"I'm sorry... can you help me up?"
The black-haired girl nervously clutched Sora's shirt corner, pleading in humiliation.
Her knee really hurt.
She had secretly tried just now and completely couldn't stand up.
More importantly, she saw clearly the girls walking over. They happened to be her classmates, and one of them was remarkably warm-hearted...
Seeing her fall to the ground, they would definitely help her up, wouldn't they?
If the secret of the tail was exposed, it would likely be treated as gossip and spread around. When that happened, her life would definitely turn into a complete mess, right?
In her panic, the black-haired girl could only seek help from the boy she was meeting for the first time, like a drowning person desperately trying to grasp the last straw in front of her.
"Where did that chunibyo, sharp-tongued girl from just now go?"
Looking at the panicking girl asking for help, Sora couldn't help but quietly complain internally.
Why did you suddenly turn into a pitiful, weak catgirl!
"Give me your hand."
Sora remained expressionless, extending his right hand to the chunibyo girl sitting on the ground.
When someone was in trouble, helping out in passing when it was within one's capability, most people presumably wouldn't refuse.
"Thank you..."
The chunibyo girl thanked him in a low voice, nervously grabbing Sora's right hand, and leveraged his strength to stand up.
At the moment their skin touched, a chibi-style game interface suddenly popped up in front of Sora's eyes:
[You have captured a wild Witch.]
[Detected that the magical impurities inside the Witch's body exceed the warning line. Auto-purification has been activated. Please maintain an intimate state...]
A... Magical Girl?
His breathing paused slightly, yet Sora didn't reveal the slightest strange expression on his face, as if nothing had happened.
The reason he was so calm was that this thing in his mind had appeared half a year ago.
Half a year ago, his father remarried. While on their honeymoon trip with his stepmother, who brought her daughter along, the plane tragically crashed. His stepsister, Sagiri, who shared no blood relation with him, collapsed entirely, locking herself in her room and refusing to ever come out. He had also suffered a tremendous blow. In a daze, he accidentally awakened the memories of his past life.
Besides that, a 'Special Ability' had simultaneously awakened.
A game panel existing within his soul.
Witch Cultivation Mobile Game.
That was an idle mini-game he had played in his past life. He never expected that after reincarnating, it would actually turn into a magical, visible game panel in his mind.
Unfortunately, many functions of the game panel were greyed out. Sora had tried every possible method but couldn't unlock them. Only the single proficiency panel remained usable.
As time passed, Sora gave up on unlocking the other functions and wholeheartedly began to grind various life skills.
Studying LV5.
Cooking LV4.
Housework LV2.
Literary Master LV1.
Light Novel Writing LV3.
Game Design LV2...
In his past life, driven by interest, he had created two small indie games for his own amusement, so he had some experience.
Light Novel Writing was his hobby before awakening his reincarnation memories. Unfortunately, the level wasn't high, so the works he wrote naturally weren't very popular.
Sora's main goal now was to grind Game Design, aiming to produce a low-budget, high-yield indie game that would preferably sweep the globe.
He had no choice; he really needed money right now.
His aunt's husband had racked up a massive amount of loan shark debt due to gambling and had already committed suicide by burning charcoal, leaving only his aunt gritting her teeth and struggling to carry on, suffering extreme hardship.
Since his father had passed away in the plane crash, his aunt was his last remaining blood relative in this world. Now that his aunt was in a desperate situation, he wanted to help no matter what.
Although I had the grinding panel before, the speed of ability improvement was still slow...
Sora looked down at the chunibyo girl in front of him:
But now, it's secured!
According to the setting of the Witch mini-game, after helping a Witch purify magical impurities, he could obtain a certain amount of experience points.
Experience points had many uses. Not only could they be used to level up himself, but they could also be used to upgrade various basic abilities... Now, aside from painstakingly grinding, he had unlocked another method to level up his abilities. It was undoubtedly a monumental stroke of good luck.
Not only that.
As his intimacy level with a Witch increased, the ratio of experience points gained would also increase. When intimacy reached a certain level, he could even copy the other party's abilities.
A wild Magical Girl?
This was clearly a treasure girl, okay!
He would gain experience points and rapidly grow stronger by helping her purify magical impurities, and she could rid herself of the troubles caused by those impurities.
A win-win!
It had to be a win-win!
"Please take me to the roof..."
The chunibyo girl spoke softly, her eyes nervously glancing at the girls behind them.
PE class was about to start. The locker room would definitely be bustling with people soon, so she had to hide and wait until there were fewer people before going to change... The secret of the tail absolutely couldn't be exposed no matter what!
"Let's go."
Having discovered the other party's Witch identity, Sora naturally intended to help all the way to the end.
A moment later.
"Phew..."
Arriving on the empty rooftop, Gokou Ruri finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Dangerous.
That was way too dangerous just now.
While she was changing clothes in the women's locker room, she suddenly felt an itch on her back. Turning her head to look, a tail had actually grown out of thin air.
And there were other girls changing clothes in the room! In a panic, Ruri could only flee out the door, only to crash directly into Izumi Sora.
Although she didn't know why she had grown a tail, if the secret was exposed, her life would definitely turn into a complete mess, wouldn't it?
She might even be captured by weird organizations and locked up for all sorts of terrible research...
Ruri quickly shook her head, burying all kinds of nervous thoughts deep in her heart. Then, she raised her eyes to look at Sora, suppressing her nervous emotions as her small hand secretly exerted force, trying to withdraw it:
"I am the Witch of the Night, a traveler wandering through endless worlds. Seeing that you lent a helping hand, I can give you a boon later... y-you can let go of me now."
Sora's face remained exactly the same, showing no change in expression whatsoever:
"Don't wait until later, give me the boon right now."
The girl in front of him was highly likely just in the late stages of chunibyo, but the tail under her skirt, as well as the prompts from the game panel, wouldn't lie. In short, she definitely wasn't an ordinary person.
"Eh?"
The ahoge on top of the chunibyo girl's head trembled in panic. She lightly bit her lower lip:
"The boon is in my schoolbag, I can't get it right now... I'll give it to you after we leave the roof."
Sora stated expressionlessly:
"We don't have contact information, and I don't even know your name. Once we leave the roof, we'll definitely never see each other again, right?"
"I..." The chunibyo girl opened her pink lips, introducing herself softly. "I am Gokou Ruri, a student in Class 1-B... I won't forget the boon I promised you. You can come find me in my classroom, so hurry up and let go, be careful my magic power doesn't hurt you."
It's actually Kuroneko?
Sora finally dropped the poker face, slightly revealing a hint of surprise.
However, thinking of his shut-in sister Sagiri, he quickly felt relieved.
He had realized earlier that he had reincarnated into a crossover anime world. Meeting Kuroneko wasn't strange at all.
It seemed she was a chunibyo girl who had acquired a special ability, rather than a Witch traveling from another world. At this thought, Sora immediately lost interest in the 'boon', his voice sounding faint:
"Ruri, you don't want the secret of your tail exposed either, right?"
"Ehhhhh?"
Hearing such terrible dialogue, Ruri instantly widened her eyes in panic.
This line... is a standard plot development in the eroge!
Have I actually encountered an evil Orc?
I-I definitely won't let you succeed easily!
"..."
Looking at the visibly panicked chunibyo girl, Sora didn't waste words, getting straight to the point:
"I can solve the 'tail' anomaly on your body."
"Meow?"