252. Playing With Fire

Izumi put up a projector that displayed the state of the planet's terrain through his device which he had been recording for the last 4 weeks. Honestly, it was too horrible to watch. Some wastelands were rainforests once. And some of the vast deserts were also oceans in the past. Cracked earth, valleys, and ruins of the kingdoms or empires in the past could be seen from the monitor as well.

The state of the planet which is a new world for the reincarnators is only a few percent that can be lived in. And now there are only two continents left.

At first, Kumoko's friends couldn't understand why Izumi showed something so boring. But after Izumi explained everything and the reason why the planet was on the brink of collapse, they fell silent with dumbfounded faces.

The leader of the elves who stole the planet's energy, the great war against the dragon race, and the goddess who sacrificed herself as a world system that sustains the world so that the planet is still able to survive for almost a thousand years.

They looked at each other, thinking whether what Izumi had shown was true or not. It was Kumoko who added.

"What he said was true."

They all looked at Wakaba Hīro or Kumoko in surprise. They were not surprised by Kumoko's statement, but because they saw Kumoko speak. This was because Wakaba Hīro they knew rarely spoke of her own volition.

Kumoko seemed to understand why they were looking her way. Since she felt their gazes were too annoying, she stated.

"Hey, I can speak if I want."

Kumoko herself did feel like she never talked to others when she was still in school. But somehow, she can talk normally with D or Izumi.

Meanwhile, the little dragon who used to be a popular girl at school, Shinohara Mirei, was pensive at the appearance of Kumoko and herself. In the past, she often bullied Kumoko because she was jealous of her beautiful appearance. But after she reincarnated, she felt that she had been punished for what she did to Kumoko. The reason why she felt that way was because she was born as a monster.

Even though Kumoko is also clearly reincarnated as a spider monster, she who is now Arachne still has the same pretty face from her school days.

"Anyway, the reason why I brought you here, or you could say I kidnapped you is that I wanted to give you a choice. You want to live on this doomed planet or return to Earth. This also applies to your friends who are in the elven village."

Of course, that wasn't his only objective. Even though Izumi sent them to Earth, that doesn't mean they can still return to their respective families on Earth. That's when he will make another offer. But he could think about it later. At the very least, he should remove the n%I=W skill bestowed by D, in case they were controlled by her because of such a skill.

On the other hand, they wondered if it was possible that they could return to Earth. Yet, Izumi's answer made them even more confused.

"Absolutely impossible." But he added. "For now. And naturally, there are 2, no, 3 conditions that allow you to return to earth."

Izumi explains that as long as they have the n%I=W skill, they will not be able to return to Earth because such a skill shows that they are natives of their new world. That skill was just like a confinement skill that made them unable to go to another world. In order to return to earth, the main way is to become a god, and the other way is to remove that skill from the system first. There is also another way. The third way is to use an item that Izumi can buy from the Dimensional Shop in the Chat Group. But it takes a lot of shop coins because it's not just one person if he wants to send them back to earth. If possible, Izumi didn't want to use that.

After Izumi said everything, it was Kumoko who asked.

"This weird skill is sort of a restriction to prevent us from going back to earth? How did you know?"

Izumi glanced at Kumoko. He smiled before replying.

"Hmmm, you can say I stole the knowledge from D."

"Are you serious?"

"Perhaps."

Kumoko felt what Izumi said was bullshit. But then again, that might also be true since the ones who know the most about her world are at the administrator level.

Meanwhile, Kumoko's friends didn't answer Izumi right away and they need to think about it first. This is not the future for just one person, but for many people. So they want to discuss it first and don't intend to just decide right away.

— — — —

After telling so much, Izumi and the chat group members decided to leave them alone to discuss. Ariel also has to prepare something before raiding the elven village while bringing Kumoko along with her.

Now, it's like Kumoko has become the demon lord's right-hand man.

Ariel initially intended to use their ceasefire to find a way to either control Kumoko or kill her permanently. To this end, she attempted to tame her by giving her a name, Shiro, but this had no effect at all. Moreover, after learning the key to her immortality, Ariel was forced to give up on revenge as it would be nigh impossible to destroy all of Shiro's offspring.

