this infinite world

——Three days after the KOF96 tournament ended.

Cheng Xiao is now in a Japanese-style courtyard that looks like a shrine, surrounded by green pines, red leaves, and winding paths shaded by sycamore trees. Stone lanterns cast a gentle halo. With several bandages wrapped around his upper body, he is leaning nonchalantly on a warm cobblestone, looking relaxed and contented, as if immersed in this leisurely atmosphere, and the whole person is appropriately integrated into this peaceful world...

"Ouch! It hurts me so much!"

However, the next moment, as a slender hand peeled off the bandages on Cheng Xiao's body, revealing his bloody back with almost no good flesh, the young man lost his previous master look and howled like a pig being slaughtered...

"...Mr. Cheng Xiao, although I understand that your injuries are quite serious, as a powerful fighter, you are a little too pretentious."

Behind Cheng Xiao, a woman with a traditional classical charm responded in silence. She looked dignified, and her every move revealed the gentleness and elegance of a Yamato Nadeshiko. However, her broad shoulders and solid muscles revealed her identity as a fighter.

"There's nothing I can do. I don't have the blood recovery ability like those two guys, Kusanagi Kyo and Yagami Iori. My wounds naturally heal slowly..." Looking at Kagura Chizuru, Cheng Xiao replied, but there was a little bit of a playful smile in his words: "So, I can only trouble others to help me change the medicine."

——This is a lie.

Not to mention that the true energy flowing in Cheng Xiao's body is one of the top healing energies. After Yang Yun lifted the restrictions on full-body repair, he is actually fully capable of consuming some bonus points to call upon the Lord's full-body repair function to heal his injuries... Now the reason why Cheng Xiao still maintains this appearance of being covered in bandages is obviously deliberate.

On the one hand, of course, Cheng Xiao wanted to use the alien energy left in his body to experience Goenitz's "storm power" and learn how the energy works in secret...

"But what I didn't expect was that it was Miss Chizuru, the head of the Kagura family, who came to treat me personally."

Compared to his previous eloquence, this sentence is from the heart of Cheng Xiao. And the identity of the woman behind him is also self-evident... She is the owner of this courtyard, one of the famous "Three Sacred Treasures Team" members in "The King of Fighters", Kagura Chizuru.

...As for the other hand, Cheng Xiao was of course deliberately trying to play the victim so that he could have a legitimate contact with Kagura Chizuru. After all, this top fighter was a real beauty.

"Mr. Cheng Xiao helped the three sacred instruments complete their mission, and avenged Qianhe's sister's arrow attack. He also completed the mission of my Kagura clan with his own hands."

It was unknown whether she had heard the hidden meaning of Cheng Xiao's words or simply didn't take it to heart, but Kagura Chizuru's smile was perfect, without a single flaw. She smiled and replied calmly: "I have no way to repay your great kindness, so what does a small matter like changing the medicine count for?" - Then can I pledge my love to you?

Of course, even if Cheng Xiao really thought so, he didn't dare to say this obviously teasing words... Otherwise, no one knows whether Kagura Chizuru behind him will be deeply offended and use "Zero Skill Foundation" on him. So he could only respond like this: "No, no, no... I draw my sword to help when I see injustice. For the four kings of the snake clan who are endangering mankind, I should also do my part."

In the previous battle with Goenitz, Cheng Xiao clearly saw how powerful the move that could seal all energy flows in the enemy's body was... It could even be said that Goenitz's defeat was most directly related to this move.

In the battle three days ago, Cheng Xiao, who arrived at the KOF competition venue in time, served as the main attacker. He joined forces with the three sacred weapons that still retained some combat power to fight against the Breathing Storm Gonnitz and finally successfully won the final victory.

Although Cheng Xiao had initially planned to have a one-on-one real man battle with the opponent, firstly, the strength of the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Kingdom of Heaven was beyond his expectations. He actually had the strength of a fourth-order intermediate level. In terms of hard power, he was really no match for the opponent; secondly, seeing the powerful reinforcements coming, the Three Divine Artifacts naturally could not stand idly by and joined the battlefield... So, it became a scene of "Don't talk about morality with these evil demons, let's fight shoulder to shoulder."

Of course, Cheng Xiao didn't have any resistance to this matter, after all, he knew that KOF96 was just the beginning. In next year's KOF97, not only would the remaining three great snake kings appear one after another, but even the great snake itself would come in person, and that would be the real highlight... Even the main god mission triggered after he defeated Goenitz would reveal all of this.

"Kill some of the world's will agents, the four kings of the Celestial Kingdom, Goenitz, once, and get an A-level branch story, 10,000 reward points."

When Cheng Xiao first entered the main god space, his first mission world was Death Is Coming. Later, he was blessed by the world will in Red Alert 2, and had the experience of fighting against the Primordial Heaven with the world will in Pacific Rim. He was no stranger to the breath of the world will. Since he came to this world, he had vaguely sensed a strange force spreading between heaven and earth. The entire planet in this plane seemed to be shrouded in an indescribable breath of life, as if it was about to break out of its shell soon.

Considering Goenitz's identity as the "Agent of World Will" and the relevant plot of The King of Fighters, Cheng Xiao naturally knew what kind of enemy he would face... The Four Heavenly Kings of the Celestial Kingdom are intermediate fourth-level, so the "Big Snake" OROCHI who is bound to come later is at least a senior fourth-level, right?
As expected, after hearing what Cheng Xiao said, Kagura Chizuru's eyes immediately lit up, and she smiled and expressed her thoughts: "Since Mr. Cheng Xiao knows the Four Heavenly Kings of the Great Snake Clan, he must also know that the seal of the Great Snake has loosened. I'm afraid it will break the seal in the next few years and destroy the world..."

As expected, just as Kagura Chizuru finished speaking, Cheng Xiao heard the Lord God's reminder: "Trigger the side quest and assist the Three Sacred Artifacts Family to reseal part of the world's will. After completing it, you will receive an S-level side quest and 30,000 reward points..."

"No need to say more, saving the world is my unshirkable mission!"

Although the most fundamental reason was to seize the opportunity to fight against the strong to hone his strength, how could Cheng Xiao give up the opportunity to sing high-profile in front of a beautiful woman? The man immediately stood up and gave a thumbs up righteously-

"As a hero, how could you flee from the battlefield?" (End of this chapter)