Even fighting a three-finger Sukuna had dirtied the hem of his clothes. That left Jiahao deeply unsettled.
If he wanted to fast-forward to the stage where he could refuse to eat beef, the Tycoon Power Banks before him were nowhere near enough.
He needed more Tycoon Power Banks, more Valor Points.
[Host: Wang Jiahao] [Cursed energy: Grade 1 Tycoon Sorcerer] [Skills: Close-Combat Technique (Tycoon Master Level), Weapon Proficiency (Grand Tycoon Master Level)...] [Cursed techniques: Kamui, Hundred Healings...] [Tycoon skills: Ultra Instinct Hao, Hao Flash...] [Valor Points: 4,713]
Looking at the floating panel before him, Jiahao couldn't be bothered to keep haggling with the idiotic system.
There was no questioning the power of the Kamui cursed technique. Its only flaw was that it consumed too much cursed energy.
Rather than buy a brand-new cursed technique or a powerful domain skill now, he might as well increase his total cursed energy first.
After all, both using cursed techniques and deploying Domain Expansion required enormous amounts of cursed energy to sustain.
At a thought from Jiahao, the system brought up a prompt.
[Ding! Spend 4,000 Valor Points to raise your cursed energy to Special Grade?]
"Deep Blue, add points."
[Ding! Upgrade successful!] [Congratulations! The host's cursed energy has reached Special Grade. The next upgrade requires 40,000 Valor Points!] [Current Valor Points: 713]
Jiahao's eyes lit up!
I can keep adding points after Special Grade?
What grade comes after that?
Heavenly Emperor Grade?
With another forty thousand Valor Points, his total cursed energy would surpass both Satoru Gojo's and Sukuna's.
He would beat Itadori to the punch and become Hao Heavenly Emperor!
"I won't eat beef!"
"I alone am the supreme tycoon!"
"I want more Valor Points!"
His expression kept shifting as he muttered crazed, incomprehensible nonsense.
At that moment, Jiahao looked like someone possessed by a ghost in a horror movie.
Maki looked at Jiahao, then turned to Itadori and asked uncertainly, "Which one of you two actually ate Sukuna's Finger?"
"What's happening to him? Is Sukuna possessing him, or is he having a seizure?"
Panda scratched his head. "Don't tell me there really are spirits and tycoon ghosts that sorcerers can't see?"
As they speculated, a fierce wind suddenly rose!
A surge of formidable cursed energy, far beyond that of a Grade 1 Sorcerer, erupted from Jiahao's body, flattening every blade of grass within a dozen meters.
In an instant, all five people and the panda froze in place, cold sweat sliding uncontrollably down their foreheads!
Panda, who stood closest to Jiahao, instinctively assumed a defensive stance, every strand of his fur bristling!
Jiahao snapped out of his muttering and looked at the others, who were holding their breath. "Sorry, I just leveled up and didn't quite control my cursed energy properly."
A second later, the chilling aura of cursed energy vanished completely.
"That just now was..."
Panting heavily, they stared at Jiahao in disbelief. "A Special Grade Sorcerer?!"
They had only ever felt something like that from Satoru Gojo and Okkotsu.
"Wrong. A Special Grade Tycoon Sorcerer."
Jiahao smoothed his wig, his expression composed. "Nothing worth getting excited over. I merely gained a little insight."
He gained insight just by acting crazy and pretending to be possessed?
We ask whether you won or lost, and you tell us you gained enlightenment?
What kind of monster is this?!
Jiahao looked calm, but he had almost failed to stop his lips from twisting into a Dragon King's crooked grin.
Just a fleeting release of Special Grade cursed energy had netted him over a thousand Valor Points.
[Valor Points +985] [Valor Points +977]
Unsurprisingly, the two most conspicuous gains came from Sukuna inside Itadori and the white-haired man who remained hidden nearby.
"First-years these days really are getting more ridiculous by the minute!"
