Takumi opened his eyes.
"A strange ceiling…"
He muttered in a low voice, and slowly sat up from the floor of the small wooden cabin.
Turning his head, he saw the small courtyard behind him.
There was also that two-story detached house that he had just explored once after he crossed over.
Turning his head back again, he looked toward his own body.
Those burn marks had already disappeared. His whole body had completely recovered and had become a healthy state.
No, not right. This was not just healthy.
At his ear, there seemed to be some kind of leisurely sound gradually calming down.
That change had already gone deep into every one of his cells.
Takumi stood up.
He could feel that his body had become stronger than before, strong to the point of nearly reaching the limit of the human body. Perhaps it had even, to a certain extent, surpassed the limit of the human body. Whether in strength or speed, or in aspects such as nerve reflexes, his basic physical qualities seemed to have become completely different from the past, all having reached a place that a normal person could never reach in an entire lifetime.
"Hu…"
Taking a deep breath, Takumi walked out of the small house, jumped, rolled three times in midair, and then supported himself on the ground with a single hand's little finger, holding a steady handstand.
He felt as if he now had strength that he could never use up.
His mental state was also unprecedentedly uplifted.
This was… a Blessing?
Just as Takumi began thinking about what was going on, certain information immediately appeared in his mind, allowing him to realize what this was.
After clearing Shirakawa Apartments, as the reward for passing this stage, he had obtained a Blessing from the [Sacrifice Game].
Dusk, Dark Night, Red Moon.
These were the three game difficulty levels that existed within the [Sacrifice Game].
When a player cleared one of these levels, they could receive evaluations of four ranks, abcd. Among them, players who obtained the a or b rank evaluations could obtain a [Blessing], and through the Blessing, gain a physique and lifespan difficult for humans to reach, or even surpassing human limits. And the s-rank evaluation was the hidden rank outside the four basic ranks, and was the highest evaluation that only players like Takumi—those who found the Obsession flaw of the Horror Story core and destroyed the instance—could obtain.
Takumi now had obtained the [Blessing of the Dusk Voice], which was the top-level Blessing that a Dusk-level instance could grant him.
Blessings could not be stacked.
If a player first obtained a b-rank evaluation and then obtained an a-rank evaluation, they could raise their Blessing rank. But if a player had already obtained the highest evaluation in that difficulty level's instance, then even if they participated again in an instance of the same difficulty level and cleared it, no matter what evaluation they finally obtained, they would not be able to obtain any further [Blessing]. They could only receive returns through obtaining an Obsession Item or some other resource inside the instance.
Only players who meet the requirement of obtaining an a-rank evaluation twice in Dusk-level instances could obtain the qualification to participate in Dark Night-level instances; and players who obtained an a-rank evaluation twice in Dark Night-level instances could participate in Red Moon-level instances. This made Takumi involuntarily begin to think about those players who could obtain two a-rank evaluations in Red Moon-level instances—whether they would see the hidden things above the third level.
"So the reward for breaking through the Shirakawa Apartments instance is turning me into a little Captain America? But this can explain why those two veteran players had such strong physical qualities."
Takumi shook his head and sighed as he spoke.
However, this kind of strengthening always felt as if it did not have particularly great meaning.
Even someone like Tanaka, who could take the fake Kaguya's physical attacks head-on, would still be walking to death if he faced the power of the Horror Story directly. This [Blessing] reward, in the end, fundamentally could not grant players the ability to resist the eerie power of a Horror Story. Instead… it gave players better power to deal with other players.
"I don't need to run faster than the Horror Story. I only need to run faster than the other players. I don't need to defeat the Horror Story, I only need to defeat the other players so they can be used by me? Is this the true internal purpose of the Sacrifice Game's rewards?"
Takumi closed his eyes and softly murmured, the expression on his face gradually becoming serious.
Then, next…
[Thank you—]
It seemed as if he could hear that ethereal sound echoing at his ear.
