Inside the pure-white Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
Nagumo Miyabi had just finished paying the points required for a simulated "Darkness Devil" sparring session.
The panel before him displaying their class-evaluation balance made Ryuuen—who happened to catch a glimpse—twitch an eyelid.
[Class Evaluation Points: 5,235.]
"Tch…" Ryuuen couldn't help clicking his tongue. "I knew you lot had farmed a decent pile of points, but watching you casually blow two thousand of them like it's nothing…"
"It's honestly hard to imagine just how strong the monsters you'll run into later must be."
"Hell… even the Mystery Shop might not have an item that counters them."
Nagumo Miyabi didn't deny Ryuuen's deduction.
He merely let out a soft sigh.
"There was no other choice. The situation was dire back then—if I wanted everyone to survive, this was the only move available."
"Total annihilation on the spot, or planting a hidden risk for later… I do understand which one to pick."
Nagumo Miyabi straightened his collar, recovering that arrogant composure. "But as long as your strength keeps pace, any hidden risk is just a stepping stone."
Ryuuen gave a cold snort and said no more.
He admitted that while Nagumo Miyabi—this sly old veteran—had private habits he couldn't approve of, when it came to nerve and decisiveness, the man was indeed worthy of his current standing.
Just then, the Time Chamber—once as bright as day—suddenly dimmed.
"Ribbit… ribbit…"
A crisp croaking of frogs echoed abruptly through the pure-white space.
Immediately after, a darkness so deep it felt viscous spread out from the center of the arena like spilled ink.
Along both sides of the dark passage, the half-bodies of astronaut corpses pressed their palms together, forming a corridor.
Even knowing full well this was only a simulated sparring partner inside the Time Chamber, one that couldn't truly claim a life—
—when the Darkness Devil slowly emerged from that row of corpses, that primal, soul-piercing terror still made more than a few people present skip half a heartbeat, cold sweat instantly beading on their foreheads.
If not for being battle-hardened veterans, they likely wouldn't even have had the right to look it in the eye and summon the courage to resist.
Chris sized up the Darkness Devil with keen interest.
Naturally, he noticed that this perfectly replicated Darkness Devil was fixing its attention on him and Ichinose Honami.
…as if it were a little unresigned.
He turned to look at Nagumo Miyabi, who had already raised a hand to stop the upperclassmen behind him from swarming forward, preparing to personally lead the charge onto the field.
"This pressure…" Chris rubbed his chin and said to Nagumo Miyabi, "it's at full peak strength, with no weakening whatsoever. Are you sure you want to go in head-on?"
Nagumo Miyabi, his back to him, waved a hand casually.
"Right after the last exam ended, I redeemed the [Spider-Man Bloodline] and [Sianweistan] that showed up in the very first shop refresh, straight from the presiding god's Space."
"Kiriyama, meanwhile, went straight for the [Adam Warhammer Modification Kit]… We're not who we used to be anymore, so naturally we want to first see where our limits lie."
Nagumo Miyabi shot a glance at Kiryuuin, a trace of regret in his voice. "The only catch is that Mystery Shop items can only be purchased within the presiding god's Space. So even though Kiryuuin killed an Upper Rank demon on the exam field, she couldn't update her gear in time—which put her at a slight disadvantage."
Chris gave Nagumo Miyabi a thoughtful look and asked:
"Come to think of it, this Black Sphere gear you're using now—it's worth a hundred points, right?… How does it feel?"
"Not bad," Nagumo Miyabi replied offhandedly. "But just 'not bad,' nothing more. I don't feel it offers particularly great value for the cost. It's more like a benchmark—something to intuitively show you what an item worth a hundred points is supposed to be like."
Chris nodded in agreement. "As the standard equipment of the Black Sphere system, it's reasonable that it represents that corresponding value."
"But the Black Sphere gear spans a huge range. I've been thinking—the hundred-point Black Sphere equipment might represent a corresponding branch of the tech tree… I wonder whether the Item Illustrated Guide can list the hidden advanced functions just from looking at the picture. I'm a little curious about that."
In truth, as the mastermind behind the scenes, Chris knew perfectly well.
When it came purely to value for cost, the Black Sphere gear really did get worse the further along you went, with no intermediate transitional options at all.
Especially compared to the Mystery Shop's items—drawn from all the myriad worlds and heavens, and with room to be upgraded—it was indeed a weak point.
Take the [Gorilla Suit] on Nagumo Miyabi, for instance—it had actually been slightly buffed by Chris.
