Chapter 61: Playing Around...

  "It's strange, I've eaten so much, I should have replenished a lot of energy, why do I feel even more tired?"

  "Breaking down food requires extra energy expenditure, and the energy provided by these foods is not enough to compensate for your own consumption." It was as if he had answered this question many times before. The moment the nine-tailed beast's doubts were expressed, Nagato Uzumaki, who was walking beside him, opened his mouth to respond.

  "Oh well, never mind, it's just some unimportant small things, but why can I suddenly eat now?"

  Nine lives definitely did not have this change before, at least not before coming to this world. At that time, eating was like gnawing on a stone, completely without any flavor, and the chewed food would even pass through his soul body and fall to the ground.

  Nagato Yuki continued to explain, "Because Suzumiya Haruhi's perception of you has deviated, your body underwent an abnormal adjustment. If you're not satisfied, I can correct this adjustment."

  Back to normal? No way! Jiǔ Mìng shook his head quickly, "No! I'm very satisfied, I just fear this anomaly will suddenly disappear."

  "As long as Haruhi Suzumiya's distorted recognition of you is not corrected, it will not disappear."

  "It's truly a frightening girl." Having gotten a clear answer, Kyon felt thoroughly at ease and couldn't help but have a new appreciation for Haruhi Suzumiya's abilities. With just a slight deviation in her perception, she could fundamentally change the nature of things that couldn't be eaten, even if it wasn't the kind of unreasonable 'unscientific' type; the fact that the food he ate required him to expend his own energy to break down and 'digest' was terrifying enough.

  Can't feel it? Let me put it another way, the Nine Lives think that Haruhi Suzumiya can directly reach the level of 'Sealing God' in this world to a certain extent!

  Her will affects this world, how can a person who is not even a grain of sand in this world not be affected?

  If someone with ill intentions were to mislead her through a series of manipulations and succeeded, what would happen when Haruhi Suzumiya firmly believed that the person was an all-powerful 'god'?

  Sheer terror.

  Fortunately, she is unaware of her own abilities and has a group of seemingly extraordinary 'guards' around her, especially Nagato Yuki. Even now, after nine lives, I still don't understand the extent of her powers, but being able to locate the mysterious shop with just a cell phone can't be bad...

  Spring day is first, hope is second? Adding to the fact that the former does not understand its own true nature at all, then the latter can be considered as a kind of (this world) number one already!

  It's likely that anyone who wants to take advantage of Haruhi Suzumiya in this world would be eliminated by the harmless-looking, gentle, and weak girl standing before them at the very beginning.

  The next day, catch insects...

  It is said that on this day, if you can catch more cicadas than Haruhi Suzumiya of the SOS Brigade, you will be granted the ultimate power of becoming the leader of the SOS Brigade!!... for one day!

  Under the power of the vast universe, it wasn't until dusk that Kyouya's Nine Lives was defeated by a single move in his intense battle with Haruhi Suzumiya.

  "This isn't scientific at all." Jiǔ Mìng stared at the cage in her hand with a weird expression, and at first, she hadn't even realized it, but by the end, the number of cicadas she had caught had somehow unknowingly surpassed hers, making her feel like she had lost unfairly.

  With a face full of desolate meaning like snow, Haruhi Suzumiya shook her head, the smile on her face couldn't be covered up no matter what, "Indeed, the position of team leader can't even be let go for one day, everyone please accept this change."

  "It's okay." Jiǔ Mìng's attention quickly shifted away from the so-called all-powerful 'SOS Captain' and was now fixed on the cicadas in the insect cage!

  "Although it's not a young cicada, mature cicadas should be edible too... How about we roast them over an open flame?"

  "Hey! Go blow yourself up!" Ah Xū immediately showed a face of disgust, and even pulled away from Jiǔ Mìng a bit. Eating bugs!?

  "What I said earlier, you took it seriously? Well, it's better to release them back into nature anyway. Who knows, maybe they'll come back and repay us someday." With that, Haruhi Suzumiya opened the insect cage first, and a large number of cicadas quickly flew out.

  "I think they lined up in a row and roasted me is the best way to repay them."

  Regrettably, he shook his head slightly. The ninth life also opened the insect cage, and the cicadas that had been locked in for a long time flew out quickly, perhaps feeling someone's malice, their flying speed was even faster than those released by Suzumiya Haruhi.

  In the blink of an eye, there was no shadow left.

  What an unfeeling group of creatures.

  "Alright, remember to gather at the usual place tomorrow." After taking a look at the schedule, Haruhi Suzumiya crossed out the line that said "bug catching", "It's time for part-time job, I've already found a pretty good place!"

  When everyone had parted ways, the sky was dark again.

  It seems that today's feeling has increased a bit of intuition, at the beginning of catching cicadas, he had a vague premonition that he would definitely lose, and the result was indeed so. Walking on the road, Jiǔ Mìng (Nine Lives) scratched his head in confusion, wanting to say something, but endured it and didn't ask the three-nothing girl beside him.

