The Multiverse: Starting by Creating the Delta of Fate, My Friends Are Going Wild

Faced with Kazuma Satou's dog-like barking, Hachiman Hikigaya grinned, not caring at all, even finding it a bit satisfying.

Heh heh, so this was the lament of the loser.

The two searched even more vigorously.

Watching the pair who had scoured the entire Archery Club basement clean, Kurisu Makise held her forehead.

Was there anyone besides her here who was human?

"Hehe."

Kazuma Satou glanced at the NPC Ayako Misumi, his eyes darting around as he sidled over and whispered slyly.

"Vice President, we've tidied up the Archery Club training grounds. Think we could get some kind of reward?"

Kurisu Makise was completely stunned.

Hachiman Hikigaya also stopped.

The air fell into a daze.

[78 Rat: "Haji Kazuma, are you even human?"]

[Shendu: "Couldn't hold it together. Is there even a need to rule humanity?"]

[Kaede Makidera: "Turning the Archery Club training grounds upside down and calling it helping clean up—do you really think Misumi's an idiot?"]

[Kanako Himuro: "Hard to say."]

[Ayako Misumi: "What does that mean, I ask you?"]

[Rin Tohsaka: "The one here might actually be... what was it, a bot?"]

[Ayako Misumi: "Huh?"]

Inside the Archery Club, "Ayako Misumi" swept her gaze over the floor. All the "items" had been cleaned up by Kazuma Satou and Hachiman Hikigaya, not a single one left behind.

She nodded gratefully and said:

"You've been a huge help!"

"Heh heh heh heh."

Kazuma Satou laughed in a twisted way, his mouth stretched into almost the same expression as Tom's.

"The way you're laughing..."

Kurisu Makise's skin crawled. She hugged her arms, about to throw out a sarcastic remark, when a panel appeared before her.

[You are currently within the mission area.]

[Your team has completed the free mission "Assist Misumi in Cleaning the Archery Club's Training Grounds F".]

[Obtained team-shared reward.]

[Reward: Story character "Ayako Misumi" favorability +10, "Shirou Emiya" affection +10, "Sakura Matou" disgust -10, "Shinji Matou" disgust +20.]

Kazuma Satou was all smiles at first, but when he saw the last NPC had gained a full 20 disgust points, he couldn't hold it in:

"Wait, who the hell is this Shinji Matou? How do you get hated for doing a good deed?"

Hachiman Hikigaya shook his head:

"No idea. I found some doll called Shinji-kun earlier, useless junk that just took up bag space, so I tossed it in the trash."

"This NPC is really a piece of shit."

Kazuma Satou, having learned well from the livestream, blurted it out without thinking.

Hachiman Hikigaya patted him on the shoulder:

"Forget it. Check if there's anywhere else we haven't searched?"

"I've pretty much cleared everything. Only the bathroom's left."

Kazuma Satou put on a "I'm your bro" act, draping his arm over Hachiman Hikigaya's shoulder:

"Tell you what, don't say I'm not loyal—I'll search the men's room, you take the women's."

"?"

Hachiman Hikigaya typed a question mark.

[Komachi Hikigaya: "If you search the women's room, Mom said you can live in the bathroom and don't need to come home."]

[Yui Yuigahama: "Hikki, that's kinda gross."]

[Yukino Yukinoshita: "Gross."]

[Hachiman Hikigaya: "I haven't even touched anything yet."]

[Saki Kawasaki: "I never thought you were that kind of person..."]

[Hachiman Hikigaya: "Dammit, Kazuma, you've ruined my innocence!"]

[Kazuma Satou: "Hehe."]

Kurisu Makise watched the two of them tussling.

"Alright, cut it out. I'll go check."

A dozen seconds later, she came out of the restroom.

Kazuma Satou and Hachiman Hikigaya looked at her. Though they didn't ask, their eyes said:

"What did you pull out of the restroom?"

Kurisu Makise's face flushed slightly. She glanced at the things in her bag.

"Nothing at all!"

Kazuma Satou wanted to press further, but Hachiman Hikigaya pulled him back, signaling him to drop it.

"Fine, then the clubroom's been searched."

"Come on, let's head into the school building."

"Gogogo! Let's move."

