With a soft beep as the card was scanned, the door to Arthur and Saeko's apartment unlocked.
It was an apartment they had moved into after Arthur received that sizable sum of money for clearing the High School of the Dead dungeon — a more spacious place, one that even had a dojo specifically for her.
Arthur entered first and, like the knight he was, held the door open for Saeko.
What he received in return was a light punch to his shoulder.
"You should've told me we were going to visit your parents. I didn't have anything prepared to bring them."
She looked at him with a small pout on her lips, which drew a smile from him.
"She seemed to like you."
As he said that, he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist, while Saeko, almost instinctively, draped hers around his neck.
"You think so?" she asked, a smile she couldn't quite hide curving her lips.
"I'm 99% sure."
Hearing that, one of her eyebrows lifted.
"And why not 100%?"
"I don't want you getting too proud."
She rolled her eyes at his answer and whispered, their foreheads gently resting against each other.
"I'm not like you… And there was no way your mother wouldn't like me… I think?"
"And I'm still the proudest one in the house?"
Their eyes met, her light blue gaze locked onto his deeper one…
Until her lips found their way to his.
A path both of them already knew very well.
But instead of a heated, desire-filled kiss, this one was soft — like a warm breeze that passes by on a hot day and makes you sigh in quiet comfort.
Gentle… yet no less meaningful because of it.
"I like it when you hold me like this…"
Saeko whispered, now resting her head on Arthur's shoulder, her eyes closed.
Arthur looked down at her leaning against him, watching the beautiful woman who looked as if she had stepped out of an animation.
"…I like it too."
Moonlight filtered through the windows, falling over the two of them as each quietly enjoyed the other's presence in their own way.
It was a good night.
.....
...
.
The next day, while Saeko went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the two of them…
[Ding! You have a video call request.]
Ever since he became famous for his last SSS-rank clear, countless Reincarnators tirelessly applied for calls or sent messages to harass him every single day. Because of that, he had long since enabled the smart-blocking feature. Now, there were only a few people who could still send him messages or video calls. When he saw the contact name, it was pretty much as he had expected, so he connected.
"White Blade… don't you think it's a bit too early to be calling someone?"
"I'm sorry, Blank. I only wanted to congratulate you on completing another SSS-rank dungeon."
"Mm."
Arthur's expression remained calm as well, utterly devoid of ripples.
"I heard the dungeon you just cleared has also disappeared," Selena said calmly. "Blank, do you have anything you'd like to warn us about?"
Arthur simply spread his hands. "Anything that needed to be said was already said last time. Blade… I heard you went to challenge the 29th-floor dungeon again. A busy person like you wouldn't come looking for me just to chat, right?"
Selena fell silent.
Arthur's words had, in a sense, already admitted that the disappearance of the dungeon was indeed related to him. If it wasn't something special about himself, then it must be connected to that SSS-rank clearance evaluation. Knowing this much was already enough to report back to the higher-ups. Then came the real reason for the call.
"Blank, I have something I want to trouble—no, request of you."
Selena's tone suddenly became incomparably solemn, and she even bent her waist in a direct bow toward him.
"Please help me."
Arthur frowned. Even if he had cleared SSS-rank dungeons twice, that alone shouldn't have been enough to make White Blade, someone who stood at the pinnacle of the Reincarnators, lower herself to such a posture. But despite that thought, he still decided to hear what she had to say.
"I'm listening."
At that moment, White Blade's eyes seemed to lose focus, as if her mind had drifted somewhere far away.
"Actually… I never intended to become a Reincarnator. My family and my life in reality were very fulfilling. I had loving parents and a clingy younger sister. Having them was enough for me."
"I had absolutely no interest in the Reincarnation Space, but fate seemed determined to drag me onto this path." As she spoke, White Blade lowered her gaze slightly, her long lashes casting faint shadows over her pale eyes. "When I was twelve years old, my only younger sister was caught in a reality invasion disaster."
