I'm in an American comic book, and all my teammates are main characters and bosses.

Chapter 23: The poor little spider became part of the play.

There's a saying that there's no place like home—although most people would prefer their own doghouse to be made of gold or silver.

Regardless of what others thought, Ron felt quite satisfied once he got home. Mainly, the hospital finally had a new member. Although he had long forgotten what the former orphanage director looked like, who was there, and what his name was, Ron didn't want to think about those irrelevant things.

For Ron, simply seeing everyone else in the hospital besides himself and the caregiver was enough to make him feel very satisfied.

So, what exactly is the system coin used for?

Having brought Blood Echoes and Nakime to this world, Ron currently possesses a substantial sum of 149 System Coins. Unlike Wolf, Ron's personal shop doesn't open immediately. Perhaps due to the system's incompleteness, or perhaps because with great power comes great responsibility—in any case, as the Dean or a minor leader of the World Tree's immune system—Ron's personal shop will only officially open after completing his first mission at the hospital.

Open the system panel and click on the system shop. After a short loading period, the system shop displayed daily and monthly items. He randomly clicked on one, and today's item quickly appeared in Ron's view.

There are only four available. The first two are marked with a limited time offer, as if they will be discontinued once the countdown ends.

[Demon Slayer Limited Edition: Lower Rank Demon's Blood Echoes Crafting Manual] System Coins x50

[Demon Slayer Limited Edition - Demon's Secret Ability Attribute.] System Coins x50

[Blood of the Ended Kin] System Coins x30

[One-third of the umbilical cord (1/4)] System Coins ×70

Upon seeing the four refreshed items, Ron narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

The Blood Echoes of the Lower Moon Demons Manufacturing Manual? Thinking about it carefully, who are the most useful Lower Moon demons? It seems like none. If we really want to count, it should include not only the Lower Moon demons that appear in the main story, but also those Lower Moon demons that Muzan Kibutsuji created during his thousand-year lifespan, or those that were defeated, or those that died in the Blood Echoes of the Lower Moon Demons.

But in Ron's eyes, the Upper Rank demons were all weaklings, let alone the Lower Rank demons. Their abilities were also useless; unless they possessed something like Nakime's—capable of overwhelming odds or improving daily happiness—the others were simply wasted.

Like the ability of a half-tengu, splitting one's emotions into different clones is utterly useless in Ron's eyes; it only shows off in a world with a locked-up limit. Especially since the clones only have a single emotion, putting everything else aside, if Ron were really in charge, he wouldn't even need to lift a finger; he could simply infuse them with some of the delusions of a superior or the knowledge of a madman to break the deadlock.

Moreover, it's the waning crescent moon.

The mystical properties of demons are quite interesting. Putting everything else aside, the fact that these demons cannot be killed by sunlight or anything other than energy with sunlight-related properties is indeed commendable.

Of course, rather than believing they would be killed by the light-based arcane energy represented by sunlight, Ron was more inclined to believe that the people of the Demon Slayer world simply had a very limited understanding of arcane energy and had failed to discover the arcane nature of demons themselves. According to the world's lore, priestly families should also be able to influence demons.

Ron wouldn't have thought much of the ability if it were a demon, but if it were a secret power... After thinking about it, Ron ultimately decided not to exchange for it.

Ron's current path is beyond the comprehension of the demons of the Demon Slayer world. Based on this, while demons possess arcane abilities, the knowledge system they represent and their branch of arcane arts are indeed worthy of study. Perhaps it could even help him more quickly detect abnormalities in his own state?

Well, although Ron felt perfectly normal and was happy every day, a vague intuition still made him feel that there were some unnoticed hidden dangers within him. Perhaps the dark branch of arcane energy could help him understand some of it.

But for hunters, knowing too much is never a good thing. Especially knowledge from other worlds—they haven't even figured out what they have yet, so they should put the rest aside for now.

Aside from the two limited-edition items that are neither worth keeping nor worth discarding and are only purchased by complete collectors, the remaining two Ron characters are quite interesting.

To be honest, Ron hadn't expected that the personal shop would actually stock the Blood of the Familia of the End—the Blood of the Familia of the End is the dead blood of the non-human servants belonging to the higher-ups. This blood contains immense power, and according to the game's description, using it will grant countless Blood Echoes. According to the description, this is a secret that humanity's ancestors sought out in Byrenvis.

While you can acquire more Blood of the End's Familia through multiple playthroughs in the game, actively using it only yields 20,000 Blood Echoes for leveling up. However, in the actual world of Bloodborne, even Ron only obtained two from the foolish spider Rom and the artificial Familia's Heavenly Messenger.

These two items, upon consumption, granted Ron two completely different abilities. Ron had already largely grasped the former, which came from the foolish spider Rom, while the latter, from the Heavenly Messenger, was something Ron had yet to fully comprehend.

And now, the Blood of the End of the Familia can actually be found here?!

Thinking it over, Ron decisively clicked to exchange—the blood of a familiar was far superior to the blood echoes of Upper Moon One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. There was never too much of this stuff; even conflicting familiar blood could be directly broken down into pure arcane energy, the so-called blood echoes, which could be absorbed to strengthen one's own power. If the familiar blood had compatible attributes, it could even provide some special minor abilities and structural knowledge related to those abilities.

As for the last one, which is one-third of the umbilical cord, this is what Ron cares about most, and it's what he decided to buy the moment he saw it, but he's still thinking about it.

Although it's called "One-Third of the Umbilical Cord," there are actually four umbilical cords in total. Only after obtaining all four and perfectly digesting them, gaining the "vision" of a superior, can a hunter—that is, a player—be qualified to fight the Moon Blood Princess. Otherwise, after defeating Gehrman, the moment the hunter sees the Moon Blood Princess, they will forever become her slave, the next Gehrman.

