Zzt... zzt-zzt-zzt...
Like the static of an old television losing its signal — it detonated somewhere deep inside their skulls.
What followed was a nauseating sense of detachment. A tearing away.
For Ryuuen Kakeru, Ichinose Honami, and the others, the memories of a second ago were still vivid and sharp —
Someone had been winding back a fist. Someone else had been walking down a sun-drenched corridor with an armful of documents. Someone had been lifting a cup of tea with practiced elegance.
And then reality was severed. Brutally. Without warning.
No transition. No blacking out and waking up.
This was something purely, physically different — a complete extraction from one place to another.
As if their entire bodies had been sliced into countless micron-thin slivers, starting from the cerebral cortex, threaded down through the spine and viscera and limbs, forcibly fed through some narrow tube one piece at a time — and then reassembled on the other side.
"Ugh..."
When consciousness reclaimed the body, the first thing it registered was gravity — and the sudden, lurching loss of equilibrium.
THUD!
Sakayanagi Arisu, who had been seated in a chair, found nothing but empty air beneath her. Her small frame hit the wooden floor hard.
Without her cane to support her, she could only press both palms flat against the floorboards to keep herself upright. Her white beret slipped from her head and tumbled to the side.
"Ah!"
Ichinose Honami let out a startled cry. The documents she'd been clutching hadn't made the trip with her. Her arms grasped at nothing — she stumbled two steps back and her spine hit the wall.
"Ugh — hk—"
Kushida Kikyo had it worst of all. She had already dropped her mask in the moment before the transfer — and now, in the chaos of this sudden upheaval, she could only clap both hands over her face, barely managing to stop her carefully maintained facade from shattering right then and there.
Ryuuen Kakeru reacted the fastest.
As someone who'd been in more than his share of fights, he adjusted his center of gravity the instant he landed, dropping into a defensive stance and scanning his surroundings with sharp, wary eyes.
"Where the hell is this?!"
Ryuuen's voice came out rough and agitated.
But he quickly noticed — his crew wasn't here. This wasn't the familiar Class C classroom.
This was a completely unfamiliar, sealed room.
Outside the windows: pure darkness. The air inside was thick with the musty smell of old tatami mats, and...
♪ A brand-new morning has arrived ♪
♪ A morning full of hope ♪
A disturbingly cheerful radio calisthenics jingle played from some unidentified object in the center of the room.
The center of the room.
Under everyone's gaze, hovering there in midair — a massive sphere, roughly one meter in diameter, its surface a seamless, absolute black.
"...Hh."
Only then, from a corner of the room, came a soft, barely-audible exhale.
Everyone turned toward the sound.
A boy — apparently only just now piecing together the situation — pushed himself up from the floor with a dazed, bewildered expression, rubbing his temple, looking around with eyes that weren't panicked, but were genuinely, thoroughly confused.
It was Chris.
Of course, all of it was an act.
As the administrator, he was the only one who'd been prepared for this. The reason he'd deliberately waited to make a sound until last was simple — he wanted to enjoy the rare sight of these elites wearing expressions they'd never show otherwise.
Not bad. A little rough around the edges, but calmer than I expected.
Chris turned the observation over in his mind, while outwardly doing his best impression of someone who had only just grasped the situation. He spoke with a hesitant, uncertain air:
"That's... Ichinose from Class 2, right? And Kushida-san?"
"...Were we kidnapped?"
The sight of a familiar classmate seemed to give Kushida Kikyo — who had been on the verge of losing it — something solid to cling to.
"Chris-kun?! You're here too... Kidnapped? But — we were just at school a second ago..."
"Shut up."
Ryuuen cut off the pointless exchange and crossed the room in a few strides, shoving at the window with both hands. It didn't move. Not even a millimeter — as if it had been welded shut.
He whipped around and slammed his foot into the only wooden door.
BANG!
The door shuddered. It didn't open.
