Second Chance : A Gamer’s Journey Chapter 103 CHAPTER 102: The Contract and the Serpent

Kenji gave a tired, lazy blink as he sipped his morning coffee. The rich, dark brew gave him better focus and clarity, ward his throat. He savored the simple, mundane ritual of a quiet morning.

Ahh… that was good. A small slice of normal.

He lowered the cup slightly, his golden eyes unfocused as he stared out ahead. Yesterday had gone well, very well, if he was being honest. He'd reaped enough benefits to justify the severe headache of dealing with the supernatural world, annihilated a warmongering threat, humiliated the White Dragon Emperor, and, most importantly, secured a fundantal deal from the leaders of the three biblical factions themselves.

The contract hadn't been finalized yet, but He'd assud they'd send a low-ranked courier to handle the paperwork when they were ready and send it to him.

What he hadn't expected…

…was for the three most powerful political figures in their respective realms, the Maou Sirzechs Lucifer, the Fallen Governor Azazel, and the Seraph Michael, to show up at his house first thing in the morning.

They were seated across from him like they were visiting an old friend for a casual neighborhood tea.

His grip on the cup tightened almost imperceptibly, a faint, almost invisible ripple of gravitational warping briefly distorting the space around the ceramic. He fought the urge to simply crush the cup and the table along with it.

"Why are you here?" he asked flatly, his voice devoid of any welco.

Michael, ever the diplomat, offered a bright, cheerful, yet professionally asured smile, radiating an irritating amount of holy light for his morning. "We ca regarding the deal, Mr. Takahashi."

Kenji's eyebrow twitched, a minuscule expression of annoyance.

"And why," he continued calmly, his tone dangerously level, "didn't you just send one of your myriad underlings or at least contact before arriving unannounced at my ho first thing in the morning?"

His gaze flicked around the room, not just at them, but at the walls of his carefully reinforced ho.

'How the hell did they get past the wards?'

He exhaled slowly. The wards he'd installed were strong, designed to block high-tier beings, but they seed to not be powerful enough to stop these three. He really needed to level up his skills. He needed Stronger wards. Much stronger wards.

"We have no way of contacting you, and you didn't really give us one yesterday," Azazel said with a relaxed grin, leaning back in his chair like he owned the place. "So we decided to co personally. This matter is, after all, too important to leave to others."

Kenji didn't even look at the fallen angel. His eyes shifted instead to the crimson-haired devil seated nearby, who scratched his cheek sheepishly, then chuckled.

"Well," Sirzechs said, acknowledging the point. "We were certainly going to send the docunts to you. But Rias wanted to thank you personally for saving Gasper and for protecting the peace talks. So we decided to make this a joint, formal visit, and thank you too for your help with the intruders."

Kenji felt his eyes twitch as he tried not to shout at the obvious lie, but then cald himself and side-eyed the red-haired girl sitting a little farther back. Rias was very deliberately avoiding his gaze, instead chatting animatedly with Ayaka, who looked thrilled to have the attention of soone her age that she could talk magic with.

Right now, Ayaka's innocent happiness was the only thing stopping him from tearing the roof off the house and flinging them all into the atmosphere.

He sighed, the sound conveying the weight of his irritation.

"Give the contract."

Sirzechs imdiately produced the parchnt, a docunt several dozen pages thick, bound in dark leather and sealed with three distinct, heavy crests, and handed it over. Kenji skimd through it, his irritation imdiately bubbling up.

There was so much unnecessary garbage in it that he didn't even ask for, all written in legalese designed to tie him into their existing frawork of responsibilities.

Clauses. Conditions. Mutual cooperation. Non-aggression pacts dressed up like mandatory alliances. Contingency protocols for joint defense. It was a clear, desperate attempt to bind him, even loosely, to their political structure and system.

He sighed again, pushed the lengthy docunt back toward Sirzechs, reached for a blank sheet of notepaper, and wrote his own, simplified terms in clear, uncompromising script.

