"Hello, Skytree!!"
Yan Huan quickly got into a taxi parked by the side of the road. After getting in, he imdiately rolled down the window, his eyes fixated on the distant Skytree looming faintly within an unclean pink mist.
The engine ignited, and the vehicle pulled onto the road.
The distance from Akihabara to the Skytree was not far, only a ten to twenty-minute drive.
Hopefully, there was still ti.
"Thrum!!"
Right at that mont, a bizarre, illusory fluctuation suddenly whistled over from the direction Yan Huan had just co from. It was noticeable only to him, causing him to look back in uncertainty and alarm.
The first thing that caught his eye was a shattered green toad phantom in mid-air, being expelled by a supre great power and gradually dissipating from this world.
"Croak!!"
That was...
Bai Yi's Modifier?!
An Le actually managed to do what he had been trying to achieve for so long?
Expelling the Modifier from the host's body...
Yan Huan frowned. Yet, as he watched the expelled Modifier, a faint sense of foreboding rose in his heart.
The question was, could it really be that simple?
"Yan Huan, look over there, ow!"
Just as Yan Huan was frowning in confusion, Myau-chan's owing from his shoulder drew his attention.
Turning his head, he saw that in the direction of the Skytree, the mont Bai Yi's Modifier was expelled, the unclean pink hue instantly thickened by more than an entire magnitude...
"Gurgle~"
An Le's Modifier had beco stronger!
"Moo!!"
Following that, a golden scorpion letting out a strange cow-like bellow struggled before dissipating in mid-air.
An Le's Modifier strengthened once again!
Once might be a coincidence, but twice in a row, Yan Huan could firmly draw a conclusion.
Seeing this, Yan Huan looked at Myau-chan in disbelief and demanded,
"Didn't you say that as long as they voluntarily gave up their Modifiers, it would be fine? Now that An Le has done it, why is the situation getting even worse?"
"I... I don't know either, ow... But I definitely felt their Modifiers being expelled from the world..."
"..."
Seeing Myau-chan's equally confused expression, Yan Huan knew the cat didn't know much more than he did.
But the problem was, if this was the case, how could they resolve the Modifiers?
If you removed one, the other Modifiers would grow stronger.
In that case, no matter how many Modifiers you resolved, the last remaining one would always evolve to the point of destroying the world...
Wasn't this an unsolvable dead end?!
"Gurgle!!"
This wasn't Yan Huan being pessimistic, because reality was exactly like this.
In the distant Akihabara, as Ye Shiyu's shrieking purple spider phantom shattered bit by bit, the unclean pink mist at the top of the Skytree finally seed to grow to its absolute limit.
Yan Huan did not see Sakuramiya Hitomi's Modifier shatter, but the destruction of the other three Modifiers seed to have already locked in An Le's Modifier's victory.
"Boom!!"
The instant Ye Shiyu's Modifier vanished, an illusory pillar of light—visible only to Yan Huan and Myau-chan—violently erupted into the sky from the peak of the Skytree.
That pillar of light scattered the dark clouds filling the sky, revealing the dusk of the approaching evening.
However, the halo of that dusk remained an unclean pink hue that made Yan Huan extrely uncomfortable...
That pink color spread outward from the Skytree, covering the surroundings bit by bit until it completely enveloped Yan Huan.
In Yan Huan's field of vision, the road ahead leading to the Skytree abruptly beca deathly quiet, as if everything had already ended...
Or had it?
At this mont, the taxi Yan Huan was riding in suddenly ca to a halt on a street still quite a distance away from the Skytree.
Was it a traffic jam?
Just as Yan Huan was observing the congested surroundings, he suddenly noticed that the driver in front was still maintaining his driving posture, not even lifting his foot off the gas pedal.
Seeing this, Yan Huan blinked.
Looking up again, he saw that the pedestrians and crowds by the roadside were also frozen in near-identical states of motion.
Was this...
Ti Stop?
Wasn't this the ability of Bai Yi's Modifier?
Yan Huan frowned. Feeling inwardly that sothing was very wrong, he imdiately reached for the door handle and got out of the car.