That's right. Kumoko has the Egg Laying skill which she stole from her mother. It allows her to produce clones by laying eggs. Using her psychic connection with her clones, she can move her soul into an egg and take over her unborn offspring's body, as it does not have a soul of its own yet. However, after being reborn, she will initially be in a weakened state, as her body would be that of an infant. Though, she will be back to her original form after consuming a lot of prey.

And since Ariel gave up trying to kill her, she decided to make Kumoko her trusted aide as Ariel knew Kumoko's personality pretty well after she got Kumoko's memories.

Meanwhile, Izumi and the others walked together through the hallway. The walls in the hallway are lined with marble with spider carvings, which indicates that the carvings were drawn according to Ariel's instructions. At that moment, Kuroneko asked Izumi.

"Are you sure you want to bring them back to earth?"

Izumi didn't answer right away. He walked while holding his chin.

"Hmmm, it might be a little troublesome if I brought them straight to earth. You know that too right? All of their skills were skills from the system created by her. As long as they were in connection with the system, she could take advantage of them and make them fight against each other. I intended to help Ariel, but it would be troublesome if my plans were hindered by her. So before bringing them back, we have to remove that skill from the system."

"Ugghh, you're talking about the system. To be honest I still don't understand how the system works. Well, you said that you wanted to remove it from the system, but how? It's not like data in a hard disk that you can delete all you want."

Kuroneko was still confused by what Izumi said. She looked left and right and saw the others. Apart from Tabane and Rori who were pensive while thinking, the others still didn't quite understand.

What Kuroneko knew, only the admin of this world was able to contact the system, so she didn't know what Izumi wanted to do without becoming an admin because he came to this world in a special way.

As if hearing Kuroneko's inner voice, Rori answered.

"If I'm not mistaken, the system in this world is like an AI that has been programmed. It could be that the system is like a program on a computer and we can tweak it a bit."

"Yup, maybe we can create a virus or hack the system. I'm a genius after all. Nothing is impossible."

Tabane added after Rori stated it.

Izumi heard Tabane, who wanted to hack the system, wanted to argue. It was a system created by a god, so there were still doubts if it could be hacked or not. But there's nothing wrong with trying.

Izumi thought that it would be troublesome if the reincarnators had already acquired skills such as the seven virtues or the seven deadly sins because these skills could oppose the system. In addition, the skills in the system could make a reincarnator have delusions like he was dreaming about becoming the main character. One of them even felt that he was in a dream world until his death. In essence, the system in this world could make reincarnators go crazy if they weren't careful.

"It would be fun if we could create a system ourselves." Izumi muttered in a low voice. But what he muttered was heard by Tabane who then said.

"Sounds fun. Perhaps, I can make a theft system or something."

Izumi twitched and said,

"Are you planning to make a system for me to steal panties as Kazuma did?"

"Yup, if you fail, you get punished. If you succeed, you'll get beat up by the girls."

"Hehe."

"Don't just 'Hehe' to me!"

"I'm excited."

"Do you want me to be hated so much?"

Tabane pouted, then said.

"It's your fault. I've been waiting a long time for your answer to my confession. But you seem to ignore it as if you don't care."

Izumi stiffened.

Rori and the others turned to Izumi at the same time with straight faces. Izumi felt cornered by their gazes, which made him jump into action.

"Come on, I'm waiting for your answer, you know." Tabane embraced Izumi while pressing her twin peaks onto his hand.

With Izumi feeling the soft sensation and smelling the sweet scent of Tabane, his teenage hormones started to get out of control, in which his "little bro" below became rock hard and stiff.

*bam*

Couldn't calm down, Izumi pushed Tabane against the wall while stretching out his right hand against the wall and bringing his face closer to her. Izumi's action surprised not only Tabane, but also others. Tabane gulped and looked at Izumi's face which was getting closer. Her face was getting redder because she was embarrassed to be seen by others.

With his left hand, Izumi held Tabane's chin while whispering.

"You're playing with fire, miss!"