Having just finished teasing Kita and Anon, Kitahara's phone suddenly rang.
Picking it up to take a look, it was a message sent by his dedicated liaison lady:
"Kitahara-kun, the things you requested are ready."
Kitahara: "Thanks for your hard work, I'll be right over."
Putting away his phone and letting Anon and Kita rest properly, Kitahara fast-traveled to the Bureau.
After arriving at the Bureau, Kitahara signed the paperwork, stored the indescribable high-risk explosives into the Onsen Dimension, and then fast-traveled to the old mansion, passing through the spatial node with Hana's help to descend into Otherworld.
The cliffs and precipices surrounding Eden Island still stood tall and imposing; relying solely on Kitahara alone, there really would have been no way, but after obtaining the high-risk explosives, everything became possible.
Half an hour later.
Accompanied by a roaring boom, gravel flew and the mountain collapsed, successfully blasting open a gap in the cliff face.
Kitahara stood atop the precipice, silently looking downward.
With the appearance of the gap, the aura of the Eden Fruit quietly drifted out, and the pitch-black sea that was originally calm without wind or waves soon stirred up turbulent undercurrents; before long, a giant octopus landed ashore.
This monster was massive in size, rapidly squeezing through the gap in the cliff, and upon discovering the towering Eden Tree in the center of the island, it instantly shrieked aloud; despite having a body that could only squirm on the ground, it launched forward in an instant, looking just like an inmate who had been celibate in prison for decades suddenly arriving in the Land of Women, the excitement and impulse palpable even from afar.
And then... there was no 'then'.
Before even reaching the base of the Eden Tree, this octopus monster lost consciousness, collapsing to the ground with a loud thud, followed by tree roots bursting out from the soil to quietly devour the monster.
During the subsequent time, monsters continuously crawled ashore from the sea, impatiently squeezing through the gap and charging forward one after another to die, with no surprises in the outcome as all of them became tree fertilizer.
"To die under the peony flower is to remain romantic even as a ghost?"
Kitahara inexplicably wanted to make a snide remark.
Under these circumstances, the phrase felt strangely fitting.
"...Time to go back."
Before coming to Otherworld, he had asked today's final question and learned that the Eden Tree would need at least several days to finish evolving; naturally, Kitahara couldn't stay on guard the entire time, so setting his mind at ease for now, he quickly left Otherworld with Hana.
At 9:30 in the evening.
The girls arrived one after another via fast travel, preparing for the pre-bedtime onsen bath.
"Ryo-senpai, Nijika-senpai, evening."
Kita's voice was crisp as she waved to greet Ryo and Nijika.
"Kita, good evening~"
Nijika smiled brightly, her golden side-ponytail sparkling under the lights, raising her right hand to give Kita a crisp high five.
"Eh, why didn't the manager come over today?"
Kita looked around curiously, and upon seeing no trace of Seika, she couldn't help but ask.
"Big sis has to stay at the store tonight to replenish supplies; she'll probably be done after ten," Nijika's voice was crisp and lively, "so big sis won't be coming over to soak in the onsen tonight."
Hearing this, Kitahara looked toward Nijika, seeing that Nijika's gaze was clear and oblivious without any abnormality, clearly having no idea of the truth.
Seika's unwillingness to come over to soak in the onsen tonight was merely using busyness as an excuse; the real reason was that she was too thin-skinned and felt too embarrassed to face anyone.
"So tired, it's finally the weekend again."
Ryo collapsed onto the sofa, looking up toward Kitahara:
"My mouth is so thirsty."
If you're thirsty then go drink water, don't just collapse on the sofa without moving at all!
"Kitahara, I want to drink Meiji Milk."
You're straight-up placing an order now, aren't you!
"Hold on."
Kitahara turned around helplessly, walked over to the refrigerator, and took out two bottles of Meiji Milk, handing one bottle to Nijika and the other to Ryo.
"Ah..."
Ryo was like a boneless creature, not even bothering to move her arms, opening her mouth to signal Kitahara to feed her.
Damn it! You're not even willing to sit up and drink when it's right in front of your mouth; if you keep this up, you'll turn into a useless shut-in!
"Drink up."
Kitahara took a deep breath, silently inserted a straw into the Meiji Milk, and brought it to Ryo's lips.
Endure it.
Ryo was inherently lazy by nature, and as his first official girlfriend, he naturally had no choice but to pamper her.
