Chapter 143: Ayanokoji's Legacy
"A mysterious merchant?"
Hearing this term, Hayakawa Aki's brow furrowed slightly.
He vaguely recalled that just a few days ago, when he'd been giving Horikita Manabu a crash course on this world's common knowledge, he'd heard something similar from the man's mouth.
Hayakawa Aki hadn't taken it to heart at first.
After all, in a world with devils, even if a few humans with no household registration popped up out of nowhere, the most it would do was make people think of smugglers who'd signed a contract with a devil.
It was hard to get anyone to extrapolate to some deeper dimension. But right now… Hayakawa Aki cast a slight sidelong glance.
Even the ever-aloof Mr. Angel, as well as Quanxi—Senior Kishibe's old friend—were wary at this moment in the face of this primordial devil.
And yet it was precisely this primordial devil that filled them with despair…
That, faced with this strange-looking, mysterious creature, had to give way and keep its distance.
Though his manner of speaking was a bit erratic, even like a cynical, devil-may-care salesman.
Not a single person dared to harbor the slightest contempt.
Sensing the Darkness Devil's aura recede, the Angel Devil let out a breath.
He turned his head toward Hayakawa Aki, his voice still carrying a trace of lingering fear:
"Aki… do you know something?"
Hayakawa Aki slowly shook his head, giving no answer, only—like Quanxi—warily fixing his eyes on the Electric Lizard before them, the one who'd casually dispelled a primordial devil.
Meanwhile, on the other side. Although she felt joy at seeing her brother, whose life or death had been uncertain.
Horikita Suzune wasn't swept off her feet by this emotion of recovering what she'd lost. She didn't blindly rush up to seek his approval the way she had in the past.
She had already transformed.
That weak girl of the past—who could only trail behind her brother, who imitated whatever he said, who sealed herself away in a cold shell… was already dead!
Thinking this, Horikita Suzune's gaze was clear. Taking Yamada Albert, Wang Meiyu, and the others, she went to rendezvous with Kouenji Rokusuke's group.
During this, just like her, Tachibana Akane—the moment she saw Horikita Manabu—was visibly stirred, wanting to step forward and say something to Horikita Manabu.
But seeing that even Horikita Suzune, his own little sister, was keeping her composure, Tachibana Akane, as an upperclassman, naturally felt too embarrassed to speak up in such a perilous situation.
As for Kouenji Rokusuke. He brushed back his golden hair and, to the Electric Lizard standing with both hands on its hips, bluntly asked:
"Heh heh… so you're the great inventor gentleman's associate?"
"Should I say—since this was a blunder on your part, then is this all our compensation amounts to?"
Hearing this, the Electric Lizard scratched its head:
"This really is all there is."
"If anything… you ought to be puzzled as to why you're getting any compensation at all."
"Honestly, if I'd just grabbed any random person to be this merchant, there'd be nothing you could do, right?" It spread its hands. "Ahh… you can only blame this damned sense of responsibility of mine."
"Alright, enough chit-chat. While the examinees haven't entered yet and the presiding god hasn't turned its attention this way, hurry up and make your decision!"
The Electric Lizard urged impatiently:
"Otherwise, to keep my performance review from getting docked, once time's up, I'll just have to grab someone at random for the conscription~"
Hearing these words, everyone exchanged glances.
For a moment, no one actually spoke up to answer.
After all, becoming this exam's mysterious merchant did mean you'd suddenly gain the death-exempting privilege out of thin air.
But the price was that if you died once, a random item would permanently vanish from the shelves!
If you got killed a few extra times in this eerie place, causing some precious item to disappear, then that loss would be truly enormous.
So, whether from the angle of protecting items. Or of slapping a revival-armor onto the truly strong members of the team, the options actually available to them weren't many at all.
However. Because this was a rare chance to communicate directly with a behind-the-scenes staff member.
Smart people like Horikita Manabu and Kouenji Rokusuke actually wanted, even more, to try and pry some valuable intel out of the mouth of this erratic Electric Lizard.
But given the time pressure, there clearly was no opportunity for them to take turns interrogating it.
Kouenji Rokusuke and Horikita Manabu merely exchanged a knowing glance.
Seeing Horikita Manabu voluntarily take half a step back. Kouenji dispensed with the courtesies and spoke up directly:
"In that case, let's pick Horikita Suzune as the merchant."
