The filter of familiarity shattered with a snap.
If Asakusa Toru were to find Horikita Suzune right now, he'd probably see a diary flapping along behind her—patta patta—locking onto every moment when her hand was about to open it, then springing forward and leaping straight into her palm.
Just kidding.
The diary wasn't that cheap.
Even if you really tried to look, you'd probably only catch it suddenly refreshing into existence beside her hand in the blink of an eye.
Setting aside the diary's refresh mechanics…
Right now, Asakusa Toru was in an amazing mood.
Finding a reader on just the second day of school?
That was a massive win.
Honestly, Horikita Suzune was pretty interesting.
Sure, she was a bit too pure—
But that was exactly why she was great.
If she weren't pure, he wouldn't bother.
People like that were the most fun to mess with.
Just look at yesterday: he targeted her once in his diary and immediately squeezed out a White Gym membership card.
Sure, the story index helped, but Toru felt her emotional swings were just as important.
That said, he didn't plan to keep milking Suzune today.
Hitting the same person nonstop was a bit much.
Emotional fluctuations needed recovery time.
If you kept farming the same person, efficiency dropped.
"Heh heh heh heh heh~"
Tossing the recorder up and down in his hand, Asakusa Toru wasn't in a hurry to return to the dorm to write his diary.
He admitted that at noon, his hands had been itching badly and he really wanted to write again.
But after Suzune put on that whole performance, he actually felt less impatient.
…The real reason was that he had checked today's story index.
"C."
So low.
Honestly, he was a little disgusted.
He knew it couldn't stay high forever, but wasn't this drop way too fast?
…Was it because nothing important really happened today?
I refuse to accept that. How is the club orientation not important?!
Even if I thought it was boring, you could still count it as major plot!
A higher score wouldn't have hurt!
Although the difference between B and C wasn't huge, it somehow felt bigger than the gap between A and B.
But…
"The day before school beats the first day.
The first day beats the second…"
The diary clearly had its own system for judging importance.
With such a small sample size, he could only guess…
Maybe this "C" he looked down on now would be the peak of the entire month.
The reason was simple.
Nothing really happened in the first month at this school!
Running through the plot in his head, Toru suddenly realized that.
High school lasted three whole years.
If something happened every day, it would be way too dramatic.
Aside from special exams and vacations, most of the time was just classes.
And classes were boring.
No plot at all.
…Wait, will the story index drop even lower than C later?
A bad feeling crept up on him.
No, no, surely not.
Believe.
Just believe.
Then believe again.
And in the end, believe some more.
Belief needs no reason!
After calming himself a bit, Asakusa Toru went to the cafeteria to replenish his energy for later training in the White Gym.
Then he slowly returned to his dorm and took out the diary.
Alright.
Time to think about what to write.
The day before yesterday he targeted Kushida.
Yesterday he targeted Horikita and listed nicknames.
By logic, today he could just randomly pick one name and phone it in.
After all, a C-grade day wasn't very motivating.
But considering that the story index might stay low for a long time, he needed to be careful.
The diary had to be written every day.
The index was only one factor in the evaluation.
If he stopped putting effort in just because the score was low, he'd definitely miss out on rewards.
Still, it wasn't absolute.
You could write anything in a diary.
But content that was interesting, spoiler-filled, and emotionally stirring was limited.
There were only so many "tricks."
Once you used them up, you were done.
Asakusa Toru didn't want to bite a lighter.
So he needed to confirm one thing.
Was the story index just icing on the cake?
Or was it help in hard times?
…Or was it a massive multiplier?
After thinking for a long time, he picked up his pen and wrote today's diary.
[Good morning, freshmen of Advanced Nurturing High.
Another beautiful day today.
Uh, maybe not that beautiful.
I wonder if our little Sister-chan has found the impostor in her class yet.
Not holding out hope, but good luck anyway.
I haven't written that many diaries, but it feels like I'm always writing about you guys.
That seems a bit unfair, so today I'll finally write about myself!
April 2nd. Weather: Sunny.
Second day of school, and I'm starting to get scared.
Because there are way too many freaks in my class.
Let's not even talk about the legendary White Room masterpiece—those who know, know.
The fake who keeps pretending can wait for now. Let him keep acting.
Discount Yukino and Discount Hayama aren't worth talking about either. They're just bad.
But why is there even a two-faced one here?!
Big sis, I'm begging you, really.
This school is boring. Let's quit, okay?
You being here is terrifying!
I'm just a weak, pitiful, helpless, officially certified defective extra.
I can't mix with you monsters.
I actually wanted to introduce myself yesterday, but got interrupted.
Seriously, that redhead is awful!
I'm drawing a curse circle so he fails his exams.
…Sorry, I can't hold it anymore. I'm done pretending.
Actually, I'm a good student from Class A.
Sorry for pretending to be defective for so long.
I mean, think about it.
How would a Class D defective even know they're defective? Right?
Sigh. Poor defectives.
They don't even know what's coming.
But thinking about it, it's fine.
The school has their backs. They won't die.
Getting one month of dreamlike life is already worth it.
I really don't get why the school recruits defectives.
Raising bugs?
Using them as contrast samples?
Only through comparison can you highlight the quality products?
I'm not the school, I don't know. Let's call someone who does.
ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan, ALICE-chan—
(Crawling violently) (Twisting) (Convulsing) (Howling)
(Wriggling) (Sinister growling) (Dark crawling) (Screaming)]
Enjoyed these chapters? Access advanced chapters and exclusive content by visiting my Patreon. https://patreon.com/WillOFD129?