"Am I crazy?" Issei asked himself as he scrolled through what appeared to be a video game menu. He remembered having some weird dream about a game. When he woke up, the menu screen he had seen was still in front of him. He thought he was still dreaming at first and ignored it, thinking he would really wake up in a few more moments.

After getting dressed and going about his day, eating with his parents and taking a shower, he knew he was no longer dreaming.

"I have to be crazy." Issei muttered, scratching the back of his head.

Did he play so many video games that he'd finally fallen off the deep end? Was that really possible? No, it shouldn't be. He hadn't gotten deeply invested into a game for at least a year. Well, discounting porn games, of course. But even then, he hadn't played one of those in over a week. MMOs were ruled out too because he'd quit playing them the day he logged into them.

Looking up his symptoms on the internet, Issei couldn't really find anything related to his problem and could only figure that he had some sort of mental illness. He wasn't sure of which one, as he got bored of scrolling through numerous of them. Still, that's what he landed on.

"...Am I really, though? I feel pretty sane." Then again, most crazy people probably feel sane, so that wasn't a very good argument. "Well, lets see what I can do with it." If the menu wasn't going to disappear, it wouldn't hurt to see if he could actually interact with it. Today was the weekend, after all. He usually stayed home anyway and it wasn't like he had anywhere to be. Why not try it out?

Using his index finger, Issei found out that he could press and interact with all of the buttons that had appeared before him. His status screen, an item menu, an adventurer's log, quest log, and even an options menu. One button in particular stood out to him; the tutorial.

"Here goes nothing, I guess." Issei shrugged, pressing the button.

---

"Alright, cool it, Issei. Either you're the most crazy person in the world, or this is actually freaking real." Issei said, his head spinning. After several hours of going through an indepth tutorial of how to play the game such as how to level up and get items, it just didn't seem like it was fake anymore. "But that's probably what crazy people think, right?" He said, second guessing himself. He did just go through hours of a tutorial. If the game was really real, then it would have to stand up to a test.

Getting up from his computer chair, he walked out of his room downstairs to see his mother coming home. "Oh, Issei. Help me carry the groceries inside." She asked him at the doorway.

"Sure." Issei said back, grabbing a few of the bags at the door. 'Let's see if it works.' He thought as he looked at his mother. A small shift in his brain clicked as Issei felt and thought the word; Observe.

Just as the tutorial said, using the ability Observe had let him view his mother's status. Just like with him, it listed her name, race, gender, age, and her stats. She was level one and had similar status points he did.

'It worked exactly as it said it would.' Issei thought, putting the groceries on the kitchen countertop.

"Issei, could you be a dear and help me put them away?"

"Okay, mom." He answered back, surprising his mother at his lack of complaining. That test wasn't going to be enough to fully convince him, though. One more test at least before he could definitively believe that this was some sort of real power and he wasn't hallucinating something mad. He had his menu open the whole time and she hadn't noticed it, which again made him think he was just crazy.

Returning to his bedroom, Issei logged back onto the internet and began watching random videos. Even through a video online, he was able to observe people and learn of their statuses. "So that confirms it. This is real." Issei laid back in his chair. He clicked random videos of famous internet personalities who he knew nothing about and the game was able to tell him their real names before he could even try to look them up. Once he had, the names of the ones he could find turned out to be real.

Issei felt his energy leave him. This whole situation was exhausting. He just had a weird dream and suddenly he had this power. It didn't make since, but there was nothing he could do but try to figure it out.

"I guess I could try using it to my advantage. I have it, so I might as well use it." He said, sitting up and clicking on more videos. Out of a few dozen people, the only ones who were level two were professional athletes. It looked like most people were level one, which made him feel better about himself, knowing that he wasn't as sucky as he thought he was. Some people still had more points than him in their stats, despite being level one. A level one could still be faster than another level one if they had more points in agility and another could be stronger if they had points in strength. It all depended on how many points they had and how many in each skill.

You could get points without leveling up by doing certain activities like exercising, but leveling up was the clear way to getting stronger fast. If you got enough experience points, you would level up. To get experience, you had to do quests.

"Which there aren't any." Issei sighed, closing his quest tab. The tutorial said that quests would pop up either randomly, or when a certain type of event happened. Unfortunately, the game didn't tell him what kind of events he would have to wait for. "I guess I just have to wait until I get one." He said, anxiously.

He kept thinking about when it would pop up and what kind of quest would it be. The more he thought about it, the more nervous he got. It wasn't gonna ask him to do something stupid, right?

Until it did, he had some time to kill. It was still in the afternoon, so he thought about what to do. His dad would be getting off work soon and his mom would start preparing dinner. He could try to gain some status points in strength or agility.

'But I really don't want to exercise.' He inwardly whined. His intelligence and wisdom were low, so he could try that. 'But I really don't want to study.' He whined some more. If every person was either level one or two, what difference would it make if he got stronger? Everyone was just a normal person. If he couldn't have any awesome superpowers, then what would even be the point?

"Wait, the tutorial did mention something about powers." Issei said, opening his menu. He didn't remember having one, but he decided to double check. Using Observe on himself, he once again saw his average status. "Oh, come on! There's gotta be something, right?!" If he was some kind of chosen one that had this special power, they better just tell him now instead of make him freaking wait! "Is there anything I can do?" He asked himself. If you had a problem in a game, the first thing you would typically try was going to the options. It was worth a shot.

Pressing on the options button, Issei found a bunch of different things he could do. A lot of the setting were turned on, but a lot of them were also turned off. Apparently, there was an option to turn on the pause button. He didn't really have a reason to, but he decided to turn it on anyway. There were settings that gave him his five senses, all of which were turned on. He turned off hearing and freaked out when he lost his hearing, quicking turning it back on. He wasn't messing with any of those.

However, there were a few that irked him.

Show Hidden Statuses: Off

"What?! So there really is something like that?!" Issei yelled out loud. "What's the point of observing people if they have hidden statuses!?" He asked the game. Obviously not getting any sort of reply, he shook his head and just turned the setting on.

