Sixteen hours left on his free window.
Ryū pulled his awareness out of Solo Mode and let it settle. He'd figure out what to do with the remaining ti after he'd processed the last eighty hours — let the experience sit, let the instincts consolidate, then go back in.
He checked the group chat.
Three days and change had passed. The group had not slowed down even slightly.
Twelve mbers total: himself, Yukari, Whitebeard, Kizaru, the Wandering Earth, Tatsumaki, Kaguya, Josuke, Wolffy, Ying Zheng, Tony Stark, Sakura. Twelve people, and the chat ran at 99 ssages per check-in as a matter of routine.
He thought about what the group would look like at twenty-one mbers.
Probably 99 every twenty seconds.
Did any of these people sleep? Or did they generate ssages in their dreams?
Eternally Seventeen: 10 POINTS!! 10 POINTS AHHHHH!! Do you know how long I've waited for this?! Six months in this Chat Group — started as a total newcor, worked my way up to Moderator — and TODAY, for the FIRST TI, I have broken double digits on a sign-in!!
Eternally Seventeen: This Lady's first double-digit sign-in in six months.
Eternally Seventeen: I'm opening a 500-year-vintage bottle to celebrate. This is a historical occasion.
Sakura of the Tohsaka: Poor Yukari-nee-san… getting this excited over 10 Points…
Sakura of the Tohsaka: [Image] Daily sign-in: 68 Points lol
I'm Rolling In It: …5 Points. Not saying anything.
Crazy Diamond: Pfft — did Stark accidentally absorb all of Yukari-senpai's bad luck?
Wandering Little Planet: Genuinely possible!
Admiral Kizaru: How terrifying~
"…"
Yukari, who had been in the group for the better part of six months and had never once broken double digits, had just signed in for 10 Points.
Against all reasonable probability.
And Tony Stark — three days in the group, three or four sign-ins — had yet to crack double digits himself. The pattern was startlingly familiar.
It really did look like the luck had transferred.
RawrSoFierce: …surfacing. All is well.
Eternally Seventeen: ADMIN!!
Eternally Seventeen: You're ALIVE! Admin hasn't said a word in over three days — I counted!
Admiral Kizaru: Has it really been three days~ No wonder I hadn't seen him~
Crazy Diamond: Tatsumaki hasn't said anything in three days either, now that you ntion it.
Crazy Diamond: Wait — Little Kaguya's been quiet for three days too.
Eternally Seventeen: …Admin. Tatsumaki. Kaguya-sama. One man, two won. One of whom is a perfectly petite young lady, the other a woman in the pri of her life.
Eternally Seventeen: Three days and three nights. Can they even get out of bed? Especially Tatsumaki — her physical conditioning is not exactly her strong suit. She might have passed out by now~
Admiral Kizaru: S-stimulating~ People really go all out these days~
Crazy Diamond: I need a snack. I can't handle this on an empty stomach.
Wandering Little Planet: Terrifying. Admin has finally made his move!
RawrSoFierce: ???
Ryū stared at the conversation.
One man, two won. Can't get out of bed. Passed out.
Where had they even — how had they — what chain of reasoning had produced that?
He looked at the ssages again.
This was Yukari's doing. Six months of corrupting influence and these people were conducting this kind of inference in broad daylight, in a group chat, about three separate people who had simply not posted for a few days.
He, personally, had been dying repeatedly in a virtual arena. Tatsumaki and Kaguya's silence was a complete mystery to him — though Kaguya going quiet for three days was genuinely unusual for soone who treated the chat as her primary hobby.
He was not going to let the narrative develop unchallenged.
RawrSoFierce: Every last one of you has been corrupted by the Sage of Phantasms. For the past three days I have been in the Arena getting… ahem. Training.
RawrSoFierce: This has nothing to do with whatever your imaginations just produced.
Eternally Seventeen: You were doing that in the Arena?!
Eternally Seventeen: This Lady hasn't tried the Arena yet, but apparently you can spend Points to revive and restore to full condition in there — so you can keep going indefinitely — so the scale of what you were doing is even MORE alarming, you nearly caused a fatality, multiple fatalities—
[Group mber "Eternally Seventeen" has been muted by an Administrator for 2 minutes.]
Crazy Diamond: PFFAHAHA—
Admiral Kizaru: Yukari's daily muting, right on schedule~
Edward Newgate: Gurarara — I knew the mont she started that she was heading straight for a mute. That's why this old man stayed out of it. Getting caught in her blast radius is not on my agenda.
Edward Newgate: Speaking of which — I haven't tried the Arena either.
Edward Newgate: @RawrSoFierce — Admin, is it really as impressive as the description says?
RawrSoFierce: …More impressive than the description says.
RawrSoFierce: Anyone with spare Points should go in at so point.
RawrSoFierce: You'll know what I an once you do.
Twenty deaths to kill the first enemy. What the others would experience was beyond his ability to predict.
He decided not to ntion the death count unprompted.
Two minutes elapsed.
Kaguya-sama: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. KAGUYA SCREAMS.
Kaguya-sama: Were people just talking about ?? Doesn't matter, forget it, I'm in a spiral. THREE DAYS and I died SIXTY TIS. 1,200 Points. GONE. Into the void. My ntal state has completely shattered AAAAAAAA.
Kaguya-sama: Spiralling. Spiralling. Spiralling. Spiralling…
Edward Newgate: Hah? Died sixty tis? But you seem perfectly fine?
Kaguya-sama: No — I an in the Arena.
Kaguya-sama: I got killed SIXTY TIS in there!!
Eternally Seventeen: Hisss… testimony from the victim herself. Admin, that's excessive — you killed Little Kaguya sixty tis?!
Kaguya-sama: ???
RawrSoFierce: ???
[Group mber "Eternally Seventeen" has been muted by an Administrator for 30 minutes.]
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