Speeding up the energy coins for Cross-World Invitation doesn't just reduce cooldown time. It really does have other functions.
For example, when you're watching a stream, you can use them to tip the streamer.
Additionally, they can be used to transfer physical objects.
Doesn't everyone have a one-cubic-meter personal space?
The effect of these energy coins is that you can transmit items stored in your space into another online friend's space.
One coin equals one cubic meter of transfer "bandwidth."
So after Kain learned about this feature, he immediately contacted A2. He wanted to give her the coin, so she could send over machine tools and equipment that would actually be useful.
However, he couldn't gift it across.
It seemed the only way was for him to return to the Warhammer world first, and only then could he tip it over.
That also meant he couldn't tip Saeko's ongoing livestream, either.
According to Saeko, the energy bar on her stream window currently filled less than five percent of the full bar.
So what, exactly, did "460" have to do with the energy bar's increase?
It seemed the increase was tied to the current social environment, or rather, to massive world-scale change. That was why the energy bar could rise so quickly.
Because in the morning, before the outbreak began, Saeko's energy bar didn't move at all.
Only after the outbreak did it start making visible progress.
As for A2's energy bar, it should currently be around ninety-six percent, just a tiny bit short.
Kain suddenly furrowed his brow.
"Huh? Did the anesthetic stop working?"
Shizuka Marikawa immediately panicked.
She'd noticed faint spasms in his body—subtle twitches that clearly came from pain.
She'd injected anesthetic because she was treating a horrifying wound on his chest, a gash that looked like it nearly split him open from chest to abdomen.
After eating, he'd gone into the bathroom, and at his request, she was cutting away the dead tissue from the wound.
The surface layer was manageable, but once it went a little deeper, it made her scalp prickle.
And of course, cutting away dead tissue meant bleeding was unavoidable, so there was a lot of blood on the floor.
The ones helping weren't just Shizuka.
Saeko was helping too.
Though "rotted flesh" wasn't quite accurate. "Necrotic tissue" fit better—like a leathery layer of dead skin.
"I'll go get more anesthetic."
"No need. Just cut."
In truth, the anesthetic barely did anything.
And the dead, callus-like flesh Kain wanted removed wasn't caused by burns. That outer layer could practically be peeled away already.
This dead, cocoon-like layer was more like a scabbed shell.
If he hadn't come to this world, it would have been flesh corrupted and decaying under Chaos taint.
The wound left by that Chaos Astartes' strike had been infected, as if soaked through with Chaos energy.
After he arrived here, the corruption was stripped away, and it became this—dead tissue that needed to be removed.
"No, it's too painful. I'm going to get it."
If it were just a small wound being stitched up, a guy could grit his teeth and bear it.
But without anesthesia, a wound like this was essentially an execution. Shizuka couldn't bring herself to do it.
And on top of that, she was only a school nurse, not a true surgical physician.
She hadn't "graduated" into that level of work. She was terrified her hand would slip and make him suffer even more.
"Ms. Marikawa, what's going on?"
"Why are your hands and clothes covered in blood?"
"What happened? Is there a living person in this house?"
"No, no. It's not that. Mr. Kain is injured. We're treating it."
Hearing that, Saya Takagi's brows knitted together.
She'd noticed earlier that Shizuka went in carrying a medical kit, and she'd suspected he might be hurt, but it was strange—she hadn't seen obvious damage on his clothing.
Now, Shizuka looked genuinely frightening. This didn't look like a minor injury at all.
So when Shizuka hurriedly grabbed more supplies from the medical box and rushed back to the bathroom, Saya followed.
The moment she stepped inside, she saw Saeko holding a dagger against his chest.
For a split second, Saya's mind went blank.
Is she trying to kill him?
No—just before she lunged forward in alarm, Saya realized Saeko was cutting something away.
And then she truly saw the wound.
Her breath hissed in.
A normal person might not die instantly from something like this. If they got to a hospital fast enough, they might be saved.
But he'd carried a wound like this without proper treatment, and still fought his way from the school all the way to here, killing nonstop.
That simply wasn't something a normal human could do.
And this wound clearly wasn't caused by the living dead.
It was too clean, too straight—an edge weapon had done this.
So… had someone like him come after him, using an absurdly sharp blade?
And it wasn't just that.
This time, Saya also saw his severed arm. The metallic prosthetic had already been removed.
"Ms. Marikawa, step aside. I'll do it. The way you're doing this is basically torture."
After watching Shizuka inject more anesthetic and then scrape away necrotic tissue bit by bit, Saya couldn't hold back.
Dragging it out like that wasn't "careful." It was just extending his suffering.
And Saya could tell the anesthetic wasn't doing much to him anyway.
Long pain was worse than short pain.
"Mm—!"
"Stop making that sound. Ms. Marikawa, get ready to stitch."
"Y-yes."
Shizuka started preparing the needle and thread.
"Make the thread thicker," Saeko reminded her.
"Huh? But the thread is only this thin."
"Seriously? You're a nurse, and you can't even double it up? Just bundle multiple strands together," Saya snapped.
Then she picked up the scalpel, swallowed hard, and stared at the wound.
She took a deep breath.
One go, clean and fast.
But then—
"Haa…"
That exhale came from Rei Miyamoto, who was also breathing out hard, gripping the scalpel until her knuckles whitened.
Saya had already run out to vomit. Her hands were shaking too badly to keep cutting, so Rei had come in to help.
It wasn't that Saya hadn't helped at all—she'd cut away part of it—but she still couldn't stomach the gore.
In the end, the stitching was done by Saeko.
A wound this large needed the thread yanked tight with real force to bring the edges together, and they simply couldn't do it.
It wasn't a matter of strength. It was the feeling—like they were punishing him.
This wasn't a shallow stitch through skin. The needle had to go deep into flesh.
They couldn't bring themselves to do it.
"All right. Rei, Saya, you can go out now."
"Okay."
"Why?"
Saya bristled immediately.
"I'm just going to wash him off. What, you want to help too? That's fine," Saeko said, her tone openly amused.
Saya and Rei—who hadn't even fully stepped out yet—froze, and then both flushed bright red.
Only then, no longer fixated on the wound, did they realize he was completely naked.
And they'd seen something they definitely shouldn't have seen, far more clearly than they'd intended.
As for the person about to be "washed," he didn't act like some bashful light-novel protagonist, squeaking that he could do it himself.
For one thing, he really was weak and drained. The anesthetic hadn't worked, and he'd basically just endured a slow carving session.
For another, if someone was willingly taking care of him, why refuse? There was no point in putting on a hypocritical show of politeness.
As for why he rejected A2 back then when she tried to "use charm," that was a different matter entirely.
The stakes weren't the same.
In that case, it was about something far more consequential—about lineage and what would come after him.
(End of Chapter)
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