Show High level Entity Statuses: Off

"On."

Mental Menuing: Off

"What does that mean?" Flicking it on, Issei realized that he could now move the menu and press buttons with his mind. "Why wasn't this on in the first place?" Now that he thought about it, he probably looked like a weirdo randomly moving his finger in front of himself like a lunatic. "Good thing no one saw me." He chuckled wryly, a sweatdrop rolling down his head.

Show Menu: Off

"So I really can show it to other people?" That might've been a bad idea. He may have considered doing it before, but he had already confirmed that this game was a real thing. It wasn't a good idea to let other people know he had this kind of power. He shivered at the thought of other people knowing about it.

Autosave: Off

"Oh yeah, I remember now." The tutorial did mention that he should save frequently in case he felt like he messed up. "Probably a good idea to turn it on, in case I forget." He said, turning autosave on.

Assistance Mode: Off

"Assistance? The game hadn't mentioned anything like that before." Looking under the button, Issei saw a small description of the setting.

Allows The Gamer extra help in playing The Game by guiding them through their playthough.

It didn't take him another second turning the setting on. If he could get anything that'd help him figure this stuff out, then by all means he would take it. Once he did, a new window appeared on his main menu screen.

Help:

Helps The Gamer if they are stuck by giving them a hint.

"So there's that, too?" Issei thought. A help option was common in games and would certainly come in handy later. The more help he had, the more comfortable he felt. Finally closing his menu with a thought, Issei felt slightly different than before. "What's that blue aura?" He asked out loud as he saw something moving under him. Issei jumped back in his chair when a menu screen suddenly appeared before him.

Help: Assistance Mode allows The Gamer to detect nearby entities, regardless of obstacles.

"Wait, it answered my question?" Now that he got a better look, the blue aura was in the shape of a human. He saw another aura of the same variety walking around inside his house. "No way, is that dad?" He thought, running out of his room to check. Rushing down the stairwell, Issei saw his father at the door. "Hey dad! What's up?!" He shouted excitedly, a big grin on his face.

"Issei, what's gotten into you?" His dad replied, startled at Issei's sudden appearance. "Oh, let me guess; you found a new porno you like?"

"No, shut up! Nevermind!" Issei yelled back, running back to his room. He couldn't contain himself and started jumping up and down.

'Holy shit! I can see through walls! This is awesome!' He geeked out. It wasn't exactly like x-ray vision, as he could only see silhouettes of people, but it was something. This power really was the real deal.

Issei tried himself by pacing back and forth in his room. Finally feeling all that adrenaline wear off, the boy flopped onto his bed. "Man, this is cool. Can I do anything else?" Not seeing another menu appear, he felt a little disappointed. "Okaaay, do I have a hidden power?" He asked himself. Hidden statuses were turned off before, so it wouldn't hurt to check now.

Reexamining himself, Issei's eyes homed in on the new text.

[Legendary] Sacred Gear: Boosted Gear

"Holy shit!" Issei exclaimed. He didn't know what a Boosted Gear was, but it was a hidden power he apparently had. It also had a cool name. "How do I activate it?"

Awaken Boosted Gear?

Yes No

"That was easy..." Quickly picking yes, Issei gasped when a red gauntlet appeared on his left arm. "Oh my God! I have power!" He yelled loudly, standing up on his bed.

"Issei! What are you yelling about?!" He heard his mom yell at him from downstairs.

"Nothing!" He yelled back, forgetting that he wasn't alone in the house.

"Well dinner is ready, so get your butt down here!" She yelled, making him slump.

"Aww man..." Issei grumbled.

He wanted to play with his new toy.

---

A yawn escaped Issei as he made his morning march to school.

"Mondays..." He cursed, one hand carrying his bag on his shoulder and the other in his pocket.

Yesterday evening had been almost entirely uneventful. After he unlocked his Sacred Gear, he'd come to the quick conclusion that he couldn't do jack with it. After fruitlessly messing around with it, Assistance Mode had kicked in and told him how to use it. He could double his power temporarily, which was awesome. However, its drawback was that it made him exhausted. He only had doubled power for a minute before his Boosted Gear had reset and all of his strength left him. He was so tired that he crashed as soon as his head hit the pillow.

"What's the freaking point in having it if it just knocks me out?" Issei groaned. The dream he had wasn't really encouraging, either. It started off great with a bunch of girls having a huge water fight with him being in the middle of it, then all of a sudden there was a big ass red dragon. It called him a pervert and that he was too weak to try to use the Boosted Gear effectively before leaving, snapping him awake. "What a prick." The brown haired boy said to no one but himself. "If I'm really that weak, then how about some freaking help, dude?" He sighed. Even if he asked nicely, he doubted the dragon would help him. That was if it wasn't just apart of his dream. "Who am I kidding..." Issei muttered. He was scared shitless as soon as he laid eyes on that monster.

No way in hell was he asking it for anything.

There was one thing he could be happy about, though. This morning when he had woken up, he had gotten a Daily Quest which had told him to go to school. It wasn't much and it was the lowest ranked quest he could get, but it was better than nothing.

The boy took notice of other students walking next to him as his school came into view: Kuoh Academy. It was an all girls school a few years ago that had turned co-ed, so many of the students who went there were girls. That was the primary reason he had chosen to go to this school. If he managed to play his cards right, he could end up getting lucky several times over. Unfortunately, his plans hadn't worked out the way he'd hoped. He was on his second year here and the most memorable interaction he'd had with a girl was getting jumped by the female kendo club.

"Eww, its Hyoudou-san!"

"What a perv."

"Freak!"

Issei did his best not to grimace, but couldn't help let a frown show on his face. He could deal with guys saying those kinds of things about him no problem, but when it came to girls, it just hit differently.

'Then again, I guess I kind of paved this path for myself.' He thought. Issei and his two friends; Matsuda and Motohama, were known around school as the Perverted Trio and with good reason. They took every chance they had to spy on a girl while she was indecent. They did many depraved acts, such as looking up a girl's skirt as she walked up a staircase, or peep through a hole in a wall while they were changing in a locker room. It was amazing that the three of them had made it this far without getting expelled. The brown haired pervert briefly considered giving up on peeking to try and better himself as a respectable student.

