Seiji was unsurprised after learning about the hidden side to this world, as he had already expected it long ago.
He just didn’t anticipate that he’d find out this quickly.
Yin Yang masters… Spirit-branded Retainers… Recalling his body’s memories after learning all this increased the mystery.
‘Man, the original Seiji must have been truly hated; it’s been so long and my family hasn’t even contacted me.’
Even if the incident with blondie that required him to go to the police station and him transferring schools didn’t require his guardian either time… his family would probably know about it, right?
Seiji was uncertain. With the sins that the original Seiji committed before, it wouldn’t be strange for them to completely ignore him.
If he wanted to truly enjoy life, he felt like a harmonious family relationship was necessary, and… he also felt like he should make it up to this body for taking it over. Seiji really wanted to reconcile with his family.
But the original Seiji was so terrible! What he did in the past before… honestly speaking, if Seiji had a brother like him, maybe he wouldn’t be able to resist killing him!
Since even he didn’t think the original Seiji was forgivable, he had no idea how to obtain forgiveness.
But he couldn’t just keep waiting. Even if it was inadequate, he should at least attempt to make up with his family, right?
Especially after learning about his family being a Yin Yang master clan... Seiji felt like he should initiate contact with his family.
But just thinking about how to do it gave him a heavy feeling in his stomach.
‘Forget it, let’s just wait a little longer,’ Seiji sighed inwardly.
…
The next few days were rather uneventful.
Preparations for the school festival progressed normally.
Mika formally quit the tennis club and felt conflicted over what new club to join.
Chiaki was busy rehearsing for the drama club’s school festival program. Supposedly, they had daringly created an original script, and the actors’ performances were critical to its success.
Seiji continued improving his [academics] stat every day at school, while grinding action points after school.
On Thursday afternoon, he used the excuse of ‘checking things out’ to grind his [play basketball] option at the basketball club and obtained 3 points along with crushing the basketball club members’ pride into dust and increasing the favorability ratings of the spectating girls.
Judging from the atmosphere, it would be impossible for him to return to the basketball club… As well as that, rumors about the collapse of the tennis club were circulating rapidly around school now. This, combined with the recent incident at the basketball club, could propel him into infamy.
In the evenings, he continued to successfully grind [sing] and [dance] with just one spectator.
His only follower named Flying Fish seemed to have believed his ridiculous excuse about why he was doing it. Although it made him remorseful, he was also inwardly relieved that she persisted in watching his performances. Also, the two of them began chatting about various topics and found that they coincidentally shared many interests in common, so they became increasingly friendlier with each other.
The last class on Friday was home economics, and the topic was cooking.
Seiji was in a group with Mika, Chiaki, and Kazufuru Ooike, whom he had forcefully recruited. The food that they made tasted average.
However, there was one group who cooked food at a level which evidently surpassed the others.
It was Kaho Miyamoto’s group.
The fat girl that typically lacked presence was shining with such brilliant splendor when it came to cooking! Even though they were only making some common dishes, she actually gave them the taste of a 5-star hotel chef’s cooking—even the teacher praised her endlessly.
Seiji finally understood why she wasn’t isolated in class and had some female friends, even though she was an introvert who wasn’t good looking.
‘What’s this… don’t you have an ability you can be proud of? You oughta be more self-confident,’ Seiji sighed to himself mentally.
Just as a faint sense of pride welled up within his heart, Miyamoto seemed to notice his gaze, and she met his eyes.
Seiji smiled at her while giving her a big thumbs-up.
Miyamoto immediately turned around again.
This was a blow to Seiji.
After class, he worked like usual before he returned home.
Then he performed all his available actions to grind points, which finally gave him enough points to purchase the item Seiji wanted all this time!
[Physical ability—fighting activation card], which required 35 points!
Honestly, he felt that spending 35 points for an [activation card] was a bad deal, since there was another [activation card] for [physical ability—track and field] which only required 20 points.
After finding out about the hidden facets of this society, though, Seiji felt like he should prioritize increasing his combat ability.
