The apples on the fruit stall were big and plump, a vivid red that made them look incredibly appetizing.
Behind the stall stood the vendor, a middle-aged man wearing a black open-front jacket. A black headscarf was tied around his head, and a vicious-looking scar ran across his face, giving him the air of someone who was not particularly easy to talk to.
"Hey, kid. Wanna buy an apple?"
Satoru Gojo reached out and picked up an apple from the stall. He squeezed it lightly between his fingers. The flesh was firm and springy, clearly full of juice.
Without asking for permission, Gojo leaned in and took a bite.
Sweet and tart juice burst across his tongue, carrying a fresh fruity scent. The flavor was even more impressive than the strawberry cakes he usually ate.
"Mmm. Pretty good."
Gojo narrowed his eyes and nodded in satisfaction, already getting ready to move on and look around elsewhere.
"Hey!"
"Brat, you think you can just steal things?!"
The fruit vendor finally noticed what Gojo was doing. He glared, eyes wide with fury.
He looked ready to rush out from behind the stall and teach Gojo a lesson.
"Oh?"
Gojo raised an eyebrow. "Ah, sorry about that."
He pulled a few coins from his pocket and casually tossed them onto the stall.
The coins hit the wood with a clear clink clink.
After that, Gojo kept chewing on the apple as he turned to leave. But when the vendor saw the coins clearly, his anger only flared hotter.
Some scraps of metal from who knows where, and this brat thought that counted as payment? Unbelievable!
"You little punk, pay properly!"
The fruit vendor swung his fist and charged straight at Gojo.
"So this one's the short-tempered type," Gojo muttered.
The man's fist rushed toward him, but just before it could land, it stopped.
No matter how hard the vendor strained, it would not move even a fraction closer.
"W-What the hell is this?"
The vendor stared at Gojo in shock. Even though he was right in front of him, he could not advance, not even enough to touch him.
The scene was so bizarre it left him stunned.
At that moment, the vendor spotted two patrolling guards approaching in the distance and immediately shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Guards! Someone's robbing me!"
"Tch."
Gojo glanced at the two guards, who had clearly been drawn over by the shout.
Unhurried, he took the final bite of his apple. While the vendor was busy yelling at the guards, Gojo slipped the apple core into the pocket on the man's chest and gave it a light pat.
"See you."
With that, Gojo's figure flickered and vanished into the crowd in the blink of an eye.
This illusion was interesting, and he wanted to see more of it. He had no intention of wasting time here.
In the next instant, Gojo appeared at the corner of a narrow alley.
He stood there, listening to the hurried footsteps passing outside, and couldn't help but laugh.
"Didn't expect the NPCs in this illusion to be this dedicated."
Once the noise outside faded away, Gojo strolled back out at an easy pace.
Before long—
He had already crossed several more streets.
What had just happened only made him more interested in this illusion.
This time, he decided to check out those strangely shaped demi-humans.
"Dog-type demi-humans, huh? Not exactly cute."
"Bastard!"
"You asking to die?!"
The demi-human whose head Gojo had casually rubbed roared in humiliation. Sharp canine fangs were bared, and he looked ready to tear Gojo apart.
"Dogs who like baring their teeth don't get loved, you know."
With a smile on his lips, Gojo darted off. Under the demi-human's furious pursuit, he disappeared in no time.
Not long after...
When Gojo appeared again, he was inside a blacksmith's shop.
Moments later, a shirtless blacksmith wearing a thick leather apron stormed out, hammer raised, raging with fury.
All that remained behind was Gojo's retreating figure, growing more distant by the second.
Scenes like this kept repeating over the next stretch of time.
General stores, bookshops, inns…
Everywhere Gojo went, chaos followed.
After causing disturbance after disturbance, Gojo gained a deeper understanding of how "real" this world felt.
The taste of food, the texture of objects, even people's emotional reactions all felt absurdly authentic.
He leaned against a large tree and tugged his blindfold upward, revealing his icy blue Six Eyes. The patterns within his irises were crystal clear.
His gaze swept over everything around him.
There was still no sign of cursed energy at all.
That absolute blankness made a trace of doubt surface in his mind for the first time.
He had seen countless advanced illusions and domains. Even innate domains capable of simulating reality or manifesting a person's inner world always left traces of cursed energy in the details.
And what they could show was always limited, only a fragment of reality.
But this "world" was real to an unsettling degree.
Touch, taste, even the emotional fluctuations of the people he had just interacted with were no different from the real world.
That was something an innate domain simply could not achieve.
"So this isn't an illusion?" Gojo tapped his fingers lightly against the wall, brows drawing together. "If it's not, then what is it? That so-called 'world transfer'?"
He murmured to himself, his tone more serious now. "This world transfer thing is a lot more interesting than I thought."
And there was also that strange system that displayed notifications about "popularity."
If he truly had come to an entirely new world, rather than being affected by some Cursed Technique-induced illusion…
Then the way he investigated things would need to change.
Before, he had acted freely because he assumed it was just an illusion.
But he wasn't the type to enjoy causing trouble for ordinary people.
"For now, I'll treat this as a real world."
"And if it's a real world, then I need money."
Gojo checked his pockets. All he had were a few Japanese yen coins left over from buying drinks, completely useless here.
Stealing was an instant no.
Working a job was even less realistic.
"Now that's a headache."
He said it that way, but the amused smile visible beneath his sunglasses made it clear this wasn't truly a problem for him.
[Twenty-four hours until this world's protagonist, Subaru Natsuki, is summoned.]
[Supporting characters, please prepare to welcome the protagonist and work hard to gain popularity.]
"Here it is again."
Seeing the words "supporting character," Gojo ran a hand through his white hair.
"Calling me a supporting character really is underestimating me."
"Twenty-four hours, huh? Sounds like something worth looking forward to."