"Steel Giant, stop right now, come and kill me, aaaahhhhh!!!"
Kaido, falling from mid-air, pulled out his mace. Barbatos's action of turning around and running enraged him.
"Don't even think about running!!!"
In his rage, Kaido transformed. The burly giant in mid-air instantly became a massive creature hundreds of meters long.
It had horns like a deer, a head like an ox, eyes like a shrimp, a mouth like a donkey, a belly like a snake, scales like a fish, feet like a phoenix, whiskers like a man, and ears like an elephant.
Azure scales covered his entire body. The moment he spanned the sky, he summoned massive storm clouds that enveloped him for thousands of meters. Countless thunderbolts rolled and roared within the clouds!
A dragon, an Azure Dragon, a genuine mythological dragon!
Shin's heart tightened. The instant Kaido transformed into the Azure Dragon, he felt a sudden sense of fear from deep within. Was this Conqueror's Haki? No, maybe he hadn't fully unleashed it; was this just the naturally produced aura?
Shin no longer held back and instantly donned his Poltorto gear. At the same time, the live stream was activated.
"It's really live-streaming???? Is Lord Dawn finally going to show his face?"
"You're done. Uncle was warned by a lawyer's letter. This live stream probably won't last two minutes."
"Wait, where is this? Holy crap, what is that!!!"
The system's live stream focused perfectly on the most appealing aspect: Kaido in pursuit. Unlike the visually poor animation constrained by budget, the moment Kaido's true form appeared on the live stream, the sheer dominance and deterrence seemed to pierce through the screen.
"Kaido, it's Kaido!!!"
"Wait, he just blasted Big Mom last episode and now he's provoking Kaido? This is much more satisfying than fighting the Fifth Emperor. I love it, I love it."
"Am I the only one who cares if this is a recording?"
More and more bullet comments flashed across the channel. The sudden influx of traffic immediately caught the attention of YT's official backend personnel. Upon learning that this was a live stream from the infringing streamer whom the boss had ordered to be banned, they immediately decided to shut down the stream!
However...
The technical staff were shocked to find that they couldn't even find this live stream in the data backend, let alone shut it down.
What the heck? Was this live stream a diversion, redirecting all YT users to another website?
This was clearly impossible. The viewers were YT users, and their bullet comments could be seen in the backend account data, but they simply couldn't access this live stream.
After multiple failed attempts, the YT technical staff, in desperation, could only send a message requesting the stream be closed. They threatened legal action if the live stream wasn't shut down, the network attack against YT ceased, and the streamer agreed to rectification.
The system took a look, chuckled, and then retaliated with a "super double."
In an instant, a massive wave of data information flooded YT's backend servers. In just a few moments, all live streams were forcibly shut down.
In an instant, the entire YT live streaming Session was filled with wailing. Shin's live stream instantly rose to the top spot. Amidst the bewildered bullet comments, the system smiled and retreated.
There was no need to overdo it. For the system, Shin himself had to handle this kind of proactive promotion.
However, Shin had no time or energy to deal with these trivial matters.
"Don't run, stand still, coward! Come and kill me, aaaahhhhh!!!"
Kaido's furious roar echoed across the sky. To avoid attracting more trouble, such as the three Admirals mobilizing for a siege, Shin had to force Barbatos to ascend into the stratosphere. But who knew what this guy's body composition and flight principles were? He had already reached the stratosphere, yet Kaido was still pursuing him!
Kaido's enraged roar, carrying intense and dense Conqueror's Haki, hit the fleeing Barbatos like a massive sonic weapon, an inescapable assault.
Even while wearing the Poltorto equipment, the intense attack on his spirit made Shin feel immense mental pressure. The speed controlled by the Alaya-Vijnana system was forced to decrease.
"Is this Conqueror's Haki..."
Shin muttered behind his mask. He bit his lip hard, drawing blood. His eyes bulged as he forced himself through the pain not to faint from the overwhelming mental pressure.
The Conqueror's Haki, which was mocked in the anime as being something everyone in the New World possessed and useless except for clearing out mobs, had become an unexpected lethal point for Shin.
Indeed, Conqueror's Haki might only clear out mobs, but the standard for "mob" varied depending on the user. For a Yonko's Conqueror's Haki, anyone below Zoro's level was considered a mob. Shin's willpower was not weak, but compared to the people in this world, he had experienced too little adversity.
If it weren't for the absolute calm provided by the Poltorto suit, he would have fainted instantly.
And under these conditions, Shin was piloting a Gundam from the Iron-Blooded Orphans series. If it were other Gundam models, he could just press the accelerator and escape regardless of the mental pressure. But not the Iron-Blooded Orphans series. The cursed Alaya-Vijnana system is directly linked to the brain's nerves. Although the system-exchanged model simulates neural signals, it is still controlled by the pilot's spirit and will. The speed of the machine isn't something you can just maximize with the press of an accelerator. To allow the Ahab particles to distribute throughout the machine and reduce acceleration G-force, one must maintain mental control.
Under the onslaught of Conqueror's Haki, Shin had to dedicate at least half of his mental energy to staying calm and conscious, while the other half was insufficient to unleash even half of the Gundam's speed.
And Kaido's speed was not slow.
As a suspected user of the Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Azure Dragon, Kaido possessed many illogical abilities typically seen in Paramecia users. One of them was flight. At ten thousand meters, Kaido was surrounded by thunder clouds, relying on unknown power, and rapidly pursuing Shin in a near-apocalyptic form.
