Terror Infinity Side B

Chapter 37, Dangan Ronpa Intermission

After repairing all injures inflicted over the course of the mission, Shin silently looked around the platform of the Terminal Lobby. It was the same white space with the ball of light calling itself God hovering above their heads. The same comrades that he had entered into the previous Mission World of Dangan Ronpa had woken up. Everyone was alive and present which was a relief, yet their was a new addition confused them. Drake and Sachi were standing to the side waiting to be introduced and as for the third new addition she was holding onto Shin's hand while enduring the stares from the women of the group while trying not to break down and cry under their intense gazes.

Komaru Naegi, the main character of "Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls". She had agreed to return with Shin to the Terminal Lobby and leave her world behind, yet seeing her confused face as she continued to look around the platform uncertainty entered his heart. Shin indeed liked, possibly loved Komaru after adventuring with her and the others in Towa City and wanted to be with her, yet he was now worried whether it was really right to bring her along with him. Komaru had left her family behind in Dangan Ronpa to be with Shin and so he wondered once more was this the right decision, yet with the decision already made and along with the fact that her world was a dangerous place filled with death and Despair he could at the very least accept that it wasn't a bad decision to let his feelings get the best of him and bring along Komaru.

Shin: (It should be okay. It also isn't like I'm stealing her away from her destined partner, so no NTR. Their wasn't a male lead within Another Episode, so as a heroine she was more available than most other heroines. Still, like with Hikari (Half in denial), Aqua (Still in denial), and Kisara (Fully accepting her fate) I have to take responsibility for my actions and my best to make her happy. To start things off with that thought-)

Shin looked towards his various comrades throughout the Terminal Lobby. Aqua, Hikari, Shuai, Connor, Jin, and Kisara. They were all a bit disoriented due to the brainwashing of Izuru Kamukura and were trying to recall the events of the mission. Shin saw that they all needed time to get adjusted, but he had a important announcement to make. Shin pulled the confused, half in tears, and now embarrassed Komaru into arms and called out to his comrades.

Shin: "Glad to see everyone is alive and well. You all tried to kill me against your will and all, but I, the protagonist and Leader of Team Japan, have pulled through when other would have surely failed. Feel free to praise me... Okay. We all have been through a lot and have a lot to say, but first I'll like to introduce you to some important to me. This is Komaru Naegi. My heroine, no the heroine of "Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls". One thing lead to another and now we're dating with marriage in mind like Aqua, Hikari and Kisara, and she decided to return with us to the Terminal Lobby. We couldn't stand to be apart. Please treat her kindly. Ah, also we have the pervert disowned priest Drake and the exiled sadist assassin now nurse Sachi as new additions to Team Japan, so there's that too."

Komaru: "Ah... Huh.... Marriage... Nice to meet you all!"

Drake: "Our introduction seems lacking compared to out leader's new woman. Respect though."

Sachi: "He got the key points, so I won't complain pervert priest."

Aqua: "...No comment other than you've played around too much. Well talk later."

Hikari: "...As expected of our Shin. Even when the team was a inch away from being wiped out he finds a way to add to the harem... We'll talk later."

Shuai: "Don't care. I'm still pissed that you hurt Gnome."

Connor: "..."

Jin: "Hahaha! Congratulations on acquiring your first heroine! Komaru, I have a Human Creation girl/maid you can hang out with... although she's scary."

Kisara: "Shin I'm sorry for almost bisecting you back back there. I can't apologies enough for my actions despite saying that I'll be your sword... Also, we'll talk later about everything... Everything."

Shin: "...Well Komaru this is my Team Japan. I Hope they don't scare you like how they scare me."

Komaru: "Haha... I don't think that I'll find myself getting bored."

