1. The Game Begins Fifteen Years Later

Beep... beep...

System Activated. Game Start. Players who establish friendly relations with targets will be rewarded with points.

Targets must meet the system's approval criteria (see appendix for details).

Complete temporary events to purchase additional special items.

Players are encouraged to actively participate.

Panel... activated.

Shop... activated.

Loading complete. Enjoy your game.

Use your time wisely, and remember to protect yourself.

Beware of scams; build sincere friendships.

...Avoid yandere types (redacted in black).

Watanabe Tetsu stared intently at the blackboard. From the messy scrawl of the math teacher's handwriting, a faint blue, almost transparent panel suddenly popped up.

He blinked and wrote in his notebook: "Ways to represent a set include — listing method, descriptive…"

Snap.

The pencil lead broke, leaving a smudge of graphite on the pristine notebook page.

Tetsu clicked the back of the mechanical pencil, but the lead wouldn't come out. He pulled out a spare 0.5 mm lead from his pencil case, carefully threaded it through the tip, and finished writing the word "method."

That faint blue panel had remained in his line of sight this whole time.

Awakening a system now? Isn't it a bit too late?

Tetsu had been reborn in a remote village where buses only came once every two hours. By the time he was old enough for kindergarten, he had given up on unrealistic dreams like "getting a system," "awakening a Stand after getting shot with an arrow," "aliens," "time travelers," or "superpowers."

He decided to just study seriously.

In that tiny village school, which only had five people including the teacher, Tetsu studied hard on his own and passed the entrance exam for a private prep school in Tokyo, ranking third overall.

His next life goal was to enter a top university in Tokyo.

Then pass the civil servant exam and let the taxpayers support him for life.

But now—after all the effort, after carefully planning his future, after preparing for a tough life—the system finally arrives?

If it was going to show up, why not earlier? And if not, then just never show up. What's with this halfway nonsense?

Tetsu finished math class seriously—thankfully, the panel didn't block his view, otherwise he really would've gotten mad.

The last time he got mad was just yesterday, when the homeroom teacher told him that all students at this school must join a club and are not allowed to leave early.

He should've gone to the prep school next door.

The girls there wore ultra-cute sailor uniforms, and students could even join the "Go-Home Club." The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he got.

Conclusion: No matter how many times you relive your life, there will always be regrets.

Those who claim a second chance at life can eliminate all regrets—Tetsu has no problem saying—they're all liars, or just idiots with bad memory.

Math was the last class of the morning. Just as the teacher announced the end of class and the room was still quiet, Kunii Osamu shouted:

"Watanabe! Saito! Let's go eat!"

The math teacher, preparing to leave, gave Osamu a disapproving glare through his reading glasses.

"Can you keep it down a bit?" Saito Keisuke scolded jokingly. "So, what are we eating today? Set meal? Ramen? Or bread?"

"Ramen!"

"Alright, bread it is then."

"Saito, you bastard! You wanna fight? Ora ora ora ora ora!"

"Muda muda muda muda!"

"Damn it, you blocked them all! Take this—Oni Spirit Possession!"

"You're not even close, Osamu! Taste my Hell Burial Palm Strike!"

"Wait, my neck?! Keisuke, I thought we agreed—no physical attacks!"

Tetsu closed his textbook, stood up, and walked out of the classroom with the two of them, ignoring the weird looks from classmates.

These two were the friends Tetsu made at this prep school. They usually ate together and talked about anime, manga, light novels, and cute girls.

On weekends when Tetsu wasn't working, they'd hang out too.

At the cafeteria, they ended up ordering the 400 yen grilled meat set meal—grilled meat, grilled mushrooms, salad, rice, and miso soup.

Osamu shoveled rice into his mouth and mumbled, "Wanna hit the arcade after school today?"

"I'm down," Keisuke nodded. "Hey, Tetsu, aren't you working after school on Wednesdays?"

"I was supposed to." Tetsu took a bite of grilled meat—nothing special.