Otherwise, if it couldn't even beat a newborn Ant King, it would look a bit too pathetic—after all, in the original work, this was top-tier equipment that had cost the Nurarihyon several lives.
Things like the Gravity Gun, the flying motorcycle, and the large piloted mecha—as classic representatives of GANTZ—
Chris still wanted them to have some presence.
Unfortunately, because they were so expensive, hardly anyone could actually afford them.
And so, Chris had high hopes that Nagumo Miyabi could become the Classroom of the Elite version of "Oka Hachiro."
Just as the two of them were talking—
The Darkness Devil, now formally stepping onto the field, cocked its neck.
It seemed to be testing whether it could attack Chris and the others, who stood outside the simulation zone.
Seeing this, Nagumo Miyabi wasted no words and stepped straight into the Darkness Devil's domain.
Because this was a hundred-percent replica of the Darkness Devil, its power and personality were entirely identical to the real thing.
So before they went in, Chris kindly offered a reminder: "The Darkness Devil is undying and immortal within darkness. Physical attacks are very unlikely to work."
Nagumo Miyabi waved a hand behind his back, confident. "I've read the notes Ichinose compiled. I understand, naturally."
"Kiriyama's got the Adam Warhammer template now… and the [Purgatory Invocation] in his hands isn't just for show, either."
Watching the backs of Nagumo Miyabi and the others get swallowed by the darkness—
Amanatsu Kazuha silently sidled up beside Chris, her red twin-tails swaying faintly.
"Senpai, based on your experience facing the Darkness Devil, how long do you think the Student Council President and the others can hold out?"
At this, Sakayanagi Arisu, standing nearby, gave a light laugh.
"Amanatsu-san, do you have so little faith in the upperclassmen? Perhaps they'll win, you never know."
Amanatsu Kazuha pursed her lips.
"I hardly think a bunch of upperclassmen who just got lucky farming some points could be stronger than you senpai."
"Even you had to rely on the shortcut the Tengong Society provided in order to win. Let alone the thing in there now, which is a fully-fledged, complete-form Darkness Devil."
Chris, however, remained noncommittal. "The upperclassmen went through the midterm exam too. Paired with the freshly upgraded gear they've got this time, maybe they could pull off a win?"
Though as the presiding god, Chris knew better than anyone.
In the upperclassmen's midterm exam, because Horikita Manabu had been dragged off by a rift in space-time, one lucky rank-and-filer had slid up the rankings to claim one of the top-three reward slots.
Unfortunately, in a bloodbath like the midterm exam—facing Decepticons and ghouls—it was hard for anyone to guarantee surviving without a single death all the way to victory.
And in Sunday's supplementary exam, quite a few more met their unfortunate end when ambushed by Catwoman Deathrattle and facing the Ant King.
Among them was that very lucky soul who had climbed the rankings to snag a reward.
As a result, the only upperclassmen who actually still held the midterm's mystery rewards were, in fact, just Nagumo Miyabi and Kiriyama Ikuha—two people.
Of the two, Nagumo Miyabi, for self-preservation, had chosen Hassan of the Cursed Arm's [Presence Concealment] skill; while Kiriyama Ikuha had chosen Cú Chulainn's [Protection from Arrows], ensuring he wouldn't get one-shot by some out-of-nowhere long-range ambush.
But even counting these trump cards, plus their upgraded gear, plus the Nen abilities plundered from the Chimera Ants—
Chris was absolutely certain they couldn't win.
No matter how many abilities you had, unless you could ascend dimensions outright like Lucy in Lucy—
—otherwise, in a fight spanning too many orders of magnitude, all these flashy techniques would simply shatter at a single touch.
Sure enough, the battle played out just as Chris and Amanatsu Kazuha had predicted.
As Nagumo Miyabi and the others formally opened battle with the Darkness Devil—
In a single exchange—
Several invisible slashes flashed through the darkness.
"Squelch! Squelch!"
The vast majority of the upperclassmen who'd followed in to provide support with the X-GUN were instantly sliced into chunks, dissolving into white light and being ruled "killed in action"—out.
In an instant, only three people remained within the domain of darkness: Nagumo Miyabi, Kiriyama Ikuha, and Kiryuuin Fuka.
Nagumo Miyabi had barely dodged thanks to the early warning of his [Spider-Sense];
Kiriyama Ikuha had forcibly shifted position using the deflection of [Protection from Arrows] and the [Sianweistan] built into his warhammer;
while Kiryuuin Fuka had simply relied on [Beast King Transformation] stacked with a vampire's regenerative power, tanking the slashes and ignoring the wounds outright.
