Liam used the Star Marks to guide the men in pointed hats. The exact moment they crossed the threshold into the mirror space of the lighthouse stadium, his programmed instructions ended. The invisible strings snapped.
Instantly, the large man named Bopobo regained control of his own voice. "Damn it! What did that kid just do to us?!" he roared, his voice booming off the high ceiling.
"Shut up!" Issei beside him was wide-eyed with terror. Without a second thought, he threw a desperate, panicked punch straight into Bopobo's fleshy face.
The heavy blow sent the fat man stumbling backward until his back slammed into the gym wall with a heavy thud. Out on the brightly lit basketball court, the other pirate crew members, who had been lifting weights and running drills, froze. They stared in total confusion. The five men who had just walked in were trembling, their faces slick with cold sweat.
"That hurts, you idiot," Bopobo groaned, sliding down the wall. He was about to retaliate when he noticed the sudden shift in the air. His anger evaporated, replaced by a deep, paralyzing dread.
Razor stood motionless near the center court. He still wore the exact same gentle, squinting expression of a friendly coach, but the atmosphere rolling off his body felt like standing at the edge of an erupting volcano. The air itself seemed to grow heavy and hot.
"You all got hit by an unknown Nen ability, didn't you," Razor said, his tone perfectly level.
Issei turned the color of chalk. "Razor, please, we can explain—"
"There is no need to bother."
Razor raised one hand. Seven spheres of dense, humming aura materialized above his palm, floating like small, violent suns. He leaped into the air. His arms blurred, striking the spheres so fast it looked as though he had suddenly sprouted seven extra limbs. A deafening series of cracks echoed through the gym. The aura projectiles slammed into the heads of the seven newcomers simultaneously. Skulls shattered under the sheer force. A fine mist of crimson and gray matter sprayed across the polished hardwood floor.
A single basketball slipped from someone's grip and bounced against the wood. Thump. Thump. Thump. Then, absolute silence. The remaining pirates hanging from the pull-up bars and standing by the weights did not dare to breathe. They merely stared at the fresh corpses.
These men were all death row inmates, hired to work the island just like Razor. He felt absolutely no hesitation in wiping them out. There was no telling what the activation rules were for the Manipulation ability that had ensnared them, or how to properly disable it. He could not even be sure if Issei begging for his life was actually speaking for himself. It was much safer and far less troublesome to simply eliminate the infected targets.
Razor clapped his hands together, the sharp sound breaking the tension. His eyes crinkled into a warm, inviting smile. "Don't just stand there. You haven't played in today's training match yet, have you?"
Outside the massive lighthouse fortress, the evening sky was bruising into dark purple. The salty sea breeze carried a sudden evening chill.
As they walked away, Bisky caught a fleeting, distant look in Liam's eyes. He seemed entirely disconnected from his surroundings for a few seconds. "What is on your mind?" she asked, studying his profile. "You were watching the real inside of the lighthouse through the people you controlled, weren't you?"
Liam blinked, the distant look fading. He nodded. "That is right."
Bisky offered a small smile. "Is the man you are looking for in there?"
"He is."
"Judging by your expression, you already have an idea of how to get inside."
"Almost. I need to think about it a little more."
Shizuku stepped closer and pressed her hand lightly against Liam's chest. "Are the people who led the way dead?"
Liam felt the familiar, cold rush of death energy drifting toward him. Seven individual points registered in his mind. He let out a quiet sigh. That squinty guy did not mess around. With a mere thought, Liam allocated two of those newly acquired points into his Transmutation affinity, bringing it to ninety-five percent. It was the only category left to max out. The others sat at a perfect one hundred percent and could not absorb any more energy. Seeing the leftover points go to waste always left him feeling vaguely annoyed, like he was throwing away perfectly good money.
Bisky did not seem surprised by the outcome. "It is entirely normal to keep your distance from anyone who doesn't know the exact details of a Manipulation ability. It is even more critical to eliminate anyone who has obviously been compromised by an unknown Manipulator."
Seeing Liam and Shizuku looking at her, Bisky shrugged her small shoulders. "Killing them immediately is the safest way to maintain that distance."
"That makes sense," Liam agreed.
"When I looked inside, I saw that Razor wasn't the only person in the gym. There were several other men dressed in athletic gear," Bisky said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Plus, a modern gymnasium is a very strange venue for a medieval-style island. It gave me a theory."
