"Miss Fujiwara is the secretary of the current Student Council, an elite among elites. No one has any objections to Miss Fujiwara joining the management, right?"
Nita Goichi held a microphone and swept his gaze around the room.
"No objections!"
"Fujiwara joining the management is what everyone wants."
"Miss Fujiwara, with the experience you've gained from your political family background, you'll surely be able to lead us in carving out a new world in the Inner World."
"I agree. I believe in the Student Council secretary's abilities."
"Uh..."
Fujiwara Chika wanted to speak, but she was interrupted once again.
"Those in favor, raise your hands!" Nita Goichi said.
Everyone around them raised their hands, whether they were Shuchiin Academy students or the "high-level" players serving as bodyguards.
Iino Miko looked around as well. Seeing that everyone had raised their hands, she slowly lifted her arm too.
The vote was unanimous.
"..."
Fujiwara Chika looked around, then at Iino Miko beside her, and found herself speechless.
This had already turned into a pledge of allegiance.
Just like drinking culture at banquets, drinking was a display of submission and loyalty.
The same applied here. Whether one raised a hand represented whether one stood united with the group.
"Senior Chika, I think the guards have all undergone background checks, so they can be trusted," Iino Miko whispered. "Besides, I found two players this time too—one level 13 and one level 14. They'll both be able to protect us."
"..."
Fujiwara Chika was completely stunned. She had not expected things to develop this way.
In upper-class circles, everyone's relationships were interconnected and tangled together. When something happened, they often advanced and retreated as one.
And the circle was only so large. If she defied the collective wishes of so many people at once, it would create obstacles for her in that circle in the future.
A rich young lady unwilling to cooperate and unable to fit in.
If that label was pinned on her, it would definitely bring trouble to her family, and her future social relationships would become fraught with difficulties.
It was like how some people at drinking parties loved picking at and causing trouble for those unwilling to drink along with everyone else.
What it demonstrated was one's loyalty to the group.
Everyone was being swept along. Even if they refused to comply, they still had to comply!
Only by advancing and retreating together, by dragging everyone into the water, could they avoid worrying that someone would betray them. And only because their interests were so deeply intertwined, where moving one thread affected the whole body, could the group grow large enough that outsiders would not dare act against it lightly. Then the entire collective would not fear being uprooted one day.
The matter itself was unimportant, but one's attitude was extremely important!
"Well? Miss Fujiwara, you can serve in the Elite Committee's management too. You won't look down on us just because we're a small organization, will you?"
Nita Goichi still wore a genial smile.
This was an organization composed entirely of descendants of nobles and wealthy families.
If she refused, outsiders would surely spread rumors that some Student Council secretary was too high and mighty, looked down on some organization, and had therefore refused to join it.
"Likewise, Miss Iino can become part of the management too."
Nita Goichi turned to Iino Miko and smiled.
"Huh? I can too?" Iino Miko pointed at herself in disbelief.
"Of course. Miss Iino is a member of the Student Council too," Nita Goichi said with a smile.
"Okay." Iino Miko was still somewhat happy.
This was an organization managing the elite class. And as the Inner World opened more often, more people would enter it and join them in the future.
"The contracts in your hands are actually team contracts. We went through considerable trouble to obtain them. Once you sign them, we'll all be able to teleport to the same location when entering the Inner World in the future, rather than being randomly scattered."
Nita Goichi then looked at Iino Miko again.
"Miss Fujiwara hasn't found suitable guards yet. Since you two are friends, we'll have to trouble Miss Iino to look after her safety as well."
"Leave it to me." Iino Miko smiled too.
Then, everyone looked toward Fujiwara Chika.
The atmosphere fell silent for several seconds.
Iino Miko became a little anxious and grabbed Fujiwara Chika's hand.
She could not understand what Fujiwara Chika was hesitating over. Entering the Inner World without guards and refusing to form a team was practically seeking death.
"Haha... Since everyone is recommending me so strongly, I can't really refuse anymore."
Fujiwara Chika gave a polite smile and picked up the fountain pen beneath everyone's watchful gazes.
Tsukikawa Shu logged onto the Inner World forum again, intending to see how many replies his post had received.
However, when he logged in, he discovered that his post was no longer the hottest one.
The top post was recruiting players to form a team, with the words "New Era Team" displayed right at the beginning.
He looked through its contents and found it was a recruitment announcement funded by several major corporations.
"Minimum level requirement: 5."
"Base salary: 2 million yen. Higher-level players may negotiate, and other requests may also be discussed."
"Additionally, we are purchasing all item resources obtainable in the Inner World..."
These wealthy businessmen were practically starting from nothing in the Inner World. With their physical strength, they would be fortunate just to survive a few days without starving to death. The only rewards they could offer were the money and power they possessed in the original world.
During this period, recruitment notices seeking teammates and forming teams had sprung up like mushrooms after rain. Recruitment information for teams of every size occupied more than half the forum posts. Tsukikawa Shu scrolled down, and nearly everything was the same sort of thing.
But Tsukikawa Shu was not interested in that.
His harem was his team. He had no interest in recruiting strangers to form a party.
He opened his private messages. Having nothing better to do, he simply checked whether any familiar female characters had sent him messages.
His finger slid across the phone screen as messages continually scrolled past.