Her fingers tightened unconsciously at her sides before she continued.
"The invaded reality was a dungeon called 'Gintama.' It featured a terrifying virus that swept across the entire Earth, known as the White Curse."
Arthur remained silent, watching her through the screen.
"It was something far more horrifying than any known virus. Anyone infected would begin to whiten in a short time, their bodies growing weak… and eventually they would die in helpless despair." Her voice grew quieter, the steadiness from earlier gradually eroding. "My sister, who was at school at the time, became one of the first infected."
She paused briefly, as if forcing herself to continue.
"Even after that dungeon was cleared and the reality invasion stopped, the source of the virus has yet to be found. My family has been desperately trying to save her, pleading with other Reincarnators to buy medicines, skills, and items that might be able to cure her…" White Blade's shoulders dipped ever so slightly. "My sister is one of the few lucky infected who has survived until now, but the virus in her body is still ravaging her."
Arthur's expression did not change, yet his eyes sharpened a fraction.
"I once challenged that dungeon myself." She slowly clenched her fist over her chest. "Although I cleared it, I still couldn't find a way to solve the virus. It was like chasing an ethereal, invisible curse…"
A bitter smile surfaced on her lips.
"Eventually, my accumulated clearance evaluation for that floor filled up, and I was forcibly promoted to the next floor. After that, I also tried teaming up with others to reenter the dungeon and continue exploring…" Her voice trailed for a moment before she finished softly, "…but I still returned empty-handed."
Silence lingered between them.
"Now, ten years have passed since then, and my goal has long since changed." She lifted her head again, but the exhaustion in her eyes was impossible to hide. "I want to find other possibilities, any possibility, to completely cure my sister."
Her next words came out almost like a whisper.
"But now I'm stuck on the 29th floor… I know that even if I climb to the 30th, there might still be nothing that can save her." Her gaze trembled slightly for the first time. "I can wait… but my sister can't wait much longer."
Arthur looked at White Blade, once known for her aloofness, now so emotionally exposed, and felt a faint trace of sympathy.
He already knew what the virus infecting her sister was.
It was the curse of a monster called Yomotsu Heguri — a nanovirus machine in essence, yet far more terrifying than any pathogen known to modern science. A biological weapon capable of extinguishing an entire race.
He had once watched the animated movie "Gintama: The Final Chapter — Be Forever Yorozuya." He still remembered the tightness in his chest when he saw Otae lying in that hospital bed.
So he could, to some extent, understand White Blade's decade-long feeling of helplessness when facing her sister. Perhaps it was precisely that guilt and powerlessness that had supported this 22-year-old girl, allowing her to stand out from hundreds of millions of people and become one of the strongest Reincarnators. Because she carried an obsession, an obsession to become stronger.
"So, you want me to enter this dungeon and find a way to save your sister?"
Arthur certainly knew the source of the virus. But there was a problem: her sister had been infected during the reality invasion. Now that the invasion was long over, even if he entered the dungeon and killed Yomotsu Heguri, would the nanovirus in her sister's body in reality disappear at the same time? Arthur had a premonition that it wouldn't.
Selena shook her head. "I know you can skip floors if you obtain an S-rank or higher clearance, but I won't ask you to do that."
Arthur wasn't surprised that she knew about the Reincarnation Tower's skip-level setting. After all, there were other S-rank clearers. Over the past thirty years, many people must have figured out the so-called floor advancement mechanism. They might not know that his SSS-rank evaluation could directly skip three floors, but after seeing it happen a few more times, once they noticed him repeatedly jumping multiple floors, they would eventually be able to deduce it.
"Do you remember how I said we bought my sister ten years of time?"
Arthur nodded. He also felt a trace of admiration for her family. For a sister who had almost no hope left, they had tried everything to prolong her life, and they had actually succeeded for ten whole years. Even with the miracles of the Reincarnation Space, that was still astonishing. After all, fewer than thirty floors had been developed so far, and dungeon worlds containing supernatural healing powers were still extremely rare. On top of that, not everyone was willing to sell items with such miraculous effects. For them to achieve this level was truly remarkable.
