What was that power just now?
That was what everyone who had never seen it before was thinking.
They knew Tsukasa and Chen Yu were strong, but they had never imagined they were this strong. The aura they had just given off felt completely different.
It was as if they had surpassed humanity.
"All right, everyone. Tsukasa has gotten even stronger now, which gives us an even better chance against unknown enemies."
Senku addressed the crowd.
"Wooo!!!!"
"Woohoo!!!!"
Everyone watching cheered at his words. In this primitive world, worshipping the strong seemed to take top priority.
At the center of it all, Chen Yu turned to look at Tsukasa and held out his fist. Tsukasa responded by extending his own, bumping fists with Chen Yu.
At this point, setting firearms aside, Tsukasa and Chen Yu could be called the strongest humans in barehanded combat. (I wanted to use those two characters, but I was afraid of violating the rules.)
That night, a figure carrying a polearm appeared in Ishigami Village...
(I'm getting ready to start a new book, a sequel to Stone World. Updates for this one will also depend on how things go. As for side stories, I'll write a Treasure Island prequel and stories set before the petrification.)
Here's a power-ranking summary for now (preview, no firearms; characters I don't know will go in the ordinary people category; rankings within each tier are in no particular order):
T0: Mystery (armed)
T1: Tsukasa Shishio, Chen Yu,
T2: Hyoga, Kohaku, Magma, Suzuki Reiko, Shrike, Maya (former martial arts champion from the America arc), Lilith (original character source: Xing Ninghua),
T3: Kinro, Hongye Yan, Kitano Miwa, Ibara, Ukyo Saionji (bow and arrows), Matsukaze, Kirisame, Arashi, Taiju, Tian Qi (original character),
T4: Nikki, Charlotte (pilot from America), Reynard (radar operator from America),