Part 1: Panic in the Blank Canvas
[Takeda Ridley's POV]
The blinding geometric flare finally burned out, dragging the familiar hum of our classroom with it.
When the spots cleared from my retinas, the concrete walls, chalkboard, and rows of desks were gone. Forty-two of us were standing shoulder-to-shoulder in an infinite, blindingly white void. It wasn't just our homeroom, either—fourteen students from the class next door had been caught in the outer edge of the circle, including the girls from the track team and the archery club.
"Ridley... do you have any idea where the hell we are?"
The voice was tight with panic. Kirishima Shizuku—head of the school’s gal faction, reigning trendsetter, and my closest childhood friend—was gripping my blazer sleeve so hard her knuckles were white. Her usual carefree swagger had evaporated.
"None," I answered honestly, scanning our perimeter. "A magic circle blew through the floorboards, and reality flipped. That's all I know."
Before the crowd could even begin to process the situation, a loud, obnoxious commotion erupted in the rear.
THWACK!
A sharp slap echoed through the blank space. Everyone spun around.
Arashi Ren, the undisputed leader of our school's delinquent clique, was casually rubbing his jaw, a bright red handprint glowing on his skin. Cowering behind several other students was a girl from the class next door, clutching her torn blazer to her chest in furious, tearful disgust.
Ren just smirked, licking his lower lip while his braindead lackeys snickered behind him. "Come on, sweetheart. Don't be stingy. It's the end of the world—let me cop another feel!"
"Stay the hell away from her, you disgusting freak!" several girls screamed back, forming an immediate wall in front of her. "Can't you see what's happening?! We're trapped!"
Ren dug a pinky into his ear, completely unfazed by their outrage. "Yeah, yeah. Cry about it."
He turned his back on them, huddling with his circle, their eyes already scanning the female students like vultures. I clenched my fists so hard my nails bit into my palms. The second we found a way out of here, I was making damn sure every girl was kept as far away from Ren’s reach as humanly possible.
Suddenly, the air warped.
A frail, withered old man materialized out of thin air, hovering just above the floorboards. He was trembling violently, drenched in cold sweat, his hollow eyes darting around as if he expected a demon to jump out of the floor and strangle him. He looked like an overworked salaryman on the absolute verge of a nervous breakdown.
"G-Greetings, summoned ones..." the old man rasped, his voice cracking. "I... I have brought your assembly here to live in a world of might and magic..."
Before anyone could scream at him or demand to go home, a massive, glowing billboard crashed out of the empty sky, slamming into the floor with a concussive THUD.
📋 [SYSTEM INTERFACE INITIALIZED]
➔ SELECT PATHWAY: Choose Your Starter Abilities
The terrified god raised a shaking finger, pointing straight at Shizuku and me.
"Form a single-file line! Immediately!" he shrieked, his voice laced with pure panic. "You two! Step forward and pick your starter paths right now!"
He was sweating buckets, acting like he wanted us off his lawn before reality caved in on his head.
Part 2: The Loophole and the Forest Drop
Shizuku and I walked side-by-side toward the towering blue screen.
Looking at the skill lists, an old memory flashed in my head: Sol Yuki, the quiet, unbothered guy who sat in the back row, had once lent me a brutal fantasy survival light novel with an isekai setup that looked identical to this.
If this world follows the laws of those brutal stories... I swallowed hard, cold sweat tracing my spine. I need to keep the lethal skills away from Ren.
If Arashi Ren got his hands on real combat power, he would do things infinitely worse than groping a girl's chest in the dark.
I leaned toward Shizuku, whispering under my breath. "Shizuku. Look for high-tier skills. Grab whatever you wouldn't want Ren using against us."
Her eyes sharpened, her gal persona vanishing completely into dead-serious focus. "Got it."
My eyes scanned the floating text until a deep violet prompt caught my attention:
🔮 [UNIQUE SKILL: HIJACK (LV. 1)]
Allows the user to copy, extract, and permanently assimilate skills from terminated targets.
Way too dangerous to leave on a public board, I thought, pressing my palm to the glass to claim it.
I glanced over at the deity to see if he’d notice, but the old fossil was already slumped in his floating golden chair, fast asleep and softly snoring, completely drained by whatever trauma he’d suffered before we showed up.
I looked back at the screen. The interface hadn't locked out.
