Chapter 222: Five-Pull, and the Backrooms

Listening to Chris's question, Jiraiya felt a flicker of surprise — the corner of his eye even twitched slightly.

After all, as far as he understood it, this move combined the strength of two toad sages.

Whether in coverage or raw destructive power, it already ranked among the ninja world's rare, top-tier area-clearing techniques — even a Kage-level powerhouse would have to briefly step back from it.

And this was the case even though he'd sharply sensed Chris and the others watching from the sky.

So as not to let Konoha or Mount Myōboku lose face, he'd deliberately pulled out this trump card just to show off.

And yet... even this wasn't enough to satisfy the students standing in front of him?

Jiraiya's brow furrowed, his spiky white hair swaying slightly as he thought it over for a moment before speaking.

"Sage Art: Goemon really is the widest-ranging Fire Release technique I've mastered."

"But if we're talking pure destructive power, my Sage Art: Super Great Ball Rasengan probably edges it out — almost nothing can take that head-on."

"Beyond that, as far as I know, the only thing that could out-damage these in a single hit would be a Tailed Beast's Tailed Beast Ball."

"A complete Tailed Beast Ball could level an entire canyon without breaking a sweat."

Jiraiya spread his hands, a note of helplessness in his voice.

"But Tailed Beasts are strategic assets each village guards jealously. There's just no realistic way you'd ever get to use one."

With that, Jiraiya turned to the two aged toads perched on his shoulders, one on each side.

"You two have seen more of the world than I have."

"In all these years across the ninja world, is there some stronger ninjutsu out there I don't know about?"

Hearing this, Fukasaku and Shima exchanged a glance, wordlessly in sync.

Finally, Fukasaku let out a long sigh, his aged voice carrying the weight of years.

"Little Jiraiya, if we're talking about ninjutsu powerful enough to be called a natural disaster, it'd have to be that battle decades back — Uchiha Madara against Senju Hashirama at the Valley of the End."

"That place used to be ordinary mountain terrain. Their clash alone tore it into a massive canyon-lake and reshaped the whole landscape."

"The entire ninja world felt the shockwaves back then!"

"The First Hokage... against Uchiha Madara?"

Jiraiya murmured under his breath.

As a disciple of the Third Hokage, he naturally knew about the Valley of the End and just how heavy that history weighed. But—

"The First Hokage used Wood Release — a technique unique to him alone, not even shared by the rest of the Senju clan, let alone the wider ninja world. And Madara was a once-in-a-thousand-years genius of the Uchiha, wielding the Sharingan... Both of those powers come from bloodline inheritance. There's no way to spread that around."

Jiraiya looked up at the students gathered before him. "Not to mention, none of these forty-eight students have awakened anything like the Byakugan or the Sharingan."

Hearing this, Fūka Kiryūin crossed one arm over her chest, a thoughtful glint passing through her wine-red eyes.

"So you're saying anything stronger than Sage Art: Goemon is basically out of reach for us right now — something we can't even touch, let alone learn?"

Jiraiya nodded frankly. "It's a little harsh, but yes, that's about the size of it."

"Understood. Either way, thanks for being straight with us, Jiraiya-sensei."

Chris nodded, his expression steady.

Even as they said that out loud, both of them knew Substitution Jutsu and Shadow Clone Jutsu were genuinely useful in real combat.

Barring surprises, anyone with points to spare afterward would probably qualify to train in ninjutsu, spending some time to pick up these two techniques.

After all, for roughly the price of one [Stone Mask], you got something like a second life through Substitution Jutsu plus multitasking through clones. That was more than a fair trade.

Still, that was about the limit of the ninjutsu worth bothering with.

The rest — the flashy Fire Release and Earth Release techniques — required years of grinding to refine Chakra nature, without which they couldn't meaningfully hurt the kind of Black Sphere targets worth dozens or hundreds of points.

Rather than sink huge effort into these low-yield offensive ninjutsu, it made far more sense to spend that time on Ki, which let you fly unaided, or on the cursed techniques Gojo Satoru had mentioned — ones that could carry communication, or even repair the body through the Reverse Cursed Technique.