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After Shin introduced Komaru and the two new team members to Team Japan Drake and Sachi, everyone decided to call it a day and return to their rooms. There was much to say, but the events of Dangan Ronpa Another Episode wore down their spirits greatly. Shin as well returned to his room within the Terminal Lobby alone disappointed (Komaru was my Human Creation in a way, yet Hikari dragged my newest harem member away and the others decided to return to their own rooms), but this gave him time to think. Once he entered his room and laid out on his bed to relax he began to organize the information that entered his head after the fusion with The Guide finished.

Shin: "Leader, huh?"

The leader position wasn’t just a title. One of the benefits of the Leader Position was that Shin could quickly search through all the Whole Body Enhancements, Mutations, Sci Weapons, Magic Tools, the exchangeable items, and ever thing else in the system. Like Connor had the Demonic Mutation and Trion Energy, it would show him abilities, weapons, magic that were best for the his enhancements and would filter them out further if he included his unique fighting style and personality. This could prevent the team from wasting points and rewards. This had yet to happen much to the team (I don't like Devil Selaed Gun much anymore), yet it could stop it from other occurring.

The second benefit of the Leader Position, Mission Preview, was one that Shin now possessed. He now had the power to know what the upcoming next mission would be. Shin along with Team Japan could prepare suitable weapons and study the plot in advance. Missions with large number of enemies could be countered by acquiring powerful Sci-fi weapons and AOE Magic. Missions that take place in unique environments like the sea, frozen tundras, or space could he prepared for. Special environments like the Labyrinths of Apocalypse Alice could be conquered by prioritizing magic enhancements and weapons along with power search skills and tools. Shin couldn't help but think that this was the greatest advantage of gaining the Leader Position of a team. Even more so than the high value than being promoted to the Third Stage of the Genetic Constraint. The Third Stage held a lot of potential and would allow one to bring out even more of the potential of their enhancements, yet it could compare to knowing what mission would be next which was a advantage only given to Team Japan and the two special teams.

Shin: (Just these benefits are enough to drool over, but there's more good news due to Team Japan's relationship to God... and some not that upsetting news.)

The Leader Position of Team Japan differed from the ones of the past due to forming an alliance with God to defeat the teams of the Four Pillars. Along with all the past benefits there were two more benefits, one penalty due to the alliance, and a benefit that helps out God rather than Team Japan. One new benefit was Team Recommendation. No longer could spies of the Four Pillars be allowed to slip into new batches of Newbies like in the past. They wouldn't be allowed to join Team Japan.

The Second new benefit was that the leader of Team Japan, Shin, was allowed to distribute his points without limitation. Previously Jin showed Shin that Players could make exchanges for other Players, but they were restricted to doing so for one Player per ten day break within the Terminal Lobby after each mission and just one final purchase. One could buy multiple enhancements for one Player, but was limited to just the one final purchase and couldn't go back to make exchanges for that same person later. Free Distribution would allow Shin to use his points as he saw fit without restriction. Those like Shin made the most points and rewards, so being able to use rewards for other who don't make as much, but have a important role to the team is a invaluable asset to them.

Shin: (With these benefits this snall penalty is worth living with. The penalty due to the alliance with God is called Team Leader Lock. It forbids me for every making the Exchange "Return to the Origin", the method to return to the real world for good till I wipe out the teams of the Four Pillars and reach the ultimate goal of God. That isn't bad in itself since I've no interest in returning to the real world. Anyone one else would fall into despair, yet it doesn't bother me. I have to ultimately face the Four Pillars and this brings us to the benefit that helps God in this alliance. It wants to get rid of the negative influence or the Four Pillars from God's Dimension, so it created Enemy Team Elimination. Any team that Shin and Team Japan wipes out from here on out will be forever cleansed of the control of the Four Pillars and will have the same Team Recommendation benefit allied to them for all eternity. Even if a uninvolved team meets the Four Pillars later on after its conception they will be automatically erased by God if they come to a alliance with them. This was the insensitive for God to support Team Japan.)