Presumably, Selena had also joined an official organization for her sister's sake. After all, a large government-backed organization would naturally have a far greater chance of obtaining items and medicines capable of saving her sister.
"Actually, this isn't just our family's effort; my sister herself is also very strong," Selena said slowly. "Three years ago, while still hospitalized, she secretly entered the Reincarnation Tower without telling me."
Arthur was stunned. A young girl, already hovering on the brink of death, had actually chosen to challenge the Reincarnation Tower. Her courage was nothing short of immense.
"My sister is very smart. The instances she chose were all ones I had previously told her about, or ones with extremely detailed guides available online. If a certain instance happened to be in rotation and temporarily unavailable, only then would she attempt other worlds. Her sole purpose in challenging instances was to earn Reincarnation Points, then use every single one of them to strengthen her Physique attribute.
After years of research, it has basically been confirmed that the 'Physique' attribute, aside from enhancing stamina and defense, also carries a potential hidden effect: strengthening a person's resistance — or immunity. Thanks to this, my sister's once-critical physical condition stabilized for a period of time. So when I eventually found out… I could only choose to tacitly approve of her actions.
I didn't dare tell our parents. They're well aware of the dangers of the Reincarnation Space and have always opposed my sister entering such a place. But this was her only remaining hope of survival."
Selena paused briefly before continuing, her voice growing heavier.
"But I soon realized I had been too optimistic. Not long ago, my sister finally reached the 10th floor. Due to a sudden worsening of her condition, she used all the points she had painstakingly accumulated to strengthen her Physique, barely managing to survive that crisis… but then, a new crisis arrived."
Arthur could already vaguely guess what was coming next.
He remembered it clearly. The Reincarnation Tower treated every ten floors as a watershed. At each tenth floor, instance difficulty would surge exponentially, and the final dungeon waiting there was always one that crushed countless challengers. Failure didn't just mean defeat — it meant a deduction of Reincarnation Points.
Once their points were exhausted, challengers were forced to face a cruel crossroads. They could choose to withdraw from the Reincarnation Space entirely, keeping every ability they had gained. With those powers, they could still live far better lives than ordinary people. Or… they could continue climbing.
But if they chose to proceed and failed again, all points would be reset to zero, and they would be cast into the Observation Zone.
There, only one final challenge remained. One last chance to defy fate. And if they failed that as well… the most terrifying penalty of the Reincarnation Space would descend — complete obliteration.
This was the Tower's absolute bottom line. The choice to continue or stop was always left to the individual. Many had ultimately perished because of greed… others because they gambled on miracles that never came.
But Arthur knew that for White Blade's sister, there had never been a choice to begin with. She had no right to refuse. Die slowly as the White Curse corroded her body? Die inside a Reincarnation instance? Or seize that one-in-ten-thousand sliver of hope and fight through despair with bloodied hands?
There was only one path she could walk.
"My sister… she has already entered the Observation Zone."
Selena's eyes lowered, her voice trembling for the first time.
"Blank… please — no… I beg you…"
"Please… help my sister. Just this once."
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Yesterday I went out with some friends and got home way too late, so I didn't deliver yesterday's chapter. I'm hungover as hell and honestly don't even know how I managed to write this one. If you find any mistakes, just leave a comment where they are and I'll fix them. I merged two chapters into one this time, so it ended up longer, it'll count as both yesterday's and today's chapter.
Putting that aside, last week we managed to reach rank 59 in the rankings. Once again, thanks to everyone who made that possible — including the reviews and comments left on the chapters.
As a thank-you, there'll be an extra chapter like I always do. And since we jumped so many ranks, I might consider giving one more extra chapter this week instead of just one. What do you think? Do you deserve it? 😏
Anyway, see ya!