Shinji: I Thought Real European Blood Would Boost My Gacha Luck... (New Book, Please Support!)

As the sky gradually darkened, Shinji lay sprawled by the riverbank after completing today's physical training—his daily quest. He panted heavily, grumbling nonstop in his heart.

Damn it, whenever it came to daily quests, this Dog System sealed all of my Onmyoji powers. Every time, I got so exhausted I didn't even have the strength to climb ashore.

Grandson, I am doing this for your own good. Only by enduring the bitterest hardships can one rise above others.

Get lost. Don't talk to me. I fucking don't want to hear your voice.

Then I suppose Grandson does not wish to unlock the gacha function either. Very well, very well, then I shall...

What are you talking about? Being able to speak with you has always been an honor beyond my station!

Call me Grandpa.

Hmph! What kind of person do you take me for?

Shinji snickered inwardly as he braced himself against the bank and slowly dragged himself ashore.

Did you think this African would give up the gacha function over a tiny scrap of dignity?!

Fine, then don't... Huh?

Grandpa!

Lying on the grass, Shinji looked at the gacha screen on the System page.

Gacha Rules: One free chance refreshes every month.

In addition, up to ten draws per month may be purchased with points.

The first costs 100 points, the second costs ten times as much, the third costs another ten times as much, and so on.

PS: A ten-pull guarantees an Epic! Free chances are highly unlikely to yield anything good!

Fuck! Seeing that final PS, Shinji cursed inwardly. What a fucking scam! Of all the system novels he had read in his previous life, none had a system as exploitative as his!

Not only were the quest rewards pitifully low, even the gacha was this scummy!

After roughly looking over the prizes on the wheel, Shinji found that they were mostly items worth a few hundred points in the Point Shop. With a soft sigh, he tapped the Start button.

Three seconds later, as he looked at the bottle of Brain-Damage Pills where the pointer had landed, Shinji's eye twitched uncontrollably.

Grandson, are you drawing again? You still have 1,100 points left. You can draw twice more.

Looking at the gacha wheel, which clearly had several more high-grade items than before, Shinji gritted his teeth and tremblingly pressed Start with his mind.

Watching a hundred points vanish in an instant, Shinji could only describe the feeling as his heart bleeding.

Three seconds later, as he looked at the Brain-Damage Pills under the pointer, Shinji suddenly had the urge to slap himself.

He clearly had genuine European blood in this life!

This wasn't reasonable!

Drawing again? I have a feeling you'll definitely get a rare item next time.

Draw your head! I'm done! I'm going home! I'm not playing anymore!

Not satisfied with what you drew? You can sell it back to the Point Shop.

Hm? Shinji's interest was suddenly piqued. A bottle of Brain-Damage Pills sold for one hundred points in the shop. Even at an eighty-percent depreciation rate for two bottles, he could still make sixty!

What's the depreciation rate? Shinji asked expectantly.

Thirty percent.

Slap!

The slap Shinji had just promised himself finally came through.

After roughly drying the water off himself with the towel in his bag, Shinji was just about to get dressed when he caught sight of Sakura standing atop the embankment above him from the corner of his eye.

...Had she finished watching the high jump already?

That was what Shinji thought. The plot of Fate/stay night was finally about to begin. Only four years remained until the next Holy Grail War, and only four years remained on the main quest's deadline.

Other than desperately preparing, he had no choice.

The main quest was mandatory, and it even came with a penalty. If he failed, there was a ninety-percent chance he would become a vegetable. He did not dare gamble on that ten percent.

Elsewhere, Rin watched Shinji slowly leave with Sakura following behind him, one after the other. She turned away from them and silently departed as well.

Incidentally, Shirou was still on the field practicing the high jump.

And he still hadn't cleared it.

Time was like...

Anyway, two and a half years passed!

Shinji had enrolled in the same high school as Shirou—Hohzuki Academy—four months earlier, and his life remained much the same as it had been in middle school.

However, the high school teacher—Taiga Fujimura, Shirou's neighbor and big sister figure, whom Shinji had already known well in middle school—was clearly not in the same league as Teacher Yuko from middle school.

Her resentment toward Shinji's frequent truancy ran exceptionally deep.

Every time, she would chase Shinji all around campus like a real tiger, all for the sake of making him mend his ways.

Attendance was also absurdly simple in every class. She only called Shinji's name. If someone answered, that meant everyone was present that day. If no one did, she would quietly make a note of it, then use force against Shinji regardless of the setting the next time she saw him!

Still, it was useless.

Skipping class had already become part of Shinji's life.

Of course, Shinji had not remained completely unchanged. For example, he had grown to 173 centimeters, utterly crushing the 167-centimeter Second Master from the setting materials. He had also studied swordsmanship with Taiga Fujimura for half a year.

And then there was the fact that, for a Normal Quest, he had gone to Ryuudou Temple and trained ascetically under its head priest for three months. As a result, he had met Isshin Ryuudou before even entering high school.

It was said that after Shinji completed his ascetic training, Isshin's father—the muscular hunk of a head priest—had tearfully tried to persuade Shinji to stay. His reason was—he had never seen a child so hardworking, so capable of enduring hardship, and so exceptionally talented!

Shinji had really wanted to tell him that he had been whipped into shape by the System, but he ultimately gave up.

Still, because of that, Shinji and Isshin got along fairly well—at least before entering high school.

After entering high school, however, Isshin, as a member of the student council, became the number-one man responsible for catching Shinji and lecturing him. Taiga could perhaps only count as number two.

Also, the stocks in Shinji's hands were growing increasingly numerous.

Bug Grandpa had now basically abandoned stock trading, his only hobby, and handed everything over to Shinji.

Compared to Tsuruno, Shinji was much better at this sort of thing, and the returns were frighteningly high.

After all, that money would still be his in the future. How could he not manage it properly?

Drawing on some memories and experience from his previous life while adapting them to this world's actual circumstances, Shinji had multiplied the value of the stocks he had acquired by an unknown number of times in just a few short years.

He had even secretly established a holding company, officially becoming the president of a company. He invested in all kinds of projects and began operating real businesses, such as Fuyuki City's largest amusement park, which was set to break ground this month.

As for the Matou Family's spiritual sites across the country, Tsuruno was still largely managing them. Yet even though Shinji had helped his father shoulder much of the burden, that cheap old man still drank himself into a stupor every day under the crushing pressure.

Over the years, Shinji had urged Tsuruno more than once to drink less, but it had been completely useless. The latter still drank himself senseless night after night.

Eventually, Shinji could no longer be bothered to say anything.

September, 2002. Summer had just ended.

Less than a year and a half remained until the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Shinji had not gotten a moment of rest during summer vacation either, with his schedule packed to the brim. Even after school began, he still could not settle down. After going to school on the first day, he skipped classes for an entire week straight.

Just as Shinji was busy dealing with all sorts of quests, Shirou suddenly asked him out...

In the sweltering summer heat, inside a café somewhere in Fuyuki City.

Looking at Shirou sitting across from him with his right hand in a cast, Shinji suddenly remembered something that his recent busyness had made him forget.

This guy seemed to have gotten injured around this time!

He had clearly warned Shirou to be careful when working part-time jobs before, but it really was fate!