Listening to the Black Sphere's notification chime.
Ryuuen Kakeru clenched both hands into fists.
Even for someone as cold, domineering, and violently dictatorial as him, it was hard to fully hide his excitement.
"We... actually beat it?"
His Adam's apple bobbed as he forced the words out through clenched teeth.
This was a full two-hundred-point monster, after all!
A day ago, it would've been an existence they wouldn't even have dared to dream of facing.
Sakayanagi Arisu glanced down at her dress-like magical-girl outfit, then shot him a sidelong look—and for once, didn't bother raining on his parade.
Ichinose Honami, too, let out a long breath.
A little drained, she rested a hand on her knee, her face full of the weariness of someone who'd just survived a brush with death.
Honestly, going into this exam, just about every participating student had come prepared with the resolve that they might be wiped from existence at any moment.
It was only because they'd later gotten a clue from the mystery shop on how to deal with the Darkness Devil—and because most of them had been brought under Makima's control, with leaving costing one life as a toll.
It was precisely for this reason that they hadn't let newcomers like Yagami Takuya and Morishita Ai tag along.
Though looking at it now, even if they had come, they'd have been nothing more than cannon fodder.
After all, if Makima hadn't intervened at the start, the whole group would most likely have been wiped out the instant they crossed paths with it.
But now that the Darkness Devil had been dealt with, the group had no choice but to start mulling over another grave matter.
Would there one day come a showdown with Makima?
She was someone in the know, and she'd clearly shown an interest in the Black Sphere.
If, when that time came, they really were chosen as her targets.
Would they still get the chance to "exploit a loophole" the way they had today?
Or, to think even more radically.
Would the presiding god—or the Black Sphere—even keep handing them these "skip-class" opportunities down the line?
This wasn't just one person's worry; everyone who'd been through these life-or-death exams shared the same unspoken understanding now.
Though in truth.
Whether it was the wild point-farming earlier in the "Hunter x Hunter" instance, or the way the exam difficulty had since taken on a "dynamic upward scaling"—claiming it was all Chris's deliberate doing.
But what could you do—if no one came along to trigger the limits, how could the existence of the hidden rules ever be revealed?
With that in mind, Chris fittingly turned to Horikita Suzune behind him—who was watching him with shimmering eyes—and asked:
"Horikita, open the shop for me and take a look—when you revived just now as the mystery merchant, which piece of equipment did it consume?"
He paused, putting on a thoughtful air:
"Earlier, back in the presiding god's space, I caught a glimpse of the goods list in the shop while Chabashira Sae was the mystery merchant. But I didn't see that [String-String Devil Fruit] she mentioned."
"So I'm wondering—could it be that once a mystery merchant dies, the items that get deleted no longer show up in the presiding god's space afterward?"
At his words, Horikita Suzune snapped back to herself.
She gave a light cough, trying to mask the unnatural blush on her face so she wouldn't look quite so smitten.
There was no helping it.
When you thought you were about to die at a devil's hands, fully braced to meet your end.
And then some dashing guy suddenly descended, coolly unleashing a Dimension Slash and standing guard in front of you—any girl would feel her heart skip, wouldn't she?
Let alone Horikita, who'd already harbored special feelings for him to begin with.
Still, Chris was asking about serious business, after all.
So Horikita Suzune quickly composed herself, and while the Black Sphere had yet to signal their departure, she called up her exclusive mystery-merchant shop interface in midair.
Her gaze swept over the product list.
Seeing that one item was clearly missing from it, Horikita Suzune was slightly taken aback and said, surprised:
"The [Super High-School-Level Support Card] is gone!?"
Hearing this, Ichinose Honami pressed her lips together in thought, her expression turning somewhat grave:
"Looks like the presiding god doesn't want us 'skipping class' in this way anymore?"
After all, the only reason they'd won this time was the weakening video, produced by the animator that support card had summoned.
If the card was gone, then the next time they returned to this world, they really would have no choice but to fight it head-on.
Sakayanagi Arisu, however, shook her head with a beaming smile:
"Isn't it possible that this was always meant to be a 'skip-class' method exclusive to this one exam?"
"After all, from the presiding god's omniscient vantage point, how could it not know that, under normal circumstances, our strength against the Darkness Devil would mean certain death?"
"Deliberately leaving us a way out in the shop—I'd say that's more of a warning to us."
"A warning?"
Ichinose murmured, her pretty brows knitting slightly.