A person only had so much energy to spend.

With high-tier items already in hand, there was no real point burning precious time on ordinary ninjutsu that was far weaker than what they already carried.

So, having settled on a rough plan for their side training —

Chris and Fūka Kiryūin each spent 10 S Points to buy a [Chakra Seed] from their Black Sphere Watches, choosing to stay with Jiraiya for the time being to learn the basic Three Body Techniques and Chakra handling.

But the ideal proved far rosier than the reality.

Learning ninjutsu required precise Chakra control and fluent hand seals as a baseline, and neither of them had that yet.

So for the first few hours, they simply followed Jiraiya through the tedious basics out in the forest — tree-climbing with their feet, walking on water, and other elementary Chakra-control drills.

Not until the sun tilted west and the moon climbed to its peak — completing a full day-night cycle inside the training ground — did dusk settle over them once more.

Only then did a handful of quick-witted students finally manage basic Chakra extraction and start grinding away at hand seals, gearing up to practice the Three Body Techniques.

Seeing his goal roughly accomplished, Chris took his leave of Jiraiya, Fūka Kiryūin, and the rest, and headed back alone to where Gojo Satoru's Jujutsu Class students were stationed.

The moment he got close —

Gojo Satoru, who'd been resting against a tree trunk with his hands in his pockets, raised an eyebrow slightly.

He casually pulled down the black blindfold covering his eyes, his pale blue Six Eyes settling quietly on Chris.

"Oh...?"

"You've picked up a somewhat different flow of energy."

"Looks like you went and checked out the ninjutsu class, huh?"

Gojo Satoru's mouth curled into an easy, unbothered smile.

Chris explained offhandedly, "Ninjutsu's got some solid life-saving skills, good for the next Black Sphere exam. And once you get a handle on how Chakra flows, it's not too hard to pick up."

Gojo Satoru nodded, understanding.

"I already talked with Ichinose a bit — got a rough picture of the exam situation you're all dealing with."

"If time really is that tight, then yeah, stuff that's quick to learn and highly practical is going to carry more weight."

"Shame, though — the Reverse Cursed Technique isn't something a beginner just picks up."

"Otherwise, with how strong it is for reattaching limbs and purging poison, it'd be pretty handy for you kids, facing life and death every other day."

Listening to Gojo Satoru's musing, Chris said nothing.

The Reverse Cursed Technique was certainly powerful. It just wasn't much use to him personally.

He looked past Gojo Satoru toward the girls sitting cross-legged in the clearing ahead, eyes shut, sensing inward, and asked instead, "Gojo-sensei, how are they doing?"

Gojo Satoru blinked, snapping out of his wistful mood, and laughed softly.

"Pretty well, actually — better than I expected, honestly."

"Aside from the few who've already awakened innate techniques, whose development path I'll need to adjust specifically, the rest have already managed basic sensing and are gradually getting a feel for the cursed energy inside them."

Gojo Satoru held up a finger, his tone dripping with unhidden admiration. "A few of the sharper ones can already spread cursed energy evenly across their skin to reinforce their bodies... Just going by how fast they're picking this up, that's genuinely rare talent."

Chris had already expected as much, and pressed on.

"So will the ones who've awakened techniques train differently?"

Gojo Satoru hummed, rubbing his chin.

"Well, your exam schedule's brutally tight, after all."

"For the ones who already have techniques, I'll obviously drop the slow, steady approach and help them build combat-ready strength as fast as possible."

"Take that girl, Yotsuya Miko, for example."

Gojo Satoru pointed toward the black-haired girl sitting off in a corner, eyes shut tight.

"Her technique's confirmed now. I'm calling it, for the time being, the Formless Watching Technique."

"It's built on top of her innate Yin-Yang Eyes, extended and bound into something new."

"Not only can she control how visible or hidden she appears to others, it also massively amplifies her range for sensing cursed energy. It's a well-rounded support technique — reconnaissance, concealment, and mental defense all in one."

