[Word count: 542/5,000]
On the way to school, Shiryu looked at the system screen with a thoughtful expression.
Only he could see it, so there was no need to worry about people walking past him seeing the existence of the system.
According to the explanation of the system in his house, one of the requirements to get a reward was to reach 5,000 words, and after everything he wrote in the diary before.
He had only reached just over 500 words.
"This feeling of urgency... If only I had more than a day, I could get more rewards."
Shiryu was confident he could finish 5,000 words before the Rage virus spread to the community, but he was not confident in getting more than one reward with enough quality content.
He was a little depressed because of that.
In his mind, the more rewards in the form of super abilities from the system, the more security he would have when the time came.
"Yo, Shiryu."
"....."
"Shiryu?"
"....."
"Oi!"
The shout made Shiryu flinch, he turned his head to the side only to see a boy he recognized.
It was his classmate, Junichi Hashiba.
Speaking of him...
Shiryu suddenly remembered something and his eyes lit up.
"Junichi, good job for appearing in front of my sight this time."
Otherwise, he would have forgotten about him because he was not in the target group of people he was going to talk about.
They had known each other for more than two weeks at school, it was no exaggeration to call him a friend.
"Huh? Wh-What's wrong with you?" Junichi looked at Shiryu in confusion, he stammered due to his low self-esteem and worried that his attitude towards this classmate might be too familiar.
Suddenly, he regretted greeting him in front of the school gate.
But Shiryu complimented me. I should have done something nice, right?
Junichi thought like that.
Shiryu pretended to take a book from his school bag, even though he was actually summoning a diary from the system.
"What's wrong with me? It's nothing. By the way, good morning. Let's walk to class together."
This was the first time he was being proactive to his friend on this one.
Junichi felt that something was wrong with Shiryu, but he was happy to hear what he had to say.
"Morning! And yes, let's go to class together. But Shiryu, what are you writing? Is it your new novel?"
He knew about the identity of the author of Shiryu's novel.
After all, Shiryu had never hidden his identity as a popular novelist.
Other than Junichi, his other classmates also knew about it.
"Yeah, I suddenly got an idea and wanted to write it down so I wouldn't forget. So be quiet for a while and don't talk to me, okay?"
"Eh, okay."
Junichi understood and walked silently beside him.
Shiryu started writing again in his diary and distracted the heroines.
That was because at the same time, copies of the diary appeared in front of each of them.
[I made the right choice to come to school. Before I passed through the school gates, someone whose identity was interesting even took the initiative to greet me.]
[This boy is my classmate, Junichi Hashiba. He himself doesn't know, but he's a romantic comedy protagonist from an anime I watched in a previous life.]
Sorry, what you're saying is becoming more nonsensical.
Shiryu, you previously talked about a terrifying plague that will appear in 28 hours.
Now you're saying there's a romantic comedy protagonist from an anime in the real world?
And what do you mean about his previous life?
The heroines including Saeko had a lot of question marks over their heads.
[Before I continue. Did I mention I'm a reincarnated person? I originally wanted to keep this a secret, but at this point... It doesn't really matter.]
Shiryu knew about the golden rule for people like him, he was supposed to keep his reincarnation a secret just so that people wouldn't think too much because of it.
But it would be easier to explain why he knew someone like Junichi was the protagonist of an anime.
He had thought about it several times. What would the holders of copies of his diary do if they found out he was a reincarnated person?
The answer was nothing.
Especially when a plague was about to throw a country into chaos. The heroines might think of relying on him.
And the system had also told him that whoever held a copy of his diary would not be able to tell anyone else about its contents.
Except for him and the other diary copy holders.
In other words, there was nothing to worry about just because of that.
The heroines: "!?"
They were certainly surprised to learn Shiryu was a reincarnated person and had such knowledge from his previous life.
But as Shiryu thought, they didn't really care about that. Now many of them were curious if everything he said was true?
Since there were protagonists in the real world, weren't there also heroines?
They were suddenly worried whether they were...
[Although I know there are many protagonists and heroines I know from my previous life. I know in this world, they are all real and living people.]
Those words made the heroines who had thought they were characters whose life paths had been decided by the author relieved.
It was just a small worry of course. They themselves knew they were real people and would argue if Shiryu said otherwise.
[Back to the previous topic. Junichi makes me a little jealous. In the original work, since he is the protagonist of a romantic comedy, he would naturally be surrounded by beautiful girls who are the heroines.]
[I can't remember what their names are. But Junichi was very lucky, even though he was not very handsome and a person with a strong sense of inferiority. Besides interacting with me in class, he also often plays with the perverted trio at school and watches pornography with them.]
[One day, he will have a very beautiful girlfriend with blonde hair and a very good figure. He got her only because of a misunderstanding as expected of a romantic comedy protagonist.]
[His friends put a fake love letter in Junichi's name in the locker of a popular girl at school named Yukana. Because of this, the two of them meet at the school's back building.]
[Junichi was forced to confess because of his friends even though he didn't love Yukana and only lusted after her body. What confused me was that Yukana had caught Junichi watching pornography with his friends and disliked him for it, but she actually accepted his confession and became his girlfriend.]
