From a personal perspective, Shin despised the idea of going through high school again.
Anyone who has experienced the hellish suffering of their final year of high school would never willingly revisit that exhausting period of life. Even with Japan's unique situation, Shin didn't want to sit in that damned hard chair and attend classes punctually again.
Once his mind had become accustomed to freedom, it was hard to sit down and study diligently.
After his intentionally mundane introduction, Shin was assigned the seat to the right of Kotonoha. He politely nodded to the shy girl, then sank into his own thoughts.
The reason he didn't want to study was that he had more important things to do.
He pulled out his phone and checked the video he uploaded to online. The views still hadn't broken a hundred, but the three comments he had received were high-quality praise.
"Front page warning!"
"Holy crap? This is a hand-drawn masterpiece, great!"
"Warning to the animation team. I suggest applying to the animation studio. I'm sick of watching Wano Arc."
Shin sighed. A few hundred views in two days was too little, but it was expected.
The low views were inevitable. But it didn't matter. Once he had free time, he would personally promote the video and boost the views.
He wasn't worried about intenet taking down the video; the System-uploaded video was specially protected. Even if owned company erased its entire database, the video would still remain.
He just didn't know how many Evaluation Points he would gain if it went viral. Probably not much.
Second, the food problem.
His basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, and transport were mostly secured. He relied on Kotonoha for food. As for other expenses like rent, he needed to make more money.
There weren't many ways to make money using the 100,000 yen he extorted. Since this world's timeline was similar to his own, get-rich-quick scams like Bitcoin had already been exposed.
He couldn't rely on loopholes. He would have difficulty getting into casinos, and even if he did, the probability of consistently winning at blackjack or Texas Hold'em in a regulated casino was too low and not worth the time.
This was Tokyo, not Las Vegas. Making money in regulated casinos was too hard. Either major casinos wouldn't let him in, or the safety of smaller casinos couldn't be guaranteed.
The Computer Gum provided him with a vast knowledge base downloaded from the internet. While it wasn't hard to make money with this knowledge, it all required time and groundwork.
This wasn't ancient times where knowing how to make soap or perfume could make you rich overnight.
To make quick money in a modern, well-regulated, densely populated, and safe metropolitan area without any background, you had to engage in shady business.
But that wasn't something you just did.
Being too clumsy would get him hunted, and being too sophisticated required preparation. Shin didn't want to resort to such methods.
After considering various options, he realized he couldn't find a legal way to make quick money using the Computer Gum. After much thought, he decided to try one project:
Writing novels.
While using such advanced technology for this purpose felt a bit low-level, in a sense, it was a relatively fast way to earn money. More importantly, it was easy for Shin and provided long-term income. When he chewed the Computer Gum, it would synthesize the required novel based on his needs.
For example, the copy he had just printed out was an adaptation of a popular romance novel he found online called Love Rhythm.
Perhaps because the original material was good, the two versions synthesized by the Computer Gum changed less than 40% of the original content. Although the outline was fundamentally altered, it was essentially a "fanfiction" adaptation.
However, the books "synthesized" by the Computer Gum were undeniably excellent. One was a tearjerker, the other a sweet romance.
He also "wrote" a novel version of Anohana as a test of his "plagiarism route."
The moment he thought of the concept, the Computer Gum immediately provided the optimal solution. The experience was like being possessed by "Heaven's Door."
Writing a novel is essentially filling in the flesh on the skeleton of an outline, and the actual content can be classified as "filler."
Each book was 120,000 words. He typed them out in about two and a half hours, so fast that the keyboard nearly broke. If it weren't for his Coordinator physique, his fingers would probably have been destroyed.
But the result was excellent. Shin read them after printing them out and was nearly moved to tears himself.
It's worth noting that Anohana did not exist in this world. The moment he decided to write it, the System's mysterious power cleverly replaced the original existence of that work with something similar but different.
It was similar to the video he made of Barbatos shooting Big Mom. Because the protagonist was Barbatos, the protagonist's mech in Iron-Blooded Orphans was changed to something else, and the entire work was altered. However, One Piece, which served as the backdrop, remained unchanged.
Shin wanted to complain about the System's ability to arbitrarily alter people's perceptions. Why did it still need him if it could do that? But, honestly, being a plagiarist felt great.
