The tens of thousands of people inside the entire stadium, whether spectators or players from Shohoku and Ryonan, were all so shaken out of their wits by Shinichi Maki's domineering dunk filled with destructive power.

"Is… is this the power of Kanagawa's top player, Shinichi Maki…" Hanamichi Sakuragi swallowed with difficulty, his face full of horror.

Shinichi Maki slowly loosened his hands and landed steadily from midair.

He didn't even glance at the wildly shaking basketball stand, instead turning his head to pierce his blade-sharp gaze straight toward Shoyo's half, finally fixing it dead on Zijing Cheng, who hadn't even touched the ball much from start to finish and was standing there looking lazy while yawning.

That was the king's provocation.

That was the emperor's declaration of war.

Facing Shinichi Maki's terrifying display of dominance, all of Shoyo's team members felt a suffocating and heavy pressure.

Cold sweat seeped from Kazushi Hasegawa's forehead.

Toru Hanagata's complexion was also livid.

"A-Cheng…"

Kenji Fujima took a deep breath, his originally handsome face slightly distorted due to extreme excitement.

He forcefully threw the basketball in his hand toward that tall back, "It's your turn… Tell them who the true master of today is."

Smack…

That palm, as huge as a cattail fan, stretched out casually and easily caught the high-speed spinning basketball in its grasp.

Zijing Cheng slowly raised his head, those deep purple eyes that were originally half-closed and filled with sleepy drowsiness finally opening a little at this moment.

His terrifying physique, standing at 205 cm tall and as wide as a moving city wall, finally left the pillar he had been leaning against.

"Ah… What a hassle…"

A complaint with a heavy nasal tone and extreme laziness abruptly sounded within the dead-silent stadium.

Zijing Cheng rubbed his purple messy hair, holding the basketball with one hand—which looked to him just like the size of an orange—and walked unsteadily toward beyond the three-point line.

As he walked, his mouth unconsciously made "crunch, crunch" chewing sounds, as if he were chewing on some nonexistent snack.

"What is that guy… up to?" Nobunaga Kiyota stared fixedly at Zijing Cheng, not knowing why an extremely ominous premonition suddenly rose in his heart.

Zijing Cheng stood beyond the three-point line, turned his head, and glanced at Shinichi Maki with those cold purple pupils devoid of any human emotion, resembling someone looking down at insects and ants from above.

The next second.

No run-up.

No buildup of force.

No flashy dribbling whatsoever.

Zijing Cheng's right foot suddenly stepped forward.

Thud…

Just one step.

Merely just one step.

The floor of the entire stadium emitted an extremely muffled roar, as if it had suffered a magnitude 3 earthquake.

The spectators sitting in the front rows even felt their seats bounce violently along with it.

Accompanied by this step, a violent, bloody, and destructive aura—as if it were going to tear the entire World into pieces—burst forth like a volcanic eruption from Zijing Cheng's massive physique.

Under the gaze of everyone filled with extreme terror, Zijing Cheng's massive body actually vanished from the spot instantly at a speed that completely defied the laws of physics.

"So fast?!" Shinichi Maki's pupils suddenly contracted to the size of a pinhead.

When everyone captured his figure again, he had already charged unstoppable into the restricted area like a purple demon god crawling out from the abyss of hell.

"This should be enough, right!"

Zijing Cheng's low, lazy voice echoed in the air.

His legs did not squat deep and jump like Shinichi Maki's; instead, he tapped the floor extremely casually.

However, this seemingly casual tap erupted with a despairing and terrifying thrust.

Zijing Cheng's mountain-like massive body instantly rose from the ground.

His head not only easily surpassed the basket, but even his shoulders were almost level with the rim.

At the highest point, Zijing Cheng's original one-handed ball-grabbing posture changed.

He firmly pinched both sides of the basketball with both hands, the muscles on his arms instantly bulging out like coiling dragons, lifting the basketball fiercely behind his head.

Following that, in midair, his massive body abruptly completed an extremely violent 180-degree turn.

Facing away from the basket.

"Shatter… for me…"

Accompanied by Zijing Cheng's extremely flat yet horrifying murmur, his hands, which had condensed terrifying monstrous strength, smashed the basketball fiercely and unreservedly toward the basket with an unmatched momentum akin to Mount Tai pressing down from the summit.

【Thor's Hammer】.

Rumble…

If Shinichi Maki's dunk was a meteorite crashing into the earth, then Zijing Cheng's "Thor's Hammer" was simply a nuclear bomb detonation.

At that instant, the immense power completely exceeded the limit that the basketball stand could bear.

"Screech… Crack…"

A teeth-aching sound of twisting steel rang out shrilly.

Amidst the terrified, ghost-seeing shocked gazes of tens of thousands of people in the audience, that incomparably sturdy basketball stand, under Zijing Cheng's violent pulling, had its base suddenly tilt upward, causing the entire stand to undergo a terrifying tilt forward visible to the naked eye.

The rim was severely deformed by the smash, and the glass backboard emitted an extremely dangerous "creak, creak" sound, as if it would completely shatter into flying debris in the next second.

"This is impossible…"

Yayoi Aida in the stands stood up with a "thud", the pen in her hand snapped in two with a "click" by her bare force, her eyes fixed deadly on the purple monster hanging on the deformed rim, trembling all over uncontrollably.

Ryonan's Akira Sendoh abruptly sat up straight, those eyes that always carried a smile opened wide at this moment.

Shohoku's Takenori Akagi, on the other hand, drew a sharp breath and subconsciously touched his own neck.

Is this… that first-year monster?!

This is simply no longer human strength, right?!

Zijing Cheng loosened both hands and landed heavily on the floor from midair, emitting a loud noise like a muffled thunderclap.

He didn't pay attention to the basketball stand behind him that was still uttering painful groans and was slightly tilted, nor did he glance at the spectators whose souls had flown away from being shocked by the whole scene.

He just boredly scratched the back of his head and rubbed his belly.

"Ah… I'm so hungry, I really want to go eat barbecue quickly…"

Zijing Cheng turned his head, his lazy purple pupils inadvertently sweeping across Kainan's half.

At that moment, Kazuma Takasago, Tadashi Muto, and even Soichiro Jin and Nobunaga Kiyota all felt an indescribable chill shoot straight from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads.

That was an instinctive tremor from the depths of the soul when a herbivorous animal encounters a top predator in a state of hunger.

Even for Shinichi Maki, his rock-hard face finally couldn't keep a straight expression at this moment, a drop of cold sweat slowly sliding down his temple, and his hands clenched into fists tightly.

This Zijing Cheng… was simply a pure, unreasonable destroyer.