Asahi spent the entire Sunday writing, only stopping to have lunch and dinner with Mayumi.

Close to midnight, he received a message from Trish.

(T)- You released a second novel as a shadow drop? I would say that that’s bold if it was someone else,
       but you actually have an absurd amount of momentum in the web novel scene right now. Oh, and I
       really liked the first three chapters, you did a great job. 😉
(A)- Thanks. Tomorrow I’ll explain it in more detail, but some stuff happened this morning, making me
        write and release it today. 😑
(T)- Oh.
(A)- Yeah…
(T)- It’s better if we talk about it in person then, good night. 😚
(A)- Yup, good night. 😚

He got up, stretched and went back to writing, which he did until around 2am.

When he was done, he lied in bed. ‘How many points do I have?’

[ 427,655P ]

‘I knew it. I was almost broke after I bought the rings this morning, right?’

[ You had 17,882P after buying the three rings. ]

‘Yeah, compared to the buttload of points that I need now, 17K is not much. Alright, let’s talk passives again. Are there passives that you recommend to enhance my powers?’

[ Body Enhancement Attunement (Passive) – Increases your affinity with Body Enhancement by 50%. Cost: 500,000P. ]

[ Electromagnetism Attunement (Passive) – Increases your affinity with Electromagnetism by 50%. Cost: 1,500,000P. ]

[ Lightning Arts Attunement (Passive) – Increases your affinity with Lightning Arts by 50%. Cost: 800,000P. ]

[ Psychokinesis Attunement (Passive) – Increases your affinity with Psychokinesis by 50%. Cost: 2,000,000P. ]

[ These are the feasible ones at the moment. ]

‘Can’t say that I didn’t see those prices coming. It’s alright, I’ll write a few short stories throughout the week as well. If I do that, plus the two that I wrote today, can I get another 500k by Friday? I hate that I have to rush the writing stuff that I had planned like this, but I don’t have another viable choice.’

[ Yes. ]

‘Good. I think I’ll do something else that I intended to do in the future as well, which is livestreaming. No camera and a voice modulator, obviously. Now, let’s talk gadgets. Can I buy some sort of drone that is durable, fast, can be linked to my will, and has ranged attacks that can bypass even my bracelet?’

[ Psiotech Magus Artillery Orb V.3 (Lightning) – Psionic linkable drone that shoots Arcane Rays enhanced with Electromagnetism, with a maximum four rays per second at maximum power. Cost: 500,000P ]

The picture showed a pitch-black sphere with a diameter of 15cm.

‘How long does its power source lasts?’

[ 24h shooting at its maximum capabilities. Less if it is attacked, having to soak damage through its magic coating. You can buy the P.M. Recharge Station for 100,000P. It takes ten minutes to recharge, and the station replenishes its own energy over a period of 12h. ]

‘Yeah, I’ll buy one for sure. Thank you, I’m gonna pass out now, I’m too tired. Good night.’

[ You are welcome, and good night. ]

 

Next day, in the afternoon, Asahi was waiting for Trish in their training room, wearing his usual training outfit. He was sitting on a resting bench, looking at his phone, with a smile on his face.

He was genuinely cheerful about how positively his novels, and the short story that he released that morning were being received. Of course, people throwing money at him didn’t hurt either.

The door opened, as Trish entered the room. When she was about to greet him, she noticed the bracelet and ring, which made her close the door immediately by reflex.

“Hi, I see that you got some gear.” She said as she walked towards him.

“Yup, and I have things to show you.”

She nodded, as she sat down. “You have my attention.”

He gave her a light kiss. “Sorry that I couldn’t drop by yesterday.”

She smiled. “That’s alright. I know that you’re going to be busy from now on, and I’m not the only one in line.”

He chuckled. “You have no idea. First, I need you to watch this.”

He then showed her his confrontation with Gilbert Dubois, which she watched paying it her utmost attention.

After it finished, she displayed a pensive expression. “What do you intend to do? Aside from the what I assume to be farming points with your writing, and the four livestreams that you announced on your Backaroo page this morning.”

He sighed. “I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t think of another way to do it, and not feel like trash after. At least those were all things that I intended to do in the future. As for what I’m gonna do, I’ll go to the headquarters of the Japanese branch of the TS’s Justice Department, and talk to Nagamine Kagome, the Minister. I don’t have an appointment, but she’ll want to see me after I talk to her lapdog.”

“And the point farming is insurance?”

He nodded. “Not just for that instance, but long term as well. I seriously just want to live my life in peace, but I it’s clearly out of the question, so I need to at least make sure people understand that I’m not to be messed with. But relax, I’m gonna go with a very diplomatic approach.”

She caressed his thigh. “I wish I could go with you…”

He held her hand. “It’s fine, I’ll be okay. I wouldn’t want you to put your family in a tough spot for my sake anyways. Speaking of which, let me show what these fine pieces of jewelry do.” He got up and walked a couple meters. “I want you to punch me, but for the sake of not hurting your hand, pretend like you’re punching very thick concrete.”