"Ehehe~"
Ryo lightly parted her lips, bit onto the straw, and took a slurping sip, her eyes quickly curving into crescent moons as she gave a thumbs-up with her right hand:
"Milk brought directly to one's mouth truly tastes much better!"
Lying on the sofa having someone feed you milk, not feeling embarrassed at all and instead acting all smug—your skin has definitely gotten thicker again, hasn't it!
Kitahara's mouth twitched slightly:
"I'd like to call Ryo-senpai the strongest in the ninja world."
Kita put her hands on her hips, quietly complaining from the side:
"Strongest in the ninja world in terms of skin thickness, right?"
Ryo took another sip of Meiji Milk, showing no shame on her pretty face, instead raising her dainty chin and looking over lazily:
"Kita-chan, do you know what the sign of becoming a mature adult is?"
"Eh?"
Kita was taken aback, instinctively looking up at Kitahara, her face quickly flushing red.
The sign of becoming an adult... surely refers to that kind of thing, right?
"Looks like Kita doesn't know," Ryo gently wagged her finger, "still a child as expected."
"I'm not a child!"
Kita instinctively puffed up her cheeks.
I've already become an adult now, okay! I haven't fallen behind Ryo by that much!
"The sign of becoming an adult isn't that sort of thing," Ryo said unhurriedly, "it's about whether your skin is thick enough."
"Huh?"
Kita's eyes went wide, looking over in shock as she couldn't help but complain:
"What kind of distorted logic is that?"
"It's not distorted logic, it's absolute truth." While speaking, Ryo looked up toward Kitahara again, "I want more to drink."
Helpless, Kitahara brought the Meiji Milk to Ryo's lips once more.
Slurp~
Ryo took a large, satisfied gulp, then spoke leisurely:
"To become a qualified adult, one must have thick skin and a dark heart, because... with thick skin, you eat your fill."
Good grief, summarizing it so incisively and accurately—are you planning to publish a book titled "Thick Black Theory"?!
"Ryo, don't teach Kita the wrong life values," Nijika pressed a hand to her forehead, unable to stop herself from complaining, "sit up properly and drink your milk."
"Too tired, can't get up," Ryo completely refused to sit up, "unless Nijika feeds me fruit."
Nijika: "..."
"Kita, let's go." Nijika picked up Hana and turned to leave, "Ryo is beyond saving, don't pay any attention to her."
During their chatting, Sakiko and Soyo walked out from the bathroom together.
"We have to perform at the School Festival tomorrow, so shall everyone go to the Dream World tonight for final training?"
Soyo clasped her hands together, her voice gentle and pleasant, making the suggestion softly.
"Soyo has a point," Tomori nodded in agreement, "I do want to rehearse a bit more."
Taki crossed her arms over her chest, her expression serious and earnest, forming an inexplicable contrast with the cute tear mole at the corner of her eye:
"I have no objection."
Sakiko pursed her soft lips, her gaze scanning the living room:
"Eh, where is Mutsumi-chan? Could she be upstairs?"
Kitahara shook his head: "Mutsumi-chan didn't come over tonight."
"Eh?"
Sakiko's eyes widened in surprise:
"Mutsumi-chan is so clingy, yet she actually skipped tonight?"
"I already sent a message to ask," Kitahara said softly, "Mutsumi-chan said her parents are rarely both at home, so she wanted to stay home to accompany them and wouldn't be coming over to soak in the onsen tonight."
"I see, so Mutsumi-chan wants to spend time with her family now too," Sakiko raised a hand to tuck the hair behind her ear, lowering her voice, "...Mutsumi-chan's second personality hasn't appeared, right?"
"No," Kitahara shook his head gently, "Mutsumi-chan has been acting completely normal."
"Actually..."
A flicker of hesitation crossed Sakiko's eyes, though in the end, she didn't speak the remaining words aloud.
In truth, Auntie had mentioned that Mutsumi was a natural-born actress; it was impossible to tell whether Mutsumi was normal just by looking with one's eyes.
"What did Sakiko want to say?"
Kitahara asked softly.
"Nothing." Sakiko averted her gaze, "Let's go soak in the onsen."
During the onsen bath, Kitahara mentioned the existence of the Pure White Bride; the girls all expressed great interest and tried it on one by one, naturally taking photos together in the process, which activated the Contract Kiss affix for all of them.
