Chapter 224: Special Reward (Patreon)

White light burst before his eyes, then receded like a tide.

Shido Makoto sucked in a sharp breath. His lungs stung as if they'd been scorched.

He found himself standing in the middle of his apartment's living room, wearing the casual clothes he'd had on before entering the dungeon. The faint chill of a Tokyo night made him shiver, and he could still smell the oden from the convenience store downstairs.

He looked down at his hands. They were clean, without a trace of blood.

He closed his eyes. The last image in his mind was the Principal's twisted face breaking apart.

It was over.

Bzzt—

The black phone in his pocket began to vibrate, cutting off his thoughts.

Makoto pulled it out.

[Dungeon: "Private Qingteng High School" (Full Moon-class) cleared]

[Survivors confirmed: Fang Si, Lin, Tabby.]

[Task evaluation in progress…]

[Rating: S]

[Calculating rewards…]

S rating?

Makoto's pupils contracted slightly.

He'd expected a high rating, since almost all the key information in this dungeon had been found by him. Even so, an S rating exceeded his expectations.

Then came the rewards.

An indescribable surge of heat rushed from his heart through his limbs and every bone. Makoto grunted. Every bone, every muscle, even every single cell felt like it was being torn apart and reassembled by some savage force. It felt like the bone-cleansing transformation in a cultivation novel.

His body, already far beyond that of an ordinary person, was now charging madly toward something inhuman.

A few seconds later, the transformation was complete.

Makoto slowly raised his right hand and clenched his fist.

Crack, crack, crack…

He had a strong premonition that if he wanted to, he could punch straight through the wall in front of him with this one blow. Pure power brought an absolute sense of security.

Then came the most important item, the second reward. The black phone promptly displayed its details.

[Special Resistance acquired.]

[Description: You possess extremely high immunity against all rule-based anomalies. Any certain-death rule imposed on you by an Anomalous Entity of a lower life level than yours will struggle to take effect.]

Now that was impressive.

Makoto's eyes lit up. It meant that in most future dungeons, he would no longer have to agonize over those damn rules the way he had this time. Unless he ran into an overwhelming existence, he could practically swagger through them. This was a true life-saving ability.

Still, he shouldn't get ahead of himself. The text said "lower than his life level." After thinking it over, Makoto figured that probably meant New Moon-class entities, or at most Waning Moon-class. Full Moon-class was unlikely.

But it was still very good.

On top of that, the threshold of his mental power had broken through as well. All in all, this dungeon had been a bountiful haul.

Feeling the explosive power surging inside him and the unprecedented clarity in his mind, Makoto let out a long breath.

He swiped open the black phone's contacts and found the encrypted special number. The label read: Lin Yan (Special Affairs Bureau).

He dialed it directly.

It rang three times before the call was picked up.

"Mr. Shikata?" Lin Yan's usual calm, steady voice came from the other end.

"It's me."

"I just came out of a Full Moon-class dungeon. I survived."

Silence stretched for about five seconds before Lin Yan's voice came again. "Full Moon-class? Are you sure?"

"I have the complete clear walkthrough. I want to sell this core intel."

In the end, they settled on a price of 15 million yen. He also sold the earlier Sunshine Sanatorium dungeon information in the same deal, for a total of 30 million yen.

The deal was done. Within a minute, Makoto's phone received a text from the bank.

He started planning. Tomorrow he'd take Sora to the best private doctor in all of Tokyo and have her body examined inside and out with the most advanced equipment, finally resolving the hidden danger that had weighed on his heart for so long.

Just then, the phone received another message. He opened it and saw it was from Yukino.

"Can you come to Chiba this weekend?"

Was something wrong?

With that thought, Makoto replied:

"Sure."

…

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Makoto walked into Sora's room. Without a moment's hesitation, he reached out and shook his sleeping sister.

"Sora, get up."

Sora wriggled under the covers, let out a discontented murmur, and rolled over, turning the back of her head to him.

"Five minutes."