"Damn it!" Ryuuen turned, and his gaze landed on Sakayanagi, who was still struggling to retrieve her beret from the floor. A sharp, nasty grin spread across his face. "Ha — the crippled princess from Class A is here too, huh."
"Hey. Is this your class's doing? Dragging us to some dump like this — what kind of game are you playing?"
Sakayanagi Arisu had already gotten her beret back on.
Even seated on the floor, legs unable to move, looking slightly disheveled — those violet eyes of hers held not a single trace of fear. She tilted her chin up slightly, regarding him with the detached, top-down indifference of someone who considered herself the only one truly standing.
"My, my. Ryuuen-kun's imagination is as impoverished as ever."
"If this were Class A's doing, I would have chosen a far more elegant method — not something like teleportation, which is..." She paused, a faint smile ghosting her lips. "...a miracle that not even current science can explain."
Sakayanagi raised one finger toward the Black Sphere.
"Rather than pointing fingers at each other — don't you all think that is what actually matters here?"
Silence.
Every pair of eyes snapped back to the Black Sphere.
Chris, blending seamlessly into the group, put on a suitably startled expression and took a small step back.
Internally, though — he was barely keeping it together.
Alright. Tutorial's over.
Now that everyone's here — let's get the show started.
The music cut off without warning.
Across the surface of the Black Sphere, lines of sharp white text materialized from nothing:
[Welcome to the real world, students of Advanced Nurturing High School.]
[The game of playing house is over. What lies before you is a Special Exam — one stripped of all pretense and protection — by the name of Survival.]
[Here, academic credentials, family background, and lies are meaningless. Only those who survive may call themselves truly meritorious.]
The text flickered again, as though laced with mockery:
[Effective immediately, you will participate in the trials as the first eligible candidates.]
[Performance in this session will be converted into S-Points based on contribution.]
[S-Points can be exchanged at a 1:10 ratio for real Class Points — or used to purchase equipment, and to buy back your own life.]
Class Points.
Ryuuen Kakeru — who had been wearing a sneer of contempt — felt his pupils contract sharply. Even the ever-composed Sakayanagi Arisu straightened almost imperceptibly.
"Class Points..."
"One-to-ten exchange rate..."
Before they could fully process the information, the text on the Black Sphere shifted again. This time, it was accompanied by a grainy, blurred photograph.
The photo showed a figure in a convenience store uniform — but where a human head should have been, the skull had split open into several writhing tentacles, and it was in the process of swallowing something.
[Go hunt this thing.]
[Target: Parasyte × 1]
[Characteristics: Head blooms open like a flower. Extremely high attack power. Incapable of emotion, yet capable of contemplating the meaning of existence.]
[Likes: Fresh brains. Discounted bento boxes nearing their expiry date. The feeling of unease.]
[Catchphrase: "Such a pain." "I'm so done with this."]
[Time Limit: 60:00]
[Penalty for Failure: Total annihilation of all participants.]
[Friendly Reminder: As newcomers, each of you may use one item for free per session, and each person is given three chances. Go ahead and throw your lives away recklessly — we encourage it.]
Click —
The text froze. From either side of the Black Sphere came the hydraulic hiss of mechanical actuation.
Like the opening of an armory in a science fiction film, the sphere slowly slid apart to both sides, revealing soft blue interior lighting — and the weapons arranged silently within.
Not the full, complex set of gear from the source material. Just five X-GUNs gleaming with a cold sheen, five Y-GUNs, and five black-hilted blades.
No battle suits.
Obviously — all of it had been carefully adjusted by Chris.
[Armory Unlocked.]
[Each participant, please select one weapon.]
[Friendly Reminder: If you don't take one — you will actually die.]
...
Chris watched the others' expressions freeze solid, and inwardly allowed himself a small, satisfied smile.
A tutorial was supposed to be hardcore. That was the whole point.
And besides — the battle suits, those glorious things that multiplied physical ability by ten — how could he just hand those out for free? They'd have to spend their hard-earned points to get those. That was the only way to make them truly fight for it.
