Watching the white comments stream past before him, Dokuho Kouya smiled with satisfaction.
Just as he'd expected, after showing his kind side in front of the camera, the audience's goodwill toward him had started climbing rapidly.
[Your favorability with netizen "Pikalu512" has increased. Popularity +1] [Your favorability with netizen "This time, I'll let you start" has increased. Popularity +1]
The system's voice rang out incessantly.
Listening to the jumble of voices in his head, Dokuho Kouya silently grumbled to himself, The system's ridiculous. It has to notify me even when my popularity only goes up by one point.
If he managed to gain tens of thousands of popularity points this time, wouldn't he have to hear the system's notification tens of thousands of times?
That would kill him!
[Host has discovered a system vulnerability. Patching and upgrading now.] [Upgrade successful. Do Not Disturb mode has been activated. The host will no longer be notified mentally when gaining popularity.]
After the system's voice sounded, Dokuho Kouya's mind fell quiet. At last, he didn't have to hear those annoying notifications anymore.
"It can perform maintenance and upgrades on its own, and that fast, too." Dokuho Kouya was a little surprised. "This system's pretty efficient."
Other people's systems took at least a month to upgrade.
His system had upgraded in an instant.
He had to give the system a thumbs-up.
"Um... are you really willing to spend all that money just to get me to stand up and give her my seat?"
The hesitant voice of the young man sitting in the seat rang out.
Dokuho Kouya snapped back to reality and saw the young man looking uncertain.
Maybe he didn't think it was real that he could get two thousand yen just for giving up his seat.
"If you don't think that's enough, I can add another thousand."
Kouya didn't mind spending that much.
Once he got to Advanced Nurturing High School, he'd hardly have any chance to use cash like this.
He might as well use it to shape his image and gain more popularity from the audience.
"That's plenty." The young man took the two bills and quickly stuffed them into his pocket. Then he stood up and called toward the front of the bus, "Grandma, please sit here."
"Thank you, young man."
The old woman smiled kindly and tottered over to the empty seat.
"He's so genuine, I'm crying."
"Has anyone read the manga? Can someone spoil it for me—is this Money Brother the protagonist?"
"Can't spoil it. This is an original anime, so there's no manga to reference."
Watching the white comments appear before him, Dokuho Kouya smiled with satisfaction.
Although paying someone to give up his seat looked foolish, compared to the other few clowns, it counted as a plus.
For just two thousand yen, he'd earned a lot of goodwill from the audience. It was a great deal for him.
[Congratulations, host, on completing your first appearance.] [Anime View has been unlocked. The host can use the system to view the anime's story.]
Hearing the cold voice ring out in his mind, Dokuho Kouya froze for a moment.
No way, he could even watch the scenes he appeared in?
Without hesitation, Dokuho Kouya started watching the anime.
Once he activated Anime View, he could revisit what had just happened from other angles.
On top of that, he could even learn what some of the characters were thinking.
"So Ayanokouji really did say something nasty in his head."
Through Anime View, Dokuho Kouya could clearly tell what Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was thinking.
Just like in the original novel, Ayanokouji believed that young people contributed more to the elderly nowadays, and so were more deserving of the seats.
The recent wave of viewers dropping the show had undoubtedly been caused by the audience discovering Ayanokouji's true thoughts. Some people couldn't accept it and had immediately given up on the anime.
"Huh, Horikita has an opinion about me, too?"
After watching the scene with the seat, Dokuho Kouya was surprised to discover that the black-haired girl, who had been quiet all this time, had judged his actions.
It wasn't a very favorable judgment, though.
"Hmph. Foolish."
Horikita Suzune kept a straight face as she looked down on Kouya's actions in her thoughts.
In her eyes, Dokuho Kouya, who spent money to do good deeds, was practically synonymous with an idiot.
"Still better than you, isn't it?"
"Why don't you do it yourself, then?"
"Could this outrageous girl actually be the heroine?"
Horikita Suzune's inner thoughts naturally provoked the audience's displeasure, too.
But those things no longer had anything to do with Dokuho Kouya.
What he cared about was how much popularity he'd gained so far.
[Popularity: 13,120]
His performance just now had already earned him more than ten thousand popularity points.
Considering that the anime had only just started airing, plenty of people probably hadn't had a chance to watch it yet.
By then, Dokuho Kouya's popularity would climb even higher.
"Open the System Store," Dokuho Kouya silently said to himself.
As soon as he finished speaking, a translucent blue screen appeared before his eyes.
[Items available for purchase this month] [God on the Chessboard: You are a god in every kind of chess. Whether it's the White Room's greatest masterpiece or the youngest Dragon King about to end up behind bars, challenging you to a match on the chessboard would be nothing short of humiliating themselves.] [Price: 20,000 popularity]
"Can I only buy one item a month?"
Dokuho Kouya frowned, feeling a little disappointed.
It was like only getting paid once a month.
Waiting for the store to refresh would be just as agonizing as waiting for payday.
Damn it!
Advanced Nurturing High School.
Dokuho Kouya arrived at the school building and quickly found his classroom.
Class 1-B.
"Not bad."
Seeing that he'd been assigned to Class 1-B, Dokuho Kouya was quite pleased.
He was bound to the Popularity Character System, and to gain popularity, he needed to show himself off in front of the audience.
To stand out, he needed to compare himself with the people around him.
Just like on the bus: his kind act had stood in stark contrast to everyone else's, which was why he'd gained so many popularity points.
So.
Class 1-B, where everyone was an angel but the students performed poorly in the original story, was the perfect tool to make him stand out.
In the audience's eyes, Class 1-B was the most united class, while Dokuho Kouya worked alone and didn't fit in with those around him.
After the Special Exam, Class 1-B would get a disappointing result, while Dokuho Kouya would do well and earn a fortune on his own.
Even if he'd been assigned to another class, Dokuho Kouya could still have gained popularity by performing well.
But being assigned to Class B, which had performed poorly in the original story, would maximize the contrast and help him gain even more popularity.
"Simply put, Class B loses, but I don't."
Dokuho Kouya walked into the classroom in high spirits.
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