After surviving the first major crisis he encountered upon boarding the island, Shirou only felt slightly overstuffed.
That healthy meal had actually been fairly filling…
"Seriously, Shirou, I cannot believe you managed to eat that stuff. Just looking at it kills my appetite."
Beside him, Croissant walked over and commented, making Shirou begin regretting not forcing half of the nutritious meal onto her earlier.
At the very least, it would have shut her mouth.
"The rooms have already been selected. Everyone gets their own room, and the rooms are connected together. Lappland… and your little rabbit friend are together too."
Seemingly noticing that Shirou's expression was becoming increasingly dangerous, Texas changed the subject for the sake of Croissant's continued survival.
Still, Shirou noticed it.
Texas had paused slightly when mentioning Lappland.
The relationship between those two really was complicated.
"Understood. If you need to switch rooms later, just let me know."
After all, among the four members of Penguin Logistics, Texas was one of the easier ones for him to worry about, so if she needed help, he was willing to assist.
Besides, he knew Lappland too, so it was not a major issue.
"If possible, that would be great."
Hearing Shirou's words, Texas visibly relaxed.
Fortunately, Lappland was not present right now.
Because she needed to undergo a full medical examination, she was unable to eat beforehand and therefore had not come to the cafeteria. She was probably going through the same examination process Shirou had experienced earlier together with Rope.
After some simple rearrangements, the final room assignments became the four Penguin Logistics members occupying four rooms on one side, while Shirou, Rope, and Lappland took the three rooms opposite them.
After all, five out of the seven people basically listened to Shirou already.
One of those five was Shirou himself.
So there really was not much difficulty in the arrangements.
As for Lappland's opinion?
Skipped completely. Next topic.
"So next we should head over to Human Resources first… Blaze, you already brought the Penguin Logistics members there earlier, right?"
Listening to Shirou and Penguin Logistics talking, Amiya began arranging the next part of the schedule while asking whether Blaze had properly followed procedure while escorting the others around.
"Ah? That? I took them around to appreciate Rhodes Island's greatness first! Look, they already have a good first impression of Rhodes Island now! I think this helps strengthen relations between Rhodes Island and Penguin Logistics!"
The moment she heard Amiya's question, Blaze froze on the spot. Her cat ears and tail twitched nervously while beads of sweat formed on her face.
She absolutely could not admit that she had simply been having too much fun and completely forgotten about it!
"Blaze was having too much fun, so she forgot."
Beside her, the little cat immediately sold out the big cat while holding her terminal.
After all, she had reminded Blaze earlier.
Blaze had simply taken a nap beforehand, become unusually energetic afterward, and then directly dragged the Penguin Logistics group around everywhere.
She had completely forgotten about the proper onboarding procedures for newcomers arriving at Rhodes Island.
"I will have a proper talk with you later. For now, we will take everyone from Penguin Logistics for their comprehensive examinations."
Looking at Blaze's thoroughly embarrassed expression, Amiya honestly did not know what to say.
Could she say Blaze accomplished nothing?
Not really. At the very least, she had properly shown the four Penguin Logistics members around Rhodes Island and left them with an excellent impression.
But could she say Blaze had done her assigned tasks properly?
Not at all. She had failed to complete every single required procedure.
Still, overall, it was not a major problem.
These were all fairly small matters.
Besides, bringing one person along versus bringing an entire group did not make much difference anyway.
"Understood."
The moment she realized the crisis had passed, Blaze immediately became obedient again.
After confirming the next destination, Amiya suddenly seemed to remember something. She pulled out her terminal, tapped on it several times, then put it away again.
Afterward, she wore an expression filled with anticipation as she led the group toward Human Resources.
"?"
The others were briefly confused by Amiya's sudden improvement in mood before quickly returning to discussing what they planned to buy.
As for Shirou, he could only feel that his wallet was in danger.
Still, the Lungmen dollars he carried had originally been entrusted to him by the Emperor specifically for Penguin Logistics' living expenses, so using them for everyone now did not really bother him.
Although he still needed to save some money in case he could buy souvenirs for the people at the Lungmen Guard Department.
And he definitely could not forget the other children at Fuyuki Store either.
All of those were expenses…
Thankfully, he had already planned to purchase supplies today, so he had brought quite a lot of Lungmen dollars with him.
