Chapter 224: Culling Games, Backroom Test

As the familiar sense of detachment faded, Kei Karuizawa slowly opened her eyes.

After a brief moment of disorientation, what greeted her was the same shabby tatami room, forever tinged with a faint musty smell, and the massive Black Sphere floating silently at its center.

Kei didn't speak right away. Instead, she instinctively swept a quick glance around the room.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Kouenji Rokusuke, Suzune Horikita, Amanatsu Kazuha, Ryūji Kanzaki, Katsuragi Kohei, Hayasaka Ai... Once she'd confirmed that every single member of the advance test group was accounted for, and that they had indeed landed in the familiar Black Sphere Space, the knot of worry she'd been carrying finally settled.

Whew... nothing went wrong. Thank god.

She let out a long, silent breath of relief.

At least from what she could tell right now, whatever ripple effects had followed Shiranami Chihiro and the others clearing the Revival Round, they seemed limited to certain corners of the real world — they hadn't directly overturned the underlying logic the Black Sphere and the presiding god used to define the 'Special Exam' and the 'advance test.'

That, at least, counted as something to be grateful for.

Otherwise, if even the most basic operating rules of the Black Sphere exams and advance tests had been thrown into chaos—

—forcing everyone to start from zero again, risking their lives just to feel out a whole new set of rules... now that would've been a nightmare.

Just because she'd picked up some means of self-protection didn't mean her brainpower had grown to match!

Making her play guessing games with cryptic riddles and puzzle out convoluted rules — wasn't that just cruelty dressed up as a test?

So went the calculations running through Kei's head.

A voice suddenly reached her ears — Ryūji Kanzaki's, tinged with mild surprise:

"So this is the original Black Sphere Space."

"I'd read the descriptions in the intel reports, but standing here in person, it's shabbier than I imagined."

As one of the winners of the Revival Round, thanks to the several dozen S Points he'd earned as a reward, he'd tagged along with Ichinose, Chris, and the others into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for simulations, and seen plenty of the finer things by now.

Coming back to the Black Sphere Space, only to be greeted by yellowed tatami mats and peeling walls, left him with an inevitable sense of letdown.

Before Kei could even respond, Kouenji Rokusuke, standing on the other side, swept back the blond hair over his forehead and cut in with a light laugh:

"Heh... Kanzaki-boy, if you want somewhere nicer, you'll have to go to the presiding god's Realm. It looks something like the Hyperbolic Time Chamber."

"Endless pure white — now that's a bit more upscale."

Kouenji tilted his head to glance at the Black Sphere.

"Still, personally, I'd say being part of the advance test crew right now actually has it a lot better than the official exam participants waiting behind."

Ryūji Kanzaki mulled that over for a moment, then nodded in firm agreement.

True enough. Getting first crack at the instance world did mean facing unknown monsters and enemies.

But with a [Controller] radar in hand, it also meant they had a shot at the precious 'Resurrection Count' reward, plus an early intel edge — letting them pick off weaker monsters first to farm points.

Besides, the system never seemed to set advance-test objectives at a difficulty flagged as flat-out impossible.

And if they did run into something truly unbeatable, worst case, they could just hunker down and wait for Chris, Ichinose, and the rest of the main force to arrive.

Having personally witnessed the Hell Lord's utter, one-sided domination during the Revival Round—

—Ryūji Kanzaki knew all too well just how terrifying it was for a stronger being to crush a weaker one.

So he understood exactly what Kouenji meant.

"True. As far as we're concerned, no amount of fancy decor matters half as much as the Black Sphere saying 'you've cleared it.'"

"Still..." Kanzaki paused, recalling the intel Ichinose had posted in the group chat earlier. "Going by what Ichinose posted before — assuming the rules haven't changed — it looks like we need to ask the Black Sphere ourselves to find out this test's objective?"

The words had barely left his mouth

when Amanatsu Kazuha, who'd already been standing in front of the Black Sphere waiting, stepped forward right on cue, smiling.

"Gantz, long time no see~"

She tilted her head slightly, her tone probing. "Before you announce our objective for this test, I've got a question I'd like to ask. Think you could make an exception, just this once?"

The moment the words left her mouth, the scattered murmurs of conversation around them fell silent, as if by unspoken agreement.

