The four arrived and, besides the man fleeing in the water, saw Takeru, Hachiman, and Akiyama Mio, leaving them bewildered.
As the four observed Takeru and the others, Takeru, Hachiman, and Mio calmly observed them in return. Hachiman and Mio glanced subtly at Takeru.
"Don't act rashly for now. Let's see how things play out," Takeru said softly, noticing their glances.
Hearing Takeru's words, the two quickly understood his meaning and directly pretended to be confused.
"What's going on? Doesn't it only increase by one person at a time?" The four who had experienced other world missions were utterly perplexed, seeing Takeru's group of three and the one in the lake.
"Seriously, what the hell is going on!" While everyone was bewildered, the man in the lake climbed ashore. Everyone finally got a clear look at his attire: piercings, chains, dyed yellow hair, and pointy leather shoes… the very image of a delinquent.
"Where the hell is this!" Confusedly looking around, he turned. The three unfamiliar girls, seeing the skull and snake pattern on the back of his clothes, were quite frightened.
Even Mio instinctively retreated to Takeru's side. Although in terms of strength, Mio could crush a few punks like him with her little finger, she instinctively kept her distance from such delinquent-looking individuals.
"Definitely a dangerous person!"
"What kind of outfit is that!"
"Eh, wait, did I do something?" Seeing everyone's reactions, the blond man was somewhat flustered.
At that moment, Takeru noticed a special entity suddenly appear beside them. With its appearance, the surrounding environment turned pitch black, and even time seemed to freeze.
"Nice to meet you. I am the Game Master." The special entity directly addressed Takeru and the others upon appearing.
"H-He, head, your head!" Looking at the Game Master, who seemed to be wearing a special suit but had only half a head, hollow inside, the blond man exclaimed in shock.
As for Mio, she completely hid behind Takeru, gripping him tightly. Through long-term interaction, Mio instinctively believed that behind Takeru was absolutely the safest position.
Only Takeru and Hachiman looked calmly at this entity. Although its entrance was somewhat special and it could even freeze time around them, Takeru sensed no threat from it. Naturally, Takeru had no need to fear it.
"Your mission is this." Looking at everyone, the Game Master directly took out a sign to prompt them, ignoring the panicked blond man and the frightened Mio.
"Offer Jiffon Buffo in Vaikedamania? Another meaningless phrase..." The sole man who had descended onto the plain with the three girls frowned, looking at the Game Master's prompt.
With the Game Master's appearance, the four's clothing also changed, directly replaced with armor or mage robes.
"Revival time is now fifty seconds!" The blonde girl in armor quickly checked.
"It seems a new mechanic has been added. Fast Travel allows teleportation to places you've been before!" The brown-haired short girl beside the blonde girl murmured.
"Fixed conditions? Quite a lot of restrictions..." The man also said with emotion.
Although the newly added teleportation ability allowed instant travel to previously visited locations, it required the entire party to be alive and in the same spot.
Also, everyone had to be teleported together. Thirdly, native people, creatures, and buildings of this world could not be teleported.
Lastly, there was a twenty-four-hour cooldown.
"Fifth player, Torii Keita's class is!" As he spoke, a special roulette wheel appeared beside the Game Master, who then rapidly spun it.
"What? Class? Hey, hey, what are you doing? I'm asking you, what do you mean by class!" Hearing the Game Master's words, Keita kept asking.
'Give him a trash class!' Looking at the noisy Keita, the man dressed as a mage silently prayed.
"Lancer!" Finally, as the roulette wheel stopped, the Game Master announced his class. Keita's attire transformed into white robes with blue trim...
"Next, Extra Player, Nara Takeru. Your class is!" As he spoke, the Game Master spun the roulette wheel again.
Hearing that he could also obtain a class in this world, Takeru was momentarily stunned. Also, they were not the sixth player or anything else, but Extra Players. This surprised Takeru, his group, and the other four.
"Chef." As the roulette wheel stopped, Takeru discovered he had drawn an extremely rare class.
Compared to the various warrior and mage classes which had roughly a one-in-ten or even one-in-several probability, Chef had only a one-in-twenty chance.
As the Game Master's words fell, Takeru's attire also changed. He wore a tall, white chef's toque and a chef's uniform.
The four initial players looked at Takeru with expressions of pity. The man among them was particularly empathetic. After all, his initial class was also a rare one, Farmer. Its stat bonuses were pitifully small, and his hoe was incredibly fragile.
Now, he also had the Chef class. It was equally useless. Perhaps the only somewhat useful aspect was slightly faster leveling.
Takeru himself felt he had gained considerable insight into cooking. His own physical attributes had increased by a few points. He also gained a special item slot, along with two kitchen knives, a frying pan, a ladle, and such. And that was it.
Oh, and one special skill: gaining knowledge of the anatomical structure and cooking methods of C-Rank and below magical creatures and animals.
While Takeru was checking himself, Mio and Hachiman also completed their class changes. Mio became a Water Mage, while Hachiman became a Swordsman!
"Let me state clearly: Extra Players do not enjoy resurrection privileges. Well then, see you next time." After assigning classes to everyone, the Game Master said this to Takeru and the others and vanished from the spot.
Hearing the Game Master's words, Takeru nodded knowingly. He was not at all surprised by the inability to revive. After all, if they could revive, there would probably be no need for Main Mission One, Survive.
Subsequently, Takeru looked at Mio and Hachiman. Comparing their attire to his own, Takeru was speechless.
After taking out his two kitchen knives of different sizes, Takeru felt they were no different from paper to him.
Shaking his head, having experienced so many Reincarnation Missions, Takeru didn't expect the Reincarnation Space to freely give them such good things now. Getting a template and a few attribute points was already quite generous.
"Extra Players can't revive!" Compared to the composed Takeru, the four who had arrived earlier stared blankly at Takeru and his group.
In previous missions, they had relied on dying to get through. But upon hearing that Takeru and the others couldn't revive, they realized their earlier thought of overcoming difficulties through sheer numbers was fundamentally unworkable...
"I'm Nara Takeru. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we'll be teammates from now on. You all should have experienced many of these situations before, right? Can you tell us about them? Also, can you explain the meaning of the task that Game Master mentioned?"
Looking at the four players with their complex expressions, Takeru spoke calmly.
"Of course. Hello, I'm Tokitate Yuka. You can call me Yuka. First of all, this world is a parallel world, or you could say another world. That person just now was the Game Master, responsible for assigning us classes and issuing tasks."
"We must complete the tasks within the required time. Also, if everyone dies during the process, then it's truly the end." Hearing Takeru's inquiry, Yuka excitedly stepped forward and looked at Takeru with a slightly fangirling smile.
"I see. Tokitate Yuka, your online handle is Yurio, right?" Hearing her words, Takeru found her somewhat familiar. Although she wore a mask online, through this conversation, Takeru recognized her.
"Eh, you know me?" Hearing Takeru say this, Yuka was dumbfounded.
"Yes. I've seen the post you published. It was about your other world experience. I happened to remember it." Hearing her words, Takeru nodded slightly.