The boy’s eyes were red, and his voice was barely louder than a whisper.
“My name is Kobayashi Yuu.
My C-rank Talent is Spirit Sight.
Basically, I can see ghosts and spirits.
Under the right conditions, I can also see images left behind by souls.” The old man then turned toward Togawa Sakiko.
By now, Makoto had realized he was questioning them in reverse order of when they had awakened.
That made Makoto tense.
‘If Sakiko awakened some powerful Talent, I can’t let mine look inferior to hers.’ Sakiko took a deep breath and forced herself to sound calm.
“Togawa Sakiko.
My Talent is C-rank Emotional Burst.
It lets me turn emotions into power and use supernatural abilities, but I’m still not sure exactly what it can do.” For some reason, Sakiko glanced at Makoto as she spoke, then hurriedly looked away.
A realization flashed through Makoto’s mind.
‘Sakiko probably lied.’ She had already entered the darkest period of her life—a dead mother, a broken father, a disbanded band, and a home that barely kept out the wind.
Those experiences had stripped away much of her innocence.
She had learned not to show off anything valuable, even if she was still terrible at hiding the cracks in her lies.
Makoto relaxed slightly.
More importantly, it gave him an idea for how to handle his own introduction.
Under everyone’s gaze, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin, holding it between his fingers.
His fingers began to move, and the coin seemed to come alive as it danced across them.
Finally, he tossed it upward, caught it in his palm, then opened his hand beneath a mixture of confused, dismissive, and impatient stares.
The coin was gone.
“My Talent is a C-rank Storage Space.
It has a capacity of ten cubic meters, so I can handle logistics for the group.” The moment he finished speaking, a system notification rang in his ears.
[Ding!
Making Fake Become Real has activated.] [Lie detected: “My Talent is a C-rank Storage Space with a capacity of ten cubic meters.”] [Calculating listener trust and Fate Values…] [Togawa Sakiko: Fate Value 45.
Trust: 10%.
Manifestation contribution: 4.5.] [Kobayashi Yuu: Fate Value 1.
Trust: 80%.
Manifestation contribution: 0.8.] [Li Huizhen: Fate Value 1.
Trust: 40%.
Manifestation contribution: 0.4.] [Park Jeong-ho: Fate Value 1.
Trust: 30%.
Manifestation contribution: 0.3.] [Jack Kovacs: Fate Value 1.
Trust: 20%.
Manifestation contribution: 0.2.] [Chen Guohao: Fate Value 3.
Trust: 0%.
Manifestation contribution: 0.] [Total Manifestation Points: 6.2 / 100.] [Manifestation rate: 6.2%.] [Lie manifestation complete.
You have obtained a Storage Space with a capacity of 0.62 cubic meters.] Makoto’s eyes flashed.
‘It actually worked!’ The main reason he’d dared to try this was Sakiko’s unusually high Fate Value.
As long as she believed him even a little, his lie could begin turning into reality.
Of course, lying was an art.
A lie had to sound reasonable, fit the situation, and take people’s personalities into account.
If he couldn’t earn even the bare minimum of Sakiko’s trust, his lie would pop like a soap bubble.
And the man trying to pop that bubble was Chen Guohao.
“Really?
I don’t buy it.
Looks more like some sleight of hand to me…
Try making this disappear.” As if performing a magic trick himself, Chen produced a medical kit and handed it to Makoto.
“After completing your first mission, you can spend 100 Mission Points to buy one cubic meter of personal Storage Space.” Jack sneered.
“Then isn’t his Talent completely useless?
That’s only worth a thousand Mission Points.” Chen rolled his eyes.
“The second cubic meter costs 200.
The third costs 400.
Every additional cubic meter doubles in price.” Yuu immediately began counting on his fingers.
A moment later, his face lit up.
“Then Makoto-nii’s C-rank Talent is worth…” His head snapped up as he sucked in a sharp breath.
“One hundred and two thousand three hundred Mission Points!” “Makoto-nii, your Talent basically gave you over a hundred thousand points for free!” Everyone immediately looked at Makoto with naked envy.
Jack, in particular, sounded painfully jealous.
“Mr.
Chen, are C-rank Talents really worth that much?” Chen nodded slightly.
“A D-rank Talent is valued at around ten thousand.
A C-rank is around a hundred thousand.
Those are only standard prices, of course.
The exact value changes depending on the effect and demand.” Makoto accepted the medical kit.
It measured roughly forty by thirty by twenty centimeters and felt fairly heavy, but fitting it inside his 0.62-cubic-meter Storage Space was effortless.
He placed the kit on the table and rested one hand on it.
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, the entire medical kit vanished into his Storage Space.
Makoto let out a long sigh and spread his hands.
“Do you believe me now?” Everyone immediately nodded.
Only Sakiko continued staring at him with a trace of suspicion.
She had clearly noticed that something about the situation didn’t quite add up.
“Fine, I believe you.
Now give me the medical kit back.
That’s valuable equipment.” Despite claiming to believe him, Chen’s trust only rose to 10%.
Sakiko’s reached 30%, while everyone else climbed all the way to 100%.
Apparently, there was a reason those people only had a Fate Value of 1.
Makoto’s Storage Space expanded again, reaching 1.78 cubic meters.
It still wasn’t large, but it was already more than enough for now.
“Good.
Now that everyone knows each other, I’ll be leading you through this mission.
Any objections?” No one spoke.
Chen nodded.
“Beginner missions usually have one objective: survive.
Whatever you do, don’t act in ways that violate the world’s established rules or the personalities of important characters.” “If everyone gets out safely, that’s good for you and good for me.” “I’m not going to hide this from you either.
My mission rewards increase based on how many players survive, so I have absolutely no reason to send any of you to your deaths.” Hope appeared on everyone’s faces.
Makoto played along with the mood, but something strange flickered in his eyes.
‘Is Chen Guohao really a good guy?’ ‘What kind of good guy grips a revolver while telling you he’s being honest?’ “As for mission difficulty, it’s normally set around the level where you’ll get badly injured but probably won’t die.
Unless you hit the one-percent chance of getting a Hell-rank beginner mission, but something like that—” Before Chen could finish, the system’s voice rang in everyone’s ears.
[Mission World: Jujutsu Kaisen.] [Mission Time: Beginning of the Shibuya Incident.] [Mission Location: Streets of Shibuya.] [Mission Type: Survival.] [Mission Objective: Survive until the time limit expires.] [Mission Difficulty: Hell-rank.] [Mission Reward: C-rank Side Mission Token ×1, 10,000 Mission Points.] [Additional Rewards: Explore this world and earn the recognition of important characters to obtain hidden mission rewards.] …