In that instant, as Anthony looked at the entry that had just appeared in his River Styx data center, a flicker of surprise crossed his face.
It wasn't as though he'd forgotten where this thing had come from. Before he'd dealt with the Year Beast, he had set the River Styx to sail autonomously along the Primordial River, searching for some lucky new continent to plunder — ahem, explore.
And now, at last, the River Styx had found its destination. The only thing was… that destination…
Staring at the name [Terraria], Anthony's expression became, for a moment, distinctly peculiar.
Not that there was anything wrong with Terraria. If anything, this place was absolutely perfect.
Anthony couldn't think of a single instance world better suited to his current needs.
When it came right down to it, his connection to Terraria stretched all the way back to when the Grand Flame Wordsmith had joined the group and gifted him that glass fishing rod from her sign-in rewards… and now that he was finally about to step inside, there was something almost poetically fitting about it.
And the moment his thoughts turned to the rewards waiting inside, Anthony could feel his heart starting to race.
Just as he'd said before — what he was lacking right now wasn't points, it was materials. And materials? In Terraria, they were practically growing on trees.
And more than a few of them were exactly what he needed most.
Like, for instance, the fishing rod required to advance [The Angler]'s abilities.
Cause for universal celebration — The Angler, who had gone so long without a single upgrade, was finally getting a chance to level up. And on top of that, the follow-up materials for his own toilet might very well be solvable within the world of Terraria too.
The reason his expression had been so conflicted, though, was that Terraria was… well. The place had a certain… underworld energy to it, to put it mildly.
Setting aside all the grotesque and horrifying bosses, even the terrain itself — the Crimson, the Corruption — had lore stretching into multiverse-level territory, and the whole aesthetic was just deeply, fundamentally weird…
Oh, wait. Hang on. Am I not weirder?
…Fair enough, never mind then.
The moment he thought about how he had the Primordial River at his back and the identity of The Artificer in his hands, Anthony settled down at once. His mind made up, he issued a command to the River Styx.
"Prepare to enter Terraria."
[Request received.]
Looking at the River Styx's response, Anthony couldn't help the honest, uncomplicated smile that spread across his face. He opened the chat group.
[Lord of the Angler's Throne has shared world coordinates.]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Come on, come on — sign-ups for the new world pioneer instance! Who's in?]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: Terraria…? Is this also a Terra-type world?]
[Warrior of Frieren's Fallen Era: What kind of place is this?]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Mm, a prototype world based on a sandbox game. A bit dangerous overall, but the resources are incredibly rich.]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Barring any surprises, once we wrap up Terraria, everyone's resurrection progress should be able to advance a fair bit.]
Anthony did a quick internal calculation before posting that guarantee.
The most certain gain was his own Angler. And along The Angler's upgrade path, Anthony had already spotted quite a few things that could assist with everyone's resurrections — pushing progress forward was essentially guaranteed.
And beyond that, there were several things in Terraria that Anthony had his own theories about — materials he needed to collect on this trip.
[AAA City Ghost: So then, what needs to be done?]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Strip the place bare, obviously. Scrape every last scrap of land and haul it back. If I don't squeeze every drop of value out of this place, my conscience will keep me up at night.]
[AAA City Ghost: …You still have something like a conscience?]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Ouch, brutal. So — you in or not?]
[AAA City Ghost: Count me in.]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Done. So then — Interdimensional Dead Chat Group Team-Building Event, Volume Two. Anyone else signing up?]
[Strictest Father of the Demon King: I've been so idle around here lately I'm practically going stir-crazy… bring me along.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: It's not quite time to head to Italy yet, so I might as well join in.]
[Warrior of Frieren's Fallen Era: Can a soul come along?]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: No problem at all — and don't you still have that radio of yours?]
