After assigning the mission to Miyuki Shiba and the others, Izumi immediately granted them the necessary permissions.
Specifically—
access to the world of the Titans.
The moment Miyuki and the others sensed that they had obtained the authority to travel to another world, joy flashed across their faces.
"Alright, permissions granted."
"Head there and complete the mission when you're ready."
"Once it's done, I'll transfer the points."
"If you have more questions, ask after the festival ends."
With that, Izumi casually waved goodbye and left with Enju.
As for Miyuki's group, they were naturally thrilled to have received their first mission.
Still, none of them rushed off immediately.
Instead, they chose to continue enjoying the Gourmet Festival.
Right now—
food came first.
...
After leaving Miyuki and the others behind, Enju looked curiously at Izumi.
"Izumi-sama… there are already quite a lot of missions posted."
"But nobody really wants to accept them."
"What should we do?"
"The stronger people don't seem to lack points at all."
"And even if they do, they probably wouldn't care about such small rewards."
"Meanwhile, the people who do need points don't seem strong enough to complete the missions."
Hearing that, Izumi chuckled.
"Don't worry."
"That's only temporary."
"In the future, more and more people will come here."
"And besides…"
"Haven't some people already started growing stronger?"
"Sending them to other worlds for experience isn't a bad thing."
Many ordinary people from peaceful worlds had already been leveling up steadily by fighting monsters in Izumi's world.
Once they eventually needed points to purchase stronger abilities or items, they would naturally start taking missions themselves.
So Izumi wasn't worried in the slightest.
Enju nodded thoughtfully.
"You mean people like Asuna-san and the others?"
"They really have grown a lot."
"But their luck stats are ridiculous now."
"They don't even seem to need points anymore…"
She sounded somewhat bitter about it.
After becoming followers of Eris, Asuna and the others had experienced absurd boosts in fortune.
Whenever they hunted monsters, rare Noble Phantasms practically dropped nonstop.
Then they sold those treasures for massive amounts of points.
At this point, they were basically rich.
Izumi couldn't help laughing.
"It's not just them."
"There are plenty of others too."
"Don't forget—our world has a huge population now."
Enju stopped arguing after hearing that.
Then Izumi continued.
"From here on, we just let the world continue developing naturally."
"As for me…"
"I need to head into the dimensional void and stabilize my power."
"And after that…"
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
"…I'll fuse those two things inside the system."
Then he'd test whether he could finally break into the realm of single-digit beings.
That was what Izumi wanted most right now.
Enju froze slightly.
"Izumi-oniichan… are you going into seclusion?"
"You could say that."
"I just need time to fully adapt to my strength."
"I suddenly became much stronger."
"There are still many things I haven't completely understood yet."
"So I need some time to sort everything out."
Enju nodded seriously.
"Then leave everything here to me."
"Go become even stronger, Izumi-oniichan."
Izumi smiled and gently rubbed her head.
"I'll leave it in your hands, Enju-chan."
After saying that, he continued wandering through the city with her.
...
Thanks to the Gourmet Festival, Izumi's world had become more lively than ever before.
Because of Komatsu and the Toriko world chefs, both Erina and Liu Mao Xing's businesses suffered heavy competition.
Still, compared to normal days, they were earning vastly more than before.
Even if they couldn't compete with the monsters from the Gourmet World, many people still bought from them.
After all—
not everyone could afford the outrageously expensive gourmet dishes.
Erina's side relied on sheer manpower.
Because she had so many people working under her, the total points they earned were still comparable to Liu Mao Xing's group.
Meanwhile, Liu Mao Xing and his companions were basically cheating.
A single dish from them could feed enormous numbers of customers.
Despite having only a few dozen people, they still fought Erina's massive operation evenly.
The multi-day Gourmet Festival ultimately earned Erina and the others a fortune.
At the same time, they also witnessed firsthand just how terrifying Setsuno's Century Soup truly was.
Sure, everyone who drank it ended up making bizarre expressions afterward—
but there was no denying it.
It was a flavor beyond imagination.
By the end of the festival, Erina had successfully earned one million points.
After repaying part of her debt to Izumi, however…
she still owed several hundred thousand more.
And she hadn't even paid Nyarlathotep her dividends yet.
Meaning—
she was still buried under an enormous mountain of debt.
Thankfully, Nyarlathotep didn't really care much about points and never pressured her about it.
That alone greatly relieved Erina.
Still, after seeing the culinary skills of Setsuno and the Gourmet World chefs, Erina desperately wanted to purchase their techniques.
Unfortunately…
her empty wallet forced her to suppress the temptation.
...
By the time the Gourmet Festival ended, Kurumi and the other Spirits had also returned.
And they didn't come back alone.
Numerous legendary Pokémon accompanied them.
Virtually every major legendary Pokémon from the Pokémon world had been brought over.
Meanwhile, Caitlin had her family capture large numbers of cute Pokémon and sell them into Izumi's world.
As a result, the entire world became far livelier thanks to their arrival.
Rumor had it that a certain tsundere Railgun had even abandoned her beloved Gekota in favor of Pikachu.
Those who knew her found the development utterly shocking.
Watching all these changes unfold, Izumi finally summoned Gaia and Alaya.
After giving them a series of instructions, he took a single step forward—
and vanished from his world entirely.
Now—
it was finally time for him to grow stronger.
...
Izumi's departure didn't create much disturbance.
The people close to him all knew the truth.
He had merely gone away to train.
Sooner or later, he would return.
So everyone simply continued handling their own responsibilities while helping maintain and develop the world he had created.
Meanwhile, the mission system gradually became more active.
More and more people began accepting requests and traveling to other worlds for points.
Just as Izumi predicted—
the number of participants steadily increased.
Adventurers from Orario.
Adventurers from Axel.
People from the High School DxD world.
They all joined the growing mission network.
With their strength, low-level worlds posed almost no threat whatsoever.
Most missions could be completed effortlessly.
And because of this—
Izumi's world became increasingly attractive to outsiders.
More people arrived every day.
Many became completely captivated by the place and refused to leave.
Some even chose to settle down permanently.
Meanwhile, certain rulers from ancient worlds, after learning the true course of their own histories, began posting missions in order to reform their civilizations completely.
Some emperors even started forming alliances with one another.
And among them—
the central figure leading the charge was none other than Ying Zheng himself.