Keyaki Mall

After discussing the specific details of his upcoming part-time job with Manager Fujimoto, Dongfang Yi stood up and took his leave.

He did not need to start working immediately today; he first had to register with Mashima the following day.

After all, the first day of school always had to leave time for freshmen to purchase daily necessities.

As for what he had just mentioned during their conversation—that Palette was merely a preferred choice for him—

That was a complete lie.

A deception.

He was a student in Class A, a prophet holding the script.

In other words, even if he never managed to change classes and stayed in Class A until the end of his second year, He would never be short of private points.

It was even less likely that he would spend 80 hours a month bowing down for a mere 64,000 points.

The reason he chose Palette Cafe as his workplace was simply because, in the original story, this place was a popular facility for the entire student body.

Everyone loved to go on dates here.

Especially a certain black-hearted sweet girl.

Working as a server here for a month would allow him to obtain a massive amount of information about the school, and incidentally, he might get to know a large number of plot-relevant characters.

However, these were not the most important things.

Dongfang Yi himself was a cheater who knew the future; having or not having this bit of information really made no difference to him.

The most important significance of the Palette server identity was—a cover.

He would use this popular cafe as a cover for himself, someone who would soon understand all the rules of the school.

Just like money laundering, where dirty money enters a casino and comes out with a legitimate origin, becoming clean on the surface.

And for Dongfang Yi, who had worked at Palette for a period of time, no one could guarantee just how much gossip he had learned during that time.

Likewise, no one could know what he, with his keen senses, had discovered during that period.

He only needed a reason, a reason to make everything seem reasonable.

Reason.

After putting some distance between himself and Palette Cafe, Dongfang Yi turned off the recording on his phone, saved it, and backed it up in his email before heading to his next destination.

A moment later, standing in the plaza of Keyaki Mall, Dongfang Yi stretched his back.

According to the original work, most of the electrical appliances in this school had to be purchased here; the convenience store likely wouldn't have the kind of equipment he needed.

After all, to survive in this academy where schemes and conspiracies were hatched every day, even he needed a few small gadgets to disguise himself.

For example: a voice recorder.

Of course, he also needed a few body cameras; after all, the thug from Class C named Ryuen was, honestly speaking, quite difficult to deal with.

Having such tools could prevent him from being backstabbed.

His budget was currently under 20,000 points, which he estimated would be enough to buy some fairly high-quality equipment.

By the same token, whether he actually had these tools or not wasn't important.

After all, Dongfang Yi's system could provide such functions, but on the surface, he still needed something to brush people off with.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to explain the source of his recordings.

He randomly chose a shop and stepped inside.

The shop was deserted, with hardly anyone around.

The freshmen, busy tidying up their beds and rooms, clearly hadn't had the time to indulge themselves yet; they needed to erase the traces left by their seniors and sweep away the dust accumulated during the week of vacancy within a single afternoon, getting their rooms to a livable state.

At the very least, they had to make them comfortable.

As for the older students, they were clearly well-prepared in their daily lives and wouldn't suddenly run into issues requiring electronic devices.

Therefore, including Dongfang Yi, there were only three people in the shop right now.

Of course, the clerk was a man, though if he were to take off that uniform, Dongfang Yi clearly wouldn't recognize him.

After all, the trace of hatred rooted deep in the clerk's heart that he had just seen in his eyes was not at all the kind of emotion a normal service worker would feel toward a customer.

Ordinary service workers wouldn't feel hatred toward a customer they had just met.

They were only annoyed by unreasonable troublemakers.

Right now, the clerk gave Dongfang Yi the feeling of someone encountering a mortal enemy who had killed his father.

Honestly, it was a bit exaggerated.

If it weren't for the fact that he had only been in this world for a month, Dongfang Yi would have suspected that he had actually committed some evil deed one day.

But it didn't matter.

A lone cheater~ has no weak points to speak of.

Furthermore, he had already clarified the source of this disgust.

Because standing at the counter was a seemingly unremarkable, dowdy, red-haired girl with massive breasts and glasses.

She was so enamored with the camera in her hands that she completely failed to notice the surging, turbulent desire in the clerk's eyes.

Wasn't it said that there were no bad people among otaku who liked idols? And how could an archetype like a red-haired, busty girl with glasses be considered unremarkable by any stretch of the imagination?

As long-sealed memories unlocked, the urge to retort in Dongfang Yi's heart flowed like a torrential river.

He felt that those lecherous guys in Class D should go to the hospital to get their eyes checked.

In truth, this afternoon encounter was just a coincidence; in Dongfang Yi's original plan, there was nothing related to Sakura Airi. Because interacting with her was quite dependent on looks, and in the original work, she served little purpose other than to pad the word count.

She couldn't contribute anything to his grand scheme of milking the system.

And as a qualified sigma male, Dongfang Yi, who possessed an iron will, would absolutely never fall into the trap of massive breasts.

Dongfang Yi walked to the counter and waited quietly to the side.

His eyes inadvertently focused on those breasts that looked quite heavy; they were full and round, suggesting their owner's daily nutritional intake must be very abundant.

After a while, he reluctantly withdrew his gaze—not because he had suddenly cultivated a heart like a Buddha or reached a state of inner peace, but because the owner of the breasts had taken a step back.

He had been discovered.

Dongfang Yi blinked, looking up nonchalantly as if he weren't the one who had just been rude, and began to examine the girl's face.

The giant, heavy-looking black-rimmed glasses obscured the girl's eyes, and the bangs on her forehead looked somewhat messy, as if they had been deliberately tousled; her smooth, shoulder-length hair was tied into two bunches, making her look quite dowdy.

It was hard for anyone to feel any affection for her.

Dongfang Yi nodded; it was indeed a highly misleading appearance. So, in the end, this was still a world that judged by looks.

Were those massive breasts useless if the rest was too ordinary?

However, those guys in Class D probably didn't need to go to the infirmary to get their eyes checked after all.

But then again, with such a good disguise, how did that guy in front of him figure out she was a gravure idol?

He shifted his gaze from Sakura Airi's face to the face of the slightly sleazy clerk.

One look was enough to confirm: he was a guy without a girlfriend.

But nothing else could be discerned.

"Customer, is there anything you need?"

Seeing Dongfang Yi looking over, the clerk had no choice but to put on a smiling face.

But the trace of disgust deep within those eyes could not be hidden no matter what.

He really wanted to teach him a lesson on how to be a decent human being.

Dongfang Yi suppressed the urge to throw a punch and asked softly:

"Do you have..."

"Voice recorders and hidden cameras here?"

Upon hearing this, Sakura Airi moved even further away.