Chapter 264: The Tengong Society's Tian Ma Ke and the Magnetic Field Rotation! (Patreon)

"Daikokuzan, Ginbak, the Great Demon Lord, the Wrath God…"

"The monsters in this fused world aren't all that strong, huh."

"Forget comparing their top fighters to War God Altesius. They can't even match Ort from the world Ryuuen and the others are in right now."

Chris had just confirmed the points of several monsters that were clearly the strongest of their respective natural-enemy tribes. He raised an eyebrow, a little surprised.

Hiyori Shiina, standing at his side, nodded as if they were telepathically linked.

"According to the current scans, if you convert the strongest ones here into the Black Sphere system's ratings, none of them top three hundred points. Ort is nearly four hundred, so they fall well short."

The girl closed her book slightly, deep in thought.

"But I think the reason the Tengong Society member is staying here…"

"…is still because this is a hybrid world fused from thirteen worlds."

"After all, he's stayed in a world invaded by outer-cosmos pioneers before. A fusion that affects whole worlds probably draws even more of his attention, right?"

"So it's all tied to concepts that affect worlds, huh…"

Chris thought it over and didn't dig into the Tengong Society's research details.

He turned his head. His senses caught a sour, rotten stench drifting in from somewhere nearby, the kind that belonged to insects.

He switched topics.

"Since the Wrath God, with all those special abilities, is around here, I won't use the [Enma Blade] to open a spatial passage straight there. No need to invite extra trouble."

"Hiyori, help me plan a route. See if we can find some natural-enemy robots from the The Mecha Ordinance along the way."

"We won't really have a use for them, but those robots can evolve on their own through battle. Bringing a few back might help that Ryuuen guy."

"No problem. Leave the guiding to me."

Hiyori ran her fingertips over the pages of Rasiel and soon mapped out an optimal route.

"While we're at it, we can also pick up some Soul Refiners from the The Cursed Lands along the way."

"As that realm's natural enemy, a Soul Refiner can forcibly drain life and soul energy and convert it into power for attack or healing…"

"If we bring one back as an item, whether we use it or analyze it, it might come in handy against certain concept-type enemies in future exam rooms."

"Worth a try."

Chris tilted his chin, noncommittal. Then he raised a hand and pushed the Ki in his body out through his skin, forming a translucent barrier that looked almost solid. It had the visual flare of a full Ki power-up.

He reached out and drew the girl a little closer.

"Stay close."

"The air here is full of tiny parasite spores, too small to see. Don't let one get you."

"Mm…"

Hiyori answered softly.

As the master of Rasiel, she had a nearly omniscient view of her surroundings. Of course she knew exactly what was in the air.

She also knew full well that, until they successfully latched onto a host, these parasites were hardly formidable natural enemies. At most they were hard to guard against, and with proper precautions in place, she'd have trouble getting infected anyway.

So on a normal day, the reserved girl would never have been bold enough to dart over to Chris in a panic and ask for his protection.

But today was different!

This was Chris reaching out on his own, worrying about her on his own!

So she was absolutely not afraid of bugs!

Right, she was just repaying Chris's thoughtfulness. That was all. Exactly that.

The girl argued herself into believing it with perfect conviction.

Then she leaned slightly into the pull of his arm and rested her burning cheek against his shoulder.

Chris naturally felt how stiff her back had gone. He chuckled and didn't call her out.

"Hold on tight."

He spoke in a low voice.

The next second, Chris leapt straight into the sky.

Hiyori finally recovered from the sudden weightlessness and raised a hand to point out a direction. Only then did Chris cut loose and race toward the spot she'd indicated.

The thing was, the world they stood in had been stitched together from a full thirteen worlds. Its planet was several times larger than an ordinary Earth, and then some.

To shorten the trip, Chris pushed his speed up a little. At the same time, he carefully wrapped Hiyori in his Ki, simulating something like Superman's bio-force field.

Flying faster than light was fine for Chris himself. But accelerating to that speed in so short a time produced hundreds of millions of Gs.