She held up a finger. "If Razor is the boss of this specific game level, then the trigger to meet him probably relates to the venue itself. For example, challenging him to a sports match. Since it is set up as a basketball court, it might be a basketball game. And if it is a basketball game, the game system has to enforce a player limit. You need at least enough people for a proper five-on-five match. The three of us couldn't cross the threshold earlier, most likely because we simply didn't have enough players."
"We have four," Shizuku interrupted smoothly.
She reached down, unfastened the bizarre moon-white tiger skin skirt from around her waist, and tossed it onto the cobblestone path.
The patterned fabric snapped in the evening air. Before it even hit the ground, the material swelled and shifted, taking the shape of a massive, crescent-white tiger. The dark stripes along its spine seemed to shimmer under the faint moonlight. The enormous beast, easily weighing hundreds of kilograms, landed on the stones with the absolute, terrifying silence of a seasoned predator.
Bisky let out an appreciative whistle. "It truly deserves to be called one of the seven beauties. Those markings are absolutely stunning."
"Make that five," Liam said, looking up toward the darkening sky.
The little Jaku the rock sparrow, which had vanished to hunt somewhere along the coastline, suddenly fluttered down from above. It landed lightly on Liam's shoulder, ruffling its gray feathers in the sea breeze.
"Well, since we have gathered exactly five, why don't we head back and try the door again?" Bisky suggested.
Liam knew that simply having five bodies would not be enough to satisfy the game's logic, but he saw no harm in humoring the attempt. He scooped up the small rock bird, gestured for the massive tiger to follow, and walked back to the heavy iron doors with Shizuku and Bisky.
They pushed the doors open and stepped into the light. The gymnasium remained completely empty. Not a single soul was in sight.
Deep within the mirror space, Razor stood holding a volleyball, watching the strange group return. He stared at the three humans, the giant tiger, and the tiny bird perched on the boy's shoulder. He could not help but chuckle internally. Have they figured out there is a player count requirement? They brought exactly five. They must think we are playing basketball.
As a high-level game administrator, Razor could clearly see the system tags. He knew the tiger and the sparrow were registered as official Greed Island players. He didn't even need to open the backend management console to verify it. Over a month ago, Dwun had been loudly complaining on the administrators' private communication channel about a tiger and a bird bypassing the entrance protocols.
Razor's eyes narrowed slightly. Alain Blanchett's sudden return to the island seemed directly tied to this bizarre little group wandering around playing the game.
Out in the physical world, Bisky sighed. "It still didn't work."
"Maybe it isn't basketball," Shizuku said. "Or maybe five people isn't the right number."
They turned away from the lighthouse fortress once more. Bisky frowned, crossing her arms as they walked back toward town. "Which brings up a good question. How does the game system even calculate how many people we brought to the door?"
"Maybe they arrange for someone to hide in the dark and count us?" Shizuku offered.
Neither of them played video games, so the concepts of digital triggers and programmed parameters were completely foreign to them. They had zero interest in the mechanics of it all.
Liam held out his hand. "Book."
The heavy card collection binder materialized in his grasp with a soft chime. He flipped through the glowing pockets. "There is a spell card called Accompany. It allows a player to fly to a designated destination along with their current companions. If the entire group traveling under the same Accompany spell reaches the required number of players upon landing, it should trigger the game's hidden parameters and open the level."
Bisky nodded slowly, grasping the logic. "I see. Should we give it a try?"
"If that is the case, we need to find more people," Shizuku said, looking around the quiet street. "How many? Ten? Twenty?"
"I only have one Accompany card, which means we only get one shot at this," Liam said, closing the binder. "We have to use it carefully."
"That is easy enough," Bisky said with a confident smirk. She hooked her thumb over her shoulder, pointing back toward the town center. "We can just borrow a few extra people. Aren't there game cards and players all over this town?"
Shizuku nodded in agreement.
"Gathering the people is the easy part," Liam said, slipping his hands into his pockets. "The real issue is the game itself. Even though I don't know exactly what Razor's level test entails, it never hurts to be overly prepared. I think I should take advantage of this downtime to thoroughly improve my Nen beast's abilities first. I want to make sure everything is absolutely flawless so we can crush this boss in a single attempt."
Shizuku nodded, her face as placid as ever.
Bisky kept her expression perfectly neutral, but her mind was racing. He is lying again. But why? Could it be that this kid already knows for a fact that Razor's test is a sports competition? If he knows, why not just say it? What is the point of hiding it from us?
The three of them, trailed by one massive tiger and one tiny bird, left the edge of town and headed out toward the rocky wilderness. They had not walked far when the sound of crunching gravel echoed from the shadows. Several dark, stealthy figures slipped out from behind the weathered boulders, fanning out to block the path ahead.