Chapter 18: Seito: "You Kidding? Like I'd Be Scared of Her?!"
"Alright, you guys log off first. I'm going to stay on for a while longer."
Seito wasn't ready to call it a night. He had a few more things to test.
"Aren't you worried you won't be able to wake up tomorrow?" Sally asked, raising an eyebrow. "Hiratsuka-sensei already gave you an earful today."
"No big deal!" Seito waved her off dismissively. "Worst case, I pull an all-nighter and sleep through class tomorrow. It's not like I'm there for the lectures anyway."
"Fair enough. We're heading out then."
With that, Maple and the others teleported to the safe zone and vanished into shafts of white light.
Once they were gone, Seito opened his friend list and searched for Haruno's IGN. He planned to party up with her for a few quests. As for why he didn't ask Yukino? Simple—she had school tomorrow and wouldn't be able to stay on long enough for a real grind.
[Ding! You are now friends with 'SunnyCat.']
SunnyCat: "Seito-chan~ Why the sudden interest in little old me?"
Sei: "Did you and your sister coordinate these cat-themed nicknames?"
SunnyCat: "Guilty as charged. Now, answer my question."
Sei: "Send coordinates. I'm coming to find you."
SunnyCat: "Oh? No school tomorrow? I heard Shizuka-chan is your homeroom teacher."
Sei: "You kidding? Like I'd be scared of her?!"
SunnyCat: "[Coordinates.jpg]"
Looking at the map, Seito saw that Haruno was at the entrance of the Floor 7 Boss Labyrinth. Since it was a wilderness zone, he couldn't teleport. He donned the mask he'd borrowed from Sora, and with a surge of spatial energy, he took to the sky, gliding toward the Labyrinth.
....
Floor 7: Boss Labyrinth Entrance.
The area was packed with elite players from various top-tier guilds. Most were from the Kyushu server—hardly surprising since the servers were regionally locked. Even the Laughing Coffin members they'd met earlier had to be physically located in Kyushu to log in here.
"Can we clear Floor 10 by tomorrow?" a young man, clearly a wealthy scion, asked his assistant.
"Certainly, Young Master," an elderly man in a butler-style avatar replied. "The logistics are in place."
Scenes like this were common. The "Front-Line Raiders" were almost exclusively composed of the rich, the powerful, and the exceptionally skilled.
Nearby, Haruno Yukinoshita and Touka Takanashi were standing with the Yukinoshita family's private corps. Standing beside them were two women casually leaning against a stone pillar, smoking.
They were none other than Seito's homeroom and assistant teachers: Shizuka Hiratsuka and Sae Chabashira.
"You're saying that Seito brat is coming here?" Shizuka asked, exhaling a plume of smoke.
"That's right," Haruno replied, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "He even said he was going to 'show you who's boss' when he gets here."
"Oh? Show me who's boss?" Shizuka cracked her knuckles, taking a deep drag of her cigarette. "It seems that boy is overdue for some 'extra-curricular' discipline."
Haruno grinned, clearly enjoying the impending chaos.
The presence of four beautiful women naturally attracted a lot of attention, but most players stayed away. Between Shizuka's unrefined smoking habits and Sae's icy aura, they weren't exactly approachable. Besides, in this game, an NPC Elf or a Beast-girl was often considered "sweeter" than a high-maintenance human.
"Look! In the sky! It's the top player, Sei!"
A player pointed upward, his voice echoing through the clearing. Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at the figure descending from the heavens. Players who had just logged in for the first time today frantically asked their guides about him.
"Who is that? He can fly?!"
"Young Master, that is , one of the top three players in the world. A true Top-tier gamer!"
"Can we recruit him into the guild?"
"Unlikely. 'Sei' and the 'Blank' siblings have never joined a guild. They're independent monsters."
Seito hovered over the crowd, his eyes scanning the masses like a hawk. Look at all these leeks, he thought. If I robbed this entire group, I'd be set for life.
But he wasn't stupid. Picking a fight with many guilds at once was suicide. I'll wait until they're isolated, he decided.
He spotted Haruno's group and drifted down.
"SunnyCat, looks like your family hired quite the army," Seito remarked, glancing at the Yukinoshita guards.
"It's a modest start," Haruno shrugged before pointing behind her with a smirk. "But look who else is here."
Seito followed her finger and froze. Shizuka and Sae were staring him down, arms crossed, smoke curling from their lips.
Step. Step. Step.
Shizuka walked up and rested a heavy hand on Seito's shoulder. "I must say, kid... you actually look like someone important in this getup."
"Watch the tone! Do you know who you're talking to?" Seito reflexively drew his Chokuto, pointing the tip toward Shizuka.
"I'm warning you, Hiratsuka-sensei, this is God's Domain, my turf."
"Oh? So you're planning on dropping out of school then?"
"..."
Seito slowly sheathed his blade. He wanted to look cool, but he knew the laws of the universe. Until he could physically (or digitally) overpower Shizuka, he was still her student. One day, he vowed. One day...
"That's enough," Sae Chabashira said,
snuffing out her cigarette. Her face remained a mask of icy indifference as she looked at Seito. "Are you here to challenge the Boss?"
"No," Seito shook his head, shifting his focus. "But I'm curious. What's the intel on the Floor 7 Boss?"
If the difficulty was manageable, he might try to solo it. If not, he wasn't going to waste his time.
"I'll brief you," Haruno said, her playful demeanor vanishing as she shifted into "Gamer Mode."
"The Boss is called the [Fallen General]. It's a physical-type boss with insane movement speed. It has three single-target bursts, one massive AOE, and a self-buff that triggers at 30% HP. Total health: 1,000,000."
Thank you for reading.