Understanding what he meant, she got up, walked to him, and as soon as she got close, she threw a right straight directly to his face. Like what Gilbert Dubois felt, she felt the same, minus the broken bones and pain, due to imbuing her arm with ki.

Her eyes widened as she saw the ripple in reality.

“That’s the bracelet. Not even a hand grenade at point blank can break its defense. Now, throw me to the wall, without directly hurting me.”

With a quizzical expression she did as he asked. She picked him up by his sides, and just shoved him in the air towards the wall.

As he was about to collide with it, his body completely stopped, doing same when he fell to the ground.

“And that’s the ring. Whenever I’m about to collide with a surface, it will completely decelerate me, without giving me whiplash. It’s linked to me, the same way that we linked ourselves to that stone to absorb its power, so I can choose to deactivate it if I need to.”

She blinked, trying to process things.

He chuckled. “Yeah, it’s absurd. I also gave one of each to Mayumi and Fumiko. I actually wanted to give you one of each as well, but that would really put you in a tight spot with your family.”

Snapping out of her daze, she walked to him and gave him a light kiss, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Just the thought makes me happy. Just focus on protecting Mayumi and Fumiko, they’re the ones who need it the most. But don’t forget to protect yourself as well.”

He smirked. “Oh, I won’t forget. I haven’t showed you the cheats yet.”

As he said that, a System screen appeared to the side, showing the passives that he bought.

Her mouth went agape as she read them. “Yeah, I don’t think me without powers will cut it anymore. You’re going towards isekai levels of broken.”

He laughed. “Let’s get to it then.”

It was as both of them predicted, she had to use a bit of her powers in order to keep him in check, especially due to the speed of his strikes.

With all those upgrades, he started to really see how large the gap between him and Trish was. That only solidified the feeling that he indeed needed to farm points.

After their training, Trish rode his cock inside a stall in the women’s bathroom.

 

At home, he helped Mayumi and the rest of the group until 10pm with whatever they needed for their project. They all congratulated him on the success of his secondary novel and his short story.

He wrote for an hour, then started to prepare for his first livestream. He didn’t have anything innovative planned, just playing video games while interacting with his viewers. However, he bought every single boost he could regarding every aspect of it, besides for playing the video games.

The stream wasn’t anything amazing in the sense of visuals, since he didn’t have time to prepare properly, but it looked fairly good, since he had already taught himself a bit of graphic design.

In the beginning he was a bit stiff, but since he was a filthy boost stacker, it only took a dozen minutes or so for him to get into a good rhythm of engagement, while he played his video games. Since he had already prepared a mic for voice acting, his audio quality was impeccable.

He didn’t look at the numbers while he was streaming, but he did notice that his chat was incredibly active, with quite a lot of people posting messages. After two hours and a half of stream, he said goodbye and ended it.

Only then, he went to his dashboard to look at the numbers. His first stream was quite the anomaly, averaging almost 20,000 viewers, which stunned him.

He had a problem during the beginning of the stream that he had ignored, which was his follower alert crashing, but he understood when he saw that he had over 100k followers.

Flabbergasted, he looked at the numbers once more. ‘This is one hell of a snowball effect.’

He then smiled, but not due to the numbers.

During his stream, he felt Mayumi looking at her phone in bed. He also saw her handle in his chat sending emotes once in a while. When he was halfway through the stream, he felt her fall asleep, due to her being very tired.

Getting up, he went to Mayumi’s room, to properly tuck her in.

He picked up her phone, and put it on the nightstand, then properly covered her with her blanket. Before leaving, he kissed her forehead.

A faint smile appeared on her face, like she was having a good dream.

Smiling at the sight, he left.

He lied in his bed, looking at the ceiling, and took a deep breath. ‘It’s okay, I can handle this much. It will be worth it.’

‘Please, buy the orb and the recharge station for me.’

[ Done. ]

Immediately, he made the orb appear in front of him. The pitch-black sphere just stood there, floating. As he willed it, it started to float around the room.

He experimented with it for a bit, and quickly discovered that it could also function as a pet in a video game. Long term commands like follow or guard worked. On top of that, thanks to the System, it would never target anything that he didn’t want to harm.

He could also ask the System to control it, since the System knew precisely what Asahi wanted, and could execute it much more efficiently than he ever could, for the most part.

‘How long would take for the orb to turn this building into rubble? If I willed it through you that is.’

[ 3.72 seconds. ]

‘That actually makes sense, despite how absurd it seems. If it’s you controlling it, the orb would probably target the most vulnerable points with precision, bringing the whole thing down.’

[ Correct. ]

‘Are you limited in how much of your capabilities you can use while controlling it?’

[ Yes, since you only have unlocked the Basic Guidance. ]

‘Let’s say that we’re fighting someone as fast as Trish with her full powers, how well would you be able to hit them?’

[ I am not allowed to use my foresight while guiding the Orb, so I would need at least the V.5 version to consistently hit the hypothetical target. In this scenario, you would be more effective than me, due to my current limitations. ]

‘Good to know.’

He put the orb away, and closed his eyes.

