After walking Karuizawa Kei — docile as a quail — back to the girls' dormitory, Chris rode the elevator alone back up to his floor.
"Ding—"
The elevator doors slid open, and the moment Chris looked up, he found someone he hadn't expected.
The Student Council President. Horikita Suzune's older brother. His future brother-in-law — Horikita Manabu.
He stood there in his sharply pressed uniform, and the instant the doors parted, he turned around. Their eyes met in midair.
The way he'd positioned himself made it clear this was no coincidence. He'd come here specifically to wait for him.
Chris stepped out of the elevator and tugged the corner of his mouth into a smirk.
"Tell me... is it a requirement for you people with admin privileges to ambush people like this?"
Horikita Manabu blinked, then quickly caught the implication buried in those words.
"As Student Council President, pulling up dormitory surveillance footage or entry logs isn't exactly difficult."
"Though compared to your little girlfriend's intelligence network, my methods are probably still a fair bit behind."
"...Girlfriend?" Chris laughed.
"Since when do I have a girlfriend? I, the actual person involved, somehow have no idea."
Horikita Manabu adjusted his reflective glasses, his expression noncommittal.
"Perhaps. But she's quite the hot commodity right now... getting a girl like that to be completely obedient to you — your methods are far less mediocre than you let on."
"That's got nothing to do with me. Mutually beneficial arrangement, that's all." Chris waved a dismissive hand, shelving the jokes. "Alright, it's the middle of the night. What do you want? I don't like dancing around things."
"Talking to smart people is always easier. Then I'll be direct."
Horikita Manabu gave a single nod. "My reason for coming is simple. I want to use you as a channel to understand the specific changes in this round's Preliminary Test and Special Exam. It's important for the decisions we'll be making going forward."
Hearing that request, Chris didn't answer immediately.
He reached into his pocket, rummaged around for a moment, and pinched out a rigid card embossed with the Advanced Nurturing High School crest.
"Wanting to know something means paying the corresponding price. You should understand that rule, right?"
Chris held the card between his index and middle fingers and gave it a lazy wave in front of Horikita Manabu's face.
"Funny story — after the exam last weekend ended, I found this student ID of yours in my pocket. Along with a note."
"This is the collateral I received during our little transaction in the exam hall last time. So, Your Excellency the Council President — what do you currently have that's worth trading for my intel?"
Horikita Manabu stared at his own student ID.
After a brief pause, he spoke slowly.
"Everything I know. Whether it's secrets this school has kept buried in the past, or certain... intel that I happen to have, and that you happen to want."
An offer laid completely bare.
Chris gave him a strange look.
"Something about the way you phrased that feels off. Though... our first-year class has someone like Ichinose — a genuine people-pleaser. As Student Council President, if all you wanted was this kind of information, chatting her up would've been far easier."
"Since you specifically avoided her and came to me instead, I'll take that as a compliment."
Chris leaned back against the wall.
"Simply put — the difficulty of both the test and the exam has been cranked up this time."
"Starting with the test: it went from four participants to sixteen, with four representatives from each class. On top of that, losers don't just become intruders — the system forcibly docks one life from them as well."
"As for the main exam..." Chris paused. "All I can say is, the monsters this time were a group of heavily armed mechanical life forms. Stronger than anything we've faced before. Without the Combat Suits, we probably would've been wiped out entirely."
Horikita Manabu listened, his brow drawing into a tight knot.
"Then... if someone from a class that failed the test already had no extra lives remaining from the Black Sphere — what happens to them?"
Chris mulled it over for a moment, then answered honestly.
"Good question. I'm curious about that myself. Let me call someone who was actually there and find out."
As he spoke, he pulled out his phone and dialed Ayanokoji Kiyotaka directly.
The call was picked up after only two rings.
"What is it." Ayanokoji's characteristically flat voice came through the receiver.
Chris smiled. "Someone's buying intel on the Preliminary Test and the main exam from me. I'm curious about one thing myself, so I'm asking you."
There was a silence on the other end.
Two or three seconds passed. Ayanokoji Kiyotaka seemed to be confirming the buyer's identity in his head, then said simply: "Go ahead."
Chris relayed Horikita Manabu's question verbatim, then threw in a bonus as a goodwill gesture.
"By the way, here's a tip. While we were in the Black Sphere Space, GANTZ told us that S-Points can be exchanged for Prop Points at a one-to-five-hundred ratio. Hopefully that's useful to you."