Gojo Satoru snapped his fingers.

"Given that, forcing her to learn how to wrap cursed energy around her fists for melee would be a straight-up waste of talent."

"She should play to her strengths."

Chris rubbed his chin thoughtfully, following the logic.

"So by that reasoning, what Horikita and Sakayanagi awakened leans more toward direct combat?"

Gojo Satoru answered.

"Correct. Horikita awakened Blood Manipulation — she can control her own blood in a fight using cursed energy."

"So once she's got the basics of cursed energy down, she should focus on learning to control her blood flow — something like a Flowing Red Scale to trigger instant bursts of peak physical output. That's a lot more lethal than just throwing cursed-energy-wrapped punches."

"Speaking of which..." Gojo Satoru's tone shifted, glancing toward the girls in the distance.

"Your friend's Phantom Mask really can speed up cursed-energy refinement by continuously venting negative emotion — you could even call it a shortcut to becoming a full sorcerer overnight."

"But I've got to warn you about something."

"To actually push further into the core of sorcery — whether that's the Reverse Cursed Technique or, eventually, Domain Expansion — none of it can be achieved through outside help alone. It only comes from genuine self-understanding."

Gojo Satoru paused. "And honestly, I'm not sure whether wearing a mask that reeks of pure malice, over and over, might do irreversible damage to their minds."

"As a teacher, I'd suggest you keep a closer eye on their mental state."

Chris nodded slightly, filing the favor away.

"Got it. I'll keep an eye on it."

As he spoke, Chris seemed to suddenly remember something and asked, with studied casualness,

"Oh, right, Gojo-sensei."

"You three, the ones brought in as teachers... do you have access to our Hyperbolic Time Chamber?"

"If you could come and go freely, one minute out here equals a whole day in there."

"Given enough time, any technique development, any experience grinding — all of it would just sort itself out."

Gojo Satoru let out a low whistle.

"Now that's a bold idea."

"Too bad — we don't even have one of those watches you all use to talk to the Black Sphere."

"Fundamentally, we're just outside lecturers your school brought in temporarily."

"There's basically no chance we get to enjoy a perk like that."

Gojo Satoru waved a hand breezily.

"Alright, this period's about wrapped up."

"Go check on the masked students, note how they're doing, and decide from there."

"I'll spend this bit of time looking over that Ki manual you all gave me earlier."

Gojo Satoru wandered off on his own, pulled out his phone, and started flipping through it with obvious interest.

Chris let a helpless look surface on his face right on cue. "Sure, I guess..."

He sighed softly and turned, walking a short distance away.

Beneath the dappled shade of the trees, Hiyori Shiina and Suzune Horikita sat cross-legged on the ground, eyes closed, deep in cursed-energy meditation.

As Chris's footsteps drew near —

Even from a distance, the two girls seemed to catch some familiar frequency, their noses twitching slightly in unison.

Then, at the same moment, they lifted their faces and opened their eyes toward him.

"Chris?"

Suzune Horikita spoke up, a little surprised to see who it was.

Beside her, Hiyori Shiina only gave a small nod of acknowledgment and said nothing.

It wasn't that she felt uneasy with Horikita right there, and it wasn't that she worried about Honami Ichinose noticing something off from a distance.

It was simply that the longer she wore the [Phantom Mask], the more its dark side inevitably stirred something inside her.

When she couldn't see Chris, Hiyori could still keep that restlessness pinned down through sheer force of will. But the moment she stood face-to-face with him, the sick, possessive craving buried deep in her heart surged up uncontrollably, like a beast catching the scent of blood.

Especially now, catalyzed by cursed energy — a power born from negative emotion to begin with — she'd been all but completely absorbed by the Phantom Mask.

It could fairly be said that right now, Hiyori Shiina was holding that ugly impulse in check purely through the deepest, purest love she felt for Chris, terrified that if she opened her mouth, some frightening, obsessive confession might spill out and scare him.

Chris, with his god's-eye view of everything, understood all of this perfectly well.

