Chapter 544: At this moment, he recalled…
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
After school.
Seiji was being surrounded by all the girls that wanted to hear the gossip about him when his cell phone rang.
He took the call and used it as an excuse to speedily escape the school.
He left the school and met with Mai who was carrying a parasol. She was the one who had called him.
"How do you feel after receiving Milady's chocolate?" The maid Senpai was grinning as she looked at him.
"Of course, I'm happy." Seiji felt somewhat awkward.
"Are you surprised that Milady gave it to you in public like that?"
"Yeah…"
"Actually, I'm the one who recommended her to do this." Mai smiled. "This way, there shouldn't be any more girls that will dare to get close to you."
Seiji was rendered speechless.
"This is my chocolate for you. Thank you for always taking care of Milady, Haruta-san." Mai handed him a circular box of chocolate. "Please take good care of us in the future."
"Thank you…" Seiji accepted the chocolate with a subtle expression.
The maid then left and returned to Natsuya's residence.
Seiji went back to his own apartment as well, together with the gigantic pile of chocolate he received today.
Later that night, Saki visited Seiji's apartment.
The editor gave him a small present as a first-time visiting gift. She then gave him some chocolate from herself and Mayuzumi. Seiji gratefully accepted the gift.
"'Brother Monogatari' has been selling excellently. It's still maintained its status as a bestseller even now, and the readers are giving excellent reviews," Saki told him. "In this situation, you can already begin to consider writing a second volume."
Seiji exchanged glances with Shika upon hearing this.
"Actually, we're already working on the second volume." Seiji smiled. "Although it's currently unfinished, I think that it should be finished soon if I devote all my time to it."
Saki blinked upon hearing this. "Could I take a look at the already finished portion?"
"Of course."
Seiji invited her into his study and showed her the document containing the second volume's draft on his computer.
The editor began to seriously read his work at a high speed.
Some time later, Saki let go of her breath that she had been holding and smiled gently towards Seiji.
"Excellently written. Simply judging by what's written so far, it's just as excellent as the first volume."
"You'll think it's even better than the first volume after I'm done," Seiji replied with a confident smile.
"I'll be looking forward to it, then. There's no need for you to rush too much. Still, it'll of course be better if you finish it as quickly as possible."
"Understood."
Saki then gave her own opinions about the story's contents.
Seiji nodded in acceptance and expressed his own opinions as well. He then called Shika over and all three of them started discussing.
The editor and the authors… these three passionate individuals discussed seriously for quite a while in order to make "Brother Monogatari" a more interesting story.
After the editor said goodbye and left, Shika returned to her room to organize her thoughts on the story, while Seiji went to take a shower.
While taking his shower, he opened up his system and checked the [Gifts] option.
All the chocolate he received today gave him a massive amount of points as well as numerous item rewards!
There were so many items that it was difficult to go through them all. If he listed all their names and effects, he felt that it would take over two thousand words. If this had been a novel, it definitely would have been nothing more than filler.
Seiji was quite grateful for this abundant harvest, and once again truly thanked everyone's heartfelt intentions.
He glanced over them and decided to leave looking at them in more detail for later. He then took a look at his [Novel rewards].
He then discovered that apart from points as always along with random draw shards, there was something new...
[Brother Monogatari character reward card shard]!
Seiji widened his eyes in surprise and immediately checked his system's explanation.
[Assembling seven Brother Monogatari character reward card shards will allow you to create a Brother Monogatari character reward card. Brother Monogatari character reward shards can be obtained from the 'Random draw card' while you have less than seven shards.]
Seiji was rendered speechless.
At this moment, he recalled the terror of being played with by the game developers, with the humiliation of drawing forty-two times without obtaining anything decent!
'System, the hell, you dare to play things this way with me!!'
Forget about just drawing random items, now this was an option as well…? It seemed that it was similar to his [Character reward cards] like Shika Kagura and Hoshi Amami. [Character reward cards] were incredible! Wasn't this basically forcing him to charge money to play the game!?
Seiji grit his teeth in anger.
This was ridiculous, too ridiculous! He finally became somewhat rich in points, but now the system was using such an underhanded method to drain him of them!!
'I definitely won't be fooled…' Although he wanted to say this, he really wanted the [Brother Monogatari character reward card]… Really, really wanted it!!!
He was internally conflicted and pained as if he had returned to that humiliating point in his previous life.
Dating sim system: "Go ahead if you want to draw. Get the hell out if you're not going to random draw."
Seiji imagined his system as a fairy saying that to him. He then imagined himself beating up the fairy!
Still, it was useless as always. His system didn't respond.
He currently possessed one Brother Monogatari character reward card shard, and thirty-nine random draw card shards.
Each random draw card shard could be crafted into a random draw card by using some points. Basically, he could draw thirty-nine times at most.
Should he bankrupt himself… whoops, start drawing?
Seiji slowly reached out with his trembling right hand.
But at the final moment, he restrained his impulse! He grabbed his left hand with his right hand!!
"I won't do it!"
He decided against exchanging points for random draws for the time being and to wait a little longer. Perhaps he would be able to assemble the pieces required on his own.
A [Brother Monogatari character reward card]… he really wanted it! Seiji was quite curious what it would be like.
But even so, Seiji decided to not go against his original decision. He would not abuse the power to save and load on the random draw system.
He withstood his desire and forcefully closed his system with his strong willpower.
While cultivating in Reo's soul realm, Seiji took a closer look at every single reward item he received. He felt that they could be categorized into three types.
The first type was items that increased his basic stats. There were items that could increase his basic stats like [Academics] and [Physical Ability], as well as items that could increase his stats in more specialized areas like [Fighting].
The second type was items with special one-time effects. There were all sorts of effects, far too many to list.
The third type was items that had "five minute effects!"
For example, Shika's chocolate gave him the reward of a "Swordsmanship power-up card", which would improve his swordsmanship skill temporarily for the next five minutes.
Mika's chocolate gave him the reward of "Cleansing power-up card", which would improve his skill in [Cleansing] for the next five minutes.
Chiaki's chocolate gave him the reward of "Incarnation summoning card", which allowed him to summon a shadow clone of himself with half his own power level which could last for five minutes.
Seiji thus decided to term all these item cards the "five minute category" as they all shared the exact same time limit.
If he used all of them simultaneously, he felt that he would transform into a "five minute superhero!" That would make him more powerful than Ultraman by two minutes!!
Just joking.
Although the "five minute category" items were quite powerful, they still wouldn't make him undefeatable. After all, all their effects depended on Seiji's own power level to begin with.
Rather than the five minute category, the special one-time effect items were far more cheat-like in existence.
For instance, he received a "perfect defense card" from Mika, which he could use to block any one attack and receive zero damage.
This was a lifesaver card for perilous situations. Previously, Reo's Winter Snow Festival present had given him the exact same card. He now had two of this "perfect defense card".
Also, he received a "100% accuracy" card from Mai. This card would allow him to lock onto any enemy in his vision and ensure that his next attack would hit for certain.
This card didn't seem like much at first glance, simply being an automated aiming card.
But when thinking about it more closely, since it could work on any target in his field of vision, that meant it was possible to lock on to a target that was far away from him as well! And then, no matter what attack he used, it would land… that seemed so powerful to him!
This was basically a godly card for long-range sniping! It would be so easy for him to use it to unlock the achievement of slaying an enemy from one thousand meters away!