Chat Group: Traits, Gacha, and Crossovers

Chapter 120: Outshined by the Borrowed Kid



— — — — — — 

『Earth's Cancer』: Hisss...!

『Earth's Cancer』: So wait—are you guys saying that this world basically tripled in size while somehow keeping gravity and some other parameters the same??

A moment later, the rest of the chat finally caught on to what "ridiculous" meant when Merlin dropped that word earlier.

And everyone just… collectively lost it.

『Ordinary Human』: It's not exactly that exaggerated.

『Lady Avalon』: The solar system has expanded about two times, yeah. But the farther out you go, the smaller the inflation becomes. At this moment, anything beyond the Alpha Centauri system still looks about the same as before.

『Ordinary Human』: Yep, that's more or less it. 

『Ghost Spider』: That's still insane. I mean, the Alpha system alone is about 4 light-years from Earth, and even that.... ha?

『Ghost Spider』: …Wait a sec.

『Ghost Spider』: Are you two actually measuring your sensory range in light-years now?!

『Catwoman』: ???

『Hellish Blizzard』: !!!!

『Earth's Cancer』: Scary.

『Snake Empress』: …Light-years? Is that what I think it is?

Hancock, who vaguely remembered Chika talking about "light-years" in the chat once, quickly pulled out her phone and looked it up—just to double-check. Once confirmed, she sucked in a sharp breath.

『Lady Avalon』: Yep. That light-year.

『Lady Avalon』: Although my clairvoyance isn't that OP—I just did a quick estimate based on changes in the stars I can see. Simple math.

『Ordinary Human』: Same here.

『Ghost Spider』: That's still pretty damn OP.

『Earth's Cancer』: +1

『Earth's Cancer』: Anyway—aside from the solar system and all that swelling in space—did either of you notice anything else different since the worlds fused?

『Earth's Cancer』: Like, that last mission made it sound like the World Will did this fusion thing to help the world evolve. So... are we already in "evolved" mode now?

『Ordinary Human』: I've noticed something, but I'm not 100% sure…

『Ordinary Human』: Gimme a sec. Let me "take a closer look."

Veyron let his Ki flow, syncing his will with the surrounding world.

Moments later, the "world" responded—delivering its answer straight to his soul.

Aside from cosmic expansion, the major change brought about by this fusion was this: The growth ceiling for living beings had increased.

To put it in game terms—

If you were to quantify a person's physical and mental stats—like strength, speed, stamina, willpower, etc.—

Before the fusion, the absolute cap for humans was around 10 points in each attribute.

Now? That still applied to most ordinary people. But individuals with outstanding talent—or the sheer determination to push themselves to their limits—no longer needed outside help like Chika using meat from Hancock's world to boost her physique.

They could now surpass the original limit using only the resources and training available in this world.

The new soft cap? 30 points across the board.

Of course, even that wasn't set in stone.

With every new world that gets fused in, that ceiling would go up by another 10 points.

"…"

"What do you mean by 'This was a great collaboration. Let's work together again sometime'?"

Veyron was just about to disconnect from his connection with the world, when he suddenly picked up on something else—the world was sending him… a kind of invitation. 

No words—just a quiet, indirect invitation.

It didn't speak. It just silently bathed him in a ridiculous amount of good luck and fate...

…and then dropped a brand-new quest in the group chat.

[Quest Issuer: "World-∞"]

[Mission Location: A world that may soon align with "World-∞" in pursuit of mutual evolution]

[Mission Summary: In order to advance to the next stage, multiple worlds have chosen to merge and evolve together. After confirming the initial fusion was a success, the newborn "World-∞" is now hoping to find a long-term partner for future collaborations…]

[Mission Objective: Travel to a world aligned with World-∞'s will. Form a 100% bond with that world's Chosen One, and help initiate fusion between that world and World-∞.]

[Rewards: 10,000 Chat Points per world]

[Restrictions: You may not cause over 30% population casualties, or damage more than 10% of the target world's landmass.]

[Note from World-∞: づ。◕‿◕。)づ ]

[System Note 1: "World-∞" was formed from the fusion of World-0, World-1, and World-2.]

[System Note 2: This mission is exclusively assigned to group member "Ordinary Human."]

[System Note 3: This is a long-term mission. Rewards can be claimed after each successful fusion.]

Veyron: "...…"

Oh. So that's what this is about.

『Earth's Cancer』: ???

『Earth's Cancer』: ????

『Earth's Cancer』: Wait wait wait—hold up. If I'm not misunderstanding this...

『Earth's Cancer』: This "World-∞"... it's our current world, right?

『Earth's Cancer』: And shouldn't ME be the main protagonist of this world?

Wanting to continue the fusion after the first try went well makes sense and all, but…

Why the hell is she—the supposed "main character"—being benched, and Veyron is the one who gets the exclusive long-term mission instead?!

『Lady Avalon』: It's obvious.

『Lady Avalon』: After personally experiencing the difference between "your own kid" and "someone else's genius child," the World Will realized... the borrowed kid is just better. 😂😂😂

『Earth's Cancer』: ╥︵╥

『Catwoman』: Okay but now I'm wondering

『Catwoman』: @Earth's Cancer @Ordinary Human — can either of you still create missions that allow us to cross into this newly fused world? I just tried and… I can't anymore.

『Earth's Cancer』: !!!

Reminded by Catwoman, Chika quickly switched to the mission interface. She ran a test using the usual template—and thankfully, it still worked. She could still post missions that exploited that classic group-task bug.

She let out a long, relieved breath...

Only to immediately spot a similar mission pop up in the panel—right next to the one she had just created.

Same mission as her but posted by "Ordinary Human".

Chika: "...…"

Good news: World-∞ still recognizes this as her homeworld.

Unclear if good or bad news, but definitely emotionally confusing: It also recognizes that… this world now also belongs to Veyron.

.

.

.

 


Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters.