Even though Kiri was desperate to return and aid her teammates, she absolutely did not want Li Ke to meet some senseless end in this world.
If she left, and Lux left as well, what would happen to Li Ke?
What if that devil woman decided to kill him? What if some other nightmare spawned during the Blood Moon?
Kiri wanted to account for every possibility.
Granted, considering the overwhelming power Rias had already put on display, overthinking things was probably pointless. But still.
A backup plan was necessary.
Kiri didn't want to find out that Li Ke had dropped dead the moment she turned her back.
"You don't need to worry about my safety," Li Ke said.
He knew Kiri had no idea he possessed the ability to travel across worlds. If the Energy Points required for world-hopping weren't too high, he could easily ditch this place whenever he wanted instead of sticking around to wait for the Blood Moon to arrive.
"Easy for you to say. I just don't want to see you end up looking like a monster," Kiri sighed.
Beside them, Lux awkwardly tightened her grip on her staff. She understood what Kiri was hinting at—Kiri wanted her to stay behind for a while.
For Lux, this was a classic trolley problem; every option felt like the wrong choice. Fortunately, Li Ke didn't leave her to agonize over it for long.
"Honestly, we don't have much of a choice anyway. The Blood Moon triggers on the fifth day, and we might not even be able to leave by then. Let's stop talking nonsense."
Li Ke stood up.
"Now then, Miss Lux, Miss Rias—I assume you both have reached level fifty by now?"
Li Ke looked toward the two ladies, and both nodded in confirmation.
After wiping out that massive horde of zombie birds, hitting level fifty was a given. Rias even spoke up to reveal her exact progress.
"I am currently level seventy-eight. Does this specific level carry some special significance? Also, do these skill points actually increase our power?"
She was quite curious about how the system worked.
"They definitely do," Li Ke explained. "Right now, my stamina and recovery speed are ten times that of a normal human. However, this power functions more like a percentage modifier rather than a flat increase to your base physical strength."
Li Ke could feel the distinction clearly, precisely because his baseline was so weak.
"I see. Let me try."
Rias tapped the air in front of her. The very next second, the red-haired beauty's expression shifted drastically.
"I really did get stronger. But... just as you said, it doesn't directly alter my physical body. It feels more like a conceptual enhancement."
Rias took a moment to sense the changes within her body. Her deep understanding of raw power allowed her to grasp the situation far better than Li Ke ever could.
Right now, she only needed to exert half her usual effort, yet her arm would deliver the exact same force as before, completely tricking her senses into believing she had gone all out.
It was an incredibly bizarre sensation. This power did not seem to originate from within herself, but was instead granted directly by this world.
Curious, Rias allocated another point into stamina. The very next instant, she felt her mana and stamina recovery rates—along with her body's natural self-healing capabilities—surge and double in speed.
"Fascinating."
She extended a finger and conjured a fireball. She only funneled half her usual amount of mana into it, yet it materialized with the exact volume and intensity of a full-powered spell.
Under the watchful eyes of the group, Rias hurled the fireball into the distance.
A moment later, the project crashed and detonated with a deafening roar.
"The destructive output has doubled... and the source of this extra force materialized completely out of thin air, almost as if I am the master of this domain..."
Praising the system's mechanics, Rias turned her gaze back to Li Ke.
"These skill points are absurdly overpowered. Then again, considering the nightmares this world throws at us, such overwhelming growth seems only natural."
Staring at the massive, smoldering crater left in the wake of the explosion, Li Ke could only nod in stunned agreement. He had a good idea of what Rias had done. However, even though he had allocated his own points similarly, his results were painfully underwhelming compared to hers.
"I am actually starting to quite like this world," Rias said with a soft chuckle.
Without hesitation, she dumped all her remaining points straight into power. The next second, she flashed a beautiful smile, conjured another massive fireball, and launched it toward the horizon.
This time, using only her standard baseline mana pool, the resulting explosion erupted with twenty times the destructive payload of her old spells!
A ferocious shockwave instantly rippled through the air.
Not only that, but her mana and physical stamina were now regenerating at twice their original speeds.
This was where she vastly differed from Li Ke.
While Li Ke had invested heavily into stamina and could swing his tools with half the effort, his baseline physical capacity was still painfully limited.
