In this unfamiliar city, even if you knew the exact address of a place, finding it without a phone's GPS would be quite difficult.
Shirai Mio was fortunate to have the System's guidance, which led her to her temporary residence.
A high-end apartment building.
Mio looked up at this upscale, luxurious apartment complex and couldn't help but say to the System, "Your newbie benefits package is pretty damn good."
"The newbie benefits are randomly selected. The host simply got lucky," the System replied, its tone sounding somewhat displeased.
When the System was unhappy, Mio was naturally delighted.
A pleased smile curved at the corners of her lips as she used the access card to open the main entrance and walked inside.
The temporary residence Mio had drawn was on the twelfth floor, room 1203.
After smoothly unlocking the apartment door with her key, what appeared before Mio's eyes was an exquisitely decorated living room. On the coffee table sat a suitcase.
"Inside this suitcase are the documents the host needs for normal living, along with your startup funds."
Mio opened the suitcase. Besides various documents, it contained 200,000 yen in cash and a bank card with 300,000 yen deposited.
A total of 500,000 yen (around $3,300, with the exchange rate at roughly 150 yen to 1 dollar)—not exactly a fortune.
Thank goodness she wouldn't need to pay a single yen for this place for an entire year. Otherwise, with just this meager amount of startup capital, she wouldn't last long at all.
Although completing System tasks might reward her with money, choosing monetary rewards over abilities that could improve herself felt like a complete waste.
So she still needed to find a job that could earn money.
Speaking of work, the first thing that came to Mio's mind was her profession before transmigrating: actress.
However, she quickly dismissed that idea. While she could easily become an actress with her current looks and acting skills, without any connections, she might audition today and find her "work" searchable online in a few days.
The R-rated kind.
What about becoming a literary plagiarist, like in those transmigration and reincarnation novels?
Before transmigrating, she'd read quite a few novels. Even if she couldn't remember all the details, she still had a general impression of the plots. She'd just need to fill in the details herself.
She'd never written novels before, but maybe she could give it a try.
If worst came to worst, she could borrow the System's power.
Making money—nothing shameful about that.
But before attempting it, she needed to thoroughly research the relevant information. She didn't want to create some embarrassing blunder that would be impossible to fix.
Mio's current goal was to stabilize her life without becoming anyone's girlfriend, and then consider other matters.
Not every transmigrator could find their purpose immediately upon arrival—at least she couldn't.
After thoroughly searching the suitcase and confirming nothing was missed, Mio toured all the rooms in the apartment. In the master bedroom, she found a phone and a computer.
The phone number and everything had already been thoughtfully arranged by the System. As for the computer's specifications, Mio wasn't entirely sure, but the System claimed it was top-of-the-line.
If it said so, then so be it.
Finally, Mio found Sobu High School's uniform in the closet. Besides the uniform, there was only a white dress identical in style to the black dress she was currently wearing.
Looked like she'd need to find time to buy some clothes.
"Congratulations to the host for successfully finding all the newbie benefits! Don't you feel accomplished~"
"That's it? That's it? That's IT? I suspect you're looking down on me. I suggest hiding more stuff—I love searching for things."
"That's all the newbie benefits. If the host wants more items, this System suggests you complete more tasks~"
"Ha. Ha."
After Mio finished organizing everything from the suitcase, she sat directly at the computer and began surfing the internet to learn about this unfamiliar world, while also investigating the feasibility of writing novels.
Once she sat down, Mio stayed there until noon. If not for hunger reminding her it was time to eat, she might have continued sitting.
Through her internet surfing, Mio learned that this world wasn't fundamentally different from her original world. However, there were some minor differences—for instance, the Apple phones from before her transmigration had become Orange phones here, and the newbie benefits had gifted her the latest Orange model.
Besides that, she'd also found quite a few novels online that she'd read before—both Japanese and Chinese ones. Good thing she hadn't acted rashly, or she would've embarrassed all transmigrators.
Mio stood up and stretched lazily, her curvaceous figure fully displayed in that moment. Unfortunately, only the romance-impaired System could see it.
Everything in this one-year temporary residence was brand new, so naturally there were no ingredients in the refrigerator. Besides, Mio wasn't in the mood to cook right now, so she decided to go out, grab a bite somewhere, then come back and continue surfing the internet.
Before leaving, Mio figured Yuigahama Yui should be out of class by now, so she called to tell her she'd gotten home safely, and changed into her school uniform while she was at it.
Because the thin dress she was wearing had no pockets, she'd have to carry her phone, keys, and money in her hands—too troublesome.
Just then, the lurking System suddenly piped up: "To be fair, you could put your phone in your cleavage. The host definitely has the assets for it."
Mio instinctively looked down. It did seem feasible, but her integrity wouldn't allow her to do such a thing.
"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP. Don't normal systems come with built-in storage space? Why don't you have anything like that?"
"There are similar items in the general props category. Once the host completes enough tasks, you'll naturally encounter them."
The moment the System mentioned tasks, Mio immediately started playing dead. After all, she wasn't in some fantasy world—whether she had that kind of thing or not didn't matter much to her.
Since she was quite hungry, Mio found a nearby ramen shop. She hadn't expected much from this randomly chosen establishment, but surprisingly, the ramen tasted pretty good and the prices were reasonable.
After lunch, Mio didn't head straight home. Instead, she wandered aimlessly around the neighborhood, wanting to familiarize herself with the surroundings.
When Mio reached the entrance of a bookstore, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.
Because on the display rack at the bookstore entrance, she saw a book titled Love Metronome and the author's name: Kasumi Utako.
Wait, isn't this supposed to be the Oregairu timeline?
...