As for the "comprehensive examination test" Amiya mentioned, it was exactly what the name implied — a complete evaluation of every aspect of a person's abilities and physical condition.
Shirou was not particularly unfamiliar with this process.
Back when he first started taking missions with Penguin Logistics, he had already gone through similar tests under Yith.
Still, compared to the facilities from back then…
Rhodes Island's setup was clearly far more advanced.
At the very least, the testing grounds were incredibly spacious.
Aside from physiological endurance, which required medical examination data, nearly everything else could be evaluated through actual combat exercises.
And so, the testing grounds today suffered under Penguin Logistics' assault.
Leaving aside the certain Sankta who ran around shouting "Apple Pie!" while spraying training rounds everywhere with her gun…
And ignoring the certain black Lupo who used multiple Originium sword hilts to slice straight through layers of obstacles by herself…
In comparison, Croissant slowly smashing things with one hammer swing at a time, and Sora who merely provided support, were actually far kinder to the testing grounds.
Still, those were only minor issues.
Apparently, Shirou's destructive capability was said to rival those two.
As a result, the operators responsible for supervising the training grounds today were extremely nervous.
Would he end up cleaning all the way until night and still not finish today?
"Mm... Shirou, are you going to be alright?"
Watching Shirou stretching nearby, Sora looked somewhat worried.
She had not realized it earlier, but after experiencing it herself, she finally understood that the overall difficulty on Rhodes Island's side was even higher. That naturally made her concerned.
After all, Shirou had not been in very good condition just now. If he suddenly went into an intense battle, would that not be bad for his body?
"It is fine. I will just treat it as warming up."
A pair of Kanshou and Bakuya appeared in Shirou's hands. He casually spun them around for a moment, confirming that there were no major problems with either his body or his magic circuits before entering the testing field.
Looking at the mostly pure white terrain before him, Shirou's mind rapidly began working.
He had already watched the tests of the other three just now. Every enemy encounter and battlefield seemed to be based around the tester's own weapons.
For example, the gun-wielding Exusiai mostly faced drones, while the Originium lightsaber-wielding Texas encountered ground enemies.
And these so-called tests were obviously not using real combat units either. They seemed to rely on extremely advanced technology capable of simulating battlefields that Rhodes Island had previously faced.
Although the enemies and drones were fake, the damage to the environment was very real.
Exusiai had left behind plenty of bullet holes, and Texas had carved numerous sword marks. All of those would need repairs afterward.
Since repairs were already inevitable, Shirou did not hold back and decided to test his limits properly.
Of course, by "going all out," he did not mean starting immediately with something absurd like using a Caladbolg and firing it off.
Instead, he limited his projections to Kanshou and Bakuya.
At most, he would add a longbow and ordinary arrows.
Truthfully, he now possessed quite a large number of combat techniques involving Kanshou and Bakuya.
Not to mention that black Executor had even developed a gunblade form, the twin-blade combat style itself was already incredibly fierce.
As for Archer, although there were fewer variations, he possessed matching combat techniques, such as Crane Wing Three Realm.
A secret technique derived from the attraction between the male and female twin blades of Kanshou and Bakuya.
However, up until now, Shirou had not encountered an enemy he could not pierce through.
Most opponents were dealt with in a single slash or a single arrow.
"Operator Shirou, please look forward. Based on your combat record, we will deploy partial aerial drone units along with a large number of ground units for this evaluation."
Before Shirou could continue thinking, the tester's voice rang out.
Immediately afterward, he heard the sounds of numerous machines activating.
"...That really is quite a lot."
After hearing the noises around him, Shirou weighed Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands while focusing his attention ahead.
Very quickly, he spotted a large number of infected creatures.
The density was so overwhelming that even the observers outside were beginning to feel their trypophobia acting up.
Naturally, under such circumstances, Shirou was not about to charge in and slash enemies one by one. Instead, he continuously hurled the Kanshou and Bakuya in his hands into the ground.
Six pairs in total.
Twelve blades spread across the battlefield.
Then the magic circuits across Shirou's body began glowing as he thrust the pair in his hands directly into the ground.
Using those two blades as the central point, countless magic circuits connected outward toward the other twelve swords, releasing a dazzling blue light.
Boom—
Every enemy within the area covered by the fourteen Kanshou and Bakuya was violently blasted and instantly judged dead.
"Hiss... I was only spraying bullets around, but Shirou, are you trying to tear Rhodes Island apart?"
