Kazuma was so furious he felt his lungs were about to explode.
He had always thought he was shameless enough.
He hadn’t expected there to be someone even more shameless than him.
“Don’t put it like that. It’s no big deal, no big deal~”
Gintoki stood up and dusted himself off.
“It’s called making rational use of resources. Look, you drew all the attention, I successfully got away, and then we reunited here safe and sound. Isn’t that a win-win? The outcome was good, so there’s no need to nitpick over the process.”
“A win-win, my ass! I nearly got arrested! And why do you get ten thousand while I only get three thousand?! The system is biased! I want to file a complaint!”
“I already told you. It’s the difference in professional spirit.”
Gintoki lazily picked his nose, wearing an expression that seemed to say, You’re still too green.
“Next time, remember to throw away the towel too. I’m sure you’ll get a higher score.”
“Next time, I’ll pluck every last strand of that stupid perm of yours and use it as a towel!”
The two men continued arguing inside the vast, silent church like a pair of elementary-school children, trading insults back and forth with spit flying everywhere.
Kazuma was racking his brain, trying to think of an even more vicious insult to hurl at Gintoki, when the words suddenly caught in his throat.
The anger and contortion on his face slowly changed into stiffness and bewilderment.
His gaze passed over Gintoki’s shoulder and locked onto the empty space behind him.
Gintoki noticed that Kazuma had suddenly gone silent.
Thinking his razor-sharp retort had finally shattered Kazuma’s psychological defenses, he couldn’t help feeling smug.
“What? Ran out of things to say? Let me tell you, when it comes to arguing, yours truly has never—”
“Hey…”
Kazuma’s voice trembled slightly.
He swallowed.
“You shameless natural-perm bastard…”
He swallowed again.
“Have you… ever seen a ghost in your life?”
“Huh?”
Gintoki froze for a moment before putting on an incredibly arrogant expression and thumping his chest with the hilt of his wooden sword.
“What kind of stupid question is that? There are no ghosts in this world! They’re just stories people tell to scare children!”
He paused before continuing confidently.
“Besides, we’re in a church right now, got it? Don’t be scared! God has got our backs here. Even if there were ghosts, they’d have to take a detour!”
Kazuma ignored his speech.
His face was growing increasingly pale.
He swallowed hard, then shakily raised a finger and pointed behind Gintoki.
“Then… then why hasn’t God gotten rid of those four green ghosts behind you?”
“Those green things… You bastard, don’t think you can scare yours truly with some cheap ghost story…”
Gintoki was still trying to act tough.
But when he saw the unmistakable terror on Kazuma’s face—the kind of expression that could only come from someone who had genuinely seen a ghost—his heart couldn’t help but skip a beat.
A chill crept up the back of his neck.
His head turned backward like a rusted gear, one notch at a time, painfully slowly.
And then he saw them.
Four translucent figures radiating an eerie green light were floating behind him.
They had no facial features, only hollow silhouettes.
Their heads were tilted to one side as though they were curiously examining him.
The laziness and arrogance that perpetually accompanied those dead-fish eyes evaporated within 0.1 seconds.
In their place was nothing but pure, frozen blankness.
“AAAAAAAH—!!!”
A scream loud enough to shatter eardrums erupted from the throat of the man known as the Shiroyasha.
It was even more miserable than Kazuma’s scream in Times Square.
His entire body seemed to have been stripped of its bones.
His knees gave out, and he fell backward in a straight line, landing directly in the arms of the equally terrified Kazuma.
“GHOSTS AAAAAAAAH—!!!”
“What the hell are you screaming for?! Get up! You’re heavy!”
Kazuma staggered under Gintoki’s weight.
The two of them clung to each other as they scrambled backward, rolling and crawling across the floor.
The four ghosts seemed to find them amusing.
They floated toward them at a leisurely pace.
“Don’t come any closer! Stay away!”
