"Welcome back, Lord Ashen."
The Fire Keeper's gentle voice rose softly.
She stood quietly before the floor-to-ceiling window. Outside, the sky was drenched in a sunset so brilliant it looked like it was burning.
Thanks to the fact that, after establishing a subgroup, he could choose to let time in his original world keep flowing, it was already nearing dusk by the time Eisen returned.
"Good work," Eisen replied, succinct as ever.
After that, he sent the chat group the intelligence he'd tested while experimenting with Toyokawa Sakiko's Possibility Doppelganger—things like how, due to the group's "auto-completion," the doppelganger might end up even stronger than what the item description claimed.
Nobody replied. After all, the chat group no longer popped up notifications whenever messages were sent.
Eisen accepted the cup of water the Fire Keeper handed him at just the right moment. His fingertips brushed her cool fingers by accident.
He tipped his head back to drink, but his gaze stayed glued to her.
For some reason, he felt like the Fire Keeper looked even more radiant today.
Sensing his burning stare, she curved her lips into a gentle smile and took the initiative to break the silence.
"Lord Ashen… will you touch the darkness within me today as well?"
Eisen reflexively nodded at once—then stopped himself.
He opened the chat group store and bought a pair of Yanling Pantyhose.
"Ahem. Put these on first."
The Fire Keeper tilted her head, puzzled, but didn't question him. She simply accepted them obediently and—right in front of him—began changing into the purple pantyhose.
Meanwhile, Eisen used soul-forging techniques to reduce every mental resistance he had down into the negatives… all while thinking that something about him felt a little off today.
Why did he suddenly want the Fire Keeper to use Yanling as… spice?
Since when had he been this repressed?
Originally, he'd planned to keep visiting other members' worlds to see whether their timelines could be rolled back.
But… forget it. Tomorrow.
Everyone had their own lives.
And tonight, he was busy.
The Fire Keeper looked at him. The purple pantyhose clung to the long lines of her legs.
She was getting into the mood too—and in her eyes, Eisen began to look… strangely different.
For reasons she couldn't explain, Lord Ashen suddenly seemed soft, sweet, almost delicious—the kind of person you wanted to bully without mercy.
The Fire Keeper licked her lips. The smile she wore was far too provocative for someone as serene as her.
Then she spoke—suddenly and sharply.
"Kneel."
Thud!
"…?"
Eisen dropped to both knees and slowly typed a question mark into the air with his soul.
This wasn't how this was supposed to go!
Yanling wasn't supposed to be used like that!
You were supposed to be flustered and clueless!
You were supposed to blush—shy and embarrassed—and only after I gently coaxed you along would you timidly repeat the harmless little commands I'd carefully designed, voice so quiet it was barely audible!
Not like this!
What was with that sudden, domineering order?!
What was with that breathless panting that had escalated out of nowhere?!
That lip-licking! That predatory smile!
What was all that?!
But before Eisen could say a word—
the Fire Keeper grabbed his hair, leaving the already dumbfounded Eisen even more dumbfounded.
Morning sunlight spilled across Eisen's face.
Beside him lay the Fire Keeper, finally asleep after a night of thoroughly exhausting "combat," a peaceful smile on her face that showed no trace of last night's madness.
Eisen folded his arms across his chest.
Post-battle clarity.
He didn't particularly care who'd been on top.
What he couldn't understand was why he'd suddenly become so repressed last night—why the Fire Keeper had suddenly seemed like a completely different person.
Eisen released the restraints on his suppressed perception.
And immediately discovered something was wrong.
A wisp of higher-dimensional energy was wrapped around the Fire Keeper—so delicately applied that it acted directly on the cognition of anyone nearby.
Eisen followed the intent of that energy.
It was subtly, persistently inducing an inexplicable urge in anyone who approached the Fire Keeper:
To call her…
Mom?!
Eisen's mind went blank.
He hurriedly reeled his perception back in and inspected himself.
