Chapter 83: Manifestation Module

Pierre returned from school and fell back on his bed.

“Sigh… I’m tired.”

He turned his head to the side to look at the other company in his room. The Weeping Ghost stood at the bedside and watched him silently.

“So I’m the only one who can see you,” he muttered, recalling the events of the day. He had told her to stand together with him on the train ride back home, and no one noticed.

And also, she could disappear from his sight too at command, but he can still see her in mirrors.

“Grab me that.”

Immediately, Hanabira Reina’s straw-like black hair shot towards the shelf, latched onto something, and brought it to him.

Pierre took the award she held upright before him and watched her stretchy hair return to its original length that went down to her knees.

“Good.”

He threw it to her. “Destroy.”

Crack!

With a silent swoosh, her violent hair grabbed the award and broke it in half.

“Phew.”

Pierre let out an exhausted sigh. He constantly spent energy keeping her manifested and spent even more when he gave her orders, and she exerted herself.

As a Level 10 Irregular, he had to absorb an F-grade energy crystal every three hours to replenish his energy pool.

Pierre sat up, brought out a safe under his bed, and opened it.

“Dammit. I’m almost out.”

That phrase was a homonym, having two different meanings. Pierre was low on energy, but looking into the safe, he was also low on energy crystals.

He looked up at Reina and, with a definite thought, he let her dematerialize into pink fragments.

“Sorry. I still need to sign in later.”

The room door creaked open. And Pierre raised his head sharply.

“Did you make a purchase with my credit card?” His mother asked, her tone was flat but had a hint of vitriol.

“Y-Yes. I had to get energy crystals.”

She clenched her teeth and mouthed, “You ungrateful… tch. Better call your father to pay me back. I don’t want any more issues with you.”

“Mom, w-what do you mean? We don’t have any issues. You see, I have a system now, and I need—”

“So?”

“…” Pierre fell silent.

“Does that give you the right to help yourself with my money?!” Pierre’s mom asked impatiently with folded arms.

He shook his head.

“N… No, I didn’t mean—”

“Shut up.” She stepped forward and stared down at him. “What can your system do for us? Can it earn us money?”

“Not yet…”

“Not yet?! Can it put the food on the table today so you won’t starve?!”

Pierre’s face contorted with some anger.

“No!”

Her disdainful gaze bore down on him.

“Then what good is your system? Can it bring your father back?!”

He gnashed his teeth and stood up.

“It’s all about him to you. We don’t need him. He abandoned us!”

Pa!

The slap made Pierre’s ear rang and he remained frozen.

“Never say that again. And never raise your voice at me. If he abandoned us, then it is because you were always such an ungrateful brat.”

Pierre raised his head. His eyes were glistening with tears.

The look on his mother’s face, as though she was looking at the most repulsive creature, made him want to curl himself into a ball and hide forever.

Painfully, he reached out to her.

“Mom! Please don’t hate me. I— I love you…”

He felt the 30% remaining energy in his energy pool instantly drain. But that didn’t matter at the moment.

“…!”

His mother’s eyes widened at his words.

However, her head fell to look at his hand that held on to her elbow. With disgust evident on her face, she removed his hand as if it were dirt.

“Steal from me again and see what happens. Useless.”

Bam!

The door closed behind that woman, and Pierre was left staring blankly at the laminate flooring of his room.

’Useless… Ungrateful brat… My fault he left…’

Her harsh words replayed in his mind, and he was struggling to process the situation.

“W-Why didn’t it work?” he asked himself, touching his face. But then he remembered the description.

— Je t’aime (’I love you’) makes anyone, regardless of gender, fall in love with you. Success rate: 5%.

There was originally only a small percentage that his [Je t’aime] skill would work.

Bzz! Bzz!

His phone buzzed with a set of new notifications.

— Hey!

— Back home yet? Can I call you?

Pierre switched off his phone, closed his room windows to make the place dark, and sank into his bedsheets.

Tears stained his pillow, and he fell asleep.

When he awoke, it was due to his system prompting him that the countdown had elapsed, and he could sign in again.

Night had already fallen, and heavily at that.

