Raize and Shirogane walked into the school, drawing strange looks from most students and malicious glee from some.
Raize was no longer the same as before. He was now very sensitive to others' gazes and remembered clearly those who showed schadenfreude.
He disliked the school atmosphere here. Although his grades were excellent, his aloof personality meant he had few friends. With his family's tragedy, it was no surprise that these people had found out.
Raize himself had experienced group bullying at school. With a personality unchanged from his previous life, he never tolerated such things and always retaliated fiercely.
Whether it was dirtying his indoor shoes or sabotaging his desk, Raize's counterattacks were ruthless—dragging the culprit into a bathroom, forcing their head into a toilet, making them eat shit, then taking photos of their humiliation.
If they dared bring in outside forces, Raize and his father could always use money and connections to show them what real criminal power looked like.
For those whose behavior crossed the line, Raize wouldn't go too far—he'd simply use some methods to make them socially dead.
Raize's father had taught him that when facing others' bullying, he must never be weak. These people who understood petty etiquette but lacked true virtue would only learn respect once they were made to feel pain.
Raize's father had said these words, and after Raize personally experienced them before awakening his memories, he fully understood the truth behind them.
When you encounter despicable people who keep pushing their luck, you must make them understand how painful the price of taking one more step really is.
"A familiar place… but after awakening my memories, it feels like I've lost that youthful way of thinking."
Raize smoothly returned to his front-row seat by the window. He didn't look around at the clusters of students chatting in their little groups before class. Instead, he gazed out the window and let out a quiet sigh only he could hear.
Who wouldn't want to return to their youth? His own past youth was long gone. Now that his thinking had matured, Raize found high school life in Japan novel and interesting, but beyond that, he felt none of the restless excitement he once had.
The current him could no longer return to what he used to be.
After suffering disaster and emotional pain, even without awakening his past-life memories, his wounded heart would never be able to return to normal.
While Raize was staring out the window in a daze, the female classmate seated in front of him arrived at her seat.
She was one of the few people in school who could get along well with Raize—a beautiful blonde girl with refined features, Miura Yumiko.
"Good morning, Yotsuki-kun. Are your injuries okay now?"
Yumiko sat down in front of Raize and greeted him in a familiar manner.
"You look kind of spaced out, like you're not in great spirits."
"Good morning…" Raize replied politely. Addressing the popular queen of the class, he said, "I need some time to steady my emotions lately. You can probably guess my situation if you ask around."
Raize and Yumiko could be considered friends in class. This girl was among the top-tier girls in both the class and the school. Although her attitude could be strong at times, Raize felt she was someone who truly cared about her friends. Her heart was far gentler than her outward toughness suggested.
Because Raize was excellent academically, Yumiko had once asked this boy—who firmly occupied the unshakable first place in both class and grade—to tutor her.
Thanks to Raize's help, Yumiko never fell behind in her studies and consistently maintained a high level.
There were rumors that Raize was unsociable, withdrawn, and even a delinquent.
Yumiko scoffed at such foolish rumors. If he was a delinquent, then let them try getting first place in the grade every single time. When interacting with Raize, he was nothing like the rumors described.
Although he was somewhat cold, he was still perfectly capable of holding a conversation.
Later, after learning the truth through her social circle, Yumiko found out that Raize had simply retaliated harshly against those who tried to bully him. Those who had been taught a lesson and didn't dare confront him directly could only slander him behind his back.
Yumiko despised such cowardly behavior. As repayment for Raize helping her with her studies, she made sure that, at least within most girls' circles at school, there were no negative rumors about Raize.
As for the boys who had been pulling dirty tricks, under Yumiko's interference, they could forget about having any romantic prospects during their three years of high school.
Within the girls' circle, they were effectively socially dead. At the very least, after Yumiko spread the word, no one would like those psychologically twisted cowards who couldn't win face-to-face and resorted to underhanded schemes.
"Something like that really is hard to deal with," Yumiko said quietly. "But I hope you can pull yourself together. Even if my encouragement doesn't help much."
She had heard about what happened to Raize's family—an attack by ghouls that killed his family, leaving only him rescued alive.
If it were her, she probably wouldn't fare any better. Yumiko sincerely hoped Raize could recover and walk out of the shadows.
"How could it be useless? Being encouraged by the class's most popular girl already makes me feel much better."
Hearing her sincere concern, Raize smiled back. He always treated people who genuinely cared about him as true friends.
Raize had a very handsome appearance and was known in class as a cool, stoic type. After growing stronger through gaming, his skin had become smoother and fairer, further enhancing his looks.
Combined with the sunlight energy he absorbed from Plants vs. Zombies, he now carried a warm and comforting aura.
When he smiled, he resembled Minato Namikaze from Naruto. At the very least, Yumiko's fair cheeks faintly reddened before she quickly turned around, avoiding looking at Raize behind her.
Because Raize disliked the atmosphere of Japanese schools, he seemed aloof, and few people had ever seen him smile.
Now, Yumiko truly realized that when this guy smiled, he was even more bright and warm than Hayama Hayato, whom she liked.
"Since when did you, of all people, become so smooth-tongued? You actually dare tease me!?"
Yumiko's embarrassed voice reached Raize's ears as she faced away from him. Realizing she might have shown her flustered side, how could she not feel embarrassed?
Raize shrugged helplessly, not taking her embarrassment to heart. The old Raize, who wasn't good at communication, might not have said such things, but the current Raize had evolved both inside and out.
"How is it smooth talk? I'm just telling the truth. Compared to a loner like me, you really are the popularity queen."
"Shut up! Don't say things like popularity queen!"