"???"
The heroines were stunned for a moment.
What the hell? That boy named Junichi is really lucky!
He deserves to be the protagonist of a romantic comedy for being able to get a beautiful girlfriend in such a way.
Still, what was wrong with the head of the girl named Yukana?
She knows Junichi is a perverted boy and doesn't like him at first. Even so, she still accepted his confession.
Many of them shook their heads, this girl seemed to have brain problems.
Shiryu closed his diary and put it back into his school bag.
"Is it finished? It was quite long." Junichi said.
They were still walking, but still hadn't gotten to their classes because Tokyo Metropolitan Academy was very spacious.
After all, it was a public school built by the government with a budget that could only be said to be very generous.
All the facilities in this school were even more expensive than the schools of the rich like Shuichiin Academy.
However, unlike Shuichiin Academy, this school was for people from low-class, middle-class and high-class families.
As long as your grades in junior high were good enough, you could join this school and the tuition fees were only slightly more expensive than the average school.
But for Junichi, it was worth it because there were many beautiful girls in this school. It was not in vain for him to beg his parents to let him attend Tokyo Metropolitan Academy.
"It's thanks to you, Junichi. You give me a lot of inspiration."
"Really? I'm glad I could help you."
Shiryu smiled placing his hand on the protagonist's shoulder, "Junichi, you are my friend so as your friend, may I give you an advice?"
"Of course."
Junichi was a little excited that Shiryu actually considered him his friend. That was because except for him, his other friends were a perverted trio that made his other classmates often look at him with disgust.
Only Shiryu had so far never looked at him with disdain or avoided him like the others.
"I overheard your friends talking and they seem to have a wicked idea. They want to put a fake love letter in your name in the locker of one of the popular girls in our school."
"What?!" Junichi was shocked and his expression became ugly.
With his low self-esteem, he couldn't help but think that confessing to a popular girl in school was a punishment for him.
He immediately thought he would be rejected and would only embarrass himself.
"I don't want you to embarrass yourself because of them. My advice is that you should refuse if they tell you to wait behind the school building or other places alone."
"T-They're going to set me up, right?" Junichi could imagine his perverted friends doing that.
Then a popular girl appeared carrying a love letter with his name in it, he then looked at him with disgust and he would humiliate him on the spot.
Damn it!
Shiryu nodded with a serious expression on his face, "That's right. If that happens, you'd better pretend to go somewhere else."
"Shiryu... Thank you. I'll do as you say."
Junichi was touched that Shiryu told him all that.
He really was a good friend!
Soon, they arrived at their class, class 1-D.
After saying good morning to his other classmates, and receiving good morning back from them, he sat in his seat which was in the penultimate row.
Aside from Junichi, there were also interesting people in his class who were qualified to be gossiped by him.
One of them was a beautiful girl with long black hair who sat next to him.
Unusually, her well-proportioned figure suddenly shifted towards him and she looked at him with a pair of blood-red eyes.
There was a 'gentle' smile on her face.
"Shiryu-kun."
"Yes, Kashi-san?"
Her name is Yui Kashi, she is the girl with the highest popularity in her class.
She had a good personality, was friendly and did well in school. Almost all of her classmates trusted her and had a good relationship with her.
However, Shiryu was one of the few exceptions in the class.
It wasn't that he was not popular and disliked like Junichi and his perverted friends. It was just that, he always kept his distance so that he did not get too close to anyone and put up an invisible wall around him.
Usually, he was only polite to his classmates and always declined their invitations to play after school.
That was so he could focus on writing novels and making money.
At least in the past, now making money was no longer his top priority in this life.
"You seem to have a good relationship with Junichi-kun."
"Junichi? He's my friend, of course we have a good relationship."
Shiryu smiled, there was also another reason why he had previously kept his distance to some extent with Yui even though they were sitting next to each other.
He took out his diary again and picked up a pen just then.
Yui was stunned for a moment, not just because of the familiar-looking book in Shiryu's hand. But because this was the first time she saw him smile that wide at her. In the past, he always smiled slightly and didn't seem to like her as much as his other classmates.
She was a bit annoyed because of that and often thought why Shiryu didn't become her dog like the others?
Did he not like girls?
That made sense.
If he was normal, he couldn't possibly dislike her.
But now...
Yui had to admit that this boy sitting next to her was so handsome, she could understand why many girls in the class secretly liked him and nicknamed him Prince.
It was because aside from his face, he had very fair skin and shiny red hair that was cut short with sharp bangs that shadowed his sky blue eyes.
Yui's gaze involuntarily fell on Shiryu's collarbone which was slightly visible because one button of his shirt was unbuttoned.
She couldn't help but think it was beautiful.
"Kashi-san? Your gaze is a bit scary now. Is there something on my face or chest?"
Shiryu slightly backed away as if he was scared while holding his diary.