So he paid no mind to Hiyori's slightly evasive gaze and got straight to the point.

"You two still have some spare S Points on hand, right?"

"S Points..." Suzune Horikita thought about it, her tone still cool. "Yes, but not much."

"Same here," Hiyori Shiina said quietly, her voice a bit dry as she held her feelings in check.

Chris explained gently.

"Over at Jiraiya-sensei's ninjutsu class, you can learn a clone technique useful for relaying intel and consciousness, plus a substitution technique that lets you dodge a fatal hit in an instant at the critical moment."

"They're both basic ninjutsu, sure, but they're plenty useful out in the exam field."

"I was thinking, if you two have points to spare, you could pick up a Chakra Seed and try training in it on the side..."

Before he could finish, a voice laced with a hint of mockery drifted up from behind him.

"Heeey~"

"Ichinose, tell me — what does it feel like, being betrayed by someone you trusted?"

"Ugh... if you ask me, it's like biting into an unripe plum. Past the sourness, once you realize you're not even the endgame for that person, all that's left is exhaustion and a heart full of ashes~"

Hearing that sarcastic, needling tone, Chris turned toward the voice with a resigned look.

He glanced up to find Arisu Sakayanagi standing coolly beside a visibly awkward Honami Ichinose.

"What do you mean by that?" Chris tilted his head slightly, playing dumb.

Arisu Sakayanagi let out a small huff, chin tipped up in a haughty, sulky pose that all but shouted 'you know exactly what I mean,' and didn't bother answering him.

Honami Ichinose coughed lightly, smoothing over the awkwardness, and spoke gently.

"Senior, is there anything in the ninjutsu class worth paying special attention to, practically speaking?"

Chris nodded and answered honestly.

"Ninjutsu might not be all that impressive in raw destructive power, but for supporting combat and survival, it's actually pretty useful."

"I've already recorded video of the various ninjutsu effects and hand-seal methods. Once we're back, combining that with whatever intel you all gather with Ayanokoji and Ryuuen, I can put together a detailed chart so everyone can pick the training path that suits them best."

Honami Ichinose glanced around at the classmates gradually rising from their meditation.

Her brow furrowed slightly, and she spoke.

"Not many people over here got lucky enough to awaken an innate technique... I wonder if there's anything special happening over at the ninjutsu class either."

"But either way, picking up a brand-new skill from scratch and getting good at it fast takes a huge amount of effort."

"I just hope everyone's ready in time before the next Black Sphere exam hits..."

Chris pressed his lips together and, following her train of thought, mused aloud.

"We've got the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, so that part's actually fine for us — time cost's basically compressed down to nothing."

"What worries me more right now is that thing Koro Sensei mentioned to us right at the start..."

"If what he said is true, our world won't survive past next March."

"I'm worried that as the Black Sphere exams keep escalating, something uncontrollable might start happening to our own reality..."

After all, if the final instance is already hanging out there as a set target, then before the scheduled time arrives, the world was bound to undergo some corresponding changes to build toward the exam's progression.

Otherwise, when March finally rolled around and everything went to hell all at once, where would the buildup even come from?

Chris mulled this over privately.

He figured he'd patch things up using the World Rift concept he'd added earlier when he set up the parameters for the [Extra Instance].

While he was at it, this could also lay some groundwork for the eventual world-ending crisis.

And the first anchor point he'd picked was the famous little peanut — SCP-173!

Its rule was brutally simple.

Completely motionless while being watched — but the instant your line of sight broke, even for a blink, the rule triggered instantly: it teleported behind its target and snapped their neck in a single strike, killing them on the spot.

At the same time, given that the Black Sphere system currently held to its stated baseline of "expel every monster from this world" —

Chris planned to use the World Rift to craft a spatial pocket connecting different worlds, something like the Backrooms from internet creepypasta.

That way, this world's official organizations could stumble onto the anomaly and be drawn to explore it on their own.

The little peanut could then sit right there, brazenly, as the representative contained specimen.

