Chapter 64: The Completion of the Main Quest — Ridiculously Generous Rewards

Ryota just looked straight at Freya, not immediately responding to her invitation to join her Familia. Instead, he asked,

"You mentioned Lain just now… was he acting on your orders?"

Freya's lips curled into a subtle smile, her face carrying a hint of amusement as she replied,

"Orders? Oh, no, nothing of the sort. I merely spoke with him once at the top of Babel Tower, exchanged a few casual words… I never commanded him to do anything."

Ryota silently studied that impossibly perfect face, his mind racing to cross-reference everything he knew about her.

Gods were forbidden from using their divine powers in the mortal realm.

That rule, he understood very well. Once descended, all gods had to seal away their divine authority, placing themselves under strict limitations.

They could not interfere with fate, could not alter the world, could not perform true "miracles."

And precisely because of that, the so-called "charm" Freya wielded had never really been divine power at all, but rather an innate force tied to her very existence as the Goddess of Beauty.

She didn't deliberately charm people. From her perspective, there was no "charm" happening at all.

Just by standing there, saying a few words, smiling a little, she could cause someone like Lain to surrender utterly.

No manipulative scheme, no elaborate conspiracy — simply the overwhelming gap between a god's nature and a mortal's resistance.

Which explained why Ryota had been able to so easily break through the veil of charm wrapped around Lain's heart.

However…

If Lain really had approached him under Freya's direct orders — even if he'd only just woken up from being charmed — Ryota would have drawn his sword without hesitation and cut him down on the spot.

Being charmed without knowing it was innocence.

But knowingly submitting to a god and betraying him — that was an enemy.

"Good…"

Ryota let out a silent sigh in his heart.

"Good thing he was just a pitiful pawn."

He was also grateful, in hindsight, that he had trusted his own instincts.

Freya, meanwhile, just kept smiling, completely unbothered by whatever turmoil might be spinning through Ryota's head.

She stepped closer, as if she were admiring some precious treasure that would one day belong to her:

"So, Ryota, you still haven't answered me."

"Join me. Only with you will the Freya Familia be truly complete."

As Freya drew nearer and nearer—

Whoosh!!

A blur sliced through the night air.

Ryota's figure had already leapt to the rooftop several meters away, his crimson Sharingan turning slowly in the darkness.

"I could never betray Loki."

"And I don't want to join the Freya Familia."

Below, Freya paused, though the smile on her lips didn't fade. In fact, she seemed even more delighted, as if she'd predicted exactly this answer.

Behind her, the mighty Ottar frowned.

Ryota's sudden disappearance and reappearance felt like he had simply "skipped" through space — even a Level 7 like Ottar hadn't seen a hint of it coming.

There hadn't been any trace of magic, nor the brief chant of a quick spell.

"Magic…? Or some kind of skill?"

"No… I've never seen anything like that."

For the first time, Ottar looked at the boy above with genuine confusion.

Freya lifted her head, not angry at all, but smiling ever more brilliantly, a light flaring in her gray eyes — the light of a deep, instinctive desire to conquer.

Gazing at Ryota with eyes that seemed able to devour his very soul, she spoke softly, almost like handing down a sentence from the heavens:

"In that case—"

"I will do it in Orario's way, through Familia against Familia…"

"I will make you mine."

As soon as the words fell, Ryota felt his heart tighten.

—It's here.

This was the conflict mentioned in the main quest!

Freya raised one graceful, pale finger and pointed up at him:

"Ryota, you will belong to me."

"Even if Loki herself stands in front of me, she won't be able to stop it."

With that, Freya turned and left.

Ottar stood there for a moment in silence, then raised his head to meet Ryota's gaze.

Their eyes locked across the night.

Then Ottar silently followed Freya, vanishing into the shadows at the end of the alley.

Silence returned to the street like a death shroud.

Ryota lowered his head, quietly watching the direction they had gone.

In that moment, something deep in his heart seemed to settle.

He realized that he had now stepped fully into the eye of Orario's storm.

No longer just an Adventurer, no longer an outsider, but a fuse in the gods' power struggle.

And the horn of the War Game had already begun to sound, faintly, in the darkness.

Sliding the Kusanagi Sword back into its scabbard — click.

The sound of the blade locking home echoed through the silent night.

Ryota was about to head back to report to Loki and the others about what had happened tonight, when a familiar mechanical chime rang in his ears:

[Ding—Main Quest completed!]

[Quest Name: Respond to contact from the Freya Familia, and successfully resolve or directly confront one Familia conflict]

[Quest Evaluation: Perfect Completion!]

[Reward calculation in progress—]

"So it's done…"

Ryota murmured, standing atop the rooftop with the night wind ruffling his clothes, calmly waiting for the system's rewards to process.

The only sound was the whisper of the breeze.

He wasn't in a hurry. Instead, he reviewed the entire mission in his mind.

At some point, he had become Freya's target.

Then Lain had appeared, charmed, manipulated, Freya's first chess piece on the board.