Takumi paused slightly, then felt some kind of power gradually reverberating inside his body, giving him a completely different wondrous sensation, one that was entirely unlike the feeling of obtaining a [Blessing]. It was warmer, softer, and deeper.
He understood that this belonged to the blessing of that girl and Kyosei.
It was something different from an Obsession Item—something that would not lose control, held no corruption, and was the most sincere blessing that reached deep into the soul.
Takumi first saw that little girl, saw her give him a faint smile, and then disappear.
In the next moment, he noticed subtle changes appearing in his senses. He realized that from today onward, whether others held goodwill or malice toward him, he would be able to distinguish it immediately. Not only that, for those things that were not human but were disguising themselves as human through some rule, he would also be able to identify them and sense their abnormality.
His body strength once again showed a subtle rise. Hunger, pain—toward these hardships that had once troubled that girl, he now had stronger resistance, and his healing speed after being injured had also received an increase.
And he seemed to have an increased liking for sweets.
A blessing of spirit?
Dismantling the core of the Horror Story, liberating the instance, could even bring such a return?
Feeling extremely shocked by this, Takumi then saw Kyosei's phantom appear in the next moment.
[The road ahead of you is still very dangerous. This is the only thing I can give you—]
A large amount of knowledge drowned Takumi in the next moment.
Wilderness survival, first aid, climbing and jumping, special training, unarmed combat, usage and maintenance of rescue equipment…
Everything that Kyosei had mastered and that Takumi had not mastered, or that Kyosei used better than him, was at this moment all injected into Takumi's brain, forcibly becoming skills that he already mastered, and he directly possessed the proficiency of Kyosei himself, the rescue team captain.
[Thump—]
Unable to endure such a massive amount of information for a time, Takumi sat on the ground.
Not only that, but Takumi could also feel that his mental power had received some kind of strengthening, as if his will itself had been consolidated one step further.
And…
Takumi took out the water-soaked rescue team badge from his watch.
After the rescue team of Shirakawa Apartments had already been liberated, this badge had lost its function as an Obsession Item.
But now, as he received Kyosei's blessing, this badge once again recovered the effect of an Obsession Item, and it was obvious that the corruption carried by this thing had been greatly reduced. Takumi estimated that even if he wore this thing for an entire day, nothing would happen.
Then, besides all this, Takumi also discovered that an additional segment of university memories had appeared in his mind. It contained knowledge of various academic subjects, organized fairly completely from the first year to the fourth year, though judging from the notes, it seemed that the person attending classes back then actually had not studied very seriously.
Uh, was Kyosei seeing that he had stopped studying after graduating high school, and intentionally sharing his own university experience to help him improve his educational level?
'Thank you very much, Kyosei. It's just that if the way you stuffed it in could be gentler, and not make me this dizzy and overwhelmed, that would be great.'
Sitting on the ground and adjusting for quite a while, Takumi finally recovered and was able to stand up again.
But this time, before he even planned to do anything, that ear-piercing noise unique to the Sacrifice Game once again rang at his ear.
No, seriously, is this endless?!
Wanting very much to curse a few times, Takumi lost the ability to control his body. He could only stiffly stand in place and listen to that sound echo in his mind.
[Player Takahashi Takumi]
[The start time of your next mission is: 30 days later]
[Estimated mission level: Dusk-level]
[You may choose to trade for an instance admission ticket from other players to substitute this mission, or participate on time]
The sound appeared quickly and disappeared quickly.
Takumi recovered movement ability after a short moment and, cursing under his breath, returned to this two-story house.
He took a shower and changed into the clothes in the house that happened to fit him.
Takumi deliberately also put on a hat and a mask, picked up the key, opened the door, walked onto the street, and then stopped a taxi.
"Go to Shuchiin."
After saying this sentence, Takumi sat on the seat and then quieted down, lifting his head to look toward the outside of the window, beginning to think about what he should say and do in a moment.
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---