Chapter 197: The Controlled Shalltear

After the Black Sphere Space handed down the objective for this advance test, Miyabi Nagumo and the others had GANTZ drop them straight into the exam zone.

The familiar weightlessness faded.

His eyes had barely adjusted to the strange play of light and shadow before Miyabi Nagumo dropped his gaze to the Controller radar on his wrist.

Green dots flickered across the screen one after another, then locked in place.

"Sixteen of us, and only thirteen made it through…"

Nagumo's eyelids lowered a fraction as he reached his conclusion. "So only three people got pulled into the 'Revival Match.'"

Akane Tachibana leaned in for a look at the radar screen. "I hope things go smoothly for them over there…"

"However it turns out for them, Tachibana-senpai, our first problem has always been whether we can walk out of this test alive."

Fūka Kiryūin let out a soft laugh. "If we can't clear this place, then even if they win the Revival Match and show up in our exam zone, all that's waiting for them is the honor of dying with us a second time."

"Let's look at the target intel for this exam first, and where the Mystery Merchant is."

Nagumo nodded in approval.

Kiryūin's words grated, but this was no time for pity.

His fingertip slid across the Controller and tapped the reddest dot at the center of the map.

Light rippled, and the target information surfaced in front of them.

[Target: Ainz Ooal Gown (Momonga / Suzuki Satoru)]

[Value: 150 points (item bonuses included)]

[Traits: A level-100 Ruler of Death, a skeletal lich, undead. Extremely evil alignment, born with negative karma, a master of disguise and performance. Wields a wide array of super-tier magic and holds a mountain of cash-shop items and even World Items. Beneath him stands the legendary structure known as the Great Tomb of Nazarick, ten floors in all, each floor garrisoned by level-100 NPCs and lethal traps.]

[Fatal points: weak to holy-attribute skills, weak in melee, a glass-cannon caster at heart. His item collection more than covers for it, however, including but not limited to resurrection, instant-death immunity, and super-tier magic scrolls with no cast time. Worth noting: Suzuki Satoru can resurrect inside the Great Tomb without burning a single precious item.]

Reading it through, even Akane Tachibana, who had braced herself in advance, sucked in a cold breath and clicked her tongue. "What a nasty piece of work."

'Looks like we can't count on [Rose of the Destitute] to kill him in one shot.'

Fūka Kiryūin ran a hand along her delicate chin, brows drawing together. "If we don't find a way to deal with the items on him and that tomb behind him, I honestly don't think we can beat the thing."

Nagumo thought it over. "Our objective is to destroy the Great Tomb anyway, so we'll be running into it either way."

"Let's skim the intel on every high-value monster in this exam first, then track down this round's Mystery Merchant."

"As for the Intruders this time… I'll let the Phantom Legion's shadow soldiers hunt for them. They're out in the open and we're in the dark, so our main force shouldn't scatter and expose itself for nothing."

"There's no telling whether they have some mind-reading trick to pry information about us out of the Intruders' mouths."

As he spoke, Nagumo reached out and tapped, one by one, the red dots clustered around the Bone King, all of them roughly the same size.

[Demiurge], [Cocytus], [Albedo], [Mare & Aura].

Every one of them a maxed-out level-100 boss. Their individual kill values mostly ran to a few dozen points, nothing next to Ainz Ooal Gown's 150, but there were far too many of them to shrug off.

Then Nagumo tapped a lone red dot sitting far from the main group, isolated, and the information on it seized everyone's attention.

[Target: Shalltear Bloodfallen]

[Value: 54 points]

[Traits: A level-100 true ancestor vampire, Guardian of Floors One through Three of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, possessing extreme melee destructive power and the strongest of the Floor Guardians in one-on-one combat. Extremely evil personality, trained in both magic and martial arts, with a full skill set that counters undead and a weapon that also deals bonus damage to undead types. She is, in effect, a natural predator to Suzuki Satoru. As a Guardian, however, she reveres Suzuki Satoru absolutely.]

[Fatal points: impulsive and quick to anger, arrogant, prone to underestimating opponents. No super-tier magic, no World Items, extremely weak perception and trap resistance, extremely vulnerable to ambush.

Currently controlled by the World Item 'Downfall of Castle and Country' and reduced to a mindless elite field monster that attacks any target that comes near, without discrimination.]

"Oh? A natural predator that's lost its mind…"

With that entry read, the tight line of Nagumo's mouth finally curved upward.

"The point gap is a little painful… but a monster that hard-counters Ainz Ooal Gown, sitting there in a state where it attacks anything that moves? For us, that's intel worth using."

Nagumo shut off the radar projection and turned to face the group. "Before any of that, though, our priority is finding the Mystery Merchant. Better to confirm what we can buy this round before we build a concrete plan."

