The sea breeze swept across the beach, carrying with it the lingering iron tang of blood.
Chris opened the radar on his controller and studied the three-dimensional holographic map projected above it.
Across the island's topography, the red and green dots that had previously been scattered at random were now, without any prior coordination, converging on a single point.
"Huu..."
Tachibana Akane had just splashed seawater on her face, and was now dabbing away the dry, crusty salt on her cheeks with a handkerchief.
Following Chris's gaze, she looked up — past the translucent holographic map floating in the air — toward the night sky, where a massive supply crate dangled beneath a parachute, its silhouette slowly descending in a blaze of light.
"That airdrop..." Tachibana murmured softly, "...is designed to draw everyone on the island toward it, isn't it."
Amikura Mako, standing nearby, gave a small nod and picked up where she left off:
"It's not just the point-hunters, either. Even a lot of the students who were just trying to lay low — once they got their hands on basic Black Sphere weapons, they started consciously sidestepping the monsters along the way and making a beeline for the drop zone."
Chris made a sound of acknowledgment.
"At first, those capsules weren't exactly easy to find. But once you get your hands on that first piece of Black Sphere equipment, you can use its built-in radar to start navigating around monsters and link up with teammates..."
"Right. It's also because the sheer number of monsters they deployed this time is overwhelming — high-value and low-value targets all mixed together — so nobody can tell what they're walking into. Otherwise, people would've gone on the offensive a lot sooner."
As he spoke, Chris tapped the screen lightly, pulling up the data on several of the red dots closest to the drop zone.
[Evil Spirit: 2 Points]
[Pure Titan: 3 Points]
[Demon: 5 Points]
At the sight of those numbers, Amikura Mako furrowed her brow slightly, a puzzled look crossing her face.
"Strange... why does it feel like all the monsters showing up so far have pretty low point values?"
Chris saw through it without saying so directly.
"Probably because the real high-value targets haven't been fully deployed yet."
"After all, with nothing but the basic weapons everyone's cracking out of capsules right now — if they walked straight into a high-value BOSS, they'd just be serving themselves up on a platter. The Black Sphere has a twisted sense of humor, sure, but even it wouldn't just wipe the board clean on the opening move."
That was what "gradual escalation" looked like in practice.
Right at that moment, the soft crunch of hurried footsteps approached.
Karuizawa Kei and Shiina Hiyori came rushing over together, arms loaded with Omni-Capsules they'd gathered along the shoreline.
Drawing closer, Karuizawa glanced at the radar display on Chris's controller, her eyes flickering with thought.
"Looks like the airdrop's about to land... We're pretty far from the center point on our end, but most of the monsters on the island have already been lured toward that big crate."
She swallowed, then steeled herself and spoke up. "Maybe we can use this chance to head inland and hunt down the stragglers?"
Amikura Mako chimed in from beside her, nodding in agreement:
"We really do need to get moving. And it's not just about racking up points — the Black Sphere said the safe zone will start shrinking. No matter how you look at it, we need to push inland while we still can."
Shiina Hiyori didn't rush to voice her opinion.
She carefully set down the Omni-Capsules she'd been cradling onto the sand, and said quietly:
"The capsules we picked up this time should be enough to gear everyone up..."
"It's just... we searched the whole beach and still haven't found a single capsule with a [Combat Suit] inside. Does that mean Combat Suits are actually really rare?"
Chris crouched down, picked up a capsule from the sand almost absent-mindedly, and turned it between his fingers.
"Makes sense."
"We haven't rolled a single [Reinforced Rifle], and those are already worth 10 S-Points. Combat Suits go for the same price — of course they're going to be just as scarce."
"Alright, set that aside for now. Let's distribute the gear first."
As he said it, Chris lifted his gaze toward Tachibana Akane, who was still standing a little stiffly to one side.
"I'm not sure if you've been caught up in a Black Sphere exam before, senpai. Let me give you a quick rundown of the basic equipment."
"The Y-GUN fires laser rope to restrain monsters — though against high-value targets, there's a chance they can break free. The X-GUN deals internal burst damage, but the downside is it only has a nine-meter range and needs a three-second charge. The Gantz Sword..."