After all, she only had one life right now, yet the Crazy Diamond on her was the best support item available at present.
He paused: "Incidentally, before you take your leave—as compensation for the fright your blunder caused us…"
"Could you tell us what this so-called 'presiding god' actually is?"
The Electric Lizard didn't reply at once.
It merely raised a hand and snapped its fingers. "Snap."
Along with the crisp sound, the mysterious merchant's exclusive item interface appeared before Horikita Suzune.
Having done all this, the Electric Lizard turned around, putting its back to the crowd, and said offhandedly:
"The presiding god, huh… ahh, there's far too much to say about that. But limited by the rules, there isn't much I can tell you either."
"Let me give you a few keywords to ponder."
The Electric Lizard's figure began to gradually turn transparent: "Program, screening, cultivation…"
"Mm, for now you could call it a neutral existence. On that point, you can rest easy."
"What do you mean, 'for now' neutral?"
Horikita Suzune's brow knit tight as she was about to press for the deeper meaning behind it.
But the Electric Lizard, with the peace symbol hanging on its chest, had already completely vanished.
As if it had never existed at all.
And accompanying its departure, the terrifying pressure that originally belonged to hell once again spread like a rising tide.
The fiends, whose states had only just recovered a little, began to tremble again uncontrollably.
Power broke out in a cold sweat: "N-not good… this great one smells it…"
"That guy… is angry!!!"
Inside the pure-white Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
Chris dismissed the Electric Lizard transformation and reverted to his ordinary human form.
But he wasn't in a hurry to start the exam. Instead, through a god's-eye view visible only to him, he quietly watched everything happening in the Chainsaw Man world.
The Darkness Devil, fallen into a rage at being forcibly driven back;
As well as, far off in the real world, Makima—quietly spying on all of this through a spider devil as a medium.
Watching Makima's pupils contract slightly, Chris nodded in satisfaction.
That was the way.
After all, he had no intention of letting Horikita Manabu return to school so soon.
His greatest value at present was to serve as a piece of bait—to occasionally show his face, and thereby act as a flavoring agent to entice Nagumo Miyabi, Horikita Suzune, and Tachibana Akane.
To just let his big brother-in-law play hooky for free like that. Wouldn't that render Nagumo Miyabi's efforts meaningless?
And to get Horikita Manabu to stay there as a natural matter of course. The best way was to put a little display, right in front of Makima, of the importance of how the Black Sphere's presiding god overrides devils.
That way, Makima—who, through manipulating animals and the like, had long ago eavesdropped on the 'Black' concept from Hayakawa Aki and Horikita Manabu's conversation.
Would naturally take an interest in Horikita Manabu, who'd been left behind from the very start.
And Chris could thereby keep Horikita Manabu around to receive Makima's special attention.
Although if he wanted to make Horikita Manabu stay, he had as many pretexts as he could want.
For instance, that when Makima fished them out of hell, he'd had the bad luck of triggering an intrusion mechanism and getting locked into the instance dungeon;
Or simply setting it up so that Horikita Manabu wasn't among this main mission's objective targets, and thus couldn't be extracted at settlement.
But these pretexts, all in all, weren't as natural as borrowing Makima's hand.
It wasn't a one-and-done deal where he'd never open a 'Chainsaw Man' instance again.
The likes of the Gun Devil, late-game Makima, and even the primordial Falling Devil…
These were all extremely high-quality challenge targets!
If Nagumo Miyabi someday made up his mind to win his wife back… These would serve as obstacles, simply perfect for the job.
Even setting aside the exam, just pulling them out to open a one-off temporary instance would be excellent too.
"But if the plot really develops this way…"
Chris stroked his chin. "When Makima goes to fish people out, it'd actually be a great chance to conveniently snag a few students from over here and bring them along to open a bonus instance…"
Thinking this, Chris glanced at the [Chronicle of the Ages] floating off to the side.
Confirming that the content written on it looked good. Only then did Chris take down the little beat-up watch and stuff it back into the warehouse.
He shook his head with feigned solemnity:
"Ahh, it's all the great hand of fate at work! How can this be blamed on my black-hearted scheming?"
Come to think of it… now that he had the God Sphere, as well as the Reality Stone as a medium.
