He had a good idea of how much stronger he'd become, since all kinds of world records were right there for comparison. He was practically a combination of Bolt, Sotomayor, and Lü Xiaojun. Just now, he'd jumped more than two meters straight up from a standstill.
No training required. He'd gained the strength outright. That was the supernatural for you.
"Too bad it takes two Specialization Points to go from Limit to Transcendental. Other than mission summaries, I don't have any way to earn more yet, but I can't save them up, either."
Yuki licked his lips. In the end, he spent the Specialization Point on his trait. It might be unpredictable, but what mattered was how he used it.
"Use Specialization Point. Upgrade trait."
There was still no strange phenomenon. The only change appeared on the panel:
[Vestment of the Unknown (LV.2), specialized once, one memory slot]
Oh? A memory slot, huh?
Yuki's eyes glinted. Its core function hadn't changed, but it had improved qualitatively. That greatly increased his margin for error. He could store a Vestment now. Otherwise, if he drew something useful, he wouldn't dare draw again afterward.
"That's a good thing. This trait isn't meant to be a Deus ex machina. It's meant to let me carry out my Vestment-building plan."
That left the third option: upgrading a skill. There wasn't much to say about that.
"Use Reinforcement Point. Upgrade Reinforcement Magecraft."
As soon as he said the words, it felt as though something had appeared in his mind. It was hard to describe, so he simply tried it out.
At his command, densely packed magic circuits covered both his forearms. Even to the naked eye, they were denser than before.
Yuki picked up the dumbbell he'd just used, gripped it by both ends, and slowly twisted. The thumb-thick bar in the middle began to bend.
It could stack with his physical strength. His proficient-level Reinforcement Magecraft had gained a new ability:
Localized Reinforcement, about 2.5 times as powerful as full-body reinforcement. Good. When killing, focus your strength on one point. Don't spread it out.
Yuki was a professional. He tossed the dumbbell, now bent at a right angle, aside and got up to walk over to the window.
The feel of his new strength made his blood race. The Living Corpses no longer looked terrifying and grotesque. They were just bundles of experience points. He couldn't wait to go back and fight another round.
And had his final choice even taken effect? He wanted so badly to enter the second instance right away.
He gazed out at the shimmering sea. After a long while, Yuki covered his face with his hands.
Damn it. Now he couldn't sleep.
[I'm home.]
In a spacious, tidy bedroom, Hayasaka Ai set her phone down on the table. Then she slumped like a deflated balloon and flopped onto the bed with a thump.
So soft. So comfortable.
The girl lay on her back. At last, that long-missed sense of safety had returned. As she stared up at the familiar ceiling, scene after scene of terror flashed through her mind.
Grotesque Living Corpses, cruel and cunning veteran players, and running with no end in sight...
Hayasaka Ai pressed her lips together and clenched the bedsheet in both hands. She wasn't nearly as strong or coldhearted as Mai thought. Now that she was back, all the negative emotions came rushing out.
Bloodshed, tension, fear. In the pitch-black darkness where she couldn't see her own hand, only that man's back had offered a glimmer of light.
But this was only the beginning. No one, not even that man, was certain they'd survive forever.
Would I make it back next time? Should I call my mother? Or quietly write a will and leave it in a drawer?
Hayasaka Ai's thoughts were a mess. There were so many things she felt she ought to do, yet she didn't dare do any of them. Then a figure appeared in her line of sight.
A girl with long black hair and red eyes stood beside the bed. She wore loose, comfortable home clothes. Beautiful as an ice sculpture, she seemed impossible to approach. Her rational red eyes appeared to see straight through human nature.
The girl lowered her head slightly, studying Hayasaka Ai. A hint of confusion appeared on her icy face, and then she asked coldly,
"Hayasaka, you've been absent from work for two days. And... are you crying?"
"Kaguya-sama."
Hayasaka Ai sat bolt upright as if wound up, wiped her face, and opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
The Reincarnation Game forbade players from telling anyone who wasn't a player about it. They couldn't even hint at it. Besides, she didn't want to tell this master, who was like a little sister to her, about her nightmare.
"Something unexpected happened." Hayasaka Ai got out of bed, her expression once again composed and cool. She gave a slight bow. "Please forgive me, but I can't tell you the specifics."
"Is it private?"
"Yes. It's personal. Please forgive me."
Kaguya Shinomiya gave Hayasaka Ai a long look. She was Kaguya's personal maid, but she was more than just a maid. Having been trained rigorously from childhood, Kaguya was a genius. She knew she hadn't imagined what she'd seen, and she could smell a lie.
