— — — — — —
After saying goodbye to the young Sakurajima…
Veyron wasted no time and immediately rushed off to the other destiny-bound girls to speedrun his bond with them.
If he had to literally 'build bonds' with every one of them like the word suggested, it'd probably take at least ten days, maybe even a few weeks. No way he had time for that.
But if the requirement was simply to form some kind of meaningful long-term connection with them—one strong enough to still exist after the worlds eventually merge—then things got way easier.
For example, he gave Shoko Makinohara's mother a heart-specialized healing potion that would integrate into her DNA, ensuring Shoko would never suffer from any heart-related illness. On top of that, he left her a Japanese version of SCP-500—the all-purpose miracle drug—just in case.
He did the same for Yoshiyuki Miyazono, Kaori Miyazono's father from Your Lie in April, since he was the genetic source of Friedreich's ataxia—a rare, inherited, autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder that ultimately led to Kaori's death.
And yeah, there are more anime worlds mixed into this mash-up world.
Then, the current young lady of the Shiina family, Mashiro Shiina's mom. He gifted her a magical pen that ran on childlike wonder and imagination. Anything she drew would turn into reality.
And as for Chihiro Sengoku back when she was still in elementary school? He knocked her forehead three times with his knuckle and made her write a 30,000-word self-reflection paper titled: "The Responsibilities of Being an Elder Family Member."
Then.....
— — —
It only took him half a day to max out the "presence" stat granted by the world's will—something only given to foreign protagonists like him.
And then, just like what happened back in World-4, the luck and protagonist halo that should've gone to the actual main characters all got dumped onto him. His bond percentage, which was sitting below 20% before, shot straight to 100%.
『Earth's Cancer』: ???
『Lady Avalon』: Something up, Chika-chan?
As always, Merlin—who seemed to live online 24/7—was the first to respond to the sudden out-of-context question in the group.
『Earth's Cancer』: Uh… just wondering, Mr. Veyron, are you done over there? @OrdinaryHuman
『Ordinary Human』: Yep, all done.
『Ghost Spider』: That fast? Didn't you say just a few minutes ago there were two new worlds to fuse?
『Lady Avalon』: Wait… Vey, did you mess with "time" again?
『Ordinary Human』: Not me—blame the chat group.
Veyron gave them a quick summary of his new discovery related to the [Space-Time Gap] during this mission.
『Hellish Blizzard』: So it's like… dragging the target world into the gap but in reverse?
『Ordinary Human』: Pretty much.
『Earth's Cancer』: You know… it's starting to hit me how little we actually understand about this multi-dimensional chat group...
『Catwoman』: Other than the basic help menu, some notifications when someone joins or sends a red packet, or when a mission pops up, the group system basically ghosts us most of the time.
『Catwoman』: Unless someone breaks the system like last time with the mission bug, or fulfills some hidden condition like Veyron just did, it's honestly no surprise we know almost nothing about the locked features.
『Earth's Cancer』: Fair point.
『Earth's Cancer』: Speaking of which… since Veyron joined, it feels like we haven't had any new members for a while, right?
『Snake Empress』: Just a few months.
『Lady Avalon』: Less than a year, actually. Doesn't seem that long.
『Earth's Cancer』: Emmmm…
『Earth's Cancer』: Merlin-nee, you can't compare this to when you were the only member in the whole group, okay?! (Facepalm.jpg)
『Earth's Cancer』: Ever since I joined, then Gwen, Hancock, Fubuki, Selena, and finally Veyron—the group's been recruiting people faster and faster.
『Earth's Cancer』: There was barely a three-month gap between Selena and Veyron!
『Snake Empress』: Now that you mention it, Chika… yeah, that has been the trend.
『Hellish Blizzard』: Could it be that all our constant world-hopping using that mission bug—leaving our home universes and frequently opening [Space-Time Gaps]—somehow caused a malfunction in the group's recruitment system?
『Hellish Blizzard』: Then again… for something as powerful as a dimensional chat group, that kind of trivial detail shouldn't be enough to cause issues.
