Inside the classroom, after Raize returned to his seat, the previously noisy students instantly froze, as if someone had pressed a pause button. No one even dared to breathe loudly.
Hayama glanced at the empty seat where Tobe used to sit, then looked hesitantly at Raize's back. In the end, he sighed and said nothing.
When the balding teacher entered the classroom, he looked at the unusually quiet students with a strange expression, completely unable to understand why these energetic brats were so silent today.
"Today, a transfer student is joining our class. She's a returnee from overseas. Natsukawa-san, please come in."
The balding teacher adjusted his glasses as he spoke, then gestured to the exotic-looking girl outside the door.
A dazzling figure walked into the classroom, causing every student except Raize to freeze in surprise, regardless of gender.
This beautiful girl was truly eye-catching in appearance. It seemed the school would soon gain another school idol.
"My name is Natsukawa Masuzu. I just returned from abroad. I hope you'll all take good care of me during my high school life."
Masuzu wore a sweet smile that naturally made the students feel fondness toward her.
With her long silver hair and blue eyes, her looks easily earned full marks.
Her facial features were exquisitely refined, elf-like cheeks, snow-white skin, and lips moist like cherries. Her smile was extremely cute, giving off a special warmth and approachability.
Compared to Yukino's heart-stopping beauty, Masuzu possessed an "unbelievable beauty."
No matter how carefully crafted a doll might be, it couldn't compare. Rather than human, she was better described as a "gem."
After giving her appearance a brief glance, Raize focused his attention on the pink keychain attached to Masuzu's bag.
It was shaped like Kirby, a cute pink ball. Hanging from a beautiful girl's schoolbag, it fit surprisingly well.
There were no Kirby-style games in this world, and this image had never appeared widely before. Raize hadn't expected this girl, whom he'd only met once, to transfer to Sobu High, let alone carry what looked like a handcrafted keychain.
A young lady like her would normally attend Shuchiin Academy, following family arrangements.
"There are empty seats by the window in the back row, and… Tobe's seat is also empty. Natsukawa-san, you can choose whichever you like."
The balding teacher pointed at the vacant seats and let her decide.
Masuzu walked straight toward the back-row window seat.
Immediately, the boys in class focused their gazes on the two nervous boys seated in front of and beside her, filled with envy.
That reaction was normal. Even though there were no ugly girls in anime-style worlds, only a limited number of girls in class were truly top-tier. Compared to them, most were just average. Masuzu, however, was genuinely beautiful.
Raize lost interest after a single glance. Though Masuzu was pretty, he was a man who had witnessed divine-level beauty. H
Sei, waiting at home while gaming and preparing meals, surpassed Masuzu whether mature or youthful.
One was beauty within the mortal realm; the other belonged to the realm of gods. That sense of reassurance and emotional resonance was something Masuzu simply lacked.
Having his standards forcibly raised by Sei, Raize had complete resistance against girls like Masuzu or Yukino.
Besides, compared to beauty, he was far more interested in power.
That afternoon, when Raize arrived at the Service Club room, he had already received the finished versions of Devil May Cry 3 and Sekiro produced by Raiden Company. All that remained was testing and optimization before officially announcing completion.
All promotional materials were already prepared, personally supervised by him.
"Next is optimizing the game effects, making them even better and more perfect…"
With the system-granted knowledge related to game development, he could optimize even a garbage game into a high-quality product without consuming extra GPU memory.
In other words, even players with the lowest configurations could experience top-tier visuals as long as they could run the game.
Most importantly, it would run smoothly.
Many large games in his previous life pursued extremes, but no matter what, higher configurations were always required.
Most games followed this path, except for a certain Antarctic evil game that focused on copying and cash-grabs.
At the start, building a good reputation was essential. With solid word-of-mouth, as long as you didn't screw around or treat players like idiots, they would respond to your effort.
So he couldn't just copy things over. If he couldn't improve and surpass the originals, Raize felt it would be an insult to these classic masterpieces.
Both he and the system cared most about the wish power and faith generated through games. That was the core benefit.
So perfection was mandatory.
"Optimization complete!!"
After finishing optimization, Raize selected Devil May Cry 3 first.
In his past life, its graphics and impact were inferior to Devil May Cry 4 and 5, but in players' hearts, Devil May Cry 3 was undoubtedly a classic action game.
Now, after Raize's hands-on optimization, its visuals, effects, and action surpassed even Devil May Cry 6.
He was very satisfied.
Compared to his memories, the original could only be called a classic.
Now, it was a game infinitely close to a masterpiece.
In this evolving game industry, releasing such a game—with its visuals, effects, action, and smoothness—would be nothing short of a shock.
Raize started story mode. The loading screen flashed by instantly, running extremely smoothly. After the opening narration, he saw the iconic figure in his heart: the red-coated, white-haired, flamboyant youth, Dante.
He controlled the character with lifelike animations and silky-smooth movements. The impact felt even better than Devil May Cry 5.
With familiar mastery, Raize styled on enemies, pulling off flashy combos and pushing the rating to SSS.
This action game was playable by ordinary players, but for high-level players tackling harder difficulties, showing off was mandatory.
In Devil May Cry, if you weren't playing to look cool and stylish, the rating system was meaningless.
Raize skillfully controlled Dante, chaining uninterrupted combos, aerial juggles without touching the ground, switching seamlessly between Royalguard, Trickster, Swordmaster, and Gunslinger.
