Chapter 23: Raymond, Out of Breath

 "Well, this is quite a 'surprise' for me."

Looking at Tao Pai Pai as his third sub-personality, Raymond felt a mix of emotions.

To be honest, he wasn't a fan of Tao Pai Pai's somewhat twisted personality, but he couldn't deny the terrifying strength of this guy—he could kill with just a flower or a leaf!

Even though Tao Pai Pai became irrelevant once the Saiyans arrived on Earth, that all depended on who he was being compared to.

Before the Dragon Ball storyline expanded into space, Tao Pai Pai was already one of the strongest martial artists on Earth, with only a handful of people stronger than him.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been called the "Number One Assassin in the World."

Although in the mid-to-late stages of Dragon Ball, Tao Pai Pai was no longer significant, on Earth, he was no different from a superhero in the eyes of ordinary people.

He could casually throw a stone pillar and ride it for thousands of kilometers, moving even faster than a commercial airplane!

This kind of power was far beyond Kuro's level. If he were in the One Piece world, he would be at least on the same level as a Shichibukai. Being classified as Silver-tier was absolutely justified. (TL/N: Shichibukai = The Seven Warlords of the Sea)

Raymond had always wondered how big the gap was between Bronze-tier and Silver-tier sub-personalities.

Comparing Tao Pai Pai to Kuro, the difference was much larger than he had imagined.

Using Kuro as a reference, he initially thought a Silver-tier sub-personality would be around the level of a regular Marine Rear Admiral or Vice Admiral in the One Piece world.

But now he realized that he had underestimated the gap between the two tiers.

Raymond hadn't expected to unlock an insanely powerful sub-personality this time, as he knew the odds were too low.

His goal was simply to activate two sub-personalities with different combat styles from Kuro—that alone would have been great.

In that regard, the second sub-personality, Deadshot, met his expectations perfectly.

Deadshot's close combat skills were average at best, roughly on par with an elite special forces soldier—still within the realm of ordinary humans.

If he fought Kuro in hand-to-hand combat, Kuro could take him down in a heartbeat.

But there was a reason the system rated Deadshot as a Bronze-tier sub-personality.

His real strength lay in his unparalleled talent with firearms—calling him "one with the gun" wouldn't be an exaggeration.

Perfect accuracy was just the basics for him.

Beyond that, he could shoot with his eyes closed and still never miss. He could even curve bullets mid-air, making them bend around obstacles to hit his target!

With such a terrifying talent, he was the undisputed top marksman in the DC universe.

Yes, in close combat, Kuro could easily defeat Deadshot.

But if you gave Deadshot a powerful enough sniper rifle and a long enough distance, he could take down ten Kuros without breaking a sweat!

Raymond had always felt that Kuro's abilities were too limited. If he ever found himself on a battlefield filled with bullets, Kuro's Silent Steps wouldn't be of much use.

Having a sub-personality like Deadshot, who is a firearms expert, was undoubtedly a huge advantage for Raymond.

If his third sub-personality hadn't turned out to be a Silver-tier, just activating Deadshot alone would have been enough to satisfy him.

Even if the third sub-personality wasn't particularly useful, it wouldn't have mattered much.

However, compared to Tao Pai Pai, Deadshot's presence seemed a bit underwhelming.

"Looks like there's no need to redeem more Bronze-tier character cards for now..." Raymond murmured to himself after comparing the two newly activated sub-personalities.

Previously, he wanted to activate more Bronze-tier sub-personalities to make up for Kuro's weaknesses. But now, that didn't seem necessary anymore.

To be honest, activating a Silver-tier sub-personality from just three [Bronze - Character Cards] felt almost unreal.

He still had enough Exploration Points to redeem two more [Bronze Character Cards], but he didn't think he could get another Silver-tier sub-personality from them.

He wasn't extremely unlucky, but he wasn't extremely lucky either.

At least he had that much self-awareness.

And if he could only activate more Bronze-tier sub-personalities, it wouldn't be very meaningful at this stage—especially now that he had Tao Pai Pai.

So, he decided to save his remaining exploration points. Once he had enough to redeem a [Silver - Character Card], he would activate another one then.

For now, these three sub-personalities were more than enough to keep him at ease.

"Alright, as usual, let's do a test first."

After deciding to hold off on redeeming any more character cards, Raymond planned to do a quick test. He wanted to see if switching between the newly activated sub-personalities felt the same as switching to Kuro.

…

Five minutes later, Raymond was lying on his bed, gasping for breath.

At this moment, only four words echoed in his mind:

What just happened?!

Switching to Deadshot's sub-personality felt good. Moving around didn't feel as difficult as it did with Kuro, and even in combat, there probably wouldn't be much of a difference.

After all, Deadshot's fighting style didn't rely on direct confrontation. His expertise was in assassinations and ambushes, which didn't require much physical stamina.

However, since Raymond didn't have any firearms on hand, he couldn't properly test Deadshot's shooting abilities.

After getting a general feel for Deadshot's sub-personality, he switched back and prepared to test Tao Pai Pai.

That's when the problem began.

As soon as he switched to Tao Pai Pai's sub-personality, he hadn't even engaged in any intense activity yet—just a simple warm-up—when he already started feeling dizzy.

Realizing that something was wrong, Raymond immediately switched back.

The moment he switched back, he felt as if his entire body had been drained of energy.

In this state, he didn't even want to get up; all he wanted to do was collapse and sleep.

But he forced himself to stay awake and quickly accessed the Beginner's Guide in his mind, determined to find out what had just happened.

He remembered reading about the duration limits for switching sub-personalities in the "Beginner's Guide" before. At the time, however, he had been too focused on getting out of the hospital to go over all the details.

Instead, he had assumed that the duration of a sub-personality depended on how much stamina or energy it consumed.

But now it seemed that his understanding of the rules wasn't entirely correct.

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