You are very strong, but my painting style is better than yours!

Then, unsurprisingly, Kubo Hideya awkwardly declined.

"Since no one can offer me the compensation I want, then there's nothing I can do."

Ba Xiu sighed.

"……well?"

Meteora, who had been waiting to be asked, blinked: "Everyone?"

"Then I'll think of other forms of compensation..."

“Wait a minute, sir orc, you seemed to have just said ‘everyone’.”

"what happened?"

"There's one more here!"

Meteora pointed to herself, "Aren't you going to ask me? Although I'd also rather refuse—"

"I've already said it, we orcs will not harm cubs."

Ba Xiu said sternly and solemnly.

"?"

Meteora murmured, "Do I look short...?"

"No, although I don't know much about the human growth process, you should be considered one of the taller cubs."

Bashu pointed to Meteora's flat chest: "I almost thought you were an adult, but it's obvious you're not ready to raise a child yet~"

"..."

"..."

"..."

All the women present fell silent, and Iori, unusually, managed to keep a straight face.

Meteor stretched out his hand and touched his chest. Because of the thick, long fabric, he couldn't feel much, and he couldn't see any obvious curves.

Among the women present, besides Mami, it was indeed her... wait, upon closer inspection... could it be that Mami's curves are more pronounced than hers?

"……well?"

"Okay, it's decided!"

Before anyone could react, Ba Xiu decisively made a decision: "Miss Alice, I will join your side!"

“That’s…that’s great.”

The female knight hesitated for a moment, "Although I invited you first... may I ask why?"

"The honor of a warrior guides me!"

With the straightforwardness of an orc, Ba Xiu loudly proclaimed, "Boobs are justice!"

The bigger side is always right!

This sounds like the choice made by a male protagonist in a shonen manga.

Iori pushed up her glasses, trying hard to control the corners of her mouth that were about to burst open.

Chapter 457 The Collapse Theory of Meteora.

【Ding! 】

[Acceptance +2]

[Presence +2]

……

Two notification sounds rang out in Iori's mind without warning, startling her for a moment. She quickly looked up and glanced at the sky, realizing the reason:

Media helicopters were circling and hovering, clearly having spotted Iori and his group.

'It must have been seen by the general public... Is the method for increasing recognition similar to art style points? Come to think of it, this thing can indeed be used as art style points... however, it's probably related to the special laws of this world.'

Just like the unique power system in "Godkiller", Iori doesn't believe that you can get something like "recognition power" in other worlds.

If that's the case, then he's really lucky; he just happened to stumble upon a parallel world with "special products."

...After the battle ended, Iori and the others left the scene separately to avoid trouble.

The orc hero Bashu dragged his motorized warhorse by the tail, following Alice in a rather strange manner as she left—clearly, the princess would never allow an orc to ride on her back.

After taking off, the Phantom Knight sped away and disappeared from everyone's sight. To fly so ostentatiously on Earth in the 21st century... I hope he has a safe journey.

The remaining few were taken away from the battlefield by Iori using a series of Shunpo (instant step) techniques, easily escaping the surveillance of the media and officials. After changing into civilian clothes, they leisurely walked onto the street and blended into the bustling Shibuya, as inconspicuous as a drop of water in the ocean.

—In a restaurant a few blocks away.

After experiencing this series of mind-blowing events, Matsubara Takashi has become more open-minded and has a sense of acceptance that he can accept whatever happens. He quickly understands the fact that the characters in his work have come out of the story and says that he can help Celestia—he has no other choice.

For some reason, Iori suddenly remembered Mizushino Sota and asked Kubo Ei to contact the high school student, who also came to the restaurant for a gathering to discuss the matter.

"Oh, it's delicious!"

I love this sweet and sour frozen dessert!

The red-haired female swordsman enjoyed the extravagantly styled ice cream desserts while showing a somewhat painful expression, seemingly due to a headache caused by eating too much ice cream.

Girls are all sweet lovers, and this applies even in the world of light novels. Moreover, the place where she originally lived was not exactly peaceful, and the supply of resources was far less abundant than on Earth.

Such freezing temperatures are definitely a luxury for her.

And whether it was psychological or not, she always felt that the cream and fruit here tasted better than those in her hometown...

Meteora, standing to the side, was also savoring her ice cream soda bit by bit with a small spoon, a look of happiness appearing on her usually expressionless face... However, amidst her enjoyment, there seemed to be a trace of worry between her brows.

"Do you have any ideas?"

Iori put down her cup, the iced coffee swirling in it with a faint white steam.

"What should we do next? Should we call the guy who piloted the Gundam back, or go directly to the princess in military uniform?"

"Sigh, is it even possible to find it?"

Ceresia looked up in surprise.

"You can use the Ghost Path."