He tested performance seriously. During this time, Yukino came into the club room. Busy as he was, he merely nodded at her.
Whether she had been scared by his earlier actions or truly reflected on her behavior, Yukino didn't initiate conversation afterward.
Their relationship returned to mutual non-interference.
Not long after, Hiratsuka pushed open the Service Club door, dragging a dead-fish-eyed boy inside.
Raize paused the game. Continuing to play would be disrespectful to Hiratsuka.
He recognized the boy she brought—it was his classmate, Hikigaya Hachiman.
After Raize casually greeted Hiratsuka, Yukino frowned, slipped a bookmark into her paperback, and raised her head.
"Hiratsuka-sensei, how many times is this now? I believe I've told you to knock before entering."
Then she looked at Hikigaya beside her.
"And who is this dead-eyed, vacant-staring guy? Being stared at by those rotten eyes is really unsettling."
At their very first meeting, Hikigaya experienced Yukino's sharp tongue, even harsher than what Raize had faced.
The hostility wasn't aimed solely at him, but mainly at Hiratsuka's rough behavior. Hikigaya was just collateral damage.
Just as Hikigaya was wondering why that absurdly strong classmate of his was here, he got caught in Yukino's verbal crossfire, which made him quite annoyed.
Hey, I just walked in. What did I do to you?
"This is Hikigaya Hachiman. I brought him here today hoping he'll join your Service Club," Hiratsuka said.
She examined Raize and Yukino, then glanced at Hachiman and took a deep breath.
"As you can see, this guy's mindset is rotten and twisted. He's a pitiful loner."
Yukino glanced at Hikigaya's twitching eye and said impatiently, "Then wouldn't beating him up directly be faster?"
Hikigaya was even more displeased and turned to Hiratsuka. "Sensei, I never said I wanted to join some weird club!"
Hiratsuka shot him a sharp look and ignored his resistance.
"Then you're joining now. Your rotten mindset annoys me, so I'm going to fix that terrible attitude of yours!"
"And you're not allowed to object. I say it, you do it. Yes, that's exactly the dictatorship you're seeing!"
As Hikigaya broke out in cold sweat, she clenched the fist she'd just used to threaten his stomach, bones cracking audibly.
She then pointed at Raize, who was watching the show with interest, and sneered.
"You should know your classmate Yotsuki Raize, who's been quite famous recently, right?"
Hikigaya nervously looked at Raize's calm, smiling face, his throat bobbing.
He turned back to Hiratsuka, confused why she brought Raize up.
With a feral grin, she said, "I'm fairly close with Raize. If you refuse, you can choose between my fist and his. Pick one."
To give Hiratsuka some face, Raize raised both hands and clenched his fists, producing even louder cracking sounds than hers.
Having personally witnessed Raize punch a soccer ball apart, Hikigaya had no desire to choose Raize's fists. He would definitely be crippled.
In the end, Hikigaya nodded frantically like a pecking chicken, submitting completely to Hiratsuka's violent threat.
"So, Yukinoshita, I hope you can help fix this guy's outlook on life. At the very least, make him a bit more sociable. Can you do that?"
Watching the coordinated intimidation between Hiratsuka and Raize, Yukino picked up her book, shifted her chair closer to the window, and adopted a posture that clearly said she wanted nothing to do with this.
"I refuse, Hiratsuka-sensei. Just looking at those lecherous, evil eyes over there makes me feel extremely unsafe and repulsed. Simply being under the same roof as Yotsuki-kun, whose combat power alone already makes me feel insecure, is my absolute limit. If there's one more person, I won't be able to accept it, mentally or physically!"
Yukino shot a guarded glance at Raize, who was watching the show with interest, then turned to Hikigaya and crossed her arms in refusal.
What she said wasn't wrong. After learning about Raize's combat ability, she really did feel uneasy, and adding another person of unknown background—someone Hiratsuka herself described as having a rotten mindset—was too much.
Yukino expressed firm rejection.
"Haha, you're worrying too much, Yukinoshita. Raize wouldn't do anything violent to you. After these past few days, I think you know that. As for Hikigaya, it's just his way of thinking that's rotten. As a person, he's not bad. He's never done anything truly awful, and he won't."
The female teacher completely brushed off Yukino's resistance, patting her chest confidently as she vouched for both Raize and Hikigaya.
Hearing Hiratsuka's confident words, Yukino gave Raize a subtle glance. Although his combat power was off the charts, he really hadn't done anything bad to her.
That earlier incident had merely been a reminder to know her limits. After frightening her with his fist, he had even apologized right away.
It was clear that Raize wasn't some crude, violent brute.
After thinking for a moment, Yukino glanced at Hiratsuka and finally compromised.
"Fine. Since this is your request, sensei, I can't just ignore it. I accept."
She agreed somewhat reluctantly.
"Good. Then I'll leave this guy to you."
After settling Yukino, Hiratsuka looked at Hikigaya's ugly expression and spoke to him.
"Don't look like you're being sent to the execution grounds. Raize won't use violence casually."
With that, Hiratsuka flicked her coat and walked out, completely ignoring the visibly tense Hikigaya she left behind.
Won't use it casually doesn't mean he won't use it at all.
Hikigaya felt a deep sense of despair about his future high school life.