"Kokane. What exactly are the game master’s powers?"
"Under the condition that the Culling Game continues, it’s the authority to modify the rules!
"How far exactly can you go with it?"
".........."
When Kokane fell silent, the room was thrown into confusion once again.
"Kokane? Kokane!"
"It won’t even open its mouth when we ask. So the highlight of the game is supposed to wait until later, huh."
"1000 points.... You’re saying we need to kill at least 200 people?"
"That can’t be right. They said if you kill a player, you can steal their points, so if we hunt down people who’ve killed other players, it should be fewer than that."
"What’s certain is that at least 200 people have to die. You’re saying we can’t do anything until then?"
"........"
It was, quite literally, a death game.
Someone had to die.
The choice was whether to kill directly, or stand by until they died and then steal the points.
"Let me sum it up again. Our goal is to end the Culling Game and kill Kenjaku. There’s no guarantee that becoming the game master will end the Culling Game. It says the priority is to keep it going, after all."
"Wait. If we kill Kenjaku, the host, wouldn’t the Culling Game end?"
"That bastard’s personality means there’s no way he didn’t anticipate that. He said he changed his plan because of Junpei, but a guy who can’t even beat Junpei made it so that killing him would collapse the whole board? Doesn’t make sense."
"So in the end, we have to go along with it......"
The only remaining clue was the eighth rule: the "game master’s powers."
They didn’t know how much could be done with it, but at the very least, they had to keep it out of an outsider’s hands.
No one normal would slaughter enough people to gather 1000 points.
Someone had to step up.
"I’ll do it."
Junpei, having made up his mind, raised his hand with a solemn expression.
"I’ll gather 1000 points by myself."
"You’re being too hasty. Becoming the game master might not even be the solution."
"We can’t just sit on our hands. There are only about 500 people left right now, but if you think about their goal, we can’t rule out the possibility that this spreads across all of Japan. I think we should secure it first before the situation gets any worse."
".....You sure you’re okay with that?"
There was no way he was okay.
200 people. A full 200.
If he killed that many people, how filthy would his soul become?
And even that might all end up being meaningless.
"I’m okay."
But he had to do it.
"Because that is the duty of the strong."
He remembered the words Gojo had once taught him.
Knowing the weight of the lives resting on your shoulders, and still carrying your sins forward into the future.
That was a jujutsushi.
Just as everyone was nodding gloomily,
Ding-a-ding-ding!
with a sound effect, Kokane’s eyes fixed on Junpei rolled back, and the atmosphere shifted.
Kokane’s convulsing mouth opened, and a holographic screen appeared above it.
A form far removed from anything human.
A grotesquely twisted head with multiple eyes.
Only Gakuganji and Yaga, who recognized him, realized the identity of the person who had appeared there anew.
[I believe I can help with that.]
Tengen, the founder of Jujutsu High, revealed himself in person.
'That is...!'
'Tengen!'
The sorcerers swallowed hard, tense.
Sensing the strange mood, Tengen gave a light laugh.
[What you are seeing now is only my avatar. My true body was absorbed by Kenjaku long ago.]
"How....."
[You probably have many things you want to ask, but there is no time. I hurriedly split off this consciousness, so I can only last about thirty minutes.]
So choose your questions carefully.
"....."
Among the hesitant sorcerers, Okkotsu spoke up as their representative.
The first question to ask in a situation like this was already decided.
"I’d like to ask about how to end the Culling Game, and Kenjaku’s true objective."
[Understood. First... let us speak about Kenjaku.]
After briefly recalling the past, Tengen opened his mouth.
[That child’s objective is the 'evolution' of all humanity.]
"I already know that from hearing it from him. What exactly is he trying to do?"
"Why didn’t he just use Idle Transfiguration to turn all the Japanese people into sorcerers back then?"
[Simply because he lacked the cursed energy. Forcing each person’s evolution one by one with a technique is not efficient.]
The Culling Game is only a pilot stage.
But if the conditions are met, the story changes.
[The colonies of the Culling Game were assembled by piecing together the [barriers] I had laid across Japan. Since he has me in his grasp, the ownership of the barriers has effectively passed to him as well.]
"Then..."
[The Culling Game is not the end of it. In the eighth clause, it says that a sorcerer who gathers 1000 points can obtain the "game master’s powers."]
The moment a game master is born, that round of the Culling Game ends and the next round begins.
"!!"
[The souls of those who die in the Culling Game cannot leave the barrier and instead become one with me. The greater the presence of my true body becomes, the wider Kenjaku’s reach will grow as well.]
Right now, it is only enough to create a single colony with a 15-kilometer radius.
But if the game repeats and repeats, and that boundary keeps expanding....
[Then a Culling Game will open across all of Japan, and eventually the whole world.]
Then the outcome was obvious.
With the secret clauses effectively gone, the existence of sorcerers and curses would be made public.
The whole world would be thrown into chaos, and a battlefield would unfold for the sake of obtaining cursed energy.
It would be, quite literally, an expanded Heian era with a population of 8 billion.
[The reason Tsukumo Yuki cooperated is along those same lines.]
"Does that mess and the world without curses have something to do with each other?"
[Yes. Until now, Japan has monopolized cursed energy almost entirely. Both curses and sorcerers are far superior in quality and quantity compared to other countries. My influence has also played no small part in that.]
