Chapter 261: Entering the Saekano World
RawrSoFierce: Crossing permissions are now open for everyone except Wandering Earth and Sakura. One thought and you're through. Wandering Earth — you're not alone in the group, Sakura's there with you.
RawrSoFierce: Since this quest has no restrictions, coming back is just as simple — one thought and you're home. If you run into mortal danger, don't hesitate. Return immediately.
RawrSoFierce: One thing to remember: once you return to your home world, you're locked out of this quest permanently. That's the only warning. I'm crossing now.
RawrSoFierce: I've arrived in the Saekano (Doujin) world. Currently near the Spiritual Core location.
Eternally Seventeen: Hold on a moment — let me make a few preparations.
Eternally Seventeen: This is obviously going to be a major battle, so I want to bring appropriate equipment. No sense walking in underprepared.
Senbei Is So Tasty: Transmitting the leave request to Commander-in-Chief Kong via Den Den Mushi fax.
Roar of the Evil Dragon: Working on an excuse to give Kobayashi…
Kaguya-sama: Submitting a school absence form. Just need to write and send it — about two minutes.
WolfKingOfQingQingGrasslands: Preparing the mech battalion.
I'm Rolling In It: Same — mech battalion prep, plus one!
RawrSoFierce: Pfft. So I have to stand here waiting for a few minutes? Should've waited before crossing. This place has a strange feeling to it — probably the Spiritual Core's ambient effect.
RawrSoFierce: Ran a sweep with Observation Haki. Roughly a thousand meters underground, there's a concentrated mass of pure energy. That should be the Spiritual Core mentioned in Quest 3.
"…"
Ryū was already in the Saekano doujin world. The quest's automatic placement had put him directly over the Spiritual Core — a thousand meters below where he was standing.
This mass of energy was almost certainly the root cause of the world's spiritual awakening. And the surroundings were thoroughly desolate — wilderness with no military presence, no indication that anyone had secured the area.
Which meant this world's people, including the probable doujin protagonist "Dr. Chen Fan," had no idea the Spiritual Core existed. Perhaps he'd discover it later in his story arc, but not now — if he'd known about it, this place would have been surrounded by army units already. Given what Eriri's news screenshots had shown, the man clearly had military backing from a major power.
Observation Haki open to maximum range… and I'm not picking up any Void Creatures. So they haven't arrived yet. No idea when they're coming. That's a complication.
He stood in the empty wilderness and waited.
Two or three minutes.
Then a second Chat Group member materialized beside him.
Whitebeard.
The enormous man appeared already holding his bisento, and broke into his signature laugh the moment he laid eyes on Ryū. "Gurararara! Admin-sama, long time no see! Fighting side by side again!"
Ryū's mouth twitched. "We last saw each other in person maybe two or three weeks ago. That's 'long time no see'?"
Whitebeard, standing close to seven meters tall, bisento in hand, laughed openly. "Gurararara! Two or three weeks is plenty long!"
While the two of them maintained this riveting exchange, a third figure appeared.
Kaguya Shinomiya brushed a strand of hair back from her ear, then startled slightly at the sight of the towering Whitebeard, and Ryū beside him.
Her expression settled into a light smile. "Admin-sama, Whitebeard-ojii-sama — side by side again!"
Ryū nodded. "Indeed. The enemy this time is a different caliber. Everyone stay sharp — no accidents."
After that, the arrivals came steadily.
Yukari. Tohru the dragon. Thor the Shiba. Josuke. Maidang. Umaru. Eriri. Ying Zheng. Sengoku. Kizaru. Tatsumaki. Wolffy. Tony Stark.
Minus Wandering Earth and Sakura, the Dimensional Chat Group had assembled in full.
Every previous large gathering had been for a social event. This was the first time the group had assembled for a quest.
A shame Sakura was still too far behind in strength to participate, and Wandering Earth's presence would wipe out the population they were here to protect. Otherwise it would have been a complete muster.
Yukari surveyed the surrounding landscape with quiet interest, opened a gap in the air, and settled onto it in her characteristic seated position. "The ambient spiritual energy here is quite active. Below Gensokyo, obviously, but remarkable for an ordinary world. Not bad at all."
She paused briefly, then continued, "If an ordinary person built a house directly above this Spiritual Core — even someone who couldn't cultivate at all — they'd live to a hundred without effort. Two hundred years wouldn't be out of the question, assuming nothing else went wrong."
Kaguya looked surprised. "That remarkable? Eriri, you should buy land here — it would probably cut your cultivation time in half."
Eriri blinked, then smiled ruefully. "This is obviously the kind of land no private sale is permitted on — all state property, probably. Doesn't matter how much money you have. And my father's a diplomat, so the salary isn't bad, but we're not in 'buy a large parcel of sovereign territory' territory."
Yukari shook her head with a smile. "Eriri-chan, don't forget you're a Chat Group member. Demonstrate your abilities a little and I suspect even technically non-purchasable land would find its way to you. Strength is the real currency in any world — it always has been."
Ryū spoke up. "We don't know when the Void Creatures arrive. Best to get into position now. Strong combat members stay here to guard the Spiritual Core. Weaker members spread out to the nearby cities to maintain civilian order. The Void Creatures will come here first — we wait for them."
"Using this location as the center point — there are cities in every direction. Some larger, some smaller, distributed all around. I'll spare you the geography lecture."
"Time isn't on our side. We should deploy now, before the Void Creatures arrive and everything gets chaotic."
"…"
Everyone nodded. Ryū's reasoning was sound. This location was going to become an extremely brutal battlefield — the surrounding cities would almost certainly see spillover. The members without the combat strength to stay and fight needed to reach those cities now, get ahead of the chaos, and be positioned to keep the civilian death toll as low as possible.
Wolffy and Stark's automated mech battalion — a combined total of a thousand units — would distribute alongside the weaker members, providing additional crowd stabilization capacity. Against actual Void Creatures, those standard units were useless. The two machines that could actually contest one — the Hui/Tony-001 units, standing a few meters taller than Whitebeard himself, each carrying a greatsword on its back — were another matter. Whatever black-science auxiliary systems Stark and Wolffy had packed into those things, Ryū couldn't begin to read.
These aren't mechs. These are Gundams.
Umaru nodded. "We'll head to the cities. Admin-sama and the rest of you — stay careful. A thousand Void Creatures is a lot, and there are only eleven of you."
Ryū nodded. "Same applies to us — if something's going to kill us, we leave. Doesn't matter if it costs 1,000 Points to come back and we lose quest eligibility. Points compared to a life — the life wins every time."
The weaker members, along with Wolffy and Stark's automated battalion, dispersed into the surrounding cities.
The air began to change.
Something in the atmosphere went still, then heavy. The temperature seemed to drop. A quiet sense of threat settled in at the edges of awareness.
Ryū raised his head and looked toward a point on the distant horizon.
"It's coming," he said. "Everyone get ready."
☆☆☆
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