Half a spaceship jammed upside down into the entrance of the Hero Association headquarters looked surprisingly artistic.
A ship that large naturally carried countless subordinates besides the three lieutenants, but Boros's punch had killed almost all of them.
Yet Boros probably would not have cared much even if all three lieutenants had died, let alone those ordinary subordinates. What mattered was that this planet had truly displayed value worthy of his interest.
"A juvenile of this planet?"
Standing before the wreckage, Boros watched Yimi walk out of the building with his single eye. "Brat, who is the strongest person on this planet?"
"The strongest? I want to, know too."
Yimi stared at Boros curiously. "Are you a monster?"
"A monster?"
One of the three-mouthed lieutenants immediately jumped in. "What an insolent brat! Standing before you is Boros-sama, the Dominator of the Universe! Hurry up and apologize for your disrespect!"
"The Dominator of the Universe, is the strongest?"
"Obviously! Boros-sama naturally—"
Before he could even finish, Boros suddenly raised a hand beside him, catching half of a crimson spear inside the bones of his arm.
From the point of the spear, a burst of pure mana erupted behind them, slicing cleanly through the already damaged spaceship and sending the severed section sliding down the diagonal cut.
Since the monster had been rude, Yimi had no intention of greeting him.
"B-Boros-sama!" Groribas faced Yimi, drenched in cold sweat, although he did not appear to have eyes.
This was a juvenile of Earth, right? It was not just her size—she even gave off the distinctive scent of a juvenile. Why was a mere juvenile this strong?
"Brat... no, Earthling. What is your name?" Sensing something, Boros decisively twisted off his injured arm and regenerated a new one.
"Yimi."
Yimi reset her stance, her little face turning serious.
This monster was strong. He was the strongest one she had encountered since arriving in this world.
"Very good..."
Boros did not care whether his opponent was an adult or a child. This was exactly the kind of battle he sought. If anything, the fact that even a child had the courage to raise a weapon against him made the surprises this planet had given him all the greater.
The punch coming straight at her bent Yimi's spear shaft into a curve approaching a right angle and sent her flying more than a kilometer backward.
But Yimi grinned happily.
This person had to be the strongest one in this world, right? He had even said it himself! She had searched for so long and had finally found him.
"Your strength isn't bad, but you're far too slow!"
Boros caught up to the airborne Yimi at a speed close to teleportation and threw a hundred punches in a single second, too fast to follow.
But he made a split-second misjudgment because of her size. The instant he caught up, Yimi changed back into kitten form, stepped on his arm, and sprang into the sky.
Three claw marks split open from Boros's fist to his forearm. A faint spray of blood drifted backward and covered his single eye, but he did not even blink.
Yimi was currently using SAO Adaptive Power. Its unlimited-growth characteristic had pushed her stats to an absurd level, yet even so, Boros did not simply explode apart as she had expected.
However, whenever she switched her Adaptive Power, two things remained universally available regardless of the situation: her Stand power and her Noble Phantasms.
"『Famine!』"
Boros's muscles visibly shrank.
"What a strange species."
His reactions were just as fast. Like before, he immediately discarded the entire injured arm, then used his species' ability to reconstruct flesh in a second, deliberately regenerating it even if it had been pulverized moments earlier.
It had been a long time since this happened. What her Stand consumed made Yimi feel her strength multiply, even though Boros's body was nowhere near as huge as a Sea King.
And under the Cardinal System's default balancing rules, no matter how overwhelming offensive stats became, there still had to be a weakness in survivability for players to study and exploit, so the data that should have gone into HP and resistances had also shifted toward attack power and movement speed.
Yimi kicked off hard with her hind legs, launching herself forward, then slammed a cat paw into Boros. The long-forgotten sensation of uncontrolled weightlessness seized the Dominator of the Universe, and three claw marks, several times stronger than before, ripped across his chest.
As Boros tore away the injured flesh and felt his body forcibly weakened, he finally understood the essence of this Earthling.
This Earth juvenile was strong in her own right, but at most she should only have been capable of inflicting injuries down to his muscle layer. Nothing more.
Yet while injuring an enemy, she also absorbed his flesh to strengthen herself. That was what had allowed her to grow this far in such a short time.
What kind of ecological structure did this planet called Earth possess? If every Earthling shared this power structure, ignoring lifespan, then having them devour one another and grow would eventually produce a "god" so far above Boros that even he could only look up at it.
Boros had no interest in thinking through anything that deep. He only knew that the brat before him was worthy of... no, was an opponent who forced him to unleash his full strength!
Meteoric Burst!
His dark skin turned pure white. Rather than simply going all out, just as the name suggested, he had entered a state of pure "burst."
At the same time, far away beneath City Z, members of the Monster Association stared in terror as monsters around them kept exploding one after another.
"What the hell is going on with this world?"
One of Boros's three lieutenants, Groribas, stared at the two streaks of light crossing the sky in cold sweat. "Is that really the power of a juvenile from Earth?"
Beside him, Geryuganshoop hurriedly shook his head. "No. Back on the ship, we shouldn't have detected any high-energy reactions like this from Earth. It has to be a coincidence..."
There was no way to believe that a world whose civilization, from external observation, could not even get beyond its own atmosphere could possess a species whose children could fight Lord Boros head-on. Lord Boros's full-power strike was enough to erase this planet entirely!
"Hey!"
A rather impolite voice sounded from directly in front of him.
Tatsumaki glared irritably at the giant tentacled monster suspected of attacking the Hero Association. "Did you see a brat about this tall with cat ears on top of her head? Tell me honestly and I'll let you die a little easier."
"I do not understand what you mean by 'cat.' But judging from your appearance, there was indeed a brat with unusual ears. Boros-sama will kill her soon, however."
Geryuganshoop looked down at Tatsumaki. They had seen Aincrad's NPCs earlier, but because special NPCs could not be destroyed, they had given up attacking them.
Judging by size, this was another Earth juvenile.
Rocks floated around Geryuganshoop. "Were you threatening me just now? Standing before you is Geryuganshoop-sama, the greatest psychokinesis user in the entire universe. Even if you are merely an insignificant juvenile of this planet..."
"Oh? The strongest in the universe?"
Under Geryuganshoop's uneasy gaze, Tatsumaki's long, curled hair rose without any wind. At the same time, his psychokinesis suddenly met an incomprehensibly powerful force.
This power was enough to rival his... no, it was even stronger!
What was wrong with Earth? If even its juveniles were this strong, how powerful were the adults?
No, no. Rather than juveniles, perhaps these short little creatures were simply some unique species. If this planet's overall strength were truly that high, they should have reached space long ago. In reality, there had not been another spaceship within countless light-years.
"Did you find that girl?" A flat voice sounded behind Tatsumaki.
Tatsumaki turned her head. "You're that B~Class hero? Here to steal some credit? An overconfident small fry like you will only drag us down if you follow."
"You don't have to deliberately stretch out the 'B,' do you?"
Geryuganshoop looked toward Saitama and only then noticed that the previously silent Groribas had a hole through his body, while his head had already rolled down the slope to Geryuganshoop's feet.
So this was an adult of this planet?
Lord Boros was in danger!