But if the Culling Game expands, and more humans become assimilated into the "me" flowing through the barriers, then that statement is reversed.
Not only would the cursed energy concentrated in Japan spread across the world’s currents, but research into the human brain would also begin.
In the process, sorcerers might naturally awaken as well.
[To put it simply.... the child’s ultimate goal is a "world where cursed energy has become ordinary."]
Until the concept of cursed energy has soaked into the entire world.
A world where you could see sorcerers every time you walked down the street.
Kenjaku was trying to bring about a global upheaval.
[Tsukumo Yuki and Kenjaku’s way of thinking are remarkably similar. That is why I was wary of her as well, but in the end, she was persuaded.]
"Why?"
[What she originally planned was for all humanity to break away from cursed energy. Like Fushiguro Megumi, your father. But when he was killed by Gojo Satoru twelve years ago, she had to abandon the plan.]
"....."
[So she had no choice. Even if it meant sacrifice, she decided to bet on a future that still had possibilities.]
"There’s no way that could really happen... no, even if it did, it would be decades or centuries from now."
[She knows that too. That is why, even while cooperating, she cannot fully trust Kenjaku. She does not expect it, but there may still be room for her to turn back to our side.]
At the possibility that Tsukumo Yuki could still be persuaded, Todo’s face brightened.
[Now that I have spoken about Kenjaku, it is time to tell you how to end the Culling Game.]
"That’s the most important part."
[First, secure 1000 points and obtain the game master’s powers.]
Was there no way around it?
At the conclusion that someone would have to be killed after all, Junpei’s brow furrowed.
Now that Tengen had appeared in person, the faint hope that there might be another way vanished.
"But even then, it can’t interfere with the Culling Game’s continuation, right?"
[That is only in reference to the "rules." Ending the Culling Game through an individual’s own ability is not a problem.]
"That’s possible?"
Mapari cannot swallow cursed energy that has been distorted into an extreme form, like a barrier.
It was impossible even for himself, so who could possibly do it?
[Among the players participating in the Culling Game, there is a sorcerer called the "Angel."]
Her technique erases all manner of techniques.
"That’s absurdly broken."
"A completely insane cheat technique."
[After obtaining the game master’s powers, find the Angel and declare that you are handing over the position of game master to her. It will be treated as a [binding vow] to give up what you have, and since there is no direct mention of continuation itself, it should be possible.]
"And after that?"
[Establish a rule that grants the Angel’s technique to the barrier and destroy the colonies. The system will remain, but the coercive force of being trapped by the barrier will disappear, and the Culling Game will lose its function.]
And there is one more thing to keep in mind.
[If the Culling Game proceeds to a third round or beyond, it will reach a range that even her technique cannot cover. You must end it before then.]
"That’s fine. I’ll finish it in one shot."
[And... until the Culling Game ends, do not kill Kenjaku.]
At the shocking statement, the conference room erupted.
"Why not?"
[After my evolution, I am closer to a curse than to a human. That is also why Kenjaku, using Geto Suguru’s body, was able to absorb me.]
And if the curse-controller dies, the curses will run wild.
"If Kenjaku dies, then the true body of the subdued Tengen-sama will also go berserk... so we have no idea what will happen to the barriers."
"But Kenjaku could just kill himself and blow up the whole board, couldn’t he?"
[That will not happen. The causal chain has been severed, so if he misses this chance, there will be no next time for him. He will not be able to casually throw away his life.]
"What about subduing him by cutting off his arms and legs?"
[...That is possible.]
"Then let’s do that."
"But where do we find Kenjaku?"
[As the host, he is not granted any special privileges. To open a ritual of this scale, the caster himself must give up a great deal. Just before the first round of the Culling Game ends, he will appear in the colony in person to welcome the game master.]
"Good."
Now the objectives were all set.
Search for the Angel and forcibly end the Culling Game.
Subdue Kenjaku and persuade Tsukumo Yuki.
[Time is up.]
As if to prove that the warning about limited time had not been a lie, Tengen’s body began to blur.
As they held on to the fading Tengen, they went through one last round of confirmation.
"But how are we supposed to trust you, Tengen-sama?"
"You said you were subdued by Kenjaku. What if this is another one of Kenjaku’s traps?"
[I anticipated that, so I left behind a token of trust... I did.]
Go to the basement beneath the eighth room on the lowest floor of Hongsung Palace’s main hall.
There is something there that I protected until the very end.
[Br...ing... th...at... to the... Angel....]
"Tengen-sama!"
[The... back... side of the Prison Realm.... re...lease Gojo Satoru......]
With those words, Tengen’s form vanished.
Only Kokane remained, restored to its original, perfectly normal state.
"At the very end, he definitely said Gojo Satoru, right?"
"I heard it clearly too."
"No way...!"
In a hurry, they sprang to their feet and headed for the underground of Jujutsu High.
All the barriers protecting Hongsung Palace had been lifted, so the journey was not difficult.
They took the elevator down, passed through Giko, and finally reached the main hall, where they began searching the place Tengen had told them about.
"Where is it?"
As the sorcerers wrestled with the rubble of the collapsed building for what felt like ages, a clear, high voice rang out.
"Found it!"
The object Tengen had protected even at the cost of abandoning the barrier’s defense.
In Nobara’s hand as she held it up was the back side of the Prison Realm.
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