“Wait, me?”
Julian pointed a thumb at his own chest, taking a small step back.
“You’re asking me?”
“Who else is standing here?” Kashimo’s eyes narrowed, his brow furrowing as he leaned slightly on his iron staff.
“Why would a sorcerer like you voluntarily jump into the Culling Game?”
The barrier was an open slaughterhouse.
Every participant risked execution the second they crossed the threshold.
To Kashimo’s knowledge, aside from the unlucky modern civilians Kenjaku had forcibly awakened or marked, nobody stepped inside without a reason.
And Julian clearly wasn’t an awakened non-sorcerer modified on the spot—his knowledge of ancient sorcerers and secret techniques was far too deep for a clueless civilian.
He had walked through the barrier on his own two feet.
Kashimo simply couldn’t fathom why a guy with barely enough strength to survive a high fall would willingly step onto a battlefield full of monsters.
Julian scratched his cheek, offering an awkward grin.
“Well…
it’s a bit complicated.”
He couldn’t exactly tell a four-hundred-year-old thunder god that he clicked a random option on a short video and got dragged across dimensions by a system to fight Ryomen Sukuna.
After a short pause, Julian straightened his posture slightly.
“Let’s just say I have a personal obligation to take on Sukuna.”
“Take on Sukuna?
You?”
Kashimo stared at him for a beat, then let out a sharp, booming laugh that echoed off the surrounding concrete walls.
“Hey!” Julian’s neck flushed red, his hands coming up in defensive gestures.
“Slay the judgment!
Combat isn’t just about raw muscle, alright?
Information warfare is still warfare!
Throwing a shuriken from three miles away counts as an attempt!”
The sheer absurdity of the excuses only made Kashimo laugh harder, clearing the tense air between them.
Night fell swiftly over the industrial grid of Tokyo Colony No.
2.
After another afternoon of hunting along the docks, Kashimo cornered a trio of roaming sorcerers near a warehouse, systematically cutting them down.
By dusk, his score tally sat comfortably at 106 points.
Kashimo wiped a streak of blood from his cheek, a satisfied edge touching his lips.
“Kogane.”
The small winged insect materialized instantly, hovering beside his ear.
“Standing by, Player Kashimo!”
“I want to submit a new rule using one hundred points,” Kashimo declared, his voice firm.
“All players are permitted to freely cross barrier boundaries and enter or exit any colony.”
“Understood.
Reviewing proposed rule for system conflicts…” Kogane paused, its small wings fluttering in a tight rhythm.
“The proposed addition does not conflict with existing regulations.
Rule approved.”
A fraction of a second later, an automated broadcast chimed simultaneously in the minds of every registered player across Japan.
[ Notice: A new rule has been added to the Culling Game by a Player.
]
[ Rule 9: All Players are now permitted to freely enter and leave any Barrier at will.
]
Across the ten colonies, sorcerers and ancient reincarnations paused in their tracks.
Adding a rule required a staggering hundred-point investment—the equivalent of slaughtering twenty sorcerers or a hundred non-sorcerers.
For someone to accumulate that total on the very first day sent a chill through the barriers.
Miles away, hidden in an undisclosed location, Kenjaku paused mid-step, looking up into the dark sky with a faint, amused smile.
“A rule addition already?
Someone cleared one hundred points on day one?”
Though Kenjaku had initiated the ritual, he functioned as a game administrator rather than an absolute authority; he couldn’t simply override or erase rules added through valid point expenditures.
In the original sequence of events, Kashimo had spent his first hundred points to publish the names and point values of all players.
But this time, Kashimo had chosen differently.
“No matter,” Kenjaku murmured, his smile widening slightly as he resumed walking.
“It doesn’t disrupt the core merger protocol.
If anything, allowing movement might make things far more chaotic.”
Back in Tokyo Colony No.
2, Kashimo checked his revised scoreboard and nodded.
With darkness settling over the harbor, he decided to rest until dawn before making the trek northward to Sendai Colony to locate the ancient heavyweights Julian had mentioned.
Back in his original world, endless forum threads had debated Kashimo’s true combat ceiling, endlessly analyzing how he would fare against the top fighters of the Sendai deadlocks.
Now, he was going to watch the matchup unfold with his own eyes.
Even if he caught a stray blast and reset, the front-row seat was worth the risk.
Then, a sudden realization hit him like a bucket of ice water.
In the original timeline, the four powerhouses of Sendai Colony—Dhruv Lakdawalla, Takako Uro, Ryu Ishigori, and Kurourushi—were locked in a delicate four-way stalemate, none able to make a decisive move without exposing themselves to the others.
That deadlock held until Yuta Okkotsu entered the colony and tore through them single-handedly.
By the time the barrier-crossing rule was added in the original story, the Sendai Four had already been broken.
Dhruv was dead, Kurourushi was exorcised, Ryu was satisfied after an all-out clash, and Uro had retreated.
But right now, it was only November 1st.
Yuta Okkotsu hadn’t even entered the Culling Game yet.
Ryu Ishigori was actively seeking a worthy opponent.
Takako Uro was looking for a way to secure her own survival.
Kurourushi was hiding underground to avoid Dhruv’s automated shikigami domain.
If the barrier boundaries suddenly vanished today…
why would any of them stay in Sendai?
Without the barrier trapping them, Uro and Kurourushi could simply walk out and leave the territory entirely.
The only thing keeping players active was the rule penalizing nineteen days of score stagnation with Cursed Technique removal—and top-tier ancient sorcerers already had points to spare.
Julian’s face went completely rigid.
Kashimo, who was preparing to lean against a concrete wall to rest, caught the sudden shift in Julian’s posture.
He turned his sharp eyes toward him.
“What’s wrong with your face?”
Julian offered a stiff, strained smile, his shoulders tight.
“Uh…
Kashimo?
We might have a tiny problem.”
Kashimo’s brow furrowed.
“Speak.”
“That new rule you just added…
it applies to everyone in the game, right?” Julian gulped quietly.
“The fighters in Sendai aren’t stupid.
Now that the walls are down…
they don’t actually have to stay there and wait for you.”