Every eye turned to fix on the pitch-black sphere.

"Hmmm—"

As always, the surface of the Black Sphere rippled with a faint glow, and white text floated into view right on schedule:

[Before each test begins, so long as no special early-test conditions apply, the rules grant you a five-minute adjustment period.]

[During that time, you're free to discuss whatever you like, and you have the right to come ask me questions. Whether I feel like answering... well, that's my own business.]

Looking at those lines, Amanatsu Kazuha murmured thoughtfully, "Rules, huh... about what I expected."

Then she cleared her throat, dropped the playful act, and her eyes turned serious as she spoke up.

"In that case, there are only two things I want to know."

"First — word has it there's an upgraded version of the 'spatial rift' phenomenon showing up out there."

"Not the simple kind that just drops someone into another world as an Intruder — this one's formed an actual, defined two-way passage, and all sorts of unknown monsters and items have started showing up inside it..."

"This so-called 'Backrooms' — does it have anything to do with you people?"

"Second..."

Amanatsu Kazuha paused, her gaze drifting emptily through the air for a moment before locking back onto the Black Sphere.

"I want to know whether me, Arisu Sakayanagi, and even Senior Chris... shared some experience together before we ever met at this school. And if we did, what exactly was it?"

At that second question—

—a flicker of genuine surprise finally crossed Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's eyes, where he'd been standing at the edge of the crowd, watching from a distance.

He truly hadn't expected Amanatsu Kazuha to lay out such a pointed, targeted question in front of everyone.

Is she probing at Chris's true background? Or trying to use the Black Sphere's reaction to confirm some theory of her own?

Ayanokoji turned it over in his mind, though his expression gave nothing away.

He never wasted effort on anything unnecessary.

But since someone else was already doing the probing, he certainly wasn't going to pass up the chance to listen in on what might be some very expensive intel.

The Black Sphere quickly responded to Amanatsu Kazuha's questions:

[You've got quite a few questions there. But if you want me to tell you the truth...]

"Meaning we have to pay extra, in S Points?" Suzune Horikita guessed, arms crossed, lips pressed thin.

[You could put it that way. Either way, it's not information I'm free to hand out for nothing — we don't have the authorization for that.]

No authorization? Ayanokoji raised an eyebrow.

Those four words carried a lot more weight than a simple demand for payment.

Above the Black Sphere stood the presiding god. Above the presiding god — was there some even higher restriction?

Amanatsu Kazuha pressed her lips together and said quietly, "Then tell us — what price do we have to pay for you to give us the truth?"

Text began flickering across the Black Sphere's surface:

[So-called truth is simply sitting there, waiting. Sooner or later, once you actually get to see it, it won't have changed one bit.]

[But since your curiosity's running high, and you're prepared to pay the price, let's see just how serious you are.]

[Your first question will cost you 16 S Points. As for your second question... you can't afford it yet.]

[That's all I can say.]

Looking at the prompt on the display, Amanatsu Kazuha narrowed her eyes slightly and gave a small nod.

Just as Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had guessed, the Black Sphere's own stance already carried a message of its own.

At the very least, it proved that whatever tied her, Sakayanagi, and Chris together in the past ran deep.

It had reached a dimension even the Black Sphere judged beyond their current reach...

Still, there was no rush. It could wait.

The more pressing matter right now was pinning down exactly what relationship existed between the Black Sphere and this so-called 'Backrooms.'

But then...

After a moment of thought, Amanatsu Kazuha turned back around and spread her hands toward the group with a somewhat helpless look.

"I just realized something pretty embarrassing."

"Our reward from the last test came in item points, which don't convert back into S Points — they can only be spent buying items from Miss Clockwork."

"So my S Point balance is currently at zero. I can't cover this myself right now... does anyone else have something they want to ask?"

"Or, does anyone want to cover it for me? We've still got time before the five-minute countdown runs out."

She looked around at everyone, smiling sweetly.

The people around her exchanged glances — most of them looked willing enough, but visibly strapped for cash.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka rubbed his chin, then finally stepped forward and spoke up.

"I've got a bit of S Points saved up."

"After buying the Chakra Seed and Cursed Energy Seed in the presiding god's Realm, what's left over should be just enough to cover the cost of that first question."

"I'll take care of it."

