Chapter 14

The next day.

"Mr. Gojo, I'm sorry to say there's been an emergency. We've observed several cursed spirits of level one strength near Hachibancho. Since all the [Window] members have been urgently deployed to the sewers to assist with the [Rat Cursed Spirit] incident, you're the only one who can go to the scene immediately..."

Faced with Gojo Satoru's unpredictable behavior, Ijichi Kiyotaka, the assistant director, was sweating profusely over the phone, fearing he would be scolded.

Surprisingly, his request for an urgent mission did not elicit any complaints.

"Okay, no problem, just send me the detailed address—"

On the other end of the phone, Gojo Satoru sounded quite happy and readily accepted the temporary assignment.

"Okay, oh wait... Mr. Gojo is in a good mood?"

Kiyotaka Ichi asked, puzzled.

"Not bad," Gojo Satoru chuckled twice into the phone. "Good luck to Ijichi and Nanami too. Bye-bye!"

He drew out the last syllable of each sentence, with a light and rising intonation.

Even after hanging up the call, a smile remained on his lips as he waved playfully at the black-haired young man sitting beside him, waiting for him to finish his call.

"Let's go, let's go, I'll take you to exorcise the cursed spirit—"

“Okay.” Kazuma Hatake stood up.

Finally, I can run dungeons with the pros! I'm really looking forward to it.

This game has a very unique design. Whether it's wild monsters or elite monsters, they mostly roam in areas with many players and can cause harm to ordinary people.

This also means that when sorcerers exorcise cursed spirits, they not only need to disperse ordinary people in advance, but also cast a barrier spell called "[Tent]", which is intended to confuse ordinary people's perceptions so that they cannot discover the battle inside the "[Tent]" and only think that the buildings are still the same as usual.

In fact, Gojo Satoru had already cut off a large portion of the building's roof, leaving a clean and smooth cut with not a single remnant remaining.

The enormous cursed spirit, as large as a steamroller, was emitting intermittent wails, as if its entire body was being compressed by the air, collapsing and twisting inward.

Kazuma Hatori stood to the side, having no chance to make a move.

However, Gojo Satoru forcibly compressed it to one-fifth of its original size before stopping [Azure]'s curse power output.

“Come, try out your technique,” ​​he said, turning to Kazuma Hatake. “The owners of the [Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique] I’ve seen activate the technique in two ways. One is to manipulate the components of their own blood and use it as a stimulant to enhance their physical strength.”

"Another method is to control one's own blood outside the body and use it as a medium- to long-range weapon—some of which are attached to weapons for manipulation, while others simply use the blood as a weapon."

Which one can you use right now?

Gojo Satoru smiled and tilted his head at him, as if a barrier had been created in the space, stopping the shockwave of the cursed spirit at a distance of half a meter.

Even when facing a near-first-level cursed spirit, he was completely at ease and didn't take the opponent seriously at all.

The blindfold to prevent [Six Eyes] from being too burdened has been pulled down to her neck, freeing her from the constraints of gravity. Her short, silver hair falls softly down her side, radiating an ethereal, warm glow in the sunlight.

But upon closer inspection, one can see that many hair ends are sticking up with a defiant air, as if they are determined to challenge gravity to see who is higher.

"However, these are all techniques of the [Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique], so you should be able to use them all."

Gojo Satoru stepped aside, allowing Hatori Kazuma to face the dying cursed spirit directly, so he could just practice and finish it off.

For Kazuma Hatake to be cared for like this by Gojo-sensei, who usually lets students conduct trials on their own, is a first in his life. Kiyotaka Ijichi was so shocked by this that his glasses shattered.

【You have found a near-Level 1 [Hammer Curse Spirit].】

[Enter battle: Yes/No.]

This pop-up had been hanging in Kazuma Hatake's field of vision for a long time, and he finally clicked "Yes".

The game's combat mechanics are well-designed. As long as he doesn't choose to enter combat, the enemy target can never attack him first, even if Gojo Satoru is in a team with him.

It's probably a protective measure, to prevent him from suddenly encountering a high-level cursed spirit that he can't defeat at all.

By the way, does this game have a resurrection mechanism? Does dying mean the end of the current playthrough, or can the character resurrect infinitely until the story is completed and the ending is reached?

These thoughts went through Kazuma Hatori's mind, but he suppressed them for the time being.

After all, he has more important things to do now.

[Crimson Blood Technique]!

With the game's assistive actions, Kazuma Hatake scattered countless blood droplets with a wave of his hand. After a brief pause in the air, the explosive force that sped toward the target was like a barrage of machine gun fire, instantly riddling the cursed spirit with holes and even piercing through the solid concrete wall with countless holes.

The cursed spirit, squeezed into a compressed biscuit shape by Gojo Satoru and unable to move, could only let out one last wail before vanishing completely.

When Kazuma Hatake withdrew his hand, a prism-shaped, jet-black crystal lay in his palm once more, its color much richer than the level-four curse crystal that had fallen last time.

