"No!" Her smile vanished, her gentle expression swept away. To the dumbfounded Naruto and the others, Shokuhou Misaki looked down at them with an overbearing expression and delivered that single word.
"If you won't allow it, then I'll go ask Big Bro." Naruto muttered resentfully after Shokuhou Misaki rejected him so decisively.
Shokuhou Misaki smiled faintly again. "Good idea, but can you find him right now?"
Naruto unwillingly looked around. It seemed Jiu Ming had left shortly after they arrived...
"It's not like there's no room for discussion. You came back here because you received a message from Jiu Ming too, right?" When she saw them nod, Shokuhou Misaki continued with an undiminished smile. "Then do you know what he's planning to do?"
"Uh... some kind of strange 'closed beta'... test, I think?" Naruto said hesitantly. He truly had no idea what Jiu Ming was planning; he had simply rushed over after receiving Jiu Ming's message.
"If you want to know, come with me. You won't be disappointed."
Without directly laying everything out, Shokuhou Misaki said this. At the very least, she had to make them work for her for a while, let herself experience the benefits of this thing Jiu Ming had created, before telling them the truth.
For the moment, she couldn't find such suitable "cheap labor" here. As for safety... they looked very young, but their abilities surpassed even some espers in Academy City. And children were simple-minded, with fewer schemes—they were easier to fool!
After leading them to a station, Shokuhou Misaki followed Jiu Ming's instructions and waved at the map attached to the station sign. Sure enough, she found the testing locations Jiu Ming had mentioned. Though each location was different, they were all roughly the same distance away.
"Hmm... Slimes, then." Her gaze left