Within the dim stone passageway of the ruin.
Speedwagon slowly recounted the bloody half-century of grievances between the Joestar family and Dio.
"That man called Dio donned the Stone Mask, and cast aside his identity as a human…"
But in the pauses between his telling —
Unlike many of the other students moved by the story —
Ayanokoji was studying the shop's exchange page.
After thinking it over for a moment, he used a portion of his dwindling S-Points to redeem some item points.
As the system chime confirmed the deduction of 20,000 item points, a syringe loaded with a faint blue liquid materialised out of thin air in his palm.
[T-Virus (Improved Version)].
Without hesitation, Ayanokoji flipped the needle and drove it into his own vein.
"Ayanokoji-kun!"
Hirata Yousuke, who had been keeping a constant eye on him, couldn't help his worry: "Are you really just going to inject it like that? What if it doesn't agree with your Titan Serum?"
"It's fine."
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka pulled the needle free and tossed it aside.
He closed his eyes.
He felt the cells within his body flare for an instant as though ignited, then quickly resolve into something clear and translucent.
Heaviness peeled away, his five senses elevated beyond limit, and a buoyant feeling of being reborn flowed through every part of him.
"I feel great," Ayanokoji said, opening his eyes. "And as a bonus — it seems Zero has evolved as a result as well…"
The skin of his right arm rippled.
The Parasyte named 'Zero' let out a low murmur:
"A strange feeling, Ayanokoji. This all-encompassing leap upward… it feels even better than when we converse."
Ayanokoji nodded.
Hirata Yousuke's face took on a peculiar expression; for a moment he honestly didn't know what to say in response.
Before Hirata could organise his thoughts enough to speak —
Katsuragi Kohei, off to one side, had already cut to the heart of the matter. He proposed:
"Now that you've gotten stronger, we should hurry and gather as many Stone Masks as we can."
"Mr. Speedwagon just said Stroheim has already been turned into a vampire. Add to that the Pillar Man originally sealed here being revived — the variables are piling up. If the Black Sphere force-starts the exam while we're stuck in a free-for-all, we won't even get the chance to farm points."
Ayanokoji gave a slight nod.
But before moving, he raised the Parasyte in his right hand. "Zero, let's test out the current power."
"Understood."
"Whoosh —!"
The tentacle transformed into a bone-blade and slashed viciously into the stone wall beside them!
"BOOM!"
A two-metre-wide hole was punched clean through the solid rock face.
As expected, the pulverized chunks of stone didn't go flying outward — once they made contact with some invisible barrier, they simply slid straight down to the ground, gravity-bound.
Through the gap in the wall, the scene outside revealed itself to everyone —
A desolate night sky, dotted with stars, a sliver of waning moon hanging overhead.
Speedwagon, his story interrupted by the racket, turned to look — and the sight struck him like a thunderbolt.
"…H— how is this possible?!"
He clutched at his head with both hands. "When we entered the ruin, it was clearly still afternoon! Why has the sunlight outside vanished?!"
"And why have these Stone Masks suddenly multiplied? They should have only existed inside the great hall!!"
Ayanokoji walked over to the gap, reached out to touch the invisible barrier, and offhandedly offered an explanation:
"The time we activated the preliminary test was four o'clock in the afternoon, Tokyo time."
"Convert that for the time difference — here in Mexico, it works out to early in the morning. The night sky lines up."
He paused: "Of course, it's also possible the Black Sphere simply doesn't want us using 'sunlight' to skip class."
"After all, if it were daytime outside, given the size of this ruin, all I'd need to do is transform into the Armored Titan and rip the ceiling off… there'd be very few vampires capable of escaping direct sunlight after that."
Speedwagon, who had still been marvelling at the Black Sphere fiddling with time itself, latched onto the key word:
"Ti— Titan…?"
These oddly uniformed kids — what on earth were they?!
"There's no need to be so shocked."
Horikita Suzune stepped forward, the Black Key in her hand.
"We are cleaners who have crossed worlds to come here for a trial. Given the technology of the Black Sphere, no miracle, no matter what form it takes, ought to come as a surprise."
"However — since vampires pose such an enormous threat in your world, this barrier is actually a good thing. At the very least, it ensures that none of them slip through the net later."
Hearing that, a flash of resolve passed through Speedwagon's eyes.
He straightened up and bowed deeply to the boys and girls before him.
