Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

Regardless, with a helper dealing with the small fry—or ordinary players, there were now far fewer distractions, and Seiji and Shika could concentrate on dealing with players that had undergone Sin Activation.

Seiji used the terrain to help dodge the tigerman’s vicious attacks. He then used Evolved Body strengthening technique—Wind to speed himself up even more for a swift attack!

Densely intersecting sword attacks sliced at the tigerman’s body, causing serious damage and slicing off his right paw.

“Grrrahhhroooaarrr!!” the tigerman screamed out in what resembled a combination of human and tiger screams. He then hurriedly retreated.

Seiji chased right after him without giving him a chance to escape.

Seeing that he couldn’t escape, the tigerman roared as he then got down on all fours and crouched down on the ground like a real tiger. All the hair on his body stood up on ends as his body expanded. He widened his mouth as a red glow appeared inside.

*Boom!*

A blood-red light explosively shot out from the tigerman’s mouth!

Seiji responded calmly.

Seeing how obvious it was that the tigerman was using some sort of ultimate ability, Seiji had already prepared his own spell to deal with the blood-red light. A large amount of smaller spell formations instantly appeared, blocking the blood-red light and transforming it…

Counterattack curse, Dragon Counterattack!

The spell formations flashed as the blood-red light turned into a golden dragon that roared as it rushed back towards the tigerman and exploded in a brilliant light!

The tigerman collapsed from this explosion.

Seiji released Shinobu and had her hammer the tigerman out of the game.

Meanwhile, Shika froze the tentacle monster solid.

However, another player underwent Sin Activation as well, transforming into a large meatball-shaped monster with several mouths that emitted a green gas… The battle continued!

The fierce fighting continued for quite a while.

After all the attacking players were killed or exiled with Shinobu’s soul attack, this district was finally cleared and became quiet.

“Are you alright?” Seiji walked over to his helper and checked on him.

Currently, Isamu’s clothes were rather tattered, and he had a wretched appearance. However, he didn’t appear to be injured.

“I’m fine…” Isamu gave a big thumbs up while flashing a happy smile. “It was really fun… to play together with you…”

He then remained in that pose as he smiled and collapsed!

Seiji grabbed him in time so that Isamu didn’t hit the floor.

Seiji and Shika then saw Isamu glowing a dark red as the shirt and tie vanished, while the tattered black jacket and long pants transformed back into an undamaged T-shirt and shorts.

His red gloves vanished, and the revolver he’d dropped on the ground became a standard semi-automatic pistol again. His shoes became sneakers again as the flashy red glasses transformed back into an owl-shaped mask.

Seiji now confirmed that this was indeed the same boy that he had been talking to before the battling started.

He was now in a weak state… Seiji wondered if he should exile this person from the game now?

Just as Seiji was considering this, he saw Isamu moving.

“Erk…” Isamu woke up again.

He felt a headache, and was rather dizzy. He also wanted to vomit.

His body felt hot and listless, as well as numb… it was as if he had undergone strenuous exercise followed by an electric shock.

Luckily, someone was supporting him. Otherwise, he surely would have fallen down.

Isamu lifted his head, only to see the angry demon mask boy.

His head started working again, and he recalled what’d just happened. He had activated his power, transformed, and started fighting as a team together with the angry demon mask boy and the strange smile mask girl…

“Are you alright?” Seiji asked once again.

“I… I’m fine,” Isamu told him as he managed to stand by himself again. He indicated that Seiji didn’t need to support him any further.

“Thank you for your help just now,” Seiji gave his thanks. “May I ask how I should call you?”

“You can call me Owl,” Isamu answered.

Since his mask was an owl, the first player he’d met who wasn’t berserk had called him Owl. Isamu had taken Owl as his nickname in this game afterwards.

“Owl-san, you can call me White Night. My partner here is the Knight of Zero,” Seiji told Isamu.

White Night and Knight of Zero? These were obviously just nicknames rather than real names as well. But, why was a girl using a name like knight?

Isamu was rather curious about this, but didn’t ask, since it was only a nickname here. It was just like an internet username.

“Thanks to your assistance, we were able to finish this battle without any problems… What do you intend to do next, Owl-san?” Seiji asked. “For example, as I said previously, I can help you to leave this particular instance of the game. Would you like to leave now or stay behind?”

Isamu fell silent for a moment.

“Can I ask who exactly the two of you are?” Isamu mulled things over before speaking up again. “You have extraordinary power, but it’s not like mine, nor is it anything like those people who transformed have showed… I feel that you’re no ordinary players of this game.”

“We’re Spiritual Ability users,” Seiji admitted honestly.

“Spiritual Ability users… so they really exist.”

“Since even an abnormal dream like this exists, isn’t it natural for Spiritual Ability users to also exist?”

“You have a point… is this dream also created by a Spiritual Ability user?”

“That’s right. The boy that you call the crow-masked person is the main culprit behind all this.”

“Did you come here in order to fight that person?”

“While we are on opposing factions, this time we only came here to investigate.”

“Something like having insufficient information, so you’re temporarily unable to deal with him, is that it?”

“Something like that.”

If Soul Society had more specific information on this strange dream, then they would surely take action… ‘So, perhaps lacking information and being unable to deal with Kamitani was indeed the case,’ Seiji thought to himself.

“Let me continue helping you!” Something flashed in Isamu’s eyes. “I want to completely break free from this nightmare, so rather than exiting this particular instance of the game, I’d prefer to continue helping you and do my best to fight against the person who created this nightmare!”

“Owl-san…”

“You don’t need to call me by an honorific like -san.”

“Alright… Owl.” Seiji paused for a moment. “Thank you for your heartfelt intentions. Still, I must tell you that the longer you fight in here and the more people you kill, the more dangerous it will be for you.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because this mask is…”

Seiji explained the properties of the Mask of Sin to Isamu.

Isamu fell silent once again.

So that extraordinary power he’d just gained was the power of the mask, and activating it was called “Sin Activation”!

The more people he killed, the more powerful the Sin Activation would become, and the more difficult it would be to withstand.

If he was unable to withstand it, it was possible that he would die for real rather than only dying in the game!

Isamu recalled the painful sensations he underwent earlier and became afraid of the risk of dying for real.

But if he didn’t use his power, he would be nothing more than a small fry that wouldn’t be of any help.

Plus, there was the chance that even if he didn’t activate the power himself, the mask would use Sin Activation for him.

In conclusion, if he really wanted to help White Night and the Knight of Zero to fight against the crow-masked person, he would really need to risk his life! This would no longer be a simple game.

This was a real battle where lives were at stake!

Isamu became afraid.

But, he also became somewhat excited.

He had played so many video games since young. He really enjoyed treating himself as the main character of the game and immersing himself in the hot-blooded stories of the games.

And now, he finally had a chance to become a true hero.

…Although he wouldn’t be the main character. He would be more like a side character who was slightly stronger than a small fry.

But he would still be a hero…! He could fight for himself and others against evil!

Isamu suddenly recalled the meaning of his name.

Isamu was written with the characters for courage and fighting… When he was younger, people told him that his name was just like a hero’s name from an anime.

Isamu agreed with this as well. Although he was embarrassed about his name when he was younger and wanted to reject it, he didn’t think that way anymore at all.

Isamu loved heroes.

Isamu wanted to be a hero.

That was why Isamu wouldn’t let go of this chance to truly become a hero!