Meanwhile.
At the Mutsumi residence villa.
In the basement on the B1 floor.
Holding her guitar, Mutsumi sat all alone in a dim corner, her eyes filled with gloom, while tightly clutching a black rhombic crystal in the palm of her right hand.
"It was me first, clearly I was first... Makoto-kun, tomorrow I can have you all to myself..."
The night passed without words.
The next day.
Saturday.
Kitahara woke up on time as usual, got dressed, and headed downstairs to wash up.
"Let's check today's daily quests first..."
While brushing his teeth and washing his face, Kitahara opened today's quest panel, where four daily quests had already refreshed.
The first two fitness quests remained unchanging, the third quest was exorcism, and the fourth was a limited quest.
[Daily Quest 4: Rooftop Confession]
[Quest Requirement: Confess loudly on the school rooftop, limited character: Taki]
[Quest Reward: Unknown]
"That's it???"
Seeing the content of the limited quest, Kitahara was in quite a good mood.
It was practically a free-point question; simply writing 'super easy' would wrap it right up.
Although he hadn't fully devoured Taki yet, a rooftop confession carried no difficulty whatsoever no matter how one looked at it.
After washing up, Kitahara ate a simple breakfast.
Going out, he hopped on his little scooter and headed to the school together with Hitori.
Today was Saturday, so many residents around the school were off work; combined with the students' friends and families, it was several times livelier than yesterday.
"Let's go to the club activity room first." Kitahara parked the scooter and looked at Hitori, "I'll share the ability with you guys and see if there are any new gains today."
The Kamen Rider badge Hitori picked up yesterday evening had super nice optimized affixes, so today was naturally about continuing the bargain-hunting.
"Got it..."
Hitori's face flushed crimson as she nodded shyly.
A moment later.
The Astronomy Club activity room.
"Good morning, everyone."
Kitahara pushed open the door and entered, seeing that Kita, Anon, Tomori, and Saki were all already present; as for Nijika, Ryo, Soyo, and Taki, they went to other schools after all, so they didn't need to arrive early in the morning.
"Good morning, Kitahara-kun."
"Good morning, Hitori-chan."
"It feels super lively today."
"..."
The girls responded crisply one after another.
"Saki, ask again if there are any changes to Shimizu-san's action time today."
Kitahara took out the Book of Answers and handed it to Sakiko beside him.
"Okay."
Sakiko nodded lightly, took the Book of Answers, and began asking.
Rustle.
The Book of Answers flipped pages rapidly on its own without any wind, and before long, a line of text quietly surfaced:
[5:00 PM]
Anon leaned in curiously: "The time hasn't changed."
"No change is naturally for the best." Kita rested both hands on her hips, her red side-ponytail brimming with vitality, "The band's performance times are 3:30 PM and 4:45 PM respectively, so it just happens not to disturb our performance."
The performance schedule had naturally been set long ago: Kessoku Band formed by Hitori, Kita, Nijika, and Ryo, and the band formed by Tomori, Soyo, Mutsumi, Taki, and Saki happened to perform on the same day.
Among them, Kessoku Band's performance time was 3:30 PM today, while Tomori and the others' performance was staggered by an hour, starting at 4:30 PM.
Kitahara said softly:
"Just to be safe, I'll go resolve the hidden danger before five o'clock arrives; acting right now would inevitably introduce more variables."
With the Book of Answers, Kitahara and the girls had already grasped Shimizu Rin's attack method through continuous questioning over these past few days.
The core concept was 'Banishment'.
Back on the commercial street, Kitahara had used True Damage Power to one-shot the monster with a single punch, demonstrating an ability that was far too unfathomable. Thus, the Master of Calamity didn't plan on continuing to send minor mobs to feed him experience, but instead bestowed a certain special item upon Shimizu Rin, capable of forcibly banishing people into the depths of Otherworld.
The reason Shimizu Rin had transferred in advance was that the special item required time to erode the world barrier; if left unchecked, everyone in the entire school would ultimately be banished into the depths of Otherworld.
If this were a light novel, people banished to the depths of Otherworld would usually become 'Heroes' tasked with the heavy responsibility of saving the world.
Unfortunately, fairy tales were fairy tales, while reality was reality.
If everyone in the whole school were banished to Otherworld, ninety-nine percent of them wouldn't survive a single day.
