Danrito, become a consultant for the Millennium Game!

"It's probably been a long time. The captain is the same, the princess is the same, and the other students of Arius are the same. They have been educated in the concept of nothingness and have become accustomed to it."

"Suffering is inevitable, so any resistance is futile. This is what Madam always mentions when she lectures us."

Since we are born to bear pain and will never be saved, then just do evil.

"Everything is nothing...but even so, we cannot give up the fight."

Zi lowered his head: "So, if I can change this situation, I will do whatever it takes."

It was already late at night when he returned to the dormitory. He closed the door quietly, making no sound.

"Everyone's already asleep."

To prevent the "traitors" who had been infiltrated into the cram school from causing further trouble within Trinity, the four members of the cram school were restricted to this small area. This meant that, despite their intense cram school life, they had always lived in the same dormitory—although using game cartridges to attend cram school wasn't exactly intense.

Azusa reached into his pocket, where he found the cassette tape he'd received from Danrito, which he kept close to his body. Touching the tape's hard surface, Azusa's expression grew more resolute. He'd experienced many unexpected events today, and his emotions hadn't yet fully settled.

"I can't sleep...."

Even though it was time to go to bed, Zi's heart had not yet completely calmed down. She had obtained the cassette, met with the captain, and participated in the deployment of the Holy Trinity. All these things were like waves, one after another, making her have no intention of sleeping at all.

"Let's go sit on the rooftop."

The rooftop of the dormitory building had previously been used for a hot pot party, making it a perfect spot for viewing the moon. It was also a quiet spot, as it was a secluded area, and the other three students from the cram school had already fallen asleep, leaving Zi alone for some time.

Compared to the bustling crowds of the day, the Holy Trinity at night possessed a sense of tranquility and mystery. Zi silently admired the peaceful Holy Trinity for a moment before pulling the cassette from his pocket.

"start up."

Pressing the button on the cartridge, the familiar game field unfolded around Azusa, and the desert platform shrouded in night appeared in front of Azusa.

"Has it become night here too?"

Zi looked at the surrounding scenery curiously. When he played the previous "Mystery of the Sphinx" cassettes, they always showed a clear desert under the sun. This kind of desert scenery at night was the first time he had seen it.

"Azusa-kun, it's already late, aren't you planning on going to bed yet?"

A familiar voice came from behind her. The familiar source of collapse in the cassette was standing behind her, still a ball of amorphous light as always.

"A lot of things happened today, so I couldn't sleep."

Zi looked towards the ball of white light, a gentle expression on her face. How could she not be familiar with this 'NPC' who had been helping her learn from the very beginning?

Bai Guang shook himself, and said with a rare hint of mischief: "Are you thinking about me?"

"Yeah, that's part of it." Zi nodded in agreement. The white light in front of him stopped shaking, and he actually looked a little shy.

"But, have you always been this white light?"

Zi's ​​gaze rested on the Collapse Source in front of him: "Come to think of it, I didn't even know your name from the very beginning. Even though we've been together for such a long time, the impression I have of you most is your current appearance. I've never even heard you mention your name."

"Because it's not necessary, right?"

The Collapse Source flickered its light. "Just like the function of this cartridge, it's just a teaching cartridge used to help you with your lessons, and I'm just an NPC managing the cartridge's functions. I don't even need to appear in the game screen like this. I just need to handle various functions like an intelligent system."

"It's only because the intelligent management of cassettes requires a super artificial intelligence that I came into being. I don't need an image or a name."

242. The Questioner Facing Fate

What the Collapse Body said is indeed true. It does not need an accurate image, it just needs to function normally.

"But what should I call you?"

Zi walked closer to the Collapse Source and looked at the ball of white light: "I think it would be better to have a name to call you."

"Why are you so obsessed with my name?"

"This way, I can remember your name, who has helped me so much."

"...Is that so? I really can't help you. So, come up with one now, please?"

The voice of the Collapse Body laughed. "Since the cassette tape of my existence is 'Mystery of the Sphinx', why not call me 'Fin'?"

"As for the image... I actually have a pretty good idea of ​​what's going on out there," said the Collapse Source, now renamed 'Fen'. "I picked out the ones I liked from among the students and blended them together a bit, like this..."

The ball of white light stretched out in front of Zi, becoming a full-sized man, then gradually took on a humanoid shape. His shoulder-length black hair fell straight down, with neatly cut black bangs across his forehead. He wore a neatly trimmed Trinity uniform, seemingly copied from Zi across from him, but all insignias, Trinity and otherwise, had been erased.

Under the black and white long-sleeved jacket is a simple black dress with a high waist and sleeveless shape. Further down are the thirsty... oh no, enviable black silk calves, wearing student shoes with bows.

He was half a head taller than Azusa, and his figure was well-shaped. He wasn't as big as a melon like Amy from a certain millennium, but he wasn't flat either. He had a mature aura, which was consistent with his role as a teacher of these students.

