Eternally Seventeen: Because Little Kaguya-chan's assets don't et the minimum standard in my eyes — the Admin is a massive pervert who has no interest in flat figures. If you don't develop a certain degree of curvature, how are you ever going to attract a pervert like him? So, young Kaguya! Work hard on growing! Aim to be a worthy rival to !
Kaguya-sama: …pfft, Yukari-nee you're driving the trolley again.
Kaguya-sama: Aren't you afraid the Admin will mute you?
Eternally Seventeen: The Admin wouldn't do that — I'm helping him build his collection. Is there anyone else in this group doing that for him?
Roar of the Evil Dragon: Th-this senpai is terrifying. A young dragon of a re fifty thousand years trembles.
Little Sakura of the Tohsaka: Fifty thousand!! And that counts as young?!
Little Sakura of the Tohsaka: Soone who just had her fifth birthday trembles.
Roar of the Evil Dragon: Five years old? In my world, a dragon normally spends a thousand years hatching from the egg. At five years, you might not even be conscious yet.
I'm Rolling In It: …Is this what a world of powerful beings looks like? Ah — what's that blinding light? Oh, it's just a bunch of legends flexing up there!
Admiral Kizaru: Fifty thousand years old~ I suppose this must be what the world of the strong looks like~
"…"
Ryū genuinely didn't know Tohru's age. He didn't recall the ani ntioning it, and he'd never read the source manga — he'd watched the adaptation on a video streaming site after a dormitory neighbour's strong recomndation, finished it in one sitting, and left it there.
Good series. Plot a little diffuse, but the warmth carried it.
He'd been burned by manga-original content too many tis to voluntarily go looking for it. Watch a great ani, curiosity strikes, open the source material, get slowly destroyed by escalating tonal choices. Happened more than once. He'd learned. Dostic web novels had their own problems but at least the betrayal rate was lower.
So if Tohru said she was fifty thousand — sure. He'd accept fifty thousand.
She was at least not like a certain gap youkai who insisted on "eternally seventeen" despite having been confird, however obliquely, to have spent ti in the Qin Dynasty. That put a floor of well over two thousand years on Yukari. Seventeen was not entering into it.
Roar of the Evil Dragon: Fifty thousand isn't very old, is it? In my world there are plenty of dragons older than . And in this group, the Wandering Earth and the Admin are both older!
Roar of the Evil Dragon: I'd guess I'm sowhere in the middle age-wise?
Admiral Kizaru: My apologies for letting down the middle age bracket~
Edward Newgate: My apologies for letting down the middle age bracket.
Little Sakura of the Tohsaka: …trembles ×3
Eternally Seventeen: A seventeen-year-old also trembles.
RawrSoFierce: Seventeen my foot. Seventeen thousand would be generous.
Eternally Seventeen: Unacceptable!! Given the opportunity, I will take the Admin's head and drag it across a keyboard until it types sothing like 'gxblbyshvt.'
Kaguya-sama: I can visualise this extrely vividly!
Kaguya-sama: But I have a feeling Yukari-nee is about to get muted.
Eternally Seventeen: Does Little Kaguya see as nothing more than a Permissions Hound who abuses authority?
[Group mber "Eternally Seventeen" has been muted by the moderator for 1 minute.]
RawrSoFierce: Yes. Correct. I am the supre Permissions Hound.
Kaguya-sama: Pfffhahahahaha…
"…"
He'd lost count of how many tis he'd muted Yukari. Fortieth? Fiftieth? At so point it had beco automatic — whenever she started her particular brand of relentless provocations, the mute button was the obvious response. She practically invited it. One day without a mute and she seed restless.
She'd had over a month of uninterrupted freedom. Apparently she'd gotten ideas above her station.
One minute passed. Yukari, who had extensive experience with this, used the window to drink a cup of hot tea, then re-entered the Chat Group at the exact mont the restriction lifted.
Back to her usual energy imdiately.
Eternally Seventeen: Infuriating! The Admin mutes again, and after I was trying to arrange Little Kaguya into his collection for him! Since the Admin is so heartless, I'll simply take the adorable Little Kaguya into my own collection instead.
Kaguya-sama: Huh?! What?! WHY?!
Kaguya-sama: I feel like a parcel being tossed back and forth between you two — and while I have nothing against sa-sex relationships, I'm absolutely heterosexual, my orientation is completely normal!
Kaguya-sama: Yukari-nee, you're not… bottled up, are you?
Kaguya-sama: Should you maybe… deal with that manually?
RawrSoFierce: Hey, hey — don't discuss this in front of Sakura. Personally I'm also curious how a certain soone handles her physiological needs, but there are minors in this group.
Little Sakura of the Tohsaka: …cries
My True Form Is Cola: A minor passing through.
Street-Corner Illustrator: I'm technically a minor too, but this topic is very exciting to !
RawrSoFierce: You used to be a street-corner illustrator. Of course it's exciting to you.
Roar of the Evil Dragon: What does "street-corner illustrator" an?
RawrSoFierce: It ans she draws adult content.
Roar of the Evil Dragon: Terrifying!!!
"…"
Ryū pulled his attention back from the Chat Group and checked his balance.
1,000 Points.
He exhaled slowly.
This had been an expensive mistake. Over a month without a single daily sign-in. Even at a conservative estimate of 60 Points per check-in, the opportunity cost was over 2,000 Points. Possibly close to 2,500.
Two thousand five hundred Points was 125 Arena revivals. It was enough to take an ordinary group mber and turn them into soone who could handle a hundred opponents at once.
Lesson learned. Needed a watch. Specifically one with a calendar function. And sothing durable.
The group is developing well at this point. Nobody except the Wandering Earth is at planetary-scale output yet, but the gap is closing. Yukari especially — she's been accumulating Points across every quest, and she's not the type to leave them sitting idle. Exactly how strong she is now, nobody knows. She's never been seen going all-out in a group mission. The Arena is probably the only environnt where she actually has to.
The Arena didn't support spectating. Frustrating. He'd have paid good Points to watch recordings of Yukari dying in various ways — he had a working title already: Ten Thousand Deaths of the Sage of Gensokyo.
He was aware this was a petty impulse. He chose not to suppress it.
He showered, brushed his teeth, and got into bed.
Just out of the Arena. ntal fatigue was real even when the physical damage had been healed. Sleep first, everything else after.
anwhile, in the centre of Konoha, at the top of the Hokage Building.
The hour was 22:34. Most of the village was asleep. The top floor was still brightly lit.
Administrative docunts. Internal governance. The Fourth Hokage's work didn't end until close to midnight as a matter of routine, and sotis not for much longer than that. The cost of the position — or, alternatively, evidence that Konoha's administrative systems needed serious structural reform, since routing everything through the Hokage personally was not sustainable at scale. Only Minato's formidable endurance had kept him upright this long.
He set down his pen. Stretched. Looked at the ANBU operative standing across from him.
"Ryū-kun is back? It's been over a month, hasn't it."
The operative nodded. "He appears to have returned today. His lights ca on. Likely not a thief — a thief leaving the lights on would be fairly stupid."
Minato considered this briefly. He'd wondered more than once where Ryū went during these extended absences. But asking would produce nothing. If Ryū didn't want to answer a question, the question simply wouldn't get answered.
He was still thinking when the door opened.
Another ANBU operative, this one clearly carrying urgent news.
Minato's brows drew together.
"What happened?"
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> spat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you
User Comments
0 comments from readers