Naturally, Kitahara wouldn't sit idly by and let the worst-case scenario happen.
Shimizu Rin's attack time, attack method, the location of the special item, and its destruction method—Kitahara had already mastered all the intelligence; just like in the cold weapon era, while others were completely in the dark, he held a real-time panoramic map in his hands, making it virtually impossible to lose even if playing blindfolded, right?
After chatting for a bit, Kitahara quickly brought up the main topic:
"Let me share the ability with you first. If you come across any optimizable items, tell me immediately... Who wants to go first?"
"Let me go first." Anon raised her right hand, "My friends already messaged me, urging me to go out and pick them up to come play."
While speaking, Anon walked up in front of Kitahara, stood on her tiptoes, her pretty face slightly flushed:
"Hurry up, hurry up."
Kitahara: "..."
If this were in the past, everyone would definitely have been embarrassed, as kissing in front of others was far too shameful.
Yet times were different now; aside from Hitori, all the other girls present had already been thoroughly eaten up, so they naturally wouldn't be shy over a simple ordinary kiss anymore.
"I'll head out first." Anon wiped her lips with a hand, stepping outward, her voice crisp, "See you all this afternoon."
After Anon, Kita got up and walked over, resting her hands on her hips and tilting her little face up:
"Hurry and share the ability, I have to go to the classroom to help."
After kissing Kita, Tomori stepped forward gently; the blush had already faded from her fair, doll-like face, with only the tips of her ears faintly red.
When it was Sakiko's turn, Soft Saki was completely calm, without any blushing or shyness at all.
"Hitori, it's your turn."
Kitahara turned his gaze slightly, landing on Hitori whose small face was flushed crimson.
As expected, teasing the shy Hitori-chan brought far more of a sense of accomplishment.
With the ability sharing finished, Kitahara and the girls left the club activity room together, then went their separate ways.
"Kitahara-kun, you're here."
Just as Kitahara arrived at the classroom door, a female classmate quickly came up to greet him, handing over a signboard in her hands:
"We'll be counting on Kitahara-kun again today."
"...Leave it to me."
Knowing he couldn't escape it, Kitahara could only reach out to take the signboard, continuing to serve as the 'poster boy'.
In the blink of an eye, it was 10:00 AM.
While Kitahara was wandering around, a brilliant flash of gold suddenly caught his eye.
At the entrance of the hallway, the girl with the golden side-ponytail turned her head as if by telepathy. Seeing Kitahara among the crowd, a bright, warm, and sweet smile instantly bloomed across her small face.
It was none other than Nijika.
"Kitahara-kun, good morning." Nijika held onto Ryo, briskly walking through the crowd to arrive before Kitahara, her voice crisp, "Ryo and I came over to hang out."
Yesterday was Friday, so Nijika and Ryo still had classes, which was why they could only come over to play today.
"Lady Angel, good morning." Kitahara pointed at the signboard in his hand, "Super Scary Haunted House—care to check it out?"
"Eh?"
Nijika's pretty face blushed slightly as she couldn't help shooting him a glare:
"Don't call me by weird titles."
"When Nijika-senpai appeared just now, in a daze I seemed to see an angel descending from midair, so dazzling one couldn't open their eyes." Kitahara said with a straight face, "Of course I have to call you Lady Angel."
"Phooey~"
Nijika spat lightly; with so many eyes and ears in the hallway, it naturally wasn't appropriate to fool around with Kitahara:
"Forget the haunted house, I have zero interest in it... Where are Kita and Hitori-chan?"
Kitahara pointed down the way: "Go straight along the hallway; it's the classroom at the very end."
"Ryo, let's go check on Kita and Hitori-chan."
Nijika pulled on Ryo, preparing to leave.
Only, Ryo refused to budge her feet, instead clasping her hands together as she looked at Kitahara, her eyes brimming with anticipation:
"Lord God, good morning."
Kitahara: "..."
The moment he heard Ryo call him Lord God, he knew nothing good would come of it!
"Ryo-senpai wants to borrow money?"
Kitahara looked over, speechlessly.
"Not borrowing." Ryo extended her right hand, tilting her chin up slightly, speaking with righteous confidence, "I am very cute, please give me money."
Good grief, in the past you borrowed without returning, and now you can't even be bothered to say 'borrow', huh!