In the end, Arthur still refused to accept the collection she had spent nearly ten years building. In his eyes, fewer than ten of those items could even be considered truly valuable, but that wasn't the point. He simply didn't feel right taking advantage of her desperation.
Like he'd already said, Murasame alone was more than enough compensation for the commission. So he only accepted the Super Healing Spray and the Stamina+ Pills, practical items that could restore his condition inside the instance, and nothing more.
Even so, to keep things fair, he proposed a trade with Blade. Arthur exchanged three of his redeemed Skill Cards for three of her Plot Privilege Cards—one A-grade and two B-grade. For most Reincarnators, privilege cards were awkward assets: too situational to be consistently useful, yet too rare to waste casually, so many people just let them pile up over time.
Selena had tried using them before, but because her understanding of dungeon mechanics was limited, and because timing and narrative leverage mattered so much, the results had been underwhelming at best. These three were the last she had left.
Arthur himself only possessed a single SSS-grade Privilege Card, a resource that stood near the absolute ceiling of what Reincarnation Dungeons could offer, and he had no intention of using it here. In his estimation, as long as it didn't involve the dungeon's core worldbuilding, its central storyline, or the identity of the true protagonist, an SSS-grade privilege could rewrite almost everything else.
Its authority was powerful enough to reshape plot conditions on entry, creating a near-guaranteed path to safe clearance, but only if backed by sufficient information about the dungeon itself.
And for clearing The Promised Neverland, Arthur didn't believe something that extreme was necessary.
An S-grade privilege card, though… that would be perfect.
However, even if there were S-grade privilege cards available, they would almost certainly be in the hands of the few Reincarnators who had actually achieved S-rank evaluations. Blade herself was one of them—but unfortunately, she hadn't received that particular reward.
"System, I want to use a Plot Privilege Card."
At that moment, Arthur activated the Team-Up Card and linked up with Sophia. At the same time, he brought Saeko Busujima with him into the dungeon "The Promised Neverland."
For normal Reincarnators, after matching but before entering a dungeon world, there was always a transfer phase, a brief preparation window. And it was precisely during this window that Arthur chose to use his privilege cards.
The next instant, he felt time around him slow to a crawl.
A translucent interface unfolded before his eyes, the Plot Privilege Card usage panel, displaying every card he currently possessed:
SSS-grade: 1
A-grade: 1
B-grade: 2
"Let's start with one A-grade and one B-grade."
He deliberately held one B-grade card in reserve as a safety margin. As for the SSS-grade card, that was an absolute last resort. It wouldn't be touched unless the situation truly left him no choice.
[A-rank Plot Privilege Card — Use Confirmed. Please select application direction.][B-rank Plot Privilege Card — Use Confirmed. Please select application direction.]
"I want to rewrite the plot…"
After finalizing his selections within that pure white space, Arthur felt his consciousness sink into a gentle, spiraling vortex.
His body began to shrink.
The immense power he once possessed started fading away, sealed layer by layer. Because his physique had long surpassed peak human limits, and because his Grandmaster-level control made him hyper-aware of every nuance of his strength, the sensation of that power being locked down felt especially vivid… and especially uncomfortable.
By the time his awareness resurfaced...
"A strange ceiling…"
After muttering the cliché line he'd always wanted to say at least once, Arthur closed his eyes again and summoned his attribute panel within his mind.
Just as expected, every single stat had been sealed.
They had all dropped back to the familiar baseline, 10 points across every attribute and Arthur smiled inwardly. People really shouldn't underestimate what those 10 points meant. After all, 10 was the standard physical benchmark of a healthy adult male, and right now he was in the body of an eleven-year-old child... For a child to possess the physical conditioning of a full-grown adult was already terrifying on its own.
