Chapter 079: Li Daniu’s Combat Prowess

Li Daniu had never liked to achieve glory in secret.

In this cinematic world, his personal strength was unmatched. Moreover, with no formal military forces left, there was no risk of being surrounded. As for powerful weapons like missiles, without humans to operate them, they were nothing but useless scrap.

Yet, in the two months since arriving in this world, Li Daniu had always hidden his true abilities, only displaying enough power in front of others to defeat Karl, Lewis, and Abel. Karl and Lewis, though well-trained militarily, were ordinary men whose strength lay in their proficiency with weapons, not in personal combat. Abel, while possessing physical strength about three times that of a normal human, had poor fighting technique.

So Li Daniu’s victories over these three, though impressive, were not shocking—such feats were within the realm of possibility for an exceptional human being.

The reason Li Daniu refrained from openly using his full power was simple: he still needed a place to settle, people to talk to, and company so he wouldn’t always have to eat and sleep alone under the open sky. Humans can endure solitude, but few actually enjoy it.

But now, with the end of his time in this world approaching and Rob having successfully developed the enhancement serum, Li Daniu no longer needed to be so cautious. If people started treating him like a monster, he could simply hide away for ten days or so. That brief loneliness was something he could bear.

Now sure that he no longer needed to hold back, Li Daniu brazenly inserted himself into the dispute between the factions led by Lewis, Abel, and Liville.

“Tarek?” Lewis, seeing Li Daniu step forward, thought Karl had sent him, so he said nothing.

Abel, for his part, always held a degree of respect for Li Daniu, since he himself had once been captured by him. Moreover, within Rob’s small team, Li Daniu had always been the de facto leader.

To Abel, he and his wife Betty were part of Rob’s group.

Lewis and Abel had no objections to Li Daniu speaking up, but that didn’t mean Liville felt the same.

“I’m not qualified?” Liville, though wary of Li Daniu’s ability to return from every expedition with the spoils of an entire squad, still believed that strength in this apocalypse was measured by combat prowess, not survival skills. Unlike Li Daniu, who always acted alone, Liville had gathered quite a few of the new humans under his banner.

“So what makes you qualified to speak up?” he demanded.

“Me? Heh…” Li Daniu chuckled. “Qualification and reason have always belonged to those with the most strength. So let’s skip the talk and get straight to the point.”

“You mean you want to fight?” Liville interjected. By now, a crowd had gathered, mostly made up of the new humans. He believed that neither Lewis nor Li Daniu would dare to order a gunfight.

“Something like that,” Li Daniu replied. “But bullets are precious these days, so let’s keep it hand-to-hand.”

“You mean a fistfight?” Liville and his followers burst out laughing. The new humans had a distinctive trait: they were completely hairless, their follicles destroyed by the virus. Not a single hair grew anywhere on their bodies.

Li Daniu, with his full head of hair, eyebrows, and even some stubble, was clearly not one of them. To Liville and his men, the new humans’ fighting ability far surpassed that of ordinary people.

“That’s right. Are you scared?” Li Daniu taunted him.

“Scared? I just don’t want to kill you by accident.”

“No worries. If you kill me, you won’t have to pay with your life.” Li Daniu beckoned him with a finger. “Don’t worry, no one will ambush you with a gun.”

Liville hesitated. He wasn’t foolish; the fact that neither Lewis nor Abel objected to Li Daniu’s words proved they had full faith in his abilities.

“Don’t hesitate, be a man about it,” Li Daniu continued to provoke him.

“Fine, you’re asking for it,” Liville finally agreed, spurred on by the jeers of his followers. He knew that if he backed down now, the authority he had painstakingly built among the new humans would be gone.

As for Abel’s trust in Li Daniu, Liville assumed it was just because Li Daniu knew some martial arts, which had allowed him to defeat Abel, whose own fighting skills were lacking.

But Liville had once been a professional boxer, even winning a championship belt. With his combat skills and the exponential increase in his physical abilities, he was confident he now stood at the pinnacle of human fighting strength.

With Liville’s assent, Li Daniu stretched lazily and walked to the center.

“Are you ready?” Li Daniu asked, standing before Liville with an easy smile.

Liville assumed a professional boxing stance. Seeing Li Daniu standing there unguarded, he sneered and launched a right hook at Li Daniu’s head.

Before anyone could gasp, Li Daniu casually sidestepped the blow—a punch that was close to the human limit in power for this world.

Liville was surprised by the dodge, but years of training made him instinctively follow up with a left aimed at Li Daniu’s head.

Just as the crowd began to react, they noticed that Liville’s punches were almost too fast for the eye to follow.

But to Li Daniu, this speed was still far too slow.

Liville unleashed a flurry of punches, yet didn’t even graze Li Daniu’s clothing; Li Daniu barely shifted from his original spot.

“Are you some kind of monkey?” Liville, stepping back, cursed in frustration. From Li Daniu’s evasive speed, he realized he wouldn’t be able to land a single blow before Li Daniu’s stamina wore out.

“Mind your language,” Li Daniu said coldly, his amusement fading. He had meant to have a bit of fun, but hadn’t expected to be insulted.

Liville’s plan was to goad Li Daniu into anger, hoping he’d stop dodging and fight head-on. In Liville’s view, Li Daniu’s thin limbs posed little threat.

“You son of a—”

But Li Daniu had no taste for that kind of twisted game. Before Liville could finish, Li Daniu kicked him squarely in the chest.

All Liville saw was a blur, then a jolt of pain in his chest, and suddenly his feet weren’t touching the ground. In his vision, the distance between himself and Li Daniu grew rapidly.

The onlookers barely had time to register what had happened before Liville went flying backward, crashing into the team of new humans behind him and sending them sprawling.

Liville, just hitting the ground, spat a spray of blood into the air.

“Boss?” Some of Liville’s lackeys scrambled to surround his fallen form, while others, less affected by the collision, readied their guns for a standoff.

Li Daniu, seeing that Liville's followers still refused to back down, grew angry.

His whole purpose in stepping forward had been to prevent a gunfight. Any casualties would shatter the fragile unity of the base. Besides, with over a hundred guns pointed from both sides and himself at the center, even with invulnerable martial arts, he couldn’t guarantee his own safety if a firefight broke out.

“Put down your guns!”

Li Daniu’s roar, powered by his considerable inner strength, thundered out. Though he didn’t know the Lion’s Roar technique, the sheer force of his voice was enough to knock the new humans off their feet, leaving them all dizzy and stunned.

Even those behind Li Daniu felt as if a clap of thunder had exploded by their ears.

Seeing the effect of his shout, Li Daniu charged into the new humans’ ranks and kicked away all the fallen firearms. Those with enough presence of mind to try shooting were promptly knocked out by Li Daniu.

In a single minute, Li Daniu had disarmed all forty-odd troublemakers who had sided with Liville, knocking out nearly half of them in the process.

“I’ll leave this to you,” he said, walking back and patting the dumbstruck Lewis on the shoulder. “I’m going to get Karl something to eat, or he might starve.”

“You… you…” Abel stammered, unable to get the words out.

“What is it?” Li Daniu asked.

“How did you do that?” Lewis finally managed to voice the question that Abel couldn’t.

“Oh, I know kung fu—Chinese kung fu. Haven’t I told you before?”