After bidding farewell to Old Su, Su Ye did not immediately return to America.
As soon as he returned to Earth and his phone connected to the internet, he received a message.
The message was sent through an encrypted channel—a video message.
Su Ye glanced at it and saw that the video had been sent several days ago.
Since it had been a while, he didn't take it seriously and didn't bother to open it.
Only after arguing with Old Su did he finally pull out his phone and take a look.
Unexpectedly, he discovered that it was a threatening video.
At the beginning of the video, a masked man appeared.
"Hello, Su Ye. You may not know me, but that's okay—you'll soon realize how powerful I am!"
A typical villain-style opening.
Looking at the spiral-patterned mask with a hole left at the right eye, Su Ye couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.
"I know you—not just know you, I'm very familiar with you, OB Tu!"
This look and outfit—there was no one else it could be except Uchiha Obito.
Oh, in this world, he was called Uchiha Dai.
On the other side, after Uchiha Dai finished his opening remarks, the camera shifted away from him and turned to the distance.
There, several women were surrounded by hundreds of burly men. These men were shirtless, wearing perverted grins on their faces as they stared at the women intensely.
It felt as if, in the next second, they would rush forward, making those poor women understand what it meant to be overwhelmed by a crowd of men.
Seeing this scene, Su Ye couldn't help but frown.
Because those women were none other than Mai Shiranui, King, Yuri Sakazaki, and Athena Asamiya.
These female fighters had known Su Ye for a long time but hadn't appeared for quite a while.
Especially Mai Shiranui, who was the most popular character in this story. Not long after making her first appearance, she had disappeared.
This left the readers feeling helpless.
And now, she had finally appeared again, but her condition didn't look good.
Those burly men, who all looked identical as if they were clones, not only had perverted expressions but were also acting aggressively.
From the video, it seemed that Mai Shiranui was injured. She was wearing a blue Phantom suit, stained with patches of blood. Her pale face made her look both pitiful and enraging.
"Those women, they're yours, right? No need to deny it. Even if they aren't now, they soon will be!"
Uchiha Dai said mockingly.
"Right now, your women are surrounded by me. I've already sent you the location. Hurry up and save them. If you arrive too late, you might just gain a lot of new 'brothers-in-arms'!"
"The kind of 'brothers' that share the same fate!"
At this point, the video abruptly ended.
Along with the video was a message containing a location.
The authenticity of this video was beyond doubt. With Su Ye's observational skills, he could easily tell whether it was a deepfake or not.
Currently, deepfake videos on the market often had noticeable flaws, especially when capturing facial movements like eating sausages, where the tracking errors would cause the face to blur unnaturally.
This created a strong sense of dissonance.
Some videos also had mismatched body proportions, making them look obviously fake.
For example, replacing the faces of actresses like Yang Mi and Liu Yifei onto certain adult film actresses wouldn't work—their body types were vastly different, not even in the same "cup category."
So, when making deepfake videos, one had to find someone with a similar body type. Even if they weren't busty, at least their overall physique had to match. If you put a slim actress's face onto someone with a chubby figure, it just wouldn't look right.
But… alright, this wasn't the time to discuss that.
After watching the video, Su Ye was certain that those women were indeed Mai Shiranui and the others—they hadn't been swapped or deepfaked.
So, there was no doubt—he had to go save them.
The problem now was that the video had been sent days ago. Would he still be in time if he went now?
Could it be that Mai Shiranui and the others had already been…
Brutally destroyed!
Su Ye couldn't even bear to imagine such a scene.
On the other side, somewhere in Japan, OB Tu was squatting on the ground, eating dirt.
"What's going on with Su Ye? The message has been sent for so long, and there's been no response at all. Does he not care about these people?"
Behind OB Tu, a group of White Zetsus surrounded Mai Shiranui and the others. They didn't attack, just stood there watching from a distance.
If Mai Shiranui and the others behaved obediently, the White Zetsus wouldn't attack. In fact, they even provided food, water, and other supplies on schedule.
But the moment they resisted, the White Zetsus would continuously flood in.
