Even though Rin Tohsaka had decided to join the fight, as a child who respected her parents, she didn't want to directly defy their orders.
Naturally, Rin learned to lie.
She pretended to obey her mother, Aoi Tohsaka, staying at home as instructed, but in reality, she had Zuke take her to the Holy Grail War battlefield to participate in the war.
"That said, the Holy Grail War hasn't officially started yet, so some participants probably haven't summoned their Servants."
Sitting cross-legged on her bed in her room, Rin looked seriously at Zuke standing beside her bed.
"Berserker, do you have a plan?"
"A plan..."
Zuke rubbed his forehead, knowing the storyline and, naturally, the details of the current Holy Grail War participants.
Tokiomi Tohsaka, Rin's father, was likely residing at the Tohsaka estate, ready to summon Archer Gilgamesh with the help of a relic.
Kirei Kotomine, son of the overseer Risei Kotomine, was secretly colluding with Tokiomi and had already summoned Assassin as Tokiomi's apprentice.
Kariya Matou, a recently defeated participant from the Matou family, would summon the real Berserker Lancelot, though he's likely homeless now.
Kiritsugu Emiya, a Mage Slayer summoned by the Einzbern family, was expected to summon Saber Artoria and was likely outside Fuyuki City at the moment.
Waver Velvet, a student of the Clock Tower, stole his teacher's relic and would summon Rider Iskandar. Currently, he's hiding out in some unknown village.
Kenneth El-Melloi, a Clock Tower teacher, was the unlucky mentor whose relic was stolen. He would summon Lancer Diarmuid, destined to be the unluckiest participant.
Lastly, Ryunosuke Uryu, a serial killer who got roped into the war by chance, would summon the mentally unhinged Caster, Bluebeard Gilles de Rais.
Zuke wanted to wrap up the Holy Grail War as quickly as possible. He didn't want the mission to drag on until the last day.
For now, however, the start of the war was still some time away. Participants like Tokiomi, Kariya, Kiritsugu, and Waver probably hadn't summoned their Servants.
The same went for Ryunosuke, who would summon his Servant the latest by sheer accident.
If Zuke wanted to take out his opponents early, his only options were Kirei's Assassin or Kenneth's Lancer.
As for taking out the Masters ahead of time, that would be pointless—killing Masters before they summoned their Servants wouldn't progress the Holy Grail War.
Zuke wasn't there to be a murderous fiend; he was there to complete his main mission. Unnecessary killings were a waste of his energy.
The challenge was that Assassin was a split-type Servant, able to manifest in multiple locations, making it nearly impossible for Zuke to track them all down.
In the original story, Assassin was sent en masse to Rider's domain, where he wiped them all out in a single blow with his reality marble.
As for Lancer… Zuke was confident he could handle him, but Kenneth's current whereabouts were unknown. At least for now, he wasn't holed up on the rooftop of the Hyatt Hotel as he was in the original.
You ask why Zuke knew this? Because he had already booked a room at the Hyatt for Sakura Matou and checked the rooftop afterward to confirm it hadn't been reserved by Kenneth.
"So, do you have a plan or not?" Rin asked, watching Zuke think for a while in silence. She realized he probably didn't have any solid strategy, sighing in resignation.
She hadn't initially expected to summon a Servant when she drew the summoning circle, so she had no concrete plans for the Holy Grail War.
"Oh well, we still have time to come up with something. Leave it to me! I'll make sure we win this war!"
Rin's enthusiasm quickly rebounded. At this point, with both her parents alive, she was still just a lively child.
But seeing Rin's energetic demeanor, she probably hadn't yet realized that she would inevitably clash with her father, Tokiomi, in the end.
"This has to be the most pointless mission exploration yet."
After a long chat in Rin's room, Zuke exited the mission world.
Aside from eliminating Zouken Matou and convincing Rin to fully commit to the Holy Grail War, there didn't seem to be much else he had achieved…
In the Dragon Ball world, his progress was also quite slow; his synchronization rate had only improved by 1% so far.
However, the Dragon Ball world's rewards were worthwhile—even a 1% synchronization rate could provide him with power strong enough to dominate many other worlds.
In comparison, the 5% synchronization rate from the Type-Moon world only brought a mere 5% increase in the "Mad Enhancement" skill.
Activating it would raise his combat power by 5% at the cost of a bit of his voice—a frustratingly minor gain.
Feeling stuck by the slow progress in this world, Zuke was preparing to wake up.
But just as he was exiting the mission world and entering the void, a system notification and screen popped up.
[Congratulations, Player Zuke, for completing the achievement "Three Flowers atop the Crown" (achieving synchronization rates in three mission worlds)]
[The "Time Adjustment" function has been unlocked and recorded.]
"Huh?"
Suddenly, Zuke, previously dispirited from his lack of progress in the Type-Moon world, was wide awake with excitement.
Finally, a function that wasn't just for unlocking new mission worlds—achieving synchronization in three worlds had unlocked something new!
Zuke's fatigue faded; it seemed that taking out Zouken Matou had paid off. While the 5% sync rate was low, it was still solid progress.
And this unlocked feature…
"Time Adjustment… Could it be what I think it is?"
With a thrilled expression, Zuke opened the mission world selection screen.
[Player Zuke, please select the mission world to enter: 1. Dragon Ball (time unadjusted); 2. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (main mission generating); 3. Fate/Zero (time unadjusted)]
He tried to access the Dragon Ball world's Time Adjustment menu, and several options popped up.
[Slow Down Time Flow (current ratio 1:1)]
[Time Jump (once per day, up to 168 hours per jump)]
"A time jump… 168 hours is seven days, right? So this thing can skip up to seven days at a time?"
Zuke felt a surge of emotion, almost to the point of tears.
Finally… he could skip those tedious stretches of travel time!
To be continued…
Psst, Ningen. You're under arrest! Hand over your Power Stones if you wanna live!
Kaguya Shinomiya is a pawn?!
Hitori Gotou misses Shin even though he bullies her?!
Ai Hayasaka wants to be dominated so bad!!
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