When he finished, he pushed it across the table. The paper looked laughably small and inadequate compared to their massive to.

"This," he said, his tone leaving no room for argunt, "is all I want."

They leaned in to read the stark, three-point decree:

1. Non-Aggression (The Treaty): I will leave mbers of your factions alone so long as you leave alone. 2. Sovereignty (The Border): This city (Shizuoka) and the imdiate surrounding territory is my exclusive territory. 3. Trespass (The Consequence): No mber of your factions may enter it without my explicit permission. Their imdiate presence will be considered an act of war against my sovereignty, and they will be executed by without warning or recourse.

"As we agreed already, Everything else is pointless political padding and legal maneuvering," Kenji continued, folding his arms. "Sign this, I sign it, and we go our separate ways. I am not entering into an alliance."

The room tensed.

They tried to argue, Michael began a speech about shared responsibility, and Azazel offered a clause about information sharing. Sirzechs attempted to suggest a trade-off for resources like the golems, but Kenji cut them off by rely eting their gazes.

"Just sign the damn thing and leave."

After a mont of staring and silence, punctuated only by the distant, cheerful chirping of Ayaka and Rias, they sighed. The realization that he would not budge.

One by one, they signed and marked it with their seals.

As they stood to go, Rias stepped forward and bowed low, a deep gesture of respect and sincere gratitude.

"Thank you again for your help, Mr. Takahashi. For everything."

"Don't worry about it," Kenji said, waving her off, already moving to grab the signed docunt and store it safely in his inventory.

Rias smiled, waved warmly at Ayaka, and followed the others out, the three faction leaders vanishing back to their respective realms.

Kenji had watched his daughter chatting happily, her smile bright and genuine, then sighed softly, the last trace of tension leaving his body.

He already knew how this would go. Ayaka and the Gremory girl would beco friends, it was inevitable. Rias was charming and polite, and one of the few people she would talk to about these kinds of things, and he wasn't about to forbid it. His dislike for the three factions was his problem, not his children's. He would not impose his burdens on them.

Still…

'I'll make damn sure she's strong enough to navigate their sses. I need to guarantee her survival in this world they just dragged us into.'

After Ayaka went back to her room, humming a new song Rias had taught her, Kenji collapsed onto the couch and opened his status window.

He'd leveled up a fir bit after everything.

Rewards from Kokabiel onward were still untouched. For now, ranking up was good enough.

All his core stats sat capped at 150, passing the Max of 100 like last ti, with odd decimals added from the siphoned attributes of the dozens he had killed that were lower than him.

He decided to rank up.

A searing, internal fire ran through his body. His bones felt like they were being ground down, rearranged, and then a cool, soothing sensation washed over him as everything settled.

He exhaled slowly, watching the faint golden glow recede from his hands.

He was now a Tier 5.

Satan-class.

Low tier, certainly, only just crossing the threshold, but still definitively in the sa classification as the current Devil Kings, the Seraphs, and the Governor of the Fallen Angels.

He was not just Ultimate Class anymore, a term that relied on borrowed power or exceptional lineage; he was now a Sovereign Class entity. He was surpassing even a lot of gods in power. That was crazy to think of.

And with everything he had, the combined weight of his maxed skills, his vast library of skills, and his unique abilities?

He realized he could defeat beings like Serafall or Grayfia quite easily at that now.

That alone said enough about his current standing in the world. He was now without a doubt among the top 100 in the world, if not higher even.

The rest of the day passed quietly.

Kenji lounged around just waiting.

Waiting for?

He glanced at the tir ticking down in his system, a luminous clock superimposed on his vision.

03:45:00

The Main Quest.

He felt like crying.

'Goddammit. I just want one day off.'

By afternoon, Ana returned ho early from work.

Not to rest.

To train.

