Time flew by in an instant.
[Time is up! Everyone, select your challenge mode!]
New prompts flashed in front of Yami Tsukishiro.
[Ding! Start the Solo Arena?]
[Ding! Start the Team Arena?]
"You choose to form a team," Yami muttered idly—then smirked and clicked Solo Arena instead.
He thought he would simply step down from the ring after selecting.
But in the next moment, beams of light descended on everyone present.
Even Eriri and the others weren't spared.
When the light touched him, Yami felt a sudden pull, like space itself was swallowing him.
And when his vision cleared, he was already standing on a massive stone ring. Weapons of every shape and size lined the edges, ready for the use of challengers.
[Ding! Challenger: Yami Tsukishiro! The challenge begins!]
[The First Challenger has arrived!]
As if answering the announcement, a crack split open in the void ahead.
From the rift emerged a humanoid figure, its entire body sheathed in stone.
"...A monster?" Yami raised an eyebrow.
[Monster]: Stone Man
[Rank]: First Level
[Title]: Ordinary
[Race]: Elemental Race
[Meme]:
F-Rank – Escape (Level 1)
The Stone Man's feet shuffled, the ground beneath crumbling as if it were trying to flee.
But before it could make a move—
Whoosh!
"Boom!"
Yami's kick struck its torso like thunder.
The Stone Man's body rattled violently, its lower half sinking halfway into the earth before twitching twice and exploding into shimmering blue light.
[Ding! Challenger Yami Tsukishiro has defeated the First Challenger!]
[The Second Challenger is coming!]
The prompt ended, and another figure emerged.
This one was bizarre—more abstract than the Stone Man.
At first glance it resembled a man, but its form was forged from steel.
Its arms were twin cannon barrels. Its torso and legs were reinforced with bolts and armor plating. And its brain sat exposed beneath a transparent dome.
Its appearance matched its name perfectly:
[Name]: Mechanical Transformer
[Level]: First Level
[Race]: Mechanically Modified Human
"The hell… you can really do anything, huh?" Yami tilted his head, genuinely curious how something like this was even created.
"The target is locked. Massacre Mode—activated!"
The cyborg's voice clicked in mechanical tones. Its crimson eyes flared, and the barrels on its arms swiveled toward Yami.
Whirrr…
Blue light began condensing at the tips of the cannons.
Yami let out a dry laugh. "This whole setup's just like some tower-climbing trial. What a joke—me, a Dungeon Master, climbing someone else's tower?"
He shook his head, smiling bitterly.
Entertaining? Sure. But this opponent… was weak. Too weak.
If it were a strong card, he might play around a little. But dragging things out with such weaklings? That was nothing but a waste of time.
He sighed and cracked his knuckles.
"Alright then… Flash Kill Time—begins."
---
While Yami was casually punching through another opponent, the scene elsewhere was far more chaotic.
Of the fifty thousand participants, most were already stuck at the very first stage—or killed outright.
Unlike Yami's solitary ring, which was nothing but a bare battlefield, the team arenas had a completely different setup.
Buildings, bunkers, cover points—everything screamed of a massive offensive–defensive battle. And the number of enemies was five times greater than in the solo challenge.
"Pin it down!" Mizuki shouted, firing bursts from her rifle. The stone man staggered under the hail of bullets.
"Yo ho, my turn!"
Chisato leapt out of cover, fist cocked. With a grin, she smashed her knuckles into the top of the stone man's head.
Crack!
A web of fractures spread instantly. She retreated lightly, and the stone head shattered into rubble with a thunderous bang.
"Stone men cleared!" Eriri's voice rang out overhead. Hovering with radiant wings, she had become the team's scout—basically a living drone.
"Tch… show-off." Utaha smacked her lips. Flying really was an enviable ability.
Ryuju Momo and Yor, meanwhile, were quietly stunned by how smoothly the others fought.
They themselves were still fumbling to figure out the full extent of their abilities, yet Eriri and the rest were already using theirs like seasoned veterans.
Not that everyone was perfectly suited.
Mizuki Walnut's hypnosis, for example, was completely useless on the stone men. They didn't even have brains. Still, her analytical ability and tactical planning were valuable support.
As for brute force? Chisato alone could smash through five stone men without breaking a sweat.
"Careful—new enemies with hot weapons incoming!" Eriri's sharp eyes caught the gleam of a barrel aimed straight at her.
Whoosh!
A barrage of flames tore out from the treeline.
"W-wah!" Eriri flapped frantically, dodging by a hair's breadth.
Utaha's pupils narrowed. Rival in love or not, Eriri was still her friend—she wouldn't let her get torn apart in front of her eyes.
Boom!
Takina calmly fired her massive sniper rifle. "Enemy, three hundred meters ahead."
Though the woods looked quiet, her enhanced vision had already locked on.
"Perfect. Let's move!"
Chisato darted forward, Utaha following with her blade drawn. Yor and Ryuju Momo weren't far behind.