This speed was already supersonic, and as the surrounding thunder clouds increased, his speed was still rising!
Shin didn't know how long he had been running. He had probably left the Red Line and entered the Calm Belt, but Kaido was still in hot pursuit!
The clear blue sky was suddenly covered in dense clouds, thunderbolts roared, and then Kaido's furious roar echoed.
"Don't run, coward! Come kill me! I don't want to live!!!"
"If you don't want to live, go to Mary Geoise or Marineford!" Shin couldn't take it anymore and roared in anger. The prolonged mental pressure and torment made him break free from the absolute calm provided by the Poltorto suit.
"If you want to commit suicide, go attack Mary Geoise, attack Pangaea Castle! Or follow Golden Lion and attack Marineford and find Garp!"
"The strongest creature, the immortal Kaido, you're just a bully! You were caught attacking Marine branch bases, and you're proud of that, right? You used a conspiracy just to kill Oden, and you're proud of that, right?!"
"Bah! Always looking for death? You're just putting on a show. You ran away shamefully at God Valley. If Garp were standing here today, would you dare to tell his fists you're looking for death?"
Shin clearly couldn't handle the pressure anymore. He said everything he shouldn't have.
And then... Kaido stopped being angry.
Upon hearing "Mary Geoise" and "Pangaea Castle," Kaido narrowed his eyes. Upon hearing "Oden," he stopped roaring. When he heard "God Valley," his expression became unusually solemn.
"Brat, it seems you know a lot of things."
Kaido's tone suddenly changed, as if he had switched personalities, becoming cold and murderous. This guy seemed like a lunatic in the manga, laughing one moment and crying the next, and his character design had always been problematic. While he presented himself as a reckless death-seeker, he also conspired with Orochi to set up and kill Oden.
"It seems you are a descendant of some guy from that ship back then? Well, in that case, I definitely can't let you go today. Join me or die, how pathetic, wah wah wah!!!"
While speaking, he burst into tears, crying heartbreakingly, and the surrounding thunder clouds grew larger.
"Don't run, why are you running? Fight, fight!"
"He has a Gundam, what is there to be afraid of Kaido? This embarrassing guy can even be injured by Kin'emon. Can't the Gundam one-shot him?"
"Nonsense! What's wrong with me, a Yonko, being injured by a samurai? That's cultural heritage!"
The bullet comments on the screen were like ghosts from another world. The arrogance of keyboard warriors, who think everything in the world is trash and they can do anything with a flick of their fingers, was palpable.
In the pitch-black cockpit, Shin struggled to lift his head, using his willpower to suppress the pain and numbness from the electric shock. All his plans hadn't even begun, yet he was already in a stalemate.
But it wasn't a dead end. Following Kaido might mean losing his autonomy, but at least he could survive and possibly still intervene and significantly change the plot.
However, that also meant Shin was handing over his life to someone else.
"The final evaluation dropping drastically doesn't matter... but I'm tired of feeling like I can't control my own destiny."
Shin's right hand trembled as he slowly opened the system's exchange list. There were many items that could resolve this awkward situation, but he couldn't afford them. His remaining 40,000 points couldn't buy anything that would guarantee a breakthrough.
Barbatos's temporary power outage would soon recover. The Ahab Reactor's particle generation would not be affected by thunder, only the signal transmission of the Alaya-Vijnana system was temporarily short-circuited due to the thunder.
He could escape, but he only had one chance, one opportunity to shake off Kaido!
He trembled as he narrowed the exchange scope to the CE universe of Gundam SEED and said with difficulty, "Keyword search, Enhanced Human, Phantom Pain, Potion..."
The three keywords narrowed the exchange list to a single item:
γ-Glycine Mental Stability Enhancement Potion.
No detailed description was needed. Strictly speaking, this item couldn't exist as a normal Mysterious Item except in specific situations. This special drug came from Gundam SEED's Phantom Pain unit, or rather, the dedicated drug for the Enhanced Human team created by the Earth Alliance.
Because they used crude genetic modification techniques, the Enhanced Humans created by the Earth Alliance had extremely unstable minds, so they needed this drug to forcibly stabilize their minds and even strengthen their willpower.
However, this drug had two fatal flaws: it reduced lifespan and came with a severe risk of addiction. The technological level of this drug wasn't strictly high; it just injected substances like catecholamines, dopamine, and norepinephrine—related to brain information transmission—into the brain. It was a super anesthetic plus a super stimulant, a weakened version of NZT-48.
But Shin was a Coordinator. Even if his enhanced abilities were nowhere near the protagonist group in the anime, he was indeed a Coordinator. Under extreme conditions, he could do something only Coordinators could do.
He took a deep breath. The next moment, a silver syringe filled with a transparent liquid appeared in his hand.
"I know I'm not a protagonist," Shin murmured, slowly lifting the syringe, aiming it at his neck, and tilting his head back. "I don't expect to suddenly gain mysterious power in a desperate situation. But I've come this far; at the very least... let me activate SEED once!"
The silver syringe plunged into the blood vessel in his neck. The transparent liquid was pushed into his body and flowed towards his brain.
"Brat, answer me, submit or die!"
Kaido's thunderous roar echoed again within the power-out cockpit.
Shin slowly lifted his head.
Barbatos's eyes ignited with blood-red light.
-----
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