Then, just as he had predicted, his skills were still there. Most likely a loophole in the system, because who would reasonably expect someone to obtain such high-level combat skills before even reaching the 10th floor? Without [Busujima Style — Original], Arthur estimated he could handle maybe two or three adults at once in this body. But with the skill, he was a young Grandmaster. Even unarmed, dozens of ordinary people wouldn't be enough to take him down, and the moment he was allowed to wield a blade, it would turn into outright slaughter.
(The name of the style was changed, I thought this one fit better thanks to one of the readers' suggestions, btw.)
Right now, the best comparison would be a child holding a loaded handgun, no sane adult would dare underestimate him. And in this analogy, the so-called "adults"… were the Demons. For a brief moment, the thought crossed his mind, should he step outside and kill a few, just to verify some of his theories?
"…Better not," he muttered under his breath, dismissing the impulse. His gaze shifted back to the system panel, where his current identity within the instance was displayed at the top:
[Name: Eren].
This was a name randomly assigned by the system. In truth, what the name was didn't really matter, but the real question was why it had been changed at all.
As everyone knew, the whole purpose behind altering names and surnames was to conceal one's original identity. Under the intervention of the Reincarnation Space, a Reincarnator's nickname carried no subjective influence over the dungeon's natives. For example, even if your nickname was something like "Master," it didn't mean the dungeon characters who addressed you that way actually regarded you as their master. To them, it was nothing more than your name, a label without any deeper meaning.
So if a dungeon went out of its way to enforce identity concealment, that could only point to one conclusion: this was a battlefield meant for Reincarnators themselves. What kind of confrontation it would turn into was still unclear for now, but one thing was already obvious, the game between Reincarnators had begun the moment they entered.
Since the system had already hinted at this much, Arthur had prepared in advance. Before entering the dungeon, he had warned Saeko and Sophia to remain silent and fully commit to their assigned roles once inside. They weren't to make any conspicuous moves, nor were they to actively search for each other in the crowd. Everything would wait until he made the first move and found them.
They had already practiced secret signals and identifying gestures beforehand, so there was no concern about failing to recognize one another when the time came.
At least for a while, this dungeon would remain relatively safe. As long as you didn't do anything out of line, you could live comfortably, almost happily, right up until the very last day.
Of course, that "safety" came with a cruel condition. If you truly did nothing, then when the final day arrived, survival would be impossible. Even if you tried to run at the last moment, with every Demon mobilized, there would be no escaping their search, especially with trackers planted on every child.
It was a pity the other Reincarnators didn't know any of this. After all, not everyone could possess the terrifying intellect of the original trio, nor their unbelievable luck at only eleven years old. If Ray hadn't been born with hyperthymesia and known everything from the start, then the entire story would never have unfolded within the fragile "gentle cage" he built for them.
What concerned Arthur most right now was one key question: Which orphanage had he entered?
If the three main protagonists were present, completing his plan would become far easier. Their intelligence, execution ability, and especially Emma's natural leadership were essential pillars for the escape strategy later on.
Still, Arthur didn't immediately get up to check everyone's identities. He was certain that other matched Reincarnators were mixed in among these children. Even without opening his eyes, he could pick up irregularities: heartbeats slightly too fast, breathing patterns that didn't match genuine sleep.
Amid the steady rhythm of truly sleeping children, those subtle disturbances stood out sharply. About five people… No, possibly more.
Feigning sleep was an art. Not impossible, but not easy either. The fact that several people had immediately chosen to pretend meant they had already realized the competitive nature between Reincarnators. That alone made the situation far more complicated.
For now, Arthur had no intention of making any moves. He ignored them and allowed himself to drift back to sleep.
It didn't feel like much time had passed before a bright, cheerful voice rang out across the spacious dormitory.
"Everyone~ time to get up. Hurry, hurry!"
Arthur sat up slowly, eyes still heavy with drowsiness, and looked toward the girl weaving between the beds, gently waking the other children.
It wasn't Emma. (If anyone guesses who this girl is, I'll post another chapter later today, but it's only valid within these next 3 hours. Once the time's up and if no one gets it right, unfortunately you'll have to wait until tomorrow…🤷♂️)