Chapter 392: A Long-Term Investment
Three or four days later, having spent that whole stretch camped out in the Arena's Dungeon Mode, Ryū finally logged out and returned to the Naruto world.
Back in his own world, Observation Haki, Armament Haki, and everything else came right back online, no trace of the "weakness" he'd been stuck with inside the dungeon.
Three or four days in there had gotten him from a blank-slate Level 0 all the way up to Level 4.
Not that he hadn't tried grinding harder — leveling up was simply brutal, especially starting out weak against enemies that were anything but.
It had taken him all five of his lives just to claw his way to Level 4.
And every single kill had required actual planning — outsmarting the so-called "wild monsters" rather than fighting them head-on. Go in without thinking, and dying five times wouldn't even guarantee a single level gained.
Which said plenty about just how brutal this mode's difficulty curve actually was — though, admittedly, that might partly be because he'd gone with "Hard." Had he picked "Easy" from the start, he might already be sitting at Level 7 or 8 by now.
This particular Dungeon Mode run hadn't netted Ryū much in the way of tangible gains. If anything counted as a "reward," it was probably just... having fun?
He'd approached the whole thing purely as a game to kill time in, so his mood throughout had stayed genuinely good — even dying repeatedly hadn't soured it.
Maybe once his in-dungeon strength eventually surpassed his real-world self, some more meaningful payoff would follow.
If that turned out to be true, Dungeon Mode was, without question, a long-term investment.
One with a genuinely uncertain payoff timeline, at that.
Still, the fact that the Dimensional Chat Group had bothered adding this feature at all suggested it wasn't going to shortchange members on rewards — probably comparable to, if not better than, Solo or Versus Mode.
"Three or four days already, huh... genuinely decent for killing time. Not like Solo Mode, where you've got to stay razor-sharp every single second — this feels more like some kind of zen-mode combat trial."
Looking around his own familiar living room, Ryū murmured that to himself before shaking off the tangle of thoughts.
Honestly, Dungeon Mode had basically no practical use for someone already sitting at the top tier of the chat group, like him — not unless he actually leveled it up significantly. For weaker newcomers, though, or the occasional plucked-from-a-slice-of-life-show member joining down the line, this feature could genuinely make a real difference.
What genuinely surprised Ryū, though, was discovering that skills obtained from monster drops inside Dungeon Mode — magic spells, that kind of thing — actually carried over into real-world use.
Functioning basically like an authentic parallel world. A genuinely bold design choice, honestly.
And how did he confirm skills from Dungeon Mode actually worked in reality? Simple — he'd handed one off to Yukari to test, and sure enough, she'd been able to use it. A genuinely solid discovery.
His consciousness slipped into the chat group, where he found members already deep in discussion about the new "Dungeon Mode" — clearly plenty of others had taken their own runs through it as well.
Crazy Diamond: That new Dungeon Mode is unbelievably hard. I got in and died within a few minutes, and I still have no idea what actually killed me.
Crazy Diamond: And all your stats reset to zero the moment you're in there — you're basically a blank-slate character, can't even summon your Stand. Just an ordinary person.
Crazy Diamond: Maybe a tiny bit tougher than a regular civilian at best.
Kaguya-sama: So what level are you actually at, Josuke-oniichan?
Crazy Diamond: ...It's a tragedy, honestly. Still Level 0.
Kaguya-sama: Pfft! Don't tell me you went with Hell difficulty? Still Level 0, seriously?
Crazy Diamond: Whoa, hold on, how'd you know I picked Hell difficulty?
Edward Newgate: Gurararara! Isn't it obvious? You said you spent three whole days in there and you're still Level 0 — that's got to be the hardest tier out there. Any easier and you'd have hit Level 1 by now, surely.
WolfKingOfQingQingGrasslands: This king went with Hard mode, currently sitting at Level 3.
I'm Rolling In It: Also on Hell mode here — I'm 10 experience short of Level 1, but I've already burned through all five of my lives.
I'm Rolling In It: Have to wait out the full 24-hour cooldown before I can go back in — 15 hours left on the clock.
Eternally Seventeen: There's genuinely a lot of research value in that game world inside Dungeon Mode — take the magic spell Admin-sama passed along to me, for instance.
Eternally Seventeen: It's a whole different magic system, genuinely inspiring stuff. I think it could integrate nicely into Gensokyo's own magic framework.
My True Form Is Cola: So this is what they mean by "learning from the best of every school"... genuinely impressive.