Even so, by the second round of the clash—
Only Nagumo Miyabi was left on the field, still barely holding on.
The reason was simple: the stacked [High-Speed Regeneration] was, in essence, not much different from a vampire's recovery ability—once you were severely destroyed, there was no escaping it either;
and [Protection from Arrows] could only dodge flying projectiles and thrown objects—against the Darkness Devil's attacks, which could switch into slashes, it only worked the first time.
Fast and high-damage, it easily broke through Kiriyama's and Kiryuuin's endurance thresholds.
It was only Nagumo Miyabi—by stacking onto himself all of the Nen ability obtained in Sunday's exam and the [High-Speed Regeneration] dropped by Muzan Kibutsuji today—who, with the dual support of [Spider-Sense] and [Presence Concealment], could barely spar with the Darkness Devil.
But in pure darkness, in a war of attrition against the very embodiment of the concept of darkness, there was of course no way he could ever outlast it.
"Kiriyama!"
Just as Kiriyama Ikuha's cyborg body suffered massive damage and he was on the verge of dying, Nagumo Miyabi let out a sharp shout.
Kiriyama Ikuha understood at once.
Without hesitation, he switched on every light source on his body, turning himself into a giant living target!
The moment the Darkness Devil was drawn to the light and raised a hand toward him—
Kiriyama Ikuha detonated [Purgatory Invocation] outright!
"KABOOM—!!!"
A blinding, blazing pillar of firelight surged skyward, illuminating the entire domain of darkness.
Kiriyama Ikuha, along with Kiryuuin Fuka who got caught in the aftershock, dissolved into white light and—after a dazed moment—reappeared unharmed in the safe zone not far from Chris.
As for Nagumo Miyabi, he used the cover of that fleeting flash of firelight.
Thrusters at full blast, he shot like a meteor straight at the Darkness Devil's face, Black Sphere combat blade in hand, slashing down!
It looked as though he was about to accomplish a great feat.
But there was no panic on the Darkness Devil's face.
Pure, ink-thick blackness instantly welled up over its body, wrapping it entirely and forcibly evading this would-be fatal blow.
Immediately after—
Once the firelight faded and darkness reclaimed dominion,
the Darkness Devil pressed its palms together.
It unleashed the very move it hadn't had time to fire earlier against Chris—because the [Enma Blade] had cut through space—Heaven and Earth, One Lifespan!
"Crack—"
An invisible crushing force descended, and the space within the entire domain of darkness began to be annihilated, like a wad of paper being crumpled to bits!
Nagumo Miyabi was one move too slow—there was simply no time to escape.
As his field of vision distorted, he vanished from the Darkness Devil's domain and reappeared, somewhat disheveled, beside Chris.
Looking at Nagumo Miyabi—defeated, yet with a gaze still sharp as ever—Chris praised him without reservation.
"That was impressive… Your coordination just now was practically flawless. Feels like with a bit more targeted gear upgrades, you might really pull off a win."
But Nagumo Miyabi shook his head, flatly denying it.
"That little gap that's missing—that's forever."
"Without a way to break through his last life-saving move—that absolute defense—even ten more explosions of the level we just pulled off would be useless."
He pushed back his blond hair, somewhat mussed from the fight, terrifyingly rational. "What's more, there's no way every high-point BOSS shares the Darkness Devil's weakness. If we run into a high-point monster that doesn't fall for this trick, blindly recycling the old playbook could easily lead to disaster."
Ryuuen, listening from the side, couldn't help sighing.
"Shame the Black Sphere banned the [Enma Blade] that can cut through space… Otherwise, with a special item like that, it'd save a whole lot of trouble."
He looked at Nagumo Miyabi. "By the way, watching your fight just now, it seemed like none of you really showed off any special abilities of your own? Are you all going the pure brute-force, raw-stats route?"
"If that's the case, then I'd recommend you buy a [Soul-Release Blade] and give it a try."
"This thing slashes directly at the soul—against enemies without special resistance, it works wonders."
Chris picked up the thread as well.
"Actually, that [Magical Girl Mystery Box] is worth buying and trying too. From what I saw after Ichinose and Sakayanagi Arisu redeemed theirs, it seems you can carry out further upgrades and development with the presiding god afterward."
"Besides, the whole magical-girl system is basically pretty idealist, isn't it?"