"In that case — I beg of you all!"
"Vampires are too great a danger to modern society. Under no circumstances can they be allowed to leave here alive!"
"That includes me! In the final moment… please, do not show me any mercy! Kill me along with the rest!"
Watching this gentleman — now reduced to something other than human, yet still holding to the bottom line of humanity — even someone as cold-blooded as Ayanokoji couldn't help looking at him with newfound respect.
But Ayanokoji also believed this wasn't yet the time to let the old man go off and die nobly.
Since Speedwagon was acquainted with Stroheim, and had detailed knowledge of the Stone Masks, in the battles to come he might well play a role no one would expect.
"There's no need to throw your life away."
Ayanokoji drew his gaze back, his tone calm:
"First, we'll look to see whether any surviving humans remain in the ruin. We don't want them being discovered by Stroheim or the Pillar Man, only to become an additional burden for Chris and the others."
"Along the way, we'll collect the Stone Masks too."
Seeing Ayanokoji preparing to move out, Horikita Suzune suddenly remembered something.
She turned her gaze toward the short-haired girl who had been hovering on the edge of the group all this time, trying to keep her presence to a minimum:
"Kushida — you're acting as the 'Reinforcement Staff' for this test, aren't you?"
"I seem to recall that after the settlement of the Uninhabited Island exam, Ayanokoji finished in the top three?"
Kushida Kikyo, called out, smacked herself on the forehead and broke into a flustered look of realisation:
"Ah! Right! I'm so sorry, Ayanokoji-kun — things were so chaotic just now that I almost completely forgot!"
Ayanokoji stopped, turned, and looked at her in silence.
Kushida Kikyo quickly pulled up her own operational interface.
There weren't any complicated controls — just three virtual discs labelled with names, and a short instruction sheet.
Kushida materialised the disc inscribed with Ayanokoji's name, withdrew it, and recited the terms from the instructions:
"The rules say that the eligible recipient holds the disc and imagines, in their mind, the direction of enhancement they require. The Heavenly Craftsmen Society will then generate for you an item… whose value is less than or equal to half of the S-Points you obtained in the Uninhabited Island exam."
She blinked. "And then… and then that's it?"
Ayanokoji didn't bother indulging Kushida Kikyo's act of feigned cluelessness, and reached out to take the disc.
Less than or equal to half of his own score, then…
He closed his eyes.
The next instant, the disc erupted with golden light.
When the light faded, the disc was gone.
In its place was a single vial of serum.
Ayanokoji took out the Myriad Realm Illustrated Guide and scanned it.
[Super Soldier Serum]
[Details: Slows aging. Pushes the human body, across the board, to its 'theoretical limit of perfect form.' Confers immunity to most diseases and toxins.]
Hirata Yousuke leaned in to read the description, and couldn't hide his surprise:
"Ayanokoji-kun, what you wanted was — still just the ultimate physical body? Didn't you just inject the T-Virus a moment ago? Won't this kind of enhancement just overlap functionally?"
Without so much as a change of expression, Ayanokoji rolled up his cuff and drove the Super Soldier Serum into his vein.
"External tools are too unreliable."
"My score in the last exam was only 68. Halved, that's only 34 points of purchasing power. Trying to trade for any truly powerful item with that is next to impossible."
He flexed his wrist:
"Besides — the T-Virus grants cellular mutation and evolution, while the Super Soldier Serum elevates the human body's physical ceiling. The two stacked together — and Zero, as my symbiote, will rise along with me on the same tide."
"This is the most cost-effective choice right now."
The Parasyte Zero clearly grasped what that meant:
"Ayanokoji… I'll become your most useful weapon!"
"Mm." Ayanokoji nodded faintly. "Then it depends on how you perform from here on. Let's go."
Seeing Ayanokoji preparing to move, Nanatsura Tsubasa, standing at the back of the group, looked a little uneasy:
"Um… when are we going to actively open the exam?"
Ayanokoji didn't reply, just walked straight to the front.
Horikita Suzune was the one who answered her:
"At the very least — not until we've bought everyone equipped with a Combat Suit a tool capable of killing vampires."
"Otherwise, even if Chris and the others have already started the main round… they'll still need time to find us."
Horikita's gaze swept across the newcomers:
"If something unexpected happens during that vacuum window, your lives are the cost of trial and error. As for us — we couldn't care less. Even if we can't protect you, getting ourselves out wouldn't be a problem."