Utaha's samurai sword slashed with frightening speed, her ability letting her weave past cannon fire. But when she tried to cut through a steel arm, sparks flew—too tough to sever cleanly.
Chisato, meanwhile, danced circles around two mechanical soldiers, her fists crashing down with overwhelming strength.
Yor's killing intent erupted at last. Golden needle-kunai shot from her hands, piercing the brain casings of one cyborg. She lunged in and finished it off with ruthless efficiency.
Ryuju Momo's fight was stranger still. Every time she fired her gun, the bullets ignited—bursting into flames on impact.
Her weapon was imbued with elemental quality: fire. While not the most exotic ability, it burned through the cyborgs relentlessly.
"Their performance isn't bad at all…"
High above, Yami Tsukishiro watched from his own completed arena, having shifted his perspective to their battlefield.
In less than ten minutes, he had already cleared ten stages. The tenth's boss—a fifth-level Storm Lion Eagle—had fallen to a single blow. And with its death, five thousand challengers were instantly wiped out.
Yami smirked, arms crossed.
"This might be fun to watch for a while."
[Current survivors in the area: 27,500 / 50,000]
Some challengers had cleared the first stage and exited, while others had been slaughtered mid-fight.
Meanwhile, Yami Tsukishiro was leaning back, arms folded, watching Eriri and the others flounder through their battles.
At the start, their teamwork was a mess. Only Takina and her three companions, who were used to doing missions together, had decent coordination.
Everyone else acted on their own. Combine that with inexperience in using their powers effectively, and the result was weakness in the face of real enemies.
If Yami had to guess, their limit would be the third floor at best.
And the third floor's monsters were second-ranked beasts: Sandworms.
They resembled gigantic, earthy-yellow pill bugs each the size of two humans but magnified into grotesque terrors. Their armor plating was thick and unyielding.
Of the group, only Chisato had the raw strength to shatter their shells. Add Yor's assassin skillset, the "Princess of Thorns" wouldn't be underestimated either. But against five Sandworms? Two fists couldn't beat ten claws.
Just as Yami predicted, the fight turned ugly.
Takina's sniper rounds barely dented the shells.
Momo's flame-imbued weapons scorched, but didn't pierce.
Utaha and Eriri lacked raw power altogether.
Only Chisato could reliably crack the armor but she was being forced to retreat under the relentless swarm.
"Mizuki, now!" someone shouted.
"Alright, alright… hypnosis time~" Mizuki Nakahara raised her hand.
Her ability didn't truly hypnotize the beasts, but it was enough to make them falter. The Sandworms stiffened briefly.
"Chisato, fall back!"
Chisato sprang away just in time.
Eriri descended from the sky, wings folding in frustration.
"…This isn't working. We'll have to forfeit."
Ryuju Momo analyzed calmly. After clearing the first arena, there was always the option to quit. And though more victories meant better rewards, survival came first.
The others reluctantly nodded. They were about to accept retreat when
Shhhhk!
The shadows beneath Eriri and Utaha suddenly expanded, surging outward in all directions. In the blink of an eye, the darkness stretched for hundreds of meters.
And then
"Wha—?!"
Massive forms rose from the abyss.
Four colossal beasts clawed their way out of the shadows, their presence so overwhelming it crushed the air itself.
Even Yor and Ryuju Momo, hardened killers, froze in terror.
Eriri and Utaha? Their jaws dropped so wide you could've flown a goose through.
"I knew it… Yami Tsukishiro's definitely been hiding something."
Chisato and her close companions, though startled, weren't entirely surprised.
One of the beasts, a Shadow Ridgeback Turtle, glanced at the Sandworms as if they were nothing but pests. Then
BOOM!
It swung its massive hammer-like tail once.
All five Sandworms were pulverized on the spot.
A glowing prompt confirmed the victory.
[Challenge Successful!]
"It seems… we can keep going."
Mizuki stared at the four giant guardians and felt a strange, comforting security she had never known.
"Don't tell me…" Eriri gulped. "Yami stuffed these things into our shadows?!"
"Mm. Looks like he cares about you a lot,"
Kurumi (Walnut) commented seriously while munching potato chips she'd somehow produced mid-battle. "Having bodyguards this powerful watching your back… that's love."
"…Love, huh? This isn't just mighty...it's absurd." Utaha muttered, though the corners of her lips betrayed the tiny smile she couldn't suppress.
Knowing Yami was secretly protecting them filled her chest with warmth.
"Even having seen it on video… the impact of seeing this with my own eyes is indescribable," Ryuju Momo admitted. From her perspective, they were ants standing at the feet of titans.
"Yami…" Yor whispered the name under her breath. She didn't know how to reconcile the man who had invited her with the dark master who commanded such monsters.
But the name stirred something dangerous in her memory— a rule whispered through her organization:
"Never accept a mission involving the man called Yami Tsukishiro."
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