Even though Hiyori had become the Second Spirit now, the original owner, Nia Honjou, had a pitiful combat profile outside her special abilities. Forcing her body to endure that kind of acceleration would very likely make her feel sick.

As the veteran driver giving her a free ride, Chris was taking responsibility for little Hiyori.

It was fast.

Practically the blink of an ordinary person's eye.

Chris had already crossed nearly half the planet and arrived outside the hidden camp of the Tengong Society members.

On the way, he'd also bundled up the The Mecha Ordinance robots and scattered Soul Refiners Hiyori had mentioned and stashed them all in the [Mountains and Rivers Map] space.

"That speed… it's so fast."

"I didn't see what happened at all!"

When Chris stopped, Hiyori pulled out of his arms on her own.

But her subconscious hadn't adjusted to the shift from motion to stillness. Her calves went weak, and she stumbled.

Chris was quick. He steadied her arm and explained gently.

"That speed is about my limit without relying on items."

"I rarely use it since there's usually no need… This time it was to save travel time and avoid any accidents with natural enemies in the air."

Leaning on his support, Hiyori steadied herself and let out a soft breath.

With her free hand, she carefully tidied the blue strands of hair the wind had tousled around her ear.

Then she looked up at Chris again, trying to look as composed as she could.

"Did we get everything we needed to pick up on the way?"

Chris smiled and nodded, then lifted his chin to look into the distance.

In the light of dawn, a colossal tree stood silent between heaven and earth, reaching straight to the sky and giving off a dazzling glow.

"That must be the World Tree," Chris said, narrowing his eyes. "It looks a lot more respectable than the Dread Emperor's avatar back in the Skull Knight world."

Hiyori didn't answer right away.

After a short rest, she'd dutifully put her hand on Rasiel.

But before she could finish reading the information and warn him, something happened.

As if he'd sensed it ahead of time, Chris turned around.

A group of bare-chested, burly men stood there, holding dark black Soul Refiners and aiming the muzzles at them.

Every one of them looked tense. The man in front was braced like he faced a mortal enemy.

"Are you humans?"

Seeing that one of them was missing an arm, Chris saw no reason to be coy and answered directly.

"I am human, but not from your world."

"At least in the world I know, there are no trees that ridiculously huge."

The leader frowned at that.

He glanced at the World Tree behind Chris, but he didn't relax. If anything, he grew more nervous.

"Normal people who lay eyes on that World Tree fall into a coma, like something's been sucked out of them."

"And you two are just standing there like it's nothing…"

"We did see it at first glance, in fact," Hiyori explained calmly.

"Then how did you get past our protective magic and find our village?!"

Beside him, another hero with a haggard face gripped his Soul Refiner even harder, as if ready to fire at any moment.

Chris sighed at the tension.

"You really think that if we'd wanted to do something to you, with the strength to appear out of thin air here…"

"…a few Soul Refiners in your hands would work on us?"

Hiyori worried that Chris's blunt mockery would make them fire in a panic. It wouldn't hurt her and Chris, but a pointless misunderstanding was still a bad idea.

She shook her head helplessly, stepped forward, and spoke in a gentle voice.

"Please don't be nervous. We mean no harm."

"We came to find a member of the Tengong Society. The gentleman with a green hourglass emblem on his chest, Dr. Tian Mark."

To keep them from misunderstanding, she opened Rasiel and used spiritual power to project an image of a "Gravattack" bearing the Tengong Society emblem in midair.

They saw the image appear from nothing, with that familiar green hourglass on it. The men exchanged glances, and much of their hostility faded.

In the end, the leader, Jiewu, lowered his gun first.

He stared at Chris and Hiyori in shock.

"You said you're not from this world… and you know Mr. Mark…"

"Could you be survivors from the Backrooms?!"

Chris raised an eyebrow and regarded him with interest.

"The Backrooms? Sounds like you know quite a bit."

Jiewu shook his head bitterly and explained in a dejected voice.

"Not really. I only know a little."

"Just scraps I've pieced together from Mr. Mark's occasional muttering."

"Wait here a moment. I'll go to the village and ask Mr. Mark whether he's willing to come out and see you."

Chris waved it off. He didn't mind.

