Chapter 420: Powering Up
"...No way. That completely bald guy — that can't seriously be Saitama, from One Punch Man's own world, right? This... how is this even possible?!"
Gongbieerzi, the rule-breaking reincarnator, had been watching the holographic display closely, waiting for the right opening to make his move against the Ancient One.
Instead, everything unfolding in front of him had completely upended everything he thought he understood about the Marvel world. He'd watched, wide-eyed, as the Ancient One casually tore open a spatial tunnel some ten thousand meters across, watched every incoming attack simply vanish into it.
And then he'd watched, equally wide-eyed, as that bald figure — looking uncannily like One Punch Man's own protagonist — threw a single punch from a distance and wiped out countless warships outright, the sheer scale of the damage impossible to even fully process.
Setting aside, for a moment, the fact that the Ancient One was apparently far stronger than his own recollection of her — that bald head alone had left Gongbieerzi genuinely stunned.
A single punch, powerful enough to do that? Aside from the actual protagonist of One Punch Man, he genuinely couldn't think of a second candidate.
Unless that bald man happened to be holding the Power Stone, one of the Infinity Stones?
But no matter how he turned it over in his head, that seemed genuinely unlikely — the Power Stone had no business being anywhere near Earth.
Could he really be One Punch Man's actual protagonist? Wait — wasn't this supposed to be the Marvel world?
Gongbieerzi had to admit he clearly didn't understand this world as well as he thought. Was this some kind of merged crossover setting?
But Marvel and One Punch Man had absolutely nothing to do with each other — could they really be mashed together like this?
"Hiss... if that guy really is Saitama, then why have I never once heard of some cosmic overlord named Boros out there in the universe? Unless — because the two worlds got merged somehow, Boros just never existed at all in this version? Or maybe he already got killed off?"
Gongbieerzi's expression soured visibly. With the system's abilities backing him, he might've stood a chance against the Ancient One alone — but throw a second Saitama-level threat into the mix, and going in himself was practically a death sentence.
As for The Other, the Chitauri army's own commander standing beside him?
Gongbieerzi didn't believe for a second that this unnervingly eerie figure could beat either the Ancient One or Saitama — the man was, frankly, weaker than he was himself.
The Other had only ever risen to cosmic-overlord status, eventually falling in under Thanos's banner, because of his sheer talent for raising massive armies.
When it came to actual personal combat, Gongbieerzi genuinely doubted the man could even take on Iron Man solo.
"Who exactly is that bald man? Why is his power this overwhelming?"
The Other had noticed Saitama's display too, and turned to Gongbieerzi, demanding an answer.
Gongbieerzi's mouth twitched slightly, his expression stiff as he answered, "That one's probably called Saitama. He's... a genuinely powerful individual. Not weaker than the Ancient One. Possibly even stronger, honestly."
The Other: "???"
The Other had never actually crossed swords with the Ancient One himself, but his own master — Sa(nos)Thanos — held enough respect for the woman that the point was already made: that human sorceress was a genuine threat.
And now this fool beside him was casually claiming that bald man might be stronger than her?
If that was actually true...
Then what exactly was the point of coming to Earth in the first place?
Cannon fodder?
A death sentence?
Even someone as composed as The Other, who'd lived through countless years and prided himself on his cool head, couldn't quite keep his expression steady this time, demanding again: "Are you setting me up here? Or are you just trying to drag me down with you before you off yourself?!"
Gongbieerzi: "..."
Faced with The Other's renewed accusation, Gongbieerzi had no good answer to give — honestly, he wasn't entirely sure himself what was actually happening right now.
He took a deep breath and said, "No need to panic. Between my forces and yours, we're looking at a combined total of at least a million troops, plus my own trump card. We should be able to weather this."
Hearing Gongbieerzi's less-than-confident tone, The Other genuinely considered flattening the man's face with a single punch — this bastard was dragging both him and Lord Thanos straight into the grave.
But weighing the very real possibility that he might not actually win that fight, The Other simply let out a cold snort instead, his expression icy. "And this trump card of yours?"
Gongbieerzi's face broke into a confident smile. "Relax. Give me half a minute, and you'll see for yourself. In the meantime, have your forces stall for time."
He pulled out a comm device, pressed the red button on it, and said into it, "All planetary-scale cannons, prepare! Blow those people to pieces!"
"..."
The moment his words left his mouth, the countless warships scattered across space began shifting from their chaotic formation into a precise, orderly configuration.
Ship after ship drew slowly closer together, strange energy fields wrapped around each hull binding them tightly to one another.
Watching from a distance, it looked exactly like some invisible hand assembling a set of building blocks — each individual warship functioning as a single brick.
By the time half a minute had passed, the dense cluster of warships had vanished entirely, replaced instead by — five hundred colossal cosmic cannons of truly staggering scale!
No one could say exactly how wide their barrels actually were. Ten thousand meters in diameter each, maybe more?
Those five hundred colossal guns, each wreathed in white energy, all aimed squarely at the spatial jump gateway where Ryū and the others floated.
The sight left The Other utterly stunned, and that shock was quickly followed by a genuine chill of dread.
He had no idea exactly how powerful these cannons actually were, but judging purely by their sheer caliber — five hundred of them, firing in unison — that kind of barrage could probably blow apart a small star outright.
This man... sure, he was currently allied with Lord Thanos, but if he was ever allowed to keep growing unchecked like this, sooner or later he'd become a genuine thorn in Thanos's side.
Meanwhile, back at the spatial jump gateway, Ryū frowned as he studied those distant cannons.
They stirred up a genuine sense of threat in him — meaning their actual firepower probably wasn't anything to scoff at.
The overwhelming Ki inside him surged outward all at once, a terrifying wave of energy sweeping violently in every direction. Space had no air to carry a shockwave, of course — what looked like a "wave" here was purely the raw energy of his own Ki, erupting outward directly.
That immense Ki wrapped tightly around his body, the whole scene looking uncannily like a Saiyan powering up.
Ryū slowly cupped both hands together, forming the familiar orb-gathering stance. A deep blue Ki blast began to take shape between his palms, rapidly swelling in size, its blinding light instantly illuminating the dim expanse of space around him.
This was the first time, since his Ki's quality had been enhanced, that he'd gone all-out — full power, no holding back.
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