Ore-sama

Snap!

Li Duoyu pressed the pause button, his face blank.

What the hell was that?

The first eleven episodes had been all laughs and giggles, and aside from a brief moment of coolness in episode six, the protagonist had been acting like a complete moron. Why on earth was he suddenly spouting such a long, philosophical monologue now?

But... even though Li Duoyu was complaining in his head, the protagonist's final words—delivered like a martyr—combined with the explosive audio and visuals, left him feeling incredibly hyped...

No, that wasn't right. It was blood-pumping.

He suddenly felt fired up.

Taking a deep breath to calm his surging emotions, and clinging to the thought of "don't you dare try to trick me," Li Duoyu pressed the play button once more.

"Hello there, Ore-sama has arrived." The protagonist flashed that same goofy, idiotic grin he wore whenever the animation quality dipped, but in this specific sequence handled by Gu Xue, his smile didn't look foolish at all. It was filled with madness, and was even a little handsome...

The Four Heavenly Kings tensed up, each making small, nervous movements that betrayed their anxiety.

Only the Demon King stood behind the Four Heavenly Kings, sitting as steady as a rock.

This was exactly why Gu Xue had requested these two cuts.

The two sides stood in a stalemate for two seconds.

"You are seeking your own death!" A-Da, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, finally couldn't hold back. He moved, raising his arm straight out. After a brief incantation, he crouched low and lunged violently toward the protagonist.

A-Da went from far to near, his silhouette growing from small to large, before stopping abruptly in front of the camera. He pulled his outstretched arm back, swung his fist toward the protagonist, and the hand-drawn dust effects instantly kicked up, rushing toward the protagonist.

The force of the punch and the dust ruffled the protagonist's hair. The protagonist jerked his head to the side to dodge the fist, then gripped the opponent's arm with both hands—one palm up, one palm down. He bent his waist, pivoted, lifted the swinging A-Da, and tossed him to the side. Bending his right leg, he delivered a heavy, powerful knee strike to A-Da's abdomen, lifting him clean off the ground. As A-Da's body arched, a ring of shockwaves exploded from his back.

"Ugh..." A-Da spat out a mouthful of saliva, and as the protagonist released his grip, he was sent flying away instantly.

The protagonist turned to the side and, with a whoosh, vanished. A second later, the ground where he had been standing shattered.

The camera cut.

A wide long shot.

A-Da was flying forward, hunched over, while the protagonist's legs moved in a blur as he chased after him to deliver a finishing blow.

But halfway there, A-2, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, suddenly lunged out. He leaped off the ground and delivered a flying kick toward the protagonist's face.

Whoosh.

The protagonist, who had been sprinting just a moment ago, stopped dead and leaned slightly backward.

The shoe grazed past the bridge of the protagonist's nose.

First came the lightning-fast flying kick, followed immediately by slow motion.

A-2 and the protagonist locked eyes.

The protagonist, having dodged the kick, raised his hand, grabbed the opponent by the head, and slammed A-2 directly into the ground, embedding him into the dirt.

It was fluid and seamless—both the animation and the protagonist's movements.

In the next scene, the protagonist, forced to stop, stood with his back to the camera beside A-2. He jerked his head to the side just as a wind blade grazed his ear, slicing off a lock of hair.

The camera cut again.

"How is it possi..." A-3, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, was still in the posture of throwing something. Before he could finish his sentence, whoosh, the protagonist appeared instantly in front of him, grabbed his throat, and hoisted him into the air.

Just as the protagonist was about to repeat his previous move and slam this one into the ground as well, A-4, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, entered the fray, closing in on the protagonist and unleashing a flurry of straight punches at his face.

The protagonist shifted his feet slightly, his upper body swaying left and right. Even though his movements looked slow, he dodged every single straight punch perfectly. Most importantly, he was still holding someone, yet the scene felt completely natural—from the protagonist's dodging motions to the way A-3's body shifted as he struggled while being choked.

"How is it possi..." A-4 also wore a look of terror. His words remained unfinished as the protagonist took a large step forward, twisted his waist, swung the still-struggling A-3 behind him, and smashed him into A-4's face.

The two collided face-to-face.

They went tumbling away.

Then, A-Da, who had stood up at some point, lunged at the protagonist again, aiming another knee strike at his abdomen.

The protagonist crossed his arms to protect his stomach, blocked the knee strike, and pressed down hard, forcing the opponent to stumble. He then raised his right leg again, knee bent, this time aiming for the face.

And then came A-2...

Scene after scene followed.

The combat was grand and sweeping, featuring both close-quarters brawling and supernatural fighting that defied the laws of physics.