‘35 points… I really hope that you’re worth the price, my dear system…’ Seiji muttered as he made the exchange.
A card that fit into his hand instantly appeared in front of him in a flash of light. There were many stick figures in the process of fighting drawn on it, and each stick figure had a different martial arts pose.
Seiji lost himself in looking at the card for a while before he regained his senses and carefully chose the [use card] option.
The card instantly disappeared into a white light that drilled into his brain.
At first, Seiji had a headache, then it felt like something was dissolving and being forcibly poured into his brain.
This continued for an unknown period of time. When Seiji regained consciousness, he found that he had collapsed onto the floor. His hands were clutching his head, and his temple was still throbbing violently.
‘That was rather uncomfortable…’ He stood up slowly: ‘But…’
Seiji looked at his hands and suddenly punched the air.
*Whoosh!* His fists caused a small but fierce gust of wind to arise!
Seiji continued punching several times, and each punch was powerful; it felt like his waist, back, and legs were properly applying force to each punch, and he was able to easily use his entire body with each attack. Indeed, it seemed as if he was already at that level!
Finally, he ended with an explosive whirlwind kick. It was literally as if a small tornado had occurred in his room.
"This was worth it! Hahaha!"
Seiji couldn’t restrain himself anymore and broke out into laughter while looking at his hands, feet, and body.
Even though there was no apparent change on the surface, he felt completely different.
It was as if a switch had been turned on in his brain. He now had a natural understanding of how to properly utilize his body’s muscles and energy!
Although Seiji was unsure what level he was at compared to a real martial artist, or whether he was still a novice in martial arts, he definitely felt like he was more than twice as strong as he was before!
Before, it took him six tries in order to seriously injure blondie without receiving any injuries himself, but now he could probably do it in one try. He could even make blondie permanently handicapped; it would be extremely easy to cripple him for life!
As expected of a card that required 35 points! Not only was it worth its value, it was an absolute bargain!
‘Excellent quality as expected of the system.’
Seiji sighed in wonder as he checked his system again, then, to his astonishment, he noticed that in [physical ability], [actions], and [items], new options had appeared once more!
[Physical ability] now included the sub-category of [fighting], which had its own stat, in addition to options like [self-training], [mock duel], and [wilderness training] to improve it…
[Actions] now had [exhibit martial arts], with a prerequisite of 40 physical ability and 25 charisma; [empty-handed combat practice], with a prerequisite of 40 physical ability and 25 communication; [do a heroic deed], with a prerequisite of 50 physical ability, 25 communication, 25 charisma… and so on. All of these also required the [fighting] sub-category to have been activated.
The [Items] category now included [Ultimate skill—Cannon Fist] for 50 points; [agility technique card—Snake Style Footwork] for 45 points; [defense technique card—Sparrow Flight] for 45 points; [throwing technique—Spinning Throw] for 50 points; [suppression technique card—Bone-Shattering Hit] for 40 points… and so on.
Seiji’s mouth kept twitching as he scrolled down the list.
‘Wow…’
So activating the [fighting] option was just the beginning…
Disregarding the new options in [physical ability] and [actions], just all the new items alone were enough for him to get dizzy over.
If he exchanged for all those new technique cards and used them, he would doubtlessly transform into a human weapon!
And was this all that his system had?
Of course not!
Seiji began to feel that his system wasn’t nearly as simple as he had originally thought—okay, even if it wasn’t simple to begin with, he had now come to the realization that this was an endless grind!
‘Just activating the [fighting] option is like this… If I activate the other options, it’ll probably be the same way…’ He rubbed his temple.
‘Alright, system, you successfully astounded me,’ Seiji thought as he closed his system menu.
‘Let’s just end things here today and figure the rest out tomorrow.’
He felt like taking a shower, surfing the web, then resting for the night.
However…
There was a restless urge within his heart that he had to release.
Seiji thought about his new available options.
‘Let’s go out for a walk instead.’
He didn’t really feel like grinding for points; he was just too excited and wanted to move his body.
He put on his jacket and left his apartment.
Outside, it was a cool and dark autumn night.