Chương 99: Deputy Leader

"What the hell? Little Cutie is the Deputy Leader?" Uvogin rubbed his eyes again. Even now, he could hardly believe Aren had suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Hahahaha. It really is the Deputy Leader." After confirming that the person onstage was truly Aren, Uvogin laughed with excitement and opened both arms, ready to give him a bear hug.

"Oh! It is clear that contestant Uvogin is extremely excited after seeing contestant Aren. Ah, contestant Uvogin seems to have opened his arms. Is he planning to approach contestant Aren and display his strength?" The commentator watched Uvogin stride toward Aren with his arms open. According to Heavens Arena's usual logic, this kind of situation generally meant a contestant was running over to provoke his opponent. So the commentator assumed Uvogin intended to provoke Aren.

Uvogin's fans saw their idol move and grew even more excited.

"That's it, Uvogin. Show that pretty boy what a real man is."

"Exactly. Show him what power is." Aren's fans refused to be outdone.

"What real man? I only see a bear."

"That's right. A bear is a bear. Stop pretending to be human." Under the tense atmosphere of two fan groups preparing for war, Uvogin finally reached Aren. Then, in front of everyone... Smack. The two raised their hands and exchanged a high five. Originally, Uvogin really had intended to give Aren a huge bear hug. But when Aren saw it, his eyes turned dangerous. They clearly said, 'If you dare hug me, you are dead.' Aren did not like overly intimate physical contact with other men.

Uvogin, receiving that message, backed down. Every time Aren showed that look, someone was bound to have bad luck. For a moment, the whole venue fell deathly silent. Even a fool could tell from that high five that Uvogin and Aren were friendly with each other. The two fan groups, who had been opposing each other, looked around in confusion. They no longer knew whether they were supposed to keep opposing each other. If they kept going, their idols' obvious friendship would only make their own side look foolish.

But if they stopped, the atmosphere had already been stirred up. Heavens Arena had marketed this match as a fated battle because Aren and Uvogin's fighting styles were so different. That filled the venue with tension from the start. No one had expected Uvogin and Aren to know each other, let alone be on such good terms. Uvogin ignored everyone whose jaws had dropped. He looked at Aren excitedly.

"Deputy Leader, it really is you. Why didn't you say you were coming?"

"Didn't you say no one has been fighting you since you reached the two-hundredth floor? I thought I'd give you a surprise." Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Aren smiled. He was quite satisfied with Uvogin's expression earlier.

"Uh..." The mention of fighting made Uvogin's teeth ache. Uvogin liked fighting strong opponents. Aren could absolutely be called strong. The problem was that Aren was the only strong person Uvogin did not want to fight right now. There was no other reason. Limitless Technique. That ability made Uvogin feel disgusted. Fighting against it gave him no real combat experience, only the feeling of being toyed with. Seeing Uvogin's expression as if someone had forced him to eat something foul, Aren found it amusing.

"Don't worry. This time, I plan to compete with you using hand-to-hand combat. I recently completed my physical training, so I want to test it." Hearing that, Uvogin's expression immediately changed from disgust to burning fighting spirit.

"When it comes to hand-to-hand combat, I don't think I lose to anyone. Even if it's you, Deputy Leader." As mentioned before, Uvogin had always wanted to fight Aren. Since Aren said his physical training was complete, that meant Aren had real confidence in his hand-to-hand combat. He had already classified it as one of his abilities. In that case, Uvogin would not think Aren was deliberately holding back. At that moment, the commentator finally recovered.

"What exactly happened just now? Contestant Uvogin and contestant Aren appear to be on very friendly terms." Seeing Uvogin's eyes filled with blazing fighting spirit, Aren turned to the referee, who was still standing there blankly.

"What are you doing? Hurry and announce the start." After Aren reminded him, the referee finally woke up from his daze. Although he looked calm, he was actually one of Uvogin's fans. The official promotion had always described this match as a fated battle, and he had truly believed it. Seeing the two contestants interact so warmly created an emotional shock he had not processed. Boom. As the referee crossed his hands, powerful aura erupted from both Aren and Uvogin.

"Oh, around ten thousand aura units already." Aren glanced at Uvogin's aura and made a rough estimate. That fit the man who, in the future Aren remembered, could rely on pure growth and still punch with missile-like force. Less than a year after opening Nen, Uvogin already had nearly ten thousand units of visible aura. If he continued growing at this speed, by the time he appeared in the future timeline, he might reach around one hundred thousand units. Other people were different from Aren.

Aren's aura growth was constant. For everyone else, the further they progressed, the slower their aura growth became. Their potential aura was not infinite like Aren's. Early growth was fast because potential was easiest to dig out at the beginning. No matter what, compared with the roughly sixty thousand units Aren believed Uvogin would have in the future he remembered, this was already a significant improvement.

After Biscuit's training, Aren fully understood the enormous difference between having a teacher and not having one. Sometimes, one small trick could save someone months of wasted effort. Uvogin had grown this quickly only by relying on some training methods Aren had taught him back in Meteor City. If Aren trained him a little more, Uvogin might grow to rival Silva in the future. If Uvogin truly reached Silva's level, he might play a role in Aren's future exploration of the Dark Continent. Aren's eyes flickered.

Then he adjusted his aura to about the same level as Uvogin's. Originally, he had only come to play with Uvogin. Now, Aren had begun thinking of training him. Big Bang Impact. Uvogin gathered his aura into his right fist. A faint red glow appeared there. Uvogin's Big Bang Impact was essentially a straight right punch infused with Nen. At the same time, without realizing it, Uvogin had poured his own conviction into it. Nen was the power of the heart.

Uvogin's conviction had always been to become stronger than anyone. He even believed that one day, Big Bang Impact would reach the destructive power of a nuclear strike. Without noticing, he had already infused that belief into the move. That made what had originally been an ordinary Ko punch grow stronger. When he used it, his aura even began turning red. Facing Aren, who could be considered his teacher, Uvogin immediately used his full power.

Even if Aren did not use abilities, Uvogin did not believe this punch could seriously hurt him. So he could go all out without restraint. One punch. Uvogin's Big Bang Impact compressed the air into pressure and drove it toward Aren. Its power was impressive. But if a move did not land, it had no power at all. Aren, standing in place, only turned slightly. Then, like Itachi catching Sasuke's Chidori, he covered his hand with a certain amount of aura, gripped Uvogin's wrist, and guided it toward the floor.

Uvogin's Big Bang Impact instantly slipped out of his control and slammed straight into the ring. Boom. A thunderous roar echoed through the venue. The moment Big Bang Impact struck the ring, the surface tiles beneath it were crushed into powder. When the aura concentrated in the punch exploded, the stone dust and new debris from the shattered floor were blasted outward by the impact, forming a smoke cloud that swallowed the entire ring.

When the smoke gradually dispersed, a huge crater appeared in the center of the ring where Big Bang Impact had landed. Only the distance to the edge had kept Uvogin from shattering the entire stage. His fist was still driven into the ground. Aren was sitting casually on Uvogin's back.

"Oh! Unbelievable. Is this contestant Uvogin's full-power Big Bang Impact? It blasted a deep crater directly into the ring. Contestant Uvogin's strength is truly astonishing."

"However, contestant Aren seems completely unharmed and is sitting leisurely on contestant Uvogin's back. Contestant Aren is incredibly agile. Contestant Uvogin's power cannot touch him."

"Uvogin, your Big Bang Impact is strong," Aren said from his seat on Uvogin's back, half teasing and half serious.

"The problem is that you used your trump card immediately without regard for timing. Against someone faster than you, it can be avoided easily. A powerful move that can't hit is useless."