White Zetsus weren't dandelions that would scatter with the wind—they did have some combat ability.
Although they weren't too strong individually and couldn't match Mai Shiranui and the others in one-on-one fights…
…when their numbers became overwhelming, nearly endless, no matter how hard Mai Shiranui and the others fought, they wouldn't be able to break through the encirclement.
"Ahhh! Damn it! What is that bastard dawdling for?!"
Just then, a White Zetsu behind him suddenly spoke up.
"Could it be that his phone had no signal and didn't receive our message? The authorities reported that those from C didn't seem to be on Earth. Previously, when London was attacked, the blond Prime Minister sought help from the U.S., and the response was that C wasn't present."
"So..."
If Su Ye wasn't on Earth, then he really wouldn't have received OB Tu's message.
So basically, their previous video was sent into the void.
"What do we do then? Should I send it again? If he already received the first one, wouldn't resending it make me look like an idiot?"
OB Tu made it clear—he had his pride.
A White Zetsu glanced at Mai Shiranui and the others, who no longer seemed to take them seriously, and sighed helplessly.
"But we can't just keep feeding them like this! At this rate, they're going to get fat!"
"Fine, I guess I'll send it again."
OB Tu stood up, grunted in frustration, pulled out his phone, and prepared to record another video.
"Hey, you guys! Can you at least act like proper hostages?!"
He pointed the camera at Mai Shiranui and the others, but instead of looking distressed, they were sitting in a circle… building a Great Wall.
That's right—Mai Shiranui had used her ninja skills to hide a set of mahjong tiles in her clothes. On the second day of their captivity, after confirming that OB Tu and his people were merely holding them hostage to threaten Su Ye and weren't going to kill them immediately, they started playing mahjong.
Four people—just perfect for a game.
"East Wind!"
"Pung!"
"North Wind!"
"Coffin lid!"
"Mahjong!"
"No way! You can win with a coffin lid?!"
The four of them were shouting and laughing like a bunch of neighborhood aunties, completely lacking the demeanor of female fighters.
Anyone who didn't know better would think they were a group of middle-aged ladies from the community center.
"Hey, hey, hey!"
OB Tu shouted for a long time, but the four of them completely ignored him, fully immersed in their mahjong game, as if he didn't exist. They also paid no attention to the surrounding shirtless men.
OB Tu finally couldn't take it anymore.
"My patience has limits! If you keep this up, I'm going to get angry!"
"Tsk tsk, you really don't look like a kidnapper at all."
A strange voice suddenly rang out. Though the volume wasn't loud, it instantly silenced the entire scene.
The mahjong quartet, who had been completely ignoring OB Tu's shouting, stopped their game and turned their heads.
"Xiao Ye, you're here."
Mai Shiranui let out a scream, then swiftly jumped up and threw herself at Su Ye.
"You bastard! What took you so long? If you had come any later, you might never have seen me again!"
Mai Shiranui clung to Su Ye's shoulder, speaking while tears streamed down her face.
Her tears weren't fake. She hadn't seen Su Ye for a long time, so these were tears of longing, of joy at their reunion, and of happiness.
Mai Shiranui had missed Su Ye so much that she was overwhelmed, nearly desperate...
But Su Ye was more concerned about Mai Shiranui's condition.
"I saw the video he sent me. You were covered in blood—where are you hurt? Let me see, is it serious?"
"The video he sent you?"
Mai Shiranui loosened her grip on Su Ye's neck slightly, but she didn't get off him.
"Oh, you mean the video he recorded five days ago?"
Mai Shiranui chuckled and shook her head. "It's nothing, I wasn't hurt. That wasn't blood. That day, we were eating bread with tomato sauce when he suddenly showed up with his men. That's all…"
Mai Shiranui pointed at the surrounding shirtless White Zetsus.
"They looked so scary that Athena got startled, her hand slipped, and she accidentally squeezed the tomato sauce bottle, splattering it all over me."
Su Ye was confused. "Why did Athena squeezing the tomato sauce get all over you, but not anyone else?"
