Night fell.
In a corner no one was paying attention to, a post was quietly published, then pinned to the top at the speed of light.
In the internet age, information spread at a suffocating speed—a chat log in one group this second would definitely show up in other groups the next.
Public opinion spread out in an instant.
As one of the instigators, Axel End was lazily lying in his dorm, tallying up the Task Points he’d earned that day.
[Host: Axel End]
[Core Ability: Master’s Task (Lv.2)]
[Experience Points: 30/100]
[Current number of available Task targets: 7 (Suzune Horikita, Kikyō Kushida, Kei Karuizawa, Airi Sakura, Hiyori Shiina, Honami Ichinose, Arisu Sakayanagi)]
[Current number of Tasks that can be issued: 0 (5 Tasks can be issued per day; if a Task isn’t completed, it doesn’t count toward the total)]
[Points held: 200+200+100+1000=1500]
After leveling up, he’d issued one Task to Honami Ichinose and two Tasks to Airi Sakura—the Experience Points were correct.
The base Point rewards, in order, were 100/50/500; doubled, plus the 200 Points left over after exchanging for the Gene Enhancement Serum, that came to a balance of 1,500 Points.
Axel End cast a glance at the Exchange Store.
All he could say was that there were plenty of things he recognized, and plenty he didn’t.
But if he divided them by a broad standard, there were only two major categories.
First, the skill category—common and some uncommon skills like martial arts, music, painting, and writing.
Second, the item category—types of goods used in daily life, such as serums, food, and electronics.
So how were the Points priced?
Axel End had a very simple and crude idea.
Because the Point pricing for skill-category goods was fixed—the three levels of beginner, intermediate, and advanced corresponded to 1,000/5,000/10,000 Points respectively.
The system defined the effect of a beginner skill as the highest level among amateurs, an intermediate skill as the highest level among professionals, and an advanced skill as belonging to the very peak of humanity.
To put it more simply—
Beginner skills crushed ordinary people, intermediate skills wiped the floor with experts, and advanced skills easily beat anything.
So Axel End figured that if he used the pricing standard of skill-category goods as a horizontal benchmark for reference, he should be able to understand the pricing of the other goods quite well.
Additionally, the most expensive item in the System Shop was priced at 100,000 Points, from which he could also roughly gauge the purchasing power of Points and the cost-effectiveness of the goods.
There were, however, some special items.
For example—
[Dark History Eraser Card: After use, it can erase your own dark history.
The Points required for exchange are judged according to the severity of the dark history.]
From something as small as peeping on people bathing in the women’s bathhouse as a kid, to something as big as Gin flying a helicopter and strafing Tokyo Tower…
As long as it was a fact the user didn’t want to exist, this thing could even directly wipe the memories of everyone who knew about that fact, as if it had never happened at all.
It belonged to that portion of the magical gadgets in Doraemon’s pocket that possessed rule-level effects.
[Anime Collection: Just as the name implies—if you know, you know.
Points required for exchange: 5,000]
[Taka Kato’s Hand: Absolute technique, and the pleasure born from it; perhaps it will be your very hands that teach them love. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Points required for exchange: 5,000]
“They’ve even got hentai-type stuff?”
Axel End was a bit startled.
But considering the system itself wasn’t exactly proper, it was pretty normal for the store to carry things like this.
[Beauty Camera: It can only capture the appearance of high-beauty subjects; if the subject isn’t attractive enough, their face will simply vanish after being photographed.
Points required for exchange: 500]
“This one would actually make a perfect gift for Airi Sakura—but I’m afraid that if I accidentally snapped a faceless person, it’d scare the kid to tears.”
Axel End lived by the principle of sustainable development.
After all, the wool comes off the sheep’s own back.
By now the facts had proven that the amount of Points a Task rewarded was mainly tied to the difficulty of the Task itself, and that difficulty in turn shifted dynamically in real time based on these beautiful girls’ own thoughts.
Looked at this way, the little fat sheep only needed to complete Tasks and collect their rewards with peace of mind, but as the mastermind behind the scenes, he had far more to consider.
When to issue a Task, how to create the right moment to issue it, and how to design the Task’s content so that they neither wanted to accept nor wanted to refuse…
There was real technique to all of it.
Solving problems by formula was simply fast.
“The netizens truly don’t lie to me—people really are at their most inventive when they’re d(doing) b(bad) s(stuff).”
Axel End sighed with feeling and scanned a few more items.
“Then this time, let’s exchange for Basic Acting first.”
The reason was simple: insurance.
In his past life, he’d read no small amount of web novels.
The trope in simulation novels always claimed the simulation wouldn’t interfere with reality, yet it turned out to be nothing but word games; diary-genre stories always ended up having the diary’s contents seen by the heroines; and money-losing systems that possessed you always ended up making money…
So the possibility existed that this behind-the-scenes-mastermind system claimed it wouldn’t blow his cover, but actually would.
Which was why his fate had to be thoroughly grasped in his own hands—only then could he be said to possess an absolute sense of security.
Axel End took a deep breath, then revealed a resolute expression.
“Deep Blue, allocate points!”
The change this time had much the same effect as the feeling of taking the Gene Enhancement Serum before.
Although it didn’t outright make him seem like a born veteran actor, the immersive dream experience perfectly integrated the knowledge and experience into his body’s instincts.
…
…
The next day.
Axel End had just stepped his left foot into the classroom.
“End-kun!”
Along with the call, a gust of fragrant wind swept over.
Kikyō Kushida, bringing her little group of friends with her, crowded around him, their expressions looking rather anxious.
“Kushida-san, what’s wrong?”
“Last night, someone posted a thread on the campus forum, and its contents mentioned that this school has been hiding some things from us…”
As Kikyō Kushida spoke, she was also observing Axel End, wanting to catch any change in the man’s expression.
Unfortunately, not only was Axel End’s time-management ability quite outstanding, but after exchanging for [Basic Acting], his expression-management ability wasn’t bad either.
“I see.
I understand now.”
“So everyone right now is…?”
He’d already spotted Suzune Horikita sitting in her seat, several Class D students gathered around her, their expressions looking somewhat unfriendly.
Had the matter of them selling intel been exposed?
That was actually to be expected.
Because the post had been made anonymously.
The other three classes had paid a hefty price for the intel, only for it to be exposed on the forum before even 24 hours had passed—it was hard for them not to suspect that he and Suzune Horikita were burning the bridge after crossing the river.
“A lot of students left comments on the forum saying that you, End-kun, and Horikita-san were the ones who did this.”
“They say you and Horikita-san sold them this material for a price of 2 million points…
Now everyone’s waiting for an explanation from you and Horikita-san.”
Kikyō Kushida pressed her palms together in a praying gesture, a perfectly measured look of worry on her face.
“End-kun, is what they’re saying true?”
Axel End nodded.
He wasn’t surprised this situation had come about.
Among this year’s students were a wisdom-tier Bratty Little Girl on the level of Arisu Sakayanagi and a ruthless figure on the level of Ryuen—given their styles, they naturally wouldn’t just swallow this loss for nothing.
Of course, the possibility that it was a spontaneous act by the students couldn’t be ruled out either—after all, any normal person who discovered they’d been played would surely hold a grudge.
“I’ll handle it.”
Axel End strode up to the podium.
At this moment, the attention of the Class D students finally all gathered onto him.
“Since you all already know, that saves me the time of explaining the situation to you.”
Axel End exchanged a glance with Suzune Horikita in the back row of the classroom, and also gave a reassuring look to Airi Sakura, whose face was full of worry.
Then the corner of his mouth curled into an arrogant arc—
“Now, everyone hand over 50,000 points.”
Important Reminder & Reading Notice:
From last night until now, the author has refined and revised the settings related to the System Shop and Points.
Building on the previous text, in this chapter the author has also added explanations regarding the purchasing power of Points, how goods are priced, and the like.
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👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Naruto: Is it reasonable to beat up an Otsutsuki with Hamon, right?
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