But for someone who possessed a unique, supernatural energy source, the rules of the game changed entirely.
Cutting energy consumption in half meant her raw output and combat endurance automatically doubled.
When you stacked that with the doubled destructive impact and force multiplier gained from investing in raw power...
Rias had only assigned a few points, yet her statistical combat efficiency had instantly skyrocketed fourfold!
"This world truly is intriguing," Rias mused. "In other words, if I completely max out both power and stamina... assuming a standard spell has a base damage value of 10, the final calculated output would scale exponentially to a staggering 1,210! Such an absurd modifier!"
By the time she reached that threshold, a single, ordinary fireball spell would be more than enough to completely obliterate the landscape and blast the earth to smithereens.
If she channeled her Power of Destruction into it, wiping an entire continent off the map wouldn't even pose a challenge!
A statutory multiplier of this caliber was enough to instantly propel her to the same terrifying power level as her older brother. Best of all, the process seemed ridiculously straightforward—all she had to do was mindlessly slaughter zombies and complete a few simple quests!
"Huh?"
Li Ke stood there, completely oblivious to how the introduction of a mana variable had fundamentally broken the system's scaling math for Rias. To his dismay, he remained exactly what he was: a miserable, unfortunate office worker who merely possessed eleven times the strength of an ordinary desk jockey.
In fact, if it hadn't been for Rias pointing it out, he would have gone on believing he only possessed ten times the strength of a normal person...
After all, when he allocated that very last point, the actual physical feedback hadn't been all that noticeable.
To put it bluntly, Rias being in this world was a total balance-breaker. She was completely overtuned.
"However..."
Rias clenched and unclenched her fist, the fleeting joy on her face vanishing entirely.
"This power comes with a price."
She stared down at her palm. Thanks to her intimate familiarity with contractual magic, she had felt a distinct binding force latch onto her soul the moment she assigned those points.
"The more I utilize the power of this world, the more the imprint of my original home fades. If the mark of my motherland disappears completely, I will become a permanent entity of this realm, never able to return to my own world again. And besides..."
Rias closed her eyes, sensing an undercurrent that Li Ke was completely blind to.
As a devil whose very existence revolved around contracts, she could clearly decipher the hidden terms woven into this reality.
"This world is fractured, which is why it has warped into this twisted state. It is screaming for salvation, begging for a new leader to restore its integrity. Unfortunately, this world is already done for. It is choked by an ocean of pure malice. The original power meant to help humanity survive this apocalypse has been utterly wiped out by whatever cataclysm struck it. The mechanics we are exploiting right now are nothing more than the residual fragments of dead power... Furthermore, these stat modifiers become completely useless the moment we leave this universe. Honestly, what a waste of excitement."
As Rias finished speaking, Li Ke and Kiri exchanged a look. Neither of them had felt anything remotely like that.
Li Ke figured it might be because Rias had effectively become the strongest dimensional entity currently present. However, after racking his brain, he recalled that even when he had assumed ownership of his own dimension, he had never experienced such a sensation.
'Is it because of her level?'
Li Ke couldn't be certain. But deep down, he suspected the revelation was triggered simply because Rias was the heaviest hitter in their group right now.
"So, I've officially lost interest in these skill points," Rias said with a casual smile. "Once I fully assimilate the power of this world, I'll be stuck here for eternity. That said, I don't mind tagging along to grind out quests with you guys. After all, it's always better safe than sorry."
Rias spoke lightheartedly. Deciding not to stress over such convoluted headaches, Li Ke pushed the matter to the back of his mind. He led the three women straight toward the trader's compound to accept and share their daily quests.
The objectives turned out to be ridiculously simple. They were so trivial that Li Ke didn't even have to lift a finger; the zombies were instantly vaporized by a highly motivated Rias and Kiri. Meanwhile, he and Lux tag-teamed the house, systematically looting every container in sight.
And then...
"Bwahahaha!! Look at you three unpolished casuals!!"
Kiri stared at the trio—one holding a roll of duct tape, one clutching a random magazine, and the last one gripping a First Aid Kit—and burst into unapologetic, roaring laughter, practically leaning against her rocket launcher for support.