High in the sky, Griffith's badly wounded body swelled rapidly as the Emperor of Fear inside him thrashed out of control. Even the air around them began to warp under the leaking demonic energy.
Honami Ichinose instinctively pulled out the Mountains and Rivers Sovereignty Map, ready to move everyone into the pocket world inside it and wait out the blast.
"Wait, Ichinose," Chris cut in.
"Going by what Skull Knight said, you have to factor in the Emperor of Fear's original size plus all the energy he's absorbed. That has to be an enormous number."
"If we let something like that self-destruct here, I don't think the blast will be any weaker than a tactical nuke like [Rose of the Destitute]... The contamination might even be similar."
Chris paused.
"We'd be fine hiding inside the Mountains and Rivers Sovereignty Map, but I can't say the same for the people down below."
Honami Ichinose froze. Worry tugged at her, and she bit her lower lip.
"Then... what do we do now?"
"Should I use my Noble Phantasm to charm him again, then stuff him into the Mountains and Rivers Sovereignty Map and let him blow himself up in the pocket world?"
Chris clicked his tongue inwardly. Ignorance really was bliss.
The others didn't know, but he had a very clear picture of the situation.
In the Type-Moon world, never mind borrowing a Class Card. Even a top-tier Heroic Spirit in the flesh would have a hard time firing off Noble Phantasms back to back if their Master didn't supply enough mana.
Honami Ichinose was an ordinary high school girl with no magic circuits. The only reason she'd been able to spam Noble Phantasms like a mobile cannon this entire fight...
...was purely thanks to the [Ruby Staff] in her hand!
A Mystic Code crafted by the Wizard Marshal Zelretch, the ruby tapped the "Second Magic" to connect directly to parallel worlds and draw a near-infinite supply of mana for whoever held it.
Honestly, if Ichinose's own output weren't so limited, that absurd infinite mana alone could let her stand toe to toe with Gilgamesh's Ea, the Sword of Rupture. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility.
But the others knew nothing about these underlying details, and they clearly had no spare attention for them. The far more urgent crisis in front of them took priority.
"The Mountains and Rivers Sovereignty Map is still housing the classmates we rescued earlier. Moving them out and back in would waste too much time. We'd never make it."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, not far away, calmly cut into the conversation. He turned to Chris.
"Try shifting him into your 'Mirror World,' or Horikita's 'Kingdom of Shadows.'"
Everyone was floating in midair right now, and Suzune Horikita's Phantom Mask needed shadows to work at full strength. Here, it was obviously useless.
That left the [Blank Card Box] in Chris's hands as the clear best answer.
But after a moment's thought, Chris made no move to take out the card box.
"I've got a better idea."
He gripped the [Enma Blade] in a reverse hold and eased the guard forward with his thumb.
A sharp ring of steel rang out.
The pale blue blade slid free and cut cleanly through the void. A rift in space-time, linked to some unknown dimension, split open in front of everyone.
"Give me a moment."
Chris didn't even give them time to react.
As if he'd used Time Stop again, he vanished on the spot. The writhing Griffith, his glow so fierce he looked ready to detonate, disappeared from the sky right along with him.
When Chris reappeared in everyone's view and the rift sealed shut behind him, the Black Sphere's exam-end chime rang out right on cue.
"Where did you take Griffith?"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stared at Chris, who didn't have a scratch on him, and asked in confusion.
Chris turned around and met their probing looks, answering casually.
"I took him to a Backrooms level I explored earlier."
"There's a monster there called Partygoers. They share a hive mind, and they're really good at hiding. It takes forever to clear them all out."
"So I figured, why not toss in a high-yield bomb like Griffith? Might as well make good use of him."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka gave a slight nod, accepting the explanation without asking more.
Then Chris seemed to remember something important and went on.
"The exam's over, so we're about to be teleported back to the Presiding God's Space."
"But before that, you testers should still have about thirty minutes in this world for cleanup. Can you do me a favor?"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka raised an eyebrow and waited for the rest. "Go on."
Chris didn't bother hiding it from the others and spoke right in front of everyone.
