Chat group, become my wings!

Just as Kevin Cross was thinking he could relax and distribute his points now that the superhero saga hadn't started yet, a breaking news segment appeared on the television.

Tony Stark was missing.

Kevin rolled his eyes. "Seriously? Speak of the devil."

"Dr. Stern, aside from the essential laboratory expenses, put all the remaining funds into shorting Stark Industries."

"You've seen the news about Tony Stark disappearing too, boss?"

"It's practically the biggest story right now. Unless you live under a rock, there's no way you wouldn't know. Anyway, just remember short it. I'm hanging up."

After ending the call, Kevin shook his head. Iron Man would be showing up soon, and once he did, a cascade of superheroes and supervillains would start popping up. Then came alien invasions and a whole bunch of other chaotic plotlines. Kevin couldn't help but sigh. What a messed-up world.

But in truth, none of that really mattered.

As long as he kept his head down and didn't get involved, most of those disasters wouldn't touch him. Thinking through the Marvel plotlines, Kevin realized that aside from Ultron and Thanos' snap which had global consequences most crises were confined to New York or isolated cities.

If he was careful, he could avoid nearly everything. And when it came time for Thanos' snap, he could simply jump to another world, wait it out, then return. No harm done.

"So really," Kevin mused, "as dangerous as the Marvel world sounds, if I keep my distance, it's not that bad. Even without overwhelming power, I'll be fine."

This conclusion made him feel even more at ease about giving away his mission-earned points.

@everyone

"Eh? The group leader is tagging everyone again? Is there another mission?"

"Could it be another plotline kicking off?"

"I thought we were in a cooldown period..."

"Maybe the group leader's finally embracing his true desires and planning a grand harem banquet?"

"Eh? If that's the case, I probably don't need to show up. I mean, even if the boss is shameless, he's not so perverted that he'd go for a spider, right?"

Kevin looked at the mess in the chat and sighed heavily.

"You lot... I'm trying to give you a gift. If you don't want it, fine."

"No, no, we want it! Whatever it is!" replied Kumoko.

"If Kevin is giving me something, I'll never refuse. Even if it's that kind of thing, I'll swallow every last drop," added Saeko Busujima.

"…"

"…"

"…"

That line from Saeko clearly stunned the others for a moment.

Kevin cleared his throat. "Ahem. You know how I earned over 14,000 points from the last mission. I thought about strengthening myself, but it's not the most efficient use. Since I gain power whenever I, uh, connect with you ladies, it makes more sense to invest the points in you. Once your power increases, I'll benefit too. So I figured, let's double up the value."

"What? You're really giving us points?" Kumoko seemed conflicted. "Even though I'm just a spider right now… If you're really into that kind of thing, I suppose… I could accept it…"

"Yeah, I guess I could overlook Kevin's unusual preferences for the greater good," added Izumi Uchiha.

"Actually, if it's man-beast wait, I mean man-spider thinking about it is kinda exciting. If Kevin's up for it, I'd like to give it a try," said Saeko, clearly more open-minded than the others.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't accept this," Butterfly Shinobu said bluntly.

"Amitābha…" murmured Izumi, hands clasped in prayer.

"In our divine realm, there are all kinds of gods, some of them quite unusual in form. Unorthodox pairings are actually pretty common. If you're really into that sort of thing, Kevin, I could gather some research materials for you. Illustrated, of course. For… educational purposes," offered Brunhilde graciously.

"I don't need it. Not at all. I'm perfectly normal. I am not a pervert!" Kevin quickly shut it down.

"Really? Not even a little bit?"

"Shame. I was genuinely curious about that combo."

"Me too."

"Amitābha!"

As the banter spiraled out of control, Kevin rubbed his temples and cut them off.

"Two thousand points for each of you. If anyone has special needs later on, talk to me directly."

"Two thousand? Awesome!"

"Six of us, that's twelve thousand total. Kevin's really being generous this time."

"I'm so touched. I just want to offer myself to you, Kevin but you don't want me." No points for guessing that came from Kumoko.

Kevin didn't even dignify it with a response. He was sure she was just teasing. If it ever came to the real thing, she'd definitely chicken out.

With the two thousand he'd given each of the six, and the one thousand they already had from the mission, every member now had three thousand points.

Points were more versatile than other kinds of power-ups. Not only could they enhance existing abilities, they could also grant new powers from entirely different worlds.

Take chakra, for example.

Because of the differences between worlds and energy systems, simply uploading the training manual into the group wasn't enough. Aside from people from the Naruto world, no one else could cultivate chakra on their own.

There were only two ways to gain that kind of power: the first was like Saeko's case. Because she had a close relationship with Kevin and had maxed out her affection level, she could naturally inherit a seed of his chakra ability and begin cultivating it.

The other method was through point-based enhancements, allowing members to acquire foreign-world abilities through direct conversion.