Keyaki Mall

After discussing the details of his upcoming part-time job with Manager Fujimoto,

Dongfang Yi got up to leave.

He wouldn't be starting work right away. First, he had to register with Mashima tomorrow.

Since it was the first day of school, the new students needed time to buy daily necessities.

As for what he'd said during their conversation—that Palette was simply his top choice—

that was a complete lie.

He was just saying that.

He was a Class A student, and a Prophet with the script in hand.

In other words, even if he couldn't change classes and stayed in Class A until the end of his second year,

he still wouldn't run short of daily points.

There was no way he'd spend eighty hours a month groveling for a mere 64,000 points.

He'd chosen Palette Cafe as his workplace only because, in the original story, it was a popular spot with students across the school.

Everyone loved going there on dates.

Especially a certain scheming sweetheart.

Working there as a waiter for a month would give him access to plenty of information about the school, and might even let him meet a lot of the characters from the story.

But that wasn't the most important part.

Dongfang Yi already knew the future. Whether or not he had that information really made little difference to him.

The most important thing about working at Palette was that it gave him cover.

This popular café would serve as cover for him while he spent the coming months knowing all the rules.

It was like laundering money: once dirty money went into a casino and came back out, it had a legitimate source and looked clean on the surface.

And when it came to Dongfang Yi, who'd worked part-time at Palette, no one could be sure how much gossip he'd picked up during that time.

Likewise, no one could know what his keen eyes might have noticed.

All he needed was an excuse—one that made everything seem reasonable.

After walking some distance from Palette Cafe, Dongfang Yi turned off the recording on his phone and saved it. He also made a backup in his email, then headed to the next place.

A short while later, Dongfang Yi stood in the plaza at Keyaki Mall and stretched.

Going by the original story, most of the electrical appliances in the school had to be bought here. The convenience store probably didn't have the kind of equipment he needed.

After all, even he needed a few little gadgets to help him keep up appearances at an academy where scheming and plotting happened every day.

For example: a voice recorder.

Of course, he'd need a few body cameras too. Ryuen, the thug from Class C, was pretty hard to deal with.

Having those gadgets would also help him avoid getting blindsided.

His current budget was under 20,000 points, which should be enough to buy some decent equipment.

By the same logic, it didn't really matter whether he had these gadgets or not.

His system could provide the same functions, but he still needed something he could show people on the surface.

Otherwise, he'd have no way to explain where his recordings came from.

He picked a store at random and wandered inside.

The shop was quiet, with hardly anyone around.

The new students, busy making their beds and tidying their rooms, clearly hadn't had time to indulge themselves yet. They had to erase the traces left by their seniors, sweep away the dust that had accumulated during the week the rooms had stood empty, and get their rooms into livable condition—all in a single afternoon.

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

The older students, meanwhile, had obviously already settled into their routines, so they weren't likely to suddenly need electronic devices or anything like that.

Including Dongfang Yi, there were only three people in the shop.

The shop assistant was a man, though Dongfang Yi probably wouldn't have recognized him without his uniform.

The deep-rooted hatred in the assistant's glance just now was hardly the sort of feeling you'd expect someone in customer service to have toward a customer.

Most people in customer service didn't hate a customer they'd only just met.

They only got fed up with unreasonable people.

The assistant looked at Dongfang Yi as if he were his sworn enemy.

Honestly, it was a bit much.

If he hadn't only been in this world for a month, Dongfang Yi would've wondered whether he'd done something terrible one day.

But it didn't matter.

A lone Sigma Male had no weaknesses.

Besides, he'd already figured out where the hatred came from.

Standing in front of the counter was a seemingly ordinary, unfashionable red-haired girl with glasses and a huge bust.

She was gazing lovingly at the camera in her hands, completely unaware of the assistant's surging lust.

Weren't otaku who liked idols supposed to be harmless? And how could anyone call a red-haired, big-breasted girl in glasses ordinary?

His buried memories unlocked, and Dongfang Yi's inner commentary flowed without end.

He thought those perverts in Class D ought to get their eyes checked at a hospital.

Their meeting that afternoon was just a coincidence. In Dongfang Yi's original plans, there'd been nothing involving Sakura Airi. She was the sort of person whose usefulness depended on her looks, and in the original story, aside from padding out the plot, she wasn't much use.

She couldn't contribute to his point-farming operation.

And as a true Sigma Male with unshakable resolve, Dongfang Yi would never fall into the trap of a huge bust.

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

His eyes drifted, almost by accident, to those breasts that looked so heavy. Full and round, they suggested their owner got plenty to eat.

After a while, he reluctantly pulled his gaze away. Not because he'd suddenly attained the serenity of a Buddha, but because the owner of those breasts had taken a step back.

He'd been caught.

Dongfang Yi blinked, then casually looked up, as though he hadn't just been rude, and began studying her face.

A pair of heavy-looking, oversized black-rimmed glasses hid the girl's eyes. Her bangs looked a little messy, as if she'd deliberately mussed them up. Her smooth, shoulder-length hair was tied into two bunches, making her look plain and unfashionable.

It was hard to find her appealing.

Dongfang Yi nodded. Her face really was misleading. So in the end, this was a world where looks mattered.

Could even a huge bust be useless if she looked too ordinary?

Well, maybe those guys in Class D didn't need to get their eyes checked after all.

But speaking of such a good disguise, how had the shop assistant figured out that she was a gravure idol?

He moved his gaze from Sakura Airi's face to the slightly lecherous-looking assistant.

He knew that look: a man with no girlfriend.

But he couldn't tell anything else.

"Can I help you, sir?"

Seeing Dongfang Yi look his way, the assistant had no choice but to plaster on a smile.

But the hatred deep in his eyes was impossible to hide.

He really wanted to teach the man a lesson.

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

"Do you have..."

"Voice recorders and hidden cameras?"

At that, Sakura Airi moved even farther away.

Sorry to all our readers—VIP members can now enjoy an ad-free experience.

Click to view