Thunk!
Bonk after bonk to the head, and good fortune never ends.
The invincible Brother Kalpas had fallen.
At that moment, he seemed to break free from the restraints of gravity.
His rigid body remained suspended in midair for several seconds.
If Newton had witnessed it, he probably would have declared that this was no longer gravity’s responsibility.
Thud!
Beep!
Beep!
Beep!
After Kalpas hit the ground, a sharp bump swelled on his head.
It flashed red like an LED while an alarm-like sound rang in everyone’s ears, giving the entire scene an absurdly comical atmosphere.
“Kalpas actually…
went down just like that?” the Elysian Realm’s Sakura asked in disbelief.
The sight was almost too ridiculous for her to process.
Kalpas’s raw combat strength ranked among the strongest of the Flame-Chasers.
During the Previous Era, Sakura had only managed to subdue him because he had not revealed his true abilities.
Yet what had she just witnessed?
An utterly ordinary-looking wooden club had knocked Kalpas unconscious with a single blow.
Wasn’t that far too outrageous?
The Golden Courtyard’s Kalpas fell silent.
“…” His feelings were extremely complicated.
His counterpart’s presence had been so overwhelming that even he had begun growing excited.
Then Kalpas had been struck once and immediately collapsed for a peaceful round of “goodnight, Makka Pakka.” How humiliating.
“Haha!
Tom, your wooden club works wonderfully.” Saku Hayashi tossed the club back to Tom.
It was something Tom always carried with him.
The club itself possessed nothing unusual.
It was as ordinary as an object could possibly be.
However, when Tom used it, the club had a one-hundred-percent chance of stunning its target.
Since Tom was technically Saku Hayashi’s Appetite Demon, Saku Hayashi could produce the same effect when wielding it.
“Kalpas is a memory construct composed of data.
How could something like this knock him unconscious?” The Elysian Realm’s Vill-V crouched beside Kalpas and poked his body with a screwdriver.
Something would have needed to interfere with his underlying data to produce this stunned state.
Naturally, she never considered that it might be a conceptual attack.
That explanation would have been even more absurd.
“Hey, how did you do that?” “First, you take out the club.
Then you hit someone with it.
Simple,” Saku Hayashi answered casually.
“Didn’t you use any special power?
Something similar to the Herrscher of Corruption’s abilities?” Vill-V asked skeptically.
Defeating a Flame-Chaser with an ordinary wooden club was impossible.
The sharp, glowing bump on Kalpas’s head was also clearly abnormal.
“It’s rather difficult to explain.
Why don’t you experience it yourself, Vill-V?” “Tom, you do it this time.” Saku Hayashi shook his head.
The moment he finished speaking, Tom somehow appeared behind Vill-V.
He raised the wooden club high above his head and swung it down at her.
Vill-V sensed that something was wrong behind her, but it was already too late by the time she turned around.
“Wait—” Thunk!
Before Vill-V could finish speaking, the club struck her head.
An incomprehensible wave of dizziness overwhelmed her.
Her body stiffened and floated in midair before finally showing Newton a little respect and peacefully descending to the ground.
Goodnight, Makka Pakka.
A sharp, glowing red bump identical to Kalpas’s appeared on Vill-V’s head.
“Does anyone else have questions?” Saku Hayashi asked, turning toward the others.
“Would anyone like to try it?” Everyone fell silent.
“…” They were not idiots.
One incident might have been an accident, but two victims were enough to prove that both Saku Hayashi and the cat beside him were abnormal.
Once Kalpas awakened and remembered what had happened, he might simply keel over and die from humiliation.
A warrior could accept being overpowered and defeated in direct combat.
Falling like this, however, could only be described as disgraceful.
“Rocks, would you like to test how hard your head is?” Saku Hayashi asked with a smile.
“Absolutely not.
Group Leader, stay away from me.” Rocks immediately shook his head.
For someone as proud as him, being knocked unconscious in such a humiliating manner was unacceptable.
“You will never bonk me on the head like that!” It would never happen in this lifetime.
Even if Rocks died, he would depart heroically—not through social death.
Saku Hayashi merely smiled without answering.
They had plenty of time.
An opportunity would undoubtedly appear someday.
It definitely would.
…
“Mmm!
Who made this boxed meal?
It’s absolutely delicious♪” the Golden Courtyard’s Elysia asked with an intoxicated expression.
She had never tasted food like this before.
The meal seemed to contain an entirely natural deliciousness.
“It grew on a Bento Tree,” Saku Hayashi explained.
Bento Trees had a Capture Level of 1 and possessed no offensive abilities.
They were one of the best food sources for travelers.
Their Level 1 rating came from the fact that low-level wild beasts frequently treated them as an easily accessible source of food.
Approaching a Bento Tree therefore carried a certain degree of danger.
“You briefly mentioned such things before, but meals growing from trees are still astonishing,” Natsuki Minamiya said.
Most people would assume that food like this had been prepared by a chef.
Yet in Saku Hayashi’s world, complete boxed meals grew directly from trees.
It sounded like something from a fantasy picture book.
“I’ve heard about a similar place in my world,” Rocks said thoughtfully.
“There’s a living island covered in delicious food.
It uses that food as bait to hunt its prey.” However, Rocks had never personally visited it.
Saku Hayashi immediately recognized the island Rocks was describing.
It was the destination Kuma had sent Usopp to.
One Piece and Toriko had crossed over before.
Honestly, when Saku Hayashi first saw that island, he had wondered whether it had somehow traveled there from the world of Toriko.
That impression became especially strong when he saw food growing everywhere across the island.
“I didn’t bring much this time.
If you want to try more, everyone can hold the next gathering in my world,” Saku Hayashi invited with a smile.
“Sure!
Can we really eat anything we want?” the Golden Courtyard’s Elysia asked expectantly.
“You couldn’t possibly try everything.
There are far too many varieties,” Saku Hayashi replied.
Even he did not know exactly how many foods existed in his world.
Among everyone on Earth, Acacia had probably tasted the greatest number.
“It’s unfortunate that the people inside the Elysian Realm cannot taste them♪” Elysia sighed.
The memory constructs did not possess bodies of flesh and blood.
Even if food appeared inside the Elysian Realm, it was merely data given form.
“The fact that all of you came to visit is already the greatest gift they have received in the past fifty thousand years,” Kevin said slowly.
Even Little Mobius was merely being stubborn.
Although she and Big Snake could not stand one another, she had no intention of harming these visitors.
Had anyone else come here, they might have already ended up on her operating table.
“Other me, don’t you think you sound far too cold?” the Golden Courtyard’s Kevin asked.
Even he felt as though his ears were freezing, as if an icy wind were blowing directly into them.
“…” Kevin said nothing and fell silent.
“He failed to protect anything.
His civilization was destroyed, his companions sacrificed themselves one after another, and even the person he loved most eventually died,” Saku Hayashi explained to the Golden Courtyard’s Kevin.
“Try placing yourself in his position.
Then you should understand.” The Golden Courtyard’s Kevin fell silent.
“…” Those were clearly the personal experiences of his alternate self.
When he tried imagining himself enduring the same events, his entire body trembled, and a painfully strained expression appeared on his face.
He understood now.
He understood completely.