Knock, knock, knock...
"Kamijou! The sun is already high in the sky. Are you still sleeping? Even pigs are awake by now!"
Takahashi Yuuya hammered loudly on the steel door of Kamijou Touma's apartment.
"I'm coming, I'm coming! Are you trying to break my door down? And isn't it the weekend? Why are you up so early?"
The door creaked open. A spiky-haired boy stood there, looking utterly miserable. He was drenched in sweat, as if he had just run a marathon inside a sauna.
"The air conditioning broke again, didn't it? How can anyone sleep in this heat?" Yuuya said with a knowing smirk.
His eyes, however, weren't looking at Touma's face, but at the shimmering Supreme Treasure Chest icon floating above the boy's head. The unlock condition text scrolled across his vision.
[Ding! Congratulations to the Host for discovering a Supreme-Tier Treasure Chest.]
[Unlock Condition Triggered: Please inflict severe emotional damage on Kamijou Touma.]
Yuuya paused, his lips twitching slightly.
'What kind of unlock condition is that? Are you serious?'
'My system isn't a proper cheat, is it? It's pure malice. Touma is already the unluckiest man alive, and now I have to kick him while he's down? That's inhuman.'
But he had a job to do.
"Yeah... Kamijou-san didn't sleep a wink after the AC unit died last night, did he?"
Hearing the mention of the air conditioning, Touma let out a long, defeated yawn. His face wore his signature "Such Misfortune" expression.
"Don't remind me. It just stopped working at 2 AM. But that's not important, what's important is—"
"Stop right there, Kamijou."
Yuuya interrupted him, holding up a hand with a serious, almost grave expression.
"Let me guess what you're going to say next."
"Huh?" Touma blinked, confused.
"First of all," Yuuya began, his smirk widening into something predatory, "you must have accidentally stepped on a toothpaste tube that fell on the floor this morning. And knowing your luck, it probably exploded all over your bathroom."
Touma's expression crumbled instantly. He clutched his chest with his right hand, looking as if he were having a heart attack.
"Bullseye," Yuuya noted. "Next, I bet you stepped on your phone when you stumbled backward in shock, cracking the screen."
This sentence pierced Touma's heart like a sharp arrow. A second critical hit.
"Then, you probably went to get something cold to drink, only to find the refrigerator had broken down too. All the food you bought on sale—spoiled after sitting in the heat for three days."
The words struck Touma like a heavy hammer to the skull. He swayed precariously on his feet.
"And the emergency instant noodles? I bet you knocked the pot over and spilled them all into the sink..."
Touma looked like he was bleeding internally. His soul was leaving his body.
"And finally... while looking for your wallet to go buy breakfast, you probably snapped your credit card in half."
Thud.
Overwhelmed by the emotional trauma, Kamijou Touma collapsed to his knees in the doorway.
"Why..." Touma looked up, tears welling in the corners of his eyes. He clasped his hands together in a begging motion. "Takahashi-san, did you come here this early just to reopen my wounds? How did you know all that? Did you install cameras in my house?!"
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have successfully defeated Kamijou Touma mentally.]
[Unlocking Supreme-Tier Treasure Chest...]
[Reward Obtained: The Supreme Ability — World Rejecter (Ideal Exile).]
[World Rejecter: Originating from A Certain Magical Index: New Testament. This is the opposing counterpart to Imagine Breaker. While Imagine Breaker negates the supernatural, World Rejecter banishes it.]
[Effect: It exiles those who have "given up hope" or whose desires are "conflicting/wavering" to a pocket dimension known as the "New World," effectively erasing their existence from the current reality. Note: This ability is ineffective against those with unwavering will or singular dreams. Activation range: The target must be touched by the shadow of the user's right hand.]
'World Rejecter! It's actually this bugged ability!'
Although he had been mentally prepared for a high-tier reward, Yuuya was still shocked.
In the lore, World Rejecter was terrifying. It could banish almost anyone, even Magic Gods (Majin) who had been weakened. Its only drawback was that it couldn't banish someone with a "Unwavering Will."
But honestly, how many people in this world had a will of steel? How many people had absolutely no conflicting desires? Almost everyone had doubts.
There was a slight limitation: the shadow of his hand had to touch the target.
But once that shadow touched them, if they fit the criteria, they were gone. Instantly exiled to a different layer of reality. It was an "Eliminate" button that couldn't be blocked.
And there was an additional hidden benefit: Luck.
While Imagine Breaker (Touma's right hand) was the anchor of the world and brought "Bad Luck" by negating God's blessings, World Rejecter was its opposite. It prioritized the user's desires.
'In other words... I just got incredible luck.'
Yuuya, now armed with a god-slaying power, was in a fantastic mood. He looked down at the weeping Touma with pity, patted him on the shoulder, and sighed dramatically.
"Kamijou, everyone knows about your luck. Aside from the fact that you're somehow immortal, the universe hates you. I didn't need cameras; I just guessed the worst-case scenario."
Touma couldn't breathe under Yuuya's pitying gaze. Since when did his neighbor become so sharp?
"Well, Kamijou, I hope I don't hear about you being hospitalized tonight. May Lady Luck be on your side."
Yuuya finished cheerfully, turning around and leaving Touma with a dashing wave of his hand.
"Such misfortune..." Touma sighed, slumping against his doorframe like he had lost his parents.
After leaving the apartment complex, Yuuya opened his map.
'System, integrate World Rejecter.'
[Integrating...]
He felt a strange heat in his right hand.
This ability was the perfect shield. While the Star Grail gave him passive damage immunity (making him unkillable), World Rejecter gave him a method to remove threats (making him dangerous).
He was practically invincible from the start.
'However...' Yuuya narrowed his eyes as he walked down the street.
If an ordinary Level 0 suddenly displayed incomprehensible power, it would attract attention. Specifically, the attention of the dark side.
Unlike Touma, who was protected by Aleister Crowley as a key part of the "Plan," Yuuya was a variable. If scientists or dark organizations (like MEMBER or ITEM) found out about him, they might target the people around him to get to him.
'I can't let the higher-ups notice me until I have total control. Or at least, I need to be careful about how I use this.'
'But... with this power, I can slowly reshape Academy City into the playground I want. Just you wait.'
He clenched his right fist, feeling the power humming within it.
'But first, I need to get more loot. Hmm, the nearest Silver Treasure Chest is actually at... Komoe-sensei's house?'
Yuuya stopped, stroking his chin as he looked at the map.
He had only been in high school for a month. He wasn't particularly close to Tsukuyomi Komoe yet.
'Now is a good time to cultivate a warm teacher-student relationship. Besides, Komoe-sensei is adorable.'
He recalled the words of his classmate, Tsuchimikado Motoharu: "Being scolded by such a cute loli teacher... is there any greater happiness than this, meow?"
'No, no. Such beastly thoughts are unacceptable,' Yuuya scolded himself. 'I, Takahashi Yuuya, will never associate with those perverts. I will not let such filthy thoughts taint my sacred soul. Hmph.'
Komoe-sensei's apartment was in District 7, in a faculty housing area that blended old shops with new high-rise buildings.
It was a short walk from the student dorms. According to the map, there were exactly eleven low-level chests along the route, leading up to the Silver one at her house.
Soon, Yuuya found the first "Common" treasure chest in an alleyway of the old town.
"Open."
Upon seeing the first "treasure" revealed in the system inventory, Yuuya's eyelids twitched wildly.
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