Aoi, who was smiling at a joke someone had made, somehow noticed that Ren was a little quieter than usual. He seemed to be deep in thought, staring into the distance with a lost expression.
It was then that their eyes suddenly met. Aoi felt a chill run down her spine. Ren's eyes were not their usual lonely, detached selves. His gaze was sharp, fixed on her. What lay behind it was a mystery to her.
She broke eye contact first, returning to the conversation and pretending she hadn't noticed anything.
Ren saw how she had backed away from his direct stare, which only ignited his curiosity further. He wanted to know more about her and the little secret she had. His eyes moved down slightly, falling on the skill names.
At this point, Ren was familiar with the system. Every aspect of it worked through thoughts alone, which helped a lot. He didn't like the idea of having to shout a strange word every time he activated something, as if he were putting on some kind of magical show.
[Eyes of Desire], [Deal Maker] the two skills he had.
'I can't use Deal Maker now, but what about Eyes of Desire?' Ren hesitated a little because he didn't know what the effect would be like or whether it would be visible to others or only in his mind.
[EYES OF DESIRE: GIVES THE USER THE ABILITY TO SEE HINTS OF THE TARGET'S DESIRES AND FRAGMENTS OF THEIR THOUGHTS | NO CE (CORRUPTION ESSENCE) NEEDED.]
'Seems like, from the ability description, it only lets me see information, so...'
Ren made up his mind and prepared to take the risk. With a thought, he activated the ability.
What followed happened in a single second. Ren looked up in Aoi's direction, and his mind was filled with an immense amount of information and various desires all at once. And it wasn't just Aoi—he could see the desires of everyone within his field of vision.
{Look at those tits bouncing. I wish I could grab a feeling out of them.}
{He is big; I never imagined it like this. Please look at me just once like I'm a little thing you can mess with.}
{Look at Nori, that pervert. Why only checking Mio's body? I'm better than her. Look at me, I'm more fuckable than her.}
(Forgot to write the homework.)
(About to go to the nurse's office.)
(In love with Riki.)
{Wrapping my hands around his little dick would be fantastic.}
(About to stay late at school.)
{Imagine her sitting on this table naked as she opens her legs.}
{Look at him trying to act cool. God, I want to tie him up with my arms and hear him moan like a little girl as I squeeze his dick.}
Ren's eyes widened as his consciousness threatened to fade. To him, it felt like an acid trip. A ton of information was flooding his head, and before he could process any more of it, a tap on his shoulder brought him back to reality. His normal vision returned, and he realized that, at some point, his friends had stopped talking and were staring at him.
"Ren, can you hear me?" a familiar voice asked. It was Takeshi's.
Ren blankly stared at him for a second before realizing what had happened and immediately answering.
"Huh? Yes, I can hear you."
"Oh, thank God! I've been calling you for what feels like ten minutes, but you've just been staring into the distance," Takeshi said with relief.
"Were you daydreaming? You told me you didn't get enough sleep last night, right? Why don't you get some rest in the nurse's office?" Ritsu suggested.
"No, it's okay. I'm really fine now. There's no need to worry." Ren stood up, his usual demeanor returning as his expression shifted from shocked to blank. "I'll go ahead. See you later."
With that, he walked away, leaving them all staring after him.
Aoi remembered what had happened earlier, and now, more than ever, she felt that something was off.
"I think Ren has been a little different today."
"I was thinking the same thing. He arrived late this morning, which is unusual for him," Ritsu agreed with Aoi. He then looked at Takeshi as if asking whether he thought so, too, prompting him to respond.
"Ah... yes, and he's also been quieter than usual."
"You think so? I don't see anything wrong with being tired. I'm pretty sure he stayed up all night studying to beat Ritsu in the upcoming exam, so he's just a little tired. That's all."
Kenji explained his reasoning, and with such a reasonable explanation, it was hard to think otherwise.
in bathroom ren was stiing on the toilet site string at the white door tring to make sence of what happed
"What was that? It felt like I was experiencing so many things at the same time, and each one of them felt like a real sensation." His eyes lowered to his hips and stared at the noticeable bulge in his pants; his cock was rock hard.
Ren covered his face with his hands and closed his eyes, chasing those feelings away. After a while, his erection went soft. Now he could focus on why the effect worked that way.
'Most of what I picked up was about people's desires. There was so much information, but the little bit I managed to understand was enough to overwhelm my brain. And why did the ability work that way? Is this going to happen every time I use it, or was it just because the place was full of other people?'
Ren looked at the ability's description again.
'It says Eyes of Desire. Oh, I see! The ability affects me, not the target. My eyes are the ones changing, allowing me to see all those people's desires at once. That's why... I need to verify this soon.'
Now that he had put that matter aside, what remained was figuring out what to do with the information he had learned.
He closed his eyes and tried to remember the words, images, and sounds he had seen and heard inside his head, as well as where they had come from.
'Ugh, I can't tell. I wasn't focusing enough.'
Ren couldn't figure out which information belonged to whom, so he tried to approach the problem differently.
'Wait, if I remember correctly, I first looked up in Aoi's direction and my eyes slowly focused on her. Maybe that's the order in which the information appeared. That has to be it.'
Ren tried to remember the last few things he had perceived, and they were...
{Wrapping my hands around his little dick would be fantastic.}
(About to stay late at school.)
{Imagine her sitting on this table naked as she opens her legs.}
{Look at him trying to act cool. God, I want to tie him up with my arms and hear him moan like a little girl as I squeeze his dick.}
'In theory, the last words should belong to her. But to what extent? Were there two for each person, or one, or three? And she wasn't the only person at the table. There were Kenji and Takeshi, too.'
Looking at the words that had appeared, Ren noticed that they were displayed in different formats. The desires were written in purple-colored boxes with melting fount, while the other statements appeared in blue boxes with plain fount.
'So, the purple ones represent desires, and the blue ones provide information about the person. Judging by how they're written, they tell me something about him or what he's going to do.'
Ren examined the text formats and the perspectives from which the statements were written. This allowed him to eliminate the ones that clearly belonged to the men at the table. Then he ruled out the first set, which probably didn't belong to Aoi, since her information should have appeared last. That left only two possibilities.
(About to stay late at school.)
{Look at him trying to act cool. God, I want to tie him up with my arms and hear him moan like a little girl as I squeeze his dick.}
'So that was what she desired at that moment? That's really shocking.'
For Ren, learning about her desires wasn't as important as finding information about her. He had already made plans to get her to make a deal with him, and he only needed a little more information to make it successful.
As for the statement in the blue box, he wasn't sure who it belonged to. It could have been one of the three: Aoi, Takeshi, or Kenji. However, he was certain of one thing there was a possibility that Aoi would stay late at school. With only a few students around, he might be able to use his ability more efficiently.
Having made up his mind, Ren decided to stay late and find out which possibility would turn out to be true.