Shin could only sigh at this part. If his team weren't the mortal enemies of the Four Pillars before, they very much were now. Still, there was more good than bad in this deal with God and it even came with more information about God's Dimension that Shin had more access to. 

Shin had just discovered that there were a total of 129 awakened teams, those that are eligible for Team Battles of the total 196 team of God's Dimension. Teams were separated into regions according the countries of modern times. Team Japan contained one of the smallest lands with a smaller poll of a population to create a team if compared to Team China, yet within the new Manga and Anime format Team Japan held a unique advantage over all other teams due to being the origin of those fictional works. Shin didn't know how Team Japan ranked within God's Dimension, yet if victory or defeat came down to preparing for the mission and knowing the plot Team Japan could be said to be the strongest, yet as it turned out the two, no three special teams also still had the leader function and held a possible greater advantage than them.

The first special team was Team Devil. God copied the genes of players with potentials to form Team Devil. This was supposedly the strongest team among all. This team was used to test what environment was more suitable for evolution, and the one the Guide told Shin was taken away from God by Mass Enlightenment and Blood Crusade. God has stopped sending in new potentials to Team Devil, so those like Shin and others with high potential won't be copied into this team, but Team Devil can still receive new members from past Players with high potential.

The second special team was once unique in how it was created. The other team was once any time a person becomes a leader, or how it used to be, God would ask if this person wanted to join this team. So it contained the strongest member from every team. Of course, some people would refuse to join. Every member in this team had unlocked the Genetic Constraint to its Second Stage and there leader at the very least would be promoted to the Third Stage after acquiring a second leader position. Maybe higher whatever their unlocked stage they were out when they became the leader. This team was named Team Celestial. It was also formed as a test for evolution, yet it has changed in recent years as like with Team Devil it has been taken over by elites from the Four pillars, Absolute Reckoning and Dove United. According to God, Team Celestial is now made up of the elites Players of the Teams belonging to Absolute Reckoning and Dove United. This might be good news since their teams may be weaker than the teams belonging to Blood Crusade and Mass Enlightenment, but in exchange theirs a team out their made of super elites.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The third and recently established special team is Team Freedom. During the conversion from Horror Movies to Manage and Anime, this team came into existence by a mistake in the system, but was allowed to exist as another sample of evolution. Team Freedom are composed of Players who were all formerly NPCs and they were given a lot of freedom by God in order to complete a certain objective. This objective wasn't revealed even with the position of Leader. Not even why God allows them to move across this dimension and into the Mission Worlds of other teams. They are also allowed to have more than 20 members in their team, but they are still restricted by a maximum limit of 20 members per team which can be sent out. This all matches what Drebin893 told him when they first met, but still Team Freedom was a mysterious existence and rising threat for the other teams. Maybe more so than Team Devil or Celestial, the strongest team may turn out to be Team Freedom who are made up of fictional characters.

Shin: "...What a joke. All the Players and teams are just so minuscule in this world. They got toyed with like lab mice. Izuru Kamukura kept going on about the threat of the Four Pillars on God's Dimension, yet in the end it was just another experiment now that Team Japan is a counter measure to face them... Fine God I'll beat them all down, but I'll do things my way. Victor or defeat, life or death, its all on me. I won't handover my team or my potential over to you no matter the end result!"

Shin stared at the ceiling of his room for his bed as if God was watching him from above and said what he wanted to say and went to sleep.

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The next day.

It was early in the morning of the second day of break before the next mission. For the first day of rest every member of Team Japan retreated to their rooms after the enduring last mission, yet as Shin walked out of his room the second day he saw that everyone; Aqua, Hikari, Shuai, Connor, Jin, Kisara, Drake and Sachi were up and about within the platform. Even Komaru was up and happily chatting with Jin's Human Creation, Shuai's Gnome (He's just decided to keep her out permanently hadn't he, this self proclaimed father), and a girl who Shin has never seen before, but was highly likely to be a new Human Creation of one of his comrades.

