Over five days, Aiden no-lifed his training, grinding skills as hard as humanly possible.
Beyond Multi Arc Lightning Arrows, his other abilities climbed sharply as well.
Most notably, Elite Gunplay finally advanced to Master Gunplay.
The core boon of Master Gunplay was a clear spike in headshot reliability. With a firearm in hand, it was like toggling on "precision lock" plus "vitals guaranteed." Even with a tide of corpses crashing in, his muzzle seemed to grow eyes, snapping to weak points the instant they appeared. Bullets punched through exactly where they had to—no follow-up shots needed, every round squeezed for full value.
Second, dynamic shooting tolerance hit zero. Whether the school bus jostled under him or chaos shoved bodies into him from every angle, his wrist automatically canceled recoil and environmental sway. The moment the trigger broke, the line of fire bit down on its target's path and never slipped, not even a hair.
Lastly, rapid-fire chaining turned into ruthless field control. Reload, raise, fire—every motion compressed to the limit. He could even single-hand a shotgun reload into a string of controlled point shots. Against a swarming pack, he could allocate five shells with precision in three seconds. Compared to Elite Gunplay, it was nearly twice as efficient, saving both stamina and time.
Pistols, rifles, even the grenade launcher he'd used before—whatever he picked up, he squeezed out the weapon's ceiling right away.
The round of upgrades also gifted him two points of Perception and two points of Agility. He could feel the difference like a cool draft through an overheated room.
He couldn't help imagining what might unlock if both Master Gunplay and Master Blade Arts broke through together… something on par with Arc Lightning Arrow, maybe even nastier.
Hey, what are you thinking about?
A soft voice brushed his ear. He turned to find Utaha watching him with quiet curiosity. In the last few days she'd crossed that threshold into adulthood; a new, unmistakable womanly allure lingered between her brows and lashes.
"I was thinking about you," Aiden said, letting the stray thoughts go. He couldn't stop his hand from tugging her pliant body a little closer.
"Hmph. I don't buy it."
She rolled her eyes—gracefully, infuriatingly pretty. After a few days side by side, she understood his temperament far too well.
"Believe it or not."
Her cheeks flushed as she averted her gaze, body twisting in a half-hearted escape that only heightened the feel against his arms—and set other parts of him stirring.
Since becoming an adult, Utaha had changed. She matched his tempo with impossible grace, yielding when he pressed, patient and pliant in a way that made it hard to connect her to the prickly girl who'd resisted him not long ago.
"You really don't behave, do you…"
Catching the shift, Utaha's crimson eyes narrowed halfway, a smoky look that only made her more vivid. Fresh from the bath, a faint scent of shampoo clung to her; her damp hair fell a little messy across her brow. The pretty face beneath that fringe held a gentle flush, charming in a different key.
She wore the hotel's simple bathrobe, chosen for comfort rather than form—yet on her it looked unfairly good. A small fan of pale skin showed at her chest; beneath it, two proud peaks pressed a deep line that rose and fell with quickened breaths. Lower down, the black stockings she usually wore were gone, leaving long, shapely legs bare, her feet set lightly on the room's wooden floor.
A beauty is a beauty, no matter the outfit.
Aiden slid an arm around her slender waist, about to segue into a deeper "lesson"—
Knock, knock, knock.
"Aiden-kun, it's Hayato. I need to talk."
"Tch. You'd better actually need something."
Resigned, Aiden steered Utaha into Yukino's room, then stepped out to meet Hayato.
"A bad update," Hayato said, brow knotted with worry. "Just now… the hotel's power finally died."
Behind him stood Kakeru, face dark, one leg in bad shape. With a crutch under his arm he could just about manage to walk.
"That's it?" Aiden's eyes ticked, irritated. Everyone had braced for an outage. Lasting five full days was already generous. Hardly worth pounding on his door for—
"I wouldn't have come just for that," Hayato cut in. "Come with me."
He led Aiden to the 27th-floor observatory.
The suite had a proper telescope for sky-watchers. What filled the lens wiped the color from their faces at once.
Down by the hotel—
At the far end of the street, a dense mass of corpses was gathering in waves.
It was wrong—far too many. A heaving black swarm like a crawling storm front, enough to turn anyone's stomach to ice.
"Just now, through the scope, I spotted the dead clustering on a massive scale," Hayato said, voice low and tight.
"So. Five days of comfort and then the other shoe drops." Aiden's face went still. "Figures. The Main God was never going to let us coast."
This death game existed to cull the weak and crown survivors. Of course the hammer would fall.
The next second, the familiar, nightmare-cold chime rang in every mind at once.
[Attention, players: a Special Emergency Event will descend in 10 minutes. Prepare.]
[Special Emergency Event]: Hold the Corpse Tide—Survive at the Limit (Event duration: 30 minutes…)
"Countdown: 10 minutes… begin!"
(End of Chapter)
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