Only after stepping out did he find the situation increasingly bizarre.
Within the area enveloped by that pink curtain of light, a faint foul, fishy scent wafted to Yan Huan's nose.
He frowned and surveyed the surrounding streets, the sights instantly flooding his field of vision.
Inside a convenience store, a clerk seed to be calling the boss to restock, but remained completely motionless, frozen in the act of dialing.
It wasn't just the clerk. Within that spreading curtain of light, the drivers ahead were largely in the sa state, which was why their cars had stopped dead in the middle of the road, halting all traffic...
At this mont, the area around the Skytree was in dead silence.
It was as if the inside and outside were completely isolated by that pink curtain of light, becoming an entirely different world.
"Ksshk..."
The only exception was the screens on the surrounding buildings, which were still flickering with bizarre, static-like patterns.
Those patterns twisted bit by bit until they completely transford into an abyssal maw lunging right at him...
Seeing this, Yan Huan imdiately realized sothing was wrong, lowering his head and withdrawing his gaze.
It was Ye Shiyu's Modifier!
Weren't they all expelled from their hosts' bodies?
Why were their effects still showing?
Just as Yan Huan was lowering his head, thinking hard but unable to find an answer...
From his shoulder, Myau-chan's anxious voice rang out,
"W-We're dood, Yan Huan! The evil god... the evil god has broken through!"
Turning to look, he saw that Myau-chan's erald-like green eyes were slowly developing golden cracks.
Through those golden cracks, Yan Huan clearly saw the top of the towering Skytree violently erupt with an illusory fluctuation resembling a nuclear explosion.
Following that, from the center of that intense explosion, as if a flower were blooming, countless swarming tentacles sprouted from the tower's observation deck.
Imdiately after, those tentacles continuously crawled along the top of the tower until they finally pierced straight into the heavens!
The tentacles spread relentlessly, breaching the limits of Earth's orbit, and violently burrowed into a series of golden rifts that had simultaneously appeared in the void...
They seed to pull with imnse force, trying to drag the starry sky beyond those golden rifts crashing down to the ground.
However...
That was not the starry sky of this world.
Rather, it appeared to be another, incredibly filthy universe.
Because Yan Huan clearly saw it:
Beyond the rifts, the starlight in that vast universe had entirely materialized into physical forms.
Like plant seeds, they had unexpectedly sprouted fleshy shoots, reaching out toward Earth.
It was as if this tiny world was nothing more than a piece of candy caught within an abyssal maw ford by an ocean of tentacles...
To be devoured completely.
How the hell was this still a slice-of-life genre?
Yan Huan's eyes went wide. Looking at the ocean of tentacles slowly blotting out the sky from all directions in the universe, he finally realized for the first ti that Myau-chan's talk of the world being destroyed wasn't a lie...
A restricted-level evil god was truly invading this world!
"Crack, crack..."
Getting the hosts to give up their Modifiers hadn't worked...
And at this mont, the incomparably powerful great power of that evil god was already on full display...
Then what exactly were they supposed to do?
Even as a deity, Myau-chan couldn't help but feel a sliver of despair in this mont.
Could it be...
Was there truly no way to stop the world from being destroyed?
But looking at Myau-chan on his shoulder, whose eyes were accumulating more and more cracks, Yan Huan gritted his teeth. He grabbed the trembling cat and growled softly,
"Myau-chan, there's still a chance!"
"ow?"
Myau-chan snapped out of its horrified daze. It looked at the frowning Yan Huan as he pointed at the distant Skytree, from which tentacles were extending into the cosmos.
"Look, that evil god's invasion is descending by relying on An Le's Modifier! That ans this is also one of the Modifier's functions!!"
Myau-chan blinked. The next second, it saw Yan Huan raise a simple, archaic ring.
Seeing this, Myau-chan's crack-riddled green eyes instantly lit up.
"Right, right, ow! You still have the Silence Ring! As long as we can find the host, An Le, and use the ring to silence her, we can nullify the evil god's descent process, ow!"
"Moreover, I still have the Crab dicine. It can remove the host's side effects, which ans resetting the Modifier's progress back to zero..."
