Chapter 101
"Let's call it a day early. Tomorrow we'll go in and meet these greenhouse flowers." The Smoker said, reaching out to knead the ball. "Let's grab some food first, it's on me. We'll have some fun tonight."
Why not have fun first?
The Smoker had intended to go to a high-end restaurant in the city center, paused, then noticed a ramen shop across the street and nodded almost unconsciously.
"Okay, let's go eat over there. We need to be well-fed to have the energy!"
"Then it's up to you."
A burst of giggles rang out from inside the car; if no one had been passing by, a fierce battle would have begun right now.
At the same moment, two boys in plain clothes climbed over the wall.
The rules of the Advanced Nurturing High School are negligible; they have a hundred ways to come and go as they please.
Subsidies and points are nothing; once we completely control this school, all those teachers will have to obediently grovel and act like dogs.
"Kanai, that car is gone." The boy with short, slightly curly purple hair looked around but didn't see the silver sedan.
Based on my observations over the past few days, the car keeps circling around and disappears around 5 PM. This pattern is easy to predict.
"I don't know, maybe there's something else going on." The boy named Kanai was wearing a black tracksuit and frameless glasses, and looked quite frail.
He lowered his head and thought for a moment. Based on his observation, the other party was both testing him and trying to make contact with the players in the academy, which was why they deliberately revealed their whereabouts and patterns.
All they needed to do was place a specially made communication device in the middle of the road a few minutes before the car arrived, and the other party would naturally pick it up; the subsequent communication was no longer their concern or the Tetsuto's.
A monotonous, boring, and completely safe mission.
"They're probably getting impatient. Maybe they'll come into the school tomorrow and try to contact us. Should we leave now?"
"My senior said this won't work. They'll definitely try to stop it or take advantage of it. I don't want to be dragged down by those idiots." The purple-haired boy kept shaking his head, his face filled with disgust.
Even though he's become a superhero, he still has to restrain himself. Shouldn't he just use hypnosis to turn the school into a playground and start an ecchi anime plot?
"They will definitely take advantage of this. Maybe if the two sides go to war, they'll pin the blame on us. That Sakayanagi is absolutely capable of doing that."
"So what do we do now? Senior used all his strength to finally get us out of here." The purple-haired Tetsuto looked resentful.
"We'll look around near the school. Once we go back, it'll be difficult to get out again. This opportunity is very rare."
"What if our identity is exposed? My senior said we have to hide our identity until we know the other party's purpose."
Kanai glanced speechlessly at his burly classmate who was like a shadow, adjusted his glasses, and said, "Are you stupid? Just put the stuff nearby and lure them over, that's all."
"Oh right, but can we eat something before starting work? We can't exactly go to the cafeteria now."
Foolish and troublesome.
Kanai was a little impatient, but considering that he had finally gotten out of there, he couldn't accept the thought of going back to that treacherous cage as soon as he finished his work.
He looked around. Since the academy had complete facilities and going outside was prohibited, and the streets outside were quite deserted, he pondered for a few seconds.
"There's a ramen shop nearby, let's eat there."
"We finally got out of the house and we're eating ramen?"
"Otherwise, you're thinking of going to engage in compensated dating?"
The Tetsuto touched his hair; he was actually thinking about it. Seeing his companion pull up his hood and walk in that direction, looking indifferent and uncomfortable, he followed, hoping to lighten the mood.
"Kanai, why are you working for your senior?"
"Because my senior can fulfill my wish."
"Oh, I remember now, you seem to like the first-year student, Chabashira, right? Are you planning to have your senior give her to you after things are settled?"
"That's right, I'll make her fall in love with me from the bottom of her heart." The young man paused slightly, his frail body brimming with desire, and added in a low voice:
Even if it's fake, it'll do.
The ramen shop is a kilometer away from the school. Night has fallen, and there are very few pedestrians on the road. Because it is a pedestrian street, parking is not allowed nearby. The red lanterns of the ramen shop are very eye-catching in the night.
Splash!
As Kanai opened the door, the aroma of tonkotsu broth wafted into his nostrils. Out of professional habit, he glanced around before entering.