"That's not the point!"
Mai Shiranui shook her head, then stretched out her hands and held Su Ye's cheeks.
"The point is—you left for so long and didn't take me with you! That guy sent you a video, and you didn't take it seriously. Tell me, what were you doing? Were you out flirting with other women? Be honest!"
Seeing Mai Shiranui looking so energetic and lively, Su Ye breathed a sigh of relief.
There was definitely nothing wrong with her, so his previous worries had been unnecessary.
Now, the problem was how to divert Mai Shiranui's attention away from the topic of him possibly flirting with other women.
Mai Shiranui didn't know about Gwen, nor did she realize that she was actually the third party. Behind her, there was a long line of "little fourths and fifths" waiting for their turn. But somehow, a certain someone had taken advantage of being Su Ye's childhood sweetheart and had even won over Su Ye's mother.
If she had known, she wouldn't be so calm, joking with Su Ye about his possible affairs.
But Su Ye had a guilty conscience—because he had done it. So, facing Mai Shiranui's questioning, he wasn't very confident.
At this moment, instead of defending himself, Su Ye chose to counterattack.
"Xiao Wu, I missed you!"
Saying that, Su Ye didn't give her a chance to react—he leaned in and kissed her.
"Don't try to change the subject, I'm asking you—mmph…"
Mai Shiranui's words were cut off as he sealed her lips with a deep French kiss.
A minute later, Mai Shiranui finally got to breathe fresh air again. She slumped in Su Ye's arms, panting weakly.
"You… you're always bullying me!"
"I just missed you," Su Ye said with a grin.
"Ahem!"
On the side, OB Tu finally couldn't hold it in anymore and exploded.
"What's the meaning of this? You've been ignoring me this whole time—flirting, kissing—what the hell is this?!"
"I'm the kidnapper! I'm the villain! There are so many people watching here—could you two at least restrain yourselves a little? Give me, the kidnapper, some respect, will you?!"
"And you four! You've been playing mahjong for five days and eaten a whole month's worth of my rations! Are you pigs? Even pigs don't eat this much!"
Before Mai Shiranui could refute, Su Ye was already unhappy.
"Dear Mr. Kidnapper, you're wrong here. My girlfriend has such a slim figure and is drop-dead gorgeous—how does she look like a pig? You should take responsibility for your words, okay?"
"I..." OB Tu was momentarily speechless, feeling like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
Who am I? Where am I? What am I even doing here?
OB Tu looked up at the sky, then at the White Zetsus beside him, and finally stomped his foot. "Everyone, be serious! I am the villain here!"
With this loud roar, Su Ye and Mai Shiranui stopped flirting, and even the mahjong table beside them suddenly fell silent.
Everyone turned to OB Tu at the same time, looking at him with an expression of sympathy for the mentally challenged.
A person being forced to the point of breaking down and shouting "I am the villain!"—just how frustrated did he have to be?
"If you want to cry, just let it out. Maybe you'll feel better afterward."
Su Ye said gently.
But OB Tu suddenly flung his hand.
"Cry? Cry for what? My tears dried up over ten years ago! Right now, I just want revenge on this world! Revenge on humanity! You hypocrites—go to hell!"
"Go to hell with this world!"
"Appear—Gedo Mazo!"
As he shouted, the ground beneath everyone suddenly shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck.
Su Ye quickly dashed to the mahjong table, grabbed King, Yuri Sakazaki, and Athena Asamiya, and swiftly flew into the air.
Immediately afterward, the ground beneath them began to rise, forming a massive mountain that grew to three or four hundred meters in an instant.
From within this towering mountain, a gigantic figure, resembling a withered tree, slowly emerged.
It was a colossal humanoid monster, standing at a towering 500 meters tall. Its body resembled a humanoid figure, with ten branch-like protrusions on its back and nine enormous eyes on its forehead.
The moment this monster appeared, it exuded an aura of supremacy, like a primordial giant standing above all creation.
This was the husk of the Ten-Tails—Gedo Mazo.