"Earlier, Sakayanagi and I brought Student Council President Horikita back from the Chainsaw Man world."
"But he has too strong a sense of responsibility. After learning about the Backrooms, he wanted to stay there and help gather intel, so he's not planning to go back to school for now."
"I figured that as the one who went in first, I ought to leave him something to defend himself with."
Chris looked at Honami Ichinose, Ryuuen, and the others.
"Right now, the monster intel I collected earlier and the Ki technique that dropped when we beat the Darkness Devil have both been given to him."
"But I don't think that's enough, so I want to leave the [Dragon Talisman] and the [Riotrooper Smart Buckle] too. They're team property, though, so I should tell everyone first."
The moment he finished, Honami Ichinose answered without hesitation. "I have no problem with that at all!"
"And with everyone's strength now, I doubt anyone will miss my basic gear... The President is staying all alone in such a dangerous place. He should get the best equipment we have."
"Give him my [Myriad Soaring Wings] too!"
Everyone nodded in tacit agreement. Even Ryuuen, who always put profit first, didn't object.
"Thanks," Chris said.
He nodded, took a capsule holding the [Dragon Talisman] and [Riotrooper Smart Buckle] out of his system storage, and tossed it to Ayanokōji to pass along.
Then, in the final ten seconds of the teleport countdown, Chris turned to Suzune Horikita. She stood silently on the back of a night-bat shadow soldier.
"Actually, before we left, Sakayanagi asked the President whether he wanted to see you in the meantime."
Chris watched the girl's pupils contract slightly, his voice calm.
"He refused. He said that in his current situation, where he might not survive the day, seeing you would be pointless. It'd only add to your worries and attachment. Better to wait until everything has settled."
"But I figure... you're his little sister. You have a right to know."
The blue light had already risen past Chris's waist, and his voice turned faint in the wind.
"So what happens next, whether you go or not, is up to you, Suzune."
With that, the brief countdown hit zero.
Chris, Ryuuen, Ichinose, and the rest of the qualified ones turned to streaks of light and were forcibly teleported away by the presiding god.
The sky fell quiet.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka held the [Mountains and Rivers Sovereignty Map] that Ichinose had just handed him. He turned to Suzune Horikita.
"We have twenty-some minutes left."
"Want to go see him?"
Silence hung in the air for a few seconds.
After a long moment, Suzune Horikita finally sighed and slowly shook her head. "No need."
"Like the President said, going to find him now would just satisfy some trivial personal feelings. It would be a complete waste of time."
"Instead of wasting energy on that kind of internal struggle... I'd rather use this last stretch to clear out the remaining Apostles nearby and rack up more points. Insurance for surviving next time."
Having said that, the girl tipped straight backward.
Her body sank smoothly into the shadow soldier beneath her feet, like a drop of ink dissolving in water, as if she were using it as a conduit to cross into the Kingdom of Shadows.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka gave a slight nod, not especially surprised.
After all, Suzune Horikita had been wearing the [Phantom Mask] for quite a while. Growing more focused on profit under the mask's subtle influence and this high-pressure environment was a natural psychological shift.
But what really made Ayanokōji take notice was the technique she'd shown on her way out.
If soldiers of the Dark Shadow Legion can enter the Kingdom of Shadows through shadows...
Then the mask's wearer could use a shadow soldier's dark essence as a medium to pull herself into the Kingdom of Shadows in reverse and cross the whole map that way... That really isn't impossible.
A very discreet and efficient way to travel.
By the look of it, the Phantom Mask had plenty of room to grow, and its potential was impressive. It might be worth buying one to try.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka mulled it over.
Then he raised his hand and glanced at the universal capsule he was holding, the one containing Miyabi Nagumo's [Shadow-Devouring General Mask].
A thought crossed his mind.
I wonder, if that obsessive Miyabi Nagumo were here right now, would he try to show off by forcing something on Horikita Manabu as a send-off?
Knowing his personality, he probably would.
The Presiding God's Space.
A few flashes of white light, and Chris and the others finished teleporting in.
The moment everyone steadied themselves, they looked up out of habit.
The God Sphere floating in midair had already displayed the final tally for this exam on its holographic screen.
