Hui Guo Rou, through Xiang Nan's side, had grasped how important the "Multiverse" are—which in turn proves how important players will be going forward.

There are plenty of ways to lock down this "resource" and cultivate a domestic player force, but Hui Guo Rou chose the most "crude" route of all. Still, that does fit the Kakin royal family's style.

Xiang Nan was only speculating anyway. With Hui Guo Rou's Nen beast and abilities—and Beyond at his side—it's hard to imagine him facing any real threat. Before this, there hadn't even been such a thing as a "royal guard." Suddenly promoting a female player to royal guard and sending her to run a mission with him… it's only natural people would be curious.

Of course, Queenie's "status" is something the royal house can't put in the light, at least for now. Whether she might become a consort down the line is a different story. Anything's possible.

From Queenie's perspective, using this approach to rise, clinging to the big tree that is the Kakin Empire, is a shortcut—no reason to refuse. She looks timid, but very few players who make it this far are simple.

With an outsider at the table, there was less to talk about; the mood cooled. Xiang Nan merely briefed Queenie on a few squad matters and then fell quiet. Orban's current condition isn't suited to head-on clashes with other intruders, and Queenie's a support-type Nen user… Fortunately, with Xiang Nan, Beishi, and Manman, the squad isn't short on "damage."

"About to start…"

Only when the eighth round of the Extinction Games was about to begin did Xiang Nan pull Queenie into the party. As the system interface began its countdown, Xiang Nan gave a reminder. Seconds after he spoke, all five turned into white light and vanished.

When they opened their eyes again, they were in a backward, almost primitive city district. The sky was blue, a light breeze blowing. All around were low houses and walled courtyards with no modern features; even the road underfoot was dirt. There were many wooden houses… judging by some of the more "refined" courtyards, you could roughly place the "time." Ancient.

After a look around, Xiang Nan confirmed the "setting": still an island nation background. The eerie part was that the entire city was empty. On the whole street, only the five of them stood together.

"Another Edo-era type of setting?" Xiang Nan frowned.

"Not quite… judging from the buildings and city fixtures, it's a bit too primitive. But it's definitely Japanese style; feels like the Sengoku period," said Orban—who'd been through the Rurouni Kenshin world—and he spoke plainly.

"How come… there isn't a single person?" Beishi was surprised. An empty city? That would mean they couldn't even find anyone to ask for information.

Xiang Nan stepped to a roadside wooden house, slid the door open, and went in. From the furnishings and items inside, the owner had been gone for a while; even the floor had a layer of dust. Xiang Nan's eyes narrowed.

A vast surge of Nen spread outward from him as the center—he'd deployed En. With his current aura output, he could easily sense everything within about one li—roughly five hundred meters. He could push it farther… but there was no need.

"No one at all…" he said after a moment. It wasn't that people were hiding; there really wasn't anyone. The houses and courtyards all stood empty.

"There's no one here… but from the traces, people were clearly living in this city until recently," Beishi said gravely from the doorway.

"Spread out and check—see if you can find anything useful to pin down this main world's background and intel. And be careful," Xiang Nan ordered.

"Yes."

At his word, the four flickered away. After leaving the house, Xiang Nan walked the lane. This street was probably one of the city's main roads, but it wasn't even paved with proper stone. Some parts of the city still had farmland; the houses weren't dense—more scattered. A bit of rustic, pastoral feel. The whole city wasn't large; from a high point, Xiang Nan could see it end to end.

"There's only one two-story building that looks even remotely grand. That must be the city's official office…" From a rooftop, Xiang Nan looked southwest at a wooden building set in a relatively spacious compound, conspicuous within the district. He squinted, and the scene in his vision began to "zoom."

Since his body was strengthened by Altana energy, even his faculties and organs had undergone a kind of "metamorphosis." He could see farther, clearer. The city had no walls. Outside the core were more scattered wooden houses, and then lush forest and plains.

Ding.

Xiang Nan heard the system tone and opened the interface.

In the party channel, Orban had sent: "Weird… it's not just the people—books, records, anything useful seems to have been cleared out."

Beishi: "Same here… only some discarded daily goods."

Xiang Nan typed: "Don't bother looking. Regroup—careful now. There are other intruders in this city besides us. Don't get spotted."

"Understood."

After closing the system, Xiang Nan looked toward that conspicuous building and smiled. From the rooftop, after just a few minutes he saw several figures enter the compound. With no useful intel to go on, that eye-catching building was bound to be everyone's first exploration target. Players from different worlds were certain to collide head-on. The city was small to begin with, which further squeezed the space players had to move and hide.

A grim, kill-tinged air.

Gazing at the raw, striking landscape beyond the city, those four words flashed in Xiang Nan's mind. Small or not, this was an entire city's worth of people. They couldn't just vanish for no reason—and there were no signs of disaster, plague, or war. That only meant the whole city's population "left" for some reason. And it wasn't migration, either, because they'd left behind lots of daily items that are useless to players but should be important to the locals of this world.

"The targeting is… a bit too on the nose," Xiang Nan thought. The system's matching is relative. This batch of players had already been through several Multiverse battlegrounds. That implies this world has suffered two or three waves of intruders as well—like the Hunter × Hunter world, it has experience "responding." Players here would have that awareness too. If Xiang Nan could locate the battleground via storyline cues, players native to this world could probably do the same. System rules and mechanics can be analyzed, after all.

Boom!

Just as he was thinking through how to handle it, the distant grand compound suddenly collapsed with an explosion, thick smoke rising.

"This time the clash kicked off fast," Xiang Nan said, unsurprised. He'd expected it. And the system hadn't even issued missions yet…

Looks like this time they hadn't entered a "special" world, nor anything as bizarre as Gintama.