Yan Huan narrowed his eyes. Tucking away the two world-saving items, he turned his gaze back to the Skytree.
"Let's put aside the fact that resolving a Modifier causes the others to evolve for now... The crucial thing right now is to seize the ti and find An Le before the evil god fully descends!"
"ow!"
However, before his heroic declaration could last even a second, Yan Huan suddenly felt soone tap him on the shoulder...
He blinked and turned his head, only to see a twisted creature made of sticky, coiling tentacles tilting its head as it stared back at him.
The tentacle creature stared blankly at Yan Huan. Then, from its ferocious mouth, barely distinguishable, raspy words tumbled out.
"Sturdy... A sturdy male... Fertility needed..."
"Huh?"
[Beep!]
[Tentacle-corrupted worldview, invasion in progress!]
At that mont, as the tentacles from the cosmos above drew closer, the entire world seed to instantly collapse, erupting into terrifying noises beside his ear.
Not good!
Seeing this, Yan Huan violently swatted away the tentacle monster's hand gripping his shoulder, turned on his heel, and made a mad dash toward the Skytree.
But behind him and all around him, countless tentacle monsters had already descended, all of them sprinting straight for Yan Huan.
"Yan Huan, I can feel that the nearby world has already been corrupted by the evil god's power! It is materializing the worldscapes it controls; these are all projections of the worlds it has successfully invaded, ow!!"
On his shoulder, Myau-chan turned its head, watching the surrounding space twist bit by bit along with the evil god's invasion.
"Look, these monsters are targeting you and you alone! It must be... It must be that the invading evil god knows you have the Silence Ring! So it's going all out to stop you from getting close to the Skytree, ow!!"
Hearing this, Yan Huan gritted his teeth, caring for nothing else but sprinting for his life.
[Beep!]
[Succubus worldview, loading!]
[Warning: You are emitting a fatal aura. Any succubus appearing within a one-kiloter radius is now glaring at you like a tiger watching its prey!]
Within his mind, that illusory voice rang out once more.
In an instant, the aura exuding from Yan Huan seed to materialize, faintly rippling through the air and seeping into that pink mist...
Right after, countless succubi—sporting bat wings, breathtaking beauty, and bloodthirsty smiles—instantly materialized from the illusory mist.
From behind these succubi, an appendage resembling a blooming flower—so kind of extractor—faintly protruded...
He had no idea what it was used for.
At this mont, they all turned their eyes in unison toward Yan Huan, the source of the scent.
Instantly, pink heart-shapes burst forth in their eyes.
Upon seeing Yan Huan, they burst into motion without hesitation, charging straight at him.
"Quick! Catch him!! Don't let him escape!!"
"Don't run! I'm definitely going to consu him completely today!!"
"Ahhh!!"
Yan Huan sprinted wildly. Watching the bizarre monsters charging at him from all directions—eyes full of hearts and wearing ahegao expressions—he felt his mind going blank.
Kiss God!
Bared Torso!
Activate!!
Yan Huan gritted his teeth, instantly putting forth his utmost effort. As he ran, he shouted at Myau-chan on his shoulder,
"Wait... Myau-chan, what the hell is a tentacle worldview? And what the f*ck is a succubus worldview?!"
"Didn't I tell you from the start, ow?! That evil god's Otherworld is an oto-style restricted-level world! You're a male and you bear a massive amount of fate, so of course you're a pri target!!"
Myau-chan's face was also filled with panic. Watching the throngs of people madly charging at Yan Huan, it swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said,
"So, if you get caught... get ready to perform a live-action 'Yan Huan's Ruin' on the spot!"
"I'll show you ruin!!"
His face dark, Yan Huan sidestepped to dodge the flying leap of a drooling fat man, then kicked away an Otherworlder lunging right at his face.
With the buffs from Kiss God and Bared Torso, his current physique could only be described as superhuman; ordinary people really couldn't catch up to him.
Yet at this mont, an incredibly spectacular scene dramatically unfolded beneath the Skytree.