It took him all of two seconds to reach an answer.

'Hell no!' He thought with a fist pump, a lewd grin forming on his face. 'I'm gonna be the harem king!'

"Why is he smiling? He's so disgusting!"

"So gross!"

"Sicko!"

The boy faltered, his smile turning sheepish. 'Come on, I'm not that bad, am I?' Issei asked himself, completely ignorant of how repugnant his actions were. 'Just watch ladies! You'll change your tune once I become harem king!' He thought, his lewd smile returning, once again making the girl's around him squirm in disgust.

Issei was snapped out of his thoughts when an alert went off in his head. He heard a sound que and a red warning box had appeared in front of a girl standing at the school gate.

Warning: High Level Entity.

'What the..?' Issei thought with a look of confusion. The game was warning him of someone strong, but the person he was looking at was just a girl. Walking closer to her, he was able to recognize who it was. 'That's the student council president... But why am I being warned about her?'

The girl in question was Souna Shitori; a beautiful, lithe girl who held a strict aura around her. She wore the female version of the school uniform, as well as purple glasses. As Issei approached her, she gave him a small nod. "Good morning, Hyoudou-san." She said respectfully, despite his awful reputation.

Issei felt himself straighten on instict. "M-Morning, Kaichou." He returned, giving her a small bow.

Souna remained standing with her hands on her hips, staring up at the boy as if she could look into his very soul. "I trust you will behave yourself today, correct?" She asked, although her tone made it sound more like a demand.

"Y-Yes, of course." Issei let out a small laugh. It quickly died when he realized Souna was not amused.

Issei felt himself sweat as the girl continued to stare up at him. Eventually, Souna nodded once more. "Very good. Be on your way, Hyoudou-san."

"R-Right." He replied, walking past her.

'She's scary.' He thought, almost forgetting that the system had warned him about her. 'I guess it wouldn't hurt to check?' Issei turned his head around to look at Souna once more. Observe.

Name: Sona Sitri

Alias: Souna Shitori

Race: Pure-Blooded Devil

Gender: Female

Level: 33

Relationship: Indifference

Issei's eyes had shot up higher than they ever had, his jaw nearly dislocatiing with how far his mouth fell open. Neither his body or his brain knew how to respond. He simply stood there in complete shock as he blankly stared at Souna.

"Is something wrong, Hyoudou-san?" Souna asked, nearly making Issei jump out of his skin. She turned her head around and gave him a stern look. "No time to dawdle. Class is starting soon, so get moving." She ordered.

"Y-Yes ma'am!" He yelled back, scrambling away towards the building. He wanted away from her ASAP.

Souna, secretly known as Sona, raised an eyebrow as she watched him leave. That had been an odd encounter with the pervert, more than the usual tomfoolery she was accustomed to. He had always been an eccentric one, but she had never seen him so befuddled before. For a moment, she thought he had been staring at her backside and she was more than ready to throw him in detention, but he clearly looked surprised rather than aroused. She thought it strange, turning back around to greet the other students who were arriving.

She would keep a closer eye on him.

---

'What the fuck?!' Issei thought behind his desk, bouncing his legs erratically in nervous tension. 'Who or what the hell is Kaichou?! What the fuck did I just read?!'

There was nothing in the world that could have prepared him for that. He had pondered that the game had lied to him or he had misread her stats, but he knew that wasn't true. The strongest person he had seen was a professional athlete at level 2, but Kaichou was level 33.

'This doesn't make any sense!'

"Woah, you good, bro?"

"Gah!" Issei jumped, drawing several pairs of eyes to him. Ignoring all the women muttering how much of a freak he was, he turned to see Motohama giving him a strange look.

"You jack it too hard, or something?" Matsuda spoke up, resulting in a choir of young women voicing their disgust.

Issei sighed and laid his head on his desk. "Nah, I'm good. Just had a bad dream, I guess."

Matsuda nodded his head. "Yeah, me too, bro. Thought my porn collection was GONE!"

Motohama smirked, his glasses shining. "Well then, it's a good thing it was a dream." He said, high-fiving Matsuda.

Issei shrugged and put face in his arms. His friends hadn't really helped calm him down. He knew he always made himself look like a sexual deviant, but he'd be damned if he ever made himself look like a psycho.

Gamer's Mind has been activated.

Suddenly, Issei felt an immense calm enter him and his tense shoulders dropped. He raised his head and took a breath. 'That's right. The game has a calming feature in case I ever get overwhelmed.' Another function of The Game; Gamer's Body. It let him level up like a video game character, and Gamer's Mind would help keep him calm like one. 'Thank God for that.' A little longer and he would have had to leave class.

Now that he was calm, he could at least attempt to process what had just happened. The student council president Souna Shitori was level 33. Her real name was Sona Sitri. She was also a devil.

Issei pondered for a minute, scratching his head as he tried to make sense of this newfound information. He came to a quick and stark conclusion.

He couldn't.

'Well, at least I know who to avoid.' He thought to himself. She was a devil, so that meant she probably wanted his soul or something. He had just gotten this cool power. No way in hell was he gonna get his soul reaped and lose it.

'Would she really rip my soul out?' Her relationship status said she was indifferent to him. She hadn't really known him, but she had been aware of his presence for at least a year. He had been called to her office more than once for his offenses. 'Yeah, no more of that.' No way did he ever want to get on her bad side again. Not when she could body him in a thousand different ways.

He snapped out of his thoughts once the teacher came in and started doing roll call, causing him to sigh. Just because he knew about Kaichou and her little secret didn't mean school would be any different.

Today would be another boring day.

---

"Well, that sucked," Issei said, walking out of the bathroom. After getting through morning classes and going to lunch, Issei realized that he had 1,000 extra yen in his inventory. The incident with Kaichou had made him forget all about the daily quest he had gotten. The rewards consisted of a small amount of xp that didn't even level him up, the one-thousand yen, and a Commom Gacha Token. He couldn't spin to see what he got out in the open, so he went to the bathroom to do it inside a stall.

