That was right—coolies. For now, all Li Ke needed from them was manual labor and nothing more.
After all, neither of these girls seemed to trust him at all. If he tried to force them to do anything else, they would definitely reject him.
"Anyway, you two can go ahead and explore this world first if you want. I can also directly turn you into players and provide basic weapons. But if you kill enough zombies, you can become players on your own anyway. It all comes down to your own choice."
Li Ke shrugged, letting them decide for themselves.
"There is no need to waste your experience points, Mr. Li Ke. I can become a player on my own. That being said, I will still perform my duties diligently and help everyone build the fortress."
Rias answered directly without a shred of hesitation.
She did not want to waste time. While observing this world was necessary, she could do that on her own later, not right now. Furthermore, as a member of the Gremory family, she believed that even if her powers were suppressed, she could still handle most situations with ease.
More importantly, she wanted to avoid actively accepting anything from Li Ke. She knew all too well that there were far too many bizarre abilities out there that could harm a person through those types of transactions.
"Alright. What about you, Lux?"
"Ah, me?"
Lux scratched her head in distress. Her beautiful eyebrows knitted together for a brief moment before she spoke up, sounding a bit embarrassed.
"Um, I guess I'll do the same as Miss Rias. After all... well, I should be able to help out too."
Lux extended her hand. She felt much lighter here. Although there was still a sensation of something weighing her down, she could feel something deep within her body slowly waking up.
She pointed her finger forward.
In an instant, a beam of light as thick as a barrel blasted from her fingertip. It slammed straight into a distant tree, burning right through the trunk—which was so thick it would take a full embrace to wrap around—before striking a massive boulder behind it.
The very next second, the giant boulder shattered with a resounding crash.
To be precise, it had been instantly melted through by the immense heat, causing it to explode into pieces.
Li Ke: "..."
Seriously, what right do I, a perfectly ordinary guy, have to share a stage with you people?
Rias couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. She realized she had underestimated the girl. Yet, this only fueled her desire for Lux, making her want to turn Lux into her devil servant even more. If they weren't stuck in this bizarre place, she would have extended an invitation right then and there.
Meanwhile, Lux was completely terrified by her own ability. It wasn't that she had never cast magic before, but it had never been this exceptionally powerful! She stared in disbelief at the destruction she had wrought, her mouth hanging wide open, unable to process that she had done this.
Rias let out a soft chuckle. Lux's current state made it obvious that she had only recently awakened her powers and couldn't quite handle her own immense strength yet. Rias had plenty of experience dealing with children like this. She walked straight over to Lux and reached out a hand.
"It seems you and I are the same type, Miss Lux."
The next instant, under Lux's astonished gaze, magic circles materialized around Rias one after another. Countless fireballs rained down onto the already burning grass and fractured trees. A split second later, smoke, dust, and flames erupted everywhere. The ground, already heavily damaged, was blasted into an even more ruined, battered state.
Li Ke: "..."
Li Ke couldn't help but ponder a serious question.
If the first zombie horde had scaled down just to match him and Erina, and that's why it wasn't as brutal as the second one... then now that they had Rias and Lux, just how ridiculously overpowered was the next horde going to be?
Or was he overthinking it?
No, no, no. Knowing his abysmal luck, this would absolutely become reality, wouldn't it?!
Li Ke felt a sharp pain in his stomach from sheer anxiety. How did he suddenly become the useless deadweight in the blink of an eye?
No, wait. Come to think of it, it's been like this since the second batch of newbies arrived. If Tsunade didn't have her hemophobia and psychological trauma, this entire world would be a walk in the park for her. Teamed up with Kiri, she could easily breeze through most things. I've basically been a glorified accessory since then.
But...
It actually felt pretty good.
"Uh, well, please help yourselves then."
Li Ke shrugged. Since things were like this, he might as well let these two big bosses do whatever they pleased. After all, if they actually came to blows, his side would be the weaker one.