Afterward, he could gradually toss in other monsters unsuited for direct use as student exam targets — the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, the radiation-spewing God Warrior from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and so on — dumping them all into that spatial pocket.

The end result would be something like an SCP-style rule-based horror effect, or a way to stop this world's official powers from being pure background scenery and let them actually get involved.

As for how this world's cabinet and conglomerates would react when the time came?

That was completely outside Chris's concern.

He had the ability, at the final hour, to shoulder everything and reset the timeline back onto its proper track.

So until then, Chris found it hard to spare much thought for humanitarian concerns from the NPCs' point of view.

Speaking of which...

Chris rubbed his chin.

Though he already had plenty of powerful items on open display — enough to be considered the ceiling of combat strength among the students —

compared to the powerful items the system had stocked away in his warehouse, he still had a long way to go.

Most of the items were either purely everyday novelties like the [Gourmet Tablecloth] — too niche, completely useless to him;

or they were on the level of the [Infinity Stones] or the [Galaxy Destroying Bomb] — so absurdly overpowered that pulling one out would strip any exam of its suspense entirely.

To make reasonable, efficient use of the stuff sitting in his warehouse...

he'd need to start with functional items like the Stand [Weather Forecast], the [Bamboo Copter], and the [Magic Gloves].

Weather Forecast could stand in as an "awakened technique," granting an ability naturally that way;

things like the Bamboo Copter could get dropped into the Backrooms-style layered maze, as a small reward for officials after they'd contained a monster.

As Chris turned all this over in his mind, his gaze drifted out of habit to the little red notification dot on the system interface — visible only to him.

That was the [Daily Random Item] system, flagging that a new item had refreshed and been stored in his warehouse.

Counting the days, it had been exactly five days since his last pull, hadn't it?

"Might as well take a look now."

The thought stirred in Chris's mind.

In the brief lull while waiting for class to end and for everyone to be teleported back to reality together, he quietly opened up his system warehouse for a glance.

Five cards, each glowing with a different aura, lay quietly in their slots.

[SCP-500 (Panacea)]

[Giant Tenseigan]

[Star Cup]

[Energon Crystal]

[Vajra Prosthetic Body]

Seeing the list, Chris fell silent for a moment.

"...Not bad, I guess?"

Aside from not raising his ceiling further the way the Infinity Stones might, at least everything that dropped here was genuinely usable.

Not like the [Magic Butt] or the [American-Style Napkin] — items only good for comic relief.

Even the Energon Crystal could double as rations for Transformers.

Back in reality, at Advanced Nurturing High School.

Because the class venue's time ratio was set at one day to thirty minutes against reality —

when everyone stepped out of the white light back into the school, the scenery and sky around them hadn't shifted much from the afternoon hour they'd left behind in that separate dimension.

It was still that same dusk-lit, sunset scene.

But it was precisely because of this perfect day-night correspondence —

that an unsettling question surfaced in the minds of quite a few sharp, observant students.

Someone realized, with a jolt of horror, that the evening glow on the horizon, the drift of the clouds, even the exact angle of the setting sun in this real world... matched exactly what they'd observed in that separate dimension!

This kind of precise, down-to-the-minute overlap was hard not to read into.

Like — could that separate dimension, aside from being devoid of people, actually be a real-time, perfect mirror of the real world?

Like — had the Black Sphere, or the presiding god behind it, already effectively gained complete control over this world's matter, even the laws of time itself?

Or, taking an even bleaker guess...

was the world they lived in, from the very start, already chosen by the Black Sphere to become one giant testing ground?

Everyone had their own take on it, and opinions weren't fully unified — it even sparked no small amount of debate in private discussions within each class.

But in the end, these were all just fleeting flights of fancy, built on a foundation of helplessness against something they had no power to resist.

Faced with the crushing weight of real survival, these philosophical and conspiracy-theory discussions inevitably got pushed to the back burner.

After tracking down Ayanokoji Kiyotaka and Ryuuen, who had likewise recorded Koro Sensei's assassination class, the core group quickly huddled together.