Amanatsu Kazuha, quick to take a hint, stepped back beside Amikura Mako, tactfully clearing the way for her new 'sponsor.'

Midway back in the group, Ryūji Kanzaki watched Ayanokoji's back and parted his lips slightly, half-tempted to mention that as a Revival Round clear-holder, he actually had a bit of surplus S Points himself.

But on second thought...

16 S Points...

Even if he generously spared Ayanokoji the expense, that 16 points plus whatever Ayanokoji had left over would still fall well short of what it took to trade for a decent, life-saving item.

When it came down to it, it was hard to say whether playing the big spender here was even worth it.

So, having weighed the pros and cons, Kanzaki decisively shut his mouth and kept quiet.

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka walked up to the Black Sphere, raised his hand, and pointed his Black Sphere Watch at the payment prompt that had popped up on the interface.

[Beep... Payment successful.]

The Black Sphere wasted no time and gave its answer at once:

[As you wish, I'll answer your questions.]

[First — this so-called Backrooms you keep mentioning has no direct connection to our Black Sphere system, in essence.]

[If you're referring to the reward from the midterm Special Exam — all I guaranteed was clearing the monsters out of your world. That doesn't mean I'll do anything further beyond that.]

"It has nothing to do with you, Gantz?" Amikura Mako's brow furrowed tightly at that.

The Black Sphere ignored her interruption and simply kept scrolling its explanation:

[Second — the world rifts don't exist because of me either.]

[Fundamentally, the reason you encountered Spacetime Rifts inside that midterm test's exam ground was that I wasn't certain you'd all clear the trial. As a fail-safe backup mechanism, I temporarily redirected rifts that already existed elsewhere in your world to that location, to give you some margin for error.]

[Once those rifts had served their purpose in the exam ground, they naturally returned to their original places.]

Kouenji Rokusuke couldn't help but feel exasperated listening to the Black Sphere's shamelessly irresponsible explanation.

He curled his lip and pressed further. "Then what does the Backrooms exist as?"

"And what's the necessary connection between it and the world rifts?"

"Why would a connecting entrance show up in our world at all?"

[That's a separate question... it'll cost extra.]

The Black Sphere said it without a shred of shame.

Kouenji Rokusuke flicked his hair back, unbothered. "As long as I can afford it, just deduct it from my account yourself."

"This young master isn't short on that much."

[...As you wish.]

[I'll answer you before the test officially begins.]

The text on the Black Sphere's surface then faded, replaced by an image of a yellowed room, one that radiated an eerie, deathly stillness.

Dingy yellow wallpaper, a damp carpet, and a ceiling fluorescent light that seemed almost designed to drive a person mad.

[The so-called Backrooms is, in itself, a self-contained alien space detached from the real world.]

[Under normal circumstances, it really has nothing to do with world rifts. But precisely because it exists outside any fixed world, drifting through the cracks between countless planes, it's also an entity with extreme compatibility — one that's constantly devouring and expanding its own boundaries.]

[So it's entirely natural that, in the course of that expansion, it was drawn toward the naturally occurring Spacetime Rifts already present in your world, and the two ended up intersecting.]

[If anything, a world where rifts appear due to spatial weakness has essentially only two fates: merging with some other world on the brink of collapse, or attracting an anchor point from a special existence like the Backrooms. Beyond those two, there's almost no other possibility.]

The Black Sphere's text display came to an end.

The group around it fell instantly silent.

Nobody had anything to say.

Some stared into space, quietly weighing the crisis this implied. Others parted their lips slightly, wanting to press for more details.

But the Black Sphere was clearly an emotionless procedural machine at heart, and it gave them no chance to interject at all — it simply pressed forward with its script, exactly as programmed:

[Explanation complete. As it happens, your five-minute preparation window is also about to run out.]

[So... it's time.]

[As a reward for having the courage to take that first step into active exploration, I'll add one extra test option for you to choose from, on top of the original test.]

[The two options differ in both difficulty and reward. You may choose either one.]

[Test One — Ace of Spades (Survival/Hunt)]

[Time Limit: 24 Hours]

[Game rules are as follows:]

[This test will run independently of the normal timeline. In a certain other world, a powerful Curse User, pursuing his ultimate goal of achieving 'Tengen's fusion with all of humanity,' laid a barrier over Tokyo, forcibly infused countless ordinary people with cursed energy, awakened their innate techniques, and forced open a brutal survival game — fight or die. This game is known as the Culling Game.]