A bare-chested teenager, gritting his teeth in a panicked and helpless state, sprinted wildly while dark, swarming masses of monsters from various races chased him like maniacs from all directions.
Every last one of them had eyes full of hearts, their expressions so ecstatic they were nearing the point of collapse.
"Hehehe, I'm going to ruthlessly XX you!!"
"Where do you think you're running!"
[Beep!]
[Non-Human worldview, loading!]
'Can you stop loading already?!'
Hearing that illusory voice, Yan Huan almost crushed his teeth from gritting them so hard.
Amidst the unclean pink rendering, extrely bizarre changes seed to occur in the surroundings once more.
The instant that illusory voice appeared, a number of odd-looking "humans" were suddenly projected into the ti-stopped reality.
Without exception, they all possessed a mix of human and animal traits. So could even spread wings and soar through the air!
"Flap! Flap!"
A winged demi-human girl, wearing a sinister smile, flapped her wings and dive-bombed toward Yan Huan.
She grabbed both of Yan Huan's hands and yanked him into the air.
"Hahaha, you're mine!!"
While laughing madly, the monster girl stuck out a long tongue, attempting to French kiss Yan Huan.
"Slurp!"
"F*ck—"
Looking at her gaping, bloody maw, a terrified Yan Huan instinctively raised his arm and delivered a brutal elbow strike.
"Bam!"
The blow smashed directly into her face, twisting it and causing her to instantly lose balance and plumt to the side. Yet even so, she still wore a horrifying ahegao expression on her face...
That elbow strike had only made her enjoy it more.
"Hiss!!"
Taking advantage of the montum, Yan Huan was thrown off, violently crashing to the ground from mid-air. The pain made him gasp in shock.
"Thud!"
Yan Huan slamd his fist onto the ground and looked up at the Skytree, which was still incredibly far away. For a mont, he really had no idea how he was supposed to get there.
But right then, a beautiful car parked by the roadside instantly caught Yan Huan's eye.
Coming into view was an exceedingly familiar white Porsche 911 convertible.
And sitting right inside the car was a pink-haired youth, frozen in place by the Ti Stop. He was holding a cup of Starbucks, seemingly chatting with soone on Plane.
Only at this mont, with ti frozen, his posture looked rather comical.
Looking at the youth, Yan Huan raised an eyebrow and muttered,
"Sakura... Jing?"
Yes, that was actually Sakuramiya Hitomi's older brother, who attended university in Tokyo...
Sakura Jing!
On his shoulder, Myau-chan glanced at the ssage being sent in the youth's hand and owed,
"Look quickly, ow! He's still complaining about you to Sakuramiya Lily, ow... He's saying that ever since his sister ca to Tokyo, she's ignored the family and only cares about you... He even said he wants to hack you into a thousand pieces..."
"Heh..."
Yan Huan's face darkened. He was just about to shoot back a retort when he suddenly noticed the keys still in the Porsche's ignition.
Seeing this, Yan Huan blinked. He glanced at Sakura Jing, then at the relatively distant road shrouded in endless pink mist, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Vroom!!"
"Roar!!"
The Porsche truly lived up to its reputation as the dream sports car of countless youths. Just listening to the roar of the engine was enough to fill one with uncontrollable excitent.
At this mont, Yan Huan ran his hands fondly over the Porsche's steering wheel, unable to resist taking a deep breath.
Imdiately after, he glanced at Sakura Jing, who had been set aside on the curb, feeling a bit like a cuckoo taking over another bird's nest.
"...Sorry, nothing personal. Just borrowing your sports car to save the world."
Having said that, the completely unapologetic Yan Huan fastened his seatbelt. He glanced at the rearview mirror, spotting the rapidly approaching restricted-level fantasy Otherworld projections, and his mouth twitched.
"Sit tight, Myau-chan. We're off."
"ow!"
Yan Huan's unquestionable tone prompted an adorable chirp of agreent from Myau-chan on his shoulder.
But halfway through owing, it lowered its head in confusion and asked,
"Wait, Yan Huan. Did you ever get your driver's license in your previous life?"