Based on everyone's footage and firsthand experience, they soon nailed down the personalities and strengths of the three guest teachers, along with which classes would suit students of different skill levels going forward.

For Jiraiya's ninjutsu class, the Three Body Techniques — easy to pick up and highly practical — were something basically everyone should learn.

But beyond that, the rest of the attack-type ninjutsu, which demanded massive Chakra reserves, cost too much to train, and even once mastered might not outperform items they could already buy with points.

Unless someone got lucky enough to awaken a special bloodline limit.

Otherwise, it made far more sense to hand those time-and-effort-heavy ninjutsu slots over to students who weren't taking the Black Sphere exam but were staying at school with decent potential of their own.

As for Gojo Satoru's jujutsu class —

since awakening a special innate technique was, relatively speaking, much easier than awakening a bloodline limit,

and cursed energy could do more than just carry voice at close range and reinforce physical defense — the advanced Reverse Cursed Technique could serve as a top-tier healing skill,

not to mention Domain Expansion, which could carve out a small pocket space to forcibly dominate the battlefield, with guaranteed-hit damage built in,

this path suited students with exceptional talent and aptitude as a main focus.

And Koro Sensei's assassination class —

thanks to Koro Sensei's inhuman precision control and nigh-undetectable assassination techniques,

taking this class wouldn't just let students pick up more varied combat approaches and escape tactics in a short time — it might even later serve as a reference sample for improving and optimizing their Ki cultivation methods!

This class should go to those whose physical conditions were already solid but who simply lacked real combat experience.

After briefly discussing the plan and confirming there were no major gaps,

Chris and Honami Ichinose shared this intel with upperclassmen Miyabi Nagumo and Akane Tachibana.

Actually, when it came to the pros and cons of the three classes, Nagumo's side had reached conclusions not all that different from what Chris's group had worked out — just some minor differences in the details.

Just as people naturally tend to seek benefit and avoid harm, maximizing their own gains —

Nagumo, like Ayanokoji, Kouenji Rokusuke, and Amanatsu Kazuha, hadn't chosen to buy a Chakra Seed or a Cursed Energy Seed right off the bat either.

Now, having finished this first day of extra classes,

Nagumo had tallied up the pros and cons of each one.

He figured the talented ones should go to the assassination class first, training in Ki alongside Koro Sensei — not saying they'd become invincible, but at least by learning Bukujutsu, they'd secure air superiority to start with!

In his view, the top-tier cultivation method dropped from a 200-point Darkness Devil couldn't possibly have a lower growth ceiling than this half-baked side-dish ninjutsu or jujutsu!

Akane Tachibana, meanwhile, came across as more cautious and considerate of the bigger picture.

She figured they should prioritize pinning down the rules governing innate technique and bloodline limit awakenings,

and use that to work out a stable, survival-boosting path for the ordinary students who never got a chance to take the Black Sphere exam.

Frankly, whether aggressive or conservative, both approaches had reasonable logic behind them.

But precisely because neither side had a full picture of these transcendent powers, each approach inevitably carried its own blind spots and weaknesses.

But as someone who already knew all the answers, Chris had no reason to kindly point any of this out to them — and honestly, he probably shouldn't be dropping too many prophetic hints anyway.

So Chris simply exchanged a brief goodbye with Ichinose and wrapped up the discussion.

At this point, Ichinose still had to go find people to work out models related to technique awakening and cursed-energy capacity.

As for Chris, he stretched his arms and turned to find Suzune Horikita and Nanase Tsubasa, close as sisters, already waiting for him at their usual spot, ready to continue their daily routine of swordsmanship training.

Then, once the sweat-drenched training session wrapped up,

he still had to rush off to comfort Amanatsu Kazuha and Arisu Sakayanagi, the two quick-handed, dark-hearted little devils.

No way around it.

After all, at this point in the timeline, he'd already done pretty much everything there was to do, appropriate or not.

He couldn't exactly pretend he didn't know them and leave them to fend for themselves, could he?

Chris even found himself privately plotting a rather mischievous scheme...