[The ordinary people marked and selected for this must enter the barrier and become 'Players,' or else lose control and die once their cursed energy runs past its limit.]

[The only way to advance in this game is to accumulate points through killing: killing an ordinary Player earns 1 point, killing a formally trained Jujutsu Sorcerer earns 5. Once you've collected 100 points, you can add a new rule to the system.]

[What you're being asked to do is enter that world. Accumulate points, add rules, and use them to sabotage the bloody Culling Game from within!]

[Any ordinary Players or Jujutsu Sorcerers you kill inside will convert, at a fixed ratio, into your own Black Sphere item points. Final rankings will be determined by total item points.]

[Mandatory clear condition: accumulate a full 100 points within the Culling Game system.]

As the text for the first option dimmed, new text rose to replace it:

[Test Two — King of Hearts (Containment/Protection)]

[This is an additional, optional test.]

[Within this endlessly extending alien space lie countless floors and rooms of every kind. Upon entering, you'll find placards in plain sight rating survival difficulty on a scale of 0 to 5 — the higher the number, the more likely you are to trigger a lethal crisis. There are also 'unclassified' and 'pending classification' ratings included.]

[Among these floors and rooms, only a handful are safe floors stocked with food, and only a scant few contain passages back to reality. Most floors teem with corporeal monsters carrying mental contamination, mutated and assimilated from either the native space itself or from linked worlds.]

[What you're being asked to do is contain and protect!]

[Containment: use Black Sphere equipment to seal monsters that can't be destroyed through ordinary physical means into the Y-GUN's extradimensional containment space.]

[Protection: ensure the safety of fellow humans — Intruders and civilians alike — found scattered across the various dangerous floors, and escort them to a safe zone.]

[Every monster you contain will earn you points equal to a kill. Final reward settlement will be based on the number of people you successfully protect, used as the overall scoring standard to determine rankings.]

[Mandatory clear condition: contain a minimum quota of monsters (×3).]

[So... which will you choose?]

Looking at the two starkly different paths laid out on the display—

"A sorcerer... a Jujutsu Sorcerer? A barrier, and Tokyo...?"

Yotsuya Miko stared hard at the first option, sharply catching on to the details. "This exam ground's description... don't tell me it's set in the same world as Gojo-sensei?"

"I'm afraid it is."

Amikura Mako nodded gravely in agreement. "The Culling Game... someone actually dared to pull something like this right under Gojo-sensei's nose? Isn't he supposed to be the strongest in the world?"

From the extra lessons earlier, they'd already learned just how absurdly high Gojo Satoru's standing was in his own world.

Something like this happening anyway... had something happened to Gojo-sensei?

Yotsuya Miko swallowed and turned to the group for input.

"If that's the case, the first option is Gojo-sensei's world. The second one... judging by the photo and description the Black Sphere just showed, that should be the 'Backrooms.'"

"So — what do you all think we should pick?"

The words had barely left her mouth

when Yagami Takuya, arms crossed, scratched his head and put on a look of pure, pained reluctance, chiming in right on cue.

"Looking at the requirements for both tests, they both seem like the type that could rack up points fast."

"If we went with the first test, we might even get a chance to ask Gojo-sensei for help. Our survival odds probably wouldn't be too low."

"But the problem is, the hard clear condition is literally killing people for points... whether it's an ordinary Player or a Jujutsu Sorcerer, they're all living, breathing human beings."

Yagami Takuya sighed, wearing the look of a man mourning for all mankind. "By comparison, to keep from crossing our own line... maybe it's better if we go with the Backrooms test instead?"

"At least we wouldn't have to turn on our own kind."

Hearing that, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka shot him a flat, dead-fish glance.

As one of the first finished products to come out of the White House, and now with [Parasyte Zero] boosting his five senses—

—he'd long since seen through Yagami Takuya's sunny exterior, all the way down to the cold-blooded core underneath that was, in truth, remarkably similar to his own.

The only reason he was saying any of this now was that he didn't want to shatter his 'good underclassman' image in front of everyone — he just wanted to play the pure lotus rising untainted from the mud.