[Near-Level 1 Spell Power Crystal: Significantly increases the maximum spell power.]

As expected of his core skill, [Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique], it depleted his curse power in one strike.

As for this crystal... Just as Hatake Kazumi was about to [eat] it, a hand suddenly reached out and took the cursed crystal away.

"Um?"

Kazuma Hatake looked at Satoru Gojo, who was carefully examining the crystal, his blue eyes wide open, incredibly beautiful.

"It really has nothing but cursed power, and its composition is different from that of cursed objects..."

Gojo Satoru curiously examined the crystal from all angles, completely baffled as to why the cursed spirit exorcised by Hato Kazuma would drop such a strange object.

"This, can we just eat it directly?" He waved the prism, which was slightly thicker than his index finger, at Kazuma Hatake.

"right."

Kazuma Hatake nodded, and then saw Satoru Gojo twist the end of the cursed crystal and put the whole crystal into his mouth with a gulp.

"…………"

He quickly spat it out again, his face crestfallen. "I can't swallow it. It's not like it melts in my mouth at all."

Completely different from Kazuma Hagoromo's description, this thing is also hard and gritty!

Gojo Satoru wiped the crystal on his clothes and handed it back to Hagoromo Kazuma. "It seems only you can use it. It should be a technique other than [Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique]?"

"almost."

Kazuma Hatake took the crystal and successfully performed the [absorption] action.

Gojo Satoru watched as he calmly swallowed the crystal, completely unconcerned about his earlier actions... He seemed to want to say something but hesitated, as if it would be strange to actually say it out loud.

Sigh, never mind, since the other party hasn't realized it yet, he can just pretend he didn't notice...

[Curse Power (Level 3): The foundation for all skill usage. The maximum Curse Power can be increased through various methods, granting greater sustained combat time.]

As expected of a near-first-level curse spirit, it not only instantly filled his curse power but also raised its upper limit to the third level.

Before closing the pop-up window, Kazuma Hatake opened the affection level interface.

Currently, the people you have had contact with are listed below in order of favorability:

Gojo Satoru: 31;

Fushiguro Megumi: 10;

Kenki Kamo: -10;

Kamo Nagayoshi: -100;

Kamo Noyoshi: -100;

Kamo Heishichi: -100;

...

In the past few days, Gojo Satoru had silently increased his favorability by 20 points!

Kazuma Hatori's mood immediately improved.

Just as he closed the pop-up window, a warning suddenly appeared on the screen.

Please note that the following characters have extremely low obedience levels, increasing the likelihood that they will perform actions outside of your commands.

Kazuma Hagoromo glanced at the list and found it consisted mostly of old men like Chokichi Kamo.

Well, he hadn't even bothered to argue with these old men who also worked in the General Manager's Office about assigning Gojo Satoru an excessive workload, and they dared to lower the level of obedience on their own?

Heh, let's wait for him to go back.

After Gojo Satoru used his [Six Eyes] to confirm that there was no other cursed spirit in the building, he left with Hato Kazuma and headed to the next location sent by Ijichi Kiyotaka.

In the past, once the cursed spirits were exorcised, there was no follow-up, or at most, a cursed item would be dropped that needed to be sealed.

Unlike now, it's like grinding monsters in a game. When the head of the Kamo family performs exorcisms on the cursed spirits, crystals drop! It's so interesting!

Gojo Satoru, who always enjoys playing these kinds of fighting games, spent several days thoroughly clearing out all the places in the vicinity where the cursed spirits had been observed.

Kazuma Hatake followed behind him, finishing off the enemy and absorbing the [crystallization], his entire sequence of movements fluid and skillful.

Not only did the spell power surge to level one, but the [Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique], which had been repeatedly maxed out in proficiency, also gained several new attack methods.

As a way of repaying the big boss for carrying him, the backing paper of Kazuma Hatake was already covered with stamps, all of which were desserts he made using his cooking skills.

Actually, he himself has absolutely no cooking skills. Fortunately, after selecting the dessert to make, the game will provide corresponding skill assistance—meaning that as long as he buys enough ingredients, there is always a chance of making it successfully.

Today, since there are no cursed spirits to be exorcised for the time being, they are sitting by the river called the Mogami River, fishing.

Kazuma Hatori mainly wanted to fish to earn gold coins, while Satoru Gojo was just accompanying him, but he also had a great time fishing.

"Hmph, Mr. Gojo, who can do everything perfectly, will even have a full catch when he goes fishing!"

"As expected of Satoru," Kazuma Hato applauded in agreement, and also gave him a reward.

"Once you catch ten fish, you can get the final stamp."

"Wow, we're just one step away from the [mystery dessert]! This is really getting me excited!"

Gojo Satoru became even more excited and was about to cast his line with great force when the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.

"Mr. Gojo, [Rat Curse Spirit] has fused together. It's time for you to make your appearance!"

“…Ijichi, I’ll kill you.”

"Huh!?"