But when he passed one name, Tsukikawa Shu scrolled back.
"DOLLARS."
It was an organization from Durarara!!.
In the original story, DOLLARS was a huge but loosely organized group whose members came from every profession and every corner of Japan. Its founder, Ryūgamine Mikado, was one of the protagonists.
However, this was a multiverse world. Although DOLLARS likely still had plenty of members, it was not as though one could grab a random person off the street and find they were a member.
DOLLARS's rule was that there were no rules. There were no restraints; one merely had to act under the DOLLARS name. That was why the organization could attract countless members.
Tsukikawa Shu recalled Ryūgamine Mikado's story.
Normally, he was just an ordinary high school student. He kept a low profile and even seemed somewhat cowardly in certain respects, though his leadership was quite good.
At first, he and several others had created an online community called DOLLARS. Later, it gained more and more followers and gradually became a massive organization. That was also his only trump card.
It was fortunate that he kept a low profile. Only then could such a trump card prove useful at critical moments.
Otherwise, with the organization's immense cohesion and loyalty, its vast membership spread into every corner of society, and the threat posed by a leader whose call drew countless responses, it would sooner or later be eliminated as a potential rebel organization.
Tsukikawa Shu looked at the content the other party had sent. It was also an invitation to join a team.
The other party had not revealed his name, but claimed to be DOLLARS's founder, and the team was likewise named "DOLLARS."
However, this team was somewhat different from the others. Like the current DOLLARS, it did not resemble an organization so much as a chat group that normally remained scattered but could unite as one at crucial moments.
The other party had also roughly explained in the message why he had created this organization, as well as its origins.
Combining that with what he remembered about DOLLARS, Tsukikawa Shu tentatively concluded that the person messaging him was indeed Ryūgamine Mikado himself.
"Mr. Tsukikawa, the Inner World is far too chaotic. Every day, many players die horribly at the hands of their own kind. I sincerely hope to restore the most basic order of the world and humanity in the Inner World. I beg for your support, and hope you can become a core member of our DOLLARS and help maintain order in the Inner World."
Tsukikawa Shu looked at the text the other party had sent and pondered slightly.
Although DOLLARS was loose-knit, it still had basic administrators, and they were its core members.
But DOLLARS's core members in the Inner World naturally could not merely be people who understood programming and management. At the very least, they needed absolute combat power. That was why the other party had approached Tsukikawa Shu.
Tsukikawa Shu looked again at the various team and squad recruitment posts on the forum.
The Inner World did indeed need some degree of order. It could not be allowed to fall endlessly into internal conflict.
Tsukikawa Shu knew that besides Tsukirou Town, where he was located, there were actually other towns. It was simply that players in different towns could not yet communicate across cities, and did not even know they were in separate cities.
But humans were social animals. With communication cut off, one town became one kingdom. If things went badly, massive brawls might break out between towns in the future over resources.
Establishing order was necessary, but the order of this world absolutely could not fall into the hands of those nobles and capitalists.
What if those people developed and started competing with me for wives?!
An uncle could endure it, but not when it came to wives!
At the very least, the conduct of DOLLARS's core members was acceptable.
"I support your idea. Perhaps we can talk." Tsukikawa Shu replied with a message.
After a while, the other party replied. This time, he sent a Line account, and the two added each other as friends.
The other party was still very cautious and had not revealed his name—
But Tsukikawa Shu knew who he was just by looking at the profile picture.
"Mr. Tsukikawa, do you agree to join my team?" Ryūgamine Mikado asked cautiously.
"I agree with your views, and I also agree with what you said about the need to establish a basic order in the Inner World."
Tsukikawa Shu replied, "So I will only assist you."
"Thank you very much for your support, Mr. Tsukikawa Shu. But does Mr. Tsukikawa not wish to join DOLLARS? That would make it more convenient for us to act and communicate," Ryūgamine Mikado replied.
"Sorry, but I still prefer to be freer," Tsukikawa Shu said.
"Actually, DOLLARS is very free too. There are no real restrictions, much like the current world. I believe Mr. Tsukikawa has also read the message I sent you on the forum," Ryūgamine Mikado said.
"Thank you, but please forgive me for refusing," Tsukikawa Shu said.
The other party fell silent for a moment before replying.
"Very well. As long as our ideals align, I will regard Mr. Tsukikawa as one of us."
Ryūgamine Mikado said, "Mr. Tsukikawa is now a player known throughout the entire Inner World. I believe that with Mr. Tsukikawa taking the lead, order in the Inner World will be established even faster."
"Taking the lead, huh? I don't mind doing that along the way."
Tsukikawa Shu thought back on both his lives. He seemed not to have done anything bad, so he agreed.
—Except for building a harem.
"Then, below are the goals our organization's members have always strived to achieve, as well as our code of conduct. I also ask that Mr. Tsukikawa abide by them."
Tsukikawa Shu looked at the code of conduct the other party had sent.
Compared with the original DOLLARS, which had merely been a chat community, the Inner World's DOLLARS had far clearer goals and rules. For DOLLARS members, it was not entirely without regulations.
1. The code of conduct for DOLLARS members in the Inner World shall remain based on Japanese law from the original world. Every member should strictly use the law as the standard for their actions.
Before you continue