Chapter 3: The Chat Group Members Are Way Too Enthusiastic
The first thing Kyū Bunken saw was a line of text welcoming the newcomer.
The person who sent the message went by the handle Wholesome_Mountain. There was a green box in front of his name with the word [ADMIN] written inside.
Wholesome_Mountain: "Here is the Newbie Gift Pack. It contains everything regarding the specific details of the Chat Group."
A Gift Pack. These things were common in various chat groups. Looking at the icon popping up on the interface, Kyū Bunken didn't rashly accept it.
There was no guarantee it wasn't a virus. Click it, and maybe he gets controlled...
No. If these people were real Reincarnators capable of traveling freely between worlds, controlling him should be as easy as flipping a hand. They wouldn't need such clumsy methods.
But if this was a hallucination, and someone was intentionally guiding or hypnotizing him, then perhaps by doing the opposite of what they wanted, he might wake up.
That was his original intention for not immediately connecting to the chat group. Unfortunately, there was too little intelligence to gather from the outside.
Let's watch them farm the chat first.
Uchiha_Bluff: "Mission complete. Another day full of energy! Although it feels like I'm raising a death flag, does anyone want to go grab some Yakiniku with my squad?"
One_Big_Salty_Fish: "Forget it, forget it. Too dangerous."
Red_Salty_Fish: "Big Shots, the third world is a Type-Moon World. Is there anything worth noting?"
While they were spamming the chat, a regular member popped up asking for a walkthrough.
Wholesome_Mountain: "Never been there. Speaking of the Moon-verse, doesn't it have a lot of different entries? You need to be more specific."
Red_Salty_Fish: "It should be Fate/Apocrypha. My teammates and I seem to be Master Candidates for the Great Holy Grail War? Objective... Destroy Amakusa's plan? Destroy the Greater Grail? Specific requirements... Holy crap, this is too hard. Our team has to eliminate a total of five Servants."
Multi_Mind: "I suggest you backdoor their base first. The Empress's Hanging Gardens are a huge pain in the ass."
Tiny_Sin: "I suggest you backdoor their base first. The Empress's Hanging Gardens are a huge pain in the ass."
One ordinary member replied to Red_Salty_Fish, and another person immediately copy-pasted the reply.
Kyū Bunken watched. Below them were more specific strategy replies containing professional terminology he didn't quite understand.
They spoke with such authority. But the more real it looked, the more likely it was fake.
Uchiha_Bluff: "Hmm? The newbie doesn't seem to have claimed the Gift Pack yet. Does he not know how? Just accept it with your mind."
Kyū Bunken became increasingly suspicious. Was this guy really this enthusiastic? Or was there actually something wrong with this package...
Being paranoid wouldn't help now. Kyū Bunken thought for a moment and replied using his thoughts.
HandsomeGuy_Accidentally: "Newbie here, don't know anything. Are there any requirements to claim this? What's inside? Do I have to pay a price?"
Uchiha_Bluff: "Not bad, Newbie. It seems you remembered what I told you today. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the one who performed your security verification earlier. I might have scared you then, but we have been battling wits and courage against the Main God for a long time. We must be cautious."
So this was the masked man? Kyū Bunken remained expressionless and watched him continue typing.
Uchiha_Bluff: "This group was created by the Group Leader, a massive Big Shot. The Main God Space is filled with too many dangers. In order to accumulate enough power to overthrow the Main God who toys with human lives, the Leader pulled people who are sufficiently cautious and have potential into this group. There are already quite a few Big Shots here, though I don't count as one yet."
Pausing for a moment, the person continued.
Uchiha_Bluff: "As for the Gift Pack, that is a welfare benefit for newcomers. It ensures that newbies who have nothing don't enter their first world without any means of self-defense. You don't need to pay anything; just take it. Inside is a Friendship 10-Pull Gacha Ticket, a Low-Rank Spatial Inventory, a Main God Space Reincarnator's Guidebook, and 1000 Bond Points. Bond Points are a form of currency. Just read the Guidebook for specifics."
HandsomeGuy_Accidentally: "Okay, understood. Thanks."
The members continued to farm the chat, and no one else paid him any attention. Kyū Bunken knew that continuing to stall wouldn't lead to any progress. Although he wanted to do the opposite of what they said, dragging this out wouldn't help. If he hesitated too long, things might get worse.
Under these circumstances, he had no choice but to open the package and see what these people were actually up to.
After all, a Spatial Inventory... that was something easily verifiable. As long as he could confirm its existence later, he would know he wasn't in a hallucination.
Thinking about accepting the Newbie Gift Pack, he suddenly felt several items appear in his consciousness.
A purple ticket with the words [Friendship 10-Pull] written on it, followed by a thin book labeled [Newbie Guidebook].
Aside from that, there were no physical objects. However, Kyū Bunken felt as if his consciousness had connected to a small, separate pocket of space.
Kyū Bunken's suspicion regarding the chat group dropped significantly. At least these reactions didn't seem fake. If this really was hypnosis, he probably wouldn't be able to wake up anyway.
Opening the guidebook, he flipped through it roughly.
The Main God Space had a very cliché setup: go to different worlds and complete missions. However, there was one extra rule. Every world would have two teams. The mission could only be completed by one side. The team that failed to complete the mission first would be erased. Resurrection items and skills could not reverse this erasure.
If you were killed normally, there was a chance to be revived. If the mission failed and you were erased, you were gone completely.
The Chat Group, however, was a bit more complex. Simply put, it had several systems:
The Bond System, the Reincarnation Shop, and the Chat System.
The Bond System allowed users to use a currency called Bond Points to buy items or pull from the Gacha. These items were all provided by group members out of friendship. Sources of Bond Points included helping group members, being active in the chat, daily check-ins, and selling items in the Bond Shop.
The Gacha was interesting. The Reincarnation Shop seemed to have one too, but Kyū Bunken decided to skip that for now and research it when he actually did his pulls later.
The Reincarnation Shop was similar to the exchange hub in the Main God Space. The difference was that this shop allowed you to buy things at any time; you didn't have to wait until a world ended to strengthen yourself. Furthermore, items sold by group members were cheaper than those sold by the Main God. The downside was that the quantity was much, much lower.
There were only a little over a hundred people in this group, and the shop only had a few thousand items. Compared to the Main God Space, which had items numbering in the billions, it was no contest.
However, the advantage was practicality.
The Chat System was a communication platform. Group members could post walkthroughs, discuss survival strategies for various worlds, and send Gift Packs to others, transferring their own items to group members' hands—just like the Starter Pack Kyū Bunken received.
It was no wonder these people were constantly spamming the chat. That Uchiha_Bluff was so enthusiastic because this was also a way to earn Bond Points.
The Chat System was the best source of Bond Points. It was established solely by the Group Leader.
The Group Leader was a Super Big Shot. He was able to manifest the friendship and bonds created through chatting, mutual assistance, and banter into actual energy. Bond Points were born from this endless stream of interaction within the Chat System.
Next up was the Gacha.
You really can't escape Gacha no matter where you go...
Looking at the Gacha Ticket, Kyū Bunken felt conflicted. He wasn't exactly blessed by RNG, but he wasn't exactly cursed either. Many newbies who joined the group relied on this opening pull to survive.
God bless me. Let me be a whale just this once!