Mika grabbed bruiser 97-F's wrists and tried to got even closer to him to pressure him into confessing, while not fully realizing that her action could look quite different from the boy's perspective... or from any bystander's perspective for the matter...

Anyway, her attempts only ended up in her comically sliding her feet on the floor as she couldn't defeat bruiser 97's strength.

"Um, please calm down...? My stats are fine, they are ranging from 4500 to around 13000 except from luck that's capped at 99!"

"Aha! See! They're only... wait! 4500 is the lowes?! The strongest is 13000... what...?!-KYAH!"

"Watch out!"

Once bruiser 97-F folded in and confessed, the outrageous number got Mika by surprise and she ended up slipping.

That was so sudden for the boy trying to keep the ashen-haired girl away, that he reacted instinctively by trying to catch her...

...leading for the girl to end up in his embrace.

"While close relations are not banned, it is highly advised that you keep the displays of affection to your private quarters."

And that was the scene that the quartermaster has returned to, holding a simple wooden crate stuffed with various equipment meant for Mika.

"Wha...?! N-no! Sir! It's not like that!"

Bruiser 97-F blushed and hurriedly put Mika away.

"..."

Yes.

He physically lifted her up by her shoulders and put her to the side like an object.

Very confused, very embarrassed, ashen-haired object.

"Recruit, take the armor and try it on, use the dressing room."

The quartermaster continued talking as if nothing happened and pointed at the simple door to his right.

"Okay."

Mika nodded and hurriedly approached the counter, picked up the box, and...

/System detected that all essential characters necessary for the special timed quest of the global event's ultimate route: - Final frontier - are in the required area.

/Due to the unique nature of the - Final frontier - quest, the system requires permission from each of the necessary essential characters to begin.

/Do you agree to start the - Final frontier - quest?

YES / NO

(warning - none of the essential characters will be able to leave the Sloth territory until the quest completion/failure)

A series of menacing messages had popped up the moment that Mika has turned towards the dressing room.

"Eh...?"

The ashen-haired girl stopped midway and furrowed her brows staring at the message.

How many times the system is going to show up with something completely new?!

This was getting ridiculous.

"Is something wrong?"

Bruiser 97-F asked seeing the concern on the girl's face.

"Um... It's fine, don't worry. Just some weird message has popped up."

Mika shook her head dismissively and walked through the door.

"Ah, I know what she means! When I was picking up my equipment for the first time I got a quest telling me to put it on! It was a bit weird."

The boy nodded with understanding.

"We all did. Almost every Sloth soldier receives exactly the same quests from the moment they become a recruit. It's because the first avatar of sloth used the powers of the wisdom God, Patience, to influence the system to streamline the training process."

The quartermaster nodded, waiting for the girl to come out to see whether or not he chose the right size for her armor.

"It's a shame that Patience's powers weren't enough to wipe out the titan-class monsters..."

Bruiser 97-F sighed.

"Hey, youngster, be grateful that the first avatar managed to raise the sea of mist before god's powers ran out or the whole Fruit Salad would be just some monster-filled wasteland."

"Sir! Yes, sir!"

The quartermaster scoffed and the boy straightened his back and saluted.

Then they both went quiet and waited for the girl.

But she was taking quite a long time.

"Maybe she never wore armor before and needs help?"

Bruiser 97-F muttered and took a step towards the dressing room.

"Ekhem!"

But as soon as he did that, the quartermaster loudly cleared his throat, startling the boy.

"The recruits' armor is crafted in such a way that as long as you want to put it on right, you will put it on right. Also, didn't you heard what I've said before? Leave the displays of affection to your private quarters. Private. The dressing room isn't a place for two brats to fool around."

The man glared at the boy.

"I-it's not like that at all! We just met!"

Bruiser 97-F tried to hurriedly explain himself because he did not carry any incident intentions when he wanted to check up on Mika in the dressing room.

...

...

...he didn't carry any intentions as incident as the ones that the quartermaster was accusing him of, at least...