Hearing this, Yan Huan paused. He rely offered a helpless smile and replied,
"Guess."
"ow?"
"Vroom!!"
Myau-chan blinked. The very next second, the entire sports car was instantly yanked forward by an imnse surge of horsepower.
"owwwwww!!!"
The incredibly intense G-force flattening them against the seats caused Myau-chan to scream in a panicked and helpless manner. It hurriedly stretched out its two paw pads to grip Yan Huan's clothes on his shoulder, thrashing wildly in the wind like a koinobori strear.
The sound of its screams chased after the sports car but couldn't seem to catch up...
"Vroom!!"
The scent of Yan Huan, alienated by the Otherworld, drifted through the air, drawing countless succubi to approach them while glaring like tigers watching their prey.
Under the glow of the sky's pink sunlight, the Porsche's smooth white paint reflected countless pink heart-shaped eyes and ferocious ahegao faces. It proved to Yan Huan just how ruinous a Worldline successfully invaded by the evil god could be.
But all of this blurred past them at breakneck speed, tossed into the void under the Porsche's raw horsepower.
"Yan Huan, we're almost at the Skytree, ow!"
At the end of the road ahead, the tentacle-entangled Skytree lood larger and larger in their field of vision.
Yan Huan floored the gas pedal, charging straight to the Skytree's entrance.
"Screech!!"
With a beautiful drift, the sports car ca to a steady stop in front of the Skytree, where the foul, fishy stench was growing increasingly thick.
Yan Huan didn't even bother opening the door. He simply vaulted over the side of the car and bolted toward the deathly silent Skytree.
"Thump!"
"Quick! I sll it, his intoxicating scent... He's inside!!"
He had just reached the fourth floor and was about to press the elevator button when he felt the countless restricted-level Otherworld projections downstairs trampling Sakura Jing's Porsche, causing it to groan under their weight...
They had caught up!
"Yan Huan, they're here, ow!"
"I know, the elevator is almost here!"
Gritting his teeth as the elevator doors opened, Yan Huan instantly darted inside and slamd the 'Close' button.
"Ding-dong~"
"Elevator, in motion."
Feeling the slight sensation of increased gravity, Yan Huan finally relaxed a bit. Panting, he leaned against the elevator wall.
"Ding-dong~"
"Floor 350, arrived."
It wasn't long before the elevator doors opened once more, and they had arrived high up in the sky.
Floor 350 was completely silent. The tourists who had originally been there were frozen like statues, motionless...
"Bzz... Bzz..."
The only sound was the static from the display screens on the Tembo Deck, prompting Yan Huan to quickly withdraw his gaze.
Out of the corner of his eye, however, he suddenly spotted spiders and toads wandering in the corners.
Seeing this, Yan Huan narrowed his eyes and asked Myau-chan in confusion,
"Myau-chan, these Modifiers... didn't you say they had already left this world?"
"That is the case, ow... Regardless, right now I can only sense An Le's Modifier and Sakuramiya's Modifier..."
"An Le's Modifier?"
Yan Huan's eyes narrowed as he instantly realized sothing.
"I understand now..."
"ow?"
"Myau-chan, all the Modifiers are fragnts of the evil god. So even if the other four are resolved, as long as one remains, when it manifests, it can draw upon the powers of the rest."
"It seems that way, ow... Therefore, as long as one is eliminated, the Desire amassed by that Modifier will flow into the remaining ones. No wonder An Le's Modifier grew stronger after the other three were removed..."
Hearing this, Myau-chan sighed very pessimistically, looking quite crestfallen.
"No, there's still a way."
"Hm? W-What is it, ow?"
"You said it yourself—An Le really did expel them just now. What's appearing now are projections created by the evil god residing within An Le's Modifier, right?"
"That's correct, ow."
"Which ans, as long as we make it so it has absolutely no dium to project through, we'll be fine, right?"
"Hm? Wait, does that an..."
Looking at Myau-chan, Yan Huan articulated the true thod for resolving the restricted-level fantasy invasion word by word,
"It ans we can't have them give up the Modifiers one by one. We need them to abandon their Modifiers at the exact sa mont. That's the only way it will work!"