I jabbed Shizuku hard with my elbow, hissing, "Shizuku, look! He's asleep! Grab three skills before he wakes up! Hurry!"
Shizuku’s eyes widened, but her reflexes were instantaneous. My fingers flew across the glass, snatching command abilities:
🎉 [SKILLS ACQUIRED]
[Leadership & Tactics (Lv. 1)]
[Whips (Lv. 1)]
Beside me, Shizuku blurred, locking in a hyper-mobile vanguard build before the terminal could reset:
🎉 [SKILLS ACQUIRED]
[Spears (Lv. 1)]
[Ground Shrink (Lv. 1)] – Ultra-High-Speed Spatial Gap Closer
[Ice Magic (Lv. 1)]
The second our inputs finalized, the old man snorted awake, nearly tumbling out of his chair as he wiped drool from his chin. "Ahem! Good! You have chosen your one assigned skill. Next! Move along, quickly!"
I kept a deadpan student council poker face, calmly guiding Shizuku back into the crowd while the rest of our oblivious classmates stepped up to pick their single, basic skills.
Once the last student finished, another flash of geometric light detonated.
When our sight returned, the white void was gone.
We were dropped straight into the heart of a prehistoric nightmare. Ancient trees towered hundreds of feet into the air, their twisted roots the size of houses, blotting out the sky. The forest air was dense, humid, and heavy with an oppressive, suffocating silence.
Before the crying and shouting could spiral, a crimson banner snapped open in my sight:
⚠️ [TERRITORY BARRIER INITIALIZED]
Linked to: Takeda Ridley's [Leadership & Tactics]
⏳ Protection Window: 72:00:00 (3 Days)
※ All monster incursions blocked within this perimeter for 72 hours.
I let out a shaky breath. Thank God I stole that skill.
Jumping onto a massive fallen trunk, I projected my voice over the screaming crowd. "Everyone, shut up and listen! We have three days of safety! We need a fortified camp, shelters, and dry firewood before night falls! Genta—take the athletic club guys and gather timber!"
Genta, the massive captain of the track team, slammed his fist into his palm. A heavy starter battle axe was already strapped to his back. "On it, Prez! Hey, Ren—move your ass! Grab some wood!"
Ren rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, boss."
Ren’s gang begrudgingly trailed behind the athletes into the brush, while the rest of us began pitching tents and clearing undergrowth.
Part 3: Shadows in the Night
Hours passed in a blur of sweat and dirt. With help from Soma and the quiet otaku guys, we had our tents up before twilight died out.
Genta marched back into camp, his jocks hauling massive logs to build our outer perimeter fence, but I noticed an immediate problem.
"Genta," I called out, brushing dirt from my blazer. "Where are Ren and the delinquents?"
Genta threw a log down, scowling. "Useless bastards. Wouldn't lift a finger. Muttered some bullshit about 'going out to grind levels like in a video game' and walked off into the woods."
My stomach dropped.
I looked at the camp's edge. A faint red energy grid rippled against the dark foliage—my active barrier. Those idiots had walked right past the safety zone, unarmed, into a pitch-black, untamed wilderness.
"Idiots," I muttered, rubbing my temples. "They're going to get themselves slaughtered. We can't risk looking for them in the dark. Genta, get that barricade raised. Fast."
As night swallowed the forest, our wall was only half-finished.
I was catching my breath against a post when Shizuku sprinted toward me, completely pale.
"Ridley! Have you seen Suzu or Kami?!" she gasped, gripping my arm. "They're gone! Nobody’s seen them for over an hour!"
Before I could answer, Rika from the archery club rushed up, out of breath. "Prez! Mei from archery went behind the supply crates and vanished!"
Then one of the otaku students approached, hands trembling violently. "H-Has anyone seen Soma? I went to ask him about the wall braces... but he's not at the pile."
Shizuku, Rika, and I stared at each other in mounting horror.
Four students. Vanished from inside our camp without a scream, a blood trail, or a struggle.
In a place like this, that meant only one thing: something was hunting us.
Part 4: The Meat Grinder
A mile past our camp border, Arashi Ren and his gang were stumbling blindly through the brush, laughing loudly and crudely debating which girls in class they were going to "claim" once they got overpowered.
CRASH.
The bushes detonated.
A hulking, green-skinned goblin lunged into their huddle with a feral roar. The boys threw clumsy, desperate punches, but the monster smacked them aside like ragdolls, shattering ribs and sending them flying into the dirt.