[Basic survival reward: 14 points]
[Kill/contribution rewards for this exam]
[1. Chris: 538 points (total 598)]
[2. Ryuuen: 287 points (total 349)]
[3. Honami Ichinose: 209 points (total 297)]
[4. Arisu Sakayanagi: 167 points (total 168)]
[5. Hiyori Shiina: 166 points (total 170)]
[6. Kushida Kikyo: 120 points (total 123)]
[7. Kamuro Masumi: 120 points (total 149)]
[8. Shiranami Chihiro: 100 points (total 120)]
[Class bonus tally:]
[Class A (Chris's Class): 7989 (original 1609 + 638 × 1000%), and every student in the class receives an extra 658000 spending points]
[Class D (Ryuuen's Class): 4204.5 (original 807 + 453 × 750%), and every student in the class receives an extra 339750 spending points]
[Class C (Ichinose's Class): 2437 (original 892 + 309 × 500%), and every student in the class receives an extra 154500 spending points]
[Class B (Sakayanagi's Class): 1365 (original 645 + 288 × 250%), and every student in the class receives an extra 72000 spending points]
For once, the presiding god had laid out every exam score in plain view.
Even so, once they landed, the first thing the group cared about wasn't the class scores or the routine bonuses, which suddenly felt beside the point.
"So..." Ryuuen rolled his shoulders and looked at Chris first.
"When you went off to explore the other Backrooms levels, did you find any intel worth noting?"
Chris rubbed his chin and answered slowly.
"Most of the levels we explored were pretty ordinary, actually."
"Just endless yellow-wallpaper rooms, or moldy underground pipes. Other than being mentally oppressive, there was nothing worth calling a threat."
"The real standouts are the two levels Sakayanagi and I went into alone, right after we split up from you."
Chris frowned slightly as he recalled the scene.
"One of them had no real monsters, but the space itself was shattered. All the walls, the floors, even the light, were falling into an abyss."
"The other was a completely inverted, scrambled maze. Again, no physical monsters, but the laws of physics didn't work there at all."
Chris paused.
"As for the rest... aside from confirming that the Chainsaw Man world has also been targeted by the Backrooms, none of it matters nearly as much as the giant 'eye' that appeared in the sky when the Emperor of Fear went berserk and turned into a golden tree."
Arisu Sakayanagi took the opening.
"Indeed."
"And according to Skull Knight, it's probably something with no connection to their world..."
The girl spread her hands helplessly. "Too bad Chris's phone had died by then. Otherwise we could've recorded it for later analysis, like we did in the Backrooms."
Honami Ichinose nodded.
"In that case, guessing here won't get us anywhere. And everyone's S Points have just been settled."
"We can use the Presiding God's Space's Q&A mechanism to ask the presiding god and confirm what's real."
"That would also save the upperclassmen from wasting money buying already-confirmed intel from the Black Sphere when their exam starts."
Ryuuen, stroking his chin, cut in coldly.
"Don't rush to play the big spender."
"Intel matters, sure, but upgrading your gear comes first."
His gaze swept over them. "With the way exam difficulty keeps climbing, all the intel in the world is useless if you can't survive long enough to use it. Otherwise you're just making wedding dresses for other people."
Chris agreed with Ryuuen's pragmatism. "Fair point."
"Then let's upgrade and buy gear first. I only plan to upgrade the [Enma Blade] this time. After the cost, I'll have 98 S Points left."
"There's not much use saving those points. I can just spend them all asking the presiding god for intel later."
Hearing Chris's lavish words, Ryuuen gave him a look, his tone sour with envy.
"Speaking of which, you shipped off that huge bomb Griffith. Did the last two hundred-some points get credited to you?"
"Damn it, you really picked up a huge windfall..."
He hadn't even finished when Arisu Sakayanagi chuckled and shook her head, cutting him off. "Ryuuen, you're overthinking it."
"I'd have loved to see the points from Griffith land in the hands of Chris, our strongest fighter, to raise our team's ceiling even further."
"But unfortunately, this five-hundred-plus total was all earned the hard way, by killing in the Chainsaw Man world!"
Her eyes flashed with pride.
