"How do you think my strength is now?"
Raize opened his eyes and stood up. After glancing at Sei's outfit, he felt a subtle stir in his heart, then asked her what level he was at now.
This world was no longer a single-plot setting. He only learned about its power hierarchy through Sei's explanations.
Letting a veteran powerhouse like her judge his level was the most accurate.
"Stronger than an average Sacred Gear wielder after activating Balance Breaker."
Sei gave a concise and fair evaluation after briefly sizing him up.
Stronger than ordinary Sacred Gear users at the Balance Breaker level.
Note that she wasn't referring Longinus, but ordinary Sacred Gears.
It wasn't that other Sacred Gears were weak. Anything Sei created was never trash. It depended on whether the wielder knew how to use it properly.
There were no weakest Sacred Gears, only the strongest Sacred Gear users. Even top-tier Longinus like the Boosted Gear of the Red Dragon Emperor and the Divine Dividing of the White Dragon Emperor, which sealed the souls of the two Heavenly Dragons, required suitable wielders to unleash their full power.
The current host of the White Dragon Emperor's Divine Dividing, Vali, needed no introduction—the grandson of the original Satan Lucifer, born of a human and a devil, carrying Divine Dividing from birth due to his human bloodline.
How powerful that background was went without saying.
As for some Sacred Gear users like Hyoudou Issei, if he hadn't later reincarnated as a devil, he would never have matched Vali, the current White Dragon Emperor.
For example, during the peace conference in the story, when Issei confronted the Fallen Angel Governor about Raynare, he was told that humans who couldn't control Sacred Gears would go berserk. When asked if he regretted becoming a devil, Issei fell silent, realizing that as a human he couldn't have wielded that power. In silence, he acknowledged that misfortune had brought fortune.
All of this showed that Sacred Gears needed suitable hosts to reach their peak.
The Biblical loli God beside Raize had created countless Sacred Gears. Besides the already confirmed Longinus, new ones might even be discovered by chance.
If someone could push a Sacred Gear to the level of a Longinus, the roster would gain another.
Thus, Sei's evaluation was not low at all. But Raize had already seen many top-tier powerhouses.
The Biblical loli God before him, the necromancer Eu he met earlier, and even Tohru, daughter of the Emperor of Demise.
As long as Raize knew someone stronger stood above him, he couldn't feel at ease. His drive to grow stronger was extremely intense.
"Stronger than Balance Breaker, huh…"
"Don't be discouraged. As a human without any special bloodline or Sacred Gear, reaching this level in just a few months is already astonishing. If you were equipped with a decent Sacred Gear..."
Before Sei could finish comforting him, Raize cut her off, "No need. What I pursue is strength of the self. I don't need Sacred Gears. External tools can be used, but I don't want them to become an inseparable part of my strength."
He didn't envy others' Sacred Gears. Growing stronger step by step had its own benefits.
Would someone like Sei rely on external tools? She herself was a cheat-maker—power no one could take away.
Just like Hikari in Ultraman.
The kind of powerhouse Raize wanted to become was one of absolute dominance.
Like Saitama from One Punch Man. Longinus Sacred Gears? Powerful bloodlines? Forbidden techniques?
All flash and flair—one punch solves everything.
That kind of solid, unquestionable strength was something no one could ever take away.
---
Several days later, in the early morning, warm sunlight streamed in through the window, spilling across the floor. Dappled patches of light illuminated the room.
With a certain extremely cute loli pressing down on his body, Raize slowly opened his eyes. Because he could regulate temperature, there was no need to turn on the air conditioning in the room. Naturally, a certain Biblical loli God preferred this cool environment.
Raize had gone from possibly making embarrassing mistakes due to youthful impulsiveness in the beginning, to now permanently remaining in a sage-like state. That was because the holy radiance within his body seemed to unconsciously influence him whenever he was close to Sei, preventing him from harboring any improper thoughts.
Otherwise, with such a beauty—innocent-looking yet voluptuous, capable of being elegant or cute—sleeping beside him without any defenses, how could someone with a complicated mind and a body in its youth be this calm?
