moment was that in the sky above Yorknew City's downtown, a small round pink balloon was drifting, wobbling its way slowly down toward the ground below.
30+advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces