Hearing her plea, Arthur looked straight through the screen at White Blade. She truly seemed desperate about this matter… but he was no hero — far from one. If he were to help her, then there had to be an equivalent exchange.
"And what would I gain from helping you?"
White Blade answered immediately, as if she had long prepared herself for this question.
"As long as you can help her achieve an S-rank evaluation and cross the 10th-floor threshold, then for every subsequent floor instance, I have already prepared at least C-rank clearance guides in advance. When the time comes, I'm willing to give all those guides to you."
She looked at Blank, her face still blurred by the system's concealment.
"I can also give you more than fifty million Luminares, that's everything I currently possess."
Seeing that the money caused no reaction, with Blank still silent, she continued.
"I also own a mansion in Luminar's capital, Light City. It was granted to me after I agreed to join Luminar's official forces, a safe place for you and anyone important to you… In addition, I possess an A-rank sword I obtained from the 23rd-floor dungeon. You may not be able to use it now, but once you climb high enough, I can hand it over to you. I can even sign a binding contract with you in the Reincarnation Tower if you wish."
Arthur could feel her sincerity even through the screen. White Blade's bow was so deep that he almost worried her slender waist might snap.
"The highest floor I can currently clear… is the 7th floor."
Arthur's words carried a hint of shocking calm that made Selena abruptly look up.
"You… you mean…?"
Arthur nodded.
"If you don't mind waiting a day, I should be able to reach the 10th floor tomorrow."
"No, there's no need for that!"
Selena suddenly spoke, her voice filled with excitement. "I happen to have a Level 3 Team-Up Card. Using this card allows you to directly cross three floors and team up with other Reincarnation Challengers!"
Arthur had, of course, heard of Team-Up Cards. However, because of how valuable they were for carrying others across floors, almost no one ever sold them on the market. Even when they did appear, they were usually only Level 1 or 2. A Level 3 card like this, if converted into cash, would easily be worth tens of millions.
Arthur had just cleared the 4th-floor instance with an SSS-rank evaluation, allowing him to skip three floors straight to the 7th floor of the Reincarnation Tower. If he then used this Level 3 Team-Up Card, he could directly challenge up to the 10th floor… meaning he could enter the same instance as White Blade's sister.
"Then I have no problem," he said calmly. "But I'll need one day to study the 10th-floor dungeons. Your sister should be able to wait that long… right?"
"No problem, no problem!"
Looking at her, Blank let out a faint smile before whispering, "System, remove appearance and voice concealment."
In the next instant, the distortion covering him vanished. For the first time, White Blade's eyes widened in visible shock as she saw Blank's true face.
"Since we're doing business," Arthur said lightly, "it wouldn't be sincere of me to stay hidden. It's a pleasure to meet you, White Blade."
In truth, Arthur knew it was only a matter of time before they discovered his identity. He had never concealed his appearance in dungeouns, and Saeko — someone with absolutely no historical record — was constantly by his side. On top of that, the apartment and car he now possessed would be impossible to explain once investigated. Rather than wait to be exposed, it was better to show goodwill first. After all, if he was going to dive into dangerous dungeons, someone would need to ensure his family's safety… and who better than the government itself?
White Blade continued examining his appearance. As expected, he closely matched the image compiled yesterday: deep dark-blue eyes, hair black as night, and an angular face carrying a faint, confident smile, as if the word defeat had never existed in his vocabulary.
"It's also a pleasure to meet you… Blank," she replied, returning a gentler smile, clearly calmer after his show of sincerity.
"As for the mansion," Arthur added casually, "let's put that aside. I don't plan on moving from where I currently live anytime soon."
"Consider the house your down payment, then. As for the rest… we'll talk after your sister clears the instance."
Arthur was confident, but not arrogant. He did possess an overwhelming amount of intelligence regarding anime worlds, more than anyone else alive. But that didn't mean he truly knew everything. Especially when SSS-rank missions in each instance required meticulous analysis, deduction, and speculation.
This time, he wouldn't be clearing alone. He would be leading others to achieve an S-rank evaluation. In many ways, that difficulty was no lower than completing an SSS-rank clearance solo.
After all, in the first instance, someone like Ellen, who had remained by his side the entire time — had only received an A-rank rating. Of course, if he were ruthless enough to force someone to wield heavy-firepower weapons and grind zombies day and night, then achieving S-rank in monster-elimination missions wouldn't be difficult. But such straightforward grinding objectives were rare.
If the instance lacked large-scale combat missions, then raising another person's evaluation to S-rank became far more complicated. Clearance ratings heavily depended on individual performance. If someone merely followed along and got carried… then even if the instance was cleared, reaching S-rank would be extremely difficult.
Even so, Arthur possessed his greatest advantage: 100% clearance.
That's right, he had no concern about failing an instance at all. Even if one attempt didn't achieve S-rank, it would still be close. What White Blade needed was for her sister to cross the deadly threshold of the 10th floor. He only had to ensure her final comprehensive evaluation reached S-rank to trigger the promotion mechanism. At worst, even three consecutive A-rank evaluations could stack toward advancement.
But for Arthur, who disliked unnecessary trouble, it would be best to resolve everything in a single run.
"Let's leave it at that for now," he said calmly. "I'll go review the 10th-floor instances later."
Selena had already gotten the results she wanted today, so she naturally didn't intend to bother him any further. She bowed deeply once again.
"My sister… at that time, I'll entrust everything to you."
After hanging up the video call, Arthur stood up and walked toward the kitchen, leaning against the side of the doorway as he looked at Saeko. She was wearing only his long shirt, which reached her thighs but barely covered anything. He stepped closer from behind and wrapped his arms around her.
"What's wrong?"
"No, nothing."
His arms tightened slightly around her as he rested his chin on her neck, breathing in softly.
"Smells good… what are you making?"
"Well… some pancakes, while I prepare the rest…"
While Saeko spoke with him, Arthur had already opened the system's search bar. He brought up the system interface and navigated to the Reincarnation Tower's information section. Although he couldn't challenge the 10th floor yet, the basic information about unlocked floor instances was still available to all Reincarnators. After all, even if he didn't check it himself, the details would eventually be published online by others.
He jumped straight to the 10th-floor interface.
Immediately, the currently available instances appeared before him:
1. Shiki (another relic from 2010)
2. Steins Gate
3. Asura (2012 film, a relic)
4. The Promised Neverland
"This really is…"
Even just seeing the names of those instances was enough to give Arthur a headache. Almost all of them were notoriously troublesome, the kind of scenarios that demanded far more than simple combat strength. But it made sens, instances that became stuck at the 10th floor, the very threshold that divided the weak from the truly capable, were never meant to be easy.
Arthur immediately went online and began searching for information related to the four instances. As expected, the results were scarce. It was worth noting that, as if by unspoken agreement, almost no proper clearance guides for these instances existed online. While a few Reincarnators had shared fragments of their personal experiences, the usable information was minimal at best.
Even for Arthur, someone who knew the original plotlines inside out, much of what he found was clearly fabricated or outright incorrect. Some details contradicted canon events, while others were so exaggerated that they bordered on fantasy. It didn't take long for him to realize what was happening.
Not every Reincarnator was generous enough to share crucial intelligence.
If anything, some seemed to take pleasure in doing the opposite. Uninformed challengers who trusted that false information, entered the instance, and ultimately failed the challenge… were likely the source of amusement for those malicious individuals lurking behind the posts.