[Yesterday's daily rewards have been calculated.]
My eyes widened at the unexpected message.
'Where was this earlier?'
[Like you said yesterday—you didn't have a full day, so the rewards had to be reconfigured for that one day only.]
[Through the system process, it's been decided to just give you a free S-rank this one time as a rookie starter pack.]
'Cool!'
[S-Rank rewards:]
- Specialized Growth Slot: Money
- 1,000 Coins for the System Shop
- Skill: "Student" (Level 4)
[…]
'What does the skill do?'
The other two rewards didn't need a genius to understand.
["Student" increases all mental processes. Lessens energy used by studying or learning. Enlightenment in learning is more common. Enhances handwriting to be more fluid and concise.]
[This is the Level 4 effect.]
'You've convinced me, System.'
[Huh?]
'I thought the skills would be plain or completely tame, but this is worth grinding skills!'
[Uh… that defeats the point of passive growth…]
'Ah, who cares! Refine talents to even higher levels! Refine gu! Refine hu—'
[Wrong genre.]
'Really. Why'd you ruin it?'
[…]
'Jeez.'
"Fujimiya!"
"Huh?! Yes?"
"Introduce yourself. I know Shiina is beautiful, but you shouldn't be staring so hard."
"While that is true, I wasn't staring at her, Sensei. I found myself lost in the complexities of gu refinement."
"What does that mean?"
"It all started when the autumn cic—"
"Just introduce yourself before you taste my fist!"
"Fine. Fujimiya Amane. I love beautiful things and cute things. I love sweets. I love women. Andddd… I'm temporarily single."
Most of the class: "🙃"
Mahiru: "Pfft~"
Yukino: "🤨"
Saeko: "Hehe~
"Mai: "😮"
"That's it for my introduction."
I sat back down to meet Mahiru, who was in tears. She was laughing way too hard for me to come up with an excuse for my introduction. That took so much work to do—
Not!
I just wanted to liven things up a bit.
'But I wasn't expecting her to be my sensei.'
The iron fist herself—Shizuka Hiratsuka. Long black hair, older than the original start of Oregairu, and from her attitude… still single.
'I guess I should've figured as much, though.'
My eyes moved from my relatively attractive teacher to the cute little angel in front of me, who was giving me a side-eye.
"Yes, Shiina-san?"
"I was wondering if you wanted to walk home together?"
"Of course, it makes the most sense to. Someone has to protect you." I shook my head at all the creepy weirdos that would try to harm her. I'm sure she'd figured it out, but I was raised right. Men—if eligible—should protect women when they can. Of course, all scenarios vary, so take this with a grain of salt.
────────────────────────────♦️────────────────────────────
Ding Dong~
'Finally, lunchtime!'
I'd just survived four agonizing hours of trying to adjust to the energy of a Japanese classroom. My brain primarily thought in English, but thanks to Amane, I knew Japanese. The problem was my English habits—it made it hard to confidently read and understand fast, natural Japanese.
My brain always tried translating everything into English, but both languages had different rules, rhythms, and phrasing. My translations came out choppy. By the time I fixed one sentence in my head, a new one was already flying past me. Inevitably, I got behind even with the level 4 student skill. This skill was probably the only reason I could barely keep up. If I didn't have it who knew where I'd be right now.
"Hah~" All I could do was sigh. I was sure that in time, once I adjusted, everything would be fine.
Tap~ Tap~
"Hm? Yes, Shiina-san?"
"I'm going to have lunch with Yukinoshita."
"Wow. Really?" I turned to my right, where the ice queen herself stood. She gave me an annoyed look she didn't even bother to hide.
"Yes, really. Good luck making friends who'd actually want to sit with you."
"Haha~ holding a grudge?"
"Tch."
Yukino hurried off. Mahiru giggled and followed behind her with a little wave. It was nice seeing both of them acting differently than their original counterparts.
'Welp. Might as well grab some food and check out the System Shop.'
I got up and opened the shop. My eyes widened at some of the things listed. Brushing past the doorway to exit the class, I felt pure excitement.
'I didn't think you were this thorough, System!'
