"Are you okay?"
Kurosaki Rei looked at the sailor-uniform girl standing in front of him.
She'd originally been a youthful, energetic, bright girl—but now her hair was a mess, dark circles ringed her eyes, and she looked like someone who'd cultivated immortality a bit too hard.
"I'm fine. Hurry up and take a look—see if it's the effect you wanted."
The sailor-uniform girl waved her hand dismissively and pushed a wooden tray forward. On it lay a neatly folded set of black clothes.
Kurosaki Rei took it and unfolded it.
It was a long coat, a trench-coat style. Of course, in the Space, an outfit's appearance wasn't all that important—after entering a task world, disguise functions were provided anyway, allowing some adjustment to appearance and color.
This pitch-black coat was a classic style. It felt extremely light in hand, and its color and texture gave off a deep, high-end sense of quality.
[Pitch-Black Nightmare]
Origin: Terminus Space
Quality: Purple
Equipment Type: Outerwear
Requirements:
Constitution 29Spirit 27
Details:
An outer garment crafted by Supporter █████ using Darknight Slime and Romesilk. Possesses excellent physical and magical defense. While worn, Charisma +1.
Equipment Skill 1 · Fluid (Passive)
Effect: Due to its material properties, this equipment has exceptional flexibility and extensibility. It can freely change its outward form. When damaged by attacks, it can slowly self-repair.
Equipment Skill 2 · Nightmare Barrier (Passive / Active)
Effect: While wearing Pitch-Black Nightmare, the explorer gains a 10%–30% increase to maximum Life Source based on Constitution.
When actively activated, grants a defensive barrier lasting 3 seconds. The barrier can absorb damage equal to twice the wearer's Soul Source.
Cooldown: One natural day
Score: 200+
Evaluation: Excellent works are all forged under pressure.
Seeing the Space's evaluation, Kurosaki Rei felt genuinely impressed.
It really was true—this was something that could be done. His requirements had basically all been met.
"Honestly, this is far better than I expected."
Kurosaki Rei praised her sincerely. That was no exaggeration—there was no way fifteen thousand Terminus Coins normally bought something this good.
"Heh, of course. This young lady's craftsmanship was never just talk. After all, my family—"
The sailor-uniform girl stopped mid-sentence.
"Alright, that's enough chatting. I need to go back and sleep. If you're satisfied, come back next time and buy another bed."
Kurosaki Rei watched her leave, yawning as she went, his expression turning strange.
Why was it buy a bed again, and not come back to commission more equipment?
What a bizarre supporter…
Kurosaki Rei put away Pitch-Black Nightmare, planning to test its capabilities.
Since he'd already reached first place in the arena, it was hard to match opponents. If he wanted to test gear, the only option was the training grounds with mirror opponents.
This time, he didn't go to the free beginner training area. Instead, he chose the intermediate training ground, which cost 500 Terminus Coins per day.
Paid training grounds offered far more functions. They weren't limited to simple dummies or low-quality mirrors—you could freely choose enemies you'd encountered before, and even adjust their attributes.
Just like the arena, death in the training grounds didn't mean real death. Yet another marvel of the Terminus Space.
"Terminus, select a mirror of Shen Wulong."
Kurosaki Rei made the request.
This was the benefit of having entered the Kengan world.
Even though Shen Wulong had been killed by him, his combat proficiency was undeniably real. The intermediate training ground allowed the selection of previously fought enemies as mirrors—essentially giving Kurosaki Rei infinite access to Shen Wulong as a sparring partner.
Under normal circumstances, a Tier One explorer would never encounter someone with grandmaster-level—or higher—combat proficiency. Shen Wulong was an outright anomaly, a bug-like existence in a Tier One world.
His attributes were constrained by the world's framework and weren't absurdly high, but his combat proficiency was far beyond the Tier One domain. Kurosaki Rei even believed that few people in Tier Two or Tier Three worlds could surpass Shen Wulong in pure combat technique.
Finishing Kengan meant Kurosaki Rei had effectively gained a high-level combat coach. With his talent and comprehension, repeated battles would steadily improve his own combat proficiency.
This method of growth was vastly more cost-effective than using Transmission Crystals.
"Hu—"
Kurosaki Rei slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, ending his physical training for the day.
Today was his final day staying in the Space.
When he still had money, he'd spent several days training in the intermediate training ground, gaining significant improvements across multiple proficiencies. Once he ran out of money, though, he could only train on his own.
He'd designated a section of his room specifically for training—conducting Constitution, Strength, and Agility exercises, combined with the spiritual pressure cultivation methods he'd learned in Bleach.
Over this month, his strength had once again undergone noticeable growth.
Constitution, Strength, and Agility had each increased by 1 point, while Spirit had increased by 2 points. With two titles that provided bonuses at all stages, his Constitution had already broken past the Tier One limit, reaching 31 points.
In the arena and training grounds, he'd also tested it—when fully activating Demon God, his Strength and Agility could forcibly break the Tier One cap as well, exceeding 30 points.
He didn't know whether this counted as being "over-tuned," but after reaching first place in the Tier One arena, he hadn't seen any other explorer whose peak stats surpassed his Demon God state.
Kurosaki Rei felt that with his current strength, he could easily clear any Tier One difficulty world.
The only uncertainty was what the next world would be like.
He glanced at his Spirit Seed panel. The Origin Seed had been "watered" by the skills he possessed and was currently growing, with progress at 38%. He wasn't sure whether his existing skills would be enough to push it into the Sprouting stage.
The skill slotted into the Origin Seed—Armament Haki—had already reached Level 10, the result of his dedicated training over the past month.
Raising Haki levels through personal insight and practice might seem absurdly difficult to other explorers, but Kurosaki Rei still wasn't entirely satisfied with his results.
When he'd read the manga, Haki cultivation never seemed that hard. Didn't Luffy make huge progress in just two years? And under "Teacher Kaido," didn't his Haki shoot up in no time at all?
So Kurosaki Rei had always felt that with his own talent, he should be able to cultivate high-level Haki quickly.
Yet reality proved otherwise—his Haki training wasn't particularly fast.
He wasn't sure whether it was due to environmental differences between worlds, or because he lacked a "master-level instructor" like Kaido.
For now, all he could do was take it one step at a time, slowly tempering his Haki.
After washing up and finishing lunch, Kurosaki Rei lay down on his bed, resting and calming his mind as he waited for the arrival of the new world.
[The task world will open in one hour. Please prepare.]
[Target World: Demon Slayer (Derivative World)]
Kurosaki Rei remained unmoved, keeping his eyes closed as he regulated his breathing, determined to enter the task world at peak condition.
He hadn't watched Demon Slayer before entering the Space. His master wasn't omniscient, and their library had its limits—manga from the old era had been rare in their time.
Fortunately, after entering the Space, he'd been catching up on anime during his downtime. He'd watched Demon Slayer not long ago, giving him a solid informational advantage.
Time passed quietly, until the moment he heard the prompt.
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