Ren strolled out of the prison as if he owned the place. The laxity of the prison guards was almost laughable, though even if they had done their best to stop him, he was confident he could have left unscathed.
His jailbreak and murder weren't spur-of-the-moment decisions. Though the EndSpace seemed intent on having him dutifully participate in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, Ren had no interest in playing along with the whole 'fight-your-way-to-the-top' routine.
It was almost pitiful. Among the tournament fighters, many were simply seeking a worthy opponent—a chance for an unforgettable match.
However, the very nature of the tournament made it impossible for the fights to remain pure. These bloody battles weren't just clashes of strength and skill but also the stage for merchants to wage their business wars.
To put it bluntly, the fighters were nothing more than toys for the amusement of those merchants.
Dressed impeccably, sipping tea and snacking on delicacies, they watched the carnage from the stands, their laughter carrying the faint tang of blood—like Roman nobles in the ancient Colosseum.
This wasn't Ren's idea of a martial arts tournament. And with his strength, the thought of slowly slogging through qualifiers to reach the finals held no appeal.
He'd attend the Kengan matches, sure, but not as a challenger. He refused to serve as any merchant's lapdog.
Instead, he sought an equal partnership.
But the jailbreak wasn't only about the tournament. There was a more pressing reason: his mission.
[Main Mission: Phase One – Ashura]
Objective: Achieve first place in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament in ten days and display the true form of Ashura.
Difficulty: Easy ~ Hard
Reward: 10,000 Endspace Coins
Failure Penalty: -1 to all attributes
The main mission was simple: one objective, a generous reward, and a mild penalty for failure. While the difficulty ceiling seemed high, Ren wasn't overly concerned with it at the moment. His priorities lay elsewhere.
[Hunt Mission: Eliminate Offender #41213802]
Objective: Kill Offender #41213802 during your stay in this world. When the target is within a 10-kilometre radius of the Pioneer, their exact location will be revealed.
Note: Ensure the target is eliminated before they interact with the 'Seed'.
Difficulty: Moderate ~ Fatal
Reward: Bronze Pioneer Medal x1
Failure Penalty: -2 to all attributes
Ren hadn't expected work to come knocking so soon after becoming a Pioneer.
He grumbled inwardly. According to the contract, isn't this the job of an Arbiter? EndSpace sure knows how to squeeze every drop out of you. Just how much do they expect me to handle in one mission world?
This wasn't even his only task.
[Pioneer Mission: Origin Seed]
Objective: Locate the source of this world's mutation, eliminate the current holder of the Origin Seed, and transfer ownership of the Seed.
Note: The holder of the Origin Seed will exhibit significant power increases, making identification easier. When the Pioneer's mark comes into contact with the holder, a confirmation prompt will appear.
Difficulty: Moderate ~ Fatal
Reward: Origin Seed
Failure Penalty: Termination
Yes, this was the most problematic task. Not only was the difficulty extreme, but failure meant outright erasure.
Based on the description, the Origin Seed seemed like something that granted exponential power growth. The longer it remained out of his grasp, the more dangerous it became. If he couldn't resolve this during the tournament, it would only get harder once everyone scattered afterwards.
Ren reasoned that the Origin Seed likely wasn't in the hands of some random bystander. If it were, EndSpace would've provided some form of pinpoint guidance. They wouldn't leave him fumbling in the dark—that'd be absurd.
Thus, it was safe to assume the Seed was with one of the fighters featured in the original storyline—someone he could feasibly encounter.
"Time to think this through. If it were Sōsuke, how would he approach this?"
He muttered to himself under the moonlight, walking along the riverside. His immediate goal was to figure out his exact location; after all, the original storyline didn't specify where the prison was situated.
The Next Day – Tokyo
In a small ramen shop, Ren finished his last bowl of extra-large ramen to the astonished stares of the staff. Satisfied, he chugged a large cola, thinking to himself how much he missed the drink.
Cola really is something special. Shame it didn't exist in my era anymore—just those bizarre drinks churned out by corporate labs.
He wiped his mouth and tossed a handful of cash onto the counter.
The money, of course, came courtesy of a group of punks he'd encountered the previous night.
They had, through tears and snot, insisted he take it as a 'friendship offering'. How could he refuse?
With his hunger sated, Ren focused his thoughts and opened a special interface.
It was a public chat function enabled by EndSpace for this world. Reading through the chat logs, he finally understood why the feature had been activated.
User 1: "There's an Origin Seed in this world! It's real, not just some myth. Can you believe it?"
User 2: "Sounds impressive, but my mission's reward for finding it is pretty underwhelming. Probably nothing that great."
User 3: "You have no idea. I once heard our guild leader talk about EndSpace lore, and the term 'Seed' came up in his stories."
User 4: "Oh? What stories? Spill it, big shot. I won't compete for the Seed."
User 3: "Tch. Compete? Even if it's the real deal, we're just helping EndSpace reclaim it. It's not like we'd get to keep it."
User 5: "So what is it, exactly? Some ultimate power? Or is it for….y'know….those kinds of movies?"
"Shut up about your pervy fantasies! This is the Origin Seed, one of the legendary Nine Seeds! Even our guild leader talked about it like it was some kind of myth, never taking it seriously. Who would've thought it actually exists—and in a first-tier world, no less?"
No one replied for a moment, clearly waiting for this self-proclaimed "expert" to elaborate.
"According to what our guild leader heard, there are nine unique Seeds across all realms and dimensions. No one knows how they came into existence or what purpose they serve, only that they're incredibly mysterious. There are rumours they might be connected to the origins of EndSpace itself."
"If the Seed in this world really is one of those legendary Nine Seeds, it explains why EndSpace activated the public chat and issued the same mission to all of us. Clearly, they're panicking. If it weren't for the rules restricting them, they'd probably have already sent in high-tier elites to retrieve it."
Ren silently observed the chat for a while, piecing together the situation. In simple terms, the Origin Seed was indeed a big deal. Whether for his mission or his future ambitions, he had no choice but to obtain it.
After being dropped into this world, every Explorer had been given unique identities and thrown into different starting locations. The shared public chat was undoubtedly accelerating information gathering for everyone involved.
But one question lingered in Ren's mind: was the Offender also lurking in the chat?
He'd asked Endspace about Offenders before.
The response was that Offenders were Explorers who had repeatedly exploited loopholes in the rules and ignored warnings.
Only after being flagged as rogue entities did Endspace assign someone like him to hunt them down.
In essence, an Offender was still an Explorer operating under the overarching rules. Since they were sent into mission worlds by EndSpace like everyone else, it was highly probable that they, too, had access to the public chat.
What puzzled Ren was why Endspace didn't just terminate Offenders outright. Why make it so complicated? Why rely on manpower to deal with them?
The supposed grandeur of EndSpace seemed at odds with the sheer number of loopholes in its systems.
For an entity that had presumably existed for eons, why hadn't its rules been refined? Even national constitutions get amended periodically...
The whole situation felt off to him.
The existence of Offenders, the reliance on human agents to deal with them—it all seemed oddly inefficient.
Could this be some bizarre part of EndSpace's ecosystem?
Ren shook his head, deciding not to dwell on it. Thinking about it too much was bound to kill a few brain cells.
Instead, he focused on the task at hand and typed a question into the chat:
"Anyone know how to get to the Kure Clan?"
His username in EndSpace was 'Soul Demon', and only that alias was visible in the public chat, serving as a layer of anonymity to protect his identity.