Chapter 5: If You Can Easily Cheat, Then Cheat Hard
School ending at 3:30 PM—in his previous life, Ren wouldn't have dared to imagine such a thing.
If you wanted to advance your studies, you'd have to sign up for after-school cram classes, right?
Fortunately, Ren had no such worries. For him now, a university degree and higher qualifications were just for gilding the lily. Not having to grind through practice problems or stress over whether his scores would meet the admission cutoff was pure bliss.
As for club activities, they paled in comparison to going home and playing games.
So Ren joined the glorious "Go-Home Club," and Hitori and the others did the same. However, since their homes were in different directions, they parted ways as soon as they left the school gates.
After starting work, not only was he too busy to even think about leisure activities, he didn't even have the energy to play games.
But now, Ren felt he had returned to his former invincible self. Competing in gaming skills against carefree 16- or 17-year-olds without academic pressure—any sensible person would know to steer clear. He was terrifyingly strong now.
The only issue was he didn't have a computer, and there were few games he could play on his phone. Still, he glanced at the popular mobile games on the market.
FGO, perpetually ranked T0 on the bestseller charts? Well, that had its appeal, but it was too restrictive for someone of his skill level at this age, so he passed on it outright.
After browsing around, Ren quietly opened Amazon. The cyber dream machines he once coveted—the RTX 5090? Buy! The Core i9-14900k? Buy!
Being able to purchase electronic devices he once had to budget carefully for felt liberating, temporarily satisfying his shopping urges.
But it would take a few days for everything to arrive and be assembled. For now, Ren killed time by scrolling through videos—a rare indulgence in itself. In the past, even trying to unwind with videos would make him anxious.
Like when he had to leave at 7 AM but was still wide awake at 1 AM, telling himself he'd watch until he felt sleepy, only to grow more restless and end up unable to sleep at all.
Now, he had no such worries. There was no pressure to go to work tomorrow and earn a living. He could pull an all-nighter and sleep at school without any issues.
After selectively critiquing the various piano-playing and camping videos the algorithm pushed his way, evening crept up unknowingly—it was already 6 PM.
Ren felt a bit hungry. He knew how to cook, but like anyone, he had his lazy streaks. Rather than cook himself, he'd prefer someone else to prepare the meal and even wash the dishes afterward.
Rubbing his sore, tired eyes from the long screen time, Ren sat up from the couch. Just as he was pondering what to eat for dinner, the system chimed in again.
[Ding. Detected that prolonged phone use may lead to ophthalmological diseases. Host's physical constitution has been enhanced. Please use your phone with peace of mind—you will no longer face such issues.]
As reliable as ever. Though he wasn't entirely sure what triggered the system's enhancements, Ren was quite pleased with this upgrade. His slightly strained eyes now felt completely normal, and the visuals he perceived became incredibly sharp, as if upgrading from 1080p to 16K.
After getting acclimated for a moment, Ren went out with his phone and coincidentally ran into the Chihaya couple, his childhood friend's parents.
"Is that you, Ren? Are you heading out for a meal?" Mrs. Chihaya smiled upon seeing Ren and greeted him.
"Yeah, we're out of ingredients at home."
Ren's neighbors were all kind and easy to get along with. Having lived alongside each other for over a decade, their relationships were quite good. Not to mention their daughter was his childhood friend—he and the Chihaya family had almost become like relatives, their bond ten times better than so-called distant kin.
"How about buying some on your way back from school tomorrow? We happened to have bought a bit too much today. Why don't you join us for dinner?"
"Won't I be interrupting you and Uncle's time together?"
"Of course not. We've been feeling quite lonely since Anon isn't here."
"Then I'll take you up on that."
Hearing this, Ren didn't stand on ceremony—there was no need for formalities between him and the Chihaya family. He turned and walked home with the Chihaya couple, even helping Mrs. Chihaya with the preparations.
Though Mrs. Chihaya repeatedly insisted that guests shouldn't lift a finger, the rapport between their families didn't require such deliberate maintenance. Ren still pitched in to help.
Unable to persuade him otherwise, Mrs. Chihaya could only reluctantly let him assist.
"Ren, have you been in touch with Anon lately? We don't know how she's doing over in England—there are some things she doesn't tell us."