Yumiko retorted unreasonably, telling Raize to stop. She knew she was popular and pretty, but hearing it said so bluntly was still embarrassing.
"I've noticed you really changed after coming back, Yotsuki-kun. Did your smart brain also take a heavy hit?"
Indeed, he had changed a lot. In the past, Yumiko had never seen Raize smile or casually joke with her like this.
The shift in Raize's aura—from cold and distant to warm and comforting—was far too sudden, leaving the blonde queen feeling a bit unsettled.
"Yeah, my head took a heavy hit and I awakened memories from my past life," Raize replied seriously, as if telling the truth.
Hearing that, Yumiko fell silent for a moment, then turned around and looked Raize up and down before nodding.
"I'm sure now—you really did change. You never used to joke around with me like this."
She didn't believe his explanation, but she was convinced that Raize had indeed undergone a significant change.
Logically, after experiencing something like that, she expected Raize to become even more silent and cold. The result was somewhat unexpected.
Still, the change wasn't bad. At least for someone like Yumiko, who cared about Raize, this was acceptable—as long as he didn't become emotionally closed off.
Class soon began. The balding teacher glanced at Raize before starting the lecture.
After listening for a bit, Raize lost interest and opened his system interface.
Other games were still loading, so he shifted his attention to large-scale games like League of Legends and Dungeon Fighter Online.
Flipping through the list, his gaze landed on titles like Dies Irae, Asura's Wrath, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, and Dragon Ball Xenoverse.
However, all these game icons were grayed out and couldn't be opened.
The system explained that he needed to gather energy to restore her before unlocking these high-power games.
Unlocking even one of these would grant Raize immense strength, enough to establish himself firmly in this world.
The highest-tier energy source was the soul. When the system mentioned this, Raize immediately set his sights on the ghouls of this world.
If he had to slaughter that disgusting cannibal race on a large scale, Raize wouldn't feel a shred of guilt. Total extermination would be best.
Don't tell him there are many kind-hearted ghouls—that's something only idiots full of crap would believe. As long as Raize was human and they were man-eaters, whether they were good or not didn't matter. Kill them, plain and simple.
The second method was collecting wish power from the related games. According to the system, wish power was the emotional attachment and faith people had toward a game, which the system could convert into energy to repair herself.
So how do you make people develop feelings and faith toward the games Raize needed?
Simple. During this era when games and anime were still scarce, Raize planned to create those games himself to collect wish power and faith.
His late father had left him a mid-sized game company in Japan, and his deceased mother had been a manga artist with the necessary skills and connections.
First, he would draw manga suitable for adaptation into games, like Dragon Ball and Naruto, collecting the initial wave of wish power and faith.
Then, he would release related games—like Dragon Ball Xenoverse and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm—to collect the latter half of that power.
Raize felt somewhat ashamed about copying works from his past life. He had his own sense of pride, and doing something like this felt like theft.
But to grow stronger, he had no choice. He resolved that at worst, he'd donate the money earned this way to people in need.
Power was one thing, but profiting financially through such means really made him feel unworthy.
Besides, he wasn't short on money anyway. His backpack was already filled with Mario-world coins and gold mines.
He had already prepared a game development plan at home and intended to proceed steadily, step by step.
First, he would build up the reputation of the ordinary game company his father left him, then gradually advance his larger plan.
---
At noon, during the lunch break when students ate their bento, Raize quickly finished his meal and went to Hiratsuka to share his idea.
"So, you want to create a game club? Ah, right—your dad was in the game industry. That makes sense."
Hiratsuka looked at Raize and the club application form in her hand. Japanese school life was rich and varied; from junior high to university, schools offered numerous clubs.
Their importance could rival academic performance, and employers often asked about club participation after graduation.
This high school had all kinds of clubs—if you could imagine it, it probably existed.
However, there was no game club here. Most students who made it into this school prioritized academics. Playing games in free time was fine, but making them was unlikely.
There was, however, an anime club composed of students who liked anime and manga.
"Then, could I ask you to be our club advisor, Shizuka-sensei?"
Raize invited the teacher he trusted most at school—the responsible woman who appeared cold on the outside but was warm within.
After his request, Hiratsuka showed a troubled expression.
"I'd really like to agree, but I'm already an advisor for another club. And to establish a club, you need at least four members, including yourself."
It wasn't that she didn't want to help; she was already committed elsewhere.
She knew Raize well—stubborn, decisive, and reliable, just like his father.
She would've liked to be his advisor, especially to look after such a tragic child.
"I can handle the member count. That's not a problem. May I ask which club you're advising?"
When she declined, something clicked in Raize's mind. If he guessed right, she was the advisor of the Service Club.
And that was likely at the request of Yukinoshita Yukino's sister, Yukinoshita Haruno, to look after her immature younger sister.
This was why Hiratsuka felt conflicted. She cared about both Raize and Yukino.
Raize never caused her trouble, but Yukino's stubbornness was no weaker than Raize's obsession.
If she weren't from the Yukinoshita family, that personality would cause serious trouble once she entered society.
Hiratsuka didn't hide the truth and told Raize honestly that she was the advisor of Yukino's Service Club.
Raize inwardly thought, as expected. He decided not to make things difficult for her. Yukino really did need Hiratsuka's care at school.
He planned to look for another teacher instead. With his excellent grades, he was acquainted with other teachers as well.
Just as Raize was about to say goodbye, Hiratsuka paused, seemingly coming up with an idea, and called him back.
"Wait a moment, Raize. Come with me to the Service Club."
"Shizuka-sensei, why are you taking me there?" Raize was confused.
"Just come. If it works out, I can still be your advisor."