"I know all of that. The Student Council President already briefed me."
Tachibana cut off Chris's explanation — though she still fidgeted a little self-consciously with the hem of her uniform.
"But... this really is my first time personally participating in a Black Sphere exam. My hands-on combat experience is exactly zero."
Chris understood at once.
"In that case, senpai — go with the Y-GUN."
"No charge delay, high margin for error. If things go wrong and you can't win the fight, you can at least teleport the monster away immediately. Whether you're supporting the team or just defending yourself, it suits you a lot better than the X-GUN."
With that settled, the group got to work.
One after another, bursts of white smoke erupted across the sand as capsules were smashed open, their contents materializing into solid equipment.
Just then, Chris stared at something that had appeared on the ground — and let out a surprised sound.
"Huh?"
"We actually rolled a Reinforced Rifle?"
Chris bent down and picked it up, then swept his gaze around the group of girls.
"Anyone here consider themselves a decent shot?"
The girls exchanged glances. For a moment, not one of them dared to claim it.
And understandably so. This wasn't a carnival game — this was live combat, kill-or-be-killed. If someone's poor aim got the team killed, that wasn't a burden anyone wanted to carry.
In the end, it was the quietly perceptive Shiina Hiyori who offered a suggestion:
"The Reinforced Rifle has long range and serious stopping power — it's perfectly suited for a sniper support role at the rear."
"But the moment you fire, you risk giving away your position and drawing monster aggro. If you're operating solo or get cornered at close range, you're in serious trouble. So..."
She looked over at Karuizawa Kei. "The rifle should go to someone who has a Combat Suit for protection. The margin for error is higher, and even if you're spotted, the suit's mobility lets you relocate fast."
At those words, Chris turned his attention to the only two people present who were wearing the black Combat Suits.
Before he could even open his mouth to ask —
Karuizawa Kei, as though she'd already made up her mind about something, met Chris's gaze head-on and stepped forward.
"I'll do it!"
She bit her lip and drew a deep breath.
"I took Matsushita's advice — I've been staying after school these past few days to practice marksmanship specifically!"
"I'm not going to claim I'm a dead shot, but with a Reinforced Rifle that has built-in aim assist... I should be fine."
Karuizawa glanced at the controller in Chris's hand.
"Chris is going to use the controller to stay hidden in the shadows anyway. So — leave this to me!"
She'd already decided she was going to cling to this lifeline with everything she had. If she kept presenting herself as dead weight — someone who only took and never contributed — sooner or later she'd be left behind.
She had to prove her worth.
Seeing this, Shiina Hiyori smiled faintly.
"Then I'll move together with Tachibana-senpai and Amikura-san."
"We'll stay visible and draw the monsters' attention — acting as bait, while also setting up the environment for your ambushes."
And so time pressed forward.
The airdrop crate came crashing down with a thunderous impact into a forest clearing on the island.
The blinding golden flash and the shockwave that rolled through the ground drew the eyes of every living thing on the island.
The mindless Evil Spirits and the instinct-driven Pure Titans were the first to react — roaring as they converged on the drop point.
In their own respective worlds, neither species had ever encountered the other. Naturally, neither registered the other as harmless.
So when they came face to face —
A clash was inevitable.
Pure Titans threw open their massive jaws, snapping at the Evil Spirits; while the Evil Spirits slashed back with razor claws, tearing frenzied chunks of flesh from the Titans.
Neither side could deal much real damage to the other.
But the commotion was more than enough to catch the attention of far more dangerous presences nearby.
The Parasytes — beings of limited but volatile intelligence — and the flesh-devouring Demons from Demon Slayer, creatures bound to the night.
Both species, after all, depended on hunting humans to survive.
Suddenly finding themselves on a strange island, in a radically alien environment — something about it all felt deeply, disturbingly wrong.
But all those nagging doubts were shoved aside the moment they laid eyes on the Pure Titans — massive, lumbering walking meat-lockers radiating a thick, intoxicating reek of flesh and blood.
Who cares what they are — I'm eating.
Several Parasytes struck first. Their heads split open into blade-tipped tentacles and sliced clean through the napes of the Pure Titans' necks with practiced ease.