"...Thank you."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka offered a rare expression of gratitude, then reported what he had seen firsthand.
"As for those without the Black Sphere's extra life insurance... after the test ruled them as failures, a red laser descended from the sky and struck them directly between the eyes."
"They were eliminated on the spot."
"No life insurance... Kanzaki Ryuuji and Kaneda Satoru?"
Chris's eyelids gave the faintest twitch.
He continued into the phone: "Anything on your end worth passing up to the upperclassmen? I've got the Student Council President right here. The unimportant stuff will leak out tomorrow anyway — might as well let me trade it for some points and put it to use."
Ayanokoji replied: "The test rewards were announced while students from other classes were still present, so there's no hiding them. Fine — split whatever points you get from selling it with me."
"No problem." Chris agreed.
Ayanokoji continued.
"Winners each received 5 S-Points as a reward, along with two Intruder Immunity privileges and one Resurrection.
"Additionally, the Black Sphere disclosed one piece of intelligence — in the next Special Exam, a 'Mystery Merchant' will appear. Players can use Prop Points to purchase special rewards from him."
"I'm not certain whether 'next time' refers to the upperclassmen's exam or our own. Have the Student Council President keep watch — if they encounter the merchant during their exam, I'd appreciate it if he could relay what happened and the list of items on sale."
"In exchange, I'll waive my cut of the points."
With that, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka hung up, clean and efficient as always.
Chris listened to the dial tone, gave a resigned shrug, and looked at Horikita Manabu, whose expression had grown grave.
"You heard all of it. That's everything."
"Prop Points... a Mystery Merchant. Understood."
Horikita Manabu filed the critical information away.
"If I encounter one during Friday's exam, I'll have Tachibana Akane contact you. She'll add you on LINE after this — make sure to accept the request. Whatever cut of the points you want, just tell her directly."
Chris watched as Horikita Manabu finished his business and seemed about to turn and leave.
He couldn't help but feel a little curious.
"Hey, Your Excellency the Council President."
"Setting aside why you'd have your secretary notify me instead of doing it yourself — the intel you just asked about, you could've gotten it clean and easy just by asking Horikita Suzune."
Chris studied him with an amused look.
"I don't exactly come across as some desperately starved womanizer, do I? Surely you don't think I go after every girl I meet — that I'd make a move on your secretary?"
Horikita Manabu stopped walking and turned around.
And on that normally stern, imposing face — for the first time — there was exhaustion.
"I've already died once."
Horikita Manabu held his gaze.
"So I'm hoping... if the day ever comes when the Black Sphere's exams are no longer limited to a single year group, but expand to include the entire student body and faculty... if you ever encounter Tachibana Akane in danger in the exam space, that you might look out for her a little."
"Her administrative and support abilities are exceptional. She won't hold you back."
Chris burst out laughing.
"And what about Horikita Suzune?" Chris cut through his pretense without mercy. "Don't tell me you care more about someone with no blood relation to you than your own little sister."
"Come on, be honest, Student Council President. You came all the way here in the middle of the night for this so-called 'intel trade.' Your real objective is Horikita Suzune, isn't it? You want me to look out for her in the exam."
Called out to his face, Horikita Manabu's posture stiffened for just an instant.
But he recovered his composure quickly, turning to face the elevator doors.
"I've already told her — in this school, surviving ultimately comes down to her own ability."
"But if it's possible..."
Horikita Manabu's voice drifted back down the hallway on a faint breeze.
"I trust your capabilities. Suzune... I'm leaving her in your hands as well."
Watching that righteously dignified retreating figure, Chris suddenly pulled out his phone and gave it a wave.
"Hey, I recorded everything you just said, you know. If you want to take it back, I can delete it right now."
"Do as you like."
"Oh, and — if you don't have any unusual tastes, watch yourself around Nagumo Miyabi."
"That guy is... I won't say more."
The elevator doors slid shut, swallowing the last of Horikita Manabu's voice.
Chris watched the floor indicator descend and shook his head with a quiet smile.
That whole settling-his-affairs posture — should he call it cautious foresight? Or was it that, after witnessing truly supernatural terror firsthand, Horikita Manabu no longer had the same confidence in his own strength that he once did?
If it were Nagumo Miyabi from the second year — even if that guy had recently awakened his inner feminine side — Chris couldn't imagine him ever entrusting his childhood friend to someone else.