He turned and looked at the young man who'd been standing guard with Jiewu and was now turning to run back to the village with the news. That was Hallow.

His gaze lingered a moment on the missing arm.

"You're a lot stronger than the ordinary refugees around here. Are you from the Wandering Prison Realm?"

"…"

Hallow stopped in his tracks, gave a wry smile, and shook his head.

"I'm not from the Wandering Prison Realm. I'm one of the forty-seven heroes who fought the demon race on humanity's behalf, from the Sorcerion."

"My name is Hallow. The man who just left is Jiewu. Like me, he's one of the last few heroes left in the human camp since these thirteen worlds fused."

Hallow looked at Chris, hope for the unknown in his eyes.

"By the way… may I be rude and ask what things are like over there in the Backrooms now?"

"Outside our thirteen worlds, is there any living space where humans can truly catch their breath?"

Chris pressed his lips together and looked meaningfully at the battered hero.

"Living space, huh…"

"There are a few worlds without monsters, or relatively stable world strata, that you could call peaceful, I suppose."

"But once the Backrooms parasitizes and binds a world, none of them escape the same end: drained of every nutrient and wiped out completely."

Chris said it plainly and cruelly.

"Frankly, the fact that we could reach your world through the Backrooms today isn't good news for you."

"It means the Backrooms' tentacles have already reached this world."

Hallow fell silent for a long while.

His clenched fist tightened. Then he scratched the back of his head and spoke wearily.

"Is that so… I don't know yet whether that's good news or bad."

"But even without the Backrooms, with the natural enemies of thirteen worlds out there that we can't beat, we can hardly see any hope of surviving…"

Hallow hadn't finished speaking.

Jiewu came striding back.

In front of Jiewu walked a rough-looking giant whose body was covered in crimson rock armor, with scorching magma faintly flowing through a ring on his belly.

Hallow shut his mouth at once and nodded respectfully.

"Dr. Mark, you've come."

Tian Mark, or rather the Gravattack wearing the name of Tian Mark, raised a hand to wave off the formalities.

Then he scratched his head and looked at Chris and Hiyori.

"You came looking for me, and from the Backrooms, no less…"

"What for?"

Chris didn't waste words. He lifted his wrist and showed off the Black Sphere Watch.

"We come from a world chosen by the presiding god."

"We came because we caught traces of you in a Backrooms world with a Chrysanthemum Opener."

"So we wanted to see whether we could use that to establish a formal connection with the Tengong Society."

Hiyori chimed in at the right moment, keeping her posture humble.

"During the earlier Black Sphere exams, we met members of the Tengong Society only twice, and only briefly."

"After that, the Mysterious Merchant duties basically fell to Miss Oriana. She's happy to chat and be friends with us, but she knows very little about the presiding god or the Tengong Society…"

Tian Mark listened quietly, stroking his chin as he thought.

"…I see."

"So this round's advancement candidate is the little one they chose," he murmured.

"Wait… this round?"

Hiyori sharply caught the key detail in the Gravattack's words.

Tian Mark came back to himself, saw the girl's shocked expression, and answered with some amusement.

"Naturally."

"You didn't really think you were the first, or the only, lucky ones Gantz chose, did you?"

"There's no way!"

"…"

She'd half expected it, but the reality still made Hiyori's heart skip a beat.

Chris pressed his lips together at the right moment.

He put on a grave look and asked outright.

"In that case… how are the people the presiding god's Black Sphere chose before us doing now?"

Tian Mark had no intention of being coy either.

Or rather, as a puppet Chris himself had woven, he was merely faithfully acting out the script Chris had given him.

"Hmm… how should I put it."

Tian Mark paused, acting troubled, as if figuring out how to say it without breaking any taboo.

"Some failed to get through a stage exam and perished completely. Some worlds pulled through the hardship and were reborn."

"The final exam…"

Hiyori murmured the words, then looked up at Tian Mark, her small face full of unease.

"This 'final exam' Dr. Mark mentions… couldn't it be the end-of-term exam?"

Chris cooperated by furrowing his brow and joining in, looking thoroughly puzzled.