The Demons, similarly, zeroed in on the nearest Titans and began tearing in.
On the outskirts of this chaotic, multi-faction slaughter —
The various student factions, armed with their Black Sphere equipment, had all halted in the treeline at almost exactly the same moment.
"Tch. That number... that's way too many."
Ryuuen Kakeru was crouched atop a thick fallen log, staring at the Reinforced Rifle's radar screen, where the red dots were packed so tightly together they almost formed a solid mass. He clicked his tongue.
"No wonder everyone's hanging back. At this density, not a single person is going to step within half a mile of that crate right now."
On another thick branch not far from him —
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka crouched in silence.
He glanced down at his right hand, where his Parasyte had taken over and was now frantically absorbing human knowledge through a phone screen.
"It can sense the locations of the other Parasytes."
"But they all seem to have been drawn to that point. For now, none of them are showing any intention of spreading toward the perimeter."
Listening to the two of them, Katsuragi Kohei spoke up from the ground below, his voice measured and low.
"Looks like it."
"We'll have to clear the perimeter using the Reinforced Rifle first. Once the numbers are thinned out enough, then we move in to mop up whatever's left."
"Heh heh... Katsuragi-boy."
"It's not every day you get a dedicated arena where all the monsters are herded together for you to farm — this is actually great news for us!"
Koenji Rokusuke stroked his chin with one finger.
"The only unfortunate part is that we only have two Reinforced Rifles between us. Clearing this efficiently is going to take a little time."
Ryuuen gave neither agreement nor objection — he simply launched himself upward, and in a few fluid movements, scaled the ancient tree all the way to its crown.
He raised the Reinforced Rifle and locked the scope on the battlefield below.
"Enough talk. Ayanokoji — from here on out... watch how it's done."
Ayanokoji gave a slight nod, then turned his head to call down to Hirata Yousuke below.
"Hirata — the Reinforced Rifle doesn't make a sound when it fires, but the monsters going down aren't going to be quiet about it."
"There's a real chance some other group that didn't get a good position, or doesn't have ranged weapons, will try to use the chaos to creep in and scavenge kills — or worse, funnel the monsters in our direction. Stay alert."
"Understood."
Hirata Yousuke's expression sharpened.
He looked at Ayanokoji's right hand — now fully transformed into a Parasyte — and something complicated flickered deep in his eyes. But in the end, he said nothing.
Ayanokoji paid no attention to Hirata's gaze. Using the Parasyte's tendrils, he effortlessly located a suitable sniper position.
At the same time —
At several other elevated vantage points around the perimeter —
Sakayanagi Arisu, Ichinose Honami, and others who had likewise equipped Reinforced Rifles had, with quiet mutual understanding, all settled on the same strategy: stay hidden, play to their strengths, and pick off targets from range.
Bang—!
The trigger was squeezed. An invisible gravity wave crossed a hundred meters in an instant.
A Parasyte that had opened its blade-tentacles wide, poised to bore into a Pure Titan's skull — had its own head explode without warning.
Sakayanagi Arisu lowered her rifle and glanced at the kill notification on her wristband — only to find that no points had been added to her total.
Her elegant brows drew together slightly.
"So it wasn't my kill..." she murmured.
"It seems I'm not the only one who had the same idea."
Well, naturally. They were all Black Sphere exam veterans at this point.
Sakayanagi knew full well that Parasytes, when cornered with no escape, had a chance of merging with members of their own kind.
If they were allowed to fuse and compensate for their lack of speed, the difficulty would spike exponentially.
Through her scope, Sakayanagi could see it clearly.
In the center of the battlefield, it looked like a few of the Parasytes had already noticed the sheer size advantage of the Titans' bodies — and were attempting to abandon their current hosts, trying to parasitize and commandeer the Titans to make up for their own poor mobility.
"Oh, that simply won't do. Dame yo~"
Sakayanagi eliminated the target, then shifted her muzzle to lock onto the next Parasyte.
"Though..."
In the gap between aiming, her eyes swept over the battlefield.
"Those monsters in ancient clothing are also worth keeping a close eye on..."
"But we didn't run into any of them during our search of the island during the day. Could they be special monsters that only appear at night? Demons that fear sunlight?"