[$100,000 USD - 1,000 shop coins]
[$10,000 USD - 100 shop coins]
[$1,000 USD - 10 shop coins]
[Variety Designer Clothes/Accessories (16 pieces of your choosing) - 500 shop coins]
[Level 3 Skill: Self-Defense - 1,000 shop coins]
[Passive Growth Module Upgrade - 1,000 shop coins][..]
'Hey, System.'
[Yep?]
'That last item… are there tiers to the modules?'
[Correct.]
'You didn't think to explain that?'
[No, but since you want to know—the modules follow the same grades as skills do: Module Level 1 to Module Level 5.]
'What's that specialized module ranked at?'
[Specialized modules start at Level 2.]
'Hmm.'
[Passive Growth Module Upgrade purchased!]
[You kno—]
'Use it on the money module!'
[There aren't any refunds, by the way. Also the shop refreshes with six new items at midnight.]
[Specialized Module: Money increased.]
[Specialized Module: Money – Every hour, get 5% interest on whatever is deposited. Utilizes the Drip method, so if you want the money, you have to withdraw it. Otherwise, it just keeps reinvesting.]
I smiled reading the effects of the specialized module. Now, as long as I didn't spend more than I received, I could never go broke. It sucked that I didn't have that much money on hand, so I wouldn't become rich overnight. However, the original Amane received a hefty allowance, which would increase after midterms if he did well.
Right now, I had 40,000 JPY. As for what this was in USD, I had no clue.
'System, how do I deposit?'
[Just will it if it's on a card/digital form, or if it's cash, just push it into the system screen.]
'It's online, so…'
[35,000 JPY deposited!]
[Beginning module now.]
[35,000 JPY x 5% (59:58)]
Getting lost in the system made the walk to the cafeteria almost instant. Numerous spots were already filled. Mahiru and Yukino were sitting at a long table with no one else around. The two beauties were just too scary to approach. If you made an attempt, I'm sure some other idiot would stop you. Not even a full day had passed, and it was already like this.
I could only shake my head at these antics. Even with the three additional years of aging, the high school environment was still the high school environment. More absurdly, since this was an animanga world, I could only imagine to what lengths this environment could reach.
Pah~
"Ah!"
In my distraction, I felt my body collide with another. Quickly, I fixed my eyes on the person, wearing an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," I said.
"?!" The girl bowed a full 90 degrees, causing quite the scene. I don't think it was necessarily the act of her apology but her looks that garnered attention. She was… well, beautiful? Uh, I don't really know what else to say. I felt like I needed to expand my array of words because I was really abusing two today: cute and beautiful.
Anyway.
The girl didn't say anything after she bowed. She just stormed off awkwardly, her long black hair flowing behind her as she ran.
'Can she not talk? Perhaps she was just too nervous—it is the first day, after all.'
I put the girl behind me and ordered my food. It was just a bowl of slightly spicy ramen. There were other options, but I just wanted something easy to eat.
"Fujimiya-san!"
Mahiru called out to me with a wave. Yukino looked at her completely betrayed. I couldn't help but chuckle at the ice queen's reaction.
Making my way over to the two of them, I sat next to Mahiru. Yukino would've been fun, but I wanted to eat in peace. I didn't want Yukino feeling uncomfortable either. In due time, hopefully, she wouldn't be averse to dealing with me.
"That was quite the scene."
"Yeah, she just stormed off!"
"I don't know either. She just bowed and left. When I apologized, she looked even more scared."
Pshuu~
'So good!'
"Hey, Fujimiya-san, do you—"
"Okay, first things first, let's stop with the -san and all that. It's too exhausting." I didn't mean to rudely cut off Mahiru, but it was too difficult for me to keep up with all the formalities. I somehow managed earlier this morning, but now it was just too much.
"U-Uh, okay. Did you have any plans for joining clubs? I forgot to ask earlier."
"No, not really. Don't worry, I'll walk you home every day if you want." I patted my chest like I was doing some grand favor.
Her caramel eyes peered into mine with a straight look.
"We're neighbors, so stop acting like you're doing such a big favor."
"G-Guh?! That hurts, Shiina."
"Then let it." She turned back to Yukino and continued talking to the ice queen. Yukino seemingly got along very well with Mahiru. It was a little weird for me to see, but as long as the two had each other, then some of the issues they originally had in their respective series might never happen.
'I'm happy for them.' Smiling, I continued eating in peace and prayed for the rest of the school day to pass quickly.