"'Was'?" Keisuke asked. "Something come up?"

"Is it a date?! Has the day finally come?!" Osamu wailed dramatically. "Tetsu's going to be the first among us to become a real man!"

Keisuke turned to Tetsu with curiosity. "Really? Who is it? What class? Is she cute?"

"Nope. Koizumi ordered me to join a club today."

"Oh, that," Osamu said dismissively, going back to his rice. He didn't even touch the meat or salad until the rice was gone.

Weird guy.

Keisuke offered, "Wanna join the Computer Research Club? No cute girls, but we get to play a lot of free games."

"Join the baseball club, Tetsu! Let me lead you to Koshien and become tomorrow's star!" Osamu declared dramatically.

"You're still just fetching water and towels for the upperclassmen though, right?" Tetsu said flatly.

"That's just temporary! The captain told me I'll start training next week!"

"Uh-huh." The salad wasn't bad—the veggies were fresh.

"Hey, I'm serious! He really told me!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Keisuke picked up his bowl and drank some soup.

After lunch, they had an hour-long break. Normally the three of them would hang out, but today, Tetsu decided to go check out some clubs.

"We'll come with you?" Keisuke asked.

"No need." Tetsu waved them off. "You guys go back to class first."

"Alright."

As he walked toward the club building, Tetsu took the chance to check out the system.

The words "Panel" and "Shop" were highlighted.

He tried opening the panel with his mind—it worked smoothly.

Character: Watanabe Tetsu

Intelligence: 7

Charm: 8

Stamina: 3

Items: None

Skills: None

Points: 100

Money: ¥154,650

Average value is 5.

So yeah—smart, handsome, and no shame in getting lapped by girls during long runs.

As for skills, he honestly didn't have any notable talents.

Then he opened the shop.

Items:

Detector (Original price: 1000 / Discount: 100)

Money Exchange:

¥100 = 1 point

Attributes:

Intelligence +1 = 100,000 points

Charm +1 = 10,000 points

Stamina +1 = 5,000 points

Skills:

Beginner – Writing (100)

Intermediate – Photo Editing (1000)

Advanced – Cooking (10,000)

Master – Fishing (100,000)

Only 100 points—looks like he's only meant to buy the Detector, whatever that is.

Tetsu searched for another full minute and finally found the nearly invisible appendix menu.

Clearly a trap—rules meant to screw over the player.

Appendix:

Player death has no relation to this game. No obligation for resurrection. (Injury can be healed; method must be discovered independently.)

Before attempting to "conquer" a target, it is recommended to use the Detector to check if they are eligible. (Available in shop.)

A new item becomes available each month.

Money has no exchange limit and can be used freely in real life.

After attribute points reach 10, the cost to increase them doubles.

Skills refresh randomly at the end of each month.

Each refresh includes one Beginner, one Intermediate, one Advanced, and one Master skill. Prices remain unchanged.

Beginner = average college graduate level; Intermediate = industry-level; Advanced = expert; Master = human peak.

When exchanging for Intelligence, player must choose a specific area of expertise. (E.g., choose painting to become a genius artist, potentially surpassing master level.)

...

Players are obligated to keep the game a secret.

Players may choose whether or not to pursue romance, as a basic human right.

All consequences of successful conquests fall on the player.

All interpretation rights belong to the game.

Tetsu stood there in the hallway between the school and club buildings for over ten minutes, reading all ten pages of small print.

After reading carefully, he finally got a rough idea of the game.

Conquer a target—get them to sincerely agree to be friends—and he'll be awarded points.

Points basically let him do anything, depending on luck—if the skills that show up are good, and whether they match what he wants.

This game is basically forcing players to become playboys.

Tetsu wasn't sure what to think, but since there was no punishment, he figured it wouldn't hurt to try. He exchanged for a Detector.

Detector: Can view information (3/3 uses remaining)

Just then, a female student walked past him. Tetsu used one of the Detector's charges.