Chapter 273: Is the Harem on Fire?
Eriri ultimately abandoned the idea of going silent for a week. She was exhausted — ten days and ten nights of nearly unbroken work maintaining civilian order had left her running on empty — but she was also a professional with a deadline, and the math was what it was.
"Ugh… at my drawing speed I can finish a page in about an hour — ten minutes per image, four to six images per page, one hour per page. But one chapter is twenty-four pages. That's a full day and night without sleep."
"But if I go dark for a week when the manga is this new, readers will write me off as unreliable, and the ratings will fill up with negative comments. Terrible."
"This stupid manga is ruining my life."
She vented for another thirty seconds, then pulled out her draft and got to work, surrounded by cola and chips in the classic shut-in configuration. The speed at which her hand moved would have made any professional colleague's jaw drop.
She was significantly more capable than Dr. Chen Fan, the world's alleged genius, even without having spent any of her 90,000 Points yet — and that capability showed in the artwork. Ten minutes, one fully rendered and colored image. In a manga landscape dominated by black and white, Eriri's insistence on full color made her a genuinely unusual phenomenon.
She drew with one eye on the Chat Group.
Doing only one thing at a time was not a mode she operated in.
Across the Chat Group, ninety thousand Points apiece had produced exactly the kind of energy you'd expect. Every member was present and extremely chatty.
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: This sovereign finds himself somewhat at a loss for how best to allocate the Points without waste. The quantity is substantial, but extravagance is a trap.
My True Form Is Cola: SHOCKING! The First Emperor himself is worried about being wasteful! This is nothing like I imagined him!
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: …I am not the Qin Shi Huang of the historical record. My personality is my own. I am who I am, not someone else.
My True Form Is Cola: That actually makes a lot of sense. The First Emperor is amazing!
Eternally Seventeen: Where did Umaru-chan pick up that particular vocabulary? I believe Admin-sama introduced it into the group, and then everyone started using it — correct?
Eternally Seventeen: Admin-sama is corrupting the minors again. Are you after Umaru? She's very cute, you know.
RawrSoFierce: …Umaru is very cute, yes. Why would I be after her, though?
My True Form Is Cola: Admin-sama doesn't want me, waaah…
Kaguya-sama:delivers a solid punch to the salted-fish-pouting presence above Admin-sama, two salted fish together — I genuinely have no idea who would be taking care of whom.
My True Form Is Cola: Kaguya-senpai, please don't underestimate me. I am… okay, yes, I am a little lazy, but I'm actually very skilled at cooking and housework!
Admiral Kizaru: I'm picking up the distinct scent of a multi-person standoff~
Admiral Kizaru: Oh no… this is what they call a harem fire. Genuinely alarming~
Edward Newgate: Gurararara — a harem fire! The Admin really does have that certain something. Primarily the face — appearances matter more and more these days.
Senbei Is So Tasty: …May I interpret that as flattery directed at the Admin?
I'm Rolling In It: Breaking news! Four Emperor Whitebeard caught complimenting someone! This is a — I forgot my line.
Wandering Little Planet: Pfft…
"…"
Ryū's mouth twitched. Multi-person standoff, harem fire — was it really necessary to exaggerate this much?
He wasn't someone with low emotional intelligence, and he wasn't someone without self-awareness. He had a reasonable sense of who in the Chat Group had some sort of feeling toward him.
Most of it was adolescent admiration, the hazy kind that hadn't quite resolved into anything specific yet. When it actually developed into something definite, that would be the time for the phrase "multi-person standoff" to apply.
The more puzzling question was why he, a person who had been single his entire life, was analyzing social dynamics with the composure of someone who'd been married for decades.
Too many romance dramas, maybe?
No. Definitely not. The only romance drama he'd ever watched was something he'd sat through as a child with his younger sister — some Taiwanese production he only vaguely remembered. Everything else he'd avoided on the grounds of incompatible taste. He preferred stories that either committed to the ensemble or committed to one person, not ones that spent the whole runtime making you attached to a cast of excellent female characters and then resolved everything with one of them in the final episode.
He realized he'd been off-topic for a while.
In reality, he was thinking about his Points.
Life Return, the Six Powers, and Observation Haki — those three still had headroom with no cap. Everything else had hit its ceiling. Without another group event and another chance at a Breakthrough Card, the ceiling categories were staying where they were.
Double Ninth Festival was about half a month away. Whether the Chat Group would treat that as an occasion for an event was anyone's guess — last year's Labor Day had passed without notice.
RawrSoFierce: A standoff, flattery — you're all really overworking your imaginations. Have any of you spent your Points yet? I'm still trying to work out what to do with mine.
Eternally Seventeen: No, still deliberating. I've learned too many things and too many of them are useful — I genuinely can't decide what to prioritize. If only I hadn't picked up quite so many miscellaneous skills.
Eternally Seventeen: Little Kaguya's situation is so much simpler — pure physical-combat focus, just the Six Powers, Life Return, and both Haki types. Fewer choices means fewer headaches.
Roar of the Evil Dragon: I have the same problem — dragon-system magic has so many branches, I have no idea where to start.
I'm Rolling In It: Ahaha! Uncle Tony has no such dilemma. I've already decided — constitution upgrade, all the way.
I'm Rolling In It: Just imagine: someone blows up my armor, and I'm standing there with Armament Haki coating my fists and I hit them and say: "Surprised? The armor was just a limiter."
Crazy Diamond: I get the impression Mr. Stark's motivations aren't entirely pure. He is, after all, famously a man of many conquests.
Crazy Diamond: If his constitution gets to a certain level, would he be thinking about… nocturnal athletic achievements of a triple-digit nature?
Eternally Seventeen: Hss… I don't object to people meeting their biological needs, but triple digits does seem somewhat ambitious?
I'm Rolling In It: Absolutely not! Uncle Tony has reformed! I am a changed man!
RawrSoFierce: I might believe Whitebeard if he said he was done being a pirate. You saying you've reformed — not a chance.
Edward Newgate: Gurararara! Honestly, old Whitebeard has been thinking about retirement. There's no one on the sea who can match me anymore. Kaido came looking for trouble recently and I knocked him out in short order. He still has the psychological scars.
"…"
Leaving psychological scars on Kaido — the man who actively sought death and couldn't find it — implied Whitebeard had beaten him in the most thoroughly humiliating fashion possible. Lopsided domination, not a fight. Anything less and Kaido wouldn't have walked away disturbed.
Ryū spent a moment of silence for Kaido, then pulled his attention out of the Chat Group.
He needed to decide what to do with his Points.
Quest rewards of 132,000, plus what he'd had sitting unused from the Star Hero world mission, plus ten days of sign-in accumulation, plus his 1,000 emergency reserve.
His balance: 141,000 Points.
He laid it out.
Life Return to Perfection: approximately 12,000. Remaining: 129,000.
Observation Haki: 30,000. Six Powers: 30,000. Remaining: 69,000.
Constitution upgrade: 50,000. Remaining: 19,000.
Keep 18,000 in reserve — in case something unexpected came up and he found himself Points-short for it — plus the standing emergency 1,000.
Done.
He wasn't a person who spent a lot of time on indecision. His balance went from 141,000 to 19,000 in the time it took to commit to the decision.
And his strength shifted with it. Dramatically.
If he fought himself from three seconds ago, he would win decisively.
"The Arena is the next stop. Need to get comfortable with the new power levels before anything else — a sudden jump this large and the handling is going to feel different for a while."
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