That was a matter of masculine pride. Non-negotiable.
All you could say was that Horikita Manabu was a competent leader — and in his own way, a good older brother who just wasn't great at expressing it.
He was rational enough, rational to the point of setting aside every last shred of his dignity for the sake of the people he cared about surviving.
"Though, Ayanokoji did say something just now that wasn't wrong..."
Chris turned it over in his head as he walked back toward his room.
He had indeed been planning to use the[Time-Stop Watch]during Friday's Special Exam — the one Horikita Manabu's year group would be sitting — to pick an alien hero and play the role of a "Mystery Black Market Dealer," hawking some quirky little gadgets that weren't part of the Black Sphere's standard equipment lineup.
After all, isn't this exactly what game developers love to do — build hype before a major release?
I know you're all broke right now and definitely can't afford the premium stuff, but I'm putting the good things on the shelf anyway.
Do nothing but make you drool. Stimulate a little consumer spending and internal competition while I'm at it.
Save up a bit more, wait for a sale event, and you'll be buying in no time, right?
Turning over this gloriously capitalist scheme in his head, Chris's mood lifted considerably. He casually sank his consciousness into the system and checked his daily item drops from the past couple of days.
"Oh?"
When he made out the disc floating in the system space, Chris raised an eyebrow.
[Stand Disc: Weather Report]
And also...[The Main God].
The Stand Disc was from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean.
Honestly, for the current Chris — who already had the Time-Stop Watch and the passive from Heart of Steel — this thing might not rank as particularly overwhelming in terms of raw destructive power.
But compared to the[Survivor]Stand Disc he'd pulled before, which DIO himself had famously dismissed as the "weakest Stand," this was an absolute jackpot.
"A Stand that freely controls the weather..."
After a moment's thought, Chris decided to use it himself.
Setting aside its combat potential entirely — just the ability to freely manipulate weather would be absolutely perfect for setting the atmosphere whenever he needed to make a dramatic BOSS entrance.
"It's just a shame..."
Chris clicked his tongue, feeling a little greedy.
"Would've been nice to pull Pucci's White Snake. Since White Snake has its own consciousness, why couldn't it just turn itself into a Stand Disc and defect to the good side?"
If he had White Snake, he could take the Stand Arrow he'd pulled earlier — the one that belonged to Yoshikage Kira's father — and go around the world poking people with potential.
Once they awakened their Stands, he could use White Snake's ability to extract the Stands as Discs...
And then wipe their memories of the whole thing.
Wouldn't that give him a fully automated Stand Disc assembly line?
That's even more ruthless than any capitalist.
As for The Main God — that was self-explanatory. A prized item from Infinite Terror, it unlocked a whole slew of side quests for him, and could even be used to cross into other worlds.
Of course, there was no need to rush things now. Ayanokoji and the others weren't ready to take on Sukuna or Muzan yet. Better to wait until the battle royale on the Uninhabited Island culled the numbers a bit, then open up the side quests at a leisurely pace.
Still, The Main God could be used to play around with some things in the meantime — transplanting Parasytes, crafting Quinques as a stopgap for the early stages. Nothing wrong with that as a transitional measure.
"But the Stand situation... is still a bit... regrettable."
Without White Snake, the Stands awakened through the Arrow were uncontrollable in quality. Chris didn't like that kind of uncertainty.
He was sighing over this setback to his empire-building ambitions when he reached his dormitory door and went to swipe his key card.
"Bzzt bzzt—"
His phone suddenly buzzed twice in rapid succession from his pocket.
Chris pulled it out and saw that it was from Karuizawa Kei.
The first was a system notification:
[Your account has received a transfer from Karuizawa Kei: 95,000 Personal Points.]
The Black Sphere exam reward points she'd just received — and she'd turned around and handed all of them over?
She was certainly true to her word.
The second message followed right after.
Kei:[Chris... Matsushita Chiaki and Koenji and the others have returned to school. Sato Maya just invited me — she wants me to go with her to find Matsushita and the others and find out what happened after the Preliminary Test.]
[Should I go? I'll do whatever you say.]
She was clearly asking her "keeper" for permission, while reporting her whereabouts in real time.
Chris thought it over.
Now that the test was over, knowing Horikita Suzune — whether for information on the Preliminary Test results or for any intel that might prove useful to her — she would definitely be going.
He typed back a reply without much thought:
[Go ahead. Go with them.]
[I'm curious too, actually.]
____
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