Panicking, Ren drew his starter blade, screaming as he swung straight for the beast's neck.
CLUTCH.
The goblin caught the steel blade with its bare, calloused hand. With a sickening SNAP, the monster flexed its fingers, snapping the sword in half like a dry twig. It threw its head back, letting out a mocking, guttural screech.
Ren stared at the floating interface hovering over the monster's head, his face turning paper-white:
👹 [FOREST VANGUARD GOBLIN — LEVEL 920]
Ren froze. The Level 920 monster raised an iron-shod log high into the air, ready to crush his skull like a grape.
SWOOSH.
The goblin froze mid-swing. Its crimson eyes went wide, its nervous system collapsing instantly. With a dull thud, the monster crashed face-first into the dirt, dead on the spot.
Ren scrambled backward, gasping for air, as a dark, cloaked silhouette stepped gracefully from the canopy shadows.
"You want those little schoolgirls back in camp, don't you, boy?" a chilling, melodic voice drifted from beneath the hood. "I can give you every single female asset in that clearing. You won't have to share."
The figure leaned close, shadows masking their face. "In exchange... destroy their territory barrier from the inside."
Ren swallowed hard. The terror in his veins instantly morphed into a sick, opportunistic smirk. "Deal. We'll tear it down."
Ren turned to gather his boys—and his heart stopped.
Four of his friends were lying in the dirt, their torsos violently obliterated by the goblin's initial swing. One of them didn't even have a head left. The survivors literally pissed themselves, staring at the gory meat on the forest floor.
"Oh? Big bad delinquents crying already?" the cloaked stranger purred, stepping over the corpses. Living shadows rose from their boots, extracting glowing particles from the dead flesh. "Fascinating. Such trash skills."
"W-Who the hell are you?!" Ren screamed, pressing his back against a rotting tree.
The figure pulled back the hood.
The moonlight hit their face. Ren's jaw dropped, his teeth chattering in disbelief. "Y-You...?! Why are you here?!"
"Doesn't matter anymore," the killer whispered, their eyes completely hollow. "I don't need your cooperation. Puppets are much more reliable."
SHING.
Black obsidian spikes erupted from the earth, impaling Ren and the surviving boys cleanly through their skulls, killing them instantly.
Shadowy strings extended from the stranger’s fingertips, sinking like ghostly hooks into the dead boys' joints. With a flick of the wrist, the corpses jerked upright. Their dead eyes turned glossy, their bodies moving like mechanical marionettes to a silent, grotesque waltz.
The puppeteer smiled into the dark. "Perfect. Now, we wait for morning."
Part 5: Betrayal and the Skewered Dawn
At sunrise, a crawling dread woke me before the light even hit the canvas of our tents.
I rallied the camp, putting everyone on high alert. Genta stood beside me at the wall, white-knuckling his battle axe.
"Prez... you really think Ren took the girls? And Soma went after them alone?"
"Soma never asked for help," an otaku student muttered. "He always tried to handle everything himself."
Right on cue, the bushes parted.
Arashi Ren and three of his lackeys stepped calmly into the clearing. Genta stepped forward, blocking their path with his broad shoulders.
"Hey, Ren," Genta growled, resting his axe on a log. "How was grinding? Your crew looks a little light. Where are the others?"
"Ran into a monster," Ren replied. His voice was dead, an unnatural, flat monotone slurring his words. His arms twitched mechanically under his jacket. "They picked bad skills... they died."
"Right. Very convincing," Genta sneered. "And where are Suzu, Kami, Mei, and Soma?"
The second Soma’s name dropped, the boys snapped.
Their eyes rolled back into their heads, showing pure white sclera. Their jaws unhinged with a sickening crack, and they lunged forward like feral beasts!
A chaotic melee erupted. Genta swung his axe, while I scrambled to draw my whip—
CRACK!
🚨 [CRITICAL ALERT: TERRITORY BARRIER SHATTERED]
Internal sabotage detected. Protection field collapsed.
"Dammit!" I screamed.
The red shield shattered into dust over our heads. The camp was in ruins. Rogue spells tore the tents to shreds, and splintered logs flew everywhere.
Genta swung his axe, slamming Ren’s twitching body backward. "Prez! Take the girls and run! Move north! I'll hold them off!"
"Genta—!"