The ramen shop was doing poorly, with only five or six customers. There was a staircase against the wall, and the attic was probably where the owner lived.
The owner, wearing a chef's hat, was busy behind the bar, while a man and a woman sat at the front.
They seemed to be quite wealthy; the table was laden with side dishes, and there were several empty bottles of sake.
The boy was about to order two bowls of noodles to make do when his gaze suddenly froze.
The red-haired woman's left hand was empty, and information immediately popped into her mind:
A woman Armless, it can't be such a coincidence...
Before he could react, the woman, who was very sensitive to being stared at, turned her head away, and their eyes met across several tables.
It was an instinctive turn of the head, an unprepared eye contact; before the two teenagers could even put on an act, their muscles tensed from instinct.
It's a player!
Neither side was prepared, so the outcome of the two groups of players meeting head-on is self-evident.
The Armless and the Smoker instantly stood up, their skills poised to be unleashed. Kanai and the Tetsuto did the same, instinctively gathering their power.
Even if there are misunderstandings between players, they still need to prepare for battle. No one dares to gamble on whether the other will make a move; they are simply on guard because they have their own thoughts.
The diners and the owner all looked over, wondering what was wrong with these four people, but Kanai didn't pay them any attention and breathed a sigh of relief.
Since no immediate action was taken, it means there's room for negotiation. Fortunately, I had a contingency plan.
He opened his mouth, but before he could utter a single word, a faint reddish-gray mist began to spread throughout the ramen shop.
The atmosphere suddenly became tense due to the fog and the footsteps coming from the stairs. A person walked down the stairs, his face obscured by the fog, but his bright red uniform identified him.
Yuki didn't say a word, but the energy he was emitting suddenly contracted and became aggressive.
"We've been ambushed; the enemy's photos have already been sent back."
The Smoker exhaled a thick, dark green smoke from his mouth, and while the two energies were clashing, he relayed the message back to headquarters, then severed his connection to the mind in the next instant.
Including Yuki, all the players present were in the same situation; not only did their thoughts freeze, but their bodies also vanished without a trace.
From the moment the two boys entered until they disappeared, less than thirty seconds had passed. It was as if a fantastic magic show had taken place inside the ramen shop. The remaining spectators blinked, lowered their heads as if nothing had happened, and continued to pick up their chopsticks.
Slurp up the noodles.
Chapter Fifteen: After Hardship Comes Happiness
[Random Quest Triggered - Ruined Battlefield]
[Scene lasts for 12 hours]
Players can actively leave the mission area via the bridge.
A strange murmur entered his ears, Yuki opened his eyes.
Besides the obvious reasons, he also had another idea: to experience random missions and prepare for being dragged into trouble later.
Since it's an experiment, we must firmly maintain control and take the time to observe carefully while the two groups are bewildered.
There was no one around. The Tyrant wasn't lying. Unless they had special skills, players thrown into random quests would scatter to different locations.
Everywhere you look, there are ruins; it looks like a city that has just suffered a devastating blow.
The ground was covered in rubble, and the buildings were riddled with holes. He was standing on the roof of a building that had mostly collapsed. Looking around, he saw that the city was shrouded in thick fog on three sides, and to the east there was a river with a red cable bridge over it.
The city ruins appear to have existed for a long time; weeds grow in the cracks, and the road signs are rusty, giving it a desolate feel.
There were no penalties, no mandatory tasks, and no warnings, but creating such a large battlefield for just a few players seemed like a huge waste.
Yuki measured the city ruins with his naked eye and found them to be about ten square kilometers in size. Just as the Tyrant had said, it was not a small arena, and the terrain was very complex, allowing players of all styles to perform to their full potential.
"And is that the Tokyo Tower?"
He saw a section of red iron tower piercing through the thick fog, mostly hidden in it. The spire had crashed into a building, and the twisted tower looked as if it had been pushed over by something.
The random dungeon setup is really strange. If players just wanted to find a mountain to fight, why bother creating a whole city ruin?
Logically, it didn't make sense, but Yuki didn't dwell on it; after all, he had already achieved his goal.