Admiral Kizaru: Well~ this slower pace really suits an old man like me. Solo and Versus modes are both way too fast-paced, honestly not great for us older folks.
Admiral Kizaru: By comparison, this new mode's got some real flaws, sure, but it's genuinely friendly to older players. Out of five stars, I'd give it a solid four, grudgingly.
RawrSoFierce: Pacing's definitely on the slow side, yeah — I've only hit Level 4 on Hard difficulty so far. Feels like getting to level fifty or sixty would take at least two months of steady grinding.
I'm Rolling In It: Two months to hit fifty or sixty on Hard? Damn... that's just top-tier player territory, honestly.
Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit: Um, senpais, is the Arena really that fun?
RawrSoFierce: "Fun" is a fair word for it, sure — good for killing time, honestly feels a lot like playing an actual game.
RawrSoFierce: Only real downside is having to spend real money — well, Points — to play it. That part's a bit of a bummer.
Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit: I see, Ahri will give it a try later then. And apparently dying in the Arena lets you revive?
Kaguya-sama: Yep! Dying in the Arena costs 20 Points to revive — 20 Points a life, honestly a pretty fair deal.
Street-Corner Illustrator: So jealous of you all getting to enjoy the new mode in the Arena — meanwhile I'm here grinding away trying to work out my next manga's plot.
RawrSoFierce: Working out the plot? Don't you basically just pick up a pen and grind it out?
Street-Corner Illustrator: Not even close... every day I've got to work out whether this plot point makes sense, whether that character might break the whole story, whether this fight scene might collapse the entire power system... and so on, and so on — I have to work through all of that before I can even start drawing.
Street-Corner Illustrator: It's the only way to keep the whole thing from falling apart. And even if it does slip a little, at least it's just a minor stumble on an off day, not a total collapse.
My True Form Is Cola: Sounds genuinely complicated, but also impressively thorough!
My True Form Is Cola: I've actually been thinking about trying to draw manga myself, but I've got zero ideas for plot. Frustrating.
"..."
Umaru wasn't joking, either — she genuinely had started entertaining the idea of becoming a manga artist herself.
She was already in her second year of high school back home in her world, graduation not that far off — and even if she went on to university after, that only bought her a few more years before facing the same question head-on regardless.
What she'd actually do with herself once that time ran out was a genuinely serious question worth thinking through.
Though, honestly, that wasn't even the biggest reason behind it. The real reason was that Umaru had simply grown thoroughly bored with the current state of manga back home.
Especially the ordinary slice-of-life stuff — if there was a male lead in one of those, he was practically guaranteed to be some useless shut-in whose only real trait was "gentleness," and she'd about had enough of that particular flavor.
And the isekai genre had only gotten more oversaturated lately, flooding the market to an almost absurd degree, every single one leaning on the exact same tired formula.
Bored of it, and unwilling to just drop the hobby entirely — what was a reader supposed to do in that situation?
Grit her teeth and keep reading regardless? Wait around hoping some genuinely fresh idea or genre would eventually show up?
Not a chance, as far as Umaru was concerned. She'd decided: she'd draw the manga herself!!
Easier said than done, of course. Not that the actual drawing worried her much — with her learning ability, picking up art was hardly going to be a challenge.
Plot, though, was genuinely tripping her up. Every idea she came up with in her head felt worse than the tired formula she was already sick of.
Back in her own world — Himouto! Umaru-chan's world — currently on winter break, Umaru let out a resigned sigh, glancing over at the pile of manga-drawing supplies she'd bought.
None of it had come out of her brother's pocket, either — she'd paid for all of it herself. Being a member of the Dimensional Chat Group, after all, making money wasn't exactly a challenge for her.
Even becoming the richest person in the world wouldn't be terribly difficult, if she actually put in the effort — she simply didn't have the free time to spare for that kind of thing. Otherwise, she wouldn't have earned her spot as one of the group's three resident salted fish.
"Though, out of the three salted fish, I'm honestly the weakest of the bunch. The other two are Admin-sama and Yukari-senpai — I always feel like I'm the one dragging the group down."
Just as Umaru was sinking a little into that particular frustration, a notification chime from the Dimensional Chat Group snapped her back to attention, pulling her out of her own head.
Slipping her consciousness into the chat, Umaru found Yukari — one of the group's Moderators — had just tagged the entire membership.
Looked like she had something important to announce.
☆☆☆
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