Chapter 350: The Chat Group Assembles
A few minutes earlier, Ryū had already pinged the entire chat group and given them a quick rundown of the situation in the Naruto world.
He had a feeling handling this alone might be a stretch — there was no telling how many Void Beasts they were dealing with.
A hundred or two would be manageable. Any more than that got uncomfortable — a thousand or two thousand, say, and even he wouldn't be able to hold the line.
And Ryū himself still didn't know any mirror-space magic — fighting the Void Beasts head-on risked collapsing the entire shinobi world.
Possibly even blowing the whole planet apart, which was exactly why he needed the Ancient One's help.
Her mirror-space could carve out a whole new battlefield — they could tear the place apart inside it without the outside world feeling a thing, short of the space itself getting shattered.
His actual house might already be rubble by now, sure, but the land underneath it was still something his parents in this life had left him. If he couldn't save the house, at least he could save the plot it sat on.
No telling how many people Konoha would lose this time around. The reason Ryū hadn't jumped in immediately was simple — he wanted to give the village's civilians a chance to get out first.
That didn't mean he planned to hold off forever, though. The first Void Beast had already exposed four-fifths of its body — the moment the last fifth broke free and it fully surfaced, that would be his cue.
Anyone who hadn't made it out by then would just have to chalk it up to bad luck.
RawrSoFierce: "Tallying up who's crossing over — Kaguya Shinomiya, Yukari, Whitebeard, Kizaru, Sengoku, Tatsumaki, the Ancient One, Dragon Tohru, Doggy Thor, Master Roshi... ten people total."
RawrSoFierce: "Come to think of it, Master Roshi, don't you need to look after little Piccolo Jr.?"
Master Roshi: "It's fine, Mr. Admin. I just had Korin watch him for a while."
RawrSoFierce: "...A cat sage raising a Namekian. Sure, why not."
Eternally Seventeen: "Admin-sama, hurry up and open my crossing permission already — my Points are running low as it is, and my wallet's positively starving!!"
I'm Rolling In It: "Admin says these Void Beasts are a whole tier stronger than last time. Uncle Tony's thought it over and decided to sit this one out for now."
I'm Rolling In It: "The latest armor model I've been developing with Wolffy is still in testing, after all — no telling what flaws might still be lurking in it."
Crazy Diamond: "Only ever been on one group quest myself, and even that was just freeloading Points as a bottom-tier member. Shedding a tear of envy over here."
Street-Corner Illustrator: "Same, bottom-tier member checking in. The envy's giving me a full osmotic crisis. The envy's factoring me apart at the seams."
Wandering Little Planet: "...I've been on exactly zero group quests. I have nothing to say right now."
Wandering Little Planet: "Been studying magic lately, actually. The Ancient One said magic can manifest spirit into physical form — if I could manifest my own mental energy, maybe I could cross over as a soul?"
My True Form Is Cola: "H-hold on, hold on. Little Sphere, you're a planet — are you sure you're even set up to have a soul?"
Wandering Little Planet: "Hmm, well, both the Ancient One and Yukari-senpai say I do. They wouldn't lie to cute little me, would they? Sniffle..."
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: "A whole planet talking like that — quite the mental image. This sovereign finds it deeply dissonant."
Wandering Little Planet: "It's way more dissonant when the First Emperor of Qin drops internet slang every other sentence!"
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: "Is that so? Ahem... this sovereign has just remembered pressing matters elsewhere. Going dark."
RawrSoFierce: "Alright, headcount's settled — opening crossing permissions now."
"..."
Ryū covered the travel costs for every member crossing over this time, all on his own dime — they were coming to help him out, after all, so it only seemed right to foot the bill.
On top of travel costs, he threw in a little thank-you money too — meaning of the ten members crossing over, everyone except Yukari, who only got the 1,000-Point travel fee, got an extra 1,000 Points as a token of thanks. As for why Yukari specifically got skipped?
Just like Kaguya had said in the chat — handing Yukari an extra 1,000 Points was really just moving money from one of his own pockets to the other.
Given how pointless the whole exercise would be, why bother? The entire youkai sage belonged to him anyway.
But Ryū froze for a beat almost immediately after, because Kaguya had just sent her 1,000-Point thank-you bonus straight back to him in a private red envelope, along with a few DMs.
Kaguya-sama: "Hey... Admin-sama, you really don't need to be this formal about it. We're all chat group members, aren't we? Helping each other out is just what we do. A thank-you fee feels way too distant."
Kaguya-sama: "Besides, whenever you've helped us out, you've never once kept the thank-you money we sent you privately. You always sent it right back."
Kaguya-sama: "Hehe... so this 1,000-Point thank-you fee, you really don't need it (^ω^)"
RawrSoFierce: "Ah, I see. Fair enough — guess I was being a little too formal about it after all."
Kaguya-sama: "Well then, Admin-sama, I'm heading over! First time visiting your world, actually — so far only Yukari-nee's ever been. I want to be the second one there."
Kaguya-sama: "That's it, then — bye!"
"..."
Ryū blinked for a second, letting out a small, helpless laugh — and then watched as the rest of the group members sent their own 1,000-Point thank-you bonuses right back to him too.
Meaning, in the end, Ryū had only spent 10,000 Points total — just the plain travel fee — for all ten members crossing over.
Come to think of it, plenty of members had sent him thank-you red envelopes before too, back when he'd gone to help out in their own worlds — and every time, he'd sent the money right back, never kept a cent.
And now, all of a sudden, the roles had reversed?
Kind of poetic, in a small way.
Just a minor aside, really, in the grand scheme of things. Not having to spend that extra 10,000 Points, though...
If he were being honest, not the most flattering thing to admit, but even with the surprise of it, there was a small, undeniable satisfaction underneath. Ahem.
Shaking off the scattered thoughts, just as Ryū was about to say something more in the group, a figure abruptly appeared right in front of him, catching him off guard.
A black-haired girl stood there, poised and lovely, a faint smile on her delicate face.
A voice, crisp and pleasant, rang out from her. "Long time no see, Admin-sama."
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you