A new member joined, with the name—Golden Toilet?
The nickname actually made A2 pause. Without realizing it, she even let a faint smile slip.
Inside the channel, the others also seemed amused by the handle and started talking.
[Fallen Angel Kuroneko: @Golden Toilet, welcome to the Cross-Dimensional Domain—beyond even the reach of gods.
Tendo Civil Security Company: You picked a name like that? Are you rich? Can you give me a golden toilet? A golden toilet brush would do too.]
The one using the handle "Tendo Civil Security Company" seemed to be living in particularly straitened circumstances, badly in need of money. In her world, gold was also a precious material, so she came off as a bit of a money-grubber.
To be honest, if someone really did have a golden toilet and wanted to gift it to her, it might not be impossible. That was one of the absurd functions of this [Cross-Dimensional Channel].
A cross-world invitation—this was the channel's most unbelievable transfer capability.
As long as you sent a [Cross-World Invitation] to a specific member, or to all members, anyone who accepted could travel to the sender's world.
However, "Tendo Civil Security Company"—A2 mentally shortened it to Ms. Tendo—had already used an invitation once, which meant she couldn't use it again for now.
That first invitation happened right after Ms. Tendo joined. She'd been so hungry she was dizzy, so she burned the feature in a rush. She wanted food and invited a few people over, hoping they'd bring supplies.
Once they learned how dangerous her world actually was—teetering on collapse because of a virus—the ones who accepted without hesitation were terrified.
They were afraid of getting infected, or worse, of carrying the virus back and triggering an apocalypse in their own worlds.
But according to Ms. Whisperer, who also went along, it seemed that returning didn't bring any bacteria with you. It was as if you were sterilized on the way back.
Ms. Whisperer had performed a comprehensive physical check before leaving. After returning, she ran a full analysis to see whether she'd brought back any pathogens.
The result was zero.
And the departure and return time, in her own world, showed almost no change at all.
Meaning that no matter how long you spent in the inviter's world, returning to your own world was effectively instantaneous.
As an aside, they came back in a hurry as well—not because they chose to withdraw, but because Ms. Tendo panicked and forcibly sent everyone back, afraid that staying longer would increase the risk of infection.
Another question was how much a person could carry when invited.
The answer was only one cubic meter.
That one-cubic-meter space was something every channel member possessed. You could open it at will, put items inside, or take items out.
As for whether you could travel while physically carrying a mountain of gear on your body, the current working theory was that it depended on your own physical ability. If you could carry it, it would come with you. If you couldn't, it wouldn't.
Anything placed beside you, however, would not transfer.
So why couldn't they do a second [Cross-World Invitation] right now?
Because the function was on cooldown.
If anyone wanted to use it, they had to wait until the cooldown ended.
As for when it would end, no one knew.
If you were online and opened the channel's settings, you could find the [Cross-World Invitation] button.
Right now it was still greyed out, meaning it couldn't be used.
Once it lit up, who would be allowed to use it?
There were no restrictions. Anyone could use it. It came down to who was fastest.
[Busujima Kendo Style: Did another person join?
Fallen Angel Kuroneko: You're finally online! @Busujima Kendo Style, your world is about to have a huge problem, a zombie crisis!
Busujima Kendo Style: Wait. What zombie crisis? My world?
Busujima Kendo Style: You found something about my world?
Fallen Angel Kuroneko: A manga. It's called "Highschool of the Dead." One of the female leads has the same name as you, and even the school is the same.]
The chat window became a two-person exchange, while everyone else stayed silent, trying not to interrupt the flow of information.
Based on the plot Ms. Fallen Angel Kuroneko had seen, Ms. "Busujima Kendo Style" was about to face a sudden biohazard outbreak.
People infected by the virus would turn into walking corpses, attacking the living, biting the living, infecting the living, and converting them into zombies.
The exact date of the outbreak was unclear, but it would happen during cherry blossom season, likely not long after the start of the school term.
[Busujima Kendo Style: That means the outbreak might be less than a week away.
Fallen Angel Kuroneko: Huh? How can you infer the timing so precisely?
Busujima Kendo Style: Because I'm on break right now, and school starts again in about a week. It's also April, and we're moving up into our third year.]
According to Ms. Fallen Angel Kuroneko's intel, when the zombie outbreak happened, "Saeko Busujima" was a third-year student.
That was how Ms. "Busujima Kendo Style" arrived at the time estimate.
At this moment, however, A2 wasn't paying attention to the channel chat at all.
She was staring in shock.
After the shock came confusion, then a jolt of panic.
She had simply opened Golden Toilet's profile to take a look. There was nothing filled out.
Then she noticed an invitation button. It was greyed out, but she tapped it anyway.
Normally, that shouldn't do anything. Grey meant the invitation was unavailable.
So what invitation was it?
A single-target invitation, to invite that person to her world.
Yes, there were two types of invitations. One was a targeted invitation. The other was a multi-person invitation.
But A2 hadn't expected this.
Her invitation went through.
It was too strange. A greyed-out state was supposed to mean the invitation feature was still cooling down, that no invitation could be sent.
It didn't have to be done through the settings menu either. The settings option was the "invite everyone" function. Targeted invites were more cumbersome and required entering a person's profile.
So what was happening?
A coincidence.
At the exact instant she tapped, the world invitation cooldown ended.
That was all it took.
A freak alignment of timing, and she snatched the invitation window by accident.
[Fallen Angel Kuroneko: Wait, the one called… Eh? Eh? Eh? What is this?
Tendo Civil Security Company: The world invite cooldown ended? That reaction speed is insane. I checked five seconds ago! Damn it, I missed it.
Dr. Katsuki: So it was the silent one, "A2," and she invited the brand-new member. Interesting.]
Because the channel also displayed a system-style notification, everyone online knew that A2 had just sent a world invitation to the newly joined member.
What was she supposed to do now?
Right, she could cancel it.
Cancel. Where was the cancel button? Where?
Found it.
A2 was about to confirm the cancellation when her tap landed on empty air, as if the interface slipped out from under her.
Because—
["Golden Toilet" has accepted the invitation.]
(End of Chapter)
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