"That's not right."
Fumiya Jin looked at the fair hand Yuki Suou extended, but shook his head.
"Huh?"
Yuki Suou panicked. "No deal?"
"Not that," Fumiya Jin reached out and took Yuki Suou's soft hand. "Not just the next instance, but every one after. Let me be blunt: now that you're on our pirate ship, you're not allowed to jump off. From now on, all instance planning must be discussed with us. No acting on your own."
"Hm?" Yuki Suou flinched slightly, then burst out laughing. "Oh, so that's what you meant... You scared me."
"If you want to back out, now's your chance," Fumiya Jin reminded her.
"I'm not that stupid," Yuki Suou squeezed Fumiya Jin's hand, her gaze firm yet sly as she looked at him. "From now on, I'll be clinging to you, I'll be your dog. I don't believe you'd have the heart to let me die, hmph."
"Alright, then it's settled." Fumiya Jin knew she was joking, of course; after all, she had pulled her weight in this last instance. "So... are you going to continue with school?"
Yuki Suou had clearly already considered this. She nodded with a hint of resignation. "I'm the sole heir to my family. My grandfather and the others place a lot of importance on my performance. If I suddenly decide to drop out of school for no good reason, they'll definitely investigate what's going on... I don't want to drag my family into this damn Samsara Game."
Fumiya Jin nodded in understanding. "It's the same for Nijika and me. Our daily lives will mostly remain unchanged. So... let's set the time for the next instance for next Sunday morning. We'll meet up next Saturday morning to discuss our plans for the instance. As for where, we can decide that over the phone."
When it came to serious matters like this, Yuki Suou also became a bit more solemn. She nodded and said, "Okay."
"Also, as teammates, we should share information about our rewards from this instance," Fumiya Jin said. "I'll go first. My evaluation was A+, and my rewards were..."
Fumiya Jin explained his rewards to Yuki Suou in detail, and also mentioned the 'Iai' techniques he possessed.
After all, they were teammates now. To coordinate effectively, they needed to understand each other better—of course, he didn't mention his 'Unity of Heart and Mind' trait or his own superpower.
Yuki Suou was quite interested in this, listening intently, her eyes even sparkling.
After hearing everything, her eyes were filled with envy as she looked at Fumiya Jin. "Such a strong DPS class... Mmm... but more importantly, it's so cool... I want to be a Tachi Player too."
"You want to learn? I'll teach... Alright! Fine, I can't teach you this. It's all given by the Samsara Game," Fumiya Jin said, spreading his hands helplessly. "Okay, now tell me about your situation."
"Uh... As for me, my rating was A-, and I got one skill and one item. This skill... this skill..." Yuki Suou started to say, but then began to stammer.
Fumiya Jin grew curious. "What's wrong with the skill? Is it a special skill that's inconvenient to talk about?"
"It's not that I can't talk about it at all," Yuki Suou scratched her cheek, hesitated for a moment, then said, "To put it simply, it's a skill that applies both a buff and a debuff at the same time. When used, it can make the target infatuated and mentally unstable for a short period. But at the same time, it gives the target a significant boost to their combat stats, especially... attack speed."
As soon as Fumiya Jin heard this, he immediately understood the concept.
It was basically a skill like 'Berserk' or 'Rampage', where you first apply a negative effect to yourself, like bleed, defense reduction, or silence, and then simultaneously gain a powerful positive buff.
It was worth noting that precisely because of these negative effects for balance, the positive buffs from such skills were often much stronger than normal enhancements.
So Fumiya Jin's expectations instantly grew.
After all, Nijika's Inspiring War Drum skill, which was a pure buff, could provide a boost of thirty to forty percent or more.
So how strong would the buff from this berserk-type skill that Yuki Suou had obtained be?
"Besides the negative mental effects, this skill doesn't cause any other physical damage, right?" Fumiya Jin asked.
"Mmm..." Yuki Suou nodded. "It only affects the mind..."
"Confirmed," Fumiya Jin nodded. "Let's do it. After we test it, I have to go home for lunch. Nijika's waiting for me."
"Er..."
Yuki Suou stiffened slightly.
The thought that he was rushing home to that little blonde girl... suddenly made her feel a bit sour.
They had just cleared an instance together, which counted as sharing a life-or-death experience.
Although the instance wasn't that difficult for him, you couldn't say it was completely without danger.
After surviving such an ordeal, this guy wasn't even planning to celebrate with her or anything, just rushing home to see his Nijika...
Is that Miss Nijika really that much cuter than me?
"Fine, let's give it a try," Yuki Suou bit her lip and said. "But I have to warn you, the effect of this skill seems to be very strong. You need to be mentally prepared."
Fumiya Jin nodded. "Don't worry, I can definitely handle it."
Fumiya Jin was still quite confident in his own mental resistance.
The last time he fell for Yuki Suou's trick, it was partly because he wasn't particularly on guard against her, and partly because he didn't really have any inner resistance to the idea of being intimate with her. He was essentially countered by her skill.
This time, with advance warning, he was calm and prepared to resist, and he was quite confident he could withstand it.
"Oh? That confident?" Yuki Suou raised a delicate eyebrow. "Then why don't we make a bet? Let's bet... a good meal."
Since they had just cleared the instance together and were in a good mood, Fumiya Jin didn't want to spoil her fun.
It was just one meal, anyway. If he lost, he lost.
"Deal."
"Okay, then I'm starting." Yuki Suou said, standing up.
Fumiya Jin was still sitting where he was, which was on the edge of the bed.
Yuki Suou turned, came before him, and stood by his legs.
Then, she leaned down, brought her mouth next to his ear, and whispered...
"Big brother, can you really take it?~~"
______
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