"I expected at least a sword or something." He said, placing the fountain pen into his pocket so he could discreetly vanish it into his inventory. To be fair, it did seem high quality. It even had its own fancy case and labeling. A pen like it would probably cost him over ten thousand yen at least. Still, he couldn't help being disappointed. "Got my freaking hopes up. Damn it."

He knew he shouldn't have. Common was the lowest ranking out of all gacha tokens. There were nine different ranks in total.

[Common]

[Uncommon]

[Rare]

[Epic]

[Legendary]

[Exalted]

[Divine]

[? ? ?]

Issei had no idea how he was supposed to interpret the question mark rank. If divine items were supposed to be godly, then he couldn't even imagine how powerful they must be. The ninth rank, however, didn't exactly align with the other ranks. It had its own category.

[Random]

This token had its own mechanics. A random token would give the player a random item or ability in any of the eight other categories. It scanned every possible item and power the game had, meaning there was a chance to get anything out of it. The token could give you a common item like a pencil, or a question mark ability that would make you beyond immortal. It all came down to luck. However, the chances of landing on an item or ability with a question mark rating was extremely low. It would be lucky to even receive a rare. The Game had stated that it wasn't uncommon to receive a Random Gacha Token from doing a quest, so he would have plenty of chances to try and get something good.

That seemed to be The Game's main function: do quests and get rewarded with either xp, skill points, money, or gacha tokens. It was possible to get something specific on a quest, but that depended on the quest he did. If he wanted good shit, he had to do harder quests and get rewarded with a higher rated gacha token.

"I guess I'll stop to grab a book before heading to the cafeteria," Issei said with his head bowed. His teacher assigned them a stupid book report, so now he had to read something that wasn't porn. "Maybe I can find a book that's adult rated," He giggled to himself, stepping into the library.

Scanning dozens of shelves, Issei soon learned that he had no idea what he was even looking for. If he had paid more attention to his teachers and learned how to navigate around a library, he would be having a much easier time searching for a book.

"Whatever, I'll just grab one." He sighed, picking a random novel from one of the bookshelves, not even caring if the book was acceptable for the assignment. It was some detective novel about a Peter or whatever.

Absorb the contents of this book?

Yes No

"Huh?" Issei recoiled when the menu appeared before him. He had no clue what it meant by absorb. Telling himself that accepting wouldn't hurt, he mentally accepted the message.

Information learned.

The boy blinked as his brain instantaneously processed the entire novel. One moment he had no idea what the book was about and now, he had completely memorized it. A few seconds had passed before Issei realized what had transpired. The Game had let him learn and understand the book instantaneously just by touching it. The process didn't even hurt his mind. It was like the information was just downloaded into it.

Issei shook with excitement. "I'll never have to study again!" His voice rang throughout the quiet library. He put the novel he'd chosen back, no longer needing it. Instead, he placed his index finger on the book next to it and proceeded to sprint down the walkway between the shelves. His finger touched each and every single book on them and he mentally accepted every message that popped up asking him if he wanted to learn the information they contained.

"This is awesome!" He yelled again, as he turned and did the same to another bookshelf. Dozens and dozens of books were instantly learned and memorized inside of his brain. He felt himself gain a large amount of intelligence points and experience from learning new information. He quickly leveled up once and was headed for an easy second one. He wasn't going to stop until he had learned each and every boo-

"Oof!" He yelped as he ran into someone, knocking them down onto the carpeted floor. He recoiled back, barely managing to keep himself on his feet, though he was in pain. "Ouch..." He mumbled, looking at the person he knocked down.

His heart froze.

"K-K-Kaichou!?" He squeaked. The girl in question had sat up into a sitting position, picking up her glasses that had fallen off. One of the hinges had snapped off and a lens was completely shattered. It didn't take a genius to tell that she was pissed.

Issei gulped and backed away from Sona as she slowly stood up. She was too angry for Issei to admire what she looked like without her glasses. All he could do was stand solid like a rock. If he didn't move, maybe she would think he was invisible.

"I came here to see what all the commotion was about." She spoke, taking a step towards him. "Of course it was you, Hyoudou-san." She looked him in the eye with the meanest glare he ever did see. A single thought passed through Issei's mind.

'I'm dead.'

And with a single word, she had slain him.

"Detention."

---

It was after school and Issei was standing outside of the student council room. This wasn't the first time he had gotten detention, so his parents wouldn't be suprised with him coming home later than usual. What had surprised him was that his relationship with Sona was still at indifference. With how many times she had given him detention, he expected to be on worse terms with her. He wouldn't complain, though. After all, she was a devil and a level 33. She could kill him before he even realized it.

Putting on a brave front, he knocked on the door.

"Enter." A sharp voice said from inside, clearly belonging to Sona. With a gulp, Issei entered the room, his eyes landing on the short-haired girl. "Sit down." She commanded, glancing at the chair in front of her desk. He nodded and did as she asked, not brave enough to disobey.

It did make him want to question her, though. He usually had detention inside a classroom with a teacher, not in the student council room with the student council president herself. He wondered why the sudden change, but again, was too scared to bring it up.

"Sit up straight." She spoke, making him flinch. He typically slouched when he sat and Sona was unnecessarliy strict. Of course she would call him out for that. He sat up as stiff as a board, not wanting to make her any more mad.

The brown haired boy looked everywhere in the room but her. They were the only two inside the council room, which may or may not have been a good thing. More people would make him more stressed, but being alone with her kinda freaked him out now that he knew the truth.

"The others are out on tasks I assigned them," Sona spoke, as if reading his inner thoughts. He took a quick glance at her to see she was writing on some kind of document.

'Are those my expulsion papers?' He hoped they weren't. He loved it here in lady paradise, although he might be safer if they were. 'Hold on. If Kaichou is a devil, does that mean everyone else in the student council is, too?' His heart dropped at the thought.

"Is something wrong, Hyoudou-san?" She asked the same question she had this morning.

"N-No, nothing's wrong."