Ryuuen Kakeru, though, couldn't be bothered with all this roundabout reasoning—right now his whole prosthetic body ached dully all over.
But having Horikita Suzune patch him up with Crazy Diamond was pointless at this stage.
So he raised his wrist and shouted at his watch:
"GANTZ! You still won't let us leave?!"
"I beat the BOSS already—you expect me to stick around here and be these devils' after-dinner dessert?"
Soon, the Black Sphere's icy notification tone rang out above everyone's heads.
[It is not that you may not leave.]
[Rather, with most of you under the control of the Control Devil 'Makima,' the system grants you, by default, the right to choose to challenge and defeat the Control Devil and thereby break free of her control.]
[Of course, if you do not wish to fight right now, or believe you cannot win and want to leave, you may instead choose to expend one life as a substitute and force a return.]
At this, Ryuuen Kakeru clicked his tongue and sneered coldly:
"Ha? Challenge one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?"
"In the state we're in right now, you think we've got what it takes to challenge a monster on par with an un-weakened Darkness Devil?"
"Don't make me laugh. Hurry it up—dock the life and let us go!"
As he spoke, Ryuuen Kakeru's voice suddenly cut off, as if he'd remembered something fatal, and his face changed:
"Hey! Wait!"
"I've only got my last life left right now, haven't I? If you dock that, will I even still be alive?!"
Seeing this, Chris nearly couldn't keep a straight face and almost burst out laughing.
This Ryuuen Kakeru kid—reckless, sure, genuinely reckless—but boy, was he genuinely scared of dying too.
That said, while Makima's unconditional control was overbearing, it did come with preconditions.
It only took effect on those she looked down on entirely and, deep down, genuinely believed had no power to resist.
But for someone like Ryuuen Kakeru, who'd shown off his abilities on the scene and even managed to deal damage that crippled the Darkness Devil.
Even if it had started with a sneak attack, in Makima's eyes his treatment was at least on roughly the same level as Quanxi's.
She'd have to defeat him by force first before true control could be achieved.
So the Black Sphere's response to this was quite decisive:
[First, as a student who participated in and helped kill Santa Claus, you have already received a bonus life reward.]
[Second, the personnel the Control Devil has not yet successfully brought under control are: Chris, Tachibana Akane, Kamuro Masumi, Nanase Tsubasa, Yotsuya Miko, and Ryuuen Kakeru. You are among them, and therefore need not pay an additional life as a toll.]
Upon hearing this list.
Ichinose Honami and Sakayanagi Arisu exchanged a look, both with somewhat odd expressions:
"So you're saying the two of us... have already been brought under control?"
[YES]
Hearing this, Horikita Suzune asked in puzzlement:
"Then if we choose to deduct a life and return, the next time we're pulled into an exam where she's present, will we be in our initial un-controlled state, or will we still retain the Control Devil's control over us?"
[After deducting an extra life, you will conceptually count as having died once. And death, naturally, frees you from any control held over you in life.]
"In other words, the Control Devil's power doesn't reach the level of the Black Sphere Space's revival mechanism, then."
Sakayanagi Arisu rested her cheek on one hand and summed it up offhandedly, deep in thought.
[Naturally.]
[Very well, the idle chatter ends here.]
[Deduction procedure complete. Commencing transport.]
After a brief moment of dizziness.
Aside from Horikita Suzune, who, as a test administrator, still had to go through the procedures in the Black Sphere Space.
The rest of the group, as official exam participants, were all transported back to the pure-white hall of the presiding god's space.
Looking at the familiar white all around them.
Sakayanagi Arisu, however, didn't immediately pay any mind to the score tally about to begin in midair.
Instead, she naturally raised her hand, opened the shop interface on her watch, and flipped straight to the latest page.
Seeing the interface now visibly down one item compared to before, Sakayanagi Arisu's lips tightened slightly, her tone tinged with regret:
"So the [Enma Blade] is gone, huh..."
"Most people couldn't have afforded it to begin with, but it does feel a bit of a shame to see it go out of print just like that."
Chris nodded along beside her:
"A shame indeed."
"Even just its initial 'imitation' state was already plenty useful—not only could it slice open rifts in space, it could also pull off short-range teleportation."
"I was even wondering—if I spent the points to upgrade it to its original form, whether the 'Half-Devil Bloodline' that comes bundled with it could be further upgraded here under the presiding god."