"..."
Myau-chan's jaw dropped. After thinking about it carefully, it realized that this was indeed feasible.
As long as all five Modifiers were expelled simultaneously, leaving the evil god without a foothold to leverage, its connection to this world would be completely severed...
Only then could they succeed.
But the problem was, getting five girls to abandon their Modifiers at the exact sa mont...
This...
Wasn't that a bit too difficult?
Myau-chan blinked, but the next second, it revealed an impossibly cute expression and rubbed its plump face against Yan Huan.
"ow~"
Its aning was crystal clear:
I believe in your wisdom, ow, Yan Huan!
"..."
Seeing this, Yan Huan's face nearly turned as black as charcoal.
But he couldn't dwell on this right now. He had to resolve the burning crisis in front of him first.
Find An Le!
At this mont, on Floor 350, the Tembo Deck.
The floor-to-ceiling windows, which should have been spacious and bright, were completely swathed and wrapped in writhing tentacles, plunging the entire space into murky darkness.
Within the gloomy atmosphere, an unbearable, foul stench wafted through the air, slling like rotting seafood.
"..."
Yan Huan scanned his surroundings. Seeing no one around, he determined that An Le must be on the Tembo Galleria on Floor 450.
Thus, he turned and headed toward another elevator.
As the elevator climbed higher bit by bit, the surrounding air grew even heavier. Just slling it was enough to make one nauseous.
"Ding-dong~"
Yan Huan covered his nose and mouth. Looking out at the corridor already overrun by tentacles, he moved his feet and stepped outside.
"Croak..."
"Moo..."
"Hiss..."
In the surrounding darkness, shadows resembling insects and other animals seed to be moving.
Yan Huan and Myau-chan kept moving upward through that darkness, slowly following the corridor until they reached Floor 450...
"An Le?"
Just as he reached the top, Yan Huan suddenly saw the black-haired An Le lying unconscious in the center of a circular platform made of clustered tentacles.
Flanking both sides of that circular platform were doors ford by intertwined, miniature tendrils.
However, at the end of the circular platform, the other side of the doors led nowhere. Instead, it was simply a fleshy wall made of identical tendrils.
"An Le! Wake up! An Le!!"
Upon seeing An Le, Yan Huan imdiately pulled out the ring, planning to solve the problem head-on.
However, the mont he drew near, An Le, whose eyes had been closed, snapped them open.
"Thud!!"
The next second, moving with a blinding speed that even the buffs from Kiss God and Bared Torso couldn't match, An Le threw herself straight at Yan Huan and pinned him to the ground.
"An—"
"Mwah~"
Yan Huan's parted lips were instantly sealed by An Le's, choking the words back down his throat.
"Sob... Xiao Huan, you... you finally ca..."
Hearing An Le's pitiful, tearful voice, Yan Huan couldn't help but feel his heart soften slightly.
Previously, he had kissed the other four, but toward An Le, he had...
With that thought in mind, he temporarily gave up resisting and gently wrapped his arms around An Le's back.
"Gurgle..."
However, in a corner unnoticed by both Yan Huan and Myau-chan...
The faint shadows of four venomous creatures were squirming...
A scorpion, a spider, a toad, and...
A centipede?
The first three phantoms possessed a weak presence, hiding their bodies within the dim shadows. They seed severely injured, no longer existing in this world, reduced to re projected shadows.
Only the centipede, seemingly possessing a thousand legs, still retained a physical form. It silently raised its head to look in their direction...
As if following so sort of command, everything seen through the centipede's perspective was seemingly transmitted to a cramped, gloomy space.
Inside that space, Sakuramiya Hitomi was curled up, her head lowered and her body trembling slightly.
"Sob... Xiao Huan, you... you finally ca..."
Yet, when An Le's crying voice filtered through, she couldn't help but raise her head.
Thus, she lifted her head, and instantly caught sight of Yan Huan actively embracing and kissing An Le.
"..."
In the cramped darkness, Sakuramiya Hitomi just stared blankly at the scene before her...
For a long ti, she had no other reaction.
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