After school, at the Art Club's activity room.
Originally, Mio had planned to skip club activities today. After all, she still had that [Do As You Please] debuff on her, and the smartest move would've been to hole up in her room and become a soulless writing machine.
But thanks to unexpectedly obtaining the [Upgrade Card], she figured she'd come here and try her luck.
Sure, the odds were probably slim, but she still wanted to give it a shot.
People gotta have dreams, otherwise what's the difference between you and a salted fish?
The moment Eriri walked into the activity room and sat down, Mio approached her with a sweet smile, then leaned in close and whispered in a sugary voice right next to Eriri's ear: "Sawamura-san~"
"What do you want?" Eriri looked at her warily.
She'd already been misunderstood at lunch because she helped this girl out, and now she was at it again?
"It's nothing major, really. I just need to borrow your hand for a bit—five seconds, tops!"
"That's it?"
"That's it!"
Eriri hesitated for a moment but eventually extended her hand toward Mio. Without any hesitation, Mio grabbed it and silently activated the [Upgrade Card].
As a dazzling light that only Mio could see flashed before her eyes, a golden card appeared in her vision.
"Yes! I got it!"
She'd only been trying her luck with some superstitious nonsense, but she actually managed to randomly get [Schrödinger's Card].
After the upgrade, [Schrödinger's Card] now increased the level of randomly obtained cards by +1, and there was also a chance to randomly obtain even rarer one-time-use cards.
Even better than she'd expected.
Mio was so excited she almost wanted to grab Eriri and kiss her a few times to express how thrilled she was.
But the moment that thought popped up, she immediately emptied her mind. Good thing [Do As You Please] didn't trigger just now—otherwise, if she'd actually grabbed Eriri and kissed her in front of everyone, the fallout would've been explosive.
Meanwhile, seeing Mio holding her hand while grinning like an idiot, Eriri had every reason to suspect that this white-haired beauty had some kind of thing for her.
Just then, the club president standing not far away silently turned her gaze toward the two of them. Her thick glasses concealed eyes that were burning with the flames of yuri enthusiasm.
But soon, her gaze shifted to Mashiro Shiina.
If she remembered correctly, Mashiro and Mio seemed to have a pretty close relationship too. She often saw them going to and from school together, and rumor had it they even lived in the same apartment building.
The president felt like she'd stumbled onto something important.
Five seconds had long since passed. Mio realized she'd gotten a bit carried away. She lightly cleared her throat, quietly let go of Eriri's hand, and said, "That'll do. Thank you so much for your help, Sawamura-san."
"I'm really curious—what exactly did you need my hand for?" Eriri genuinely couldn't understand Mio's bewildering behavior.
All she did was hold her hand for a few seconds, and she was over there grinning like a total goofball.
"To recharge my energy, of course~"
"Recharge what energy?" Eriri asked instinctively.
Recharge my luck stat, obviously. But Mio didn't answer that question. She just flashed Eriri a sweet smile, then skipped back to her seat to begin the day's club activities.
Although she'd acquired drawing skills through the system, truly mastering them required long-term practice. That was why Mio had been consistently attending club activities.
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After club activities ended, Mio didn't head straight home with Mashiro like she usually did. Instead, she went to the supermarket and stocked up on a bunch of ingredients.
Today marked the official serialization debut of the manga she and Mashiro had collaborated on, so no matter what, they had to celebrate properly.
Besides the feast, Mio also specifically bought three copies of that issue of the manga magazine—for collection, for evangelizing, and for everyday use.
Honestly, if it were just her, Mashiro, and Chihiro-sensei, she wouldn't have needed to buy so many ingredients. But after hearing that Mio was making a big dinner, Hiratsuka-sensei insisted on coming over to mooch a meal.
So she ended up buying a bit extra.
When the two of them returned home loaded with bags, Mio was surprised to discover that besides Hiratsuka-sensei and Chihiro-sensei, there was one more person in the living room—none other than Yukinoshita Haruno, whom she'd just met yesterday.
Noticing Mio's surprised expression, Haruno smiled and said, "Does seeing me give my cute kouhai a pleasant surprise?"
Pleasant? No. Unpleasant surprise? Absolutely.
Though Mio wanted to say that, she still put on a happy face and greeted Haruno very politely.
Despite the sweet smile still on her face, Mio couldn't help but internally complain: Are college students in Japan really this free?
Actually, as long as no tasks were triggered, even if Haruno decided to move in here, it wouldn't matter to her.
She'd already completed two tasks today. Under normal circumstances, there probably wouldn't be any more tasks today, right?
To avoid raising any flags, Mio decided to stop thinking about anything task-related.
Pushing aside her wandering thoughts, Mio carried the ingredients into the kitchen and prepared to start making tonight's feast.
Just as she was about to tie on her apron and start cooking, a pair of hands suddenly took the apron strings from her and tied them for her.
At the same time, Haruno's voice came from right behind her: "I feel a bit guilty just standing around doing nothing, so let this senpai help out her cute kouhai~"
"Th-This kind of thing, I can handle it myself. How could I possibly trouble a guest like Senpai?" Mio turned around with feigned nervousness, facing the smiling Haruno before her.
She was trying to figure out what this beautiful scheming woman was up to. She didn't buy for a second that Haruno would come over just to help out of the goodness of her heart.
"I'm actually quite interested in cooking. I've heard Chihiro and Shizuka say your skills are pretty impressive, so I wanted to come learn a thing or two."
Since Haruno had already said that much, Mio couldn't really say anything more. Besides, having an extra pair of hands would definitely improve her cooking efficiency.
And it was right at that moment that the system's voice suddenly rang in Mio's ears.
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