He gently raised his arm and lightly held Sei, who was sleeping on his chest. His thoughts briefly emptied, thinking of nothing at all, quietly breathing in the faint fragrance coming from the Biblical loli God, enjoying this feeling of waking up in the morning.
Instead of his younger sister waking him up like in his memories, he had found it very uncomfortable when he first returned home. But now, he had grown accustomed to certain Biblical loli God appearing by his side, and the house had become a little livelier as well.
With his current physique, he could go several days and nights without eating or sleeping. As long as he found some free time to meditate and train, his body would recover faster than with ordinary sleep. The lifestyle habits of normal people were slowly disappearing from him.
Usually, it was only when he gained new power and felt surprised and fulfilled that Raize would deliberately maintain his old habits, or when he relaxed after long periods of training.
After spacing out for a moment, Raize sensed the cute creature on his chest move slightly. Lowering his head, he saw Sei blinking her bright, holy golden eyes at him. Their gazes met.
There was no shyness or embarrassment. Sei was even less polite, using both hands like a little cat to cling to Raize and lie on him, blinking her beautiful eyes as she spoke in a muffled voice, "Aize, go make breakfast."
Alright then—every morning he still had to prepare feed to take care of a certain Biblical loli God.
However, being able to see such a beautiful sight every morning, and staying beside Sei where his mind would always unconsciously calm down, was something Raize definitely didn't dislike.
While thinking to himself, Raize looked at the delicate, expressionless pretty face before him, reached out, and gently pinched the other party's slightly chubby, fair cheeks, appreciating the funny expression her face made as it was squeezed.
"You're clearly a god, yet you can still feel hungry?" The smooth, tender feel of Sei's skin between his fingers made it hard for Raize to stop. The sensation of touching and pinching it was simply incredible, as if water might really be squeezed out.
"I don't feel hungry, but I want to eat." Sei didn't resist Raize's wandering hands. After all, his movements were very gentle. She enjoyed his attention like a noble Persian cat.
In the past, the Biblical loli God had been extremely busy, handling countless affairs in the heavens. The only hobby she could train was manufacturing all kinds of sacred gears.
Now that she could safely slack off, Sei naturally wanted to experience all the things she had never done before. Before meeting Raize, she had traveled alone across the world, even visiting planes adjacent to the human realm.
Now, she had gained a new hobby—enjoying the offerings from her contractor.
Both of them were food lovers, completely obsessed with good cuisine. After Raize got up and tidied himself, he went downstairs to start cooking.
Many crops in the farm from his sub-profession game had already matured, and he could take them out from his inventory space to eat anytime.
However, the system spirit inside Raize, watching him cook, felt a bit sour. Clearly, she had arrived first.
[ Occupying my place every single day. Just you wait—once I recover, I'll make you pay. Everything you've eaten from my host, you'll spit back out sooner or later. ]
The system spirit's tone was filled with jealousy, and her dissatisfaction was no longer hidden from Raize.
"Alright, alright. Don't I prepare lunchboxes for you every day when I go to school? What do you want to eat today?"
Raize had already grown used to his system complaining in his head. He didn't say much, instead choosing to comfort her through his actions.
[That's different. I'm the lady of this house. You're my host—why should I have to hide all the time? I want boneless Pacific saury, and snacks—BB popcorn!!]
[Ah, right! Almost forgot the important stuff. It's all that annoying woman's fault. Raize, because I've recently absorbed a lot of game faith and the ghoul soul energy you hunted, Devil May Cry and Sekiro will be unlocked soon. And now your sub-profession games can unlock one more!]
The system spirit had absorbed quite a bit of energy during this period of Raize's hard work, repairing herself. Combined with Raize occasionally going out at night to earn some "extra income," she had recovered rather well.
The excess energy could now be used to help her host.
Hearing this good news, Raize's eyes lit up. If Sekiro and Devil May Cry could be unlocked and cleared, his strength would rise to another level.
And now he could unlock another sub-profession game as well—naturally, he was even happier.