"That is a lie. You are concerned to be around me."

"N-No! That isn't true!" Issei said back with his hands up in defense.

Sona looked up at him with disbelieving eyes, her glasses no where to be found after he'd smashed them. She set her pen down gently. "What was that commotion about in the library?"

"N-Nothing! Just me being me!" He laughed, trying to play it off, which Sona didn't buy. Her stare bore into him, making him more worried with each passing second. Writhing under her gaze, Issei tried changing the subject. "Hey, look! A chess board!" He said, as his eyes landed on the board that was pushed to the side of her desk.

The girl raised a curious eyebrow. "You're interested in chess, Hyoudou-san?"

Issei gulped. "Y-Yeah, sure! I play it all the time!" He laughed again, hoping she wouldn't notice his attempt to change the subject. The look in her eyes clearly told him that she completely saw through his scheme. Regardless, the president squinted at him with a very rare smirk on her face. His skin began to crawl from her stare.

"Okay then, Hyoudou-san. Let's play a match," She said, pushing her papers aside and pulling the chess board in front of the two. "With how often you play, I'm certain you won't mind."

The brown haired boy reeled back as if he'd been physically slapped.

'Shit!' Was all he could think as Sona set the board up between the two. He hadn't played chess in his entire life, nor did he know any of the rules. He felt himself starting to panic before Gamer's Mind had calmed him down.

The boy gulped and put on a brave face. "That's okay, Kaichou. You're a busy woma-"

"If you win, I'll let you go home early," She stated, placing each of the chess pieces on the board. "You won't owe me anything if you lose, so why not give it a shot?"

"O-Oh, r-really?" Issei stuttered, not trusting her words. He wondered why she was still smirking as she finished setting up the board.

"Of course," Sona began. "If your liking to chess was just a ruse to get on my good side, you'll find yourself facing much more than just detention." Her smirk burgeoned, looking utterly evil in the eyes of the perverted boy.

'S-She knows!' The boy squeezed the sides of the chair to hide his jitters, staring at the chess board in front of him like it had come from hell itself. 'What do I do now?!' Issei's thoughts were scrambling to come up with something to say.

"W-Why don't you take the first move, Kaichou?" He asked with a faux smile. If she went first, then he could just copy her moves. It wasn't much, but at least he wouldn't make a complete ass out of himself.

Sona shook her head. "White pieces go first, Hyoudou-san. As you can clearly see, my pieces are black." She said, gesturing to her side of the board. Issei began sweating hard.

'She did that on purpose!' He thought, realizing he had already made a fool out of himself. Now that his weak strategy had gone out the window, he would have to just hope and pray he could make the right moves. He grabbed one of his front pieces and moved it up one square, looking up for approval as he did. The girl ignored him and moved one of her pieces up.

Before Issei could even think about his next move, a small blue arrow had appeared in front of one of his pieces, pointing at a square that was also lit up in front of it. The boy stared at the arrow, still not used to his powers.

'The Game is helping me!?' A flicker of hope brushed through him. Assistance Mode hadn't kicked in because the game technically hadn't started. It only began after the first move. Once he'd made a move and Sona made hers, Assistance Mode could now help him play.

"Stuck already, Hyoudou-san?" Sona said with a frown, although he could have sworn he'd heard the tiniest slip of a laugh through her voice.

Was she mocking him?!

Rather than acknowledge it, Issei smirked. "No, of course not," He said confidently, surprising the girl.

'Assistance Mode is broken, hell yeah! Take over this chess game!' He commanded, following the assistance of The Game.

Sona wasn't any bit concerned at first. Him going from what appeared to be fear to an overwhelming confidence was jarring, but she knew from the pervert's grades that he wasn't very intelligent or had good observation skills. However, the longer the match had played out, the more she began to sweat.

It only took her a second or two to make a move at the start, but after he began pushing her back, she needed to think for an entire minute for a single move. After meticulously planning her actions and moving a piece, Issei would proceed to respond instantly and make his move the very second she ended hers. She started to become confused. He played so fast and would make such brilliant moves that she had to think even longer for her next one. She considered that he was using all the time she took to think of her moves before she could, but there was no way he was that good.

He was a pervert who spent all his time lusting after girls. There was no way he could out think someone like her, who put knowledge above everything else. She couldn't help but wonder if he was actually a genius in disguise. A diamond in the rough.

Issei Hyoudou, one of, if not the biggest pervert in the entire world, was a genius. The thought perplexed her so much that it had nearly caused her to lose focus on the game. She looked up at the boy with newfound respect. "My apologies, Hyoudou-san. I've clearly underestimated your skills." Her words knocked the boy out of his own internal thoughts, looking at her with surprise. "However, I will not lose." A confidant smile appeared on her lips, spelling how much she was enjoying the game.

The smile was like an arrow that had shot the boy in his heart. It was incredibly captivating and had made him forget his earlier concern. Issei nodded back at her, knowing that if he said something that it would most likely be stupid and would ruin her happy mood.

The game continued to play out, lasting a few more minutes before Issei had claimed Sona's king. The girl looked at the board in shock.

"You beat me..." She muttered out, just barely over a whisper.

"I did?" Issei asked, before quickly catching himself. "I-I mean yeah, I did, hahah!" He laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

Sona slowly and robotically looked up at him. "You beat me..." She said again, disbelief written all over her face.

"U-Uh, yeah?" He said, as if he were asking a question. "I guess that means I can go home now, right?" Issei stood up.

"O-Oh!" She shot up out of her stupor, a fierce blush on her face. "Y-Yes, you can leave now, H-Hyoudou-san," She replied, her eyes now looking down at the floor, unwilling to look back up at him.

'Why is she blushing!?' He thought as a blush of his own appeared. He thought Sona would maybe get angry or something after she lost, but this was nowhere near what he expected. She was always so tough and strict, but now she looked so feminine and cute. He could stare at her all day and almost wanted to stay and admire her. However, the sudden shift in her personality was kind of creepy. "R-Right. I'll head home then, Kaichou." Issei then picked up his bag and hurridly walked out of the room.

