Kurosaki Rei practically strolled out of the prison.
All he could say was that the guards' professionalism left much to be desired—though even if they'd gone all out to stop him, he was confident he could have left without a scratch.
Breaking out after killing people wasn't a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Although the Terminal Space clearly wanted him to obediently participate in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, he had no interest in that kind of ladder-climbing gameplay.
What was truly lamentable was that among the tournament's fighters, quite a few genuinely just wanted a worthy opponent—a good, clean fight.
But the very nature of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament ensured that it would never be pure.
Behind the blood-soaked bouts lay the competition of merchants' interests. To put it bluntly, fighters were nothing more than toys for businessmen.
Those men sat neatly dressed in the stands, sipping tea and snacking as they watched fighters tear each other apart—no different from the nobles of the ancient Roman colosseum, their laughter tinged with the smell of blood.
This was not the kind of fighting tournament Kurosaki Rei envisioned.
And with his current strength, he had no interest in grinding through preliminaries all the way to the finals.
He would still go to the Kengan matches—but not as a challenger, and certainly not as anyone's dog.
What he wanted was an equal partnership.
The prison break had another important reason as well: his missions.
[Main Quest – Phase One: Asura]
Objective: Win first place in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament ten days from now and display the true form of Asura.
Difficulty: Easy ~ Hard
Reward: 10,000 Terminal Coins
Failure Penalty: All attributes -1
There was only this one main quest. The reward was generous, and the failure penalty wasn't particularly harsh.
Although the difficulty ceiling was marked fairly high, Kurosaki Rei felt that this wasn't what he should be focusing on right now.
[Hunt Quest: Eliminate Violator No. 41213802]
Objective: During your stay in this world, kill Violator No. 41213802. When the Violator enters within 10 kilometers of the Pioneer, their exact location will be revealed.
PS: Pioneer, you must eliminate the Violator before they come into contact with the "Seed."
Difficulty: Average ~ Certain Death
Reward: Bronze Pioneer Medal ×1
Failure Penalty: All attributes -2
Kurosaki Rei hadn't expected that right after becoming a Pioneer, work would already come knocking.
According to the "contract," wasn't this supposed to be a Judicator's job?
The Terminal Space really knew how to squeeze labor out of people. Just how much work did it want him to do in a single mission world?
He was grumbling internally because he had yet another special mission.
[Pioneer Mission: Origin Seed]
Objective: Locate the source of the world's mutation. Kill the current holder of the Origin Seed and transfer ownership of the Seed.
The holder of the Origin Seed will experience a significant increase in strength. This can be used to identify them.
When the Pioneer's Mark makes contact with the holder, a clear notification will be triggered.
Difficulty: Average ~ Certain Death
Reward: Origin Seed
Failure Penalty: Erasure
Yes—this was the real headache.
Not only did it have a high difficulty ceiling, but failure meant outright erasure.
Based on the description, Kurosaki Rei roughly understood the Origin Seed as something that allowed its holder to continuously grow stronger. The longer it dragged on, the more dangerous it became—by the time he found it, he might not even be able to win.
At present, he felt that if he couldn't complete this mission during the tournament period, it would become extremely difficult afterward. Once everyone scattered, tracking the Seed holder would be far harder.
He didn't believe the Origin Seed would randomly land on some ordinary civilian. If that were the case, the Terminal Space wouldn't provide zero hints or positioning—it would be absurdly unfair.
So in his judgment, the Origin Seed must be on a canon fighter—someone he could locate and make contact with.
"Let's organize my thoughts… In a situation like this, how would Sōsuke Aizen think about it…?"
Under the moonlight, Kurosaki Rei muttered to himself as he walked along the riverbank, first trying to figure out his exact location. After all, the original work never specified where the prison was.
The next day, inside a ramen shop in Tokyo.
Under the waitress's stunned gaze, Kurosaki Rei finished his final extra-large bowl of ramen, then happily gulped down his cola.
He couldn't help but think that cola really was a great invention. Sadly, in his own era, drinks like this no longer existed—only bizarre beverages mass-produced by corporations.
Wiping his mouth, he tossed a few bills onto the counter.
Oh, right—his money was generously sponsored by a few street punks the night before. They'd clung to his hands with tears streaming down their faces, insisting he take it. He couldn't exactly refuse, could he?
After eating his fill, Kurosaki Rei willed it—and a special interface opened.
This was the World Public Channel, temporarily opened by the Terminal Space for this mission.
After browsing the chat for a bit, Kurosaki Rei understood why the Terminal Space had enabled public chat.
"There's an Origin Seed in this world. Can you believe it? It's real—not just a legend."
"Sounds badass, but the quest I got for it isn't that amazing. Probably not that big a deal."
"You don't know shit. I once heard our adventure group's leader tell a story—he mentioned the legends of the Space, and 'Seeds' came up."
"Huh? What legend? Big bro, explain! I won't compete with you for the Seed."
"Compete? If it really is that Seed, we're just helping the Space recover it. You think it's actually ours?"
"What are you even talking about? Just tell us what the Seed does. Don't tell me it's something you download adult videos with?"
"Get lost. Always thinking with your junk. This is the Origin Seed—one of the legendary nine. Even our leader talked about it like a myth. Who would've thought it actually existed—and in a first-tier world, no less."
"…"
"From what our leader heard, the legend says there are nine unique Seeds across the myriad worlds. No one knows where they came from or what they truly do—only that they're incredibly mysterious, possibly tied to the origin of the Space itself."
"If the Seed in this world really is one of those legends, it explains why public chat is open and why we all got the same quest. The Space must be panicking. If not for regulation limits, it probably would've already sent high-tier monsters in."
Kurosaki Rei lurked a bit longer, then roughly grasped the situation.
In short: the Origin Seed was insanely valuable. Whether for long-term growth or mission completion, he had to get it.
Explorers had been dropped into the world with wildly different identities and starting locations. The public channel greatly accelerated information gathering.
One question now occupied Kurosaki Rei's mind:
Would the Violator be in the public channel too?
He'd once asked the Terminal Space about Violators. The answer was that they were former Explorers who exploited loopholes in the regulations. After repeated violations and ignored warnings, they were marked—and then people like him were sent to hunt them down.
In essence, Violators were still Explorers. They existed under the same overarching rules and were deployed into mission worlds.
Which meant there was a high chance that the Violator could also see the public channel.
What puzzled Kurosaki Rei was this: why was the Space so troublesome? Why not just erase violators outright? Why rely on manpower?
It looked grand and omnipotent, yet riddled with regulatory loopholes. Hadn't it been running for ages? No optimization at all? Even constitutions get amended every year…
In short, both the existence of Violators and the Space's reliance on manpower to deal with them felt strange.
Could this really be part of the Space's "ecosystem"?
Kurosaki Rei shook his head, deciding not to think too deeply. He had a feeling that if he kept going, he'd just kill off a lot of brain cells.
He typed into the public channel:
"Does anyone know how to get to the Wu Clan?"
His nickname in the Space was Prison Demon, and only nicknames appeared in public chat—a basic layer of identity protection.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 60 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/VoidInk08