The system display flickered before Elric's eyes:
Figure: 92 points
Quality: 100
Overall Rating: 93 points
Monthly Communication Rewards: 26 times
System Evaluation: Meets the criteria
Elric's lips curved into a satisfied smirk. Just as he'd suspected—the blue-haired girl's appearance score clocked in at four points higher than Kelly's, though her figure brought the overall rating down slightly. Still, 93 points placed her in the same tier as Rachel. Not bad at all.
Inside the abandoned car, four girls huddled together like frightened rabbits. Their eyes were wide with terror, bodies trembling as they clutched each other for comfort. They had witnessed everything—the brutal efficiency with which Elric had dismantled their captors, erasing lives with single strikes of devastating power. Whatever courage they might have possessed had shattered the moment they saw that display of absolute dominance.
Elric had no time for gentle reassurances.
With a single thought, he activated his ability.
Swap.
"Ah!"
In less than a heartbeat, all four girls vanished from inside the vehicle and materialized directly beside him. The sudden displacement tore screams from their throats as they instinctively grabbed onto each other, desperately seeking any anchor in a world that had just stopped making sense.
"How—how did we get out here?!" one of them gasped.
"Alright," Elric said, his voice calm and measured. "You four. Come with me."
He paused, letting his words sink in.
"From now on, you'll follow me."
The decision had already been made. Kelly and Mia both met the system's criteria for his purposes. The other two girls were young and attractive enough—even if they didn't qualify for the higher rewards, they could serve as attendants, companions, or whatever else he might need. Waste not, want not.
The girls didn't dare argue. Terror had frozen their tongues and stolen their will to resist.
But the red-haired woman from Junlane Shelter—the one who had been transporting them—saw what was happening and panic flooded her features. She rushed toward Elric, desperation driving her forward.
"Sir—no, wait! These girls—"
The temperature dropped.
A crushing, bone-chilling pressure descended on her like the weight of a mountain. Elric's gaze shifted to meet hers, and in that single glance, she felt herself falling into an endless abyss of ice and death.
"…I'm sorry." The words tumbled from her lips in a whisper.
"I'm sorry!" she repeated, louder this time, stumbling backward.
She didn't dare speak another word. Spinning on her heel, she scrambled into her vehicle, gunned the engine, and tore down the street in a screech of tires. Within seconds, she had vanished around a corner.
Elric watched her go with complete indifference.
Let her run back to Junlane Shelter and complain if she wanted. With his current level of strength, any shelter foolish enough to come after him would simply be erased from existence. Power had a way of simplifying diplomatic relations.
"Let's go," he said to the girls.
He had planned to take them directly into the supermarket, but they remained frozen in place, too terrified to move their legs.
For a moment, he considered using his swap ability again to simply relocate them inside. Then he shook his head. Too troublesome. There was a better way.
Elric walked over to a nearby abandoned car and tore the rearview mirror clean off with casual strength. The metal frame crumpled in his grip as he held up the reflective surface.
Since he possessed the Mirror Fruit's power, he might as well use it properly.
He pressed his palm flat against the mirror's surface.
The glass rippled like disturbed water, shimmering with otherworldly light.
Without ceremony, Elric grabbed the first girl and tossed her straight into the mirror. She vanished with a startled gasp, swallowed by crimson corridors and endless reflections. One by one, he sent the others through—none of them had time to even scream before the mirror world consumed them.
Only then did Elric step through himself.
This was his first time actually entering the Mirror World.
The sight that greeted him was breathtaking in its strangeness. An infinite expanse of reflective pathways stretched in every conceivable direction, forming an impossible maze of mirrors and light. Crystalline corridors branched off into eternity, each surface showing countless reflections of reflections, creating a dizzying recursive infinity.
And to his surprise, he wasn't alone.
Grace was already there.
The woman to whom he had given the Mirror Fruit stood near one of the pathways, staring in obvious confusion at the four newly arrived girls who were now scrambling around in panic, trying to make sense of their surreal surroundings.
When Grace noticed Elric's arrival, her entire face lit up with genuine joy.
"Husband! Did you bring these four girls here?"
"Yes," Elric confirmed with a nod. "You're already here—perfect timing."
He gestured toward the frightened girls. "Watch them. Don't let them wander off into the mirrors. This place can be disorienting."
"When I give you the signal, I'll release them back into the real world."
"Okay!" Grace said brightly, clearly pleased to be given an important task. "I'll keep a close eye on them."
Satisfied with the arrangement, Elric turned back toward one of the larger mirrors and stepped through its surface.
Reality reasserted itself as he emerged back in the abandoned street.
He made his way into the supermarket and immediately began his inspection. What he found made his eyebrows rise with pleasant surprise.
The supplies inside were far beyond what any normal supermarket should contain. Shelves were stocked to bursting with goods. The storage areas in back were crammed full. Clearly, the previous owner had spent considerable time and effort looting surrounding stores and hoarding everything of value here in one centralized location.
How considerate of them.
Elric didn't hesitate.
He pulled out the rearview mirror again and activated the Mirror Fruit's power. Using the reflective surface as a gateway, he began transferring supplies in bulk—canned food, bottled water, medical supplies, daily necessities, cooking ingredients. Everything went straight into the Mirror World, vanishing from the shelves and reappearing in organized stacks within that infinite space.
A few remaining thugs—probably left behind to guard the stash—tried to mount some kind of resistance.
They didn't last a second.
Elric dispatched them with the same cold efficiency he had shown outside, leaving nothing but cooling corpses.
When he was finally done, the supermarket stood completely empty. Every shelf bare. Every storage room cleared. It looked like a hurricane had swept through and devoured everything of value.
Inside the Mirror World, Grace stood with her mouth hanging open, staring in absolute shock at the mountains of supplies that now surrounded her. Boxes and crates were stacked higher than buildings, creating entire districts of provisions.
"Honey… how much did you move this time?"
"A lot," Elric replied casually, as if he had simply picked up groceries.
With the supplies secured, he prepared to return to Emily and the others. By now, they should have found the allergy medicine for Oli's face. He needed to check on their progress and decide on the next move.
Lightning began to crackle around his feet as he prepared to teleport—
Buzz.
His phone vibrated against his leg.
Elric frowned and pulled out the device, checking the screen. The message notification made him pause.
It was from someone unexpected.
Nina—the former music department beauty from the Chicago Conservatory of Music. One of the contacts he had reached out to before, though he hadn't expected a response so quickly.
His eyes narrowed slightly, a calculating expression crossing his features.
"Interesting…"
There is 70 chapter Advance, in my patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
patreon.com/B_A_3439