Only by making them face monsters with nothing but their own flesh and blood — only with that raw, desperate survival instinct clawing its way out from the edge between life and death — would this be truly delicious. Truly satisfying.
"A Parasyte...?"
Ichinose Honami was trembling, her face drained of color.
"E-eating... brains? Something like that — does it actually exist?"
"Hmph. Smoke and mirrors."
Ryuuen's mouth said one thing. His body said another.
He was already moving toward the open Black Sphere, and on instinct, his hand closed around one of the blade hilts.
For a delinquent like him, a toy gun of unknown principles was far less trustworthy than cold steel he could hold in his own hands.
"Whether it's real or not — one good slash will tell me everything I need to know."
Ryuuen gave it an experimental swing. The black blade extended, and the edge sliced through the air with a sharp, keening shriek.
"If this is a prank, I'll use this very blade to chop off the hands and feet of whoever's behind it. And if it's real..."
He ran his tongue over his lips.
"Then that's even more interesting."
"My, how barbaric."
Sakayanagi Arisu gave a small shake of her head, her gaze already fixed on the two pistols.
For someone with her mobility limitations, a ranged weapon was the only practical choice.
She turned to look at Chris, a probing light in her eyes.
"This classmate — aren't you going to choose? Given what the sphere has said, there are only three types of weapons. What's your read on the situation?"
Chris didn't answer Sakayanagi immediately. Instead, he glanced at the countdown on the Black Sphere, and when he spoke, his voice was clipped, hurried:
"I think the small talk can wait. Look up there — the countdown's at thirty seconds."
[00:39]
[00:38]
The pulsing crimson digits ticked away like a death sentence, making every heart in the room clench.
"Tch." Ryuuen spat in displeasure. "Even with just a knife, I can clear this myself."
Chris exhaled and stepped forward quickly.
"Here."
He tossed an X-GUN toward Sakayanagi. She caught it one-handed — her motion smooth and practiced, as though she'd rehearsed it.
Then he turned, and shoved the two oddly-shaped Y-GUNs into the hands of the still-stunned Ichinose and Kushida.
"Take them. Better than nothing."
For himself, he picked up the most classic option — an X-GUN. Not that it mattered which one he chose.
"I don't know swordsmanship. Picking the blade would only slow everyone down... This works."
Ryuuen made no comment.
Sakayanagi Arisu offered a nod of approval. "A sound judgment."
"As a 'princess,' storming the front lines isn't really my role either."
Kushida Kikyo and Ichinose Honami gripped the heavy firearms in white-knuckled hands, fingers locked tight. They looked at each other — and in each other's eyes, saw the same hollow despair staring back.
...
[00:00]
[Weapon Selection Complete.]
[Initiating Full-Party Teleportation.]
— End of Chapter —
---
Note ① — Gantz Suit (Battle Armor): Grants immunity to one fatal injury, and pushes the wearer's physical capabilities to ten times their normal limit. If the circular ring embedded in the suit is destroyed, the armor deactivates.
Note ② — X-GUN (Standard Gun): Equipped with a built-in X-ray display screen and targeting functionality. Features two triggers — upper trigger locks on, lower trigger fires. Rounds penetrate external tissue and detonate inside the body, dealing what is known as "implosion true damage." Effective range: 9 meters.
Note ③ — Y-GUN (Capture Gun): Fires a tethering rope capable of binding a target's movement. Captured targets can subsequently be teleported to an unknown destination. No firing delay.
Note ④ — Gantz Sword (Combat Blade): Achieves its extended length by instantaneously restructuring the arrangement of nanoscale particles, allowing it to effortlessly sever any conventional metal.
____
👻🔥The Director is back! But with a brand new look, heheh...🔥👻
New Story: Danmachi: But I am a God, time to make a family!
✅ Read 40 chapters ahead on every series!
✅ Unlock supporter-only perks and news!
Let's reach these milestones together:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 free chapter for all readers
🚀 140 MEMBERS = +5 bonus chapters for all series!
👻 Walnut-chan on P...