In October, in Tokyo, the sky was clear and bright, with not a cloud in the sky.
At this moment, Shuichi Chiba was standing on the rooftop of a university teaching building, gazing at the distant scenery and enjoying the feeling of not being near-sighted.Being able to enjoy nature without glasses is a boon, which nowadays many people don't get.
The pleasure of taking in the expansive view and the vividly clear world never seemed to wear off.
Although he had been in this parallel world for just over a month and had barely managed to understand the current situation after receiving the original owner's memories, he still felt a bit dazed and occasionally experienced lingering regrets from his past life.
"I worked so hard, stayed up late every night doing side jobs, and finally scraped together a down payment at the age of thirty. I managed to buy a house in the suburbs of a big city, and I haven't even lived in it for a single day, before I died."
Shuichi Chiba couldn't help but voice his complaints, but the negative emotions quickly faded, and a relaxed smile reappeared on his face.
It seemed like heaven felt it had wronged him and provided compensation. Not only could he once again experience a young body free of various ailments, but he could also enjoy...
"Chiba-san, I've been looking for you for a long time. So you were here."
A cold, clear voice interrupted Shuichi Chiba's thoughts.
Shuichi Chiba turned his head and saw a girl with a ponytail, her face expressionless, looking at him with slight breathlessness.
Her features were delicate and her appearance striking. Due to her wearing short socks, her smooth, fair calves were exposed, looking especially eye-catching.
"Akiyama-san? Is there something you need?" Shuichi Chiba glanced at her in surprise. The original owner of this body was a bit of a loner in the class, so it was unusual for anyone to seek him out.
An Akiyama took a deep breath, trying to calm her rapid breathing from climbing the stairs, her face slightly flushed. "I came to tell you…"
"Confess your feelings?" Shuichi Chiba glanced around at the scene, and the strong sense of déjà vu made him blurt it out without thinking.
"Eh?" An Akiyama's words were abruptly cut off, leaving her stunned.
"Ah, it seems that's not it. What a pity. So, what is it?"
Shuichi Chiba was quite relaxed about his slip of the tongue and smoothly redirected the conversation.
Seeing An Akiyama blink in confusion, her usually cold expression momentarily giving way to something a bit endearingly clueless, Shuichi Chiba suddenly found her somewhat adorably naive.
"Oh, I see. The issue is with the career path survey you submitted. It probably won't pass if you hand it in to the teacher like this."
An Akiyama quickly composed herself, reverting to her usual demeanor. She pulled a printed sheet from the folder in her arms.
Shuichi Chiba took the sheet, glanced at it, and looked up. "What's the problem?"
An Akiyama almost lost her composure again, her finely etched lips twitching slightly as she said, "Chiba-san, are you serious? For your post-graduation career intentions, your first choice is inheriting a fortune from a wealthy distant relative of yours, your second choice is collecting rent, and your third choice is doing nothing?"
Shuichi Chiba nodded earnestly. "Yes, that's right. What's wrong with that?"
An Akiyama took a deep breath, lightly patting her chest with her small hands to maintain her composure. Despite her efforts, she couldn't help but puff out her cheeks slightly as she remarked, "Isn't there something fundamentally wrong with this?"
"I don't see the problem. Just submit it as is." Shuichi Chiba said, handing the printed sheet back to her.
An Akiyama instinctively took it, about to say something further, when she heard the sound of a phone vibrating. She immediately fumbled to find her phone.
But then she saw Shuichi Chiba pull out his phone, and realized that the sound wasn't coming from hers.
"Who's calling? Yes, this is me. Uh-huh, that's convenient. Please feel free to come." Shuichi Chiba answered a couple of questions, ended the call, and then looked at An Akiyama.
"I have some matters to attend to. Thank you for coming all the way here, Akiyama-san. I'll be going now." Shuichi Chiba said with a nod and walked off.
An Akiyama opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but hesitated. Holding the folder, she watched him leave and couldn't help but puff out her cheeks in frustration.
"Honestly, it was clearly filled out incorrectly. So, like my sister said, am I being underestimated? I followed her instructions exactly, so how could I be 'bullied' like this..."
The girl furrowed her brow in frustration, then suddenly recalled the earlier conversation. "By the way, what did he mean by confessing? What regret?"
Tilting her head and pondering for a moment with no clear answer, she shrugged it off. "Never mind, I'll ask my sister when I get back."
...
Meanwhile, after Shuichi Chiba left the building, he promptly left the university and headed to a shopping street in the neighboring Taito Ward.
He wasn't planning to buy anything on the way. Instead, he was going to manage the inheritance he was going to take over in future.
That's right—the entire shopping street was his inheritance.
On the surface, the inheritance appeared to come from a distant, unrelated relative, but Shuichi Chiba knew it was just a cover story made by the system in his mind, which he got after coming to this world.
This system, called the "Shopping Street Management," had been feeling increasingly odd to Shuichi Chiba over the past few days.
For instance, when it came to renting out stores, he had no control over the rental prices and could only follow the prices set by the system.
What was even stranger was that last month, when Shuichi Chiba met several potential tenants, the system assigned each one a different price based entirely on the individual.
If the system had some kind of advanced technology to gauge the tenants and confidently set the right prices, that would be one thing. But the issue was that several deals had fallen through because of the price and when some found that others were offered different prices from them for the same size of shop.
This was quite frustrating.
Moreover, this massive inheritance wasn't accessible right away. The system had additional requirements, claiming that the shopping street needed to be handed over to suitable hands. Therefore, Shuichi Chiba had to achieve certain results and meet specific standards before he could actually take control.
But the specific standards for meeting the requirements were not clarified.
However, Shuichi Chiba didn't complain about this. Considering the size of the inheritance, these minor demands seemed trivial compared to the effort he put into scraping together a down payment in his past life.
Lost in these thoughts, Shuichi Chiba soon arrived in the northern part of Taito Ward—a mainly residential area.
Navigating through the narrow, old alleys, making several turns, he finally reached his own shopping street.
The street featured cross-street awnings, reminiscent of the shopping streets in Tamako Market, and at the entrance hung an old sign—"Chikase Shopping Street."
Shuichi Chiba paused to glance at the sign, thinking about replacing it with a new one since the current one was almost unreadable.
Without dwelling on it further, he quickened his pace, entered the shopping street, and made his way to his residence and the management office, located in the middle of the street.
The office door was open, and he could see the back of a visitor seated in a chair. Noticing Shuichi Chiba, the visitor immediately stood up and turned around.
"You, you must be Chiba…" Fumika Ogawa started to say, hesitating mid-sentence.
She paused because the boy in front of her seemed too young and was even carrying a backpack, which didn't quite match the typical appearance of someone working at a management office.
Shuichi Chiba was also examining the visitor, and his gaze inadvertently fell on an impolite spot or to be exact at her boobs.
It couldn't be helped; she was simply too striking.