However, he did not plan to submit these three works for publication.
First, he hadn't identified the most reliable publisher or company yet. Second, writing pure romance light novels had no future in modern Japan. Even if he copied Battle Through the Heavens, an action novel would sell better than a romance novel.
These three books were just for practice. It didn't matter if they were published; they would serve as a backup.
He carried the three printed novels with him. At least until he went back to "synthesizing" a blockbuster, these three could serve as a stepping stone.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Saki Yoshida. My interests are reading and shopping..."
Shin was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't pay attention to his classmates' introductions. In fact, he hoped his presence would be as weak as possible, ideally being isolated by these hormone-fueled high school kids.
He took out his phone and opened a video by a YouTuber named TAKI-kun. He found this famous Japanese anime YouTuber yesterday.
He wasn't watching the videos for anything other than gathering information about One Piece. His knowledge of One Piece was limited to the early manga. To be honest, he hadn't watched the story since the Marineford Arc.
Yesterday, while he was typing, he used a VPN to access pirated sites and caught up on the One Piece storyline. Skipping over 90% of the filler, he concluded that he was in significant trouble.
He had nearly assassinated Big Mom with a Gundam Nail, and he likely hadn't even flown out of the New World before returning to this world. When he left in Barbatos, he didn't have an Eternal Pose, so he just landed on a random reef.
He had no idea if he had been located. If he hadn't flown out of Totto Land territory, the moment he returned to the One Piece world, he would have to flee. He was genuinely afraid of Devil Fruit users whose abilities completely defied science.
Gundam couldn't offer him much security. In the Gundam world, he was just a physically enhanced Coordinator. The combat ability provided by the Bondrewd suit was negligible in the One Piece world.
He was watching TAKI-kun's videos just to gather intelligence. He definitely had to return to the One Piece world, if only to earn some Evaluation Points, and he needed information.
Anime analysis could be reliable or unreliable, but it was better than stumbling blindly on his own. He couldn't just ask Oda-sensei about "quasi-Admiral, half-step Yonko" strength. He had to rely on these anime analysis YouTubers and forum posts for intelligence.
This YouTuber's analysis was decent. Although 80% of his videos were about beautiful girl harem anime and games, his analysis was quite good.
"Shin-kun, do you like watching anime?"
Kotonoha Katsura, who had been secretly watching Shin, noticed him brazenly putting his phone on the desk and couldn't help but ask.
"Just a little. It's just to pass the time," Shin replied without looking up.
...
In the back row, Aki Tomoya, who was lost in thought about his "encounter" earlier today, was immediately drawn to the word "anime."
Following the gaze, he saw that the tall boy's phone was playing his video. Aki Tomoya was surprised. A fan here?
But... he was watching a One Piece video? Aki Tomoya sighed softly. So, not someone who can appreciate the beauty of the two-dimensional world with me.
In Japan, "otaku" often doesn't include boys who like popular Shonen Jump manga. In a sense, Shonen Jump is a mainstream form of entertainment, and watching it doesn't make you an otaku.
After the video ended, Shin put his phone away and sighed softly.
Troublesome. Very troublesome. The things he had to do when he returned to the One Piece world in twenty days were very complicated. Most importantly, he needed to develop a reliable plan to cause trouble.
First, the timeline. The original story didn't mention a direct conflict between the Big Mom Pirates and the Navy, but based on the age of Katakuri and his group, the timeline shouldn't be too far from the main story.
Using Luffy's departure as the starting point, how could he create a sufficiently large event that would trigger the biggest butterfly effect and reap Evaluation Points?
Hmm... He needed to slowly plan this out over the next ten days or so.
"Oh, right, Katsura-san. Please buy me lunch today."
Snapping out of his thoughts, Shin turned to Kotonoha, who was about to say something to him, and said with conviction.
That million yen he extorted wasn't free. This girl was his fixed meal ticket for at least a month!
"...Okay!"
Kotonoha shivered and nodded gently, her face hot.
She had just been thinking about how to invite him to lunch and discuss her own matters... He must have seen her hesitation and offered first.
She hadn't expected Shin-kun to be so observant and understanding.
And...
He might actually like me?
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