The remaining days passed quickly. For Ryū this amounted to staying up late playing gas and spending the small amounts of sign-in Points on brief Arena sessions.
When the activity tir finally hit zero, the ti was 8:24 in the morning.
In Konoha, it was not the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. In the Iron Man series world, it was.
Ryū finished his morning chores, locked every door and window in the house, and entered the Chat Group.
RawrSoFierce: @All mbers — the activity opened a minute ago. I'm going through each of you now to unlock crossover permissions. Once yours is open, just think the intention and you'll cross over directly.
RawrSoFierce: Stark — did you find sowhere with enough space?
I'm Rolling In It: Relax! I've set up one of my New York estates as the temporary base. Even Whitebeard-ojii-sama at six-plus tres wouldn't have any issues fitting in there.
I'm Rolling In It: I believe that particular property ran about one or two hundred million.
Crazy Diamond: And there goes Stark-san casually flexing again.
Edward Newgate: Gurararara — once you inherit your grandfather's estate, Josuke, it won't rival Stark's but it'll co close!
Crazy Diamond: I want my family to keep living. Let them live until they're tired of it themselves. Inheriting would be a few thousand years from now, maybe.
Terrible Tornado: Josuke's ambitions are unexpectedly long-range.
Crazy Diamond: What's the point of existing without a dream?
Kaguya-sama: Worshipping the wealthy. Weakest player trembles.
Crazy Diamond: Pfft — Kaguya is the actual heavyweight here. The Shinomiya financial group operates in the trillions — that's a genuine world-tier conglorate.
Kaguya-sama: It's not all mine… my family has a portion of it and primary decision-making authority, that's all.
My True Form Is Cola: True paupers here, please stop reminding the broke hobody she's broke.
Street-Corner Illustrator: Please stop reminding the broke manga artist she's broke.
WolfKingOfQingQingGrasslands: Please stop reminding the broke wolf he's broke.
"…"
The group was chaotic as always, and the crossover happened anyway. Nobody had specified that being in transit prevented chatting.
The one person who couldn't casually scroll was Ryū — he was going through each mber's crossover permissions one by one, which was more tedious than it should have been.
Why isn't there a batch-select option? One at a ti for sixteen people. This is a lot of work for the start of what's supposed to be a holiday.
He'd also been aning to submit a feedback report to the Chat Group system. Last ti the reward had been sothing in the range of a hundred to five hundred Points — he genuinely couldn't rember the exact number, it had been months ago and he'd not considered it worth retaining. The Points would be welco regardless of the amount.
He finished with Sakura — the last na on the list — and exhaled.
RawrSoFierce: @All mbers — all crossover permissions are now open. If you haven't crossed yet, do it now~
RawrSoFierce: I'm probably the last one here at this point, right?
Crazy Diamond: [Image] [Image] — Already at the estate Stark-san prepared! Though calling this a "villa" seems understated. This is a full estate.
Crazy Diamond: In New York of all places. Even the world's richest person might struggle to pull this off — this isn't just money, is it?
I'm Rolling In It: You'd be surprised what money can do when applied correctly.
I'm Rolling In It: There were certain… arrangents involved. The usual kind. Without those, nobody would have sold.
Kaguya-sama: Stark-san's network in Arica is sothing else. This is what a genuine operator looks like.
I'm Rolling In It: It's been about three months in the Chat Group now, give or take. My perspective has shifted considerably. Still the righteous superhero and all that, but various preparations are underway.
I'm Rolling In It: At this point, those certain individuals don't dare give trouble.
Edward Newgate: Gurararara — real strength is built on capability. Stark now has enough power to represent a genuine threat to them, so they've gone quiet.
My True Form Is Cola: So this is what the world of the powerful looks like. Terrifying.
Kaguya-sama: At your current strength level, Umaru, Japan can't really do much to you anyway. You're not a walking nuclear device yet, but reducing a small county town to rubble is already within reach eventually.
"…"
Ryū sent the thought, and the world rotated.
Less than a second.
The bedroom dissolved into an enormous hall. The emptiness of his house resolved into a crowd of recognisable faces — Whitebeard, Yukari, Kizaru, Kaguya, all of them and more. And standing among them as host: Tony Stark.
The Dinsional Chat Group, assembled again. Sixteen mbers including Ryū.
The hall was large enough that sixteen people produced no crowding whatsoever. The surplus space was considerable — this was Tony Stark's "villa" purchased for one to two hundred million dollars. Looking at it now, that figure seed like an internal price. In New York, at this scale, the actual market value would be sothing else entirely.
Certain arrangents, indeed.
He'd been there for approximately three seconds when sothing round and hard bumped into his foot.
He looked down. A spherical rock, sowhat basketball-sized, emitting a slightly childlike voice.
"Admin! I'm seeing the living Admin again! I'm the Wandering Earth! The most adorable mber of the group!"
"I knew it was you without being told."
The only mber who looked like a sphere this round was the Wandering Earth. Ryū bent down and picked it up.
Heavy. Still very heavy.
Better than the last ti — the Children's Day event, he'd picked up the Wandering Earth and nearly thrown his back out, the weight entirely outside what a human body should have been lifting. This ti his lumbar region remained operational. Sowhat. The heaviness was still real.
This was after the Chat Group had already scaled the planet down to its minimum possible size. Without that intervention, Ryū would have been flattened.
"Hello, Admin!"
"Hello, Admin!"
"Hello, Admin!"
The greetings ca from multiple directions. Ryū returned them one by one, slightly at a loss for words.
This feels like a manager walking in and having all the employees shout "good morning, boss."
He'd grown numb to being called "Admin" — they could shout it as much as they wanted. He'd accepted the title.
He checked the wall clock — so expensive brand, the kind where the clock face was mostly empty space — and muttered: "Marvel world is in the middle of the night right now? That's why it's dark outside."
Tony Stark's voice rose above the general noise.
"Everyone — Chat Group veterans and new mbers alike — ahem! Sorry, almost slipped into the 'Uncle Tony' habit. Tonight I'm the host for this gathering. Don't worry about money. Just eat, enjoy, have a good ti!"
"The food on the tables was just finished by the chefs. Top cuisine from multiple countries, all of it in large quantities. This is our first ti eting in person — opening the group activity with a feast seems like the right call, doesn't it?"
Whitebeard, who had been reduced to approximately two-plus tres by the Chat Group's scaling — still enormous — rumbled approvingly: "Gurararara — plenty of food, as expected! This old man hasn't eaten in a full day and night in preparation."
Kaguya, standing nearby, gave him a tired look. "Whitebeard-ojii-sama, that's a bit extre. Though I also skipped dinner and lunch…"
"…"
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