He could fully load the little beat-up watch with every alien DNA except the 'X-Man.'
But in reality, apart from beyond-spec existences like the X-Man, most aliens were really just filler tailored to a specific environment… If you wanted to talk pure performance, it felt less useful than the Electric Lizard, which could absorb the disintegration gun.
"Forget it, forget it."
"Until I run into DNA truly worth actively scheming for, like the Anti-Spiral race…"
"I'll just absorb some interesting abilities at random to fill out the catalog."
"Making things all gaudy and flashy—when it actually comes to a fight, you won't even use a handful of moves."
At the same time. All the Black Sphere exam participants, including Ichinose, Sakayanagi, Ryuuen Kakeru, and others.
This time, none of them saw the Black Sphere's signature scanning-and-teleport beam of light.
There was just a simple blink. In a single daze of a moment. Everyone discovered they were already inside a pure-white sealed space.
Chris, mixed in among the crowd, turned his head and surveyed his surroundings.
This place had none of the dimness and crampedness of that old moldy tatami room of before.
Apart from the giant sphere of light floating in the dead center of the room, the décor here was, astonishingly, identical to the 'Hyperbolic Time Chamber' from their special training before.
Chris timely knit his brow: "This place… really looks like the Hyperbolic Time Chamber." "Don't tell me that Kushida actually guessed right?"
"Is she really an intuition-type genius?!"
Hearing Chris's teasing, Sakayanagi Arisu curled her lips thoughtfully:
"By the looks of it—from being death-exempt as one of the first batch of testers at the very start, to having all her wild guesses about the rules land on the mark… the Black Sphere's presiding god really does favor her."
"A pity that she just doesn't live up to it. Handed the privilege, she still couldn't catch it."
Meanwhile Yagami Takuya, participating as part of a formal team for the first time, was at this moment sweeping his gaze across the crowd.
After just a simple look, he said with some surprise:
"This time… it seems it's just the eight of us."
"No extra random personnel?"
Ichinose Honami thought for a bit, then conjectured:
"Maybe it's because the exam's phase has changed. The presiding god probably figures that since we've all already been through the screening, there's no longer any need to drag in those unprepared newcomers as cannon fodder?"
"After all, the enemies we're facing now are no longer something ordinary people can get involved with."
Ryuuen Kakeru, however, didn't take part in this pointless guessing.
He walked straight up in front of the enormous white sphere:
"Oi, presiding god."
"Since it's you directly interfacing with us now, and you've also scrapped the random-slot mechanism." "Then, apart from the mission objectives you're about to lay out… there must be some extra rules or perks that need adding, right?"
The God Sphere floating in the air flickered, and did not bring down punishment for Ryuuen's rudeness.
[Even if you ask nothing, as the first exam of the second phase, I will state the rules anyway.]
[So, that question of yours just now can only be called a pointless waste of everyone's time.]
Ryuuen Kakeru, snapped at, was noncommittal about it.
He merely grinned and urged: "Then hurry up and explain!"
"And while you're at it, bring out all that gear Ayanokoji left behind before he dropped out for me to take a look. It's free—be a fool not to take it…"
The presiding god paid no mind to Ryuuen's provocation.
The text on the light-screen kept steadily refreshing:
[Since the examination-ground mechanism has been upgraded to the extended cross-world instance mode.]
[From now on, whether you are testing personnel, formal examinees, or intruders swept in by circumstance, there is a probability of entering low-magic or no-magic worlds that have native inhabitants.]
[Therefore, in order to maintain the stability of those corresponding worlds, apart from formal examinees who hold immunity, all other intruders entering such worlds will have a limiter applied.]
[You will only be able to use extraordinary power to an extremely limited degree.]
[Note: Compared to testers and intruders, formal examinees will have relatively relaxed permissions for unlocking extraordinary power… This is the preferential treatment the presiding god grants to the strong.]
"I see…"
Ichinose Honami murmured under her breath. "So this is the real reason the random-examinee mechanism was scrapped?"
Sakayanagi Arisu nodded in agreement:
"In all likelihood, yes…"
"But come to think of it, the reason probably isn't only this. Otherwise, if the great presiding god restricted our combat power just to protect low-magic worlds, it'd inevitably come across as a bit too petty for one so lofty and aloof."
Chris timely cut in:
"Stop guessing for now, and wait for the presiding god to finish."