"Losing a powerful avenue of enhancement really is a loss for us."
Chris shifted gears, his tone lightening a touch:
"Still, the drop rewards we got off this two-hundred-point Darkness Devil BOSS this time shouldn't be bad either."
As he spoke, he flipped his wrist and casually tossed two faintly glowing capsule-shaped objects to Sakayanagi Arisu.
"Take a look with the Illustrated Guide—now these are the real spoils of war."
Sakayanagi Arisu caught the capsules cleanly and was about to scan them when she suddenly realized something.
She looked up at Chris, her expression somewhat subtle:
"If I remember right, this Illustrated Guide was something Horikita bought with her points, wasn't it?"
"And I borrowed it and have been carrying it around without giving it back this whole time."
"Do you think she'll be mad at me if she finds out?"
Chris rolled his eyes, not bothering with this little green-tea vixen's catty little act, and simply turned his head toward the God Sphere up in the air.
Sakayanagi Arisu wasn't offended either; she gave a light laugh and followed his line of sight.
The presiding god had already finished tallying the scores for this exam.
What was different from before, though.
Was that this settlement screen looked clean and crisp, lacking the sharp-tongued commentary that had been the hallmark of the Black Sphere era—just plain, businesslike officialdom.
[Exam over. Returning to the presiding god's space.]
[Base Survival Reward: 3 S-points]
[Tallying this round's kill/contribution rewards]
[1. Ichinose Honami: 233 points (333 total)]
[2. Ryuuen Kakeru: 64 points (67 total)]
[3. Sakayanagi Arisu: 24 points (56 total)]
[4. Yagami Takuya: 19 points (20 total)]
[5. Morishita Ai: 14 points (18 total)]
[6. Yotsuya Miko, Nanase Tsubasa, Chris: 9 points (Chris's total: 235)]
[Class Reward Tally:]
[Class C (Ichinose's class): 4742.4 (originally 2322.4 + 242×1000%, every member receives an additional 2,420,000 spending points)]
[Class A (Chris's class): 3589 (originally 3580 + 18×250%, every member receives an additional 45,000 spending points)]
[Class D (Ryuuen's class): 3137.5 (originally 2515 + 83×750%, every member receives an additional 622,500 spending points)]
[Class B (Sakayanagi's class): 2445 (originally 2255 + 38×500%, every member receives an additional 190,000 spending points)]
[Personal reward points and dropped side-story plot cards have been automatically distributed to each player's personal wristband storage.]
[Next regular exam time: June 15th, opening at 4:00 PM after the preliminary test-trigger conditions are met.]
Looking at the presiding god's display—concise, clear, and utterly devoid of any wisecracking.
For some reason, the group—so used to being mocked—actually had Ichinose Honami, Ryuuen Kakeru, and the others feeling a touch nostalgic for the foul-mouthed Black Sphere's biting sarcasm back in the Black Sphere Space.
At least that had sounded like it carried a bit of "human warmth."
But no matter how nostalgic they got.
The moment they got a clear look at the absurd total score trailing after Chris's name, they all let it go.
What did it mean that they'd worked themselves to the bone, fighting for their lives amid a sky-filling sea of puppets and through Hell itself for ages, just barely managing to kill off a two-hundred-point BOSS that was already down to its last sliver of HP.
And even adding in all the puppets Ichinose had mopped up in the department store, the final score they'd earned still didn't add up to as much as Chris's running total?!
And what's more, this was his total after he'd just spent a whopping 160 S-points buying the Enma Blade right before the exam!
If you really did the math.
Before this exam even began, Chris had already had a staggering 386 S-points on hand!?
"T-Two hundred-something points?"
Yotsuya Miko was so shocked her mouth fell wide open.
Ichinose Honami, meanwhile, looked at the just-over-two-hundred score she'd scraped together through untold hardship, sighed, and said with a wry smile:
"I think I'm starting to understand why our exam this time was so ridiculously difficult..."
Sakayanagi Arisu, too, gave Chris's side a jab with her elbow, her face full of resentment, and said crossly:
"Out with it—confess, honestly!"
"Just what heaven-and-earth-enraging scheme did you pull in that last upperclassmen's exam?!"
"Spit it out, so I can learn a thing or two myself."
Turning his head to find everyone around him wearing looks of disbelief.
Chris spread his hands helplessly and explained:
"It's honestly nothing much."
