Chosen Evolution: I can load the protagonist template

Chapter 353 What's there to be afraid of? He's just an old man selling fruit on the street!

[The backlash from the Hundred Demons' Night Parade is in progress—]

[Under the influence of the "Mech Combat" tag, the mech you pilot will begin to randomly "transform into a demon/monster" —]

[You used the special item "The Book of Ys Heart" to narrow down the range of the Hundred Demon Night Parade's changes to "Armored Heroes: Full Metal Panic!"]

The "MSW-16M Gates LB Orange" you are piloting has been transformed into the "G-13EX Zero Gouki Fully Armored Type".

After undergoing a dramatic transformation comparable to Getter Robo's nano-transformation, Cheng Tian's mech had completely transformed into the form of Akuma.

The outfit features the same blue paint as Akuma's martial arts uniform, and the five fingers of the fist are designed to resemble a human hand. The feet are clad in metal clogs, and the red prayer beads and the spiky topknot are particularly eye-catching.

The right shoulder of the mecha is painted with a large Chinese character “豪” (hao), and the center of the skirt armor is printed with the mecha’s full name, “零豪鬼” (Zero Haogui).

The previously somewhat dull dual-eye camera on Zero's head suddenly revealed a pair of lively eyes that looked just like a human's. For a specific example, you can refer to Getter Robo, which is in high synchronization with Ryoma.

Zero Gouki first nimbly moved his fingers to make sure each one was in zero-delay condition with him, then jumped twice on the spot, making a sound that was too light for his huge body.

Then, amidst the intense bewilderment and shock of both allies and the enemy boss, he adopted the starting stance of his assassination fist, with his hands slightly open and bent, positioned one above the other, and his feet spread apart.

"Zero... Akuma?"

Almost simultaneously, Azrael in the Warlock and the mainframe, which now only has two brains, both called out the name of the machine.

A document from Armored Warrior Earth records the legend of the strongest boxer in the fighting world, who was known as "Gouki" or "Akuma".

The ultimate fist? A fist that can annihilate demons and gods?

At least in the legends, Akuma's title is not false at all; it was earned through real battle achievements. An unknown designer, with deep admiration and awe for this boxer, designed and manufactured a large humanoid mecha specializing in combat as a tribute to him—Zero Akuma.

The power source of the mecha is completely unknown; one theory is that it is driven by the pilot's murderous intent.

Unlike most mobile suits in this world, Zero Gouki's cockpit is equipped with a voice input device, allowing the pilot to control the mobile suit via voice commands.

For some people, shouting out the name of a move when unleashing it might be a slightly embarrassing, immature act.

But if you think about it carefully, when people play poker offline, don't they usually shout things like "Two 8s!" "Bomb!" "Three of a kind with a single card!" "Beat it!" "Can't play!" when they throw out their cards?
The designer incorporated this inspiration into the sound input device.

However, this was unnecessary for Cheng Tian. At this moment, he had already disappeared from the cockpit and merged with the "demonized" mech beneath him.

However, compared to Cheng Tian's situation, the reactions of those around him were much more interesting.

Not only Azrael and the mastermind, but even many Leia soldiers in the resistance recognized Cheng Tian's new form and shouted out the name of his machine, "Zero Akuma." However, the reason behind this was actually more interesting than one might imagine—

This Zero Gouki is actually a fantasy mecha from a mini-anime series called Armored Hero Full Metal Panic! which started airing in 2280 after the two planets signed a peace treaty in the Armored Hero universe!

It's a fantasy mecha that doesn't actually exist!

Because it aired during the "honeymoon period" following the signing of the peace treaty, and because most of the mechs featured in the series have real-world counterparts, and because it is a very rare sci-fi ensemble drama, allowing viewers to follow different protagonists and experience the story from multiple perspectives, it has extremely high rewatch value. Therefore, both Earthlings and Leias basically watched it, and the viewership was extremely high.

Among the many TV series mecha with prototypes, Zero Gouki is undoubtedly the most unique and a monster mecha that simply cannot be built based on realistic theoretical foundations.

Such a purely fantastical machine, which should only exist on the other side of a television screen for people in this world, appeared right before their eyes. The shock was no less than that of people in the real world seeing a real, movable original Gundam standing on the earth.

They never imagined that Cheng Tian's Zero Gouki was derived from a very niche derivative work of "Armor Warrior".

In the mouths of real players, it is usually called "Armor Hero Fighting Edition", while its original name is "Armor Hero Full Metal Frenzy".

The game incorporates most of the mechs controlled by both sides in the completed version into the game as controllable melee units, and changes have been made to the arm, shoulder, and leg parts to distinguish their abilities and models.

In the human-dominated world of fighting games, using robots for fighting is obviously a very bold decision, but Capcom did it anyway, and in terms of importance, Capcom actually put more effort into the fighting game version.

Because the game also features one of the male protagonists of the series, "Saotome Shinobu," as well as her paired mecha, "Brodia," she later made a cameo appearance in "Marvel vs. Capcom," becoming a playable character.

However, the "Zero Gouki" mecha is not available in the normal arcade version; it only appears as an optional mecha in the home console versions of PS and SS.

Unlike other selectable mechs that are closer to the original mech combat style, Zero Akuma's combat mode is almost a complete replica of Akuma, the design source from the Street Fighter universe.

Under Cheng Tian's control, Zero Akuma's hands were simultaneously brought to his right waist, and high energy visibly gathered in his metal palms.

Seeing this, the main brain, which could no longer comprehend how the mecha in this fantasy work came to be, controlled the two-headed dragon mechanical arms that extended from both sides. The dragon's mouth opened wide, and after a brief charge, it directly shot a high-temperature fireball at Zero Gouki!

"Burning! Hadouken!"

Faced with such an attack, Zero Gouki pushed forward with both palms, and the energy ball that was originally white was instantly enveloped in flames, colliding with the dragon head fireball opposite him in mid-air.

However, in the brief stalemate, Zero Gouki's Scorching Wave Fist suddenly emitted a golden halo, and the next second, the Dragon Head Fireball was shattered on the spot. The Scorching Wave Fist, with almost no loss of power, mercilessly slammed into the two-headed dragon mechanical arm that the mainframe was using for cross-defense—

Demonic Concerto! Retribution Arrow Enhancement!

(End of this chapter)