The fuse was lit, and the two sides went to war. Since it was a human scouting operation, the man and woman must have a way to pass the message out. There was only one way to intercept the dunk:
Both sides remained calm and tacitly agreed not to launch an attack, and to return to their original positions after 12 hours, at which point negotiations could proceed at a later time.
Yuki took out his sword and put on the Tengu Mask that Mai Sakurajima had bought for him when he returned last time, then stood on the edge of the rooftop.
"But guess whether I'll give you that chance?"
He leaped down, using the still-burning embers of the floorboards for leverage, and quickly landed on the ground. Both sides were surrounded by ruins; if someone were hiding inside, they wouldn't be noticed. But Yuki didn't bother looking to either side, gripping his sword and striding forward.
There are no penalties for random quests. You can cross the bridge and leave early, or wait for the instance to crash on its own. Before you can find other players, they will have already hidden or reunited with their teammates.
However, the Conceptual Craft Essence is still active. This Craft Essence is like the law of causality; if the other party moves, they will definitely collide with you. I tested the effective range of the Conceptual Craft Essence before, and it is about two kilometers centered on myself.
Unless you're extremely unlucky and there aren't a single player in one-fifth of the battlefield area, you're bound to run into one of them.
"So things will get interesting if we just take out one of them before you all meet."
"Those damned brats, they actually dared to play dirty tricks."
The red-haired woman raised her head from the ruins. This wasn't the first time she'd been caught up in a random mission. She wasn't curious; instead, a strange look appeared on her face.
When their eyes met, she noticed that the two kids' gazes were filled with shock, as if they had truly met by chance.
But what's with the kid coming down from upstairs? Without saying a word, he launched an attack.
Experienced players aren't stupid; Armless felt something was off, but she didn't think about it too much.
The most important thing now is to reunite with The Smoker and wait until both sides are evenly matched before we have the resources to find the truth.
She pulled a mechanical arm out of thin air and attached it to her empty left arm. The Chaos Item was activated, and after the nerves were linked, her fingers began to move nimbly. Then, with a 'click,' a screen popped up.
This is technology beyond human reach; a blue dot is flashing in the holographic projection.
"What bad luck! That idiot got left stranded in the north of the battlefield."
It was almost across the city, and walking over there would be too risky, but she couldn't just stand there and wait.
Who knows if the other player has wide-area search skills? In these player-versus-player battles, whoever finds their teammate first gains the advantage.
She couldn't fire a signal flare, and knowing her teammates' locations, she wasn't afraid. The mechanical arm disassembled, releasing a layer of azure light that covered her entire body.
Something sci-fi happened; she vanished into thin air without a sound, leaving only the cracked rubble beneath her feet.
It's optically invisible; you can't see it at a distance. As long as your companion stays in place, you can go find it yourself.
'After we regroup, we'll settle accounts with you brats.'
The woman walked calmly down the street like a cat, and when she saw the torn armored truck and the money scattered all over the ground, she even gave a self-deprecating smile.
It's a pity that items from the dungeon can't be brought back to reality, but the cracks on this car do look like claw marks.
She became more vigilant. Random dungeons weren't just arenas; there were no quest prompts or penalties, but that didn't mean the Reincarnation Game was meaningless. At least it was recorded in the C-rank members' files.
Are there still monsters in these ruins?
Armless licked his lips, then stopped abruptly, hearing a series of rapid footsteps approaching.
Someone's coming, approaching me at full speed along the road.
This is far more terrifying than an armored truck; it has already activated optical cloaking, how could it possibly be detected from a distance?
Before she could think it through, the reflection of the person in her pupils already told her the result.
I felt like I had become a magnet, and a person shrouded in mist was coming towards me.
It was him.
The Armless recognized the other person and saw those crimson eyes that emitted a faint glow.
Detection skills!
She immediately understood how the other party had seen through her invisibility. The robotic arm transformed again, retrieving the light membrane and turning it into Black Hole cannon muzzle.
Boom--
A high-energy object, resembling a plasma ball, erupted out, causing Yuki, who was rushing forward, to abruptly stop and change direction. He heard a loud 'boom' behind him as the two-story building completely collapsed.