"Long story short, in the last upperclassmen's exam, their target was hiding inside a massive ant nest. Ants, you all know the type—colony creatures, terrifying in sheer numbers."
"At the time, I happened to spot a micro-nuke worth thirty thousand item points in the presiding god's shop—there, that thing called the [Rose of the Destitute]."
"I bought one. On my way out, I casually dropped it on that Chimera Ant nest. Simple as that."
Chris paused, putting on a regretful expression:
"Though if you really tally it up by the numbers in that Chimera Ant nest, I actually feel like this many points is a little on the low side. Maybe I just dropped it at the wrong moment."
As he spoke, Chris pulled up the product details for the [Rose of the Destitute] in his watch's shop interface and showed them to everyone.
Ryuuen Kakeru, for his part, sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
Grinding his teeth, he jabbed a finger at Chris:
"Damn it! No wonder this exam's difficulty shot straight up to a two-hundred-point Primordial Devil!"
"So it was all your fault, you little bastard?!"
"You wiped the last exam zone clean with a single nuke, so to balance out your point-farming speed, the system just cranked the difficulty to max in the next one, didn't it!"
Chris put on an innocent face:
"I was worried at first too, which is exactly why I didn't dare use any of it—I'd planned to hold it all in reserve as a trump card to play by ear during the exam."
Hearing this, Yagami Takuya stroked his chin in thought and said with a hint of regret:
"A Chimera Ant nest, huh—dense, swarming with enemies, and no real high-tier combat power."
"By the looks of it, that was a stroke of luck you can't plan for—it'll be hard for us to ever replicate."
Sakayanagi Arisu, too, pressed a hand to her forehead helplessly:
"One round of point-farming, and it's already pushed the exam difficulty up to a 200-point Primordial enemy."
"If we farm a few more times, our next exam might just have us flying off into space to wage interstellar war against alien battleships."
Morishita Ai, for her part, shrank her neck in; though she was supposed to be the comic-relief girl, she couldn't manage to lighten up at all right now.
She just timidly chimed in:
"I'm already starting to worry about what kind of monster we'll be up against in the next exam."
"After all, our team now has two members whose total scores top two hundred points!"
Chris thought for a moment, then offered some reassurance:
"Ichinose's score is different from mine. Hers wasn't farmed all at once with an item—it was genuinely fought for and earned by us."
"A normal kill backed by team strength like that should be fine—the system won't go penalizing us over something like that."
Nanase Tsubasa, who'd been silent all this while, also nodded in agreement:
"The key thing now is really to see the final result of that upperclassmen's exam on the other side."
"If the point value of the monster they faced isn't far off from ours, that means our worries about 'dynamic difficulty scaling' were unnecessary, and everyone's just developing at a normal pace."
"But if the monster they ran into was much weaker than ours, then it means it's probably really your fault after all, senpai."
Chris, for his part, had no intention of arguing back:
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it—meet soldiers with generals, floods with earthen dams."
"By the way, Sakayanagi, let's first take a look at what the Darkness Devil dropped for us this time."
"Then once everyone's checked whether the items you redeemed this time can still be upgraded and the like, it'll be about time to leave this place."
"We still need to give the upperclassmen seniors a heads-up, after all!"
Sakayanagi Arisu stopped fixating on the matter of the scores.
She lifted the item Illustrated Guide in her hand and aimed it at the two capsules Chris had just tossed over.
Accompanied by a crisp "beep."
[Darkness Flesh]
[Details: Once consumed, grants the favor and power of the Darkness Devil. In dark environments, the wielder's perception, analysis, and various physical attributes are greatly enhanced. It also confers an extremely potent ability to rapidly self-heal from injuries and regenerate lost limbs.]
[Trait: So long as it doesn't encounter targeted high-heat flame, high-frequency light, or conceptual-level countering weapons, it is all but undying.]
[Ki (Cultivation Method)]
[A human cultivation technique from the world of Dragon Ball.]
[Details: For ordinary people, getting started is extremely difficult, but once they grasp the threshold, the rate at which their strength grows becomes downright terrifying; whereas for geniuses or those of special constitution, a single glance is enough to learn it.]
[In essence, it is an inner vital force where life energy, spirit, and body become one—an advanced application of unifying mind and body to control one's own life force.]
[Demonstrated abilities: gathering ki, condensing ki, releasing energy outward, ki body-shielding, the Sky Dance Technique (flight), and even the 'Kamehameha.' Truly a fine technique indeed.]
____
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