Still, when it came to surviving the Blood Moon, this was undeniably an incredibly good thing.
"Thank you for your understanding then," Rias said with a smile, doing her best to maintain her composed composure.
In truth, she had just used every ounce of her strength. The suppression of this world was simply too intense. Right now, she could access at most one percent of her true power.
She cast a sideways glance at the blonde woman named Tsunade, who had remained silent the entire time. Ever since she first laid eyes on her, Rias's instincts had been screaming in warning, signaling that the blonde woman possessed the absolute power to kill her.
And it was a very straightforward warning.
This danger sense was the exact reason she hadn't immediately tried to seize control or push her luck any further.
"Then thank you for your generosity."
Rias didn't pay much attention to Li Ke. He was just an ordinary human, after all. She had never truly factored his opinion into her plans, so since he was being so cooperative, she didn't see any need to press the issue. She didn't even mind when his eyes lingered on her rather impressive chest a few times.
Ultimately, they belonged to two entirely different worlds.
Instead, she took Lux by the hand. Leaving the younger girl looking somewhat flustered, Rias pulled her aside, and the two went off to find a path to begin their exploration.
As for doing manual labor?
What a joke. There was absolutely no way the young mistress of the Gremory family was going to do slave labor!
Li Ke watched their figures recede. Once that pair of truly terrifying assets finally vanished from sight, he turned his head to look at Tsunade.
"Well... they're pretty incredible, aren't they?"
He was mostly just trying to break the ice. Tsunade looked at the thoroughly ordinary man and let out a helpless sigh.
"You don't need to dwell on what happened yesterday. It was my own fault to begin with." Tsunade shook her head and stood up. "But since it already happened, I'm not going to complain. Even if it was a decision made out of panic, it was still my choice. I will keep doing that with you until you accumulate enough Energy to send me back... but you better give me a rough estimate of the time and the number of sessions required."
Tsunade spoke calmly. After all, she had already mentally prepared herself for this.
"Probably around fifty times. Because there isn't really any emotional bond between us, the emotional resonance generated is quite low—not even a quarter of what Erina produces. So... the required number of times is quite high."
Li Ke explained a bit more. It wasn't that he was desperate to keep doing that kind of thing with Tsunade; he was just stating a plain fact.
Tsunade fell silent for a moment, then shook her head.
"I can't see the meter anyway, but you'd better not make me wait too long. Besides, with a number like that..." Tsunade locked her eyes onto Li Ke. "Let's just do it ten times a day then."
Cold sweat instantly broke out all over Li Ke. But after taking a moment to process it, he looked back at Tsunade.
"Can your body handle that?"
He didn't really mind. As long as he had enough food to keep his stamina up, ten times wasn't a huge issue. But as for Tsunade...
Tsunade's face instantly flushed bright red. Li Ke's words immediately reminded her of how utterly embarrassing she had been last night, causing her to clench her fists in an instant!
Tight!
Her fists were clenched incredibly tight!
"Shut up! Just do it! A ninja is someone who endures all things! Don't you dare underestimate me! I am one of the Legendary Sannin!"
She ranted fiercely, only to mumble under her breath right after.
"Worst case scenario, I'll just activate the Mitotic Regeneration..."
Of course, she made sure Li Ke didn't hear that last part.
After barking her orders, she waved her hand at Li Ke, gesturing for him to go do his quests.
"Alright, go busy yourself with your own tasks. I need to go handle mine as well."
Li Ke nodded. But just as he turned to leave, Tsunade suddenly called out to him again.
"Come to my place at noon. That way, I'll at least have some time to rest afterward."
"Alright."
The distance between them grew as they walked their separate ways. Just as Li Ke was about to step through the Trader's front gate, he caught Tsunade's final words echoing from behind.
"Also... go a bit slower next time. I..."
"Huh?"
"I'm fully healed."
Fully healed?
Li Ke's hand froze on the doorframe.
What do you mean, fully healed?!