And tonight, there was the face-to-face confrontation, the invitation straight from a god's own lips, the presence of Ottar — and Ryota had refused to back down or compromise.

One invisible thread linked all these scenes together.

Only now did the main quest's true design become clear.

The system had never demanded he "solve" the conflict. It hadn't asked him to win a War Game, nor to defeat Ottar.

It only required one thing — to respond.

Whether by resolving or by resisting, in joining or in refusing, he had chosen the latter.

Time passed, second by second, and the system's settlement seemed slower than usual.

After about five minutes, that familiar ding finally arrived.

Except this time, there were a lot of dings:

[Ding! Mangekyō Sharingan in both eyes fully unlocked — Tsukuyomi, Kamui, Susanoo unlocked.]

[Ding! Reward calculation complete—]

[Reward 1: Dōryoku +50%!]

[Reward 2: Chakra limit +50,000!]

[Reward 3: Hashirama Cell Integration +10%!]

[Reward 4: Scroll of Sealing ×1]

A string of messages exploded through his mind, leaving Ryota stunned for several seconds before he could gather his wits.

It was like stumbling into a treasure vault stuffed with mountains of gold, not even knowing where to start hauling it away.

"Better go one at a time… I can't even process all this…"

"Dōryoku +50%? Wasn't it supposed to be +30%?"

Ryota drew the Kusanagi Sword again, tilting the blade to catch the moonlight, letting it reflect into his eyes.

He slowly looked at his right eye—

"Just as I thought…"

In his pupil, a brand-new Mangekyō pattern was turning gently.

Unlike the complex, sharp design of his left eye, the right eye's pattern was even wilder, even more striking.

Three symmetrical, blade-like red marks spread out around the pupil to form a spinning wheel of blades.

"Obito Uchiha's Mangekyō…"

He frowned a little, murmuring under his breath,

"No… pain?"

Lifting his finger, he touched the corner of his right eye and rubbed it a bit.

Nothing — not even the slightest sting.

"This is nothing like when I first awakened the Mangekyō in my left eye… back then it felt like someone was drilling an awl through my soul, I nearly passed out."

But now, even after this evolution, his right eye felt eerily calm, as if it had always been like this.

"Must be because my Dōryoku had built up so much."

"With how precise this system is, that excess 20% probably took the damage for me."

"I'll check my status panel later."

He decided not to dwell on how smoothly the eye technique had evolved, instead shifting his attention to the third reward from the quest's settlement.

Hashirama Senju — the "God of Shinobi" in the Naruto world, the only man who could utterly crush Uchiha Madara with sheer power alone.

Wood Style, Sage Mode… a mess of abilities that practically spelled "cheat code" in his very bones.

In the Naruto world, there were very few who could handle Hashirama Cells.

Even Shimura Danzo had needed eleven Sharingan eyes to balance the Hashirama Cells transplanted into his right arm.

And madmen like Kabuto or Orochimaru, who basically lived in their labs, still didn't dare to casually implant them after years of study.

Because — Hashirama Cells were essentially semi-living tissue, with terrifying devouring and overriding properties, and even the slightest mistake meant instant death.

And now, Ryota had already integrated 10% of them.

He closed his eyes, carefully feeling the changes within—

In the depths of his mental sea, a gentle yet vigorous vitality was flowing steadily.

It wasn't as sharp as chakra, nor as aggressive as mental energy. It felt more like a "source of life," nourishing, repairing, even expanding his body's limits.

"I can really feel it."

Not just a boost to his physical strength — even the flow of chakra, the speed of recovery, everything was smoother, more abundant than before.

Though he hadn't yet awakened any Wood Style powers, Ryota was certain—

Hashirama Cell fusion was a long-term growth process.

As long as he kept completing missions and earning rewards, unlocking Wood Style in the future was only a matter of time.

"Adding in that Sage Jutsu Chakra from before…"

"What would you even call that? Susanoo + Giant Buddha + Sage Mode combo?"

"Damn, I'm basically stacking every buff there is, huh?"

But after the excitement, Ryota quickly calmed down.

"Sage Chakra, Susanoo, Kamui… they're not some cooldown-limited game skills."

The stronger you were, the more you had to spend.

Every one of these powers came with a price. Even if his chakra reserves were bigger now, his recovery rate faster, he couldn't just spam jutsu across all of Orario like it was free.

"I still haven't tested how much chakra Susanoo, Tsukuyomi, or Kamui will burn, but just using Amaterasu on that Infant Dragon already made my eye bleed."

"Let alone I don't have the Eternal Mangekyō yet… if I push too hard, I might go blind tomorrow."

"Abusing these powers will just get me killed."

Ryota had always been cautious.

True strength wasn't about flipping on every cheat you had, but knowing when to use them, and when to hide them.

Collecting his thoughts, Ryota flipped his wrist, summoning a pale white mist in his palm.

A deep purple scroll appeared, its surface bound with heavy sealing runes, faint chakra ripples dancing around it.

[Scroll of Sealing]

—the final quest reward.

"Let's see what you really are."

----

Join my Patreon for early access to chapters: Patreon.com/rivyura :)