Just as they reached the entrance of the school building, Kazuma Satou and the others stopped in their tracks.

[Not a NEET: "@Mysterious High Jumper."]

[Mysterious High Jumper: "What's up."]

[Not a NEET: "Bro, what school do you go to? Rat shocked.JPG."]

[Not a NEET: "Look for yourself, can a school building spawn Skeleton Soldiers?"]

Shirou Emiya looked at the photo Kazuma Satou had sent to the group.

Pale flames burning in their eye sockets, ashen monsters of nothing but bleached bones wandering inside and outside the school building.

What the hell?

Are these... Degraded Dragon Tooth Soldiers?

Shirou Emiya was completely baffled, unconsciously scratching at the red patch that had appeared on his left hand.

Is this still Fuyuki City?

Just where the hell did this drop him?

Chapter 0009: A Card Drop! (4K)

[Leinys: "Cadmus's Dragon Tooth Soldiers, huh."]

[Kischur Zelretch: "In the modern age, no magus could gather real dragon fangs as materials. This is just ordinary magecraft with a hollow shell."]

[Medea: "Oh my, modern magi sure talk and act arrogantly."]

[Lin Zhen: "Aside from the Dragon Tooth Soldiers sown from the evil dragon's fangs that Aeëtes obtained from Athena in the Divine Era, everyone else's Dragon Tooth Soldiers are just cannon fodder."]

[Medea: "...You know quite a bit. That's right, these Dragon Tooth Soldiers are indeed cannon fodder, but they're still not something these brats can handle."]

[Su Ling: "Oh, is that so."]

"Cannon fodder?"

Kazuma Satou looked at the few Skeleton Soldiers, each taking the form of the Archer, Lancer, and Saber classes. They didn't seem all that strong.

[Degraded Dragon Tooth Soldiers]

[Description: Familiars summoned by a certain magus Servant, with branches spread throughout all of Fuyuki City.]

"Suicide bomber card, let's go."

"OK, shut-in, charge charge."

Hachiman Hikigaya stepped forward, staying close to his side.

"You guys got this."

Kurisu Makise ducked to the side. There was no helping it—her Craft Essence didn't provide any offensive capability in the early stages.

Item Creation and Territory Creation both required materials.

With the junk Kazuma Satou and the others had picked up earlier, there was nothing useful she could make.

For now, it was all up to them.

Kazuma Satou understood this too, which was why he only called on Hachiman Hikigaya.

He grabbed his red cloak and passively chanted to summon his weapon:

"Sharpen your fangs! Bow of Prayer!!"

A series of images flashed rapidly through his mind.

A plain young man in green clothes, raised by a Druid, harbored no great love nor fought for justice—he simply couldn't stand what those lords were doing, and so he stood alone in the forest, facing down an army.

The bow he used was made from the sacred yew tree of the North. In the end, he was buried beneath that same yew, his only companion, and passed unknown, his life understood by no one.

A dark green crossbow materialized and solidified, and the Yew Poison Arrows in his pack loaded themselves automatically.

Kazuma Satou stroked the cold bow body. The weapon in his hand rippled with a purple sheen, as if responding to him with familiarity.

He raised his arm, lifted the bow, and aimed. He'd never trained in archery—if anything related to bows, it was just shooting birds with a slingshot as a kid in the countryside.

But he believed with absolute certainty that he and this bow in his hand could hit the mark.

"Snipe—"

The poison arrow pierced the Dragon Tooth Soldier's eye socket, injecting toxin and detonating the poison inside its body.

A game notification popped up in the upper right corner of his vision.

[Kazuma Satou defeated - Normal - Archer Class Dragon Tooth Soldier.]

The Dragon Tooth Soldier crumbled to ash, but two things seemed to remain where it had stood.

"It actually drops stuff! Hachiman, the other two are yours."

Kazuma Satou patted his bow like it was a treasure.

"Yeah."

Hachiman Hikigaya understood what Kazuma meant. The guy's arrows were at least second-tier, maybe even third-tier—no need to waste them on mooks.

But... his own sword.

Would it really be useful?

Now that it came down to it, Hachiman Hikigaya felt a little nervous instead. Anticipation and fear clogged his throat.