The Mastermind Behind the Scenes, Starting from *The Fruit of Grisaia*

"Using cold weapons, it's hard to compete with human physical fitness alone; that is why I don't recommend you use a katana."

As he spoke, his gaze swept past Sudo Ken and looked into the darkness further away.

There, Charlie was soloing the White House's younger brother.

And there was... Gotou, who had completely hidden his presence from the very beginning.

To be fair, Gotou was worthy of his title as a boss.

Compared to the Ape-Man brothers who were still clueless at this moment, the instant Gotou confirmed he had been transferred to this strange environment, he had decisively seized control of the body from Miki.

Furthermore, he had managed to perfectly conceal all hostility and reactions right under the noses of the Ape brothers.

With this kind of adaptability, he was truly something else.

At this moment, Sudo Ken, who had climbed up from the ground, saw Ichinose Honami, Ryuen Kakeru, and the others arriving one after another, and his expression turned even uglier.

To save face, he walked up to Charlie while cursing and raised his katana, intending to execute him:

"Heh, you stinking monkey. Do you know the difference between humans and animals?"

"It's human intelligence! Even if you monkeys evolved for another few hundred years, you wouldn't be able to create such high-tech weapons. Just obediently accept your death!"

But before he could bring the blade down.

"Stop!"

Ryuen Kakeru, who had just arrived, barked:

"Are you deaf, or is your memory failing you? Didn't you hear what I just said? These two monsters are to be left for those who need them!"

Sudo Ken's movements stiffened. He twisted his neck and grinned defiantly:

"Hey, why should this be anything other than prey found by our Class D? Why should we give it up?"

He turned to look at Su Wei, attempting to form an alliance: "Don't you agree, Su Wei? This is our prey."

Su Wei, however, shook his head and handed the Capture Gun directly to Shiranami Chihiro, who was standing beside Ichinose:

"No, these points should indeed be yielded."

"Participating in the Black Sphere exam, failing to meet objectives or failing to protect others carries a risk of negative points, and accumulating negative points three times... results in immediate erasure."

Su Wei looked at Sudo, somewhat puzzled:

"These basic rules concerning life and death were all written on the flyers Hirata handed out. Did you actually read them?"

Sudo Ken was stunned.

Was it really written there?

"Ha, haha... I must have forgotten."

Knowing he was in the wrong but unwilling to lose face, he kicked Charlie on the ground hard, then sheathed his sword with lingering resentment, mocking him from above:

"Tch, consider yourself lucky. You've managed to keep your life for now."

"No."

"It is you who have managed to keep your life."

A sinister voice suddenly rang out right beside Sudo Ken's ear.

"What..."

Sudo Ken hadn't even finished his sentence.

From the darkness, a hand two sizes larger than a normal person's suddenly lunged out, grabbing his entire face and slamming him hard against the nearby wall as if he were a basketball!

"Boom!"

The wall cracked, and gravel flew everywhere.

Logically speaking, after taking such a hit, an ordinary person would at least be concussed or unconscious, falling into a deep sleep.

But... you think you can just go to sleep after offending the abbot?

I must give you a treatment that leaves you half-dead!

And so, as if injected with a potent dose of adrenaline.

Although Sudo Ken was covered in blood and grimacing in pain, he managed to stay conscious and did not pass out.

He propped his body up, looked in terror at the Ape-Man who had landed at some unknown moment, and asked tremblingly:

"Who... who the hell are you?!"

The other party seemed too lazy to acknowledge the provocation from a dying man.

The Ape-Man named Omeros glanced at his brother, who was bound to the ground by the Laser Rope, making no effort to hide the mockery in his tone:

"I told you, Charlie."

"When facing creatures like humans who bully the weak and fear the strong, there is no need to talk about peaceful coexistence; you only need to use absolute force to subdue them!"

Omeros spread his arms, displaying muscles even more robust than Charlie's:

"In the previous world, I could conquer half of America single-handedly and slaughter a third of the population..."

"Then in this world, I can do the same!"

It looked down at Charlie on the ground, its tone icy:

"Just hold onto your naive ideals and drown right here!"

