Chapter 58: The System That Wanted to Slack Off but Nearly Messed Up

"Helper?" Hearing the system's words and realizing he could return midway, Hikigaya Hachiman immediately abandoned his idea of retreating. After all, according to the usual process, he had no idea how long it would take to accumulate 10,000 spirit coins. Just enduring for three hours to earn such a generous reward—even if it was a bit risky—was worth a try. "Yeah, yeah! Host, you're not the main force here. Just cooperate with my current host to repel that Demon King, and wait until dawn—that's all!" Seeing Hachiman waver a little, the system quickly added. "Is your current host stronger than me?" Hachiman's face showed a flicker of curiosity upon hearing that he only needed to act as an assistant. Normally, wouldn't the previous system host be stronger? "Of course! This time, I chose the strongest human in this world as my host!" The system spoke with pride and confidence when mentioning its current host. According to the world's story, it was originally supposed to possess a boy named Kamado Tanjiro, then help this host, who carried a deep blood feud, steadily increase his strength step by step, and finally defeat the world's big boss—the Demon King. But obviously, this way of completing the mission was too slow. To finish the task as soon as possible, the system brought forward its appearance by one year and possessed Kamado Tanjuro, Tanjiro's father. As Tanjiro's father, Kamado Tanjuro was basically a bug-level existence. He wasn't just the only ordinary person who had mastered a transparent world; he had also completely mastered the family's generational dance of the Fire God, which was actually the world's strongest breathing technique—the Sun Breathing. Also, like Tanjiro, Tanjuro had markings on his forehead! As expected by the system, under its guidance, Tanjuro continuously completed easy tasks issued by the system to gain attribute points, then invested all those points into physical constitution. After more than a year of recuperation and adjustment, the man who was supposed to be dead not only didn't die but his health improved a lot. However, just as everything was getting better, trouble appeared. On the night of the first snow in the second year after the system possessed Tanjuro, the world's final boss, Kibutsuji Muzan, suddenly went crazy and attacked alone. Although Tanjuro was there, Muzan gained no advantage and was even so scared upon seeing him the first time that he fled. However, Muzan somehow found out that Tanjuro's body was in poor condition. During the following days when the sunlight was blocked by heavy snow, Muzan sent his demons to wear down Tanjuro's strength using a relay attack tactic, preventing him from resting properly. As a result, Tanjuro's body—which had just started to improve thanks to the system—nearly collapsed again. Not only that, but tonight, right after Tanjuro had experienced a major battle and was physically weak, Muzan suddenly launched a sneak attack on Tanjuro's children. During the fight, Tanjuro was seriously injured by Muzan while protecting his family. That was why the system came to find Hikigaya Hachiman, the recently former host of the special-grade system, for help. "Wait..." Hachiman interrupted the system's rambling. After hearing the system's story, he sharply noticed some problems. "What are attribute points?" Hachiman didn't remember his system having attribute points that could be used to enhance his physical constitution. "Oh, that? Depending on the danger level of each world, the system a host gets is different." "But my world is obviously more dangerous, right?" Hachiman questioned. The strongest boss in the system's current host's world was only at the King level. In his world, Chiba alone had a King-level evil spirit! "Danger levels aren't calculated like that~" The system calmly explained to Hachiman why Tanjuro's system was better than his. "In Tanjuro's world, although the strongest boss is only King level, the humans opposing him are only Special grade at best." "Without Tanjuro and his son, those so-called Pillars would get slapped around by Muzan." "Also, the living conditions of ordinary people in Tanjuro's world are more dangerous than yours. It's common for someone to just die in their sleep, taken by demons for no reason." "In contrast, although your world has higher-level evil spirits, the human exorcists dominate. So your system's functions are simplified..." "My world actually has other exorcists?" Half surprised, half delighted. Hachiman had originally thought only he and Miko could see the evil spirits and that he was the only exorcist. Honestly, carrying the burden of being the world's only exorcist was quite stressful for him. Especially after learning that Chiba hid so many high-level evil spirits, the pressure grew even more. Stories similar to "Hyakki Yagyo" (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons) had long circulated in Japan. Before meeting the system, Hachiman always took these stories as legends made up by predecessors. But after gaining the system, he truly worried that such things might happen! At that time, with exorcists around, would he recklessly try to block the evil, or quietly hide with Komachi at home like a scared turtle, watching the outside world become a living hell? Now his worries were perfectly resolved by the system's words. "Of course, otherwise why do you think your job title is 'exorcist' instead of Onmyoji, priest, or Taoist?" "Then why have I never met them?" If other exorcists existed in his world, Hachiman should have noticed them. But in reality, he hadn't seen any. "Because there are very few..." The system quickly answered. Apart from Hachiman as an exception, to become an exorcist, one must be able to see evil spirits. This alone disqualified almost everyone in Hachiman's world. On top of that, a senior exorcist has to discover and systematically train newcomers before they can become true exorcists. The second step usually weeds out most candidates. Because those who can see evil spirits all pretend they can't to protect themselves. This makes it hard for veteran exorcists to find disciples... Yotsuya Miko, who is close to Hachiman, is a good example. Although she has the aptitude to see evil spirits, she disguised it so well that neither exorcists nor evil spirits noticed her. Of course, that was before meeting Hachiman... Two harsh conditions combined meant that there were only a little over a hundred exorcists in Hachiman's world. There were just five in the whole of Japan, so it was normal that Hachiman never met them.