Chapter 9: Comrade
Kazuma glared at the "20,000" flashing on the screen, his face twisted with a mix of rage and disbelief.
What was this? A reward for humiliation? Points earned from his social death?
He slumped beside a reeking trash bin, staring at the translucent interface and letting out a howl that seemed to come from the very depths of his soul.
Twenty thousand reputation points sounded like a fortune. But just thinking about how he had "earned" them made his stomach churn. The repeated waves of shame from public exposure kept washing over his fragile nerves.
This damn system was mocking him.
Frustrated, he swiped through the menu, desperate to find something to soothe his wounded pride. Then, his gaze landed on the "Bond Summon" option.
Could it be…?
A spark of hope flared in his chest. He clicked eagerly. A line of familiar, PTSD‑inducing avatars and names popped up.
[Aqua — Summon requires 5,000,000 reputation points]
[Megumin — Summon requires 3,000,000 reputation points]
[Darkness — Summon requires 3,000,000 reputation points]
"…Huh?"
Kazuma rubbed his eyes, convinced he wasn't imagining the long string of zeros.
"What the hell?! That idiot goddess is worth five million?!" He jabbed at Aqua's avatar, cursing violently.
"All she does is cry, rack up debts, and cause trouble! What else could she possibly offer? System, are you out of your mind? This pricing has to be rigged!"
But as he ranted, his voice gradually faltered.
Scenes of the blue-haired goddess flashed involuntarily in his mind—clumsy as she was, she could cast high-level healing spells and resurrection with ease.
In this strange, dangerous new world, a mobile, infinite-resurrection fountain…
"Damn it… maybe… she really is worth it."
Kazuma admitted the truth reluctantly. A walking revival token, no matter how annoying, was undeniably a top-tier survival asset.
He glanced at Megumin and Darkness. One was a one-shot explosion freak who collapsed after every attack; the other was a hopelessly clumsy knight who inexplicably enjoyed being hit.
They were expensive too, but compared to Aqua, they were somewhat "cheaper."
What use was any of it? Right now, he had only the 20,000 reputation points he'd painfully earned at the cost of his dignity. Not enough for even a fraction of what he'd need.
The overwhelming despair hit him all over again.
After so much hard work!
In that cursed other world, he had clawed his way up from a rookie adventurer. Through cunning, danger, scams, and near-death struggles, he had amassed a fortune, moved into a mansion, and was on the brink of living a dream surrounded by beautiful women.
And now?
One blink and everything was gone. No, worse than gone. At least when he first arrived in that world, he still had a tracksuit.
Now, he only had a towel that could fall off at any moment and "Excalibur" scrawled across his stomach.
"My EX-level luck… Where is it?! Is it region-locked? Does it not count in this world?!"
Kazuma felt tears prickling at the corners of his eyes.
No. He couldn't just sit and wait to die. His immediate priority was to get some clothes and find a place to settle down.
He inhaled deeply, tied the towel around his waist as tightly as he could, and made sure it wouldn't betray him again.
Then, he activated his masterful "Stealth" skill, clinging to the wall like a gecko, and cautiously poked his head out of the alley.
The street outside was busy, but the sirens were gone. The two cops seemed to have given up.
"Phew…"
Kazuma exhaled slowly, ready to slip out and "borrow" a set of clothes using his theft skill.
But the moment he lifted his foot, a white blur flashed past the corner of his eye.
It dashed out from the street corner at incredible speed, followed by shouts of "Stop! Freeze!" and two panting NYPD officers.
Kazuma looked closely.
His jaw dropped, eyes wide with disbelief.
It was a man.
A man, completely naked, just like him.
The only difference was that this man held a wooden sword in one hand and a bundle of what looked like kimono fabric in the other. He had a wild mess of naturally wavy silver hair and a pair of dead-fish eyes that seemed bored by the entire world.
Their gazes locked in the middle of the chaotic street.
Time froze.
No words.
In Kazuma's eyes: "Holy crap, you're being chased naked too?"
In the silver-haired man's eyes: "Huh? Another half-naked comrade?"
Both saw the same heavy aura of social death lingering around the other, the kind shared by men who had fallen to the very bottom of dignity.
Ah. A kindred spirit.
Almost at the same moment, Kazuma noticed a faintly glowing white scale symbol hovering above the stranger's head.
[Neutral Faction Player]
And the man, known as Sakata Gintoki, clearly noticed the green shield floating above Kazuma's head as well.
[Guardian Faction Player]
So he was a player. And from a different faction too.
For a brief instant, Kazuma felt an odd warmth — a shared sense of misery, a silent "Brother, you got screwed over too?"
He almost wanted to grab the guy's hand and shout, "Comrade!"
But this touching moment lasted less than three seconds.
The silver-haired man's dead-fish eyes suddenly lit up with dazzling brilliance. The way his expression changed was like a dying man spotting water in the desert… or a criminal spotting a perfect scapegoat.
Without a shred of hesitation, he lifted his free hand and pointed straight at Kazuma's hiding spot. He shouted at the cops behind him with the excitement of a man discovering a new continent:
"Hey! Officers! Over here! There's another one! A naked pervert even worse than me! Hurry, grab him! He didn't even take any clothes!"
"…"
Kazuma's expression went from shock to blankness to contorted rage.
He felt something in his mind snap clean in half.
The two exhausted cops, who were about to give up the chase, looked in the direction Gintoki pointed… and sure enough, spotted a half-naked Asian man with only a towel barely clinging to his waist.
A new target restored their morale instantly.
"You absolute piece of—!!!"
Kazuma let out a devastated roar and abandoned stealth entirely.
He had never in his life met someone this shameless.
So this was the Neutral Faction? Were all players in it this rotten? Selling out a "comrade" for survival without even blinking!
"Hahaha! Thanks, man! See you never!"
Gintoki's gleeful laughter echoed, along with the sound of his footsteps as he used Kazuma as perfect bait and escaped without looking back.
"I'll see you in hell! You just wait! I'm going to steal everything you have, even your underwear! No wait! He wasn't wearing any underwear to begin with. I'll rip out every last hair on your stupid head!!!"
Kazuma didn't care about anything else. He scrambled to his feet and ran after the silver-haired man with the naturally wavy hair.
The sound of sirens blared again, closer and louder, and this time coming from even more directions.
And thus, New York witnessed yet another bizarre scene.
A naked silver-haired man charging ahead.
A towel-wearing naked man chasing him.
And behind them, an entire crowd of panting NYPD officers thundering down the street.
"Why are you running after me?!" Gintoki yelled while glancing back. "You damn pervert! Pick another street!"
"You've got some nerve calling me a pervert!" Kazuma was running out of breath, but he refused to admit defeat. "If it wasn't for you, you bastard, I would have already escaped! Think you can shake me off? No way! If I'm going down, you're going down with me!"
"Who wants to die with some guy who has 'Excalibur' scribbled across his stomach?! What kind of taste is that?!"
"Shut up, you wavy-haired idiot who can't even hold onto his clothes! If you've got guts, stop running!"
Two men from two entirely different worlds, in the worst, most humiliating, and most absurd situation imaginable, found themselves accidentally forming an alliance of naked fugitives in the streets of New York.