Kazuma was so angry his lungs felt like they were about to explode. He thought he was shameless enough, but he hadn't expected someone to be even more shameless than him.
"You can't say it like that, it's all small stuff, small stuff~~"
Gintoki stood up and brushed the dust off his body.
"This is called rational resource utilization. Look, you drew the aggro, I successfully escaped, and then we victoriously reunited here. Isn't that a win-win? The result is good, so don't be too fussy about the process."
"Win-win your head! I almost got caught! And why did you get ten thousand, while I only got three thousand! The system is biased! I want to file a complaint!"
"I told you, it's the gap in professionalism," Gintoki lazily picked his nose, wearing an expression that said 'You're still too green.'
"Next time, remember to throw away the bath towel too; your score will definitely be higher."
"Next time, I'll pull out all that curly hair of yours and use it as a bath towel!"
The two of them stood in the empty, silent church, bickering back and forth like two elementary school students, with spittle flying everywhere.
Just as Kazuma was racking his brains, thinking about what other vicious vocabulary he could use to greet the other party, his voice got stuck in his throat.
The anger and distortion on his face slowly turned into stiffness and astonishment. His gaze drifted past Gintoki's shoulder, staring fixedly at the air behind him.
Seeing him suddenly fall silent, Gintoki thought his sharp retorts had finally broken through the other party's psychological defense, and he couldn't help but feel smug: "What's wrong? Out of words? Let me tell you, when it comes to arguing, Gin-san has never lost—"
"Hey—" Kazuma's voice trembled slightly as he swallowed hard.
"Shameless natural perm—have you ever—seen a ghost in your life?"
"Huh?" Gintoki was stunned for a moment, then immediately struck an extremely arrogant pose, patting his chest with the hilt of his wooden sword.
"What kind of silly nonsense are you spouting? There are no ghosts in this World! It's all stuff to trick little kids! Besides, we are in a church right now, understand? Don't be afraid! God is watching over this place; even if there were ghosts, they'd have to take a detour!"
Kazuma ignored his long-winded speech, his face only growing paler. He swallowed hard, tremblingly raised his finger, and pointed behind Gintoki.
"Then—then why didn't God destroy those four green ghosts behind you?"
"What green ghosts—you guy, don't try to scare Gin-san with these low-level ghost stories—"
Gintoki was still playing tough, but seeing Kazuma's expression of genuine terror, which was definitely not a joke, his heart couldn't help but skip a beat.
He felt a chill on the back of his neck.
His head, like a rusted gear, turned backward, click by click, extremely slowly.
Then, he saw it.
Four translucent ghosts, emitting an eerie green light, were floating behind him. They had no facial features, only a hollow outline, and were tilting their heads as if curiously examining him.
Gintoki's pupils instantly shrank to the size of pinpricks.
On that face that always wore dead-fish eyes, the laziness and arrogance evaporated without a trace in 0.1 seconds, replaced by a pure, frozen blankness.
"Aaaaah—!!!" A scream, sharp enough to pierce eardrums and even more shrill than when Kazuma was at Times Square, erupted from the throat of this "Shiroyasha."
His whole body seemed to have had its bones removed; his legs went soft, and he fell straight backward, landing right in the arms of Kazuma, who was equally terrified.
"Ghooooost—!!!"
"Stop screaming like a ghost! Get up! You're heavy!"
Kazuma stumbled under his weight, and the two of them, huddled together, scrambled backward. The four ghosts seemed to find them amusing and drifted over unhurriedly.
"Don't come over! Don't come over!" Gintoki hid behind Kazuma, only daring to peek out half his head, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"Didn't you say God was watching over us?! Make God come out and do some work then!" Kazuma retreated while struggling to push Gintoki, who was clinging to him, away.
"How would I know that the God here is on vacation today!" Gintoki grabbed Kazuma's clothes tightly, using him as his only meat shield.
"Aren't you in the Guardian Faction! Go on! Protect me!"
"Guardian my foot! Aren't you in the Neutral Faction? You go negotiate with them! Maybe they're neutral too!"
"Negotiate what! They don't even have mouths, how am I supposed to talk!"
The two of them pushed and shoved at each other, both wanting the other to be the unlucky one to make first contact with the ghosts, constantly retreating until their backs hit the cold wall with a "thud."
There was nowhere left to retreat.
The four ghosts had already drifted in front of them, blocking them in the corner. A cold, non-material aura rushed toward them, giving both grown men goosebumps. Despair enveloped them.
Just in this deathly silent standoff, a crisp, somewhat mocking laughter suddenly rang out in the empty church.
"Hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow—"
Immediately after, the sound of "tap, tap, tap" from high heels stepping on the ground came from the shadows deep within the church, approaching from far to near, unhurriedly.
It was the sound of high heels stepping on the stone floor, steady and with an elegant rhythm, clearly reaching the ears of the two terrified men in this deathly silent environment.
The two of them were like specimens pinned to a wall, not daring to move.
Gintoki even treated Kazuma as a lifeline, his whole body almost hanging on him, and the extent of his shivering made Kazuma feel like a phone set to vibrate mode.
"Hey! Stop shaking! You're going to shake the bath towel off!" Kazuma roared in a low voice.
"Why are you worrying about the bath towel! Worry about our lives first!" Gintoki retorted with a sobbing tone, his voice trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind.
From the shadows, a petite figure slowly walked out.
The moonlight filtered through the stained glass, coating her in a hazy halo.
The newcomer had long pink hair tied into twin tails and wore a small black top hat.
She was wearing a black strapless dress adorned with pale purple ruffled lace, outlining her slender waist.
She wore red high heels, held a vibrant red parasol in one hand, and carried a stitched-up plush bear doll in the other.
She was a gothic-style girl who looked to be no more than sixteen or seventeen.
Kazuma and Gintoki were both stunned at the same time.
The female ghost with green face and sharp fangs and long hair reaching the ground that they had imagined did not appear; instead, it was a cute girl who looked like she had walked out of a manga.
Gintoki's tense nerves relaxed slightly, but seeing those four green ghosts still affectionately circling around the girl, his face remained as white as paper.
However, Kazuma's pupils contracted sharply the next second. His attention was completely drawn to the eye-catching mark above the girl's head. It was a blood-red skull symbol emitting an ominous aura.
[Raid Faction Player]
The text on the system panel regarding the faction introduction instantly exploded in Kazuma's mind—Raid Faction, with the main goal of plundering and attacking other players, highly aggressive, requires high vigilance!
Cold sweat instantly soaked Kazuma's back.
This was more deadly than seeing a ghost! Ghosts only scare people, but this seemingly harmless girl in front of him would take his life! And those ghosts—they weren't ghosts at all, they were her ability!
"Hollow, hollow, hollow—"
The girl looked at the two grown men huddled in the corner, looking pathetic, and let out that iconic laughter, her eyes filled with undisguised contempt.
"Honestly, two grown men actually getting scared like this by my Negative Hollow, how embarrassing." She tapped the ground lightly with the tip of her parasol, her tone full of condescending smugness.
"But, I suppose you are lucky. I just arrived in this bizarre World and ran into you two big fish, hollow, hollow, hollow—this way, I'm one step closer to seeing Lord Moriah."
Lord Moriah?