Slowly, Tsukuru got back on his feet.
'Mom, what the hell just happened?' Tsukuru asked.
"I don't know," Reiju replied. "But Tsukuru, when you received that message, it came through the System. And…a strange energy within the System seemed to be resonating with the voice as it spoke."
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed as he took in this information.
'A strange energy?' he thought. 'How could a strange energy get into the-'
Tsukuru's eyes widened, and his train of thought stopped mid-sentence.
His mind flashed back to the storage container of the Red Portal Planet. When he had first grabbed his new book, that strange "Celestial Energy" had been absorbed by the System, granting him a boost to his XP and his MC.
But, before he could dwell on his thoughts for too long, a System message appeared in front of him.
[A Delayed System Quest has been injected into the System by an unknown third party. Time remaining until Quest Activation: 143:59:59]
Tsukuru's eyes widened, and a sense of dread filled him.
'144 hours?' he thought. 'That…' Tsukuru gulped, a deep pitforming in his stomach. 'That puts it to activate during the second day of our Portal Expedition.'
Tsukuru swiped away the System message.
However, as he did, he noticed that a countdown had now appeared in the upper-right corner of his vision. It was similar to the "clock" that would appear when he was renting a VR Pod.
Tsukuru felt a deep sensation of anxiety fill him as he saw the clock slowly begin counting down.
"Calm down," Reiju said in an authoritative voice, snapping Tsukuru out of his anxious state.
"There's no point in worrying about something that's days away," she replied. "Just worry about the present, and deal with it when the time comes."
Tsukuru gulped.
"R-Right," he replied.
"Just get some sleep for now," Reiju replied. "Maybe a good night's sleep will do something about your racing heartbeat."
Tsukuru nodded and got into bed.
However, he found himself constantly opening his eyes and checking the countdown.
Eventually, hours later, Tsukuru finally passed out due to tiredness.
***
Night came and passed, and soon it was the next morning.
As soon as the clock struck six, the trumpeting alarm blared through every room in the Student Dormitory.
Tsukuru, Quinn, and Vorden all groaned as they rose in their beds.
A System message appeared in front of both Tsukuru and Quinn.
[Daily Quest 2 completed. 5 Exp received. Exp: 60/100]
[Daily Quest 3 Completed. 5 XP received. XP: 325/8000]
Like usual, Peter was the first to leave the room, and Tsukuru was the first to enter thebathroom.
Ten minutes later, he emerged.
He was wearing yet another black shirt.
The entirety of its front consisted of what looked like Tsukuru's handheld gaming console in the image, as well as two lines of words in bold, white, blocky text both above and below the image on the console.
Above it, the words read "I paused my game to be here", and below it, the words read "This shit better be GOOD".
Vorden stared at the shirt for a moment. He looked as though he wanted to say something. However, a moment later, he just let out a sigh and proceeded to take his turn in the shower.
The day then proceeded to follow the same process as always. The group headed down to the canteen to eat, with Tsukuru reading his book until the bell rang once he was done, followed by them heading to Homeroom Class with Del, and so on.
Although Quinn and Vorden noticed that every once in a while, Tsukuru's eyes would strangely dart up to the upper-right side of his vision, despite there being nothing there.
Unknown to them, this was him subconsciously checking the foreboding countdown that he had received last night.
Once the afternoon classes had concluded, the group of Tsukuru, Quinn, Starrk, Layla, and Erin headed out of the main building and towards the auxiliary building where the Combat Classes were held.
Periodically during the walk between the two buildings, Erin's eyes would dart over at Quinn with his umbrella.
Upon entering the Beast Weapon Hall, Tsukuru equipped almost a full set of Beast Gear.
Groups of pixels enveloped his chest, his hands up to his forearms, his legs up to his calves. Additionally, pixels began to cluster in his right open hand, as well.
There were four subsequent flashes of light.
Once all four faded, Tsukuru was standing there in his Intermediate-Tier Cave Spider Chestpiece, his Intermediate-Tier Knight Gauntlets, and his Basic-Tier Blade-Tusk Boots, while he carried his Intermediate-Tier Scordana Gunblade in his right hand.
A series of System messages popped up in front of him.
[Intermediate-Tier Cave Spider Chestpiece equipped.
+4 Strength, +6 Armor
Strength: 11 [+4]
Armor: 6]
[Intermediate-Tier Knight Gauntlets equipped.