[Warrior of Frieren's Fallen Era: Please, let's not bring up that radio thing ever again… Even now, Frieren still hasn't recognized that the radio is me. Do you have any idea how to fix that?]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Ahem. @Grand Flame Wordsmith — what do you say, is our senior coming along?]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: Hmm, let me think…]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: The folks over at the Sui family just wrapped up too, so how about we all come together and have a bit of fun over here?]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: All you need is the beacon we set up before — you can come through that way.]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: That sounds wonderful! I'll go let Second Brother and Big Brother know!]
[Yellow Flash of Konoha: Currently teaching Naruto how to do a Rasengan, I'm afraid I can't get away for now.]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: What about David? @Let Night City Burn — you coming?]
[Let Night City Burn: Don't we need to keep electroshocking Muzan and Adam Smasher?]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Uh, let Angela handle that herself — I trust she's used to the job by now.]
Watching David — the Cyberpunk world's chosen 007 grind-warrior — showing such admirable dedication to his post, even a certain unnamed capitalist felt a twinge of something almost like embarrassment, and typed out:
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Oh, and make sure to send Yoriichi the video of Muzan getting electrocuted.]
[Strictest Father of the Demon King: Please, I am begging you to send it to me as well.]
[Let Night City Burn: Understood.]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Oh right — you can bring Lucy along too, the more the merrier.]
[AAA City Ghost: So that means, aside from Mr. Namikaze Minato, everyone's accounted for? It really has been a while… ]
[AAA City Ghost: Alright then, @Lord of the Angler's Throne — give us a rough plan?]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: The plan is pretty simple. The main objective of this team-building trip is to acquire materials from Terraria, and to do that, taking down bosses is non-negotiable — at a bare minimum, we need to defeat the Wall of Flesh.]
Having thought through the materials he needed and his targets, Anthony spoke up immediately:
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Beyond that, most of you will probably be spending this team-building trip down in the mines. The Life Crystals and Life Fruits in the caves are essential as well.]
[AAA City Ghost: A team-building trip to the mines? How very enriching. If you ask me, a certain capitalist really ought to be strung up from a lamppost.]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Ahem, what kind of language is that — so unpleasant to hear.]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: As for everything else, feel free to do whatever you like — there's not much in the way of restrictions.]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Think of it as a rare vacation. I'll cover the points needed to manifest the Reanimation Jutsu souls in physical form.]
[Lord of the Angler's Throne: Once I've got things sorted on my end, everyone can teleport directly onto the River Styx using the coordinates.]
With that last string of messages sent, Anthony finally closed the chat interface, then let out a quiet breath and closed his eyes.
In that instant, the power of his soul surged forth from his body, slowly enveloping the River Styx — and then the points began dropping rapidly, until the vessel's engines let out a tremendous roar.
In that moment, the phase-transfer engine shrieked and blazed with a brilliant white light.
And in an instant, the scene before Anthony's eyes shifted completely. The vibrant, kaleidoscopic Primordial River vanished, replaced by an infinity of white light-specks drifting through the void — until, several minutes later, everything around him suddenly blazed bright again, and a notification chimed from the River Styx.
[Destination confirmed.]
[Phase transition in progress.]
[World barrier successfully breached… safely infiltrating…]
[Forge-Heart · River Styx has successfully landed at coordinate world · Terraria!]
[Bon voyage.]
And so, in that moment, Anthony sat up from his toilet, gazed into the distance, and took in the sunflowers and towering oak trees surrounding him. Then he looked even further out —
— and right there at the edge of his vision, blocking the path, was a stretch of Crimson terrain.
His eye twitched.
This ridiculous? The Crimson was that close?
Were they really just going to let him play the game in peace or not?!
"…Fine. What's done is done. First things first — call everyone over. David and Lucy are already on the River Styx, at least."
Anthony murmured to himself as he sent individual messages in the group to each of the team-building participants, then stood where he was, maintaining the phase-transfer engine while he slowly waited for everyone to arrive.
Once the headcount was full, they could start prepping for the mining runs and the boss fights… It's not like anyone here was rolling in as a blank-slate character. Who had time to sit around slowly farming for gear?
After sending all the messages, Anthony looked up and spotted David emerging in the distance from the Braincell Corporation's surveillance room, and gave him a wave. And then, behind David, he caught sight of Lucy following along.