"How is it? Will it be inappropriate?"

Fin, the Collapse Body, was a bit nervous, yet also a bit expectant, looking towards Zi in front of him, awaiting Zi's comments. "This should be consistent with Kivotos's image, right? There shouldn't be anything unreasonable about it, right?"

"Breasts! Too big!"

"Eh?"

Zi's ​​eyes shifted into a look of serious scrutiny. Pointing at Fen before him, he analyzed carefully, "Such a large, useless piece of fat will definitely affect your agility in combat! When running, the swaying flesh will also affect your posture, creating wind resistance in front of you, and hindering certain movements! The smaller it is, the better!"

"Um... I'm actually a shattering entity... This kind of thing has no effect on me..."

"No, it needs major changes!"

After calming Azusa, who had suddenly gone berserk for unknown reasons, the two of them sat down under the starry sky in the game realm. While the real desert nights certainly wouldn't be this warm, that wasn't something to worry about in the game.

Under the clear starry sky, Azusa whispered, "Mr. Danrito gave me the tape."

"I know, otherwise you wouldn't be entering the gaming industry on your own at this time." Fen nodded and said, "I suggested this to the president. I hope to be able to help Zi."

Azusa looked at Fen beside him and said, "So...it was because of your request that Mr. Danrito gave the cassette to me for safekeeping?"

"If it were just my request, the president wouldn't have agreed." Fin smiled and shook his head. "I was just created by him to manage the source of this cartridge. Giving this cartridge to you is more about your actions, Zi. Let the president give the cartridge to you."

"So, in other words, Mr. Danrito is actually watching us every day..." Azusa thought of this and suddenly felt a chill, "Not even when we sleep..."

"I don't think the president is that free yet..." Finn scratched her cheek awkwardly. "It seems the president is busy developing a new cartridge lately. It's said to be a big project, so he probably doesn't have time to watch you guys sleep."

"Also, the president left something with me. He guessed that you would definitely enter the gaming field on your own, so he asked me to wait until you come in on your own before taking it out."

Finn seemed to have remembered something. He reached out and fished in the air beside him. He pulled out a familiar object from the game field and handed the toy-like driver to the surprised Zi.

"Player Driver, this is an item that can fully activate the power of the "Sphinx Mystery" cartridge. It is a very precious item."

"Is this... a matching prop?"

Zi stood up, examined the driver in her hand, and following her intuition, placed it around her waist. Belts automatically extended from both sides of the driver, securing it around her waist.

"Mystery of the Sphinx is a game cartridge that improves your academic ability through question-and-answer sessions. If you transform into the power of Kamen Rider, you'll also be able to utilize this special ability to fight."

Finn explained to Zi, "Use the power of 'questions' to strike directly at the soul. The more confused and hesitant a person is, the greater the damage they will suffer from this power. But for those with a strong mind and no doubt, the power of the 'Mystery of the Sphinx' cassette will not be so threatening."

"However, if someone truly possesses this kind of heart, I don't think they would be your enemy, would they?"

Fixing his eyes on the cassette in his hand, Zi raised his head again, stretched out his hand, and held the cassette horizontally.

The moonlight fell on Zi, as if covering her with a hazy white veil, and even the platform under the night sky became brighter. Under Fen's gaze, Zi took a deep breath. She didn't know why she took such a pose, but her intuition made her do it.

"—First question."

Pressing the start button on the cassette, the crystal card end emits a bright light, and an ancient and majestic startup voice sounds:

"Sphinx Riddle!"

She flipped the cassette over, dropped it, and inserted it into the empty slot in the drive. Azusa could feel a flash of orange lightning from the drive at her waist, seemingly trying to cover her body, but she couldn't tell where it was going. Then, the character selection screen flew out from the front of her drive, surrounding her body.

“Gashat!

Let's Game! Metcha Game! Mutcha Game! What's Name! ?

I'm a Kamen Rider!

"Yes, and then, pull the upgrade lever on the belt—and snap it over."

Finn's voice came from her ear, and her hearing, enhanced by the Kamen Rider armor, made it clearer than before. Azusa looked at the pink lever on her waist and stretched out her heavily armored hand to pry it open.

"Second question!"

“Level Up!

What's your destiny?

Questions and Answers of the Soul, What’s the Answer? (心のQuestion, Answerえはなんだ?)”

The warrior standing upright in the moonlight is the questioner facing fate.

243. Danri's fight

“Hmm~~~~ha!”

Using both hands to stretch his body, Danrito, who had been working late into the night, made a sound to soothe his body.

"If that's the case, the project to modify the Chronicle cartridge game will be almost complete. There shouldn't be anything left to modify."

Danrito's body is worthy of being a body of a collapsing body. He can stay up all night without any need to catch up on sleep and can continue to work with full energy, which makes countless workers who stay up late and work overtime to death marvel.

