Chapter 402: A Newcomer Joins the Group
By the time the next morning rolled around, Ryū woke up in a Wutan City inn. He'd declined Xiao Yan's invitation — for one thing, the Xiao residence was clearly in the middle of a whole mess of household drama right now.
Xiao Yan had, after all, only just gone from prodigy to washout a few days earlier — the whole clan was undoubtedly in an uproar, all sorts of things liable to be happening at once.
Under those circumstances, Ryū had absolutely no intention of wading into someone else's family business.
They'd known each other for all of one day, barely past a nodding acquaintance — casual familiarity at best, nothing more meaningful than that. No reason to get tangled up in it.
This was a New Year's Eve/Lunar New Year Grand Event, and Ryū figured he ought to focus on actually enjoying himself, not getting roped into other people's headaches.
After a quick bite to eat, he simply chose to forget about Xiao Yan and the Xiao clan drama entirely.
His consciousness slipped into the chat group, where plenty of members were already deep in idle chatter.
Whether in a group event or a group quest, these people never let an opportunity to fill the chat with nonsense pass them by. Idle chatting, apparently, was a genuinely addictive habit for this crowd.
Kaguya-sama: [Image] [Image] Ran into Eriri by pure coincidence, can't believe it — the two of us just happened to end up in the same spot.
Kaguya-sama: Must be what people mean by fate. Truly unspeakable, this bond of ours.
Street-Corner Illustrator: Why do I get the sense Kaguya-senpai's giving off some real "orange vibes" right now? I have a genuine feeling I'm about to lose something precious tonight.
Street-Corner Illustrator: What do I do? Need advice urgently, online right now, genuinely panicking!
My True Form Is Cola: Relax, Kaguya-senpai's gorgeous enough — count yourself lucky, resident h-manga artist.
Kaguya-sama: Pfft, what "orange vibes" nonsense, my tastes are perfectly ordinary, thank you very much!
Street-Corner Illustrator: Don't believe you for a second! Then why'd you insist we share a bed last night — and a bath, too!
Kaguya-sama: Hmm... girls sharing a bed, girls bathing together — isn't that all perfectly normal, though?
Street-Corner Illustrator: Sharing a bed and a bath is fine, sure, but no wandering hands while we're bathing!
Eternally Seventeen: Oh-ho? Looks like Eriri's already fallen victim to little Kaguya's clutches!
Kaguya-sama: No, no, I was just helping you develop those two mystery objects of yours a little.
Kaguya-sama: Give it time, and you'll eventually grow into a legendary D-cup!
Street-Corner Illustrator: ...Why would I even want that? They'll just sag when I get old!
My True Form Is Cola: But we're chat group members — pretty sure we basically don't age?
Street-Corner Illustrator: ...Ugh, damn it, I've got nothing to say back to that!
RawrSoFierce: You're a bunch of girls talking about this kind of thing in front of a lot of guys — doesn't that feel a little strange to you?
Eternally Seventeen: Strange? As long as none of you men let your minds wander, there's nothing strange about it at all.
My True Form Is Cola: Exactly right!
RawrSoFierce: ...Whoever doesn't let their mind wander in a situation like this is the actually strange one.
Eternally Seventeen: And there it is — Admin-sama's clearly got something unhealthy running through that head of his right now.
Eternally Seventeen: I'm seriously starting to suspect this dirty old man is angling to build himself a harem in this chat.
RawrSoFierce: Why does this conversation keep circling back to "harem" out of nowhere?
Roar of the Evil Dragon: I get the feeling Yukari-senpai's probably pretty frustrated right now, honestly.
Eternally Seventeen: Oh? Frustrated, me? Care to elaborate?
Roar of the Evil Dragon: Because the group event's random scattering cost you your alone time with Admin-sama.
Roar of the Evil Dragon: If the two of you had ended up together, who knows what wonderful things might've happened last night. Genuinely thrilling to imagine.
My True Form Is Cola: Shocking — a several-thousand-year-old youkai finally makes a move on our own Admin-sama!
Crazy Diamond: Shouldn't it be the other way around — Admin-sama making a move on the several-thousand-year-old youkai?
RawrSoFierce: Why is this conversation drifting steadily toward "gonna get flagged by the censors" territory?
Edward Newgate: Gurararara, jealous of the energy you two have — old man like me's past all that.
Terrible Tornado: Whitebeard-ojii-sama's literally thousands of years younger than Yukari-senpai. Does that even count as "old" here?
"..."
Ryū shook his head, resigned. No idea how a conversation with absolutely zero substance managed to get everyone this fired up.
And what baffled him even more was how he, the Admin of this whole group, somehow always ended up genuinely enjoying these completely pointless exchanges right alongside everyone else.
Maybe that was just the appeal of idle chatting — didn't matter what the topic actually was, it could turn practically anyone into a chatterbox given half a chance.
Still, since Battle Through the Heavens wasn't any member's home world, everyone had been scattered randomly across the map, unable to gather together. Which left this particular group event feeling, honestly, a little flat compared to previous ones.
Not that Ryū could really do much about it — no chat-group member's home world happened to overlap with this one, so what could he do?
He let out a bored yawn, and just as he was about to leave the inn, a sudden "ding" chimed from the Dimensional Chat Group in his head.
He froze mid-motion, halfway to standing. His consciousness slipped back into the chat, and his expression shifted slightly, murmuring to himself, "Not sure if I should call this newcomer lucky, or unlucky."
Sure enough, that sudden notification meant exactly what he suspected — a new member had just joined the group.
The reason for his mixed reaction was simple: this was happening right in the middle of a group event.
Joining the Dimensional Chat Group meant a genuine turning point for anyone's fate — that part counted as good fortune, no question.
But with the group event already underway, this newcomer had just missed out entirely — the event gift box, the countless other prizes and Points on offer, all of it gone before they'd even had the chance.
Looked at that way... this particular newcomer had drawn a bit of a short straw, honestly.
If they'd joined just twenty-four hours earlier, they might have been able to take part in this whole event and walk away with a genuinely substantial haul of Points and rewards.
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