+7 Strength, +5 Armor
Strength: 11 [+11]
Armor: 10]
[Basic-Tier Blade-Tusk Boots equipped.
+4 Agility, +2 Armor
Agility: 15 [+4]
Armor: 12]
[Intermediate-Tier Scordana Gunblade equipped.
+4 Strength
Strength: 11 [+15] ]
Quinn, Layla, and Erin all stared at Tsukuru.
'Looks like he had more equipment than I thought,' she thought, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"Uh, Tsukuru?" Layla asked, causing him to turn to her. "Isn't all that a bit…unnecessary? It's just combat classes."
Tsukuru tightened his eyes.
"We're going to be heading off to a Beast Planet in a few days," he replied, sounding to Layla like a doomsday prepper. "The more time I have to get used to wearing all of this gear, the better."
In his head, Tsukuru heard Reiju's voice sigh.
"You're letting that warning and that stupid countdown make you paranoid, Tsukuru," she replied in an exasperated voice.
Layla gave Tsukuru a gentle smile.
"You don't need to be decked out in a full set of armor just for combat classes," she replied. "The only people here who have so much as scratched you are standing right here."
Tsukuru stared at her for a moment.
Eventually, he let out a sigh.
A moment later, his boots and chestpiece broke down into pixels.
Two System messages appeared in front of him.
[Basic-Tier Blade-Tusk Boots removed.
-4 Agility, -2 Armor
Agility: 15
Armor: 10]
[Intermediate-Tier Cave Spider Chestpiece removed.
-4 Strength, -6 Armor
Strength: 11 [+11] ]
"I'm keeping the gauntlets on, though," he replied, his eyes darting over to Erin. "After all, she's still wearing her pair."
Layla let out a sigh and found herself resisting the urge to facepalm herself.
"Whatever," she muttered. "Let's just…find someone to spar with."
She and Quinn broke off into separate directions, heading deeper into the room.
Tsukuru was about to head off too, when he saw that Erin was still standing there.
"Uh…" he replied. "Aren't you going to go find someone to fight?" he asked.
"You have a new weapon," she replied bluntly.
Tsukuru stared at her for a moment.
"Uh, yeah?" he replied, confused. "What of it?"
Erin's eyes tightened slightly.
"Every time you get a new weapon, you track me down to test it out on," she replied, just as bluntly. "I'm just saving you the trouble of having to find me."
Tsukuru stared at Erin, slightly stunned for a moment.
'That…' Tsukuru thought for a moment. 'That makes a lot of sense, actually."
However, a moment later, his eyes widened.
'Wait, do I really test out all my new stuff against her?' he thought.
Tsukuru thought back for a moment. And yes, he couldn't think of a single time when he hadn't tested out a new piece of Beast Gearon anybody except Erin.
"You sure you two aren't in some sort of weird relationship?" Reiju asked.
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
'This girl wouldn't know what a 'relationship' was if it walked up to her and bitch-slapped her across the face,' Tsukuru thought back. 'All she cares about is strength.'
"Ah, a battle maniac," Reiju replied.
'...no…' Tsukuru thought back. 'I've seen those, and she's not that. It's not that she's obsessed with fighting. She's obsessed with getting stronger.'
"...so a superiority complex?" Reiju asked.
'Not that either,' Tsukuru thought. 'If she were, I wouldn't be able to stand being around her. She's someone who only cares about getting strong, and yet, has no interest in telling people that she's better than them. I honestly have no clue what her problem is.'
Erin reached down to her right hip and slid her Intermediate-Tier Knight Sword out of its custom sheath.
She then assumed a fighting stance.
"So what's this weapon's funny trick?" she asked, her eyes narrowing slightly. It seemed that the Black Serpent's Venom from his Black-Fanged Dagger had given her slight trust issues.
Tsukuru smirked.
"Oh, relax," he replied. "There are no special Skills with this weapon."
He brought the dagger's edge up to his left thumb and created a deep cut.
Blood began to drip from the wound, and a System message appeared.
[-1 HP. HP: 54/55]
"See?" he replied.
Erin's eyes tightened.
There didn't seem to be anything happening to him.
Erin tightened her grip on her sword and dashed forward.
Tsukuru smirked and did the same.
A moment later, their blades clashed.