In short, it was awesome.

Li Duoyu could no longer suppress the feeling of his blood boiling.

He had to admit, the expressiveness of the current visuals formed a sharp contrast with the protagonist's earlier monologue—which sounded philosophical but was actually just full of crap. Especially that line about being a "country bumpkin"...

What the hell, "country bumpkin"? You just hung the guy up and beat the living daylights out of him, you know that, right...

Damn, it suddenly felt so hype.

As the fight cuts handled by Gu Xue played, the comments section was now flooded with things like "??? Country bumpkin?", "Sacrificing the overall quality of the work for a few minutes of...", and "The budget is exploding!"

Never mind the first two.

If Gu Xue saw that "the budget is exploding" comment, she probably wouldn't be very happy.

Budget my ass, they haven't even paid the money yet...

But the audience doesn't need to know that, nor is there any need for them to; as long as they're entertained, that's all that matters.

Meanwhile, the Hero was still busy thrashing the Four Heavenly Kings.

The latest scene.

The Hero pinned the head of A-Da, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, to the ground and sprinted forward, dragging him along until they reached the Demon King.

The rest of the Four Heavenly Kings were already lying on the ground.

The Hero released the bloodied and mangled A-Da, raised his foot, and crushed the opponent's head. At the same time, he leaned his upper body toward the Demon King and asked with manic intensity, "Is this enough?"

Their faces were only about ten centimeters apart.

Setting aside the disruptive comments in the chat like "Kiss! Kiss!" or "Head-pushing squad!", In terms of animation, Gu Xue had truly done an incredible job on this cut—so good that even Li Duoyu could feel it, because seeing the Hero's manic expression now, he had completely forgotten the Hero's previous image.

What kind of scene would come next?

Having watched the Hero's fight with the Four Heavenly Kings, Li Duoyu's anticipation was already at its peak.

The following scene did not disappoint his expectations.

The Demon King raised his hand and pressed it against the Hero's chest.

Bang.

A one-second pause.

The Hero, who had maintained an invincible persona the entire time, had his body arch like a shrimp as he was sent flying backward.

He rolled across the ground several times, looking as pathetic as an old dog.

The Demon King stepped forward, trampling over A-Da's brains, and said, "It is enough."

"Interesting." The Hero slowly climbed to his feet and wiped the corner of his mouth.

The BGM kicked in.

A crystal-clear male voice began singing an explosive insert song.

The Demon King and the Hero began to charge toward each other.

The camera cut to the sky, looking down from a bird's-eye view as the two turned into streaks of light, tracing a Z-shape before colliding. The moment they crashed into each other, a gale erupted, tearing up all the ground around them except for the spot where they stood.

"Is it still interesting?"

The camera cut to a close-up; the Demon King and the Hero were each holding their swords, the blades grinding against each other with a piercing screech.

"You bet it is."

The Hero smiled, gripped his sword hilt with both hands, pushed the opponent back, swung his blade fiercely, lowered his stance, and charged at the Demon King once more.

Clang, clang, clang.

The two began a close-quarters sword fight.

With every twist and turn, even though it was just animation, the movements felt incredibly real. This sequence, later hailed as one of the best-animated scenes of the year, continued to assault the viewers' visual senses.

It was explosively fluid.

The sword fight between the two lasted for nearly four minutes, ending just before the audience could suffer from visual fatigue; the Hero, slightly outmatched, took a slash to the chest and was sent flying.

"Not bad." The longsword in the Demon King's hand vanished. He glanced at his own abdomen, which had also been slashed, and two horns slowly sprouted from the top of his head.

The flying Hero jammed his sword into the ground, barely stopping his momentum. Ignoring the blood gushing from his chest wound, he slowly stood up.

With one hand gripping his sword and the other tearing off the rest of his clothes, He stood bare-chested, raised his so-called Holy Sword with a blood-stained hand, pointed it at the Demon King, and laughed wildly, "Of course! Who do you think I am! I am the Hero! My very toes are the Holy Sword!"

"Then let me look forward to it! Hero!!" The Demon King bent his knees, his horns growing longer and longer, and a blood-like mist began to erupt from his body.

"Please, look forward to it!!" The Hero crouched slightly, lowering his body, and mist began to erupt from him as well.

"Ah!"

"Oh!"

The two struck their ready-to-strike poses and roared, the camera rapidly switching between their faces.

Finally, the two collided once more.

It began in total silence.

Until the fire appeared, exploding violently with the two of them at the center.

BOOM!

Sorry, I've shown you a lackluster chapter, my apologies.