"Sigh… they've given us a full day of leeway again, but against an enemy like this, that's not short, and it's definitely not long either."

"Move out. We need to hurry."

The Infinite Corridor of mirrors.

As the blaze of light from the completed contract faded, Amikura Mako, still down on the floor, rubbed at eyes gone sore from the glare.

By the time she came back to herself, she realized the Mirror Beast that had been eyeing her like prey was gone.

"Huh?"

She looked down at the [Blank Card Box] clenched in her hand.

The surface of the box, pitch black before, had turned a glossy pure white. And dead center, a knight's crest shaped like a swan with its wings spread had risen into view.

"So that… worked?"

"Contracting a Contract Beast in the Mirror World is really this simple…?" Amikura Mako murmured.

Then she shook her head and rejected that naive thought.

No. She'd just gotten lucky.

Survival instinct had shoved her into the right move at the right moment.

If her luck had been a shade worse… her heart would probably be skewered right now.

Which was very bad news for any classmate who walked into the Mirror World with no idea what was coming.

'I hope Chris has already worked out the trick to this contract too.' She pressed her lips together, worry gnawing at her.

And then she remembered she still had a Combat Rifle on her.

Its three-second charge cooldown had made it completely useless when the Mirror Beast jumped her, but the basic radar built into the rifle would be a huge help now.

She lifted her arm and lit up the screen set into the stock.

Partly to confirm where Chris and the others were, partly to guard against a second Mirror Beast springing out of these branching corridors.

When she saw the green dots representing Chris and the rest moving steadily toward her position, and the two red dots that had been at their location gone entirely, Amikura Mako let out a long breath.

'Thank god…'

Even if they hadn't tamed Contract Beasts yet, this was indirect proof that Chris had the power to delete Mirror Beasts in here without breaking a sweat.

With him around, everyone's lives were at least reasonably secure.

And once her own safety was handled, what mattered most right now became obvious.

She got up quickly, brushed the dust off her thighs, and turned toward the two enormous glass mirrors beside her.

In the left mirror, Yotsuya Miko and her group were carrying the male student parasitized by the Facehugger into a relatively isolated room, preparing for emergency quarantine and treatment.

In the right mirror, Nagumo's group had clearly pinned down the Mystery Merchant's position and were moving fast and low through the forest.

Everything seemed to be heading in a good direction.

But… was it really that simple?

Amikura Mako's fine brows drew together.

On Nagumo's side, after he'd farmed points with Rose of the Destitute, his hidden score was probably sky-high by now.

As for Yotsuya Miko and the others… Amikura Mako didn't know the details of their situation. But with Shiranami Chihiro and Ryūji Kanzaki, two people who were supposed to be dead, as markers, she could guess that the extra instance they were trapped in was anything but simple.

'Tch… what am I supposed to do here? If only I could get the information through to Miko and the others.' She bit her lip, muttering to herself.

And in the middle of all that worry, she noticed the picture in the left mirror twist.

The focus left Yotsuya Miko's group entirely and cut to a stretch of dense forest.

There, the soil heaved and split as monsters clawed their way out of the ground, snarling, rotting things straight out of a zombie film, dragging their ruined bodies toward the cabin.

"What's going on? The view got locked onto the monsters?"

Alarm jolted through her, and she reached out on instinct, meaning to touch the glass and see whether she could drag the picture back to Yotsuya Miko's group.

But before her fingertips reached the mirror, a cool voice came from behind her.

"Amikura. What are you doing?"

Her hand snapped back as if she'd been shocked.

She turned toward the voice and found Chris already standing close, with Hayasaka Ai, Kei Karuizawa and Hiyori Shiina behind him.

For some reason, facing those deep eyes of his, Amikura Mako felt oddly embarrassed.

She ducked her head slightly and explained, "Chris, a Mirror Beast ambushed me a little while ago. Through a lucky coincidence… I blocked it with the card box and ended up taming it, so my objective this round counts as done."

"And, well, the picture that was showing Yotsuya and the others suddenly glitched, so I thought I'd try…"

As she spoke, she stole a glance upward to gauge his reaction.

When she found not the slightest softening in his expression, still stern, still carrying a note of reproach, she started to panic a little.

Amikura Mako, the girl who played best friend and dependable big sister to Honami Ichinose in class, suddenly felt as lost as a kid caught red-handed by a parent.

Chris looked at her and let out a quiet sigh. "I know you're worried about them, Amikura."

"But if you can't even protect yourself, everything you do is just talk. There's no weight behind it."

His tone hardened a shade. "Do you really think a starter item worth thirty S Points, one you haven't even broken in yet, is going to make you that strong?"