Seeing Chris speak up, the God Sphere continued displaying:
[At the same time, as qualified ones who have already proven your own worth.]
[You will gain the right, permanently stationed within the presiding god's space, to redeem all items from past sessions of the 'Mysterious Shop'!]
[And, you may expend a certain amount of S-points to perform a corresponding-direction 'upgrade' on the skills and items you already possess.]
Seeing this notice.
Not only did Chris, who'd voiced the reminder, pretend to raise an eyebrow.
In fact, everyone present—apart from Yotsuya Miko, who was still rather half-in-the-dark—was utterly shaken by this news.
Redeeming items from past shops, that was easy to understand.
It amounted to making up for the regret everyone felt earlier over missing out because their pockets were empty.
But… expending points to perform upgrades and enhancements—the meaning that represented behind the scenes was vast!
Nanase Tsubasa frowned and, taking a probing step forward, asked:
"Great presiding god, this 'upgradable' function…"
"Is it that every type of skill and item can be upgraded, so long as you have enough points?"
To this, the presiding god gave no clear response, merely pressing onward:
[Now then, the basic briefing is complete.]
[Next, the time to save the world will commence.]
[This time, the target you'll need to face is——]
As the light-screen flashed, a photo of the Darkness Devil appeared.
[Target Name: Darkness Devil]
[Characteristics: As a devil that bears the name of 'primordial terror' in hell, it possesses overwhelming ability. Even a single slice of its flesh can grant the one who eats it the power of infinite regeneration in darkness and near-omniscience. It represents the very root of humanity's earliest fear of the dark, from ancient times to the present.]
[Value: 200 S-points]
[Time Limit: 180:00]
[Failure Penalty: Erasure]
[Friendly Reminder: As this is your first time facing a high-score monster of over a hundred points head-on, if you feel you can't match it in strength, you may, as a substitute, kill another primordial devil in hell, or kill any one of the 'Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.']
Looking at this mission briefing.
Gone was the usual, slightly mean-spirited introduction of the monster's hobbies and catchphrase—there was only the danger-signifying score assessment.
Ryuuen Kakeru couldn't help clicking his tongue:
"You've got to be kidding me…"
"What do you mean the highest-scoring monster we faced in past exams didn't even top ninety points, and this exam shoots straight up to two hundred?!"
The ever-deadpan Morishita Ai, too, gripped the hem of her clothes tightly at this moment, somewhat at a loss.
She'd never imagined that, having only just scraped together enough points to buy a Combat Suit, thinking she could finally feel a bit of safety.
The difficulty leap turned out to be absurdly huge! Could it be… that this exam really was headed for a total party wipe?
Her mind raced, and she even found herself wondering:
If the mission failed—since the presiding god hadn't made it clear just now—would it directly erase all of them, or merely deduct a single life?
If it was the former, then this group of theirs was probably going to meet its end here today.
Infected by this despair.
Yotsuya Miko asked in a trembling voice:
"C-Chris… so what do we do now?"
Ryuuen Kakeru let out a sigh:
"What else can we do?"
"Drop the fantasies and prepare to fight. We're dead either way—even if we die, at least let's die with a bit of dignity, no?"
Chris stroked his chin and timely stepped forward to steady morale:
"Calm down."
"In the past, after the Black Sphere finished introducing the monster target, it always gave us a one-minute prep buffer."
"Now, even though the presiding god didn't say so explicitly, we can't just treat that as nonexistent."
"Everyone, flip through the past shops and see if there's anything worth redeeming."
"Or hurry and upgrade the items in your hands."
"So you don't get shortchanged when the time comes."
Ichinose Honami also quickly adjusted her mindset, turning her head to advise the newcomers:
"Yotsuya, Nanase, Yagami, Morishita."
"You probably don't have any spare S-points left, so go redeem the basic [Combat Suit] first!"
"Leave the rest to us. Once the exam's over, I'll post the rules we've figured out to the group chat, and you can get up to speed then."
Hearing this, Yotsuya Miko, Nanase Tsubasa, and the others knew what was urgent and what could wait.
Heads bowed, operating their wristwatches, the few girls turned into streaks of light and were teleported to separate changing rooms to put on their Combat Suits.