But honestly—

—even though Ayanokoji Kiyotaka never regarded other people as fully human himself, and cared even less about the moral quandary of having to slaughter fellow humans inside the Culling Game—

—when it came to this choice, he genuinely did lean toward finding out what exactly was hiding inside the 'Backrooms,' the one tightly linked to their own real world.

After all, one option was a world halfway across the cosmos, one that even had a fail-safe nuclear deterrent like Gojo Satoru backing it up.

The other was right at their doorstep — a parasitic space that, arguably, bore directly on the safety of the very reality they lived in.

Compared to scoring a few quick points, what Ayanokoji Kiyotaka really cared about was whether he could dig up strategic intel that would matter further down the road.

Just as he was mulling this over—

—Nanase Tsubasa, brimming with a sense of justice, spoke up as well.

Her brow furrowed tight, her voice strained with conflict.

"Killing to save people... trampling over the sacrifice of other innocents just for our own survival."

Nanase Tsubasa bit her lip, her eyes torn.

"I guess you'd call this a trolley problem the Black Sphere system's rigged the outcome of from the start?"

Kei Karuizawa, who always preferred hiding behind someone stronger to survive—

—rarely didn't shrink back at something like this.

She pressed her lips together, paused a moment, then let out a soft sigh.

"I once heard Chris say something like this to Ichinose."

"What makes the trolley problem feel so guilt-inducing is that the moment you choose to pull the lever, you've actively taken on the original sin of killing. Whereas if you do nothing and just let the trolley run its course, you somehow escape most of the moral punishment for that 'inaction'..."

Listening to that rather cold, pragmatic take—

—Suzune Horikita picked up the thread to explain.

"Because pulling the switch means you're actively causing a death. If you don't act, at most you're just allowing a tragedy to happen."

"Even if that sounds pretty utilitarian and hollow when you put it that way."

Suzune Horikita glanced around at everyone. "But when we do have a choice, there's no need to saddle ourselves with the stigma of killing our own kind."

Nanase Tsubasa nodded along.

If she'd truly been sent into the Jujutsu world to fight through the Culling Game, she probably would have gritted her teeth and struck down the truly vicious cursed sorcerers, all to clear the game and save more lives.

But just as Suzune Horikita had said—

—since there was now a second option that didn't require killing anyone at all, why insist on tiptoeing through a minefield that interrogated human nature itself?

On this point, most of the people present found themselves leaning, without any prior discussion, toward the new Backrooms test to scope things out.

Only a small handful, desperate enough for points, wanted to give the Culling Game a shot — but with the tide so clearly against them, none dared voice any objection.

Seeing this, Katsuragi Kohei, who'd stayed quiet on the sidelines all this time—

—decided, in the interest of playing it safe, to test the waters with the Black Sphere.

"Gantz, since there are two options — could we possibly split up?"

"Some of us go into the Culling Game, and the rest go into the Backrooms?"

The Black Sphere refused, flat and clean:

[No. You must pick one.]

Seeing that—

—Katsuragi Kohei stopped hesitating and made the call right there.

"In that case, let's go with that extra test you just added. The Backrooms."

The Black Sphere's surface flickered once, as if running a final confirmation.

[Everyone's settled on this? No more changes?]

Seeing that no one spoke up to object, seemingly accepting the choice by default—

—the Black Sphere's screen slowly typed out its final lines:

[Good luck.]

[But I'll say this much — in a way, your willingness to give up the easy shortcut this time and face an unknown abyss head-on has actually earned you a bit of my respect.]

[Whether this choice turns out to be a blessing or a curse, though...]

[Whether you'll come to regret it — now that, I'm looking forward to.]

Meanwhile.

Just as this group of test participants made their decision and were enveloped in the Black Sphere's transport beam, beginning their transfer into the Backrooms—

—far outside their own world—

—in that endlessly stretching, eerie space drifting through the cracks between dimensions—

Morishita Ai, who had just received the 'revival mission' issued by Chris—

—along with Chika Fujiwara and Asahina Nazuna, two Intruders unfortunately swept up as part of this exam ground.

The three girls, each wrapped in a flash of blue light, were abruptly teleported into different floors of the Backrooms.