"After the midterm, the difficulty of our exams really did shoot up fast…"

"And only a week or two later, the presiding god suddenly announced a two-week pause in regular exams so we could prepare."

"Then comes the final… Could this final really be the last exam?"

"But there's still at least half a year until the 'real world destruction' the Black Sphere warned us about, isn't there? Isn't this too soon?"

Tian Mark shook his head and gave an equivocal answer.

"That I don't know. Each time the presiding god starts a cycle, the training method it chooses is different."

"But overall, you can set your minds at ease."

"The presiding god may be a bit cruel, but it doesn't exist to harm you."

"Otherwise you wouldn't even have the chance to stand here and meet me."

Tian Mark pointed to the Controller on Chris's wrist.

"If I'm not mistaken, you found your way here with the Controller's power too."

Chris and Hiyori exchanged a glance on instinct.

After a brief silence, Chris nodded and answered, keeping Rasiel's existence under wraps.

"That's right."

"Actually, besides establishing a connection, we'd like to ask you about something."

Chris sounded sincere.

"We spent S Points to learn from the Black Sphere that to truly save our world from the Backrooms' erosion, we first have to separate our world from the Backrooms concept, then repair the world barrier completely."

"I have a bit of a lead on separating the world from the Backrooms…"

"But how do we repair a broken world until it's good as new?"

Tian Mark crossed his arms and shook his head firmly.

"That's core content."

"Judging by the strength and mental state you've shown, you must have no shortage of S Points."

"Honestly, you could just wait until you're back in the Presiding God's Space and spend points to ask for the solution. There's no need to come all this way and ask me as a special case."

"You can't simply tell us?"

Hiyori tilted her cheek slightly, looking at Tian Mark with just the right amount of disappointment.

"I thought the Tengong Society and the presiding god were equal partners, and that you weren't actually bound by the presiding god's rules all that much…"

Tian Mark glanced at the seemingly delicate bookish girl and smiled without answering.

"Little lady, there's no need to try that cheap provocation on me."

"I don't think it's some absolute taboo that can't be spoken. But as you said, we really are equal partners with the presiding god."

"Even if, in the Tengong Society's eyes, the presiding god's selection methods are a bit harsh, it isn't an evil character at heart."

"Out of the tacit understanding between partners, I naturally won't casually violate the trial procedures it has set for you," Tian Mark said gravely.

"A trial, huh…"

Something complicated flickered through Hiyori's eyes.

"That is what the presiding god told us when it first descended."

"But if it's a trial, then failure is possible."

"If we fail the final exam… does that mean we and our world will be thoroughly abandoned?"

Tian Mark looked at her and asked in return, meaningfully.

"Why would you think so negatively?"

"Think about it. At bottom, if Gantz hadn't chosen you in the first place and given you the power to fight monsters… how would your world be any different from the countless ordinary worlds in the Backrooms that can only wait passively to be devoured?"

"You found me, which means you've spent no short time in the Backrooms and seen real despair."

"I'm sure you understand that much."

Hiyori was left speechless.

If she was honest, he was right.

Without the Black Sphere, her world might have fallen apart at the first Decepticon or Jikku invasion.

Chris, on the other hand, seemed to catch on to something in those words and immediately pressed Tian Mark.

"In that case, Dr. Mark…"

"Your Tengong Society, as an organization that keeps the peace across the multiverse, doesn't really interfere much with the afflicted worlds the Backrooms has chosen, does it?"

"No wonder…" Hiyori picked up the thread at once, thoughtful. "No wonder that in several worlds we found traces of your passing, Dr. Mark, yet never saw you make any big changes to those worlds."

Tian Mark smiled.

He met the faintly worried, hopeful gazes of the surviving humans beside him, Hallow, Jiewu and the rest.

He explained frankly.

"If a world is born with a flaw that means no amount of effort can get it through the disaster, then the Tengong Society is willing to lend a hand at that point, offering technology or armed protection."

"Beyond that, we don't intend to interfere much."

"After all, there has never been a savior who falls from the sky."