Maki looked at Jiahao, undisguised battle lust burning in her eyes. "Junior, got time for some close-combat training with your senior?"
Jiahao paused briefly, then smiled. "I'm not a first-year student. The position I applied for was teacher."
"If you're not comfortable calling me teacher, you can also call me... King."
"'Training' isn't quite the right word. You should call it instruction."
"Ha!"
Maki sneered and raised her spear. "Whatever you say. The point is, you're agreeing to a fight, right?"
As the tension mounted, Panda turned into a bulldozer and shoved the bewildered Itadori and Kugisaki to the edge of the training ground.
"What's going on? Does our senior always have such a bad temper?"
Behind Panda, Kugisaki blinked her wide eyes as she asked.
"Maki's mental state is perfectly normal. She's just a little battle-hungry."
Panda rested one hand each on Itadori's and Kugisaki's shoulders and explained quietly, "With Okkotsu away, there aren't many sorcerers at school she can go all out against in training."
"Satoru Gojo is a busy man and doesn't have time to train with her. If Inumaki and I don't use our cursed techniques, we're no match for her in pure close combat."
"It's rare for her to meet such a strong junior, so of course she's itching for a spar."
"Jiahao might be incredibly gifted as a sorcerer, but when it comes to close-combat ability alone, maybe..."
Bam!
Before Panda could finish, Maki, who had been sent flying by a single punch, dropped out of the sky and crashed down in front of them.
Looking at Maki lying at his feet with her weapon knocked from her grasp, Panda's mouth twitched.
I was halfway through talking you up, and you couldn't even last a dozen seconds... second-year Maki!
Looking at the utterly relaxed Jiahao in the center of the training ground, Maki clutched her burning abdomen and slowly got up.
So strong!
He didn't even use a cursed technique, and his close-combat ability alone was monstrous!
Another batch of Valor Points rolled in, and Jiahao smiled.
Although Maki, who had inherited a heavenly restriction, was formidable in close combat.
Jiahao, with his Tycoon Master Level Close-Combat Technique and Grand Tycoon Master Level Weapon Proficiency, was still a cut above her!
After all, they improved by exorcising curses. Their foundations were flimsy!
I spent masses of Valor Points and improved through social humiliation, one step at a time!
Put the two side by side, and the winner is obvious!
"Don't just stand there. Panda, the rest of you can come at me too!"
For more Valor Points, Jiahao didn't mind being a real teacher for once and showing them what Tycoon Master Level close combat looked like.
Before long, five people and a panda were enjoying parachute-free skydiving high above the training ground.
[Valor Points +45] [Valor Points +56] [Valor Points +76] [Valor Points +99]
As Valor Points poured in, Jiahao finally couldn't hold back his booming tycoon laughter.
"Hahaha, hahahahaha!"
Sending Panda airborne with one punch, Jiahao laughed as he charged toward the trembling Itadori. "Hahahaha! What a trash King of Curses. Take this!"
"Ora! Ora, ora!"
At the edge of the training ground.
Watching Jiahao attack with wild laughter and the students repeatedly take flight, Masamichi Yaga wore an extremely complicated expression. "Satoru... was Itadori really the one who ate Sukuna's Finger back then?"
Satoru Gojo patted Yaga's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It's perfectly normal for students to bond through their fists!"
Yaga's mouth twitched. "Is it? Sukuna's vessel looks a little dead to me..."
Watching the cackling Jiahao straddle Itadori and unleash a frenzy of oras, Satoru Gojo's smile grew somewhat strained. "Well... maybe those two are the closest?"
It wasn't that they were the closest. It was that the young Heavenly Emperor Itadori yielded the most tycoon points.
Yaga said, "Still, he's not only broken through to Special Grade, but he's also mastered two cursed techniques."
"Satoru, he might surpass you very soon."
"Surpass me..."
Satoru Gojo paused, then smiled.
"Now that really is something to look forward to!"
Before you continue