Pierre washed his face in the dark, absorbed three energy-crystals, and summoned his system. All the while, he ignored the biting feeling in his stomach.

A red and plump three-dimensional heart shape floated before him and was beating rhythmically.

~ Tap to sign in! ~

“I am leaving F-Class tonight.”

Pierre declared.

In the next second, a pink light engulfed him, and he disappeared from his bedroom.

Finding himself sitting in a class with students moving about, he skipped all the theatrics and continued from his last checkpoint.

[Main Story #9 — Loving the Tsundere]

Pierre didn’t dilly-dally in this level. He increased his in-simulation IQ with the 2.0 stat points he earned from the Main and Hidden Story from Level 8, taking it from 2.5 to 4.5. This was his fortification stat, so it would give him the proper mental defenses to not also fall in love when he [Je t’aime] or conversed with the simulated characters.

Since he had already cleared this level previously, doing so again was easy.

And just like that, he woke up in bed again.

+

[Main Story #10 — Love Is War]

Current Stage: Class C – 1st Semester, 2nd Year.

Target: [Yoshida Aiko].

Story Description: “The Class Rep, Yoshida Aiko, doesn’t know it, but you do—she is going to die soon, reasons left unknown. Unless she lets her heart open, unless she dates and loves, she won’t live. But as a straight-A student, she has no time for romance. Can you win the heart of this damsel and save her from her incoming distress before it’s too late?”

Difficulty: HARD.

Objectives:

1. Make her fall in love with you.

2. Prevent her untimely death by any means possible.

Rewards: +1.5 Stat Points, +125 Love Points, +1 Skill (Active).

Final Remark: If you’re a lover, you gotta be a fighter. Good luck, Host!

* * *

“Time for the main dish,” Roy said with a sly grin.

He watched Pierre invest the 0.5 stat points reward of Level 9 in his IQ.

“I want to see his status.”

The real profile information was called “Host Data”, while the in-simulation version was called “Status.”

Knowing this, the system did as he requested.

+

[Status]

Name: Jean-Pierre Dubois

Age: 16

Current Level: 10

Skills: Je T’aime (Active), Love Sensor (Passive)

Current Overall Stats: Appeal = 3.0, Morale = 2.5, Social = 2.0, IQ = 5.0, Luck = 1.0 >> Total = 13.5

Current Overall Rating: …

Miscellaneous: …

~

Health: ♡♡♡♡

Stamina: 100%

Love Points: 195

+

“He’s focusing on his IQ like crazy now. Not a bad one, I guess,” Roy noted, focusing on only the important information. He just noticed that in the simulation, Pierre was one year younger.

Meanwhile, Pierre complained to himself as he walked to the wardrobe. “Goddamn tsundere. I spent eighty love points on her alone. So annoying. I just hope this takes me through…”

[A: Delinquent Style Uniform]

[B: Goth Style Uniform]

[C: School Prince Style Uniform]

Pierre considered the nature of a class rep, and influenced by a love drama he watched recently, he chose Option A. Good and upright girls tend to fall for delinquent boys.

The delinquent style uniform gave Pierre dyed and scattered red hair, baggy trousers with a thick chain hooped from the front to the back, and an arrogant gait.

“Fuck. This sucks.”

He suddenly felt a strong urge to curse, clench his teeth, and spit.

With a hand in his pocket and the other holding his bag slung over his shoulder, he walked down to school.

Roy took in a deep breath.

“Shop.”

+

[Null Archive]

1. Code Injector Module

Module Description: “This module permits the host to inject code in the linked host’s executable, enabling communication between the host and linked host.”

Cost: 5 error points per line.

2. Performance Ratings Module

Module Description: “Evaluates the performance of the linked host after clearing a level and returns an estimated star rating.”

Cost: 10 error points per level.

3. Manifestation Module

Module Description: “Appear in the executable environment of the linked host as a background character.”

Cost: 30 error points per level.

+

Looked up and saw the number hanging far above in the sky.

“45 error points.”

Sparing no second thought, Roy voiced, “Manifestation Module…”

[Host, you are about to spend 30 error points. Do you confirm the purchase?]

“Yes.”

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