Sona sat slumped in her chair, staring down at the chess board. He had beaten her. Checkmated right after her bold claim of how she wouldn't lose to him. Now she sat all alone in her office, defeated.

In a weird way... she was happy.

"Someone who is smarter than me." Sona blushed thinking about the boy. She respected intelligence and could only ever dream of a man whose smarts were greater than her own. She had once bet her entire future on a chess match, challenging the man she was supposed to marry and defeated him. If they couldn't best her in a chess match, then they weren't worthy of her hand in marriage. She thought it would take decades, or even centuries, to find a suitable partner. In one of the most surprising turns of her life, she had lost a chess match against Issei Hyoudou, the self-proclaimed harem king. She hadn't once ever thought of the boy in any sort of manner outside of school, other than the fact that he was a potential canidate for Rias's peerage. Now when she thought of his name, all she could do was blush.

'What is wrong with me?" She scolded herself. She was NOT going to start crushing on him. She was the student council president and princess to the Sitri family. She had far more interesting prospects to concern herself with. It didn't matter how smart he was, he was still a pervert. Her pride wouldn't allow herself to fall low enough to be together with a pervert.

The door to her office opened and a girl with long black hair and yellow eyes hidden behind blue rectangular glasses walked in. "I'm back, Kaichou." Tsubaki, the vice president of the student council, had spoken. "I see Hyoudou-san has left. I did not want to teleport into the room while he was still here." She walked up beside the desk. "Did you find out what you wanted about him?"

Earlier, Sona had asked her peerage to not show up into the room today and assigned them tasks because she wanted to speak with Issei Hyoudou privately. He was acting even more strange than normal, which made her concerned about his wellbeing. It could have been some normal teenage troubles, but considering his disposition, it was possible that he may have had a run in with the fallen. She wanted to observe him up close to see if he had or not, but the chess game had made her forget all about that. "Not quite," Sona answered back to her queen.

Tsubaki tilted her head sideways. "Why are you blushing, Kaichou?"

"Tsubaki!" Sona barked, making the queen stand up straight. The vice president didn't know what exactly she did, but whatever it was, she was going to get punished for it.

---

Issei looked up at the orange sky in distain. "Well, I got out early because I beat her, but now I'm not sure what I should do."

He threw his bag over his shoulder and grumbled to himself. Issei had originally planned to go out somewhere and experiment with his powers after school. His plans were changed after he'd gotten detention. Although he'd gotten out early, the ordeal had sapped most of his energy for the day.

It hadn't gone as bad as he imagined. Quite the opposite, actually. He still had no idea how to play chess, but he couldn't say he hated playing against the student council president. What he did hate was the apparent fact that she was a devil who could send his pansy ass an early visit to heaven. He really wasn't sure what to think about her anymore. She still treated him the same as always, though she noticed how jumpy he'd been around her.

Issei prayed everything would still be fine and she really wouldn't try to murder him. He wanted to believe she wouldn't. Wanted to believe her indifferent status was genuine. Yet, he couldn't have complete faith. Just like earlier today, the boy vowed not to get on her bad side. Except this time, he wouldn't slam into her like a running back!

His shoulders deflated as he considered reality and tried assessing himself. "Who am I kidding? Me and detention are best buds. Knowing me, it'll happen again in a day or two..."

Saying and doing were two separate things. He'd gotten so many detentions at this point in his life that he'd lost count. With how much he kept getting in trouble, it was a miracle he hadn't gotten expelled yet. Or from any school he went to, in all honesty. Eventually, his luck would run out. He was almost sure this latest incident would have been the final straw.

The memory of barrelling over Sona replayed over and over in his head. He pulled at his brown hair in frustration. "I'm such a dick! I don't even think I apologized!" He cursed himself. "Come on, Issei! Stop being such a dumb ass! The next time you see her, you apologize!" He ballooned up, raising a determined fist... and once again deflated, remembering who exactly he would be apologizing to.

He really didn't know what any of this devil shit was or what they could do. How many more of them were around or what kind of powers they possessed. They were guaranteed to be stronger than him. Shitori, or actually, Sitri's level had been way higher than his own.

If she was going to make a move, why hadn't she? He had attended the school for over a year and she hadn't done anything to him yet. Or at least, he didn't think she did. He didn't know if his power still worked before he was aware of it, so if he was mind controlled in the past, he wasn't sure if Gamer's Mind would have removed it. It should be able to now if he was affected.

Since he didn't feel any different, he assumed he hadn't been. The worst she had ever done to him was berate him and ruin his school record. In other words; the usual.

"Maybe... she's safe?" It was a pleasant thought, but one the back of his mind clawed at him to reject. She was a devil and devils are supposed to be evil. Even if she hadn't done anything evil to him yet, that didn't mean she wouldn't. Issei grabbed at his hair again. "Why does everything have to be so complicated!" He whined.

His feet had carried him to an intersection. Issei could either head home now, or do what he had originally planned and try experimenting with his power. He really, really wanted to go home and jack it, but he knew now wasn't the time. He had to get his shit in gear and fast. If Kaichou or anyone ever decided to attack, he'd be screwed the way he was now.

That needed to change.

Deciding to practice his newfound powers, Issei turned and headed into the city. First, he wanted to use the Observe power to see what all it could tell him. A part of him was also paranoid there were other demons around or stalking him. He wanted some solace knowing that he was still surrounded by normal people and that nothing would jump out to get him. Second, he wanted to try out his Boosted Gear. He knew the dragon had basically called him a pussy and that he couldn't use it, but he still wanted to try. Specifically, he wanted to test how strong he was physically when boosted. He couldn't try it out in his room for obvious reasons. There were large forested areas next to and around the city, so he planned to head there later.

With those thoughts in mind, Issei continued on, crossing a bridge that was overhead a busy road.

"E-Excuse me."

"Gah!" Issei yelped, swiftly turning around. His look of surprise turned into one of lust as he looked at the 10/10 beauty in front of him.