"To earn those points, he wiped out every devil in all of Neon almost single-handed!"
Ryuuen raised an eyebrow, clearly stunned by the outrageous feat.
"He cleared the devils out of an entire country?!"
"So... Griffith's points ended up with Ayanokōji, then?"
"Damn it, that guy's luck is something else..."
Complaints aside, Ryuuen didn't slow down at all.
He raised a hand and spent a full 100 S Points in the presiding god's shop on the [Genos Template], newly added for this exam.
When the white light faded, Ryuuen, his initial fusion complete, looked down at the upgrade screen on his Black Sphere Watch.
To his surprise, the Genos Template's first advancement cost a mere 50 S Points.
He felt a flicker of doubt about the oddly low price, but since he'd already bought it, Ryuuen pressed the upgrade button anyway.
When the next upgrade turned out to cost only 60 points, he again didn't hesitate and upgraded the Genos Template to G4.
The Turbo Genos form after that jumped to 80 S Points, but it was still within what he could bear.
"Tch. Almost three hundred S Points sunk in, all told... I hope this thing doesn't let me down."
Ryuuen drew a deep breath.
There was nothing for it.
He'd already bought it. The sunk cost was sunk.
Elsewhere, Honami Ichinose was still standing in front of the shop panel, brows knitted, apparently torn about what to buy.
Arisu Sakayanagi, who had already finished her own shopping, walked over and offered softly.
"If you don't know what to buy, Ichinose..."
"Judging by the combat power Kiryuuin-senpai showed in that extra tutoring class... I think spending 120 S Points on a [spirit crystal] is definitely our best option right now."
"Besides, a conceptual power like that won't clash with any abilities we already have."
Sakayanagi laid out her analysis with ease.
"Once we have more to spare, we can use S Points to strengthen it further, and that would be enough to make our overall strength leap."
"Of course..." She shifted gears with a light smile. "Ichinose, you have plenty of points now. If you'd rather evolve physically, you could also try the [Metro Man Serum]."
"Though I don't believe a single injection of serum would get you anywhere near Chris's level."
Honami Ichinose thought it over seriously.
She decided Sakayanagi's analysis was right.
Compared with the Superman serum, which was completely useless as a point of reference for girls like them, the spirit route that let Fūka Kiryūin cut down enemies once she had her Imperial Arms was undoubtedly the safer investment.
Having reasoned it through, Honami Ichinose hesitated no more. Together with Arisu Sakayanagi she exchanged for a pure [spirit crystal] at the shop.
As the light sank into her body and the brief fusion process finished, Honami Ichinose opened her eyes and felt the newly awakened power within her. She frowned.
"My angel... is [Gabriel]?"
She looked at Chris and Sakayanagi with a troubled expression.
"It doesn't seem to have any direct offensive power."
"As far as I can tell, its ability only lets me control or interfere with people's minds and actions through sound?"
Arisu Sakayanagi covered her mouth and couldn't help giggling.
"What's wrong with that?"
"Ichinose, don't you think it's a match made in heaven with your [Love-Love Fruit]? One controls the field with sound, the other petrifies with charm... Farming points and crowd-controlling a pack of monsters would be far better than a plain Gravity Gun!"
"As for my angel..."
Sakayanagi raised a fingertip, and a wisp of ice-blue cold condensed into frost crystals in the air.
"It's [Zadkiel]. I can freely create and control water and cold."
"It fits quite well with the magecraft system I studied. A decent upgrade plug-in, I'd say."
Honami Ichinose felt no envy at the sight. She was sincerely happy for her friend, then sighed and looked at the upgrade options on her watch.
"Since my ability is settled now..."
"I'll put the rest of my points into upgrading my [Ruby Staff] again."
Ichinose said helplessly, "I just feel like its limit shouldn't be only supplying infinite mana."
While the two of them settled on their upgrade paths and got busy, Hiyori Shiina, who had been standing to one side and hardly speaking, quietly exchanged for a [spirit crystal] of her own.
She already had a card-case transformer that let her become Kamen Rider Zolda.
But Zolda as a Rider was built around heavy firepower and long-range shooting, and he was bad at close combat.