Among the three—

—Morishita Ai, as a 'Revival Round competitor,' was deliberately dropped by the Black Sphere onto a special buffer floor originally connected to the No Game No Life world.

Not a bad start, all things considered.

As for Asahina Nazuna and Chika Fujiwara—

—they were tossed at random onto an ordinary survival floor, not one of the safe rooms.

In a sealed room surrounded by eerie, yellowed wallpaper and thick with a pungent, musty smell—

—the two of them first fell into varying degrees of shock and quiet thought, then both, without any prior arrangement, started trying to confirm this wasn't just some nightmare.

Pinching their own cheeks, for instance, using the pain to check for themselves...

In the end, the sharp jolt of pain confirmed it — they really had been chosen as Intruders.

Of course, in truth, only Chika Fujiwara was foolish enough to actually go through with that particular test.

Asahina Nazuna, after all, was Miyabi Nagumo's childhood friend, and the two of them were even classmates.

Even though Miyabi Nagumo's romantic inclinations had, for various reasons, apparently shifted, his head now full of nothing but Horikita Manabu—

—he wasn't so heartless as to skimp on something like a cultivation seed when his own childhood friend's life and safety were at stake.

So Asahina Nazuna, though far from a master of either, had at least crammed some last-minute practice in the Naruto world's basic Three Body Techniques and the Jujutsu world's cursed energy reinforcement before the exam.

With these supernatural abilities as a safety net, she felt shaken but not scattered in the face of the unknown.

Her first instinct was to go on alert.

Chika Fujiwara, on the other hand...

As someone dropped straight into Advanced Nurturing without ever having taken the entrance exam, Ichinose Honami had, mindful of her unusual status—

—planned to foot the bill herself and unlock some kind of cultivation path for Chika, as a precaution.

But whether buying the Chakra Seed or the Cursed Energy Seed—

—without using S Points, and relying purely on item points, either one would cost a staggering sum equivalent to 50 S Points.

Chika Fujiwara was a brand-new arrival, dropped in as an Intruder by pure accident just today — naturally, she didn't have a single S Point to her name.

If she accepted the offer, it would mean owing an enormous debt of gratitude.

Besides, Chika felt it would be deeply unfair to Ichinose's other classmates, who'd been waiting patiently for so long, if something this valuable were spent so casually on a newcomer like her.

She also didn't think her own intelligence and self-discipline were up to mastering some superhuman power that only existed in anime...

And so—

—Chika Fujiwara thumped her chest and, with the reasoning of 'I've always had ridiculously good luck, I'll turn any disaster into a blessing,' politely turned down Ichinose Honami's offer with a smile.

Although...

...whenever she'd played tabletop games that ran on pure random luck in the past, her luck had never actually been all that good.

And this time, unsurprisingly, the system had picked her out of the whole student body to become one of the Intruders in this test.

Still, to be on the safe side, Ichinose Honami had insisted on shoving a [Stone Mask] and a Black Sphere Sword into her hands beforehand.

Otherwise, sending a completely unprepared, ordinary girl like Chika Fujiwara alone into a place like the Backrooms—

—would have been little different from sending her straight to her death.

Privately grateful and genuinely admiring of Ichinose Honami's foresight—

—Chika Fujiwara turned her head, casting a terrified glance around the seemingly endless yellow room.

She swallowed hard.

With trembling hands, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the two all-purpose capsules holding the Stone Mask and the Black Sphere Sword.

This thing...

I think you just crush it and it activates right away?

Chika Fujiwara squeezed hard and crushed the capsules.

With a flash of white light, the two items dropped into her hands.

She took a deep breath and started muttering to herself, psyching herself up:

"Chika, don't be scared! You're the secretary of the Shuchiin Academy student council! You've seen way worse storms than this!"

At that moment, she found herself tucked into a corner of a floor not far from the Peanut.

Around her, unsettling yellowed wallpaper stretched in every direction; underfoot, a damp, grayish-yellow carpet squelched faintly; overhead, a long fluorescent tube kept up a low, grating hum...

This classic horror-game opening scenario was, for a ghost-fearing high school girl like her, absolutely terrifying—

Scary enough to actually kill someone!!!

Still, in a fully sealed basement room like this — one without so much as a window — there's no way any natural sunlight could ever get in directly, right?

Which means...