This is the true completion item in the Bloodborne universe. As a game with multiple endings, collecting all the umbilical cords and becoming a newly born Old God is equivalent to the Dragon's Return in the Bloodborne universe.

Ron has now left the world of Bloodborne. Logically and emotionally, Ron has no reason to choose to ignore it.

After clicking to place the order, Ron saw his 149 system coins disappear in a flash, leaving him with only 49. He didn't feel any heartache, but rather a little regretful: "System, let's discuss something."

Please speak.

"If I sell Nakime to you now, can I get some money back?"

Ron reached out and summoned Nakime, whose face was calm and whose eyes were expectant.

【Feel sorry.】

"Damn it!"

Seeing that items were non-refundable once sold, Ron grimaced in annoyance. However, he didn't dwell on it too much and quickly opened the monthly shop. The monthly shop had significantly more items than the daily shop, so it took longer to load. After a quick glance, he could basically confirm that the average quality of the monthly shop's items was lower, and in most cases, the items refreshed were inferior to those in the daily shop.

Fortunately, there are many items available for exchange, and specific supplies are provided based on the user's needs. For example, Ron can provide items like blue elixirs, monster blood pills, lightning and fire talismans, and bone marrow ash. In addition, there are some interesting trinkets from other worlds and even skill books.

Sure enough, a special ranged weapon soon caught Ron's eye.

Name: Famous Gun - Abegi-giri

Weapon type: Crude firearms

Special Inscription: Through

Description: A crudely made, three-barreled firearm, each barrel holding six crude bullets. It can fire a total of 18 bullets in a single load. However, due to its limited manufacturing process, its lethality is extremely limited. But thanks to the fame of its user and the person it was assassinated, it was imbued with the special enchantment 'Pierce'.

Comment: The average Japanese person has extremely high manners and never shouts or yells. There was once a news anchor who made a loud noise in the street with a microphone, and was quickly criticized and driven off the internet by the Japanese public.

Price: 15 System Coins

Ron burst out laughing when he saw the weapon rating.

This evaluation sounds rather strange.

As for whether to buy it or not... forget it. If Ron was just playing around with the shop system before, now he's taking it much more seriously. According to the system's explanation, it has a chance to refresh multiple umbilical cords. That means if he's lucky, Ron will wake up tomorrow morning to find the remaining three umbilical cords in the system shop.

Therefore, in the past, Ron might have kept them at home as a hobby. But now? He'll just keep them. Who knows when another one might appear?

As Ron exited the store system, a message appeared in his field of vision.

[Should I publicly display the location of the store in my room each month?]

It used to be an orphanage, so the hospital was just a two-story building. Especially after the number of patients decreased, Ron spent most of his time on the first floor.

After clicking "OK," Ron quickly discovered that a virtual display screen had appeared at the entrance of his office on the first floor of the hospital, where he was sleeping. The screen prominently displayed the items he sold in his monthly store.

Looking at the virtual screen in front of him, Ron turned and called out, "Hey! Spider-Man! Come here!"

"Oh! Oh! I'm here!"

While he was standing in the guardhouse in a daze, Parker heard Ron calling him and belatedly ran over. He looked at Ron with a blank expression mixed with a hint of fear and asked, "Um, Dean, is there something you need?"

"Can't you see?"

Pointing to the wall beside him, Ron said curiously, "Didn't you see the display screen here, and a lot of other things?"

"……No."

Peter scratched his head, somewhat bewildered. But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see anything.

Just then, the wolf silently approached. Ron noticed it; aside from his senses, in this hospital alone, no sign of life could be hidden from him if he wanted to. But little Peter couldn't.

Peter, far from being startled, hadn't even been bitten by the spider yet. Therefore, when the wolf suddenly appeared beside him, Peter jumped so hard he nearly fell. Regaining his senses, he belatedly clutched his chest, his face filled with lingering fear, and exclaimed, "Wolf! Mr. Wolf, why do you walk so silently?!"

Hearing this, Ron chuckled and patted Peter on the shoulder, saying nonchalantly, "Ha, he's a ninja, specializing in assassinations. Even though Wolf is pretty incompetent, he's got the basics down, okay?"

An incompetent ninja?

Peter was somewhat puzzled by Ron's words, but he wasn't afraid.

After all, influenced by Hollywood, much like the stereotype that all Chinese people know kung fu, many people believe that ninjas existed in Japan. However, as a college student, Peter knows to some extent that these real kung fu techniques and ninjas are not the same as those in movies and comics... well, at least that's what Peter believes for now.

What intrigued Peter, however, was the meaning of "incompetent ninja." Did it refer to someone whose martial arts skills were lacking, or something else entirely...?

Just then, dressed as a nun, Miko-niang followed the wolf to Ron's room. She glanced at the daily shop displayed on the wall and asked curiously, "Excuse me, Headmaster, may we take a look?"

"Feel free to look around~ It's free anyway. Also, don't call me 'sir,' it sounds feudal. Just call me by my name."

"Yes, Lord Ron."

Mila always appeared very humble and deliberately placed herself in a low position. Although Peter knew Mila was acting out of politeness, he still felt a strong urge to explore this exotic atmosphere.

But soon, Peter's itchy heart turned numb.

The dean, the wolf, and even the foreign woman called "Mi Niang" were all involved. The three of them pointed and gestured at the wall in front of them, which was covered in rust and mold from lack of maintenance, seriously discussing unrelated things as if there was something interesting on it. But because there were so many of them, Peter couldn't help but wonder if the problem lay with them or with him.

Unfortunately, at this point, I absolutely dare not say the word "resign".

(End of this chapter)