Shin: (Everyone survived in the end and we gained new comrades. It should always be like this after a mission. We're all up and about as well, so we might as well talk about the previous mission, the battle with The Guide, and our future plans.)

With such thoughts in mind Shin called for everyone to follow him into his room for their talk. Team Japan usually had these meetings on the platform and immediately proceeded to choosing enhancements, but as there was much more to discuss and they might not get to choosing enhancements right away. That is Shin thought it best to sit down and discuss things. Everyone followed Shin into his room without complaint, but to his surprise Komaru chose to stay behind along with the other Human Creation and Shuai's Gnome. Her reasoning was that she was simply having a lot of fun talking to the other and Shin could understand where she was coming from. Komaru was held hostage by Ultimate Despair and immediately after escaping had to deal with the Warriors of Hope. This was the first time Komaru woke up and knew for certain that the world wasn't going to end, so she was making the best of this time.

Shin: (How normal. Well, she may be a heroine, but has been repeatedly been told that she's average. Still, that's what I like about her. If she was super gung-ho about a meeting that revolved around preparing for the next battle than Komaru Naegi wouldn't be Komaru Naegi. She also knows about one of the subject matters on today's discussion, so if she wants to have fun while she can... I won't stop her.)

Shin after wishing Komaru a nice time and receiving a warm smile back, he left to join his companions waiting inside his room for him to begin the meeting.

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Jin: "So Shin, seeing as we're all alive and well and that we even have new comrades it means that completed "Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls"? I was kinda in a mastermind position for a while, so I have some idea what happened up to my defeat, but nothing afterwards. Come on, tell us of your grand tale of victory over your brainwashed comrades!"

Hikari: "You sound incredibly sarcastic Jin, but I want to know as well. Also, why did pick up a new girl during all this madness. And just so you know Komaru stayed in my room and we got to talking, so don't think you can lie to make yourself look cool, Mr. Cool Self Proclaimed Ultimate Protagonist!"

Shin: "Scary! So this is the legendary girls talk? Fine, I'll talk, but it a long tale of a grand adventure where I along with a few Newbies and my new heroine came together against all odds and-"

Aqua: "Annoying. Drake or Sachi. One of you newcomers explain in this terminal otaku's stead please."

Shin: "Wait! I'll explain properly, so don't take my moment away!"

In a panic to lose his moment to shine, Shin began to explain from the beginning what happened during the mission of "Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls". From the moment Izuru Kamukura brainwashed everyone and too meeting the new capable Newbies and the heroin of Another Episode Komaru. Defeating the Warriors of Hope, taking out Big Bang Monokuma, and freeing everyone for me their brainwashing. And lastly, defeating the super human Ultimate Hope and Guide Izuru Kamukura, the fusion which promoted him to the Third Stage of the Genetic Constraint, and the benefits of the Leader Position that he acquired.

Everyone listened on as Shin went into detail of every we event of the mission and how he overcame them. They were mostly in shock with the exception of Drake and Sachi who were by his side during the mission. On one hand they felt ashamed that Shin had to deal with everything on his own and even had to defeat them who were brainwashed and stood in his way. On the other hand by over overcoming these numerous difficulties Shin along with every member of Team Japan acquired a astronomical large sum of Points and Rank Rewards. They haven't checked yet, but from what they heard it wouldn't be wrong to say that they had enough rewards to transform Team Japan into a extremely powerful team of God's Dimension!

Shin: "That's basically what happened. I defeated the Guide with Holy Sword Switch and brought along Komaru since well I liked her and she said that she didn't mind leaving her world for now. In addition I promised The Guides true persona, Hinata Hajime that in three missions time from now that I would go back and recruit him to Team Japan. That's everything that's happened."

Hikari: "...Well, I guess I won't bother you too much for bring back Komaru with you. She's been through a lot and honestly likes you, so I unfortunately have no complaints... You cheating bastard otaku scum who is a failure as a boyfriend... but I still love you somewhat, so don't worry (She said with a innocent and understanding smile that was not so innocent and understanding)."