And then the door opened.

----

Meanwhile, inside the dressing room, Mika had no other choice but to give up the escape attempts after she was unable to open - or break open - the small window.

"...this whole situation is such a mess..."

She sighed while changing from the simple childish clothes into the armor made out of some unknown monster materials - it was made out of hide, metal, and even something akin to a bone in few places, but the ashen-haired girl was unable to discern what kind of monster or monsters were hunted down to make it.

But one thing was sure - it was high-quality gear.

So high quality in fact, that Mika had a hard time believing that such good equipment was handed so casually to some recruits.

But, that was Sloths' for you.

A boy her age was already level 111 and had stats so insane that they would instantly place him on the top spot of Fruit Salad's strongest people - and that was only enough for him to be just some low-rank soldier who sounded straight-up crazy.

...though truth to be told Mika had no idea whether bruiser 97-F was just a low-level soldier or not, and was working under her own assumptions...

Of course, the equipment would be just as insane as the rest.

"I wonder if they'll let me keep it even if I get busted..."

Mika wondered, touching the perfectly fitting chest piece completely awestruck.

Then she stuffed her old clothes into the little bag that was prepared at the bottom of the crate and left the dressing room holding the wooden crate and the bag in one hand, and the helmet in the other.

"Sorry for taking so long..."

Mika apologized and lowered her head before she even fully opened the door.

"I had trouble with... ah...!"

The ashen-haired girl gasped as the first person that she saw after raising her head was the bespectacled woman making an annoyed expression and tapping her foot on the floor.

"Well, well, well. Miss Wrath. Do you have anything to say to me?"

Medic 7 asked, loudly breathing through her nose which made her sound like an angry bull.

Mika flinched and glanced to the side, just to find that both the quartermaster and the bruiser 97-F are kneeling by the wall, remorsefully staring at the floor, and a painful-looking lump was swelling on the quartermaster's head while the buzz-cut boy seemed remorseful but otherwise fine.

"..."

Mika closed her mouth and started staring at her feet, too afraid to make eye contact.

It was clear that medic 7 was the one who reprimanded the two by the wall, and since bruiser 97-F revealed how ridiculous his status points are and the quartermaster couldn't be weaker - once again that was Mika's assumption - Mika was disillusioned about her chances of going against the bespectacled woman since she got the two of them to kneel down.

"How were you able to leave the room in the first place? I didn't make you a recruit, and you certainly didn't have enough points in STR to make it out on your own."

Medic 7 was pissed off.

It seemed like the next thing she was going to say would be something like: 'you're a foreign spy, aren't you?' while she continued massaging her hand that seemed to be swelling for whatever reason.

Anyway, Mika wasn't in the most desirable position at the moment.

"Once you left many messages have popped up and the system have given me a choice and one of the options was to leave the room and when I picked that option it gave me enough status points in STR that I was able to pass through the door and then received a title of honorary Sloth and a temporary level 1 skill Acedia and once I picked that choice and received a reward I could not just stay behind in the room!"

Therefore the ashen-haired girl decided just decided to tell the truth...

...all in a single breath.

"So you're saying that the system forced you to leave the room even though you didn't want to...?"

Medic 7 furrowed her brows and asked dumbfounded.

"That's right! System! Yes!"

Mika exclaimed and nodded her head vigorously.

/Justice's Wrath agreed for the - Final frontier - quest to begin

/Calculating...

/Waiting for other essential characters decisions

"What?! Wait! NO! I wasn't talking to you!"

Mika saw the unexpected messages pop up and cried in anger.

"What happened?"

Medic 7 raised her brow at Mika's eccentric behavior and asked.

"It's the system again! It showed me some weird timed quest named - Final frontier - or whatever, and I had to make a choice do I want it to start or not! And system took my words just now as a confirmation that I want to start it!"

Mika complained reaching her hand as if she wanted to grab the message hovering in front of her eyes and tear it apart.