Both of them had come out of the surveillance room.
And so the next moment, David saw the expression on Anthony's face — that enigmatic, half-amused smile — and found himself at a complete loss for words. After a long silence, he sighed and walked over.
"Mr. Anthony, it isn't what you're thinking —"
"No, I mean — it's fine, really."
Anthony clapped David on the shoulder and said with pointed meaningfulness: "Terraria is a remarkably free world. You can even build your very own house here."
"I haven't started exploring this world yet, so there's a lot about its rules I'm still uncertain about… but, barring any surprises, you two should be able to build a home of your own here. If you're not opposed to the idea, you can give it a try later — and after that, what you and Lucy do inside is absolutely none of my business."
The corner of David's eye seemed to flicker ever so slightly — he was clearly somewhat moved by the idea, though he was still doing his best to keep that feeling hidden.
So he lowered his head — then, as though noticing something all of a sudden, looked up again and changed the subject:
"Speaking of which, Mr. Anthony — what's that thing on the ground?"
"It looks pretty nice, actually."
"The ground? Oh, that thing."
Anthony looked down — and there, on the ground, was a small orange-red flower. Understanding washed over him at once:
"That's Abigail's Flower. It counts as a kind of weapon, I suppose — didn't expect to see one of these here… hm? Hold on. Abigail's Flower? Why is this here?"
And only then, belatedly, did Anthony feel a creeping sense of bewilderment.
He looked down, turning the sight of Abigail's Flower over and over in his mind.
Wasn't this thing supposed to only grow in graveyard environments where a lot of people had died?
What did this place have to do with a graveyard… wait. Oh. Oh no. I'm a dead person.
In that moment, staring at Abigail's Flower on the ground, Anthony went silent.
It felt, somehow, as though the flower was mocking him. So he crouched down and ripped it out of the ground.
Before he'd even had a chance to check Abigail's Flower's effects, though, Anthony saw the phase-transfer engine on the River Styx light up.
And then, from within the transfer engine, a soul came flying out — or rather, a radio.
And from that radio, Anthony heard the familiar voice of Himmel:
"Whoa, so this is Terraria?"
"It doesn't look all that different from back home… oh, Anthony, there you are!"
With Anthony providing a small contribution of points, Himmel steered the radio over to Anthony's position and called out a cheerful greeting.
Then, the moment he'd floated up close, his perspective dipped downward, and his gaze landed on a flower on the ground. He asked with great interest:
"Oh? This flower is quite pretty… does it grow here naturally?"
As he spoke, Himmel used the radio to nudge another Abigail's Flower upright, and then — with the telekinesis effect granted by a few points — balanced the thing on top of the radio, right there under Anthony's deeply strange stare.
"Maybe I can give it to Frieren someday — she might like it… oh, by the way, Anthony, does this flower have any meaning behind it?"
Looking at Himmel's curious expression, Anthony stayed silent for quite a while. Finally, he spoke:
"That thing… that's a flower that grows beside dead people."
"?"
"Congratulations, Himmel. You are now an officially certified Dead Man's Radio."
"?"
For a moment, staring at the Abigail's Flower sitting on top of the radio, even Himmel couldn't help falling silent.
After a good long pause, he steeled himself, plucked the flower off, and tossed it back onto the ground… then, with perfect composure, buried it lightly, and only then looked back at Anthony and said:
"Well, if there's nothing else, I'll just head outside and have a look around…"
"Hold on a second, Himmel."
Before the radio could float away, Anthony called out to him with a meaningful tone, then looked at Himmel and said:
"You've come all this way — aren't you going to get some work done before you go?"
"?"
In an instant, the Himmel-brand radio spun sharply toward Anthony:
"What are you planning?! I want you to know — I'm just a radio!"
"Don't worry," Anthony said, smiling pleasantly. "Even a radio has its uses, doesn't it?"
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Jujutsu x Mieruko: Oh no, am I a villain too?
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!