Chika Fujiwara looked down at the mask in her hand, and her eyes suddenly lit up.

If I turn into a vampire right now, I won't have to worry about dying from sunlight at all?!

The thought sent a wave of long-suppressed excitement surging up inside her.

In truth, even though she'd turned down Ichinose's offer to help her awaken a cultivation path—

—she'd still been going to the Hyperbolic Hyperbolic Time Chamber to watch live combat, and had seen with her own eyes just how powerful the items in Ichinose's and Chris's hands really were!

A Stand that could pause time, a blade that could cleave through space, a Soul Gem that could transform someone into a magical girl...

As a secret, severe case of chuunibyou back at Shuchiin Academy, she'd been drooling over the chance to use flashy powers like these for ages!

If she hadn't worried that showing too much excitement in front of Ichinose and the others would make her look like some sheltered, loudmouthed country bumpkin—

—she'd have been jumping up and down, screaming with excitement long ago!

But this turn of events had actually worked out for the best, in a twisted way.

Precisely because she'd held herself back back then, now that she was alone in this eerie place, she could actually put the Stone Mask Ichinose had left in her hands to use.

No guilt attached — she could indulge her deeply buried chuunibyou fantasies without a shred of shame!

Now that I think about it... to use the Stone Mask, don't I need to smear blood over the groove on it, to trigger the bone spike that pierces into the brain?

But where am I supposed to find blood right now?

Chika Fujiwara looked down at the Black Sphere Sword in one hand — sharp enough to slice through steel like tofu — then at the Stone Mask in the other.

A flicker of hesitation crossed her mind.

Should I really steel myself and slice open my own soft, pale arm with this blade to draw a bit of blood, just to make the transformation look perfectly cool?

But then, the thought of just how sharp the blade was — capable of cutting through steel like tofu—

—made Chika Fujiwara think it over for a moment, then decisively give up on the idea.

If she lost control of her grip even slightly and accidentally sliced her own hand clean off... that would be a lot more than just a blood-loss problem.

It would turn her straight into the funniest news story of the year — the undisputed top comedian of this whole horror game!

So...

Time for a workaround!

Chika Fujiwara stuck out her small pink tongue and gave the tip of her pale index finger a firm lick.

Then she quickly smeared her saliva-coated finger across the groove of the Stone Mask's trigger mechanism.

Once she'd confirmed the 'DNA medium' was evenly spread, she took a deep breath and yanked the mask onto her face—

"Crack—!"

She crushed the vampire capsule in her hand at the same instant.

A wave of cold, violent power surged from her palm through every limb, and Chika Fujiwara shuddered violently from head to toe.

Her eyes snapped open — the once-clear irises had turned a blazing crimson.

Tilting her head back toward the flickering fluorescent light overhead, she screamed at full chuunibyou power:

"Hayasaka! Kaguya...!"

"I'm giving up being human!!!"

That intoxicating, swelling sense that she could take down the entire world with a single gesture was almost too delicious!

She was going to take down the whole world, dang it!

Unfortunately, her cool pose didn't even last three seconds.

Right as the vampire bloodline finished fully merging with her, and her hearing, smell, and other senses shot up several times over—

—Chika Fujiwara suddenly heard something, deep in the corridor behind her.

"Skrrch... skrrch..."

It sounded like something heavy, dragging and scraping rapidly across the damp carpet, drawing steadily closer.

And what sent an even colder chill down her spine—

—was that, using her newly sharpened vampire sense of smell, she couldn't catch even the faintest trace of 'human scent' coming from that direction!

Which meant that whatever was approaching her had to be some unknown, horrifying monster!

Oh crap, mom! I'm scared to death!

Every hair on Chika Fujiwara's body stood on end, and her once-overflowing chuunibyou bravado shattered instantly.

Almost on pure instinct, she didn't even dare look back — she spun around and bolted in the opposite direction.

She ran flat-out toward the one spot where she could faintly catch a trace of 'human scent.'

She had absolutely no idea—

—that the direction she was now sprinting toward—

—was exactly where the SCP sat, the one that could snap the neck of anyone who so much as looked away.

____

⚡ BONUS CHAPTER MILESTONES

🔥 New history: Re:Zero: Starting with a Confession to Pandora — posted on The_Mikudayo