บท 2: Borders on chatroom that dismisses

Five minutes later, Takumi emerged from the bathroom. Although the events from five minutes ago were still vivid in his mind, a splash of cold water had helped clear his head, and he had regained his composure. As he glanced at the ongoing conversation in the chat room, his face appeared remarkably calm, at least on the surface.

Da Benda: "Hello, everyone. I'm back."

17-year-old girl: "So, do you believe me now?"

Dead house Kaguya-hime: "You must have been quite startled, haha."

Xiao Wu Loli: "Oh, poor thing. He probably can't distinguish between reality and fantasy anymore."

Patchouli Go: "Hey, can you please be a bit more considerate with your words? Let's not frighten him again."

...

Well, it still feels unbelievable, but Takumi rubbed his slightly aching temples. As a 20-year-old adult, he believed his worldview was well-established. Before today, he would never have thought that trolling a 2D character on QQ could result in that character smashing his head on the keyboard. If such a thing were to happen, it would be truly bizarre.

After all, he lived in a single apartment, and in the middle of the night, what else could it be other than a ghost? But even if there were really a ghost, what kind of ghost would be so bored to do something like this? So... was he really not dreaming?

The pain in his thigh ruled out the possibility of it being a dream. After much contemplation, Takumi had no choice but to believe the reality before him. Since he couldn't prove it was fake, he might as well try to believe it. It might not be a bad thing after all.

The worst-case scenario was being played for a fool.

Da Benda: "Well, I believe what you guys said. So, what was the reason for inviting me to this group? It wasn't just to give me a good scare, right?"

17-year-old girl: "Of course not. Take a look at the group information first."

Takumi casually clicked on the group information in the upper right corner.

[2D Chat Room]

[Group Members: 5]

[17-year-old girl, Dead house Kaguya-hime, Patchouli Go, Xiao Wu Loli, Da Benda]

[Group Level: None]

[Interference Value: Ten]

[Upgrade Requirement: When the group has more than ten members, it can be upgraded to LV1]

[Note: If unable to reach LV1 within 30 days, the group will be automatically disbanded]

[Countdown: 28 days, 12 hours, 25 minutes, 32 seconds]

Da Benda: "What the heck is this? The group will automatically disband?"

17-year-old girl: "Yes, as I mentioned earlier, in order for this chat room to continue to exist, we must invite more members to join."

Da Benda: "If it's just ten people, it shouldn't be difficult. You guys in Gensokyo can gather a bunch."

17-year-old girl: "No, the number of people who can join the group from each world is limited. Although this number increases as the group level goes up, for now, I can only allow three people to join from my side. Oh, since I'm the proxy group leader, I don't count towards the limit. So, taking everything into consideration, I chose these three."

17-year-old girl: "And in your world, only one person is allowed to join, and that person happens to be you."

Da Benda: "So, we have to find the remaining group members from other worlds? Is there a way to do that?"

17-year-old girl: "The method is quite simple. The chat room has the ability to teleport across worlds. By teleporting an administrator to a certain 2D world, that administrator gains the authority to invite someone to the group."

17-year-old girl: "Of course, with my current authority, I can only appoint one administrator, and due to the low group level, we can only do single-person teleportation."

Da Benda: "And then?"

Takumi suddenly had a bad feeling.

Da Benda: "You're not planning to send me, are you?"

17-year-old girl: "Indeed, you truly are the young man I had in mind. You're quite clever!"

Da Benda: "No, no, no, this has nothing to do with being clever. You're clearly trying to trick me!"

17-year-old girl: "How can you say that? This is an opportunity to travel to the 2D world, something that many Dead house enthusiasts dream of. Aren't you tempted?"

Da Benda: "Um, although I am indeed tempted, I'm not foolish."

Da Benda: "I'm neither skilled in literature nor martial arts, nor am I the protagonist of an anime or novel. I don't have a protagonist's aura. If I were to go to those dangerous worlds, let alone inviting someone to the group, I probably wouldn't even survive."

Da Benda: "By the way, you monsters are all skilled fighters. Wouldn't it be better for you to go yourselves?"

17-year-old girl: "That's the problem. Open up the profiles of the five of us in the group and take a look."

Takumi proceeded to open the individual profiles of the five members in the group and examined them one by one. At first glance, there was nothing particularly unusual, but upon closer inspection, he noticed something strange in each of their profiles - Interference Value.

He recalled seeing this Interference Value in the group information before.

Da Benda: "What is this Interference Value?"

17-year-old girl: "The Interference Value is a measure of the chat room's influence on the world."

17-year-old girl: "Firstly, there are two types of Interference Value. One is determined by the inherent interference value of the world itself, which is based on the size and strength of the world. Simply put, the larger the world's scope, the higher the Interference Value. The second type is personal Interference Value, which also varies in strength. The stronger the individual's abilities, the higher the value."

Takumi glanced at the Interference Values of the five individuals once again, and indeed, those four monsters had high values. Patchouli Go had 157, Shou Toramaru had 172, Kaguya Houraisan had 199, and the highest was Yakumo Yukari with a staggering 250.

As for himself... a measly four Interference Value!

Although it was somewhat embarrassing to have such a low value, on the other hand, it wasn't zero!

17-year-old girl: "The Interference Value primarily reflects the ability to influence other worlds. Therefore, as long as someone is alive, there is no such thing as a zero Interference Value."

17-year-old girl: "You've seen the group information earlier. The Interference Value is only ten. In other words, at the current level of the chat room, we can only reach worlds with an Interference Value of ten or below, which essentially means there are hardly any supernatural daily-life worlds."

Da Benda: "So, the four of you can't go?"

Takumi, after all, wasn't an idiot and understood the situation by this point.

17-year-old girl: "That's only natural. With the Interference Values of the four of us, if we were to enter a daily-life world and casually use our abilities, it would cause tremendous waves and have countless consequences. Therefore, even if the chat room forcibly teleports us there, we would be kicked out by the will of the world. After all, the current chat room doesn't have the function to reduce Interference Value."

17-year-old girl: "And then, your Interference Value is only four, which perfectly fits the current situation. So, in order to save the chat room from dissolution, please step forward and become our idol!"