Gintoki hid behind Kazuma, only daring to stick half his head out.
His voice trembled uncontrollably.
“Didn’t you say God had our backs?! Then get God out here and make Him do His job!”
Kazuma desperately tried to push Gintoki off him as he retreated.
“How am I supposed to know God took the day off here?!”
Gintoki clung tightly to Kazuma’s clothes, treating him as his only human shield.
“Besides, you’re in the Guardian Faction! Get out there! Protect me!”
“I’ll protect you from my ass! Aren’t you in the Neutral Faction?! Go negotiate with them! Maybe they’re Neutral Faction members too!”
“Negotiate with what?! They don’t even have mouths!”
The two shoved and pushed at each other, each desperately trying to make the other become the first unfortunate soul to make contact with the ghosts.
They continued backing away until—
THUD!
Their backs slammed into the cold stone wall.
There was nowhere left to retreat.
The four ghosts had already floated right in front of them, trapping them in the corner.
A cold, intangible presence washed over them.
Both grown men broke out in goosebumps.
Despair descended upon them.
Then, in the midst of that deathly standoff, a crisp, slightly mocking laugh suddenly rang through the vast church.
“Horohorohorohoro…”
Immediately afterward came the sound of click, click, click.
The steady rhythm of high heels striking the stone floor approached from the depths of the church.
Unhurried.
Elegant.
Each step echoed clearly through the deathly silent surroundings, reaching the ears of the two terrified men.
The two of them stood as rigidly as specimens pinned to a wall, afraid to move even an inch.
Gintoki had practically latched himself onto Kazuma like a drowning man clinging to a lifeline.
“Hey! Stop shaking! You’re going to shake my towel off!”
Kazuma hissed angrily under his breath.
“Who gives a damn about your towel?! Worry about our lives first!”
Gintoki shot back in a trembling, almost tearful voice, shaking like a leaf in the autumn wind.
A petite figure slowly emerged from the shadows.
Moonlight streamed through the stained-glass windows, bathing her in a hazy halo.
She had long pink hair tied into twin tails, with a small black top hat perched on her head.
She wore a black strapless dress decorated with pale-purple ruffles that accentuated her slender waist.
A pair of red high heels covered her feet.
In one hand, she held an equally bright red parasol.
In the other, she carried a patched-up stuffed teddy bear.
She was a Gothic girl who looked no older than sixteen or seventeen.
Kazuma and Gintoki both froze.
The green-faced, fanged ghost with floor-length hair that they had imagined never appeared.
Instead, standing before them was an adorable girl who looked as though she had stepped straight out of a manga.
Gintoki’s taut nerves relaxed slightly.
But when he saw the four green ghosts still circling affectionately around the girl, his face remained as white as paper.
Kazuma, however, suddenly narrowed his eyes.
His attention had been completely captured by the conspicuous symbol above the girl’s head.
It was a blood-red skull radiating an ominous aura.
[Raid Faction Player]
The system’s description of the factions instantly exploded across Kazuma’s mind—
Raid Faction: Primarily focused on plundering and attacking other Players.
Highly aggressive.
Exercise extreme caution!
Cold sweat immediately soaked Kazuma’s back.
This was even more terrifying than seeing ghosts!
Ghosts could only scare people.
But the seemingly harmless girl standing before him was someone who could actually kill him!
And those ghosts…
They weren’t ghosts at all.
They were her ability!
“Horohorohorohoro…”
The girl looked at the two grown men huddled together in the corner in the most pathetic state imaginable.
Her eyes were filled with undisguised contempt.
“Honestly, two grown men getting this scared by my Negative Hollows? That’s just embarrassing.”
She lightly tapped the tip of her parasol against the floor, her voice filled with smug superiority.
“But I suppose you two are lucky. I just arrived in this strange world, and I immediately ran into two big fish.”
“Horohorohorohoro…”
“That means I’m one step closer to seeing Lord Moria.”
Lord Moria?