After the white light faded, Jean did not return to the dilapidated building where she had waited for departure, but instead arrived in a pure white room.
Just as is common in infinite-genre novels, a large sphere of light floated in the center of the room.
But none of this attracted Jean's attention; she remained immersed in the emotions she had just experienced, unable to pull herself out.
Until a familiar voice rang out: "Welcome back, Jean."
Hearing this familiar and comforting voice, tears flowed like a broken dam, unable to be held back any longer, and she threw herself into Shiraori's arms and began to cry.
Shiraori gently stroked Jean's hair, and only after her sobbing had gradually ceased did she ask, knowing the answer: "What happened? Who bullied you?"
Jean lifted her head, and although her eye sockets were still red, her eyes revealed determination as she answered with a smile:
"It's nothing, I just ran into a scumbag woman, and one day I will collect on this debt!" She then took out the pendant wrapped in a piece of white spider silk and said to Shiraori: "You're right, Sister Shiraori."
"You discovered it, huh." Shiraori patted Jean's head, filled with doting affection.
Before the shockwave caused by Milim erupted, in a trance, Jean seemed to see a strand of silk pull a sphere of light from Esdeath's body into the pendant.
However, the whole process lasted only an instant, and Jean couldn't even confirm if it was just a hallucination, but after calming down in Shiraori's arms just now, she suddenly realized that the remaining piece of spider silk was exactly the kind Shiraori often used.
"This is just a chance; if fate allows us to return to that world, it might be possible to call her back." Shiraori used the remaining piece of spider silk to make a new lanyard for the pendant and hung it on Jean, saying, "However, that person was already determined to die; she might not even want you to call her back."
"It doesn't matter! Since she didn't care about my thoughts and went ahead and did such a stupid thing, why should I care about hers!"
Perhaps Esdeath had long been prepared to give up her life; after all, the pendant should have been able to block the effects of her Teigu, yet Jean had still been frozen.
Based on what Jean had learned from Esdeath during this time, such an operation could only take effect if set up in advance; in fact, she had already decided on the final outcome the moment she handed the pendant to Jean.
Jean understood this too. Perhaps her original plan was to end everything under the sun, but Milim became a better choice; dying while swinging her sword at a stronger opponent was the end she had hoped for.
Therefore, after it was over, Jean had wanted to thank Milim, because she had displayed her true strength, as a sign of respect for Esdeath's will.
However, Jean had stood there for a long time, unable to speak a word, until finally, Milim saw through this and took the initiative to talk to her.
'Although I said I would surpass her or whatever, I do owe her quite a lot, so I should thank her properly one day.'
---
After confirming that Jean had recovered, Shiraori said to her: "Alright, you should also check the settlement status."
Only then did Jean remember that there seemed to be a vast number of notifications in the system, but she hadn't been in the mood to check them.
Opening the interface, the first notification to pop up was the mission completion notice:
[Trial Mission: Objective complete. Would you like to proceed with the reward distribution and settlement? Yes / No. Note: Please note that settlement can only be processed normally within the settlement room.]
Just after Jean clicked 'Yes', a huge list suddenly appeared in her face, with a header written in large characters: Point Settlement.
It recorded all the actions for which Jean had earned points. Looking through it, they were all mission rewards; it seemed that other actions either had no rewards or Jean hadn't discovered them.
The points were listed from highest to lowest, and the top few were:
1. Budo: 5000T points
2. Kibutsuji Muzan: 4800T points (48% participation)
3. XXXX: 2100T points (50% participation)
...
7. Schop: 1300T points
11. Kibutsuji Muzan: 825T points (7.5% participation, 10% bonus)
...
...
...
21801. Demon Soldier XXX: 5T points (50% participation)
That Budo provided the most points actually surprised Jean, but in terms of total points, the Scum Boss still had the most; it was just that the participation kill points had been reduced.
At the same time, there were multiple Scum Bosses here, though some were only at 1%; it seemed that telling Milim that Muzan could be used for farming points had also been counted as a contribution.
Among them were many names she had never seen before, but since they all had 50% participation, they were likely the unlucky ones blown away by the blizzard in the Imperial Capital.
However, the final total really surprised Jean:
[Total Earned: 156,438T points]
It was actually as high as 150,000 points; that was the equivalent of soloing 15 Scum Bosses, but after all, more than 20,000 Demon Soldiers had been killed in one wave in the Imperial Capital, so it was understandable.
After confirming the point gains, she clicked 'Continue', and the item rewards popped up.
[Items Obtained]
1. nichirin blade · white wind
(A precious blade that has experienced life and death with its master, opening up brand new possibilities.)
2. Frozen azure spider lily (Thawing)
(The originally frozen power is currently fading.)
3. Ice Pendant (Unnamed)
(Contains the blood of a previous user of a certain Teigu; blood is the currency of the soul, and perhaps it has other uses. Note: Equipped normally, it grants an Ice Attribute Resistance bonus.)
4. Basic Total Concentration Breathing Technique Transcript
(Records five incomplete basic attribute Breathing Techniques; they seem to be derived from a powerful Breathing Technique, but cannot be traced back further.)
A total of 4 items were obtained; except for the last one, the others were all significant. However, Jean could have potentially obtained more things, such as Teigu, materials from Super Danger Beasts, and the like.
But looking back on the journey, she had invested more time in cultivating and enhancing herself, and because of that, she had pulled off a few big things.
For example, things like the artificial avalanche, supersonic physical body, freezing the Imperial Capital, etc. Thinking about it carefully, it was indeed crazy, but it was also because she was strengthening herself as much as possible, rather than sneakily farming Demon Soldiers and being smug about 10 or 20 points.
This was what caused the returns to rise geometrically. Of course, at the very beginning, what Jean had thought about was just secretly farming points from Demon Soldiers and leaving.
At this point, Jean suddenly realized that her mindset seemed to have changed, from the beginning of being reborn and coming into this trial, to finally fighting with everything she had against Kibutsuji Muzan.
Although Jean originally had the habit of doing whatever it took to handle what was in front of her, this time was different; this time she had actively chosen the seemingly most difficult path.
Perhaps this was the desire Esdeath had spoken of; love really does change people, Jean thought.
At the same time, with a tap of her fingertip, the next message popped out:
[Trait Obtained: seven deadly sins · Greed]
-------------------------------
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