"Pretty despicable—playing dirty and making us intruders kill each other."
Xiang Nan and the others ducked into a random house to rest. After hearing Xiang Nan's quick analysis, Orban let out a cold laugh.
"From the host-world players' point of view, it's normal," Beishi said casually, leaning by the door's window and glancing outside. "They don't know what kind of mess we're about to make…"
He paused, then seemed to realize something. Staring at Xiang Nan, he drew a sharp breath. "If that's the case… it means the host-world players are nearby, watching us from the shadows."
"Of course." Xiang Nan nodded, idly flipping a scalpel in his hand.
"Based on the system's matchmaking," he went on, "this world's already seen a few intruder drops and built up some response experience. Being this well prepared clearly comes from prior success. A low-martial world like this, from what we've seen across the myriad worlds, is easily turned into a 'farm' by higher-tier worlds. Even in a place like the Gintama world we had absolute suppression on arrival—so a Sengoku/Edo-era setting like this is even more lopsided."
"If it were a high-martial world, they wouldn't be using such a risk-averse anti-intruder plan… so we can be sure the overall power ceiling here isn't high."
He shifted tack. "We can also be sure this world hasn't been farmed out yet—hasn't become a vassal dimension. The city we're in should tie into the plot. If this world had already attached itself to another dimension, something would've hit this place before we showed up: an 'incident' or player-related attack."
"But there are no signs of repair or reconstruction. Forcing intruder-on-intruder slaughter is their last-resort, best-available move. It's likely they used this shortcut in past rounds to win and drive off intruders—otherwise they wouldn't keep using it."
"And if it hadn't worked before, whoever's pulling the strings would know it's useless."
"Also… the previous intruders here probably weren't that strong—likely below our level. The appearance of our First-Kill squad may have raised the entry bar for this drop, given how the matchmaking works…"
Xiang Nan's words gave Beishi and the others a clearer picture. Off to the side, Queenie—born in the Kakin Empire—stared at Xiang Nan in surprise.
As a level-6 player, she'd taken part in the Reincarnation Dimension placement matches, but compared to how lost they'd been when they dropped into other worlds, Xiang Nan—both in keeping the team calm and in his efficient command and meticulous thinking—was… shocking.
These were qualities lower-level players simply didn't have. She hadn't expected that, right after arriving in another dimension, Xiang Nan could infer so much from the current state of things—grasping the situation with precision, from angles she wouldn't even think of.
"If the earlier intruders had someone with Hokage-level abilities—and that knight—this plot-critical city would've been long gone," Xiang Nan said with a smile.
"Where are they?" Beishi asked—meaning the host-world players. At the moment, it looked like there was no one in the city but intruders.
"Most likely… the barren mountains outside the walls," Xiang Nan answered. He'd checked: hills and forest out there, perfect for hiding; from high ground you can watch everything in the city. Even if you can't make out the details, the destruction from intruder fights is enough to read the flow of the battle. Whoever set this up is smart enough.
"But if we intruders don't fight and instead team up, wouldn't that be bad for the host-world player?" Queenie suddenly asked. The plan to pit intruders against each other wasn't guaranteed to work. What if it failed?
"It'll work," Beishi said, cutting her a look—her question made it clear she didn't really understand the Reincarnation Dimension.
"Huh?" Queenie blinked.
"Even though they deliberately 'scrubbed' the info, we intruders can still tell this is a low-martial world. Which means, to high-martial players, it's a resource node with the potential to be turned into a farm. No world's players will just hand over that kind of payoff… Plus, even before a mission drops, intruders are already potential enemies. Taking out a few opponents early only helps with what comes next."
As Beishi spoke, his eyes narrowed at the window. "And given how diverse the worlds are—and how complicated people are—not every squad acts cautious or conservative. Wherever you go, there are always a few self-important types who think they're the strongest…"
Footsteps sounded on the road outside. Someone was approaching their position. Everyone inside tensed.
"It's those folks we saw watching from a distance… and they spotted us," Beishi warned.
They all activated the Nen technique Zetsu, suppressing their aura.
"I'll make contact?" Beishi glanced back at Xiang Nan. Xiang Nan gave a slight nod. It still wasn't clear whether the incoming players meant harm or wanted to talk.
The door opened and Beishi stepped out. The other group had already pinned down their location; in what was basically an open battlefield for intruders, hiding was pointless. They'd have to meet sooner or later. Keep dodging and you just look like easy prey—inviting bigger trouble.
"They're here…" one of the three coming down the street murmured when they saw a man emerge from the small wooden house ahead. They closed the distance and stopped about ten meters away.
As Beishi walked up, he sized them up: two men and a woman in modern clothes; nothing obvious on the surface tied them to any specific world.
Using Gyo, he could see their auras flowing, but detected no "other" energy. Xiang Nan had told him and Orban to keep this state when facing players from other worlds: the type and tier of "energy" is crucial in a fight.
But Gyo only really reveals life/spirit-type energy—auras. He and Orban couldn't match Xiang Nan's deeper, more comprehensive sensing. The intel from Gyo was limited.
"Doesn't look like they're carrying any extra energy… just ordinary humans?" flashed through Beishi's mind. The three wore weapons.
"You're not alone, right? I counted five just now… Are the others inside?" the long-haired woman asked with a bright smile.
"Can't tell you that," Beishi replied with a smile of his own.
"Only sending one person out… looks like your background isn't simple," the cold-faced man narrowed his eyes, sounding like he thought Beishi was arrogant.
"What do you want?" Beishi ignored the jab. If they were here to start trouble, they wouldn't be chit-chatting.
"You saw the fight just now, right? Among the enemies this time are ninjas from the Naruto world. The other teams that haven't shown themselves yet probably aren't easy either. Even if the mission hasn't dropped, the difficulty won't be low. Whatever it is and however it's structured, if we want to break through, the best move is to team up. So, we're here to propose an alliance." The middle-aged man in a white shirt and tie finally spoke, tugging at his collar.
"An alliance?" Beishi smiled. The Naruto world's reputation really did draw all eyes.
"An alliance… sure, that's fine… but if the mission is a free-for-all…" Beishi hinted.
"Then we take out everyone else first, and settle it between us at the end," the middle-aged man cut in. "Still, my guess is the mission won't be 'kill every last one of you.'"
"And value—what can you bring to the table? Or, put another way… what good are you to us?" Beishi suddenly pointed at the three.
"You—!" The cold-faced man almost lost it at Beishi's tone, which came off condescending.
"He's fishing," the smiling woman tapped her teammate's shoulder, coolly calling out Beishi's little ploy. "As for value… that only shows once the mission starts and we're actually fighting side by side. For now… since you haven't agreed, we're not about to tell you what we can do, and we won't reveal our backgrounds either. We're simply offering you a chance to work together and clear the mission. The choice is yours." She smiled at him.
Beishi went quiet for a moment. "Alliance…" He was just about to agree—
"We're… not interested," came a voice from inside the house. Xiang Nan.
Beishi froze. He'd thought the other side had come with some sincerity, and that an early alliance would help both teams. He hadn't expected Xiang Nan to turn them down.
"Sorry… looks like our captain's a bit of a buzzkill," Beishi shrugged.
"Let's go." The middle-aged man didn't get angry at the answer. If anything, he was nearly certain the squad hiding in the house was strong. Judging by the response, they were at least absolutely confident about surviving this Multiverse battleground. With that, the three turned and left.