A little over half an hour later.
The bus came to a steady halt once more.
"Pssh—" The pneumatic doors opened.
One by one, the transparent passengers walked to the front of the bus with heavy footsteps and disembarked.
Only four people remained on the bus, completely still—the middle-aged woman had remained unconscious and was dragged off the bus at one of the previous stops, disappearing.
And at that moment, all four of them heard the same notification sound...
[Congratulations, you have met the instance conditions and successfully cleared it. Preparing to enter the settlement space.]
The four of them let out a long sigh of relief.
Fumiya Jin could finally lift his head. He let out a long sigh. "Ah, saved at last."
Yuki Suou gave him an annoyed punch. This guy, he really knew how to play innocent after getting his way.
But then, both Fumiya Jin and Yuki Suou turned to look at Hasaka in unison.
Because at that moment, a large pool of blood had formed at Hasaka's feet... one of her legs was no longer hers.
"Are... are you okay?" Yuki Suou asked, out of a sense of basic human decency.
Hasaka's face was pale, but she remained calm and shook her head. "Since it's about to end, I should be fine. And, thank you again, sir, for killing those things. It made clearing the instance much easier for me."
Her method for clearing the instance wasn't complicated. She had first collected several tickets—besides the purple one she already had, she also took a green, a yellow, and a cyan one.
This was because the instance rules stated that 'a ticket is proof for remaining on the bus.'
But it did not say that 'one must disembark at the corresponding station for the ticket they hold.'
So, she deduced that if she held multiple tickets, she would only have to get off after all the stations corresponding to her tickets had passed.
As it turned out, her gamble paid off.
By holding multiple tickets, she successfully made it to the last stop before the final one, the cyan station.
Then, before reaching the final 'black' station, she 'paid for an extension,' sacrificing one of her lower legs as the price. The payment was successful, upgrading her ticket to black. And thus, she cleared the instance.
However... she was also aware that this path to victory was only possible because Fumiya Jin had first killed that batch of transparent passengers, which provided her with the other tickets to pick up.
That was why she repeatedly expressed her gratitude to Fumiya Jin.
"You're welcome," Fumiya Jin nodded at her, a hint of admiration in his eyes.
For a girl to accomplish this much was truly impressive.
And her disguise as a man was quite convincing...
If she hadn't revealed a few tells due to the extreme pain of extending her ticket just now, he might not have noticed. After all, they hadn't had any close contact throughout the journey.
Fumiya Jin slowly withdrew his gaze.
Then he noticed that the expressionless girl seemed to be looking at him.
He looked at the expressionless girl, and their eyes met.
The girl's eyes were clear, staring straight at him, her thoughts unreadable.
[Entering settlement space.]
Everything before his eyes quickly blurred.
[Settlement beginning. Evaluating player performance in the instance... Evaluation complete.]
[Overall Rating: A+.]
[Basis for Rating: Obtained the clearance conditions without violating the rules, ensured the survival of both yourself and your teammate, and provided a certain degree of convenience for other players to clear the instance.]
[Player Level Up: Lv2 (60% EXP) → Lv3 (20% EXP). As a reward for leveling up, your overall physique has been slightly enhanced, and an additional teammate slot has been unlocked.]
Finally unlocked a new teammate slot?
Fumiya Jin was slightly overjoyed.
Now I can take both Nijika and Yuki into an instance together.
Nijika has powerful support and crowd control abilities, while Yuki's single-target control is quite domineering.
Add my own damage output, and in terms of combat, we should be a fairly powerful team.
The only flaw is probably the lack of a tank and a healer.
The lack of a tank can be compensated for with control.
But a healer's abilities are truly difficult to replace.
[Distributing rewards now.]
[Due to your A+ rating, the quality of this reward has been enhanced.]
[Reward 1: Active Skill—Parry!!! (Purple)]
[Skill Description: Can only be used when a weapon is equipped. Upon use, you will brace your weapon, which will briefly flash with a red light.]
[If you receive any attack or assault traceable to a source during the red light's duration, it will be considered a successful Parry. You will be immune to the damage and will issue a powerful counter-shock to the attack. The force and effect of the counter-shock depend on multiple factors, such as weapon quality, Sharpness, and the user's abilities and status.]
[Upon a successful Parry, the user will enter a brief state of golden Super Armor with extremely high all-resistance and can launch a powerful Parry counter-attack.]
Fumiya Jin was stunned.
What the hell, a Parry!
A successful parry grants immunity and a counter-shock?
And this is a fucking Purple skill?
Samsara Game, you come here and translate for me, what the hell is a 'Purple skill'?
[If the Parry fails, you will enter a two-second state of stiffness, unable to move.]
[Skill Cooldown: 12 hours.]
Okay, it's still very strong.
But with a 12-hour cooldown... that's a huge restriction.
And it's obvious that the activation window for this Parry skill is described as 'brief,' so it must be extremely short.
In that case, if the Parry fails, the two-second stun is indeed a severe penalty.
So, considering its practical combat value...
One could only say it has an extremely high ceiling, but its floor is also treacherous.
[Reward 2: Item—Rochard's Teleportation Coin (Purple).]
[Description: Throw this coin. When it lands, the user will be instantly teleported to its location.]
[After the teleportation is complete, the coin will temporarily disappear and reappear in the item inventory after one hour.]
Seeing the silvery-white coin floating in the air, Fumiya Jin's eyes lit up.
A mobility item?
Isn't this the mobility he needs most right now?
The power of his Iai Slash is already immense, but the long charge time has always been a problem.
But with this coin, there's a lot more room for maneuvering.
[Reward distribution complete. Settlement ending soon.]
[The next game will arrive in seven days at the latest. The Samsara Game looks forward to your next arrival.]
...
...
"I finally made it out alive... phew..."
Fumiya Jin regained consciousness. He had just opened his eyes and checked his body, confirming that all his injuries had disappeared, when he heard a girl next to him let out a long sigh of relief.
He turned his head to look at the girl.
The girl also turned her head to look at him.
In her watery eyes, a multitude of complex emotions flickered for a moment.
There was happiness, relief, shyness, resentment, and some other indescribable feelings...
...
But in the end, the girl extended her small, fair hand to him. "Zako-san, I really owe you for this one. Thank you. So... for the next instance, can I ask you to be my teammate again?"
______
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