The frankly cold-blooded statement made Nanatsura Tsubasa nod obediently:
"I understand, senpai."
Kushida Kikyo hurried in with a smile to smooth things over:
"Horikita, don't go scaring them like that~"
"Nanatsura-san is taking part in a Black Sphere exam for the first time, after all. And Hayasaka-san and Yotsuya-san are both complete outsiders caught up in this by accident… everyone's frightened."
Amikura Mako chimed in in agreement:
"If they get spooked and bolt, and something goes wrong, in the end it'll be Chris and the others who pay the cost. What's the point?"
Horikita Suzune pressed her lips together.
Although she felt the other two were being overly soft-hearted, in the end she said nothing more.
At the tail of the group.
Hayasaka Ai actually wasn't particularly bothered by Horikita's blunt remarks.
Being inexplicably dropped into this place was undeniably terrifying, but in a certain sense…
This kind of being-'chosen-by-the-gods' experience meant her future could, perhaps, truly sever the chains that bound her to the Shinomiya family, and bring about a transformation entirely different from anything that had come before.
Compared to Hayasaka Ai's composure —
Yotsuya Miko had been shaking the entire time.
She snuck a glance at Housen Kazutomi and Yagami Takuya, not too far away, both of them ceaselessly stroking the Stone Masks cradled in their arms.
Miko swallowed hard, and unconsciously sidled closer to the most normal-looking pair — Amikura Mako and Morishita Ai.
'Aaaaahh… those two are absolutely ready to drop their humanity at a moment's notice!'
'Better to stay well away…'
'Just please — when they finally lose it, don't let the blood splash on me.'
Inside a side passageway about a hundred metres from Ayanokoji's group.
After parting ways with Yotsuya Miko, Shiranami Chihiro had decisively darted into the side tunnel, fleeing in the opposite direction from Ayanokoji, Horikita Suzune, and the rest.
But after sprinting through the gloomy corridor for a while —
Once she had confirmed she could no longer hear any strange sounds, she gradually slowed her pace.
Partly to regulate the breathing her running had thrown off, and partly because she had suddenly worked something out.
The truth was, as a weak, pitiable, helpless little ghost, her own raw stats were trash-tier.
Never mind combat power — even if she really did fall into a corrupted state after being exposed…
She'd just be cannon fodder, one-shot by an X-GUN.
But!
Shiranami Chihiro had a sudden flash of thought.
Just like in the earlier preliminary test at the port —
Precisely because she was, by system classification, a 'neutral unit,' those Black Sphere rules that restricted human testers didn't appear to apply to her!
When she had been chased by Amanatsu Kazuha and forced to take cover inside the helicopter, she'd been scared half to death.
But what had happened in the end?
At the time, she hadn't suffered any punishment whatsoever — in fact, Amanatsu Kazuha's mere touch had caused the exam to start ahead of schedule, and she had managed to slip away in the chaos.
'If… this time works out the same way.'
'Then as long as I find somewhere to hide, can't I just perfectly dodge everyone's line of sight, and skate by to the end of the exam?'
The girl was running through a happy little plan in her head.
But…
Shiranami Chihiro walked up to the wall covered in densely packed Stone Masks, and her little face crumpled again.
Where exactly was she supposed to hide?
Just as she was crouching down to ponder —
Stroheim, having left the great hall of the ruin, was tracking the scent of humans like a ghost, drawing closer and closer to the very passageway Shiranami Chihiro had taken shelter in.
Because Stroheim was driven by clear purpose.
And after his conversion into a vampire, his stats far exceeded both Speedwagon's and those of the low-tier vampire who had only just been revived.
So his speed of movement was extraordinary.
By the time Shiranami Chihiro realised something was wrong, Stroheim had already come to a stop less than five metres from her!
Shiranami Chihiro hurriedly clapped a hand over her own mouth in fright, curled her body into the shadows at the base of a stone statue's pedestal, and prayed frantically in her heart.
In actual fact, the reason Stroheim had stopped wasn't that he had detected her at all.
After all, Chris was just satisfying his own twisted little hobby of watching a pretty girl panic — he hadn't actually intended to hand her a death sentence.
In the eyes of beings classed as hostile targets, like the Pillar Men and vampires, she was barely distinguishable from a wisp of air.