Iori glanced at Kubo Hide and said with a smile, "Thanks to this manga artist, the skill tree of death... Impermanence is very rich, such as the versatile Kido."

You can think of it as magic with many attributes, one of which is the ability to track enemies along spiritual particle fluctuations.

"Oh, that's so convenient!"

Ceresia was a seasoned warrior, so she didn't rush to attack immediately, but instead shook her head slightly.

"However, the key issue doesn't seem to be who wins or loses. If we can't figure out the princess's purpose, how do we get back, and how do we change our home world—these three questions make it meaningless even if we win."

"Indeed."

Iori's gaze shifted: "Meteora, what do you think?"

"..."

"You are known as the 'Seeker of Ten Thousand Miles,' and in the game's setting, you possess a magic book that can record and interpret all knowledge, making you practically a magical, all-powerful search engine."

Others might not know, but I've noticed you've been studying something with the grimoire, and occasionally fiddling with Kubo's computer—you must have found something, right?

"You have such keen observation skills."

Meteora wasn't surprised, because she had actually been secretly observing Iori as well.

She is the one who has been given the title of "Sage". Although her job is only a librarian, it is well known that librarians are ruthless. What she is outstanding about is not her fighting ability, but her ability to collect and analyze all useful information.

With the help of the spellbook, she can even write spells on the spot, and even when she arrives in another world, she can quickly adapt to the situation and develop new magic.

In just a few days, she has gained a full understanding of the basics of this world, from history, biology, physical laws, political structures, and ideological factions... Iori was not joking when she said she had a "search engine".

However, she didn't tell anyone about her true progress, and her purpose was to guard against Iori!

She was new to the area and was persuaded by the princess in military uniform, but she did not join because she was unwilling to believe others' one-sided accounts before she had enough information.

Correspondingly, she didn't really trust Iori, since Iori never acted like someone who "accidentally ended up here." Every word and action of hers was calm and composed, as if she were fighting on her home turf. Even when confronting the princess in military uniform, she was confrontational.

Iori doesn't have a universal magic book, so such strong adaptability inevitably raises suspicions.

But how to put it...

Reason told her that Iori was likely hiding something and couldn't be completely trusted. But emotionally, after spending these past few days together, she was very unwilling to continue being so wary...

It was like suspecting a friend of decades, which made her feel very uncomfortable and almost made her feel self-loathing!

Let's take this opportunity to completely eliminate this barrier.

"I did gain some insights."

Meteora replied succinctly, "The most important thing I can tell you right now is this: the world is facing a crisis of collapse."

"what?"

Matsubara Takashi and Kubo Hideki, both Earthlings, immediately became excited.

"No way, those lines only appear in comics..."

"Please don't get so excited, we're in a restaurant, it's not good to attract too much attention."

Iori gestured for them to calm down.

"Judging from your reaction, you probably share the same view as me."

Meteora turned and asked, "What does Iori think?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?"

Iori paused, carefully organizing her thoughts before saying, "Everyone is too focused on the princess in her military uniform, to the point that they're blind to many obvious things—"

What do we mean to this world?

"Um...didn't we discuss this issue before? In this world's terms, it's 'paper dolls,' right?"

"That's a more colloquial way of putting it... In reality, we should be 'things that don't exist'."

But people like me, Meteora, and you truly exist here; our bodies and souls are real. In other words, something has appeared out of nowhere in this world.

"This violates the law of conservation..."

"That's what Sota, the high school student, murmured."

"What about physical laws? Haven't you seen magic shows?"

Ceresia didn't care at all and patted Sota on the shoulder, "If we strictly follow the laws of physics, how can a person fly? Of course, we still have to look at the laws of magic!"

“That’s the problem, Ceresia.”

Iori's voice was calm, "Why can magic still be used normally in this world?"

"That's of course... huh?"

Ceresia was suddenly stunned.

Kubo and the other two seemed to realize something and showed surprised expressions.

Meteora continued from where Iori left off: "Using magic requires consuming some kind of energy, right? Although we all come from different worlds, this should be the same."

"Indeed, no matter what kind of technique it is, it always consumes magical energy (spiritual pressure)."

"But this world originally did not have supernatural phenomena such as magic, nor did it have a substance called magic power."

So, the reason we can use our abilities without any obstacles, just like in the original world, is mostly because the world itself has passively undergone some kind of change in order to accept our existence.

"Variety?"

Ceresia seemed lost in thought.

"My grimoire has the function of automatically collecting and analyzing information. From the moment I came into this world, its work of analyzing the laws has already begun... The battles between you and Princess in military uniform and others have released even more information, greatly accelerating the analysis process."

Although it hasn't been fully analyzed yet, based on what we've learned so far...

The fundamental laws of this world have the function of making things as orderly as possible—the compatibility and transformation of 'foreign objects', making them a part of the world.

In other words, it's about making the unreasonable reasonable.