Charlie, lying on the ground, stirred and realized the Laser Rope tightened the more he struggled, so he had no choice but to warn him helplessly:

"Be careful. Their weapons are very strong, that kind of rope..."

Omeros licked its claws, dismissive:

"Unnecessary."

"I only need to kill them all before they can fire."

As it spoke, the muscles in its hind legs tensed, ready to launch a charge.

But it had barely finished posturing.

"Zzz--!"

Another familiar flash of ghostly blue light streaked by.

At the same time, Arisu Sakayanagi lowered her Capture Gun with a bored expression.

"How truly noisy..."

The young girl sighed, looking at the ape still holding its pose as if it were a fool:

"NPCs should act like NPCs."

"Stop fantasizing about conquering the whole world; that kind of chuunibyou speech... is really quite embarrassing."

Watching as the Ape-Man Omeros swung its claws aggressively at the incoming Laser Rope, attempting to sever it, and then...

It was instantly bound into a similar rice dumpling, successfully achieving a GG.

The air went quiet for a second.

Including Su Wei, Katsuragi, and Ryuen, no one lowered their guard.

Only Ichinose spoke up, stopping Sudo Ken, who was on the verge of losing his reason to rage.

"Don't act yet. I am very interested in the 'other world' they mentioned just now; this might relate to the secret of the Black Sphere."

And behind the crowd.

Observing the tense demeanor of the group, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was lost in thought.

Facing monsters that can be subdued so easily, yet they still maintain such vigilance...

As expected.

Compared to these two monkeys who only know how to spout threats.

Is the real trouble about to arrive?

As Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had expected.

When all the Qualified Ones held their Black Guns high, their nerves stretched to the limit, even the intruders like Kaneda Satoru and Machida Koji sensed the abnormality in the atmosphere and fell silent of their own accord.

Only the clueless Sudo Ken, clutching his bleeding forehead, complained:

"What's wrong? Why is everyone silent? Didn't we say we were going to finish off those two monkeys..."

"Shut up...!"

Ryuen Kakeru furrowed his brows, just about to scold this idiot who was blocking the Black Gun's X-ray detection to get lost.

Kamuro Masumi, who was stationed on the flank and constantly monitoring the radar screen, suddenly let out a cry of alarm.

"It's here! Above us!!"

"Swish--!"

Following Kamuro's shout, several ventilation ducts overhead shattered with a roar.

Fleshy tentacles tipped with sharp edges, like black lightning, shot toward the group from different angles.

Bearing the brunt of it was Sudo Ken, who stood at the very front, completely defenseless.

Facing the bone blade aimed directly at his head, Sudo Ken's mind went blank, and he froze in place.

Just as he was about to be cleanly decapitated.

Su Wei, who was closest to him and had already moved before Kamuro even spoke, performed a sliding tackle!

"Ugh!"

Sudo Ken went rolling sideways like a bowling ball.

Su Wei used the momentum to catch the combat blade that had flown from his hand, then twisted his body against the wall with a flick of his wrist.

He carved a perfect crescent arc through the air, severing two tentacles in mid-flight!

But this was only the beginning.

Because this was clearly not an assassination attempt aimed solely at Sudo Ken.

The remaining five or six tentacles moved as if they had a consciousness of their own, bypassing Ryuen Kakeru and the others to strike directly at the group in the back holding the Capture Guns!

"Watch out!"

Ryuen Kakeru shouted a warning.

But faced with a speed that exceeded the limits of human reaction, even with mental preparation, the body could not necessarily keep up.

Kamuro Masumi only had time to let out a cry of alarm, instinctively raising the Y-GUN in her hand to block.

"Snap!"

The sound of metal shattering rang out.

Yet, the tentacle did not pierce her body; instead, it recoiled like it had been electrocuted the moment it severed the gun barrel.

It was not just her.

Shiranami Chihiro, and even Shiina Hiyori, who had remained vigilant throughout, did not see their Capture Guns spared either.

In an instant, save for the Capture Gun currently restraining the Ape-Man and stuck in its cooldown period, every single means of control had been completely destroyed.

"Damn it..."

Katsuragi Kohei's face was as calm as still water.

Ryuen Kakeru's expression, however, was livid.