"Alright, show's over."
Cloud wasted no more time, knocking out the impotently raging Clone Zero with a single chop.
[WARNING! WARNING! Base self-destruct sequence activated! Time remaining: 60 seconds!]
The base's speakers blared with piercing alarms.
"What the hell! Can't win so you blow yourself up? All villains really are the same, huh?" Terry couldn't help but complain.
"Move out!"
Everyone abandoned the fight and evacuated the soon-to-explode "iron coffin."
But Cloud lingered behind.
He eyed the sparking control panel, a "shrewd merchant" glint appearing in his eyes.
"Letting such a big treasure just blow up—what a waste."
He took a deep breath and issued an almost roaring, non-negotiable command to his system:
"System! Get moving! I don't care how you do it!"
"Pack up the cannon's blueprints, energy core schematics, power control codes, and the principles behind that Pairon Mephistopheles technique... everything valuable—download it! Take it all!"
"I'm doing salvage operations here! Turning trash into treasure!"
[Received! Host! Ultimate Technology Plunder Protocol activated! Initiating forced copy of core database...]
[Copy progress: 1%... 15%... 58%... 99%...]
[DING! Copy complete! Full Zero Cannon tech tree successfully plundered! Congratulations, Host—you can now flip the table whenever you want!]
One second before the base exploded, Cloud's figure vanished along with his bountiful "spoils of war."
All that remained behind was a brilliant firework-like explosion.
...
The KOF 2000 tournament concluded in a most dramatic fashion.
But everyone knew the final battle against NESTS had only just begun.
After KOF 2000 ended with what could only be described as "South Town's fireworks display"—a decidedly brutal conclusion—the entire world fell into an eerie calm.
NESTS, after their global "demonstration of force," vanished like smoke, going completely dark.
The Zero Cannon—that Sword of Damocles hanging above Earth—showed no further activity.
But everyone knew this was merely the calm before the storm.
During this "off-season," Cloud kept himself quite busy.
On one hand, he was occupied soothing his harem. On the other, he was furiously researching the "black technology" he'd "packaged" from Clone Zero's space station.
Through decrypting that core data, the outline of an even more massive and insane organization—along with a final plan that sent chills down the spine—gradually emerged before his eyes.
NESTS wasn't, as the outside world imagined, simply a secret society of scientists and modified humans. Its internal hierarchy was strict, its structure far more complex than anyone realized.
And Clone Zero—that poor bastard who got gang-beaten by the "Avengers Assembly" on the space station—was merely a senior executive in charge of "external operations."
Above him stood someone called the "real" Zero—True Zero!
According to the "defected" Kula and Angel's recollections, this True Zero was NESTS's actual second-in-command, and in the eyes of high-level modified humans like themselves, he was akin to a "demon drill instructor."
"That guy is even stronger than Clone Zero." Angel's face showed rare wariness when mentioning True Zero.
"His combat suit is far more advanced than Clone Zero's—it can manipulate space and even distort natural laws. I once saw him snap his fingers, and an S-class modified human was instantly disintegrated at the molecular level."
And above this "True Zero" existed an even more mysterious, more terrifying presence.
He was the leader of NESTS, the mastermind behind all conspiracies—Igniz!
"Lord Igniz..." When Kula mentioned this name, her ice-blue eyes couldn't help but reveal terror from the depths of her soul, as if it were a forbidden name never to be spoken. "He... isn't human. He's... a god."
According to Kula's fragmented, fear-filled recollections, Igniz resided year-round in a massive fortress called the "Ominous Steel" floating in the depths of space. He rarely showed himself, yet his will commanded the entire NESTS organization like divine decree.
He possessed the organization's ultimate technological achievement—a suit called the "God's Battle Armor." That suit granted him power approaching that of a "god."
"I... I once saw Lord Igniz fight from a distance." Kula's voice trembled. "It was during a failed experiment disposal. A modified human with power rivaling the Four Heavenly Kings went berserk, destroying the entire base's defense system. Then Lord Igniz appeared."
"He didn't make any unnecessary movements. He just... raised his hand slightly."
"Then that berserk modified human, along with all matter within several kilometers around him, instantly became nothing."
"Not an explosion. Disintegration. As if... he was deleted from this world entirely."
That feeling—Kula could never forget it.
It wasn't the overwhelming power of strength. It was the crushing weight of authority over the rules themselves.
Like a game's GM directly typing "delete" on a disobedient player.
"His ambition is enormous." Cloud studied the analysis report, his expression grave. "His goal isn't simply to cleanse the world like Orochi. He wants to collect combat data from the world's strongest fighters to perfect his God's Battle Armor, ultimately evolving himself into a new kind of god—an artificial god surpassing all the old ones!"
He intended to supplant all the old gods and become this universe's sole "final authority"!
...
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