Shin: "...Okay. Now are there any questions? If not I think there more than enough time left today to go out and make our exchanges with our new fortune of points and rewards."

Aqua: "I have none except to say that along with reaching the Third Stage of the Genetic Constraint this leader position may be the greatest reward that we've acquired during the mission. There are too many things to exchange from God. Enhancements, abilities, sci-fi weapons, magical weapons, supporting items. At least

over hundreds of thousands of options all with potential. There is actually no such thing as a useless exchange within the system. No human can read through all of them and I've tried. The Four Pillars most have spent a long time to come up with encyclopedia of all possible exchanges and what combinations are good or bad. It most have been a project where hundreds of thousands of, no millions of points and untold number of rank rewards were spent to complete. Now that we have a speed reader in you our fearless leader, we don’t have to worry about wasting points and rank rewards!”

Jin: "I must agree as well. So where's the next mission going to take palace? You have Mission Preview ability, so you should know. Is it a difficult one or a easy mission to get us started out as allies as God. Even of it's a bit hard we should be able to mange and don’t have to feel so anxious. There should only be a few situations that can threaten us judging from our power levels and power levels to come after this round if exchanges. First is team battles. It can be the most dangerous one or there won’t even be a fight depending on the other team. Everyone is a large amount of points to the other team but it’s also easy to get killed, just like Team Germany. This rule still hold some weight against the teams of the Four Pillars. Second, sudden change of plot. Like how you almost wiped in BTOOOM and Apocalypse Alice. Third, disaster settings, large scale wars, massive scale sci-fi worlds, and ones with strange rules that can't be overcome by power alone like the novel and Anime "Another", but God wouldn’t put us into these unless we become really strong. For our current stage we just need to prepare enough Sci-fi weapons. With that said, what will our next mission going to be?"

Shin was still laughing bitterly at being called a speed reader by Aqua when Jin spoke up and although no one knew it he ruined the mood. Shin stopped smiling and everyone in the room sensed the tension now. It was something that had to be said, but deep down he was hoping to push it off till later, yet that would be too irresponsible as a leader. Shin gathered his courage and gave Jin and the others the answer they were waiting for without putting it off any longer.  

Shin: "First of all God won't gift us with a easy time even if we are allies... No because were allies we should expect God to increase the difficulties for us as we're just another test for evolution. God selects difficulty according to the strongest member in the team and the achievements of the team. Team Japan has continually overcome uphill battles and I am at the Third Stage of the Unlocked Mode as well, so we won't be given a easy time. Also, while our team's name didn't change God might see us as this dimension's fourth special team after Team Devil, Team Celestial, and Team Freedom. Still, I don’t know if we are lucky or not but the next mission might be manageable. The next mission is a world we've been too before. High School of the Dead. H.O.T.D for short. The world of H.O.T.D is a world Hikari, Aqua and myself have been too before and we're acquainted with the main characters, so we should have some advantages... but there are four points we should be wary of. First of all is that High School of the Dead is a unfinished work, so God might have changed the plot to fit a level of difficulty for Team Japan. We can thank the author who playing around with other works like "Triage" for this. Secondly, although it's hard to imagine what the main mission could be the difficulty will certainly be higher than my first mission in H.O.T.D for certain. With a few exceptions all future plots of a series will be more difficult than the previous plots. Now the third point to be wary of is that once a team obtains a leader, then all created beings must also enter the mission alongside us. Originally, if you were willing to spend a D rank reward you could exchange for their freedom, but God has changed it so they must absolutely join in the next mission and only if they survive will they be free. Luckily, this seems to be a one time event, so if we create more in the future we just need to spend a D rank reward to free them. Now lastly, but most importantly... the next mission will be a Team Battle... and like before we'll be entering the world first which means God has deemed us the weaker team!"

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