[I don't know how much effort I put in, but I definitely invested a lot of energy.]
Tanaka thought this in his heart, but what he said aloud was:
"This is just my personal interest, so it doesn't feel hard at all."
Hearing this, Eriri clicked her tongue and muttered in complaint.
"You're really hopeless if you treat this as nothing more than a personal interest."
Her words immediately earned her two sets of rolled eyes.
Tanaka & Sayuri Sawamura: [Drawing books is also your interest, isn't it?]
Her indiscriminate remark hit everyone present—well, two and a half people.
Why two and a half?
Cough, because Tanaka didn't actually create books himself. He was just a porter of them.
Under their stares, Eriri's face flushed red. She mumbled softly:
"D-Draw… drawing books isn't so bad either."
······
After this little interlude, Tanaka and Sayuri Sawamura returned to the main topic.
Sayuri expressed her willingness to help publish the book.
Tanaka could entrust this to her, and she would cover the initial printing costs.
When the book went on sale, they would split the profits evenly after deducting expenses.
Tanaka readily agreed. After all, he couldn't even afford the first round of printing on his own.
Leaving everything to Sayuri saved him a great deal of trouble.
Once the matter of publication was settled, Tanaka stayed for a short while at Sayuri's invitation before saying goodbye and heading back.
He still had to return to Chiba Prefecture.
······
"Tanaka-kun, come and visit again next time."
After seeing him off, Eriri and her mother went back to the living room.
Eriri sat on the sofa, picked up the manuscript on the table, and prepared to keep reading.
But as soon as she lifted it, Sayuri snatched it from her hands.
"Mom, what are you doing?"
Eriri stared at her in confusion.
Sayuri spoke in a teaching tone.
"You're still too young. You won't understand this manga properly. Let me read it first."
Without giving Eriri a chance to protest, Sayuri gathered all the pages, went straight to her room, and locked the door.
A few seconds later, Eriri finally reacted and shouted loudly.
"Mom, how could you do this?! I want to read it too!"
...
Meanwhile, Tanaka, unaware of the Sawamura family's little drama, was already on the train heading home.
Running into Eriri today had been a total surprise.
Maybe in the future, he'd also get the chance to meet Kasumigaoka Utaha and Megumi Kato.
"Wait, the school I go to is called Sobu High School."
When he first took over his new memories, he hadn't thought much about it. But now, the name sounded very familiar.
It seemed that due to the rules of this world, his original school had been replaced by Sobu High School.
He had been a college student in his previous life, already an adult.
Other than that, not many changes had occurred. This immediately reminded him of the anime Oregairu.
Thinking carefully, there really were some very famous beauties in the same year as his predecessor.
The untouchable flower of the high peak, the cold and elegant Yukinoshita Yukino.
And, of course, the cheerful Yui Yuigahama.
It was just a pity that Shizuka Hiratsuka wasn't teaching his class.
Tanaka tried to recall more, but realized that since he had been a shut-in before, he didn't know many people at all.
So he couldn't be sure whether other characters from the anime existed here.
Still, this was undoubtedly an anime world.
He decided he needed to get out and explore more in the future.
With that thought, Tanaka shifted his focus back to his system.
Today, he had gained ten depravity points from Eriri and her mother.
The previously gloomy system mall had also updated.
Tanaka clicked on the yellow shopping cart icon.
The mall's interface was simple, showing only two items:
[Random Talent ×1 — Price: 100,000 depravity points]
[Random Item ×1 — Price: 10,000 depravity points]
Both of these had appeared earlier in his novice gift pack.
The former granted him a useful talent, and the latter gave props to help him earn more depravity points.
"System, why are there only these two things in the mall? Where's everything else?"
[Host, of course there are other products. As the system upgrades in the future, many more items will naturally appear.]
Tanaka nodded, unsurprised.
Although there were only two products now, their randomness meant infinite possibilities.
That suggested the system had a huge inventory, and in the future, there would likely be specific talents and items available.
Of course, randomness also meant something else… probably too much garbage on the system's end. To avoid embarrassment, it just packaged everything as "random."
If you drew junk, it was your own bad luck—not the system's fault.
For now, all Tanaka could do was wait for Sayuri to publish his comic and see how many depravity points it earned.
If it brought in more than 10,000, he could exchange for random items again and create a virtuous cycle.
If not, he would need to find other ways to earn points.
With his thoughts settled, Tanaka washed up and went to bed early. Tomorrow, he planned to explore Sobu High School properly.
······
Late at night, in the Sawamura family villa.
Because her husband, a diplomat, was often away on business, Sayuri once again slept alone.
On quiet nights, the solitude in her room always felt heavier.
Before going to bed, she often read to pass the time.
"Tonight, I'll read the manuscript Tanaka-kun gave me and carefully see how good it really is."
······
At the same time, Tanaka, who was sound asleep, was suddenly awakened by the system's notification sound.
[+1]
[+1, +1······]
The sudden and constant gain of depravity points left him dazed.
"Why are there so many notifications all of a sudden? Who could it be?"
At the moment, aside from himself, only Sayuri and Eriri had come into contact with a system product.
Still, the relentless dinging was far too noisy.
In the future, once more people read his book, this constant flood of alerts would drive him insane.
He quickly searched for a way to mute the notifications. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to rest.
Just as he found the setting to disable them, an urgent series of alerts rang out.
[+1, +1...]
[+10!]
After that final notification, the system went quiet—without him doing anything.
"This…"
The silence from the system left Tanaka speechless as well.
He glanced at his depravity points, which had risen by dozens in just one night.
"At this rate, sudden wealth is right around the corner. The system's products are really effective."
With the notifications turned off, Tanaka finally drifted back to sleep.