"GO!" he roared, locking weapons with Ren's unnatural, high-speed strikes. "I'll catch up! RUN!"
Tears burning my eyes, I turned and herded the screaming girls into the dense northern brush. Behind us, concussive shockwaves rattled the trees as Genta fought for our lives.
Part 6: The Clearing of Horrors
We ran until our lungs burned, finally collapsing in a small clearing.
Before we could catch our breath, a blood-curdling scream pierced the canopy.
Shizuku and I scrambled toward the screaming girl, following her trembling finger up into the branches.
My heart stopped.
Hanging thirty feet in the air—impaled clean through the chest by a massive, jet-black obsidian spike—was Soma.
And directly beneath him, lying in the blood-soaked dirt, were Suzu, Kami, and Mei. Stripped bare. Lifeless, glassy eyes staring blankly at the sky.
Hysteria broke out. Girls collapsed into sobs, hyperventilating in absolute terror.
Moments later, the brush snapped. Genta stumbled into the clearing, covered in bleeding lacerations, leaning heavily on his chipped axe. He looked up, saw the bodies, and clenched his bloody jaw so hard his lip split.
"Tch... so it was them," Genta spat, fresh blood dripping from his brow. "Dammit! We have to move! They're right behind me!"
We ran, but it was too late.
Dozens of hulking, Level 900 goblins burst from the northern thicket, snarling, while Ren and the three twitching puppets cut off our rear.
Genta raised his axe with trembling arms. We were surrounded. It was over.
Part 7: The Master of All Trades
[Sol Yuki's POV]
Tracking their signatures on my 3D map, I arrived at the exact second the trap snapped shut on my old classmates.
I didn't waste a breath.
"[Life or Death]."
My body blurred forward, shattering the laws of physics.
A single linear dash bypassed the entire goblin vanguard. The kinetic vacuum in my wake literally atomized every single Level 900 goblin into red mist and pixelated dust before they even knew I was there. The trailing shockwave blasted the four delinquent puppets backward, slamming them hard into the earth.
I planted my boots, activating [Pluto’s God’s Eye].
My cosmic vision pierced straight through their clothes and flesh, instantly spotting the dark magical puppet strings threaded directly into their spinal columns.
Rena stepped gracefully out of the shadows beside me, her hand resting on her Great Forest Estoc, her crimson Phoenix Cloak drifting in the wind. "Yuki... their souls are gone. They're just empty meat."
"Yeah," Lilica chimed in, stepping up on my left. Her Claws of the Divine Dragon glinted in the pale light, her silver tail swishing with dangerous excitement. "A puppeteer is pulling the strings. Hey, big sis! Let's show Yuki that combo we worked on!"
Rena chuckled, her pointed ears twitching beneath her green locks. "Let's give our husband a show."
Damn, I love these two, I smirked internally, stepping back to let them work.
Rena began a melodic chant in ancient High Elven, while Lilica intoned a booming, deep draconic rhythm.
BZZZZZT!
Blinding golden lightning wrapped around Rena's estoc. With a high-speed leap, Lilica landed right on the flat of the blade, channeling the electricity through her draconic frame.
In terrifying, beautiful unison, my two wives yelled across the clearing:
⚡🐉 [FUSION ART: LIGHTNING QUEEN'S DRAGON REQUIEM]
Lilica threw her head back, and a sky-splitting dragon of pure, roaring golden lightning erupted from her throat. The apocalyptic beam engulfed the four puppets, vaporizing their bodies down to absolute ash in a single, blinding flash.
Silence fell over the forest.
The smoke cleared, revealing a lawn of scorched grass.
I rested the smooth wood of the [Heartwood Spine] against my shoulder, stepping calmly into the clearing. I looked at the stunned, weeping, and trembling crowd of high school kids, my gaze finally settling on two familiar faces.
"Hey. Ridley. Shizuku," I said, a faint, confident smirk on my face. "Glad I made it in time."
Before either of them could process that the overpowered god standing before them was the quiet ghost from the back row, I stepped into their space. Reaching out with both hands, I firmly pulled them affectionately into my chest, holding them both close. "You all did well."
The intimate, grounding touch snapped their overloaded brains.
Both the calculating student council president and the fearless gal leader froze solid. Their faces blazed a furious, bright crimson as the dam broke, tears streaming down their cheeks into my shirt as they clung to me for dear life.
