Kiana's half-laughing, half-screaming cries drew the attention of the Herrscher of Rice, who was busy making breakfast.
Under the firm culinary authority of Mei, the chaos finally came to an end—though only barely.
It had to be said: Mei's cooking was leagues better than Nagami's.
No one was willing to sacrifice a delicious breakfast just for the sake of pranking a certain little troublemaker.
After enjoying a delightful meal, the trio—Mei, Kiana, and Nagami—headed out for school like usual.
C.C. stood at the doorway, smiling softly and waving her delicate hand in farewell.
Once they were gone, she turned back into the living room, pulled out her phone, and checked the delivery progress.
'Perfect!'
The ultimate otaku care package she had prepared for Shiraori would arrive this afternoon.
Once everything was ready, C.C. would set off immediately.
The system will pulled him out of the timeline and dropped him back into the exact same spot, so there was no need for the two to stick together.
Her consciousness shifted into the chat group's shop interface.
With a tap on the "Buy" button—unlocked via her admin privileges—a hundred points were deducted.
A pure white card silently emerged from the void and dropped into C.C.'s pale hand.
"This is the dimension travel card? Why does it have a physical form?"
She muttered to herself as her golden eyes shifted, now transformed into swirling violet hexagrams.
But even with all her accumulated knowledge, C.C. couldn't decipher the workings of this item created by the group.
All she could make out were vague, flowing rules inscribed on its surface.
Thanks to her undying Code, C.C. no longer feared recklessness.
So naturally, she did something incredibly reckless.
The rotation of the violet stars in her eyes accelerated.
Several hexagram magic circles began to spin around the card in her hand, their surfaces etched with mysterious, otherworldly patterns.
And then—
It was like a flashbang had detonated inside her skull.
C.C.'s mind was overwhelmed by the onslaught of information as she felt herself drifting through a boundless universe.
Countless images surged toward her like an endless kaleidoscope of dazzling beauty.
She saw infinite worlds and limitless possibilities.
Just as her consciousness was about to collapse under the weight of it all, the Code etched into her soul glowed faint red—and in the next instant, the observation cut off.
"Guh!"
C.C. collapsed onto the sofa as if struck by a truck, blood gushing not only from her mouth but also her nose and ears.
Only her eyes were spared.
Veins bulged from her forehead as her tightly shut eyelids twitched.
She looked utterly wrecked.
Slowly, she licked the traces of blood from her lips and reopened her eyes, revealing irises of radiant gold.
Her gaze shimmered with a mesmerizing intensity.
"Haa… haa…"
Still panting from the mental impact, the weakened green-haired girl broke into a giddy smile.
Totally worth it!
She never imagined that a mere 100-point travel card would contain such an overwhelming volume of information.
For those two brief seconds, C.C. felt like she had glimpsed the very truth of existence.
Unfortunately, the vision vanished as quickly as it came.
Her mind simply couldn't withstand the torrent of knowledge, and if not for the Code protecting her, she might've been mentally shattered.
Then again, without the Code, she never would've dared such a foolhardy experiment in the first place.
Staggering into the bathroom, she washed the blood from her face and then returned to the sofa, eyes closed.
She needed to recover before the next phase of her plan.
————————————————————————
Meanwhile, in the Great Elroe Labyrinth…
A pale white spider was locked in a tense standoff with a massive blue elite frog monster.
Both were barely clinging to life.
Shiraori's back was marred by acid burns, and the skin around one eye had melted away under the frog's venom.
Blood and traces of poison trickled down her body.
"You bastard…"
The Elroe frog wasn't doing any better.
Its lower half was bound tight in a cocoon of white silk, completely immobilized.
Sticky, resilient webbing covered the battlefield like a trap-laden zone.
With a sharp lunge using her slender yet powerful legs, Shiraori catapulted herself upward, snagging a fallen stone slab with her web.
With force and precision, she whipped it toward the frog, which struggled to dodge despite being partially trapped.
It tried to writhe away, but more webs shot from the front and locked it further in place.
The stone slab crashed into the frog's body, shattering into chunks and leaving deep wounds in its thick hide.
"Ribbit-graaaah!!"
The beast let out a shriek of pain, its sanity clearly slipping.
It opened its monstrous maw, tongue glowing blue like a twisted cross between a snake and a flower petal.
Venom began brewing in the massive poison sacs beneath its jaws.
With a furious roar, it unleashed a wave of toxic fluid, hurtling toward the wounded Shiraori with terrifying speed and range.
There was no time to dodge.
"Aaaaghhh!!!"
The searing pain forced a scream from Shiraori, but she didn't lose focus. As the frog reared back to spew another blast—
"Like hell I'll let you!"
A spray of web shot through the air, manipulated flawlessly by Shiraori's natural spider instincts.
The tough, white threads wrapped tightly around the frog monster's gaping mouth, pinning its pale purple tongue to the outside like a grotesque ribbon.
In a split-second flash, Shiraori leapt forward at lightning speed—so fast she became a blur—and closed in on the monster.
Without hesitation, she opened her fang-lined jaws wide and sank them deep into its body.
"Yaaahhh!!!"
Venom gushed from her fangs and surged into the frog monster's system.
Already critically wounded, it barely held on for two seconds under her venomous assault before collapsing with a dull thud, completely motionless.
"And that's that~!"
Despite her own severe injuries, Shiraori's tone remained as cheerful as ever.
She retracted the last bit of unused web and extended one of her long legs—clad in her signature natural black "stocking"—then began dragging the cocooned frog forward.
"Alrighty, time to haul this back to my nice, safe little home~"
A faint white crack of light shimmered down the center of her body and began to spread.
Within moments, her entire form—no, her entire spider-being—was aglow with a brilliant, radiant hue.
When the light faded, the skin that had been corroded was perfectly healed, soft and flawless once more.
"Ohoho~ I knew it! I leveled up!"
With her beauty filter turned on, the smile on Shiraori's cute little face looked even more dazzling.
After returning to the silk-crafted nest she called home, she hung her lunch on a thread nearby and flopped onto her cozy web, belly-up.
"Ahh~ I'm so tired. Finally hit Level 8! Just two more levels and I can evolve! Let's gooo~!"
When alone, Shiraori was like a professional comedy act, flailing her little legs around to cheer herself on.
"Hehehe~ I can't help it, I'm just kinda excited~"
Just then, a faint vibration from her web caught her attention.
Shiraori froze for a moment, then lit up with excitement.
"Hm? Did something walk into my trap? Jackpot today~!"
Expertly shooting out a strand of web, she descended gracefully and moved toward the source of the disturbance.
Her front two legs came together in a mock prayer.
"I won't ask for much… just, please—no more frogs."
But her high-speed dash came to an abrupt stop.
Shiraori stared intently at what was caught in her web: not one, but two human-shaped figures.
One was a handsome black-haired boy with messy hair like ink, the other a beautiful green-haired girl.
The boy was holding a glowing, razor-sharp blade, ready to cut the web and free the girl.
What shocked Shiraori most was that—despite her stealth—both of them clearly sensed her presence.
Their perception... it wasn't normal.
But then—something even more terrifying happened.
Instead of panicking, the black-haired boy looked relieved upon seeing her.
He actually smiled.
And then, with a clear, energetic voice that echoed like thunder through the silent labyrinth, he called out:
"Shiro-chan! I came to play with you!!"