"As long as your conviction is strong enough, bursting out with power beyond your limits in a hopeless situation isn't exactly impossible."
At this, Nagumo Miyabi lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then nodded seriously.
"Fair point. I'll consider it."
As he spoke, he tapped his Black Sphere wristwatch a few times, peeling several item capsules off his body and handing them respectively to Kiriyama Ikuha and Kiryuuin Fuka.
"[Scale Powder of Love's Fountain] can create a domain-like effect—sensing the flow of presence and analyzing enemy intel. It pairs nicely with your warhammer's suppressive firepower, Kiriyama. As for Menthuthuyoupi's ability, it boosts physical prowess in step with rising rage—which also makes a decent match for your Imperial Arms, Kiryuuin."
"As for the final reward dropped by this exam's target—it's Muzan Kibutsuji's regenerative ability."
"As long as any flesh and blood remains, it can regenerate. This thing has too high a margin for error, so I'll be keeping it for my own use for now."
Having distributed the spoils, Nagumo Miyabi turned his head to look at Tachibana Akane, whose expression was complicated.
"As compensation for the fright of forcibly triggering the official match this time, I'll allocate, from my own account, thirty S-Points' worth of usage rights to each third-year class."
"You can also pool together and discuss how to buy gear among yourselves."
"No problem with that, Tachibana-senpai?"
Tachibana Akane drew a deep breath and nodded.
She really had no reason to refuse.
After all, Nagumo Miyabi could have just as easily left the third-years to fend for themselves…
The fact that he was now willing to dip into his own pocket to buy them equipment was, in a sense, already a courtesy extended for the sake of the missing Horikita Manabu.
But for some reason,
looking at Nagumo Miyabi's beaming, smiling face, Tachibana Akane couldn't shake a strong sense of déjà vu.
She kept feeling that accepting these points was like accepting a "betrothal gift" from Nagumo Miyabi to the upperclassmen.
As if the subtext were telling her:
Take the money, and from now on be a good girl and do as you're told—stop interfering in his business with Horikita Manabu.
And yet, these were life-saving points; there was simply no way she could refuse.
This feeling of being cornered by an open scheme was the most uncomfortable of all.
Seeing Tachibana Akane's constipated look—wanting to say something yet holding back—Ichinose Honami leaned in with a hint of worry and asked softly:
"Tachibana-senpai, are you all right?"
Nagumo Miyabi, however, chuckled from the side, his tone relaxed.
"No need to worry, Ichinose."
"Our Student Council Secretary is a steady, reliable person with formidable competence."
"Right now she can only be agonizing over whether to pool all these points together to maximize returns, or split them up to save everyone's lives…"
Hearing this, Kiriyama Ikuha, standing to the side, thought it over and spoke up of his own accord.
"In that case, I'll fund a [Blank Card Box] for the second- and third-years. It can all be handed over to you, Tachibana-senpai, to distribute."
Tachibana Akane fell silent for a moment, then finally, lips pressed together, accepted their goodwill with a wry smile.
As for Chris—
he quietly watched Kiryuuin Fuka crush the capsule Nagumo Miyabi had handed over, gaining Youpi's trait of Nen ability that rose with rage.
Stroking his chin, he silently appraised it in his heart.
Actually, if he spent the points to upgrade this ability back to the complete Menthuthuyoupi template, then paired it with the beast-transformation of the Lion King Imperial Arms—
—wouldn't that just be a budget version of the Hulk?
But whether it was Youpi or the Hulk, both were too ugly…
He felt it'd be better to set Kiryuuin up with a Pretty Cure template instead.
Every punch landing on flesh, every kick striking the heart, complete with an idealist buff built in—fighting like that would be an absolute feast for the eyes!
The only question was which outfit would suit best… the Supreme Angel?
It didn't seem to match her white hair very well, though.
Honestly, Chris was a bit stumped.
After all, the outfits he'd previously set Kiryuuin up with were all a bit too much to wear out in public.
Just as Chris couldn't help but start playing dress-up with Kiryuuin in his mind—
As if sensing Chris's somewhat peculiar gaze, Kiryuuin Fuka abruptly turned her head.
Battle-lust burning in her wine-red eyes, she tossed her long silver-white hair and looked straight at Chris, challenging him:
"The trivial matters are all taken care of."
"So then, Chris-kouhai."
"Before we join forces to hunt down the real Darkness Devil later…"
"Would you let me see, with my own eyes, the full extent of your current strength first?"
____
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