But she chose not to press the issue. She soon looked away. Logic told her this was the best course of action.
Her black hair fell loose as Kaguya turned elegantly. "Hayasaka, I'm hungry."
"Of course, Kaguya-sama. I'll tell the kitchen to prepare dinner right away. Would steak with pasta be all right tonight?" Hayasaka Ai immediately snapped back into character, once again the consummate maid.
"Orange juice, too. With a little ice." Kaguya Shinomiya headed toward the door without looking back, pausing slightly as she opened it.
"Hayasaka."
"Yes?"
"If you've been treated unfairly or run into danger, you don't have to hide it." Kaguya Shinomiya paused, her tone sharp as a knife. "In the name of the Shinomiya family, whoever it is, I'll make them pay."
Click.
The door shut as soon as she finished speaking. The figure, cold as an ice sculpture, disappeared. Hayasaka Ai, holding her maid uniform, became another statue, staring toward the doorway.
After a long while, she pulled up her white stockings and let go gently at the top of her thigh. A smile appeared on her face.
In just those few minutes, all the nightmare-like scenes had vanished. Kaguya Shinomiya's voice and the maid uniform felt like some kind of cue, pulling her back into everyday life.
That's right. This is what I'm struggling to survive for. This familiar, ordinary life is the Reincarnation Game's greatest reward.
"I have to find a way out. And my odds will undoubtedly be better if I stick with a mysterious genius. If I search for a way out alone, I probably won't even get the chance."
Hayasaka Ai straightened her headband and stood tall. She picked up the elegant phone on the table and was about to dial the kitchen when a low male voice came from the receiver.
"Hayasaka, vanishing without a word at such a critical moment... Have you forgotten your important work?"
Click, click.
Hayasaka Ai gripped the receiver so tightly it seemed she was about to crush it. The smile on her face suddenly turned strange.
Perhaps one nightmare could be used to solve another?
Chapter 4: Anomaly Called a Player
Every player had somewhere to return to. The only question was whether that place was appealing enough to pull them back from the depths of slaughter, bloodshed, and the Arcane.
Yuki hadn't had such a place before. Or rather, he hadn't had the chance to look for one. He hadn't expected that after the newbie instance, he'd found half a place to call home.
By a strange twist of fate, some of his old fantasies were about to come true?
Tap, tap.
His fingers flew over the keyboard, almost leaving afterimages, as mountains and coastlines sped past outside the window.
The next day, Yuki boarded the Shinkansen and headed for Kanagawa. On the train, he kept searching on his laptop.
'I couldn't find a single mention of the Reincarnation Game. Information about it can only be shared with other players. Ordinary people suffer Cognitive Distortion when they see it.'
Yuki had tested it the previous night. There was no way around the mechanism. Even if they "accidentally" showed their chat messages to a passerby, it wouldn't work. They couldn't even spark the slightest interest.
No wonder I'd never known a thing all these years. Even if some player had told me to my face, I would've understood it as something else.
Yuki got down to work and decisively put the idea of joining some Diving Club out of his mind. He didn't have to become the game's tool, but he couldn't spend every day getting drunk and wasting away, either. After teaming up with Hayasaka Ai and Mai Sakurajima, he had a little more responsibility.
So he traveled, reviewed what he'd learned, and did some research. Then he started a small group chat and shared his findings with the other two.
[Confirmed. We can't retrieve any messages from inside the server, either. No one else can learn about our chats.]
Hayasaka Ai, whose ID was "I'm Free," sent a puzzled cat-face sticker. She'd managed to hack into LINE's backend server. Her hacking skills had improved just like that. It was far more convenient than reading books or anything.
[Yeah. If you can create a plane of existence, hiding information is easy.]
Yuki replied without paying any attention to the drowsy-looking middle-aged man beside him, who turned to stare.
[If it's hidden, why are we still using virtual numbers to disguise ourselves?]
Mai Sakurajima joined the conversation. Her avatar was a muscular man, and her ID was something like "High Purity."
[Better safe than sorry. Ordinary people can't see it, but that doesn't mean other players can't.] Yuki didn't elaborate. He typed away:
[I can confirm now that Chaos Items are forbidden in the real world, but physical strength, Ego Traits, and combat experience can be brought back.]
[Huh? Then why hasn't the world descended into chaos? With Band Guy's speed, even guns would have a hard time hitting him.]
Thomas's physical strength was at the Limit level. Even without his Chainsaw Sword, he'd be more than capable of making a living as a bandit.
[It's simple. The Reincarnation Game is strange. It hasn't completely sealed away players' powers, but it still won't allow them to reveal that the game exists. Otherwise, they're punished. Then it corrects the behavior, and the player pays the price.]
