Souta rubbed his temples, feeling a bit surprised.
The third invitation had just been sent not long ago, and now, two more at once?
So his theory about the invitations being sent at fixed time intervals was completely wrong.
It seemed... the system was sending them whenever it felt like it.
As he pondered this, another thought struck him.
People who received the friend invitations didn't always immediately enter the chat or change their nickname.
So, before that happened, what was their default name in the group?
Thinking back, when he first got his system phone, it had used a cold, robotic voice to prompt him for a nickname.
At the time, he had instinctively given his real name.
It was only later, when chatting with Kurumi, that he changed it to "Kouzou Akizuki."
"Hey, system, when you send an invitation, you prompt them to enter a nickname first, right?"
"What if they ignore it?"
[Their real name is used by default.]
Was that how Kurumi ended up using her real name in the group?
Just as he was thinking about this, Kurumi spoke up in the chat.
Kurumi: "We have new members?"
Kurumi: "@Souta, why don't you identify them?"
Why are you tagging me? I'm sitting right next to you.
He turned his head to look at Kurumi—who was completely absorbed in her phone, eyes gleaming with interest.
He still didn't understand why she was so enthusiastic about new members every time.
Kurumi: "@Head of the Tohsaka Family. @Illyasviel. Introduce yourselves~"
Seeing these two names, Souta instantly had a few guesses.
"Tohsaka Family Head... is that Daddy Tohsaka? Or just Tohsaka Rin?"
"And Illya... is it the one who got her heart ripped out? Or the magical girl one?"
If it was the latter, that reminded him of an old meme—
"You can even see Illya... in Illya's movie!"
Souta's mutterings didn't escape Kurumi's ears.
She tugged on his sleeve, curious.
"Did you recognize the new members?"
"Not exactly. I've narrowed it down, but I'm not sure yet."
Honestly, he was a little surprised.
The system had invited people from the Nasuverse this time?
That was interesting.
After all, the Nasuverse had an insanely deep and complex lore—something that had always fascinated him.
"Well then~" Kurumi smirked mischievously. "At least you know if they're male or female, right?"
Before he could respond, his phone vibrated again—saving him from Kurumi's playful interrogation.
It was Altair, messaging the chat.
Altair: "@Souta. I won't be joining this mission. I doubt I'd be much help, and more importantly, I need to stay with Setsuna."
Altair: "She just came back to life. If I leave and the government finds out, they might start causing problems."
Souta: "That's true. If the public finds out she's alive, your world's people would probably lose their minds. You should be careful."
Altair: "With my abilities, hiding her isn't an issue. But beyond that... I can't ignore the whole 'creator vs. creation' issue. I'm considering reaching out to Meteora's side to discuss this problem. So I won't have time for this mission."
Altair's world was a mess.
He had his own thoughts about the issue.
Souta: "Honestly, the best solution would be to completely cut off the connection between your reality and fictional worlds—making them truly independent. That would be the ideal outcome."
Altair: "Cut them off? That sounds... almost impossible."
Souta: "'Impossible' is an understatement. That would mean altering the laws of multiple worlds. Right now, it's completely out of reach. But if I use one of my friend invitations on someone like the Mercury King... maybe they could solve it."
Of course, even then, he wasn't sure.
Because beings like the Mercury King—or any near-omnipotent figures—tended to have one major flaw:
They were too powerful to enter worlds properly.
In many settings, if they stepped into a lower world, they'd be like a mountain sitting on a piece of paper—
The world would instantly collapse.
So even if he invited someone that strong, he wouldn't dare bring them into Altair's world.
What if they broke both the real world and Re:CREATORS' world?
And if they sent a weaker clone instead...
Would that really be enough to fix things?
It felt like a dead end.
Souta: "On second thought... let's not. These invitations are too valuable. And bringing in beings like that is too dangerous—there's no guarantee they'd cooperate."
Altair: "Agreed. The safest path is to just get stronger through the system and solve it ourselves."
Souta: "Yeah, that's probably for the best."
At the moment, the only real way to grow stronger was...
Hopefully, the system would unlock more power-up functions soon.
Suddenly, Shinobu pinged him in the chat.
Kiss-Shot: "@Souta. Have you figured out how to clear the Date A Live mission?"
He glanced up from his phone.
Shinobu was literally sitting across from him.
"...You could've just asked me directly."
With a deadpan expression, he turned to Kurumi and Shinobu.
It was like their face-to-face communication skills were deteriorating.
Kurumi blinked innocently.
Souta chuckled, ruffling her hair.
"Just discussing the mission."
Then, looking back at Shinobu, he finally responded.
Souta: "I've analyzed the mission. It needs to be tackled in two phases."
"Step one: Erase the Eurasian Sky Disaster."
"Step two: Save the girls sacrificed for the Sephira Crystals."
"The second step is relatively easy. We just need to reverse time on them before they die."
Souta's eyes narrowed.
Something didn't feel right.
Wouldn't making such a huge change to history cause a butterfly effect...?
Wouldn't that mean Kurumi might never exist?
If the timeline changed and Mio never gave Kurumi her Spirit Crystal, wouldn't she... disappear?
He immediately asked the system about this.
[Friend group members will not have their memories erased by timeline changes. However, they may gain additional memories due to the butterfly effect. As long as you do not erase the 'cause' of their birth, their existence will remain intact.]
This wasn't reassuring.
Kurumi's entire existence was tied to Mio giving her a Spirit Crystal.
If history changed too much, and Mio never met Kurumi...
Would she still be here?
If he wanted to fix history without losing Kurumi, he'd have to trick history itself.
That level of precision...
Was beyond his current capabilities.
It was time to use his trump card.