For Hiyori Shiina, who could have monsters in her face at any moment in the exam, that would easily leave her on the back foot.
Even though she was a quiet girl who disliked fighting, she had to survive this brutal game and not become a burden to Chris. She had no choice but to brace herself and invest in a new ability to cover her weakness.
But.
She fused the spirit crystal with high hopes, closed her eyes, and sensed the angel that had just awakened within her.
The girl's little face fell at once.
"This..."
She stared at the thick, antique-looking book that had appeared in her hands, close to tears.
"My angel... is [Rasiel]."
"Its ability is only to view what's currently happening in the world, like who's where and what they're doing."
Honestly, Hiyori Shiina was genuinely disappointed now.
It wasn't just an angel with no combat ability at all.
Because of the Black Sphere exam's special rules, she couldn't even take the book out of the exam and use it like a real-life 'True Encyclopedia' to look up gossip!
At best, during an exam she'd be a flawless high-end radar, somewhat useful for gathering information. For someone desperate to raise her combat strength, it was like drawing the worst fortune stick.
Fortunately.
After checking the upgrade list, Hiyori found that upgrading this angel didn't cost much.
Just 50 S Points.
"It's useless as it is anyway. Might as well gamble."
Hiyori Shiina gritted her teeth and paid the 50 S Points without hesitation, restoring [Rasiel] to its unsealed, complete original form.
As the light poured in, the book's plain cover turned deep and ornate.
New power flooded into her mind.
She now had the ability to rewrite the future: whatever she wrote in the book would become reality!
She knew there had to be plenty of restrictions, but it was still a tremendous help.
Kushida Kikyo and Shiranami Chihiro, who'd been watching from the side, instinctively stopped their hands just short of buying a [spirit crystal] when they saw this.
The two exchanged a glance, and each saw wariness in the other's eyes.
Fūka Kiryūin's spirit power was undeniably strong, and the abilities Ichinose and Shiina had drawn each had their merits and weren't bad at all.
But what the two of them needed most right now was real, solid power to protect themselves!
What if their luck was bad and they drew a neutered, purely supportive angel like Shiina did at first? They didn't have a spare 50 points like Shiina to upgrade to the full version!
After a quick exchange of looks, the two firmly gave up on such a high-risk mystery-box gamble.
Instead, they clicked on the [Gaia Memory] purchase option, which was relatively cheap and had more straightforward abilities.
Sometimes, life really is just one big gamble, isn't it?.jpg
It happened fast.
Two flashes of light, and a gold and a silver memory, both exquisite USB-like devices, appeared in their hands.
Shiranami Chihiro had drawn the silver [Scream] memory.
Kushida Kikyo had gotten a gold [Terror] memory.
They borrowed the Item Illustrated Guide from Chris, carefully read the descriptions of the abilities, and confirmed that both memories packed serious killing power.
The two girls patted their chests in unison and let out long breaths of relief...
The money hadn't been wasted after all. They were good.
Kamuro Masumi, who had seen all of it, sat there with a pained look, torn.
[Spirit crystals] might give her a purely supportive angel.
[Gaia Memories], going by the explanation in the Item Illustrated Guide, were items sealed with all kinds of 'memories' that had happened on Earth...
Which obviously meant a huge pool with a huge variety.
With bad luck, she'd pull some useless junk memory like 'broom' or 'stool,' and then wouldn't she just die of tears on the spot?
But if she ruled out Gaia Memories and spirit crystals...
There didn't seem to be anything good left within her budget.
Should she gamble on the [Heroic Spirit Class Card], another giant mystery box?
Or take a bite of a [Devil Fruit], with its horrifically memorable taste and luck-of-the-draw abilities?
Maybe... play it safe and just pick a [Magical Girl Transformer].
The thought had barely crossed her mind when she shook her head in agony.
"Ah, that won't work either..."
The Magical Girl Mystery Box itself cost 50 S Points, and after buying it she'd have to spend another 100 S Points to upgrade it to its full form before it could provide real combat power...
Her current score was short by just a tiny bit!