"They don't seem to be displaying any notable special abilities at the moment. Are they the weaker members of their species...?"
Sakayanagi analyzed as she went, her hands never breaking rhythm.
The same logic applied elsewhere.
Ryuuen Kakeru and Ichinose Honami, concealed in their own respective positions, had each reached the same conclusion at almost exactly the same moment.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Before long, as a coordinated web of fire was quietly woven into place from all sides —
Even the Parasytes and Demons that caught on and tried to cut their losses — abandoning their current prey and attempting to break through toward the perimeter — were mostly cut down before they could clear the encirclement, harvested without mercy by the students lying in wait.
Of course, the occasional stray low-level monster, drawn in by the scent of blood, did wander toward the outer ring.
But at this early stage, without any high-value BOSS monsters to lead the charge, a few scattered stragglers stood no real chance of doing serious damage to teams that had solid guard rotations and fire support in place.
Under this ruthlessly one-sided encirclement —
The Parasytes, the most dangerous threats surrounding the airdrop crate, were swiftly wiped out.
The low-intelligence Evil Spirits and Pure Titans nearby fared little better — most of them were accidentally killed off in the Parasytes' final indiscriminate death throes.
Just as it seemed only a handful of lower-ranked Demons and Evil Spirits remained, clinging to survival, on the verge of being finished off —
Clunk —
As if some preset trigger condition had finally been met —
The massive airdrop supply crate standing in the center of the battlefield began to move. The panels on all four sides slowly unfolded outward like a blooming flower.
"The airdrop's opening?!"
Every person in hiding felt their breath catch.
But what was revealed to them was not weapons. Not supplies.
It was a... human-shaped stone statue, swathed in thick plaster.
"What the hell is that?" Ryuuen Kakeru felt a spike of unease the instant he saw it.
A second later —
Crack... crack...
The surface of the statue began to fracture, spiderwebbing in all directions.
Huge chunks of stone skin peeled away, and the true form sealed within was slowly revealed.
It was a man — dressed in an opulent haori robe, wearing an extravagant, oversized ceremonial crown. His face was hauntingly beautiful, but his complexion was a sickly, unnatural white.
Most striking of all were his rainbow-colored eyes.
Carved unmistakably into his pupils were the characters: [Upper Rank] and [Two].
The moment he awakened, Douma gave a small, delicate wrinkle of his nose.
He drew a long, deep breath, and an expression of pure bliss spread across his face.
"Ohh my, oh my..."
"Everything smells so wonderfully delicious. What a delightful place to wake up."
He unfurled the folding fans in his hands and gave them a few languid waves, casting his gaze around at the handful of lower-ranked Demons nearby, all of whom were trembling visibly.
Douma smiled pleasantly and asked:
"Now then, you adorable little things —"
"Would one of you be so kind as to explain to me... just what exactly is going on here?"
The moment the lower-ranked Demons realized that the legendary [Upper Rank Two] had actually appeared in person —
The ones who had been about to scatter and flee in the chaos immediately found their anchor. They rushed to prostrate themselves before Douma, trembling with terrified reverence.
"G-great Lord!"
"We... we appeared here just as suddenly and inexplicably as you did! Including..."
Bang!
The Demon hadn't even finished its sentence.
Douma's head exploded without any warning whatsoever.
Red and white — brain matter and shards of bone — splattered across the face of the Demon kneeling before him.
At the same instant, the heads of two more Demons kneeling nearby also detonated.
Obviously, the snipers lying in wait on all sides had opened fire in a coordinated volley.
The surviving Demons were horrified.
But shackled by the prestige and the bloodline suppression of the Upper Rank, not a single one of them made a move to flee.
They simply bowed their heads lower, trembling as they forced out the rest of the words they hadn't been able to finish:
"I-including Your Lordship... you appeared suddenly inside that glowing box — and at first... at first you were a stone statue..."
"Oh? A stone statue..."
Accompanied by the sound of bones reshaping and regenerating —
Barely two seconds later —
Douma's shattered skull had knit itself back together beneath a lattice of regrown flesh.
"So it's some kind of spatial Blood Demon Art that forcibly relocated us..."