『Lady Avalon』: Honestly, instead of questioning that, you should be asking whether King Arthur learned the lesson from the Pirate World. (Serious Artoria Face.jpg)
『Hellish Blizzard』: …
『Earth's Cancer』: So… any theories?
『Earth's Cancer』: Mr. Veyron? Any thoughts?
『Ordinary Human』: Shouldn't you guys, the veterans, be the ones thinking about this stuff? Why are you asking the newbie who joined the group most recently…?
『Earth's Cancer』: Because you're now the strongest one in the group, duh.
『Ordinary Human』: Yeah, well, I don't think having enough power to not even destroy a single world yet puts me at any kind of advantage when it comes to understanding how this multiverse-spanning chat group works…
『Ordinary Human』: But since we're talking clues…
『Ordinary Human』: If it's true that the group slowed down recruitment right after I joined, then maybe it wasn't me joining that changed things—maybe it was something else that happened around the same time that had a bigger impact?
『Snake Empress』: You mean… that chat group upgrade?
『Ordinary Human』: Exactly.
『Earth's Cancer』: Hmm… If I remember right, that upgrade had two prerequisites. First, the combined point total of all members had to reach 100,000. And second, the group had to have at least five members.
『Earth's Cancer』: The second one can be ruled out, since we're wondering why no new members have joined since that upgrade. So that leaves… points?
『Ghost Spider』: Ugh… You don't think the next threshold is a million points, do you?! We'd be saving for ages at that rate!
『Earth's Cancer』: Look on the bright side. At least now we have group missions. Back then, the only way to earn points was through daily check-ins. And don't forget—Gwen's world and mine have recurring missions that give a steady stream of points.
『Lady Avalon』: Hang in there, all you lovely folks with ongoing missions. Whether or not the group upgrades again totally depends on you! @GhostSpider @Ordinary Human
『Lady Avalon』: (Motivated Artoria.jpg)
『Lady Avalon』: (The pain of 100 years of solo daily check-ins.gif)
『Ghost Spider』: I am grinding events nonstop over here, okay?! (Facepalm.jpg)
『Ordinary Human』: As for me… the speed at which I earn points from my ongoing mission doesn't seem to depend on my own actions. It's tied to how quickly the will of Chika's world connects with other worlds willing to merge.
『Ordinary Human』: But seriously, are we all just assuming that the next upgrade—or any future change—will also require us to hit some big point milestone like last time?
『Catwoman』: What else could it be? A spending requirement?
『Catwoman』: Actually… now that I think about it, who is the richest person in the group right now?
『Earth's Cancer』: Good question.
『Earth's Cancer』: On the left! The mysterious Lady Merlin! On the right! The ever-unreasonable Mr. Veyron!
『Earth's Cancer』: I'll just let the numbers do the talking.
『Earth's Cancer』: Lady Avalon or Merlin, who spent over a hundred years solo-farming points through daily check-ins, saved up over 100,000 points that way.
『Earth's Cancer』: Even after spending a little here and there—like using that "automata servant mod" on the Five Elders and Imu—her current point balance still sits comfortably above 100,000.
『Catwoman』: ...I wish I could rob her right now
『Earth's Cancer』: Ahem... we all do, Miss Selena but let's continue.
『Earth's Cancer』:Ordinary Human—that's what the system named him. A ridiculous name for someone OP... Yep, yep, that's our Mr. Veyron.
『Earth's Cancer』: He is the newest member, earned 66,666 points just from the "Treeborn World" mission. Then another 62,000 from the fusions in World-∞. Add the 10,800 he earned from the Highschool of the Dead mission, plus Gwen's world's recurring missions that drop a few thousand every so often…
『Earth's Cancer』: His total? Also over 100,000.
『Catwoman』: Why the hell am I still poor?! One day, I swear, I'm gonna rob every last one of your points! Chika! Toss them in the ring—I'm ready!
『Ordinary Human』:￣ー￣
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A/N: New features coming next chapter—and some new members will be joining too! Plus, there's an insanely overpowered world showing up soon. I bet you won't be able to guess which one...
But hey, give it a shot!