  Perhaps it was just an illusion, but somehow these déjà vu didn't seem to be produced by his memories. Haruhi Suzumiya had told him about the things they did during those fourteen days in 'the cycle', and Kyon almost knew them all too, which made him certain that the reason why these déjà vu were unrelated to his memories was because their range of appearance was outside of those events.

  "It's so late again, you two didn't get lost on the way, did you?" As soon as she returned to Yuki Nagato's home, her first glance fell upon Ako Kimijima, who seemed to have been thoroughly 'tamed' by Haruhi Suzumiya.

  "I'm hungry." Nagato Yuki didn't say anything, put the bag in her hand to one side, and said in a light tone, as if preparing to scold Aizawa Chizuru, who immediately changed her expression.

  "Right, it's getting late and I'm a bit hungry too, let's go cook something."

  "Alright." With a slight nod, Nagato Yuki took out her laptop and turned it on, placing it on the desk. She nodded at Kujou, "I lowered the difficulty of the game you played yesterday, good luck!"

  “……”

  She finished speaking and headed to the kitchen with Asakura Ryouko, leaving behind Kuroba Yuu who was still sitting in his seat, petrified... What a thoughtful girl... With an inexplicable sense of desolation, Kuroba Yuu looked at the computer on the table that was emitting an enigmatic allure towards him. Since the difficulty had been lowered, then...

  "Being poor is a sin, curiosity is the original sin...... Sigh!" The next day, Kyon joined up with the others again, bringing along an inexplicably heavy heart. Work, yeah... it was pretty simple; the division of labor was that except for Nagato Yuki who went to negotiate with the store owner about their pay, everyone else had to wear this full-body "Froggy" costume and hand out balloons on this sweltering summer day.

  "What's wrong, what happened again?" Seeing Jiǔ Mìng's expression, ā Xū became even more curious, "Can you tell me? It's not good to keep it bottled up."

  "Hands-free, this is more than the first magnitude of pain in my life for the second time." Jiǔ Mìng shook his head, jokingly, how could he say that? How to start?!

  "I want to know more."

  "Hmph! I advise you to think about the hell you'll face next." Jiǔ Mìng patted the giant frog head in his hand, while ā Xū's hand held a toad version.

  “……” He glanced silently at Haruhi Suzumiya, who was eating ice cream in the distance. Koizumi rubbed his temples and furrowed his brow, a thick sense of unease flashing through his eyes. “If the work distribution is the same as before, I'll definitely cause a riot.”

  "Whatever."

  A careless remark made Ah Xū even more entangled, who let him say when he wore this green frog costume before that as a ghost he wasn't afraid of heat!

  How hateful... why... why did he have to dress up like this, Ah Xū raged in his heart, why were other people's frogs and his was a toad!!

  As for the wages of this short-term labor...?

  Nothing at all! The final reward is just a set of frog costumes that don't add attack speed, movement speed, or even health... Oh, and it has an effect, it's really stuffy to wear!

  "Where's your riot?" Jiǔ Mìng poked ā Xū with his elbow, the latter remained silent, sitting on a chair with his head thrown back, his shirt drenched in sweat, still not having caught his breath.

  "Finally got rid of this heavy skin, feels like shedding snake skin." The young man cleverly ignored Jiǔ Mìng's words.

  "Come to think of it, I haven't visited your club room yet." In short, the frog costume has become a spare outfit within SOS Brigade, with Haruhi as the main wearer.

  Listening to Haruhi Suzumiya's words, it seems that there are more than just this one in their club room, with a feeling of playing COS all day.

  "You can't even visit now, school hasn't started yet."

  "Uh-huh, that's right. Once school starts, I'll have to go back." Jiǔ Mìng nodded and looked at ā Xū, who had a stunned expression, "What's with the 'I've seen a ghost' look on your face?"

  "It's nothing, must be just an illusion."

  He shook his head, and Ah Xū said somewhat weakly that he had been made a bit oversensitive by all sorts of intuition these days. Not long ago, when Ryōko ōtori approved Mitsuru-san's wearing this frog costume at any time, it was the same as her conversation with Kurenai now.

  "Ah, another perfect day!" She nodded, unlike others who were lethargic from wearing thick frog skin under the scorching sun. In the air-conditioned room, Suzumiya Haruhi was still full of energy after cooling off for a bit in the afternoon. "Don't forget to assemble tomorrow!"

  "The capture conditions have been lowered again." In Yuki's home, the expressionless girl with three noes pushed her laptop back in front of Kurenai, and very rarely gave a thumbs up, "Good luck!!"

  So the nine lives were enraged from last night, vowed to play again and cut off their hands, if the difficulty has been lowered on the basis of lowering, isn't it still a small matter for oneself?

  Play play play play play!!!!!

  Let's play rock-paper-scissors again!!

  Well, roughly speaking, at 9 o'clock in the middle of the night when we were fighting against time, the phone suddenly rang. It was Kosen Hitoshi, and it seemed that she had discovered something very important, so now everyone needed to find a place to discuss it together.

  Is it important to realize that the world is now in a state of constant reincarnation? For some reason, Kosen no Ki didn't reveal what he wanted to say, but Kunen somehow thought of this aspect as if... knowing in advance.

  What's going on?