And then the real problem appeared.
His body was wrapped in dense tangles of higher-dimensional energy—more than one strand, packed together like a net.
One strand acted on his mental state, making him more repressed. The effect wasn't dramatic in absolute terms, but Eisen's baseline desires were so low that even a small push became enormous in practice.
And the rest of those countless strands…
made his spine go cold.
They strongly induced an impulse in others—an urge to bully him.
Especially when the target originally feared or revered him, the effect doubled: it made people want to drag a high-and-mighty god down into the dirt, pin him underfoot, and toy with him to their heart's content.
Well.
That explained a lot.
No—wait.
It explained nothing.
It was still insane.
Where the hell had all this absurd higher-dimensional "repression energy" come from?!
Eisen immediately pointed the spear at the Repression Chat Group.
A private chat window popped up.
[Group Owner (Eisen): What is this higher-dimensional energy?!]
[Group Assistant: It's a side effect of using group items.]
It admitted it instantly—so shamelessly, so cleanly, as if it were proud.
[Group Owner (Eisen): Why didn't you mention side effects when you introduced the items?!]
[Group Assistant: Because you didn't ask.]
Eisen was so mad he almost laughed.
Side effects are something you're supposed to disclose upfront!
He drew a slow breath and stepped out of the room so he wouldn't disturb the Fire Keeper's rest.
[Group Owner (Eisen): Tell me every side effect of the group shop items. All of them.]
[Group Assistant: Understood.]
[Group Assistant: The side effect of Yanling Pantyhose is that it makes a person appear more maternal.
The side effect of Willpower Glasses is that it makes a person look more seductive.
The side effect of Omen Premonition is that it increases a person's bust size.
The side effect of Net Commission is that it makes a person look more "protectable."
The side effect of Possibility Doppelganger is that it makes a person look "bullyable."
The side effect of Subgroup Owner Authority is that it makes a person more repressed.]
"—Hiss."
Eisen sucked in a sharp breath.
So the reason he was covered in so much higher-dimensional energy… was because he'd previously summoned a huge number of doppelgangers all at once?
And those doppelgangers hadn't even been useful!
A total loss…?
Eisen recalled the "taste" of last night's experience.
…Yeah. A very memorable battle.
Fine. Maybe it wasn't that much of a loss.
Cough.
Truthfully, he'd always thought the group shop's prices were absurdly cheap—cheap enough that you could practically buy anything on a whim.
He'd assumed the chat group was a tsundere: constantly talking about prioritizing its own upgrades, insisting it shouldn't help members at all… while quietly selling powerful items at bargain prices anyway.
So this was the trick.
This was where it had been waiting all along.
Use the items, and you'd end up tangled in "red strings," drowned in repression.
Chat group—
you're genuinely despicable now.
Once he'd figured out the chat group's true nature, a new question surfaced.
[Group Owner (Eisen): Then why didn't Sakiko and I feel any of these "special effects" when we met earlier?]
[Group Assistant: According to group rules, members cannot harm each other.]
You're really precise about rules when it suits you, aren't you?
[Group Owner (Eisen): Can the side effects be removed?]
[Group Assistant: According to Core Clause Three of the contract signed between this group and its owner: the group owner may not, by any means, prevent the chat group from collecting repression energy through reasonable methods. Otherwise, the chat group will immediately collapse and disappear.]
[Group Assistant: Group owner… I don't want to die…]
...
What is this "doomed lovers" vibe supposed to be?!
Higher-dimensional energy could be burned clean with the First Flame—but burning it would violate the contract.
In the end, Eisen decided not to deal with it.
He'd dump the blame on the chat group completely.
"No—wait! I genuinely didn't know! This is obviously the chat group's responsibility from the start!"
"I almost got talked into accepting guilt!"
Once he realized his "image" was still salvageable, Eisen finally stopped sweating bullets.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 120)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 95)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 85)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter85)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter81)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter60)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter66)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 40
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 50
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