Douma reopened his folding fan, giving it a calm, gentle wave — as if the head that had just been blown off moments ago hadn't been his own.
"Well then, never mind the details for now."
"Go and clear away those irritating little mice lurking around us first."
"As for what exactly happened — I'll find my answers after I've had a good meal."
The lower-ranked Demons didn't dare breathe a single word of refusal.
They gritted their teeth, howled, and scattered — each bolting toward the nearest scent of human.
And Douma himself —
Elegantly raised his folding fans and gave them a graceful wave.
"Now then — let's start with you, shall we... the little friend who took the first shot at me. I do hope you'll last a while longer."
"Blood Demon Art: Frozen Death!"
In an instant, countless razor-sharp ice crystals burst from the fans and surged forward in a sweeping blizzard — aimed directly at Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's position.
Crack!
Up in the treetops —
Ayanokoji didn't understand why a Demon had come crawling out of an airdrop crate.
But after watching the terrifying regeneration following that first headshot —
He quickly connected the dots with the briefing Horikita Manabu had shared earlier, specifically the section on Demons.
No matter how severe the physical damage, they regenerate almost instantly. And they fear sunlight...
And on top of that — this was clearly a high-value target with special abilities.
Staring down the incoming blizzard of ice crystals tearing through the air toward him —
Ayanokoji was under no illusion that his current Ripple Breathing ability was anywhere near sufficient to go toe-to-toe with something of this caliber and deliver a killing blow.
If an instant kill was off the table —
Then there was only one path forward to eliminate it entirely.
Stall until dawn.
Let the sunlight do what they couldn't.
"Ryuuen!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Ayanokoji flipped backward off the branch. In midair, he shot out his Parasyte's tendrils to hook around a branch of a neighboring tree, swinging through the gap like a pendulum — narrowly clearing the sweeping wall of ice crystals.
As he descended, he issued a calm, clear order:
"Find a way to break its momentum and pin it in place!"
"Keep it anchored until sunrise!"
Ryuuen Kakeru's eyes turned vicious as he called back:
"I know! I'm already lining up the shot!"
Perhaps great minds truly do think alike.
Just as Douma launched his volley of ice crystals — already looking forward to savoring the sight of his prey being frozen in place —
Sakayanagi Arisu, hidden at a vantage point on the opposite flank, had just finished cycling her Reinforced Rifle's cooldown. She squeezed the trigger without hesitation.
Bang!
Douma's freshly regrown head exploded a second time, like a rotting watermelon dropped from height.
"Oh my?"
Even a Demon with the most even temperament imaginable would be caught off guard by being decapitated twice in rapid succession.
The headless Douma froze mid-motion, then reached up with one hand and probed curiously at the place where his skull was supposed to be.
"What a peculiar style of attack... I can't even sense any killing intent. It's as if the bullets materialize from nowhere..."
Before he could finish the thought —
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three more gravity rounds hammered in from different directions simultaneously.
Direct hits to his torso and all four limbs.
Douma's body was scattered across the ground in pieces.
This time, it finally seemed to sink in — he couldn't afford to just stand there posturing like he owned the place anymore.
"My, how terribly rude of you all..."
"Blood Demon Art: Wisteria Lotus!"
"Blood Demon Art: Crystal Shrine Maidens!"
The arm that hadn't been blasted off — still clutching one folding fan — slammed hard against the ground.
In an instant —
A wave of intense cold erupted outward from the severed limb as its epicenter.
Countless ice crystals condensed in midair, taking the form of two exquisitely crafted ice maidens, each holding ice fans, who materialized on either side of Douma's rapidly regenerating body, standing guard over him.
Simultaneously, enormous lotus blossoms of ice burst into bloom in a ring around him, forming a barrier to deflect incoming fire.
The two ice maidens — capable of unleashing Blood Demon Arts equivalent in power to Douma's own — were each blown to ice shards in the next second by Ryuuen and Sakayanagi, one shot each.
But that single moment of obstruction had been enough.
By the time Douma rose back to his feet, the smile had vanished from his face.
"Useless wretches..."
"Can't even manage something this simple."
And indeed — exactly as he'd predicted.
The lower-ranked Demons he'd sent out hadn't even had the chance to launch their assault.
