Chapter 65: Where on Earth is There Water in the Desert?

[Houraisan Kaguya: Fufufu... The administrator is none of other than Houraisan Kaguya! (๑>؂<๑)]

[Chen Mo: Congratulations]

[Lu Mingfei: Congratulations]

[Han Li: Congratulations]

[Emiya Shirou: Oh my god]

[Aqua: Why didn't anyone choose me?! I am a goddess, you know! Show me some respect!]

[Lu Mingfei: Come on, don't you have the slightest self-awareness as to why?]

[Tokisaki Kurumi: Oh my god, though it's truly a pity that I ultimately couldn't outcompete Miss Kaguya. It seems I can only pin my hopes on future administrator positions.]

[Valeron: What's so great about being an administrator? Can it possibly compare to lying at home and counting money?]

The establishment of a baseline time caused the time flow rates in the worlds of the chat group members to diverge. The world of *Touhou Project* or Gensokyo, where Houraisan Kaguya resided, became the baseline time.

Chen Mo discovered that the time flow rate in his own world was faster relative to the Gensokyo where Kaguya lived, while the time flow rate in Han Li's world was even faster than his. Conversely, the time flow rates in the worlds of Aqua, Emiya Shirou, and Valeron were slightly slower than that of Gensokyo.

However, whenever the members focused their consciousness on the chat group, their respective time flow rates would synchronize with that of Gensokyo. This prevented any awkward glitches where others had already exchanged a dozen messages while you were still typing out a single character.

The only drawback was that while a user concentrated their consciousness on the chat group, they could not direct their attention to the real world, making it rather dangerous should any sudden emergencies arise.

On the flip side, as long as a member increased the operating speed of "focusing consciousness on the chat group" and "withdrawing consciousness from the chat group" to the point where they rapidly alternated between the chat group and their own world within fractions of a Planck time, they could balance their world's time flow rate with the baseline time without their own actions being affected in the slightest.

Well, such a thing was just a nice thought; at least for now, absolutely no one could pull it off.

[Houraisan Kaguya: Hmm, I see. So the mall and title features work in this sort of pattern.]

[Houraisan Kaguya: Everyone, please take a look at the contents of the mall.]

Chen Mo tapped open the chat group's mall feature. The mall contained only a meager hundred or so items, far fewer in quantity than he had anticipated. According to the rules and descriptions in the mall, these items seemingly originated from each member's respective world, including but not limited to items, weapons, skills, and special abilities.

Every single baseline week, all the items would be refreshed. A dozen or so random and distinct items would be selected from each world, resulting in an absurdly wide gap between the upper and lower limits of the items' exchange costs.

The inferior items included such abstract nonsense as "A lock of Stroheim's hair infused with Ripple energy by Joseph," "A favorite bag of small potato chips belonging to Fenrir," and "A cucumber figurine model of Kawashiro Nitori." On the other hand, there were exceptionally magnificent items such as "Demonic Qi of the Blazing Fire," "Azure Heaven Dragon-Transforming Formula," and "The Jewel Sword Zelretch."

It seemed there were dangerous items as well.

For instance, an item right before Chen Mo's eyes named "A Ray of Light Emanating from Chaos" not only had a sky-high price tag, but once redeemed, if it failed to grant the user the power of the incoming light, they would simply be consumed by the light...

***

Furthermore, the currency required for these items was rather peculiar; redeeming them required task completion tokens.

The source of these task completion tokens was the task feature, which was set and distributed by the administrator. Group members would obtain task completion tokens upon successfully completing tasks, and none upon failure.

[Houraisan Kaguya: The issuance of tasks is determined by me, while the types and contents of the tasks are set by the chat group after observing actual events. Only events that genuinely exist can be designated as tasks.]

[Houraisan Kaguya: Tasks are also divided into different levels of difficulty. The simplest tasks have no rating, and their content can simply be running errands to buy soy sauce, chatting, holding a tea party, and so on. Rated tasks will have correspondingly increased difficulty, such as exterminating a certain powerful youkai or defeating a demon king. Completing higher-rated tasks will yield more task completion tokens.]

[Houraisan Kaguya: And there are certain limitations to my issuing tasks as the administrator. For example, the number of tokens I can offer, the duration of the task, and the number of participating members are all set and judged by the chat group...]

[Houraisan Kaguya: As for the title feature, it will be judged by the chat group and me based on your performance while executing tasks, and special titles will grant you different abilities and powers... That about covers the explanations.]

[Emiya Shirou: I feel like it's a bit complicated.]

[Xiao Yan: Is it really? It's just the standard system template of completing tasks, earning currency, and buying things in the mall, right? The names are just changed and the steps are a bit more troublesome.]

[Lu Mingfei: Damn it, there's a bunch of things in the mall I can't afford, especially this "A Ray of Light Emanating from Chaos." Just how many zeros are on that price tag? Even if I did tasks until I died of old age, I wouldn't be able to afford it, right?]

[Houraisan Kaguya: Don't worry! With the chat group around, I'm sure everyone will live for a very, very long time |ω・)]

[Houraisan Kaguya: Now then, without further ado, I've been wanting to host a tea party for a long time! Let me use the administrator's task function to issue a tea party participation task and summon everyone over...]

[Joseph Joestar: OH NO! We've encountered a Stand attack! Kakyoin has been attacked!]

[Joseph Joestar: I'm terribly sorry... but could you please do me a favor? We urgently need help right now!]

[Tokisaki Kurumi: It seems the tea party has fallen through.]

[Chen Mo: @Houraisan Kaguya]

[Chen Mo: Issue the task. I've been meaning to take a stroll in old Joseph's world anyway.]

[Houraisan Kaguya: Please wait a moment.]

Whether group members encountering danger or a tea party was more important—Houraisan Kaguya certainly knew which was which. Very quickly, a task notification was published within the chat group.

[Save Private... Save Stand User Noriaki Kakyoin, and repel the unknown Stand User, Geb.]

[Limited Task Duration: Twenty-four hours]

[Task Rating: Ordinary]

[Limited Participants: 2]

***

[Will you participate in this task?]

[Yes] or [No]

He who acts first gets the prize, while he who hesitates misses out.

Chen Mo possessed fast enough reflexes and grabbed one of the slots first, while the other slot was snatched up by Tokisaki Kurumi.

[Will you travel to the world of group member Joseph Joestar?]

Yes.

[Group members Chen Mo and Tokisaki Kurumi will arrive in your world. Do you agree?]

"Agreed!"

Swish, swish, swish, swish—

"Uoohhhhh—!"

Clutching Noriaki Kakyoin, whose eyes bore deep, bloody gouges, Jean Pierre Polnareff ran for his life through the desert, sprinting toward the off-road vehicle not far away.

Right behind him, a stream of blue water pursued relentlessly, darting swiftly through the desert sands. Burdened with carrying someone whose body weight was not much different from his own, Polnareff's speed was severely hampered, and the current quickly closed in behind him.

Moving at extreme speed, the water shifted forms, transforming into a razor-sharp water blade that stabbed directly toward Polnareff's thigh.

"Shit!" Staring at the water claw thrusting toward his back, Polnareff's face turned a shade of utter despair.

"Polnareff—!"

Joseph shouted at the top of his lungs as purple thorny vines shot forth from his wrists, attempting to yank Polnareff toward the off-road vehicle before the water current could harm him.

However, faster even than the water current and Joseph's movements was a figure that abruptly materialized between Polnareff and the surging stream.

The fierce, ferocious water Stand—capable of severing human limbs—slammed straight into the person who had suddenly appeared before it, causing that person to let out a cry of surprise.

"What the hell, where is there water in the desert?"