Looking at the massive spectacle before her, Exusiai inhaled sharply and sighed in amazement.
Although she had seen Shirou fight many times already, he normally never caused destruction on this scale.
Most of the time, he preferred fighting in a lower-profile manner. Or rather, if Shirou caused this kind of commotion in Lungmen, the Lungmen Guard Department would probably arrest him immediately.
"That is nothing much. Compared to some Casters' attacks, what Shirou is doing is barely even worth mentioning."
Hearing Exusiai's words, Blaze shook her head.
There was no way this level of destruction could dismantle Rhodes Island.
If anyone truly had a chance of tearing Rhodes Island apart, then perhaps it would be Rosmontis instead.
"..."
Watching Blaze act as though they had never seen a true large-scale attack before, everyone from Penguin Logistics suddenly wanted Shirou to fire off Caladbolg on the spot just to broaden her horizons.
No, no, calm down.
No matter what, Rhodes Island was still an ally. They definitely could not blow up the organization's headquarters.
Besides, Shirou might not even agree to it.
Turning their attention back toward Shirou, after the earlier black-and-white twin blade formation explosion, he had already cleared out most of the ground units. Now he was holding a longbow and sniping aerial targets from the sky.
"..."
Looking at the scene before him, even the evaluator had no idea how to score this.
It was not as though Rhodes Island had never seen operators capable of handling large numbers of both aerial and ground enemies simultaneously.
But this one...
Could someone first explain why the arrows could curve through the air and precisely hit their targets?
One shot at a time would already have been impressive enough.
But drawing one arrow, having it split into over a dozen midair, and then sending each fragment toward a different target was completely ridiculous.
He wanted to learn that too.
This Originium Art was unbelievably cool.
"Ah... I will submit this record to Doctor Kal'tsit later for evaluation, so please do not worry."
Noticing how troubled the evaluator looked, Amiya felt that assigning a proper score to Shirou would probably be difficult.
Honestly, even Amiya herself could not quite understand what she was looking at anymore.
Usually, when something was impossible to comprehend like this... it meant the result was at least excellent, if not outright outstanding.
As for Shirou, during the comprehensive physical evaluation conducted on Penguin Logistics's side, he also seemed to have achieved an outstanding result.
Still, how should it be put...
The light produced by his magical energy during combat, combined with his smooth fighting style, was genuinely pleasing to watch.
Even Blaze had already taken out her phone and started recording.
"Has Shirou's fighting style... become sharper?"
Watching Shirou put away the longbow and instead charge into the enemy horde with the black-and-white twin blades, Texas felt that something was slightly off.
In the past, Shirou's swordsmanship had been more balanced and flexible, capable of both offense and defense, especially when blocking and parrying enemy attacks.
But the current Shirou...
He was focusing on attacking as aggressively as possible, much like her own former combat style.
"Maybe it is because he is not fighting actual people? And since everything here is simulated, Shirou chose to fight this way?"
Croissant, who had overheard Texas speaking, replied from nearby.
After all, her own mentality during the test had been similar.
The feeling of carrying a hammer and sending enemies flying really was satisfying.
Unfortunately, since everything was simulated, there was no actual sensation of impact when knocking enemies away.
"Is that so...?"
After listening to Croissant, Texas felt that the explanation made some sense, and only then did she put aside her doubts.
Still, something continued to feel strange.
"What Croissant said is not unreasonable. This evaluation mainly exists so that Rhodes Island has a reference point when assigning missions later. Most of the time, it is not absolutely accurate anyway. A test is still just a test. Real combat always involves far more things to consider."
After hearing the conversation between the two, Blaze asked Rosmontis beside her to continue recording before turning around and speaking to them.
After all, everyone specialized in different things.
For example, Rosmontis excelled more in annihilation battles against large targets, while Blaze herself was stronger in breakthrough assaults.
But compared to what Shirou had displayed both in the past and now...
He seemed exceptionally strong in both breakthrough combat and long-range fixed-point attacks.
That Scout fellow had always been recommending that Shirou use a sniper gun. If he saw Shirou handling a bow this skillfully, he would probably cry himself to death in a bathroom.
And one of the reasons Blaze was recording this in the first place was specifically because she wanted to see that awkward reaction later.
Of course, the gorgeous light effects that looked straight out of a movie were also one of her targets for recording.