Chapter 380: A Major Update for the Chat Group
The space inside the bedroom warped abruptly, folding open into a fresh mirror-space, and Ryū stepped through into the newly-formed pocket dimension.
This particular mirror-space came out to roughly half the size of Konoha itself.
Nowhere near the fifth-of-the-shinobi-world scale the Ancient One could manage, but more than sufficient for his purposes.
Ryū had, in fact, already spent the past few days putting his Void Beast reward Points toward learning mirror-space magic.
The entry-level tier of the spell alone had cost him a genuinely eye-watering amount of Points.
Anything touching spatial manipulation came at a steep price — the basics alone required upward of ten thousand Points, and reaching a level of true mastery demanded a minimum of fifty thousand more. Fortunately, Ryū's balance had plenty of room to spare, sitting at over 150,000 Points at the time — so he hadn't hesitated for a second before pushing his mirror-space proficiency straight from entry-level to mastery.
He didn't sink any further Points into the spell beyond that, instead spreading the remainder across other areas — Observation Haki, Armament Haki, Ki, Kamehameha, Life Return, and more.
He only stopped his "Point-dumping spree" once his balance had dropped down to 2,500 — mostly because there wasn't much left worth spending on.
That remaining 2,500 he kept in reserve, set aside strictly for emergencies.
The results of all that investment showed. Ryū's overall strength had climbed dramatically across the board.
He hadn't had a chance to actually test the upgrade in the Arena over the past few days, but one thing was beyond doubt — if his current self squared off against the version of himself from just over a week ago, there'd be no contest.
Looking himself over in the mirror, he ran a hand through his hair, which had grown out a fair bit.
A quick application of Life Return, and the overgrown strands simply snapped clean at the midpoint — a haircut finished in a matter of seconds.
He had a fair amount of confidence in his own barbering skills, honestly — back in his old life, he'd worked a two-month stint as a barbershop apprentice over one summer break.
Sure, he hadn't done full haircuts on customers all that often, mostly running support around the shop — but he had cut hair for actual people before, hadn't he? That had to count for something.
After cleaning up the trimmed hair scattered across the floor, Ryū's consciousness slipped into the Dimensional Chat Group.
Today, as usual, was a peaceful one in the chat. Yukari — undisputed monarch of idle chatter — hadn't slowed down for even a moment, seemingly online around the clock. No one quite understood where she found the energy.
Ahri, the group's newest addition, wasn't quite as chatty as Yukari, but she popped up regularly enough, nothing like the group's more reclusive lurkers.
Just as Ryū was about to jump in and add something to the conversation, a pop-up notification suddenly appeared before his "eyes."
A soft ding chimed in his mind alongside it.
His attention snapped immediately to the notification's contents.
What genuinely surprised him was that this wasn't a group event pop-up, nor a group quest pop-up — and it definitely wasn't some edit a moderator had made to the pinned announcement.
"A second Dimensional Chat Group version update? Today? Right now?"
The words "version update" were what had caught him so off guard.
He remembered the group had gone through one previous update, which had introduced a whole slate of new features — the Arena, the VIP membership system, the member-protection mechanism, and more. Five new features in total, if he recalled correctly.
[The Dimensional Chat Group's second major update is now available. Would you like to update now? For full details on the new features, click the link on the right → [link]. Yes/No]
The pop-up itself was brief; the actual details were all contained in the link.
Ryū had generally positive feelings about updates like this — the last one had introduced no shortage of welcome new perks, the Arena and member-protection system chief among them.
He clicked the link and pulled up the full details of this "major update."
[Dear members, moderators, and Admin of the Dimensional Chat Group — today marks the Dimensional Chat Group's second major update!
This update fixes several bugs and adds several new features.
Three bugs have been fixed:]
...
[Bug 1: Fixed an issue where moderators could not see group quest or group event pop-up notifications.
Moderators can now see any triggered group quest or group event notification, the same as the Admin.]
...
[Bug 2: Fixed an issue allowing a Point-based crossing to proceed with only the Admin's approval.
Crossing via 1,000-Point payment now requires consent from both the Admin and the member whose world is the destination.
For example: if Member A wants to spend 1,000 Points to cross into Member B's world, A now needs approval from both the Admin and Member B before the crossing is permitted.]
...
[Bug 3: Fixed an issue causing newcomers' growth rate to lag too far behind.
Newcomers who complete seven consecutive days of daily sign-in now unlock a "Weekly Lottery," awarding between 30 and 300 Points per draw!
This benefit applies only to members within their first three months of joining. It is automatically revoked once three months have passed.]
Ryū hadn't even reached the new-features section yet, and already these three bug fixes had grabbed his full attention.
The first one he remembered complaining about himself, back before all this — and here it was, fixed in this very update.
The second one he brushed past without much thought — requiring consent from the actual world's own resident before someone crossed over was simply how things should have worked from the start. The old setup, needing only the Admin's sign-off, had genuinely been the strange one.
The third bug fix, though, actually caught him off guard — a new perk specifically for newcomers?
Calling it a "bug fix" was generous, honestly — it was really just a new feature tacked on, and a genuinely favorable one for the group's members at that.
Newcomer growth had always been a real headache for Ryū. Members like Ahri or the Ancient One were fine — they'd both come in with solid strength already, the Ancient One especially, being formidable well before she'd ever joined.
But for a newcomer pulled from some slice-of-life series — someone like Hinata, for instance — this kind of dedicated catch-up boost was exactly what they needed to close the gap faster.
Ryū's "gaze" drifted further down the update notice. Everything so far had been aimed squarely at newer members — none of it particularly useful to a veteran like him.
Below that came the section detailing the update's actual new features. And, just like last time, there were exactly five of them.
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