 

Next morning, Business Finance class.

Sitting in the at the last row, five minutes before the class started, Asahi had his laptop open on his little desk in front of his chair.

He was reading the news about how Fukuda Shunsuke, the man who was stalking Sofia, the Drawing and Painting Club’s president, had committed suicide, leaving behind a signed confession to his crimes.

As he sighed in relief, a girl that seemed to be around his age, sat on the seat next to him, someone that wasn’t present in that class in the week prior.

She was 1.64m-tall, had curly auburn hair tied in a bun, hazel eyes, and a petite, pear-shaped body. She seemed European, with a natural tan.

She wore social clothes, very high-end ones at that, and carried a shoulder bag that by the shape of it, contained a laptop. Her soft facial features and gentle demeanor, made her feel like the girl-next-door type, except that the door probably belonged to a large mansion.

Looking at Asahi, she spoke in flawless Japanese. “Hi, I’m Thea. Mind if I ask you for a favor?”

Asahi looked at her. “Not at all. I’m Asahi by the way.”

“Would you mind letting me copy your notes from last week? I only got back to Japan on Wednesday, and missed the first couple days day of school.”

“Sure, do you have a flash drive? I can also e-mail them to you if you prefer.”

She smiled, reaching inside her bag. “I actually have a fresh one here.”

After taking the drive from her, he copied his files to it, while she put her laptop on her small desk.

As she took it back from him, she asked. “Thank you. What’s your major?”

“You’re welcome. I’m in Game Dev, first year. You?”

“Architecture, first year as well. You must be absurdly busy with that whole competition thing.”

He nodded. “Our Game Development class is already half filled with zombies.”

She laughed. “I can easily picture it. How come you’re not a zombie?”

He shrugged. “No point in overworking myself, that only leads to mistakes, which will make the overall speed of the project even slower. Fortunately, I’m in a position that I can afford to not overwork.”

“Absolutely, same for me.”

As she said that, the middle-aged man that was their professor entered the room to start the class.

During the class, she took a look at the notes he gave her. They were quite in-depth and tidy, with well-organized spreadsheets.

She smirked, with an intrigued expression.

When the class ended, and Asahi was putting his laptop away, Thea talked to him again.

“Would you like to have lunch with me? I’m new to Tokyo, so I don’t really know anyone here.”

Asahi displayed an apologetic expression. “Sorry, but I can’t. This week is especially busy for me, but we can have lunch next Tuesday, if you’re okay with it.”

She smiled. “Sure, next Tuesday is fine. Let’s exchange phone numbers, just in case.”

He nodded, pulling out his phone.

After exchanging numbers, he said goodbye to Thea, then went to meet with Mayumi, so they could go home together.

On his way there, he texted Sofia that he would not be able to go to the club that week, because he would be incredibly busy, which was true.

Aside from lunch with Mayumi, he spent the entire day working on their project, rewriting things and adding more scenes based on Mayumi’s notes. He only stopped when Fumiko came over for dinner.

The three of them hung out until it was time for him to stream again.

As he did in the previous day, he started his stream at midnight, ending it two and a half hours later.

Like that, the days passed.

His therapy session that week didn’t make much progress, with him mostly talking about his past, but he was fine with it. He already knew that it wasn’t something that would be dealt with just a couple sessions.

 

Friday, 2:34am.

Sitting on his chair, after his livestream, Asahi thought. ‘How many points do I have?’

[ 937,589P ]

He sighed in relief. ‘First, buy me the Body Enhancement Affinity, please.’

[ Done ]

Just by circulating his ki in order to make himself stronger, he felt a huge difference. It had become less burdensome, and much more efficient to do so.

He got up from his chair, and upon throwing a few punch combinations, he felt like his fists were cutting the air around him.

‘Yeah, the difference is easily noticeable.’

He then lied in his bed, not taking long for him to fall asleep.

 

Waking up in the morning, he used the cleaning device, and went to the kitchen wearing only underwear.

Mayumi was sitting on a tall stool at the kitchen counter, drinking her morning coffee.

He was received with a bright smile, which he reciprocated by hugging her from behind, and giving her cheek several kisses.

She giggled and caressed his face. “How are you feeling about today?”

Resting his chin on her shoulder, he replied. “A bit anxious, but overall fine. I don’t think anything bad will happen though. I looked Nagamine Kagome up in the TN, and she seems to actually be a levelheaded and overall fair person. I’ll know for sure when she’s within the range of my abilities.”

She kissed his cheek. “Do you want me to postpone visiting my parents?”

He smiled. “That’s really sweet, and I appreciate it, but it’s okay.”

She caressed his arms, that were wrapped around her torso. “Actually, now that I think about it, it might be a good thing. You and Fumiko haven’t had some proper alone time since the day I got home to you two cuddling and playing games together.”

Asahi displayed a pensive expression. “You’re right.”

She lightly tapped his arms. “As much as I like this, we need to eat and get ready to go, otherwise we’ll be late for class.”

After a light kiss, Asahi made their breakfast appear.