His mind shifted to the real threat "Kenjaku."
If Ren popped up on Kenjaku's radar right now thenn.....
"...."
He wasn't strong enough to play in that weight class yet.
He needed to farm the invaders without drawing the mastermind's direct attention.
So, how to farm 8,500 points? Ren mentally listed the possibilities:
Target 1: The Kyoto Students. Beating up Mai or Momo would probably only drop a few hundred points. Defeating Aoi Todo might trigger a decent hidden achievement, but fighting Todo was a massive waste of stamina. The guy was a physical tank. Skip.
Target 2: Juzo Kumiya. The bald curse user who wanted to turn Gojo into a coat rack. He was a solid Grade 1 threat, maybe a weak Special Grade. Taking him out before Principal Gakuganji got to him could definitely trigger a major achievement. High priority.
Target 3: Hanami. The disaster curse of the forest. This was the goldmine. Ren knew Yuji and Todo were destined to fight Hanami, but if he could step in, land a critical blow, or trigger an achievement like [Survive a Disaster Curse] or [Interrupt a Domain Expansion], the System would undoubtedly shower him in points.
"Hey. Ren."
Ren blinked, the blue interface vanishing from his sight. He dropped his chair forward so all four legs hit the floor.
Maki was standing at the front of the room, her steel staff resting against her shoulder. She had finally decided to put an end to the first-year drama. Nobara was still glaring at Yuji, but she had stopped kicking his chair.
"Are you paying attention, or just sleeping with your eyes open?" Maki asked, her amber eyes narrowing slightly.
"Fully attentive, boss," Ren said smoothly, resting his elbows on his knees. "Just waiting for my deployment orders."
Maki let out a short sigh, pulling out a rolled-up map of the campus grounds and slapping it down on the table.
"Alright, listen up," Maki commanded, her tone shifting into pure, uncompromising leadership.
"Ren," Maki said. "Satoru put you on the roster at the last possible second, which means Kyoto has zero intel on you. You're our wildcard. I want you roaming the perimeter. Don't engage the Kyoto main group unless you have to. Stick to the shadows, hunt the stray curses, and if any of us get into serious trouble, you flank them."
Ren smiled, the tactical freedom matching perfectly with his own hidden agenda. He stood up, adjusting his dark jacket.
"Copy that," Ren nodded. "I'll keep the perimeter clean."
"Good," Maki said, rolling the map back up. She slammed the end of her steel staff against the floor, the heavy thud ringing through the concrete room.
"Let's go ruin their day."
...
Mai stood near the edge of the woods, ignoring the sound of Kamo laying out their patrol routes.
She dug her fingernails into her own palms. Her face still felt uncomfortably warm. She hated the feeling. She absolutely hated the guy with the dark jacket.
A transfer student from Antarctica. A complete joke.
She dragged a hand down her face, trying to wipe away the lingering heat. It didn't work. When she had locked eyes with him in the courtyard, her entire nervous system had short-circuited.
A heavy, suffocating wave of comfort had settled over her shoulders out of nowhere. It made her muscles go slack. It made her want to drop her guard.
Mai curled her lip in disgust, her stomach twisting.
Comfort. Safety. What a massive, pathetic lie. The Zen'in clan didn't do 'safe'. Safe was a word people used right before they threw you into a pit of curses and locked the door.
She spent her entire life building walls, learning how to bite back, learning how to hold a gun so her hands wouldn't shake.
And some random guy just stood there with his hands in his pockets and made it all evaporate.
Was it a Cursed Technique? An illusion? Mind control?
She didn't know, and she didn't care. The worst part of it all was where he was standing. Right next to Maki. Maki, who left her behind to rot.
Maki, who walked around with that stupid, arrogant polearm acting like she owned the world. And this guy was just casually standing in her personal space, looking completely unbothered by the chaos around him.
Mai pulled her revolver from her leather holster. The cold steel felt grounding. Real. She flicked the cylinder open, checking the six rubber bullets resting inside. She gave it a hard spin and snapped it shut with a sharp flick of her wrist.
The loud clack of the metal made Miwa jump slightly a few feet away. Mai ignored her.
"Mai. Are you listening?" Kamo asked, his tone flat and strict.
"I hear you," Mai snapped. She shoved the revolver back onto her hip.
She didn't care about the pink-haired idiot who came out of a box. She had her own objective now.
When the alarms went off to start the event, she was going to find the dark-haired guy. And was going to point her barrel right at his forehead and pull the trigger. She wanted to see if he still looked so calm and comfortable with a rubber bullet fracturing his skull.
She was going to shoot him, and it was going to prove that whatever she felt in the courtyard was just a stupid trick.
It had to.
...
A harsh electronic siren blared over the loudspeakers. Gojo's voice echoed across the campus, cheerfully yelling some nonsense about the event officially starting.
Maki didn't hesitate. She launched herself forward, her steel staff gripped tightly. The rest of the Tokyo team moved right alongside her. Yuji and Megumi took the front, their boots tearing chunks of dirt from the ground. Nobara, Panda, and Toge followed close behind. Nobody looked back. Within seconds, the dense tree line swallowed them whole.
The dust settled. Ren stood completely alone near the starting line.
He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and turned away from the main path. Maki ordered him to stick to the perimeter. He was perfectly fine with that. It kept him off the Kyoto team's radar and gave him absolute freedom to hunt.
He stepped into the thick brush. The heavy canopy blocked out the afternoon sun, plunging the outer woods into deep shadows.
Ren pulled his thumb back. The dark metal guard of Nightfall clicked faintly against the scabbard.
Soon
A massive crash echoed from the center of the forest. A flock of birds scattered frantically into the sky. A heavy shockwave rattled the branches above Ren's head, shaking leaves loose.
Yuji and Todo. They had already found each other.