Just as Kayo was leading the members of Houkago Tea Time toward Izumi, they happened to run into another idol group that had just finished performing.
The nine members of μ's were on their way back.
The moment Kayo spotted them, her eyes lit up.
"Kotori-nee!"
"Did your performance just end?"
Minami Kotori immediately ran over with a smile.
"It's Kayo-chan!"
"Where are you headed?"
"Our performance just finished."
Then she sighed slightly.
"Unfortunately, we only earned a little over a hundred points today."
There was a trace of disappointment in her voice.
Divided among nine people, that amount really wasn't much.
The moment Ritsu heard that, however, her eyes sparkled.
With a smug grin plastered across her face, she proudly puffed out her chest.
"Only a hundred points?"
"Today, we got a tip of eighty-eight million points!"
"We became millionaires instantly!"
"Financial freedom achieved!"
"Now we can buy whatever we want!"
She laughed triumphantly.
The members of μ's froze.
"...E-Eighty-eight million?!"
"No way!"
"You're serious?"
"Uso!"
"Maji de?!"
"How could there be that many points?"
"Weren't you guys earning only a few hundred points a day just like us?"
"You're making that up, right?"
The nine girls were completely stunned.
Eighty-eight million points?
That sounded absurd.
Kayo looked at Ritsu, who was showing off with all her might, and couldn't help sighing.
Meanwhile, Ritsu enthusiastically recounted the entire story about how Izumi had rewarded them.
By the time she finished, everyone in μ's was equally shocked.
That really was incredible.
However, Eri Ayase's attention was elsewhere.
"So..."
"You're heading to meet Izumi-sama?"
Before anyone from Houkago Tea Time could answer, Kayo spoke first.
"That's right."
"Eri-nee, you should come too."
"Izumi-oniichan won't mind."
"And he's probably bored right now anyway."
She directly invited all nine members of μ's.
The girls exchanged uncertain glances.
Was it really okay?
Could people like them truly meet the ruler of the world?
A mischievous gleam flashed through Kayo's eyes.
Inwardly, she was quite pleased with herself.
If she brought all these girls to Izumi...
He would definitely be happy.
After all, Kayo knew Izumi better than almost anyone.
She knew exactly what kind of person he was.
An anime fanatic.
A hopeless one.
After countless worlds had merged into this reality, she had learned that many worlds existed as anime within other worlds.
For example, Asuna's world.
That was one of the reasons Izumi had become so attached to her.
And the girls standing before her now?
They were all anime heroines.
Kayo knew perfectly well that Izumi had absolutely watched their series.
As one of the dependable little sisters of the Izumi household, she felt it was her duty to help.
A proper wingwoman, in her own words.
Seeing the hesitation on everyone's faces, she immediately pressed the attack.
"Come with us!"
"You can see where we live too."
"Yuzuru and the others are up there."
"And lots of other sisters."
"Aren't you curious?"
The girls instantly wavered.
The place above the city—the domain surrounding the Kabbalah Tree of Life—was something countless people dreamed of seeing.
Unfortunately, only those personally connected to Izumi were permitted entry.
Ordinary residents of Dimensional City couldn't enter at all.
Now that an opportunity had appeared before them, how could they refuse?
After exchanging a few glances, they quickly agreed.
Thus, Kayo's group grew larger.
With the five members of Houkago Tea Time and the nine members of μ's following behind her, she cheerfully headed toward the Kabbalah Tree of Life.
...
Meanwhile, what was Izumi doing?
At that very moment, he was sitting alone, tinkering with one of the world's largest unresolved problems.
The internet.
Ever since countless worlds had merged together, the communication infrastructure had become a complete mess.
Each world maintained its own separate network.
Many regions couldn't communicate with one another at all.
The problem had existed for years.
Unfortunately, people like Asagi Aiba and the other researchers couldn't be bothered to deal with something so mundane.
As a result, the issue had remained unresolved.
After all, Izumi's world had become unimaginably vast.
Ordinary communication systems simply couldn't support a realm of this scale.
But today, after watching Houkago Tea Time perform, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
If musicians could perform...
Why not livestream?
And if people were going to livestream...
Then the entire world needed a unified network.
More importantly—
Izumi wanted to stay home and watch cute girls stream.
That reason alone was more than enough motivation.
Thus, after rewarding Houkago Tea Time, he had quietly found a place to sit and started working.
Using his authority over the world itself, he began linking the networks of countless regions together.
One after another.
World after world.
His power flowed through the very laws of reality, weaving connections across unimaginable distances.
Soon, communication channels that had once been isolated became unified.
A single world-wide network gradually took shape.
At the same time, another idea occurred to him.
Transportation.
The current teleportation gates only connected a limited number of worlds.
Traveling between regions was still incredibly inconvenient.
Most of the time, Izumi couldn't be bothered to care about such minor details.
But today he was free.
So he decided to solve everything at once.
If every city possessed a teleportation gate, moving between worlds would become effortless.
A certain wandering witch had reportedly spent all her points on travel expenses and still hadn't visited even two worlds completely.
That alone was reason enough.
With that thought, Izumi acted.
Throughout the countless cities of his world, enormous gates suddenly materialized in public squares.
One after another.
Under the astonished gazes of countless residents, shimmering portals emerged everywhere.
These weren't ordinary teleportation devices.
Izumi had personally modified them.
Users simply selected their destination and were instantly transported there.
It functioned almost exactly like a fast-travel system from a video game.
As Izumi continued restructuring the world's communication and transportation systems—
Kayo finally arrived at the Kabbalah Tree of Life.
Behind her followed fourteen beautiful girls.
And they were heading straight toward Izumi.