Just as Kamuro Masumi was so tangled up she felt ready to tear her hair out, and was about to shamelessly ask Arisu Sakayanagi for advice...
Chris, who had been watching them pull, suddenly spoke up.
"Trust yourself."
"Nobody knows what you need better than you do."
Kamuro Masumi was taken aback.
She looked at Chris's calm but encouraging eyes.
Gritting her teeth, the girl nodded hard and chose to trust her instincts.
Then.
She pursed her lips, scrunched her brows, bit down hard on her lower lip, and stared at the dazzling list of items for a very, very long time...
She still had no idea what to pick, damn it!
Her obsessiveness and indecision both flared at once, and Kamuro Masumi felt her head throbbing.
Fed up, she simply shut her eyes and jabbed her finger randomly in the air a few times.
"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Whoever I land on is the one!"
With a "ding," the purchase-complete chime rang out.
Kamuro Masumi nervously opened one eye.
She looked at the silver memory that had appeared in her hand.
She took a deep breath and hurried over to Chris's side to scan the guide.
When she read the entry for the [Weather] memory, with its power to control lightning, storms, ice, and snow, all mighty forces of nature...
Kamuro Masumi's shoulders finally slumped in relief, and a goofy grin spread across her face, the grin of someone who'd survived a close call.
"Phew... I didn't blow it after all, yadaze!"
Seeing that everyone's gear upgrades had more or less settled, Chris finally stepped forward at an unhurried pace, looked up at the God Sphere hovering in midair, and spoke clearly.
"Presiding god, we have a few questions to ask."
"First see how many S Points it would cost us to get answers."
"First, after Sakayanagi and I left Griffith's world, we were dragged into two eerie Backrooms levels. What exactly do they represent?"
"Second, when the Emperor of Fear suddenly erupted and transformed into something like a golden tree, what level of being was that giant eye that tore open in the sky?"
"Lastly, if this Backrooms phenomenon is left to develop, what will become of our real world?"
Chris paused deliberately and turned to Ryuuen, Honami Ichinose, and the others behind him.
"Do any of you have something to ask along with these?"
Ryuuen, who held that you had no right to ask questions if you didn't pay, folded his arms and stayed silent.
Honami Ichinose worried that the remaining S Points wouldn't cover everyone's intel fees and planned to wait and see.
She shook her head apologetically.
Then she raised her hand and opened her Line chat with Miyabi Nagumo.
She meant to tell him in advance what the presiding god was about to show, before the advance test opened at four that afternoon, so they could link up and share intel.
As for the rest...
Besides Kamuro Masumi and Shiranami Chihiro, who considered themselves none too bright and habitually went with the flow,
Arisu Sakayanagi's thoughts matched Chris's, and everything she wanted to ask, he had already asked.
Kushida Kikyo's eyes darted back and forth, unsure whether she should speak up in such a high-level discussion.
In the end.
It was Hiyori Shiina, holder of the angel [Rasiel], who timidly raised her hand, hugging the thick old book.
She offered softly.
"Um... before we spend S Points to buy intel from the presiding god, could we try my ability first?"
"My angel [Rasiel], from what it says, can read all the existing information in the world. It's like an all-purpose search engine."
The girl blinked. "Since it claims to know everything... maybe it can find the answers we want? That would save everyone a good bit of money."
Chris nodded.
"Worth a try."
With his permission, Hiyori Shiina drew a deep breath.
Under everyone's hopeful gaze, she slowly opened the book that supposedly held the truths of the world.
And then...
When she saw what was on the pages, the girl's large lavender eyes filled with bewilderment.
"Huh?"
Hiyori Shiina tilted her head, blinking in confused embarrassment.
"There's... nothing?"
"Am I searching the wrong way?"
Faced with the girl's discomfort, the God Sphere flickered and promptly printed an explanation across its screen.
[Angel: Rasiel]
[Core ability: Can only search world information that has 'already happened' or is 'happening now.' Cannot see the undetermined future, nor observe secrets beyond the dimensions of the world. It can only observe reality that has become fact.]
[Its ability to write the future is not only extremely costly, but can only slightly alter the short-term future by creating indirect coincidences. It cannot create matter from nothing, and it certainly cannot forcibly and drastically rewrite the main thread of cosmic causality.]