Ryuuen Kakeru, who stayed put, let out a cry of alarm at his wristwatch: "Oh hell!" "The Heavenly Workshop sends a custom gift, and it's the gutted version?!"
"Damn it, I have to spend a whole 100 points just to change it back to the original configuration?!"
Hearing this, Sakayanagi Arisu couldn't help covering her lips with a light laugh:
"Ryuuen, have you perhaps forgotten your settlement score from the midterm exam?"
"With your score back then divided by two… you surely weren't naïve enough to actually think the Black Sphere would make a losing deal, were you?"
Ryuuen Kakeru pulled a sour face and curled his lip:
"This damned black-hearted system…"
"I just so happen to have exactly 103 points left in my account—this is absolutely a price set to peg right against my point total, isn't it?!"
"Damn it! I was even planning to save some to pick a Sianweistan to pair with this prosthetic body!"
Say what he might, curse what he might.
Facing the two-hundred-point Darkness Devil, Ryuuen Kakeru ultimately still didn't dare to be cocky.
Decisively, he pressed the upgrade-confirm button.
After all, when facing the likes of Kars, this gutted-version Lion God template had indeed displayed an extremely powerful suppressive capability.
Naturally he looked forward to the terrifying performance of the complete version, once all its armaments were unlocked.
Seeing Ryuuen complete his enhancement.
Ichinose, riding the momentum, opened up her own item upgrade tree from the Black Sphere wristwatch. Looking at the branching options on it, surprise flashed in her eyes:
"[Love-Love Fruit]… can actually be upgraded directly for 30 S-points, with the system forcibly developing it for me!"
"Skipping the condition of making the target's heart flutter, and changing it to forcible petrification just by touching the target's body with the ability?"
Ichinose Honami considered for only a moment before decisively choosing to redeem it.
Though 30 S-points wasn't exactly cheap.
But when facing monsters with no human emotion whatsoever, like the cat-girl and Wamuu. She'd already come to understand this Devil Fruit's limitations.
Now, with physical petrification as a fallback, at least in the area of close-quarters self-defense and crowd control, she could finally be of use!
As for Sakayanagi Arisu, she redeemed a set of [Sianweistan] for herself from the past Mysterious Shop.
Clearly she meant to specialize in enhancement.
Having finished redeeming, feeling the prosthetic body plug into her spine.
She turned her head toward Chris, who was crouched in front of a black briefcase, stroking his chin and spacing out. "Chris-kun." The girl asked softly: "What about you? Aren't you going to buy something to protect yourself?"
"Still thinking about conserving points at a time like this—you'll probably run into big trouble at the end~"
Chris turned his head back and patted the briefcase in his hands:
"I found the inheritance Ayanokoji left behind after dropping out…"
"Apart from the Parasytes he took with him, everything else was left behind."
Chris feigned puzzlement:
"But it seems the usage rights were only left to me and Ryuuen, just the two of us… Kind of don't get what he's thinking." "Don't tell me… as long as the person borrowing the item dies in the exam ground, the borrowed item gets swallowed up along with them?"
Hearing this, Ryuuen Kakeru raised an eyebrow:
"With that guy Ayanokoji's personality, since he chose to leave, he wouldn't be stingy over something he couldn't take with him anyway."
"It's probably pretty much just as you think." "But…"
Ryuuen Kakeru glanced at the capsule in Chris's hand and waved a hand disinterestedly:
"I'm walking the path of mechanical ascension now—what Ayanokoji left behind is no use to me either." "Keep it for your own use."
Chris nodded. He turned to look at his current S-point balance. [386 points]…
To be honest, this was still the result of him deliberately holding back.
Otherwise, given the number of Chimera Ant nests, even if they were all low-score monsters, breaking a thousand would've been a total breeze.
But after all, he had to consider everyone's gameplay experience, no?
Still, even so. These 386 points actually meant he could buy whatever he wanted to buy.
But considering the 'inheritance' Ayanokoji had left behind.
Chris pretended to ponder for a moment, then rose to his feet and spoke:
"I'll hold off on buying anything new for now."
"In case we run into the mysterious merchant in the exam ground this time, and it just so happens to have refreshed an item that deals bonus damage to the Darkness Devil…"
"If we've all spent our points by then and have to stare at it without being able to afford it… wouldn't that be awfully awkward?"
Ryuuen Kakeru gave it careful thought. "…You're right."
____
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