[The strange part is that it could issue a gag order or just erase us outright. Why leave a loophole?]
Yuki finished typing his long message. The group fell silent for a moment, then a doge holding up its thumb appeared.
All you can send is a sticker? Can't you at least say my summary was spot-on?
Yuki rolled his eyes. There was one thing he hadn't mentioned: what would happen if players fought each other in the real world? After going through more than a few instances, they'd be like superhumans fighting. In the information age, there was no way not a single word about it would get out.
[Let's leave it there for now. I'll share more once I arrive. High Purity, remember to meet me at the station.]
[When did I agree to let you come over? And why aren't you going to "I'm Free's" place?]
[Sorry for the trouble. I'm swamped with work, so the meetup's been moved online.]
[Wait a minute. You two teamed up to trick me?]
Click.
Yuki decisively shut his laptop. When it was time to play dead, he played dead. Who knew when the next instance would start? He couldn't exactly do push-ups in his rented apartment.
Not only would the results be limited, it'd be incredibly boring. Besides, birds of a feather flock together. The only person he could visit was Mai Sakurajima.
'Hayasaka Ai has a special status. Showing up at her door out of the blue would be rude.'
Yuki had decent social skills. He knew how to maintain a proper distance from people. More importantly, judging by the fact that she was a first-year student, a certain young lady was still in her ice-sculpture phase. They'd probably be so awkward around each other they'd want to dig themselves a two-room apartment.
Mai Sakurajima was different. She hadn't met a certain teacher yet, and her relationship with her family wasn't great. She'd also helped him work through his emotional hang-ups, so it was only right that he pay her a visit and thank her.
"We went through life and death together. If we're still just online friends, won't I seem like a total recluse?"
Yuki smiled. The Reincarnation Game and a dating sim could be played at the same time. He checked the time, then closed his eyes and thought things over, retracing those heart-pounding memories so he wouldn't have nothing to say when he met his senpai.
The newbie mission had already revealed enough about the game's style. Comparing it with the different schools of thought he knew made it easy to draw conclusions.
There were no side-quest prompts, and the freedom was extensive. Extra rewards were probably earned through achievements, while the difficulty fluctuated according to objective conditions.
That meant simply grinding monsters and leveling up wouldn't work. Finding the logic behind the puzzles would make things twice as effective with half the effort.
He'd already thought it over on the way. What if he returned to the Ancient Castle first thing the next morning and killed the Giant, then used Back-and-Forth Dodge at the hole over and over? Or had some of the players leave the castle while the main force welcomed the stronger gifts brought by the Crimson Moon? Would that bring better rewards?
Looking back now, it seemed quite possible, but the risks would increase as well.
Yuki tapped his fingers against the table and roughly summed up the rules:
The Reincarnation Game couldn't be beaten by brute force alone. Even on normal difficulty, the challenges could surpass a player's combat limit. But it wasn't simply a rules-based horror game, either. Players with superb intelligence but mediocre combat ability could easily fail. After all, those monsters could be fought with strength.
Courage and intelligence were both essential? What a coincidence. That suited the path I've taken over the years perfectly.
Yuki nodded with confidence, but the game itself wasn't what he feared most.
"Breaking news: Ganan Shinomiya, chairman of the Shinomiya Group, has suffered a sudden illness and been rushed to Okubo Hospital. Here's the report from our correspondent at the scene."
Yuki opened his eyes. The screen in the train car was showing the news. As the reporter's camera panned over the scene, he saw an old man being rushed into the operating room, escorted by a group of black-clad bodyguards.
As the camera quickly turned, he spotted two familiar figures in the hurried crowd.
One was a girl with a blond side ponytail. It was Hayasaka Ai. Beside her stood a girl with black hair and red eyes, her expression cold.
Kaguya Shinomiya, still an ice sculpture, just as he'd expected.
Back in the instance, Yuki had asked questions indirectly and learned that Hayasaka Ai was in her first year. That had let him roughly determine the timeline at Shuchiin.
'Logically, Ganan Shinomiya shouldn't be falling ill at a time like this.'
Yuki rubbed his chin. He'd been careful all these years. He definitely hadn't triggered any butterfly effects. But after returning from the game, he'd realized the butterfly effect had already been at work.
Who knew how many players there were in this world? The middle-aged man dozing beside me could be one of them. And the game only warned and punished us; it didn't completely strip us of our supernatural abilities.
That's right. What Yuki feared most was still the Reincarnation Game itself. As he unlocked more permissions, he found more and more mysteries.
Before you continue