Amikura Mako's hands clenched, and she was quiet for a moment.

Then she nodded, earnest, her voice sincere. "Sorry… I made you worry."

"I'll be more careful next time, I promise!"

Watching her hold up three fingers like she was swearing an oath, apology written all over her, the sternness on Chris's face finally eased. He waved a hand and let the matter drop.

Kei Karuizawa and Hiyori Shiina, who had stayed quiet at the back, took the entire exchange in, and both of their faces turned a little strange.

Chris saying safety-first things like that was perfectly normal. He'd always been cold on the outside and warm underneath.

But Amikura, what exactly was that reaction?

That tone, a bit wounded, a bit too eager to prove she'd be a good girl… didn't it sound suspiciously like flirting?

Forgive the two girls their hair-trigger nerves.

They simply cared about Chris far too much, so a little projecting was inevitable.

After all, they were veterans who had been through it themselves.

In their eyes, once the feeling called "liking someone" took root, it became as inescapable as air.

Every word and gesture was a flirtatious probe, every meeting of eyes a push and pull, and even a scolding from someone who hadn't truly come close yet…

'Could Amikura also…?'

Kei Karuizawa bit her lower lip, and her sidelong gaze met Hiyori Shiina's in midair.

Still, both girls knew how urgent things were.

That kind of shadow-chasing suspicion had to be pressed down, and they both did it without a word.

So the two of them turned their eyes, in unison, toward the glass wall Amikura Mako had just tried to touch.

Which suited the armor colors of Metalgelas and Biogreeza, the ones Chris had picked out for them in the Book of Ages, rather well. All that green sitting right on top of their heads…

That was right. Chris had long since scouted out matching Contract Beasts for every one of them.

Amikura Mako's swan, Hayasaka Ai's bat…

He had hesitated at first when he settled on [Metalgelas] and [Biogreeza] for the other two, purely on looks.

But then again, these things were only stopgap tools, so pretty or not made no difference.

After all, even the Odin he planned to use himself was, honestly, nothing to look at. Ugly as sin.

Useful beat pretty.

Pure utilitarianism.

With that thought, Chris stepped forward, glanced at the screen behind Amikura Mako, and asked with a note of curiosity, "What happened? Why does this look like the opening first-person shot of a zombie movie?"

"Where are Yotsuya and Shiranami? Don't tell me they've already been eaten…?"

Amikura Mako laughed awkwardly. "I really didn't do anything, the picture changed on its own. That's why I wanted to try, to see if I could turn it back by hand."

"Didn't do anything…"

Hayasaka Ai propped her chin on one hand and offered a guess. "Maybe it's because that side is a complete world in its own right, so this observation mechanism was never designed to keep the view stuck on one particular person?"

Chris considered that for a moment, then made his call. "In that case… let's test your idea, Amikura."

"We're all right here with you, so even if something does go wrong, you won't be cut off with no backup. Besides, Kei and I are the only ones who still haven't bound a Contract Beast, so we have time to spare."

With Chris's permission, Amikura Mako nodded.

Once everyone had gathered around her in a protective ring, she took a deep breath, stepped up, and laid her pale palm gently against the glass mirror that had been showing Yotsuya Miko.

Then she tried a light swipe to the left.

"It's fine! It swipes!"

Her eyes lit up.

And as she kept swiping, the picture in the mirror shifted, and the girl's eyes went wide. She'd found a hidden interaction.

"Wait… everyone!"

Amikura Mako's mouth fell slightly open in surprise. "It looks like if you put your hand on the picture and concentrate, you can hear the sound from inside!"

She focused, listening hard, and her face slowly turned strange. "These people in the lab… they seem to be saying something like, 'No need to worry about the Priest, the Neon Branch pulls the job off perfectly every time'? And something about how, since an uncontrollable accident has already happened, they might as well sacrifice all of them to the 'Evil God'?"

"What… what kind of insane organization is this?!"

Amikura Mako's brows knitted tight.

Then something occurred to her and she turned quickly toward Hiyori Shiina and the others. "Shiina! The mirror next to you seems to be showing the upper-years' exam world! You should put your hands on it too and try listening for anything useful!"

Watching it unfold, Chris nodded to himself.

Now that he'd guided them into uncovering the Mirror World's hidden surveillance function, his reason for staying here had been served.

'If that's how it works… gathering and analyzing intel from two worlds is going to eat up some time.'

Chris turned to Hayasaka Ai and gave his orders without hesitation. "Hayasaka, you stay behind and keep watch. Protect them."

"I noticed a red dot nearby on the Controller display just now. I'll take Kei and settle her Contract Beast problem first, so we should be back soon."

Hayasaka Ai didn't object.

"Fine."

"Leave it to me."

____

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