They ran headlong into the laser ropes fired by Y-GUNs that Kamuro Masumi, Amase Kazuna, and the others had pre-aimed and were waiting with — and were bound up and slammed to the ground, utterly immobilized.
Amase Kazuna stepped out from behind a tree.
She looked down at the Demon thrashing wildly on the ground, screaming a torrent of abuse at them.
"Koza, it's yours."
"Got it."
Slice —!
A single clean stroke — and the Demon's head was taken clean off.
But it didn't die the way an ordinary creature would.
It kept cackling furiously:
"Foolish humans! You can't kill me!"
"Once I put myself back together, I'm going to tear you apart — piece by piece — with my own hands..."
"Oh really? I'm absolutely terrified."
Amase Kazuna said it without a trace of expression.
Then she steadied the rhythm of her breathing.
It wasn't fully refined yet — far from it.
But as she let the golden Ripple energy flow slowly across the surface of her palm, and gently pressed her hand to the severed Demon's head — still shrieking and raging —
A miracle happened.
"AAAHHHH — CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT THIS?!"
The Demon that had been howling with such arrogant fury moments before — now, wherever her touch reached, it dissolved at a visible rate, like winter snow meeting warm sunlight.
Amase Kazuna looked up and called out in a loud voice toward Ichinose Honami, who was keeping watch from a branch above.
"Class rep — confirmed effective!"
"Ripple Breathing definitely does damage the Demons... I'm just not very practiced with it yet."
Ichinose Honami responded with calm composure:
"That's alright. As long as we can restrain their movements, that's all we need."
"Once the sun comes up, the sunlight will take care of the rest. Conserve your energy for now — focus your attention on that one."
Before Ichinose could finish —
The Parasyte on Amase Kazuna's left hand suddenly opened its eyes.
"Amase."
"That energy you just used. It's... peculiar."
"Can you teach it to me?"
Amase Kazuna blinked, then answered:
"You want to learn?"
"Check my phone's photo gallery. You can look through it yourself."
As a highly intelligent organism that parasitized a human limb —
The cold, clinical rationality of a Parasyte's nature made it, paradoxically, the ideal constitution for mastering the Ripple.
If a Parasyte were to master Ripple Breathing...
Even Amase Kazuna herself was genuinely curious to see how that would turn out.
Meanwhile —
Sheltered under the cover his ice maidens had bought him, Douma finally had a moment to breathe — and noticed that the lower-ranked Demons he'd dispatched hadn't reported back.
"A bunch of good-for-nothings..."
"Can't handle even the smallest task. No wonder Lord Muzan always tells us Twelve Kizuki to keep a low profile."
Douma muttered his complaints while peering cautiously through the ice lotus petals, taking careful stock of the sniper positions surrounding him, committing their scents to memory.
"Hmm... and yet, none of these people are equipped with Demon Slayers?"
Because if they were —
Given the absurd firepower of those strange weapons, being used as a live target dummy indefinitely like this would be... genuinely unpleasant, even for him.
Douma tilted his head back and looked at the sky — the darkness of night had not yet fully retreated. He clicked his tongue softly.
"Oh well."
"Since dawn is almost here, I suppose we'll call it a night."
"Tonight I'll come back and... play with you all properly."
With that, Douma swept his folding fans open with a flourish.
"Frigid White Princess!"
Five ice maidens materialized around him in an instant.
Under Douma's control, the ice maidens opened their mouths and exhaled a vast, billowing wave of arctic white mist — laced with lethal, toxic ice crystals.
In the treeline, several students who couldn't dodge in time inhaled the mist and immediately doubled over, clawing at their throats, their faces turning a deep, sickly violet.
"Hold your breath! Don't inhale the mist!"
Katsuragi Kohei shouted the warning at full volume, already grabbing the poisoned students and pulling them into a rapid retreat.
And beneath the cover of that wall of freezing fog —
Douma turned away, unhurried.
He hummed a soft, unrecognizable little tune to himself, and walked at a leisurely, elegant pace toward the deep shadow of the forest — the shaded ground where no sunlight could reach.
"Until tonight, everyone... see you then~"
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting in The Long Dark with My Waifus
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