She had long started prioritizing their sparring sessions, driven by a deep need for self-reliance after the incident with the devils and the near-miss with Rias's group. She was determined to be a protector, not just the protected. She wanted to be powerful enough for her kids not worry. She was quickly proving to be quite the Battle Nut.

They entered the Instanced Dungeon (ID), a perfect, empty landscape where they could fight without restraint.

Kenji blocked the kick aid at his head, a kick reinforced with magic, making the impact weight equivalent to a small sedan. But he didnt even move. He twisted, grabbing her ankle, and using the montum to spin and fling her across the plain.

She adjusted midair, the fluid motion surprising and instant, landing in a low crouch, instantly launching herself back at him. Her fighting style had evolved from defensive grappling to highly aggressive, explosive close-quarters combat, and she was proving to be quite the talent.

He blocked her incoming punch, nodding when he felt the punch.

"Good," he said, his voice asured. "But you need to be faster. You telegraph before you strike, that's bad. Try to tighten your body. Anticipate the counter-blow."

He pulled her in, slamd a controlled, non-lethal elbow into her face, then kicked her away. Blood dripped from her nose, and she grinned, her eyes blazing with a ferocious determination.

'Yep. Definitely a battle nut.'

She wiped the blood with the back of her hand and rushed him again, a renewed surge of self-reinforcent magic surrounding her fists.

'Ah, where did my sweet Ana go…' he thought, though a significant part of him was imnsely proud of her ferocity and evolution, she was improving quickly.

He tilted his head just enough to dodge a flying kick, hitting the underside of her thigh with an open palm to disrupt her stance, gripping her leg, palming her stomach to drive the air out of her lungs, seizing her by the neck-

—and flipped her, slamming her into the ground with a THUD that cracked the concrete floor.

She groaned, the wind knocked out of her, and stayed down, utterly spent.

"Done already?" he teased, kneeling over her.

She glared up at him, panting, and gave a weak thumbs-down.

Laughing softly, he poured a high-grade healing potion over her wounds.

"Thank you," she sighed as the pain and bruising faded instantly. "But you didn't need to break my arm just to prove a point."

"It's the most effective way to teach a lesson on vulnerability," Kenji retorted. "When you're fighting, your opponent won't stop to explain the lesson."

After they exited the ID, she collapsed into a chair, rubbing her shoulder.

"Ugh… my body feels so sore," she complained, though he knew it was rely phantom pain from the training. "I need a bath and a nap."

He nodded, rubbing her back, an imdiate gesture of affection and comfort.

She turned her head to him, gave him a quick, grateful peck, and left for their room.

Kenji checked the tir, his golden eyes automatically finding the countdown.

00:01:00

One minute left before the mission started.

He opened the group chat.

Kenji: Everyone ready?

Replies ca quickly.

[Self-Proclaid Human]: Ready.

[Red Cake Boss]: I believe I am as well. My armors are prepared.

[Eternal Virgin]: …Are we sure the mission needs everyone, I'm sure just you three can handle it.

Kenji understood the boy's desperation to stay with his sister. Still, the System had decided all of them were going, so he couldn't really help Sora.

All mbers, it said after all.

Five seconds left.

He was already ready and was about to type a firm, final confirmation to the group when he felt it.

The barriers were intact. Untouched, yet.....

Sothing behind him.

Presence.

Imagine if the sun suddenly appeared behind you. Yeah, that's what he felt at the mont.

He turned sharply, his body coiling, power vibrating in his muscles.

So who—

His thoughts died as he saw the being.

Before he could react, before he could even utter a single word, he vanished.

00:00

The world vanished in a flash of blinding light, and Kenji reappeared in the middle of a dense, eerily silent forest, frozen in place, eyes wide and jaw slack. The air was cold, damp, and slled of earth. He was surrounded by Van, Erza, and a very miserable-looking Sora.

That was…

That was Ophis… right? The Ophis? He had just been standing in the sa room as the Infinite Dragon God. And then, he was gone, and Ophis was left in his ho.

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