Tian Mark swept his gaze over everyone, his voice ringing. "Nobody can solve your survival problems for you forever. Nobody but yourselves."

So that was it…

The worlds that failed to get through, that didn't show enough will.

Did they simply get absorbed and assimilated by the Backrooms, like the previous world?

Hiyori sorted it out briefly in her head and quickly understood the logic behind those earlier worlds where the Gravattack had left footprints.

As Tian Mark said, without outside intervention, those worlds wouldn't even have had the right to struggle.

The Tengong Society's and the presiding god's non-interference looked cold-blooded.

But in truth, that was just talk. Their very appearance gave those worlds, set on a path of inevitable, hopeless destruction, a chance to solve their problem.

Still, for girls like Nanase Tsubasa and Ichinose, whose hearts leaned toward truth, goodness and beauty…

This law of "survival of the fittest," practically like raising venomous insects in a jar, probably felt far too realistic and cold.

Hiyori pressed her lips together.

In the distance, Hallow and Jiewu had been quietly listening to Tian Mark's lesson. The gloom on their faces had vanished completely, replaced by joy.

"I never thought we really had hope of winning on our own!?"

Jiewu's eyes gleamed.

Hallow clenched his one remaining fist in excitement.

He stared at Tian Mark with burning eyes. "Maybe… you're right, Doctor! We humans really do have the ability to reclaim our right to truly stand up in this world surrounded by enemies!"

Tian Mark looked back at the two fired-up heroes.

Then he poured cold water on them, very much out of place.

"I'd love to praise your optimism."

"But given that your world is currently facing the natural enemies of thirteen worlds, even with my guidance and the combined forces of humans from every realm…"

"To win humanity even a sliver of a chance against those natural enemies, thirty years is still too short."

"That's… true."

The flame that had just flared in Hallow was pressed halfway down.

He sighed, his face full of worry.

"The humans who survived have mostly been scattered by the natural enemies, dragging out their lives in all kinds of corners. We've lost contact with one another."

"Even if we wanted to spread the 'Magnetic Field Rotation' technique you taught us to build up a force of real scale, it would be extremely difficult."

"And with the world-shattering power you casually demonstrated earlier, Doctor… the moment we show signs of mass cultivation early on, carrying treasure could get us killed."

"Those natural enemies will definitely set aside their quarrels and wipe us out first."

Hiyori listened.

She thought it over briefly in her heart.

Then she took the initiative and cut into the conversation with a proposal.

"If it's only a matter of clearing out natural enemies…"

"As the presiding god's examinees, we get our scores for leveling up by hunting hostile monsters in the first place."

"If you don't mind, we could bring people over to help."

Chris watched the girl, who looked perfectly serious and had even started volunteering for the job.

As if by telepathy, he followed her lead and turned to Tian Mark.

"Dr. Mark, we're sufferers of the Backrooms crisis as well."

"If we step in to help clear the natural enemies, that wouldn't violate the Tengong Society's principle of non-interference in internal affairs, would it?"

"And if we solve the current natural enemy problem, could you use Tengong Society technology to return this fused world to normal?"

Tian Mark scratched his head, looking troubled, like a man asked about something outside his knowledge.

But he didn't dwell on it long.

He soon looked up at Chris and answered heartily.

"That's a good question, I must say."

"To tell the truth, I've never been through anything like this before."

"But there's a first time for everything. Like your first physics experiment."

"I can agree to your request."

Tian Mark's tone turned serious again.

"But before you make a move, I have to set one restriction on you."

"Otherwise, with the items you carry, if you simply crush every method with brute force…"

"…that wouldn't really count as salvation for the humans left in this world."

"Of course…"

Tian Mark laughed heartily, the magma in his belly beginning to churn.

"As a reward for being willing to help humans of other worlds, I'll make an exception and give you a copy of the seed of [Magnetic Field Rotation] that I taught Hallow and the others."

"This seed is special. As soon as someone successfully learns it and awakens the power, it resonates and infects the talented people around them, letting them learn Magnetic Field Rotation too."

"It's a wonderful thing that lets everyone evolve!"

As he spoke, Tian Mark flicked a finger and sent a blue seed, crackling with fine electric arcs, flying precisely in front of Chris.