The girl had a different school uniform on; one he didn't recognize. She had black hair and round, glittery pink eyes. She smiled up at him nicely, a blush spread across her face. "Y-You're Issei Hyoudou, right?" She asked him with the most angelic voice he had ever heard.

"Y-Yeah, that's me." He laughed, despite freaking out internally.

"T-That's wonderful!" The girl said, her smile shining brighter. Her blush grew as she swayed on her feet, folding her hands in front of her. "M-My name is Yuuma Amano. I-If you don't mind my asking, do you have a girlfriend?" She asked shyly.

"U-Um... no?" Issei's heart began beating faster in anticipation. He didn't want to get the wrong idea, but was she...

As if answering his thoughts, Yuuma looked as if she were building up courage within herself before looking him in the eyes. "T-Then, would you please be my boyfriend?"

Issei felt as if he were dreaming. If he were, then he never wanted to wake up! He had spoken about being the harem king for years, but he could barely fathom getting a girlfriend! He didn't need to think twice! Of course he'd accept!

Just as Issei was about to speak out, his voice got caught in his throat. There was something small next to the girl's head. A small red menu box that heavily contrasted the blue sky and the street below them. A virtual box that could only be noticed by him. The words spelled out across it made his heart drop.

Warning: High Level Entity.

The boy stood frozen, his eyes widening an unfathomable degree. For a moment, Issei wished the box was just a hallucination. His head was screaming at him that it was all just a prank. The feeling grew after he used Observe on her and read her stats. He wanted to accept her love and say yes, even after learning that she was a level 17 fallen angel. However, there were two pieces of information that killed all of his desires. The first was that her relationship status read indifferent, meaning she didn't have any real love, or even a like to him. The second was another box that had even made a beeping noise to alert him.

Warning: Hostile Intentions Detected.

She was hostile. She wanted to hurt, trick, kill, whatever fallen angels do to their prey. Her whole entire demeanor was a facade. A fake. Though, something was still off about her feelings. She felt indifferent, yet was hostile towards him. Why did she want to do bad things to him, without having bad feelings?

That's when it clicked.

'She's a monster.' The thought rang throughout Issei's head. She didn't have any feelings towards him, yet she was ready to cause harm to him. Her act was a lie to make him drop his guard so she could get close and-

-no, he didn't want to think about what she would do. All Issei knew was that Yuuma, her true name being Raynare, was going to do something bad to him if he didn't get away. He needed to escape now.

"H-Hey, what's wrong?" The fallen angel asked him, taking a step closer. Issei flinched away, slowly stepping backwards. She was getting suspicious of him now. He needed to say something, anything!

Issei swallowed harshly and forced a smile on his face, despite his trembling hands barely being able to hold onto his bag. "S-Sorry, but I gotta go..." He mustered out, turning around and walking away.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Issei's feet picked up their pace. His heart thumped louder and louder in his ears and heavy sweat seeped into his clothing. He was too scared to look back, instead picking up his pace. It was taking everything he had to keep himself from full on sprinting and screaming for help.

As his feet carried him away, Issei could see a blue silhouette of a person hiding behind the side of a wall that guarded someone's house next to the street. There was another person there!

Warning: High Level Entity.

'Oh God, please!' Issei pleaded, his adrenaline racing faster than it ever had. He was trapped. There was one behind him and one in front. He kept walking, not knowing what else to do. Tears welled up in his eyes and he felt as if his legs would give any second. He begged someone would save him. Begged they would spare him. Begged he could see another day. As he finally reached the second person, he turned to look at them...

...and recognized them.

He didn't know what it was that caused him to say it, but when he saw her, Issei couldn't help but weakly call out, "Help..."

He walked past the wall, outside of Raynare's view. His eyes were clenched shut, hoping his cry was heard. When he opened them, he saw the little white haired girl looking at him with shock. She had let go of her blue popsicle and it had fell to the ground, her hazel eyes scanning over him with brief confusion before a resolute look appeared on her face. Slowly, the girl known as Koneko Toujou walked out from behind the wall and stood in front of the fallen angel.

Raynare stopped dead in her tracks, a look of surprise on her face at the small girl's appearance. She stared the devil girl down, anger creeping into her face. Koneko glared back, daring the fallen angel girl to try anything. The two stood there silently, waiting for the other to make a move.

Koneko watched the fake high schooler gnash her teeth harshly and begin backing away. They didn't take their eyes off each other as their distance grew, Raynare stepping further and further away. They both understood the laws of the supernatural. Unless they had permission, it was forbidden to fight and reveal themselves in front of humans. The street below the bridge was one of the most active in town. There were plenty of cars driving by. If they fought, it would cause huge problems for both of them.

However, it would cause much more for Raynare, who was intending to harm a human in devil territory. They both knew that and Koneko was more than willing to break that rule right here and now. Raynare, however, wasn't and had no other choice but to retreat.

Eventually, the fallen woman was far enough to where she could turn her back safely and sprint away. She'd likely teleport once out of view of any potential witnesses. Koneko sighed in annoyance. She really wanted to beat some fallen angel ass. She turned around to look back at her Senpai and sighed again.

He bailed. Really, she couldn't blame him. Koneko had seen him cry a few times before after he'd gotten an ass whooping from the girls in the kendo club, but she'd never seen him cry like that. It was kind of sad.

Of course, she wasn't obligated to help him. Buchou had only told her to try and sniff out his Sacred Gear so they could figure out what it was. However, protecting him from ugly crow bitches wasn't against protocol, even if it did blow her cover. Koneko knew Rias would rather have her expose herself and let the fallen know they were aware of their presence than let him get hurt by them. Whether she had to protect him or not, she was itching for a fight.

Koneko didn't really understand why Buchou had them stand by for now. If the fallen were getting this daring, then they couldn't wait much longer. The young devil took out her phone, intentions set on reporting this development immediately. If she knew Buchou, then she was gonna be pissed. With any luck, they'd be having crow meat for dinner tonight.

About time. The sooner those angel failures got the fuck up out her hood, the better.