He had stopped because of the Black Sphere prompt that had just sounded!
Stroheim stood frozen in place, brow knit:
"The Pillar Man… could it be the relief in the great hall just now — the one that absorbed the blood?"
"But that voice talking about a 'test' — what is that supposed to mean…"
The longer a person had lived, the more they came to understand that the unknown was to be feared.
It was true that, having now become a vampire, he was for all practical purposes immortal — so long as he stayed out of the sunlight.
But what if, just as Speedwagon had been worrying — what if the so-called 'Men of the Pillar' were an even older horror than vampires? Beings that ate vampires?
That single thought decided it. The cautious-by-nature Stroheim resolved to change his plans.
He had to find Speedwagon first, and brutally interrogate out of him whatever hidden intelligence this survey team had uncovered in this ruin beyond the surface-level findings!
With a sound like a gust of wind, Stroheim became a streak of afterimage.
Shiranami Chihiro stayed hidden in the shadows for a good several minutes.
Once she was sure he had no intention of doubling back to deliver a finishing blow, she slid down to the floor as if every ounce of strength had drained from her, and let out a long, shuddering breath.
'That was close…'
She patted her chest.
Truthfully, she wasn't sure whether the weirdo hadn't spotted her because the environment was too dark, or whether he was just so monstrous he genuinely didn't care about a small fry like her.
Either way — she was determined to assume the worst possible scenario for everything!
So Shiranami Chihiro decided, without further hesitation, to flee in the opposite direction from where Stroheim had gone.
And then.
Tearing along the passageway at full pelt, Shiranami Chihiro — predictably — ran headlong straight into the very great hall of the ruin where Stroheim had originally been.
The great hall was wide and empty.
Shiranami Chihiro cautiously glanced around.
She had timed it precisely to see —
On the massive stone wall at the centre of the great hall, the wall carved with four reliefs of differently shaped men — one of them, suddenly, gave off a sharp 'crack' and shattered?!
Following that, the stone skin peeled away at a rate visible to the naked eye. The man's previously stone-dead flesh, the very instant it made contact with air, surged back to life with extraordinary vigour.
"Crack… BOOM!"
The hulking figure, his whole body of corded muscle, twisted his neck and stepped right out of the stone wall!
Shiranami Chihiro felt her scalp prickle. She clapped her own mouth shut and melted herself into the shadows by the entryway.
Santana, who had awakened out of the wall, didn't notice Shiranami Chihiro hidden in the corner.
But as a Pillar Man, the moment he awoke, every sound and movement in the entire ruin came through to him in perfect clarity.
Ayanokoji's group, gathered together, currently collecting Stone Masks;
Stroheim, currently searching the passageways for Speedwagon…
Santana paid these weak little morsels no mind.
Instead, he turned his head, gazing at the Stone Masks hung across the surrounding walls, and the man-shaped stone statues beneath each of those masks.
Petrification…
This was something that belonged solely to the Pillar Men — a possibility they possessed in order to evade sunlight.
How could lowly creatures like vampires — fit only to be food for us — possibly possess this kind of power?
He turned his head again, looking at the three reliefs slumbering on the pillar of stone behind him.
Lord Kars, Lord Wamuu, Lord Esidisi…
And why were they here?
Since he could not sense Lord Kars's will from any of them —
Santana hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the nearest stone statue.
He reached out and ripped off its Stone Mask in a single yank, then proceeded to drag the petrified vampire beneath it out from inside, the way one might pull a turnip up from the ground.
Then he hauled this still-bewildered vampire over to the stone carving of Kars and proceeded to attempt to feed it to him.
Watching as the vampire was slowly devoured by Kars.
"Could it be that Lord Kars is so slow to respond because he hasn't fed in too long, and his energy has run dry…"
Santana let out a relieved breath, and turned to look at the other carvings around him:
"It's all right, Lord Kars. One isn't enough. There's plenty more here."
Meanwhile, Shiranami Chihiro, still hidden in the shadows —
Both her legs were trembling uncontrollably, and reflexively she tried to step backwards.
But she had only shifted half a pace —
Because of Santana's 'feeding' action, the conditions for the exam to begin had been satisfied outright.
[Number of vampire deaths detected has exceeded threshold. Chain reaction triggered.]
[Kars, Wamuu, Esidisi — forced awakening.]
[The exam, formally begins.]
____
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