Then he clasped his hands behind his back, turned, and strode off toward the human village.

"So he just advanced us the mission reward?"

Hiyori held Rasiel in both hands and watched Tian Mark's back, delighted.

Chris caught the seed, which still pulsed with electric arcs.

"Doesn't it seem like the Doctor forgot to tell us the restriction?"

He raised an eyebrow. Hallow and Jiewu were walking over from not far away, clearly wanting to say something in thanks.

Chris raised a hand to stop them.

"Chatting and thanks can wait."

"Since we've taken the job, I need to go call my companions and talk it over."

"Otherwise, with just the two of us, going up against the natural enemies of thirteen worlds really isn't a good idea."

"…Understood."

Jiewu's mouth fell open.

He watched Chris lift a scroll radiating an ancient aura out of thin air.

Then.

In a shifting play of light, Chris and Hiyori vanished before their eyes.

After a long while, Jiewu finally stammered out a reply.

"Please… be careful."

…

Meanwhile.

Inside the [Mountains and Rivers Map].

Chris's and Hiyori's figures had barely solidified.

Arisu Sakayanagi, who had been watching everything outside unfold through the projected sky screen above the courtyard, was already gliding toward them.

"While the Tengong Society fellow can't see us."

With a smile on her lips, Arisu Sakayanagi naturally held out the [Item Illustrated Guide].

"Why don't we take a look first at how much the reward that generous Dr. Mark advanced us is actually worth~"

Seeing Arisu Sakayanagi's eager little money-grubber act, Chris couldn't help laughing.

He didn't refuse. He took the guide and scanned the seed in his palm.

"Ding—"

[Magnetic Field Rotation Seed]

[Origin: From the Sea Tiger world. A special seed whose source was extracted by Tengong Society's Dr. Tian Mark and gene-programmed.]

[Details: Generates a powerful biological magnetic field through high-speed friction between cells. Power level is measured in "volts" as the base unit. When cell friction produces high-voltage electricity, the user can use it to interfere with gravity, alter the atomic structure of matter, touch the soul, and even foresee and twist fate. The lower limit lets you tear apart a modern main battle tank with your bare hands. The upper limit can create a miniature universe or even destroy the entire universe.]

[Ability performance tiers:]

[100,000 horsepower: Can shatter large city clusters over a wide area and trigger local natural disasters;]

[250,000 horsepower: Cells can reassemble at extreme speed, granting terrifying regeneration that nearly makes severed limbs a non-issue;]

[…]

[970,000 horsepower: Power to easily shatter a medium-sized planet. The body can ignore a star's heat, surviving deep in a stellar core while absorbing energy to train; mindset determines the limit;]

[1,000,000 horsepower: A full-power strike can crush a gas giant. Under specific conditions, can briefly rewrite a local timeline and reverse cause and effect…]

[Trillion level (?): Cannot be reached by ordinary living beings. Requires breaking through the limits of the species concept.]

"The upper limit is that high?!"

After reading the ability description, even the usually calm Suzune Horikita couldn't help sucking in a breath and clicking her tongue.

"That's not just high…"

Yotsuya Miko and Hayasaka Ai exchanged looks.

Is this really a power a human can master?!

Yotsuya Miko swallowed and muttered under her breath.

"Doesn't it feel like… if you train this to the late stages, it's way stronger than our Ki?"

But while the other girls were purely stunned by this absolute power, Amasawa Ichika, standing to one side, was more interested in a different blind spot.

The red-haired girl's eyes glimmered. She walked up to Chris with light steps.

Amasawa Ichika looked down at the seed in his palm and spoke meaningfully.

"Hey~ Senpai."

"When you got the Ki techniques from the Dragon Ball (Earth) world, you taught yourself, as easy as eating and drinking, and reached the entry level overnight…"

"So Amasawa is really curious."

Amasawa Ichika rose onto her tiptoes and breathed softly by Chris's ear.

"With your talent, Senpai."

"How long would it take you to train this seed to the 'one million horsepower' realm, or even the legendary trillion level…?"