One Punch Man manga's latest chapter sees King dethrone Atomic Samurai as the greatest swordsman

With the recent release of One Punch Man chapter 189, ONE and Yusuke Murata's manga finally declared the new strongest swordsman in the series as King dethrones Atomic Samurai. Despite the fact that King isn't even a strong hero, the apple test conducted by Atomic Samurai convinced the swordsman that King was way more skilled than him.

The previous chapter saw Atomic Samurai wanting to test King's strength. While King is known to be "The Strongest Man on Earth," Atomic Samurai was yet to witness how strong King really was. Hence, he wanted to challenge King to a fight to see how he fared against him.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers from the One Punch Man manga.

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One Punch Man: Atomic Samurai's apple test convinces him of King's superior swordsmanship

One Punch Man chapter 189 saw Atomic Samurai approaching King for a fight to test his strength against "The Strongest Man on Earth." When they did arrive on an open field to begin fighting, King managed to convince Atomic Samurai to not fight him.

Nevertheless, Atomic Samurai did not back down from wanting to test King's strength as he proposed his famous apple test. The hero was known for being able to understand someone's strength and capabilities by observing how they cut an apple.

Atomic Samurai as seen in One Punch Man chapter 189 (Image via Shueisha)

The same had already been shown to fans twice in the recent chapters. Firstly, Nichirin demonstrated his swordsmanship by cutting an apple in such a way that he only moved his sword through the gaps between the atom of the fruit. Hence, the fruit itself had no damage and did not seem to have gotten cut. Instead, the hill behind the apple got demolished.

Later, Atomic Samurai was seen throwing an apple at King. However, he cut it with insane precision before it reached "The Strongest Man on Earth."

King taking the apple test in One Punch Man chapter 189 (Image via Shueisha)

When it came to King's apple test, he agreed to take it. However, as he proceeded to do it, he tried unsheathing the sword for nearly three minutes but failed. Apparently, his arms were at their limit by simply holding the pose to unsheathe the sword. Moreover, the fact that many people were glaring at him, made him feel nervous. Hence, he was left with no choice but to place the sword back and walk away.

However, Atomic Samurai perceived the entire event differently. He was led to believe that King did cut the apple, but he wasn't able to perceive it. He knew how Nichirin was capable of cutting an apple through the gaps between the atoms of the fruit. Hence, he believed that King must have done the same.

Atomic Samurai perceives King as the greatest swordsman in One Punch Man chapter 189 (Image via Shueisha)

Additionally, he was also led to believe that King's swordsmanship was so fast that the sword itself did not realize that it had been unsheathed.

Thus, Atomic Samurai was convinced that King was the greatest swordsman. Following that, he gathered his disciples to go train and become as strong as his perceived image of King.