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"Good morning, Master! Breakfast is ready!"
Sakuya walked to the window and pulled open the curtains. Sunlight poured into the room and fell directly across the bed.
The large lump under the covers continued to wriggle, apparently undisturbed.
"Ugh... protection money... it's due, you idiot..."
Sakuya listened to the mumbling from beneath the blankets and shook her head, a fond smile on her face.
"Master can really act like an overgrown child sometimes."
"Sakuya, don't you know that a man stays young until the day he dies?"
Sakuya looked up in surprise. Kaito had sat bolt upright, a grin on his face.
"Master, pretending to be asleep to listen in on a lady's private thoughts is extremely ungentlemanly."
"Heh. I just happened to wake up."
Kaito showed not the slightest trace of embarrassment. He adopted the expression of a sovereign graciously greeting the morning.
"Since Master is already awake, please get up and wash your face. Miss Lashara and the others have been waiting for you for some time."
Hearing that Lashara was waiting, Kaito dropped the act and swung his legs out of bed.
'Lovely weather today. System, daily check-in!'
[Ding. Congratulations, Host. You have received: Leg-Stretching Eye-Popping Pill × 1 (Rainbow).]
'What? A Leg-Stretching Eye-Popping Pill? Rainbow quality? System, are you having me on?'
[I suggest Host read the description before passing judgement.]
Kaito opened the System inventory and pulled up the item details.
After one glance, he inhaled sharply.
Leg-Stretching Eye-Popping Pill: Upon consumption, the user instantly stretches their legs and pops their eyes, ascending directly to heaven. As the saying goes: 'eyes pop, instantly an immortal' — 'legs stretch, I am a Golden Immortal!'
'System, you absolute legend.'
'I am invincible beneath the heavens! Who could possibly— ahem. Probably best not to finish that sentence.'
[Hmph.]
[It is recommended that Host consume this as soon as possible. The System will update once you have become an immortal.]
"Sakuya, stand guard outside. No one enters."
Sakuya recognised the look on his face. She gave a slight bow and stepped outside.
Once she was gone, Kaito took out the pill and stared at the small, pitch-black object sitting in his palm.
'System, are you certain this is right? This thing looks exactly like the dead skin you roll off in the bath.'
[Host surely wasn't expecting golden light, flower petals raining from the heavens, and lotus blossoms springing up from the floor, were you?]
[This is a two-dimensional art style, as Host well knows. Be grateful there's something to swallow at all. Or... shall this System add a touch of purple qi to it?] (T/N: It means death energy)
'Cough. No. Let's not.'
Purple qi. Right. Purple so dark it's practically black. We're both thousands of years old, no need for theatrics.
Kaito gritted his teeth and tossed the pill into his mouth.
It dissolved the instant it touched his tongue. Endless spiritual energy, suffused with immortal qi, came flooding into his body all at once.
"System! What the—"
Before he could finish the sentence, his eyes flew open, his legs went rigid, and his entire body toppled back onto the bed like a felled tree.
[Ding. Significant increase in Host's strength detected. System update commencing...]
When Kaito regained consciousness, he had no idea how much time had passed. He turned his head and found himself still in the room.
Outside the window, it was dark.
'System. You absolute scoundrel.'
[Still here. Something to report?]
'That thing absolutely lives up to its name. Not one word of exaggeration.'
[The description was perfectly accurate. And Host appears to be in one piece.]
'Hm. System, something's different. Where's the chime?'
[Ah. This System has also upgraded. Would Host like to view the panel?]
Kaito could already feel it. Something fundamental had shifted. Whatever he had been before, it was behind him now.
'Open System panel.'
Kaito
Gender: Male
Age: 23 (Immortal)
Realm: Peak Golden Immortal (Peak Eleventh Tier)
Cultivation Method: Basic Cultivation Method
Special Abilities: [Eye of Identification], [Dimensional Gate], [Space Compression Technique]
Followers: Izayoi Sakuya, Tom
Magic Treasures: Tenkuu, Conqueror's Banner (450,000 souls)
Items: Dimensional Gate Sub-gate × 1, Dragon Ball Space Capsule Technology, Origin Explainer, Coke × 14...
Overall Rating: You are now a being whose footstep alone can set a thousand worlds bleeding. Care to test it? (￣︶￣)♦
Kaito looked at the words Peak Golden Immortal in the realm column. The corners of his mouth curled up on their own.
'System, what does "Peak Eleventh Tier" mean?'
[Host's strength has fully exceeded the rating standards of Slime World. The Myriad Worlds rating scale (Primordial Chaos Edition) is now in use.]
'Then what tier is Rimuru on the new scale?'
[Early Seventh Tier.]
'Sakuya?'
[Also Early Seventh Tier.]
'So SSS-rank maps to Seventh Tier, SS-rank to Sixth Tier, and so on down the line?'
[Correct.]
'Understood. Dismissed.'
[Oh come on (▼__▼メ;)]
'Good grief. The update really did change things. You've learned to complain.'
Knock knock knock.
"Come in."
The door swung open. Sakuya stepped inside and stopped, staring at him.
"Master! You're awake!"
"Ha. I was only out for a day. No need for the dramatics."
"Master." Sakuya's expression did not shift. "You have been unconscious for three days."
"What?"
Kaito was off the bed and in front of her in an instant.
"Three days?"
"Yes."
He reached out with his divine sense, checking the timeline directly. She was right. Three days had passed without him.
"Then Swan must be nearly at the Holy Land by now."
"Yes. According to Miss Lashara, they should arrive tomorrow."
Kaito felt a dull pang of regret. He had apparently slept through an entire stretch of the story.
"Well then. Time to go out. A senior consultant who disappears for three days straight is going to find his pay docked, and I won't stand for that."
Thinking of Lashara's instinctive relationship with money, it seemed entirely plausible. And if the founder of the Do-Nothing Organisation got his salary cut on his first assignment, he would never hear the end of it. Those troublemakers would be dining out on that story for a year.
A few minutes later, Kaito and Sakuya made their way to Swan's main hall. Several people were already seated across the sofas.
All faces Kaito recognised.
"Well, well. If it isn't my Senior Consultant. Decided to remember you have a job, have you?"
Lashara looked up as they entered. A flicker of relief crossed her eyes before her expression sharpened into something far more pointed.
"There is an excellent reason I have been absent. Allow me to explain in full..."