Egoistic Ace System

"I like you!"

Aoi suddenly found himself standing in an open area atop the building, seeing the floating cloud closer and the vast expanse of blue sky.

He stood in the shade of the shelter, and there was a stair after the opened door while facing a girl, seemingly young and pretty.

The girl was deeply bowing while extending her hand, offering a handshake.

Aoi was confused for a second, thinking he was dreaming, as he went quiet for half a minute.

"Ummm…" Hearing no response, the girl tilted her head, peeking at Aoi, mulling over something.

Perhaps related to her confession.

Aoi snapped awake, meeting the girl's gaze, as he mumbled, "Am I dreaming?"

The girl's face flushed.

She had short hair, a round face, V-shaped bangs, jet-black eyes, a long nose, cherry lips, and milky white skin.

She was exceptionally pretty.

In fact, she was regarded as the prettiest girl in her class – although she was only ranked third as a whole in the school, she had many suitors and was even condemned to be number one after the other two graduated this academic year.

She and Aoi had been classmates, seatmates – in fact.

When she came to know more about Aoi, falling in love with his indifference and intelligence, showering her with his kindness, inevitably occurred in her heart.

With the help of her friends and Aoi's friends, she finally gathered the courage to confess to him.

Aoi was staring at Izumi for a while, and the flashback swallowed his whole consciousness.

He recalled this scene, where he rejected Izumi due to a simple reason.

He did not like her – simply honest for the sake of both of them.

However, ten years later, he saw her in a magazine, becoming a top Asian model, causing him to strangely feel regret rejecting her back then.

Nevertheless, he also realized he was way out of her league, slowly accepting the fact that it was better to reject her.

Now that he was dreaming of this scene again, as always, like before, he accepted Izumi's confession by shaking her hand, saying, "Yeah, I like you, too."

Izumi was stunned, staring at Aoi in surprise.

She was about to lower her hand, for she felt it was numb and tiring, hanging it in mid-air for almost a minute, when a hand grasped hers, shaking it.

She felt it was rough, long, and thin.

It was not the first time they held hands, but this time, it was different.

Enormous emotion swallowed her, and a tear crawled out of her eyelids.

Aoi was flabbergasted by her response, bewildered by her different reaction when he accepted her confession many times in his dream.

He felt awkward – though not visible by his emotion that rarely showed.

Not knowing what to do about it, he slowly pulled Izumi into his embrace.

Izumi's hair was on his nose, depicting the difference in height.

He was five seven tall, an average height in Asia.

From what he recalled, on this timeline, he was still sixteen, engrossed in gaming and reading that he barely attended any sports so he could still grow.

During his twenties, his peak height reached five ten, tall enough to see the end of the crowds.

He had always been single, dreaming of a girl not too tall for his height.

Now that he had a girlfriend, assuming he accepted Izumi's confession, he strangely felt delighted to hold a girl in his embrace.

Furthermore, it was Izumi, out of the many girls he liked later on in his life.

"This dream feels so real," He mumbled.

Izumi continued to weep, puzzled by Aoi's words, but she soon became engrossed by his scent.

It was the scent of Aoi's perfume he was extremely familiar with.

Every time she smelled the familiar scent in the public, her heart would always skip a beat – sweeping her eyes to the crowd, hoping to see Aoi.

However, she knew, given how Aoi hated to be in public, she would not be able to see him in public unless she visited him.

Yet, how could she?

Unless she and Aoi were in a relationship.

There had not been a night she dreamed of becoming Aoi's girlfriend, and now, at this moment, her dream came true.

Sniff!

She could feel Aoi's nose sticking to her hair above. 

She was thankful she did not reek of sweets, having shampoo two times and perfumed three times for today's event.

Her heart melted even more when Aoi's arm tightened the hug as he continued to sniff.

Indeed, Izumi's hair had a smell that could instill a butterfly in Aoi's stomach.

It was addicting, forcing Aoi to sniff more, wanting to engrave her scent deep inside his mind.

As they were enjoying their moment together, they were startled.

"CONGRATULATIONS!!!"

Izumi hid in Aoi's embrace while Aoi turned towards the direction of the voice, and was startled to see the young version of Oka.

Oka Kantaro, during his high school years, had round curly hair, and he was a bit handsome, in contrast with his nearing thirties face – average.

If it was not for his lime green eyes, Aoi would have not recognized Oka.

Oka was jumping in delight, bringing with him their classmates behind his back on the stairs, as Aoi stared at them with a straight face.

Suddenly, he fell into a daze.

"This wasn't right…"

He mumbled.

He lowered his head and eyes, pondering, "From the past dreams, this did not happen. After I accepted Izumi's confession, it quickly changed to another scene."

Suddenly, Aoi felt pain screaming in his stomach.

"Awh!" He yelped softly.

He lowered his head and saw Izumi staring at him, pouting.

"You dummy. What do you mean you are dreaming? Have you felt that? Are you awake now?"

"H-Huh?"

Only now, Aoi realized he was not dreaming.

At the same time, he suddenly saw a blue floating text appearing before Izumi's face, startling him.

[Ding! The Egoistic Ace System has found a host…

Ding! Commencing the integration of the system to the host…

Ding! It has been integrated!

Welcome host, Aoi Toshaki, as the bearer of the Egoistic Ace System!

The system will fulfill your hidden, burning desire!

However, you must work hard to achieve it!]

He was not only seeing it, he was also hearing it.

Aoi's mind turned blank.