Hard Enough - Chapter 8: Meeting the Mayor

One rule: Survive. Everything else is optional.Reika Kagetsu doesn’t want to be a hero. She just wants to feel—pain, fear, adrenaline—anything to remind her she’s still alive.Tenshiko Academy promised her that.What she got instead? Brutal training. No rest. No second chances. And monsters—inside and out.Now she’s fighting the Shikiban: creatures born from blood, madness, and buried secrets. But the deeper she goes, the more she begins to wonder...What if she’s one of them?Power always comes with a price. And Reika is about to pay it in full.

In the darkest and most cruelest dungeon is the birth of a specie who lives his every day life trying not to fall prey to the claws of the predators.

To survive amongst predators, one most shed off the flesh of a prey and take on the skin of an even bigger predator.

Power Ranking

Note

The numbers refer to existential value, and all lifeforms has it.

ADVENTURER GUILD POWER RANKING

Lv 1 - 20 = F (1 - 49)

Lv 20 - 30 = E (50 - 99)

Lv 30 - 50 = D (100 - 499)

Lv 50 - 60 = C (500 - 999)

Lv 60 - 80 = B (1,000 - 4,999)

Lv 80 - 100 = A (5,000 - 9,999)

Lv 100 - 200 = S (10,000 - 19,999)

Lv 200 - 500 = SS (20,000 - 29,999)

LV 500 - 900 = SSS (30,000 - 49,999)

LV 900 - 1000 = XS (50,000 - 99,999)

SPIRITUAL ENTITY RANKING SYSTEM BELOW

■MONSTERS AND OTHER NON-HUMAN LIFEFORMS

●Apocalypse > 100,000,000 - 1,000,000,000

●Armageddon > 10,000,000 - 99,999,999

●Cataclysm > 1,000,000 - 9,999,999

●Disaster > 100,000 - 999,999

■HUMAN

●Transcendent > 100,000,000 - 1,000,000,000

●Warlord > 10,000,000 - 99,999,999

●Mystical > 1,000,000 - 9,999,999

●Heroic > 100,000 - 999,999

“Obtaining the topmost degree of talent in sword arts in the world requires giving up 72 years of lifespan, which leaves you with only five more years of your life. At the same time, you will never be able to feel love, kinship, and friendship, and you’ll end up leading a lonely life until your death, unable to procreate, or to have any descendants.

“From now onwards, everything related to happiness in the human world shall no longer be of your concern. Are you willing to accept this?”

“Hahahaha, I’m already alone bereft of all support, my hopes dashed to pieces, shouldering only absolutely irreconcilable grudge and hatred, why would I disagree? Why would I not want it? I couldn’t ask for anything better!!”

His sword sweeps across the Divine Continent for seven days and nights, moving 90,000 miles through the starry skies, unhindered.

He slays saints and buddhas in Heaven, slaughters demons and devils in Hell, sweeping away all the grievances in his heart.