Time flew by.
In the blink of an eye, a whole year had passed since that unforgettable night.
Even Saya—the ultimate defeated-dog girl—had finally been claimed by Shuya, thanks to Yuriko's "help."
Six women.
For the past year they had come at him every single night, either solo or teaming up in every possible combination.
The experience?
Pure bliss.
How good exactly?
Shuya could only say he had unlocked a ridiculous number of "heroine defeat CGs."
He was winning. Hard.
But the real progress was in their Nen training.
Under Shuya's guidance, the girls had mastered every technique he knew—from the basics to the advanced stuff like Gyo, In, Shu, En, Ken, Ryu, and even the high-level ones like Ko and Hatsu.
Each of them had also awakened their own personal Nen ability tailored to their type.
In that year alone, Saeko had slaughtered at least seven figures worth of zombies.
The number was so insane that Reizan had stopped feeding her any more aura, like it was sick of zombies and just wanted a break.
If this were an MMO, Saeko would've been walking around with a blood-red title floating over her head: Zombie Slayer.
Yet none of that changed the fact that the world was still doomed to fall to the virus.
Nobody in the group cared about playing savior, though.
They were too busy enjoying their own little paradise.
The only real headache for Shuya had been Rika's Nen training.
For the first six months? Zero progress.
Only after Shuya took over and the whole group brainstormed ideas did she finally start sensing her aura.
Today—exactly one year later—she had finally succeeded.
Rika's house.
The contract scroll lay on the table, conjured by Shuya.
The moment Rika's tanned hand finished the last stroke of her signature…
The world itself changed.
Color drained from everything like an old photograph. All sound vanished.
Then, one by one, the girls—and Shuya—started fading away, erased like pencil sketches.
In the next instant, they were all transported to a completely new place.
No one panicked.
Because the second they arrived, the information about this world flooded straight into their minds.
Greed Island.
That was the name of this new world.
But it wasn't the game from the Hunter world that Gon's dad and the twelve strongest Nen users had created.
This was the evolution of Shuya's own Specialist ability—triggered once certain conditions were met.
First, the insane amount of aura Saeko's Reizan had fed him over the year provided the sheer quantity needed for the upgrade.
Second, the six girls he had contracted each perfectly matched one corner of the Nen hexagon:
- Shizuka Marikawa: Emission
- Saeko Busujima: Conjuration
- Rei Miyamoto: Enhancement
- Yuriko Takagi: Transmutation
- Saya Takagi: Manipulation
- Rika Minami: Specialist (same as him)
Add in the fact that Shuya himself was a transmigrator, and all the pieces finally clicked.
The entire map of Greed Island flooded into Shuya's mind in a single instant.
His first reaction: Big. Really big. Insanely big.
But how big exactly?
He couldn't even put it into words.
Ask someone how big a hundred square meters is versus a thousand, and most people will picture a basketball court or a soccer field—even though a real basketball court is around 420 square meters and a soccer field is closer to 7,000.
Most people simply don't have a clear sense of scale.
To Shuya, this new world felt like it might actually be as large as the entire country of Japan.
The girls looked at each other in stunned silence.
No one spoke, but every pair of eyes was wide with the same shock.
Their attention was quickly pulled to the two massive black gates standing in front of them.
The gates looked like they had been cast from ancient black iron, covered in ornate, mysterious patterns that gave off an eerie, desolate vibe.
Crossing Gates.
The information appeared in their minds at the same time.
One gate led back to the Highschool of the Dead world.
The other… destination unknown.
But it was definitely another world.
And only Shuya and his contracted girls could pass through them.
Shuya stared at the mysterious gate with a serious expression.
After a moment he turned to the girls behind him. "I'm going through to scout the other side. You all head back, pack up the house, and move everything here. From now on, we live in Greed Island."
None of the girls tried to stop him.
After a full year together, they knew exactly how strong Shuya had become by borrowing all of their abilities. Even the strongest among them—Saeko—could only guess at the upper limit.
Only Shizuka looked up at him with her usual blank-cute face and asked, "Little Shuya… will you be back for dinner tonight?"
One sentence from the ditzy blonde instantly melted the tension.
The mood lightened right away.
"Uh…" Shuya waved a hand. "Yeah, I'll be back."
With that, he pushed open the unknown gate and stepped through.
What would be waiting on the other side?
His original world?
Or another anime world entirely?
"Alright, since little brother Shuya's gone, let's do what he said," Yuriko spoke up, breaking the slight gloom that had settled over the group. "We'll move everything over and have a big dinner waiting when he gets back."
Saya was the first to agree. "I'm in."
Saeko nodded and looked at Rei. "Miyamoto-san, mind helping me later? We'll cook something special for Shuya-kouhai tonight."
"Sure," Rei answered without hesitation.
And just like that, the girls got to work.
...…
On the other side of the gate…
The first thing Shuya saw was a cluster of traditional Japanese-style buildings made entirely of wood.
The streets were packed with people wearing old-fashioned clothes that looked like kimonos.
His first instinct was to check his abilities.
Good. He could still conjure a copy of the Crossing Gate anytime and return to Greed Island.
The girls could come through too.
Shuya let out a small sigh of relief.
So the mission now is to explore this new world?
"Hey mister, want a wife?"
A plump, cheerful-looking woman in a bright red outfit spotted him and immediately lit up. She waddled over with surprising speed.
The words that came out of her mouth nearly made Shuya choke.
Even if I'm living off soft rice, I have standards. This is a hard pass.
He turned to leave.
"Wait, mister! You misunderstood!" the woman called out in a panic. "It's not me—"
After a quick conversation, Shuya finally understood.
She wasn't offering herself. She was a professional matchmaker.
She had seen his handsome face, refined aura, and expensive-looking clothes and figured he'd be perfect for one of her high-class clients—free of charge, of course.
If this were the real world, Shuya would've walked away without a second thought.
But since this was 2D…
Even if the girl turned out to be ugly, he'd at least take a look first.
And if he ever made it back home, he swore he'd post on Zhihu with the title:
"Anyone know what it's like to go on a blind date in 2D?"