[Even the final form of your angel, Beelzebub, which you now hold, can only rewrite facts that have already taken shape. At most it can pull a target into a fictional story world built inside the book and make them act according to the script you've written.]
[That is the full limit of the spirit crystal angel you hold.]
That ruthless lesson instantly killed everyone's hopes of getting something for free.
More text scrolled across the God Sphere's screen.
[As for your questions...]
[Answering 'the meaning of the two levels' costs 30 S Points.]
[Answering 'the owner of the eye that appeared between the Astral World and the mortal world' costs 40 S Points.]
[Answering the last question, about the survival of the world, costs 20 S Points.]
[Price as quoted. No haggling.]
Chris immediately played along and frowned.
He put on the look of a man pained and irritated by the steep intel fee.
But he drew a deep breath, and in the end nobly agreed.
"Fine, I'll pay..."
Suddenly, Honami Ichinose hurried forward and pressed down on Chris's arm, cutting in.
"Senior, let me pay the 40 S Points for the question about the eye's owner!"
"I checked just now. My remaining points are about the same as yours."
"Since this is intel that concerns everyone's lives, we can't keep leaving all the costs on you alone, Senior!"
Chris paused.
Seeing the girl's firm, unyielding gaze, he didn't refuse again. He simply gave a small nod.
The presiding god clearly didn't care whose account the "intel fee" came out of.
As both balances dropped in sync, the deal was done.
[Thus, the contract is sealed. I shall answer your questions.]
[1. The Backrooms levels you entered after leaving the Berserk world are indeed two different future outcomes, born when that world had its nourishment drained by some existence, causing its laws to warp and the world to collapse.]
[However, they are not necessarily connected. They are more like different futures derived from some tiny error in the timeline. In the vast expanse of the Backrooms, there are countless ruined levels like these, each representing a 'dead-end ending.']
[2. First, you must understand that the giant eye you saw has, in essence, no so-called 'emotions' or 'intelligence.']
[It is the celestial-suppression Ultimate Weapon, Zetton. In the original work, it was a star-system-annihilating living weapon built exclusively by the civilization of the Land of Light. It is nearly 6,000 meters long, and the one-trillion-degree fireball it spits can destroy an entire star system in an instant, with a blast radius covering 200 light-years of space.]
[The reason it appeared there is that it was seized by some unknown existence of a higher rank, which is using it as an incubation vessel to cultivate 'Hyper Zetton.' For that purpose, it must continually devour and absorb the 'despair' emitted by living beings across the multiverse as nourishment.]
[3. Lastly, it is as you suspect. The Backrooms, embodying despair, is now attached to the rifts in your world's space. Like a cancer, it is gradually eating away at and devouring your world.]
[If nothing unexpected happens, your world will be fully assimilated by the Backrooms levels at the end of August this year. By January next year at the latest, the last trace of life in your world will be completely absorbed and drained.]
As the presiding god's answers appeared on the screen one after another, the group exchanged stunned looks.
They were shaken not only by the despair embodied in Zetton, a 6,000-meter monster whose single fireball could destroy a star system.
They were also left breathless and helpless by how close the crisis had come.
Assimilated by the end of August?
The world destroyed by next January?!
What was this?
It meant that the time left for them, a bunch of ordinary high schoolers, to save the world was running out.
Counting it all up, they had barely half a year left, damn it!!
There was no time to catch their breath or slowly grow stronger at all!
In the end, it was Kushida Kikyo, the one who worried most about her own future under the great shadow of despair.
She was the first to lose her composure, asking in a trembling voice.
"Presiding god, who is the unknown existence that can freely modify Hyper Zetton? Can we learn anything about it?!"
"Also! Is there any way for our world to escape being devoured by the Backrooms?!"
"Or, put another way... among the pieces of information you just listed, which seem separate, is there actually a causal link, like events in a continuous plot?!"
Faced with Kushida Kikyo's barrage of nearly hysterical questions, the God Sphere simply hung there quietly.
[Unfortunately.]
[The S Points you currently hold do not qualify you to obtain this information.]
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