Part 8: The Luxury Sanctuary and the Bathhouse Rush
After calming Ridley and Shizuku with a couple of firm head-pats, I turned on my heel and walked over to Genta.
The athletic captain was leaning heavily against his chipped battle axe, his chest heaving as blood dripped from deep gashes into the dirt. He was running purely on adrenaline.
"Man, you got thoroughly worked over out there," I said, my voice calm as my lenses assessed his vitals. "Drink these. Now."
I pulled a glowing [God-Tier Elixir] and a [God-Mana Ether] from my bag, shoving the crystal vials into his hands. Genta didn't hesitate—he uncorked them and downed both in one desperate gulp.
A brilliant, warm white light flared across his broad torso. In seconds, the deep lacerations sealed, torn muscle fibers knitted back together, and the exhaustion vanished from his face.
Genta stared at his restored arms in absolute disbelief. "Holy shit..."
"Alright," I said, turning back to the traumatized high schoolers. "Follow my lead. Let's get everyone somewhere safe."
Genta stepped up beside me, glancing back down the dark southern path with a haunted look. "Yuki, wait. What about the rest of the guys back at camp? Our barricades—"
I placed a firm, grounding hand on his shoulder. "We’ll deal with the camp, Genta. I promise. But we get the girls behind safe walls first."
Genta looked back at the trembling, crying girls, swallowed hard, and gave a heavy nod. "Yeah... you're right. Lead the way."
We headed north. Every few minutes, a deep, concussive BOOM echoed through the trees as one of my automated Earth Magic pillars erupted from the bedrock to crush a Level 900 beast wandering near my borders. The girls jumped and shrieked at every impact.
Rena gracefully fell in step beside Ridley and Shizuku, offering a gentle smile. "Don't be frightened, girls. That's just Yuki’s automated defense system clearing out the trash. He'll explain the mechanics once we're inside."
Hearing a drop-dead gorgeous High Elf casually mention an automated perimeter defense left Ridley and Shizuku nodding in a daze, following along without another word.
An hour later, we reached the camouflaged cliffside fissure.
I tapped the stone seal, and the entrance groaned open. The moment the students stepped inside, the entire crowd froze. They stared at the polished stone furniture, the fully equipped modern kitchen, and the warm, elevated bedrooms in stunned silence.
Then the realization hit them: they were safe.
Before I could even lay down house rules, a massive swarm of girls broke rank and surrounded me, cornering me against the counter.
"Yuki! Is there a bath?!"
"Please tell me there's hot water!"
"I need to get this blood off me!"
They were practically climbing over each other. Genta took one look at the desperate, cornered mob, chuckled under his breath, and respectfully stepped back outside the cave to give them privacy.
"Yeah," I smirked, pointing past the living room. "Through that archway."
All twenty girls spun around like an Olympic relay team. The second they saw the massive stone tubs steaming with geothermal spring water, every shred of modesty flew out the window.
Driven by days of sweat, dirt, and sheer terror, they stripped out of their shredded, blood-stained school uniforms right there in the middle of the room. Blazers hit the floor, shirts were ripped off, and pleated skirts pooled around their ankles. In seconds, twenty gorgeous high school girls were sprinting naked toward the steaming water, entirely unbothered by my presence at the counter.
I stood there, leaning against the stone, letting out an amused, appreciative whistle.
Well, damn. Talk about an eyeful. My [Heightened Libido] hummed in the background as my eyes traced the curve of hips, smooth skin, and flushed cheeks glowing in the ambient cave crystals. Definitely a perk of the job.
But I wasn't Arashi Ren. I wasn't going to prey on terrified girls who just needed to feel safe.
Keeping my composure, I pulled a dozen bottles of modern shampoo, citrus body wash, and plush cotton towels from my bag, tossing them to Rena.
"Help them get sorted out," I said, my voice steady and completely in control. "Genta and I are heading back out to scout the camp and look for survivors. Keep Lilica close and hold the perimeter."
"Be careful out there, Yuki," Rena nodded, catching the bundle, her emerald eyes glowing with deep affection for the respect I was showing them.
"Always," I smiled.
Before heading back out into the deadly dark, I pulled both Rena and Lilica against my chest, giving each of my actual wives a deep, lingering kiss that left them blushing right in front of the steaming bathhouse.
Then, Genta and I stepped back into the forest to hunt down the truth.