---

Making the final turn, Issei sprinted towards his home, entering the gate and slamming his front door open and shut behind him. He heard his mother's startled voice from in the kitchen, but he didn't listen to a word she said. Running up the stairs, he finally made it to his room.

Issei frantically looked around, as if he were searching for something. He was hyperventilating and his eyes instinctively searched for something to protect himself. His heart was pounding like it would burst out from his chest. His head was spinning and he felt nauseous. He squeezed his chest tight, trying to get some sort of bearings over himself, taking heavy breaths.

Gamer's Mind had finally kicked back in and after a few moments, Issei's adrenaline was fully calmed down and he could begin thinking more rationally. Once he had, he began berating himself. "Fuck, man! Why did you run home?! What if they followed you?!"

Once he'd called out to his junior for help, his mind had switched into fight or flight mode. Issei wasn't proud of it, but he ran like a little bitch and hadn't thought twice. Now that he was thinking, a feeling of anxiousness and guilt washed over him.

"Is she okay? I left her all alone back there..." Issei's concern grew as he berated himself further. He didn't really know what that whole situation was about. What he knew for sure was that Raynare was definitely bad news and there was a chance that Koneko might have been in trouble.

There were numerous possibilities, too many for him to wrap his head around. Issei's worldview had expanded way beyond a normal person's now. It was so much to take in all at once that it was hard to keep up. He needed to at least figure out what had happened and what he should do next.

His ability had warned him earlier that Koneko was a high level, but he didn't know if she was a devil like Sona or a fallen angel like Raynare because he didn't get the chance to use Observe on her. All he knew was that she wasn't hostile because there wasn't a beeping red box next to her warning him of any hostile intentions like there was with Raynare.

He wasn't sure what kind of relationship devils and fallen angels had with each other. They both were seen as bad things in religion, so they could have been working together to trap him.

"No, wait... she stepped out..." Issei recalled Koneko's actions from when he called out to her. He had basically hidden behind her once he had turned the corner. After he'd asked her for help, she had walked out from behind the wall to stand up against Raynare. If the two of them were colluding with each other, then there was no way Koneko would have allowed him to leave, much less walk out to defend him.

He was only able to get away because of her. Raynare was a hostile person, or hostile angel, or whatever. If she was going to do something bad towards him, she would almost certainly do the same towards Koneko.

Is Raynare a kidnapper? Or worse, is she a killer?

"I'm a piece of shit..." Issei landed in his bed and held his head. He'd left Koneko alone to fend for herself against what was almost certainly an evil monster. Koneko was strong, but he didn't know if she was stronger than Raynare. His panicked state had him completely forget to check what level she was. Raynare is level 17. If she was a similar level to Sona's 33, then she was probably fine. If she wasn't... he didn't want to imagine it.

For a moment, Issei thought about going back. Maybe he could do something to help, or at least see what happened. However, even an idiot like himself knew that it was both stupid and pointless. Even if he'd leveled up once, it was nothing compared to what either of them were. His Sacred Gear would only boost his power a single time and that wouldn't get him anywhere near strong enough. What exactly did he plan to do? Pull his fountain pen out on them?

"Shit... and why did Gamer's Mind take so long, anyway?"

Help: A pivotal story event was progressing.

Issei nearly shat himself when the pop up appeared. Pulling his fleeing soul back, he recalled what the message said, not really understanding it. What did it mean pivotal story moment? Wasn't he living his own life and making his own choices? Was it some kind of decision tree where whatever choice he made would affect his fate?

Quest Alert!

He was more prepared this time, not getting startled. It had only been the second time he'd received a quest, so he was curious as to what it could be.

Quest: A Little Help

Find a person or more to help you protect yourself.

Rewards:

1,000 Experience Points

100,000 Yen

1x Rare Gacha Token

"Find someone? Find who?" Issei grumbled. He had felt elated at first, the prospect of finding people to back him up was exactly what he wanted. However, he didn't want to wrap anyone else in his problems. He couldn't imagine going to the police and have them come, only to get annihilated by some supernatural freaks. Really, who could he even turn to?

Help: Request assistance from the devils.

"Huh? Who? Oh..." Once again, Issei still hadn't gotten used to his powers. Unlike the menu screens, the Help ability would tell him the information directly into his head. It wasn't like a voice or anything. Rather, it was more akin to intuition. Help fed information straight into his mind, then he would know. Simple as that. "Weird, though... Ask the devils?"

The only person Issei believed it were referring to was Sona. Since it was plural, it could even be referring to others. It was possible that there were multiple devils who went to his school and Sona was among them. Issei felt much more at ease knowing he could turn to the devils for help. Since they could be found at school, he knew exactly where to go. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

He no longer had to speculate whether devils were good or not, or whether he could trust them. Issei now knew he could thanks to The Game. His power was all the proof he needed. He would place his faith in the devils.

The quest had also confirmed another thing and it was the fact that he truly did need to protect himself. He knew Raynare was bad, but he still didn't know what exactly her intentions were. Since the quest had told him to protect himself, it was essentially saying she had been trying to hurt or even kill him. It was an undisputable fact now and since there were more devils around, there could also be more fallen angels, too. He would remember to be wary of them. He definitely couldn't trust them.

"Should I go try to find them now?" Issei asked himself, looking outside his window. The sun was getting ready to set and it would be dark out in a couple of hours. School was the only option, as he didn't know where Sona lived, or who any other devils were. Going to school now would be a waste of time because it was getting late. Little to no one would be there if he did. However, deep down, Issei knew he was just telling himself excuses so that he wouldn't have to go back outside.

Thinking about coming face to face with Raynare again scared him shitless. She was an evil woman disguised as a pretty one. If the two of them did cross paths again, he'd likely run away, just as he did before. It was humiliating, but he knew in his heart it was the truth.

Even though he had Gamer's Mind, he was still too scared to leave his house. All Issei could do was pray he hadn't been followed and wait until tomorrow. He hoped Koneko had also made it out okay, cursing himself for being such a pussy.

---

Unfortunately, Webnovel capped the words to this chapter again. Therefore, it must be split in two. I'll post the second half later this week. Sorry for the somewhat abrupt ending.