The only farm in his sub-profession games could already help him in daily life. In the future, anything he wanted to plant could be thrown into the farm.
That alone was already a huge help. Raize was quite looking forward to what the new sub-profession game would be.
While making breakfast, Raize split part of his mental focus to open the sub-profession game menu. Sure enough, besides the farm icon, there was now an additional game icon.
"Huh, I didn't expect it to be this…"
What appeared before Raize's eyes was a Q-style cute girl icon with pink hair, along with the four large characters Azur Lane displayed clearly.
The term "shipgirl" was something most otaku were familiar with. In Raize's previous life, it had once exploded in popularity for a time, and afterward many shipgirl-type games had been released.
Azur Lane was one of them—a real-time naval warfare mobile game with anthropomorphized warships as its theme. Players could collect and train powerful characters and equipment through main story stages, daily dungeons, combat exercises, ship construction, and many other gameplay systems, manually controlling their fleets to conquer the seas.
In his previous life, Raize often played it in his spare time, never missing daily tasks. Aside from a few shipgirls he missed from limited events, his collection had been quite complete.
His dock and warehouse held many gold and rainbow rarity ships. Eventually, after he grew tired of it and sold his account for a decent sum, he never touched the game again.
Now, seeing this familiar game icon once more, he couldn't help but feel nostalgic.
After snapping back to reality, he began to think about the benefits this game could bring him. After all, Azur Lane had plenty of good things. If they could be randomly manifested into reality, that would be excellent.
Thinking this, Raize eagerly opened Azur Lane and quickly entered the game interface.
After completing the initial story and tutorial, Raize pondered back and forth among the starter ships. In the end, he made the exact same choice as in his previous life—the one that really hit his preferences, the lazy, alcoholic-looking loli: Laffey.
As his initial shipgirl, it was Laffey, exactly the same as before.
"Benson-class destroyer Laffey reporting for duty… Commander, those ears aren't real, so please don't keep staring…"
Looking at the projected game interface before him, the girl wearing cute bunny-ear headgear and speaking in a soft, lazy tone put Raize in a pretty good mood.
Hearing Laffey's familiar voice felt absolutely wonderful.
In Azur Lane, Raize's favorite shipgirls were only three: the cute Little Illustrious, the lazy Laffey, and then Unicorn.
Laffey was the first shipgirl he obtained. With that initial affection and the accumulation of time, no matter how many shipgirls Raize later acquired, he never removed Laffey from the secretary slot.
She could be said to have witnessed Raize's entire Azur Lane journey and held special meaning for him.
[ This game is somewhat different from the farm, but like it, it's a permanent game. Besides clearing story maps for rewards, continued play will also randomly grant rewards. ]
[ The naval base, cognitive cubes, red gems, universal oil, Azur Lane general supplies, rigging, and more can all be obtained as rewards through continuous gameplay. If you want to build shipgirls, you'll need to prepare cognitive cubes and the construction dock first. The higher your affection with a shipgirl, the higher the chance of manifestation… ]
Listening to the system spirit's explanation, Raize multitasked—playing the game with part of his mind while, after finishing breakfast, taking a phone call. He immediately went back to his room, took out a large bundle of accumulated manuscripts, stuffed them into his shoulder bag, changed into casual clothes, and prepared to head out to handle some serious business.
Aside from his previous novels, his manga had already been published as well. After all, his mother was a romance manga artist.
After obtaining Sonic's super speed, Raize had manually printed many manga drafts at home.
Death Note, Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball, and others. Due to his lack of fame, he contacted his mother's former editor through her connections and submitted his work, using the first three parts of JoJo and the Type-Moon works as stepping stones.
After accumulating quite a bit of popularity, he rarely showed himself publicly. After finishing JoJo Part 3 and the Type-Moon Holy Grail War arc, he directly released the first part of Dragon Ball.
He didn't update Dragon Ball Z. Although he had already drawn it at home, he didn't release it all at once. He needed some time to build popularity.
Drawing manga wasn't his main career. Games were what he truly needed to focus on. Everything else was just paving the way for his games.