While cooking together, Mrs. Chihaya brought up Anon. The Chihaya family happened to have some assets that could support Anon's studies abroad, but they were quite worried. Anon had been overseas for a while now, and they wondered if she had adjusted to life in England.
"Not much. She's probably busy navigating new social circles," Ren replied honestly after a moment's thought. With about an eight-hour time difference between them—morning for him was evening for Anon—and both being occupied with school and other commitments, they rarely had chances to call.
"I see. Maybe we shouldn't have agreed to let her study abroad. We miss her so much," Mrs. Chihaya sighed, then shifted the conversation to Ren, inquiring about his well-being and subtly hinting that he could rely on them more.
In their eyes, Ren was just a teenager who had recently started high school. At this critical time, his last family member had passed away, leaving him vulnerable to mental health issues and potential financial struggles.
In response to Mrs. Chihaya's concern, Ren simply smiled and assured her he was fine. However, this made him aware of another issue.
Although he didn't have to worry about the source of the system's money being investigated or banks bothering him, as a high school student without a part-time job who spent lavishly, he could easily cause concern among those close to him. This money wasn't as easy to earn as it seemed.
And he had decent looks—what kind of work paid quickly without worrying about legality? And could a handsome high school student do it?
This inevitably brings up a certain legal profession: hosting. If misunderstood, who knows what might happen.
So clearly, setting up a homepage as cover could save a lot of trouble, and Ren now had the ability to do so.
So, what were the ways to make quick money by selling skills but not oneself?
After finishing dinner harmoniously and being forced to take some fruits, Ren returned home and pondered this question.
He remembered his seniors had either gone into business or become "literary copycats," with some even writing and selling songs, debuting as national idols.
Business was out of the question. Ren looked it up—areas like food delivery, real estate, and e-commerce were already saturated. With his daily assets of just one million yen, he couldn't compete, and he didn't want to run a company anyway. Why work hard when he could just coast?
Becoming a literary copycat was worth considering, but if he really copied, it might not suit the local context. He hadn't read many Japanese novels, so cultural differences had to be taken into account.
As for writing and selling songs, wasn't Hitori a guitarist? If he could write songs, wouldn't it be easy to charm a music-loving girl?
With his ability to learn anything, Ren decided to splurge a bit and bought online courses to teach himself lyric writing, composition, arrangement, recording, and so on—basically, he learned every step involved.
But knowing how was one thing; creating a good song without inspiration was still too difficult. However, this wasn't a problem for Ren.
Deep Blue, add some points!
[Host's request detected. Search conducted based on the current market. Detected that the current world is in the era of all-female bands, lacking many songs that existed in the host's previous life. Suitable debut songs have been extracted for the host.]
[Lemon, Night Dancer, Winter Flower, Better Off Dead.]
See? Inspiration just arrived.
Ren had heard a few of these songs, especially "Lemon," which he'd heard in a cover version by a certain boy band. Of course, he wasn't planning to copy the cover but the original.
Wait, he wasn't plagiarizing—just acting as a conduit of nature. How unfortunate would it be for people here to miss out on such great songs?
And now that he had the songs, what about his singing skills? His ability to play instruments? System, do you think vocal skills will just pop into my head?
[Host has been granted all-around perfect singing skills, capable of mastering all songs.]
[Host has been granted all-around instrumental performance skills, capable of mastering all instruments.]
That's more like it!
Ren nodded in satisfaction. He now knew how to write lyrics and compose, and he had the songs. The only things missing were equipment, and he still couldn't play instruments. These songs weren't meant for solo singing—to achieve the perfect effect, a complete setup was essential.
How did things end up becoming so complicated? But it's just renting people to record a song, not forming a band—it shouldn't be too troublesome, right?
Ren pondered for a moment and decided to press on. When the time comes, if he writes a song for Hitori, wouldn't she be so moved she'd melt?
Tell me, what high school girl could resist someone pursuing her writing a song that could go viral, for her to play or even sing?
Just as Ren contentedly stored every detail of "Lemon" in his mind, a video call interface popped up on his phone screen. The caller was Anon.
Childhood friend calling—do you dare answer?