After realizing the direction for improving the Chronicle game cartridges, Danrito plunged into continuous, intense work, constantly adjusting the existing plan. Ultimately, he completely overhauled the original base and created a brand new blank cartridge sample.

"Let's tentatively decide that the first Chronicles game to be produced will be Abydos."

Danrito took out his cell phone and dialed the contact number. After three rings, a familiar voice sounded.

"Mr. Danrito?! You actually contacted me at this time, is there something you need my help with?"

"Yumei, are you free now?" Danrito walked to the French window and looked in the direction of the Abydos School District. "I'm in need of an assistant who can keep up with me. Are you free to take on this position?"

"——Of course it's no problem! Mr. Danrito!" Yumei's voice on the other end of the phone sounded a little excited: "Do you need me to report over now?"

"No hurry, I just need to go to Abydos. Just wait for me there."

He went downstairs, had breakfast in the employee welfare restaurant of his company, and walked out of the company under the gaze of his employees who were already accustomed to it.

Traversing the network, across Kivotos, it was like pressing the M key in a game, opening the map, and then pressing "Abydos" to teleport to that location. When Danrito arrived in Abydos, it was just the beginning of school morning.

"Really? So much sand flies to the school gate every day. If we don't clean it up in time, it will pile up into a small mountain again..."

Serika scooped the windblown sand from the school gate onto a small cart. It was a daily routine, a habit she'd become. But compared to previous accumulations, the amount of sand blowing in from the desert had decreased significantly since they'd dealt with the prophet named Vina.

"But even so, it'll still pile up if we don't clean it up every day." Serika dumped a shovelful of sand into the cart. "It would be nice if we could shrink the desert a little bit... I heard planting trees can prevent wind and sand, but how can you plant trees in a desert without water?... Underneath this sand isn't soil, it's the former Abydos schoolyard."

Another shovel of sand was put into the cart. This sand could not be dumped casually. After the sand at the school gate was almost shoveled away, Qinxiang had to pour the sand in the cart back into the desert.

"It feels like the story of pushing a rock up a mountain..." Serika sighed. "But there's nothing we can do about it... Sand can't be burned in an incinerator, and it's not something that will naturally degrade. If only we could pack all this sand up and launch it into the sun with a rocket."

"Forget about that unrealistic idea. The Abydos Desert is a necessary 'symbol' for you. Losing it wouldn't be a good thing."

Hearing the familiar voice ringing in her ears, Qin Xiang didn't realize who was next to her, and just agreed casually: "Just thinking about it, sweeping sand every day is not a pleasant job. It's just because I have no choice-"

"Huh? Who's talking?"

Serika turned around and saw Danrito leaning against the pillar at the school gate, half a cup of coffee in his hand. He reached out and said hello to Serika, "Hey, have you eaten yet?"

"You're really elusive." Serika put her hands on her hips and looked at Danrito in front of her: "When did you come?"

"I just arrived and had breakfast." Dan Lidou shook the coffee in his hand. "I just finished overtime and I need your help with something from Abydos."

"Help?" Qin Xiang shook her cat ears and asked curiously, "Is there anything we can do?"

"——Mr. Danrito!"

Just as Serika was about to ask for more details, a voice from inside the school made her turn her head. Yumi hurried out of the teaching building, apparently realizing that Danrito had arrived.

"You came really quickly. I didn't think you would come so early."

After smoothing her bangs, which had become a little messy from running, Yumei smiled at Danrito in front of her and said, "Come in quickly, Hoshino-san and the others will be here soon!"

After taking two steps back, Yumei remembered something and turned to Qinxiang and said, "Qinxiang-san, you have to come too!"

Qin Xiang, not quite understanding what was happening, moved her cart to the edge of the desert and dumped the sand before returning. Qin Xiang had been feeling something inexplicable for a while now. Perhaps it was because she was still growing, she felt stronger and more energetic than before.

Once, after staying up late preparing for something at the Abydos Desert Resort, Serika thought she'd doze off the next day due to lack of sleep, but she ended up getting up at her usual bedtime. She only slept for a little over three hours, but she wasn't sleepy at all the next day.

During her regular training sessions, she could feel her strength more clearly, as well as her shooting accuracy and reaction speed. She had thought it was because she had become stronger through training, but she felt that it was not that simple - because she was getting stronger too quickly.

"What on earth is going on..."

Serika returned to school, reflecting on what had happened to her. A lot had changed on campus recently. First, there was the school's expansion. After confronting the prophet named Vina, Abydos had taken advantage of the current situation and asked for help from Wang Xiaotao, whom Danrito had suggested... ah, Xiaotao.

"Isn't it just building a house? It's a piece of cake!"

After Xiaotao from the Millennium Science and Technology Academy came to help, the campus of Abydos expanded to three times its previous size. This was all thanks to Xiaotao's magical cassette called the "King of Cats". They only paid the corresponding materials and obtained various functional buildings.