"Now," Makoto said, leaving no room for negotiation. "I'm taking you somewhere today."

Sora finally poked her head out reluctantly, her long silver hair a tangled mess and her eyes still heavy with sleep. She studied Makoto, as if trying to judge how serious he was. Then she pursed her lips and slowly sat up.

"Where?"

"The hospital."

An hour later, a taxi stopped in front of a private hospital in Minato Ward.

There was none of the noise and crowding of a public hospital. The marble floor gleamed like a mirror, and the well-dressed nurses wore professional, gentle smiles. Sora followed behind Makoto, tugging uneasily at the hem of her shirt. She had only ever seen places like this on TV.

Makoto walked straight to the VIP reception desk.

"Hello. I'd like a comprehensive physical for my sister, with every available test. I also need to book your best conditioning specialist to draw up a long-term recovery plan."

The nurse at the desk froze for a moment, sizing up the young man in ordinary casual clothes.

"Sir, the fee for our comprehensive checkup package is…"

"Money isn't a problem, as long as the plan works." Makoto cut her off, pulled a bank card from his pocket, and placed it directly on the counter.

The nurse's professional smile stiffened for an instant, then turned even warmer. She immediately picked up the phone and began contacting the heads of various departments.

For the next several hours, Sora felt like a marionette, led by Makoto from one machine to the next. Blood draws, CT, MRI… She looked at the staggering numbers on the bills and none of it felt real.

What felt even less real was the person beside her. Makoto said nothing the whole time, only checking after each test whether she felt unwell.

Sora held a freshly printed fee slip, and the number on it made her dizzy. She glanced quietly at Makoto and watched him sign another form without hesitating.

This man was her brother. The brother who had worked three jobs by himself to scrape together her medical bills, so exhausted he could fall asleep on the train. The brother who, after every meal, put the last piece of meat from his own bowl into hers.

A wave of wild joy surged up from the depths of Sora's heart. It quickly turned into an even more obsessive possessiveness.

Makoto was hers. His money, his person, everything of his could only belong to her.

The results came back quickly. The white-haired attending Doctor, an authority in the field of cardiopulmonary conditioning, pushed up his glasses and looked at the report in his hand.

"Put simply, Miss Kasugano was born with a weak constitution, and a lack of proper nutrition and environment afterward has left the function of all her organs at a fairly low level."

Makoto listened quietly.

The Doctor raised his head and looked at Makoto, his tone turning optimistic. "But the good news is that she's young and her body's capacity for self-repair is strong. As long as the funding continues, with the best medication, the most scientific nutrition plan, and our physical therapy…"

"I'm ninety percent confident that within a year, I can restore her body to the health of a normal person, or even better."

"How much will it cost?" Makoto asked bluntly.

The Doctor was frank. "On a one-year timeline, a rough initial estimate is about ten million yen more."

Makoto nodded. "No problem."

Stepping out of the consulting room, Sora was still lost in the Doctor's promise of a "complete cure." She followed behind Makoto, watching his broad back, feeling as if she were in a dream.

She tilted her head back to look up at him. Suddenly she understood something.

Makoto looked into her eyes and said, "From today on, we don't have to worry about money anymore."

He would use the rules of the hidden world to leverage wealth and power in the real one.

To celebrate, Makoto took Sora to a high-end restaurant in Ginza. It sat on the top floor of a skyscraper, and beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows spread the glittering night view of all Tokyo. A graceful piano melody drifted through the air, and waiters in tailcoats moved about quietly.

Makoto carried himself with effortless ease.

Sora watched him and felt oddly like he was a stranger. It washed away the image in her memory of the brother in a cheap T-shirt who always smelled of cooking oil. The sense of poverty that had once been etched into their very bones was being peeled away, bit by bit.

As she cut into the expensive wagyu on her plate, she wondered who all these changes in Makoto were really for.

Were they for her?

Or was there some other reason?

Sora stopped moving, looked up, and smiled.

"Makoto, do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

…