"Ah!" Yui gasped and her cheeks flushed slightly, she glared at Shiryu with her blood-red eyes but as if remembering something, she immediately returned to her gentle and friendly self. "Nothing. Shiryu-kun, don't misunderstand. I... I was just too embarrassed to ask if everything you said in your diary was true?"
She didn't try to hide that she was also one of the owners of a copy of his diary.
But in her heart, she cursed Shiryu.
Was she so scary?
She was a very beautiful girl and clearly one of the heroines of this world. Instead of being afraid, Shiryu should be happy that she was looking at him like that.
Hmph!
Shiryu refrained from rolling his eyes, he widened his eyes for a moment before saying calmly, "Whether it's true or not, you'll see it tomorrow. Or rather about 25 hours from now."
Yui was not satisfied with such an answer and was about to ask again.
But he interrupted her by saying, "Wait a moment."
"...?"
At this moment, she saw for herself how Shiryu wrote in his diary.
[A heroine from the same anime as Junichi, Yui Kashi was the first to directly admit that she had a copy of my diary.]
[She asked me if everything I wrote in the diary was true? This girl... She clearly doesn't believe that tomorrow there will be chaos because of a virus in this country and it's spreading as fast as a fire burning a field.]
[Let me guess, she's asking just because she's curious about Junichi. She wants to know if he's going out with another girl because she's jealous.]
[After all, Yui has had a crush on Junichi since junior high school but because of her personality that is nice on the outside and narcissistic on the inside, she is also manipulative, unstable and even thinks the world revolves around her. All this time, she was content to see Junichi around her as if he was her dog and she was his owner.]
[However, that was why when Yukana dated Junichi. She was sad and could only bite her finger in envy. But as if that wasn't enough to show how sad she was, she even helped Junichi by giving him love advice so that his relationship with Yukana would get better.]
[After that, she would cry alone in her bedroom. One day, she would venture to ask Junichi out on a date but she was rejected which made her even sadder.]
[So, she secretly dressed up as an idol with two-tailed red hair named Mistress BoA who live-streamed under that pseudonym to vent her struggles and frustrations without consequences and collected financial donations from her followers online.]
[Heh... On the bright side, she was able to make a lot of money because of that.]
Not only did Shiryu know she had a crush on Junichi since junior high, he also knew her ugly true nature. And in the future, since Junichi refused to date her, she vented her frustration by becoming a livestreamer.
How is that possible?!
Wait, she had been watching an anime with her as one of the heroines in it.
Yui was dumbfounded and stared at the copy of Shiryu's diary in her hand with fear, she kept her head down and did not dare to look at the boy sitting beside her.
The other heroines: "....."
They were stunned that this girl named Yui had personality problems. Are all heroines like this? They are not normal!
"Kashi-san, I'm done. We can continue our conversation." Shiryu closed his diary and said softly to the girl beside him.
Hiss!
Yui hissed in her heart, she turned her head with an awkward expression and a smile that was more fake than ever.
Shiryu knew her secret, she was afraid of him telling others about it. Hm? Come to think of it he had just written down her secret in his diary.
That means the other holders of copies of her diary also know her secret, right?
It's over! My public image as a good girl will be ruined!
Yui cried in her heart.
"Shiryu-kun, you..."
At that moment, the teacher entered the classroom to start the first lesson.
She swallowed back her words.
For this matter, it was better for them to talk about it privately in a quiet place during recess.
Yui thought about this.
Shiryu also returned to staring at the front of the class like a good student.
Time passed and he sometimes wrote every random, but quite interesting thing in his diary.
At least it was still related to the protagonists and heroines like Junichi and Yui.
He did it to fill up the word count as much as possible.
Yui bit her lip, she refrained from swearing and often glared at Shiryu as he kept writing how pathetic she was in his diary.
At lunch break.
Before Yui could take Shiryu somewhere.
"Excuse me, is there a student named Shiryu Sou in this class?"
"That's me."
Shiryu pointed to himself, there was surprise on his face.
Standing at the entrance of her class, there was a beautiful purple-haired girl with a slender and wavy figure that made the male students in the class couldn't help but glance at her.
Then, all of them including Junichi looked at him enviously.
"Shiryu, aren't you becoming more popular these days?"
"That's right, she even talked a lot with Kashi-san this morning."
"This pretty girl... I remember, she was the most popular senior in third year. That was Saeko Busujima!"
"Shiryu, I envy you!"
"Damn! Shiryu, have you finally decided to show your true colors?"
"Riajuu, explode!"
(A/N: Riajuu is a Japanese slang term that means a person who is content and living a good real life, usually with a healthy social life, friends, and love relationships.)
"....." Shiryu was sure he wasn't Riajuu.
Yui and Saeko took the initiative to approach him because of the things he wrote in his diary.
But hey, there was no way he was saying this to his classmates.
He ignored them and Yui who looked annoyed, and walked towards Saeko. From an anime he watched in his previous life, he recognized her identity and appearance.
"Saeko-senpai, you wanted to talk to me?"
"Yes... You are Shiryu-kun? I didn't expect you to recognize me as well."
Seako was slightly surprised but quickly calmed down.
Was she also one of the heroines?
She guessed this.