He planned that the next time he ran into Morishita Ai in another Extra Instance, he'd find some reasonable excuse to bind her to himself in "ghost" form.

He was honestly looking forward to it — if he let Morishita Ai watch, up close, from a spooky stalker-ghost perspective, as Amanatsu Kazuha and Arisu Sakayanagi...

what kind of interesting sparks might fly between the three of them?

Just thinking about it made Chris feel like the days ahead wouldn't be boring.

Meanwhile.

Deep in the mountains, inside the White House's secret training base.

Atsuomi Ayanokōji narrowed his eyes, gazing at the massive holographic screen before him.

It was at this moment that he received top-secret intel relayed in from an outer sleeper agent: at Advanced Nurturing's campus, three "outside lecturers" with transcendent powers, apparently pulled from other worlds by the Black Sphere, had appeared out of nowhere!

In this empty, dim office, the only light source came from the flickering screen.

Atsuomi Ayanokōji pressed his fingertips together, hands interlocked, propping his chin on the backs of his hands, sinking into thought.

Ever since last Saturday night —

he'd lost all contact with his ally planted inside Advanced Nurturing, Tokinari Tsukishiro.

Given how important Tsukishiro's current position as Vice Chairman was, plus his slippery, seasoned political instincts, there was no way he'd been suspended and hauled off for investigation over offending someone, without warning.

And with no external arrest information coming through,

the only possibility left was that Tsukishiro had been selected by the Black Sphere exam again.

And — most likely — something irreversible had happened to him in that monster-infested exam field.

"Sigh..."

Atsuomi Ayanokōji closed his eyes and let out a long, weary breath.

"I really didn't expect you'd leave me this early, Tsukishiro-kun."

From Tokinari Tsukishiro's unresolved fate, Atsuomi Ayanokōji seemed to glimpse a possible future awaiting himself.

This helpless feeling of being unable to control his own fate left this dictator, so used to giving orders, feeling a rare pang of melancholy.

Even though his own biological son, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, was still alive and well at Advanced Nurturing, even holding a position of real influence among the student body, he still thought this way, pessimistically.

Aside from being the founder of the White House, and knowing better than anyone what kind of ruthlessly self-serving people his extreme training environment produced deep down —

a bigger part of it came from a truth Atsuomi Ayanokōji had come to understand deeply, after decades navigating the ups and downs of the political world.

Relying on others was never meaningful!

You could never permanently secure your own safety by depending on just one or two people.

That kind of dependency might buy you a moment's reprieve, but it could never give you true, lasting peace of mind!

Just as Atsuomi Ayanokōji, brow furrowed, was privately weighing what price he'd need to pay to grease the right connections —

in order to obtain the transcendent cultivation methods those three other-world teachers at Advanced Nurturing were teaching, and use them to arm his own people —

Knock, knock, knock.

In the empty, dead-silent room, a somewhat urgent knock suddenly sounded at the door.

"Come in."

Atsuomi Ayanokōji quickly composed his tired expression, restoring his cold, commanding face.

As the door swung open,

a middle-aged man in a white lab coat, hair somewhat disheveled, clearly having just come from intense work, walked in.

Looking at Atsuomi Ayanokōji's stern face, the man looked visibly agitated, his breathing even a little ragged.

"Sir! Major news!"

"At the very bottom, dead center of the base, we've discovered a physically stable passage directly connecting to an unknown alternate dimension!"

"Based on preliminary energy-wavelength comparisons..."

"It matches the wavelength from back when you all first left."

"This has got to be what the Advanced Nurturing students mentioned after the midterm exam — the 'space rift' that the Black Sphere, or GANTZ as they call it, was talking about!"

Hearing this —

Atsuomi Ayanokōji, who'd been sitting rock-steady the whole time, felt his pupils contract slightly.

He slowly lowered his interlocked hands, leaning his body forward slightly, the corner of his mouth curling upward, impossible to suppress.

"A space rift... opened directly inside my own base?"

"Heh heh."

"Well, now. Things just got a bit more interesting."

____

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