[Today's record complete.
This record's evaluation: 'B.'
Drawing reward…]
[Draw successful. Congratulations, you have obtained the item: 'Perseverance Headband.']
As usual, the settlement sound rang out.
But this time, the reward did not appear in Asakusa Tōru's hand in full view of everyone.
Instead, his pocket quietly bulged slightly.
He wasn't surprised at all. He calmly took another bite of his parfait.
He had tested this before.
If he wrote his diary in front of others and received rewards in front of others, would the diary's rewards still appear out of thin air in his hands like usual?
The answer was… not necessarily.
Sometimes, it would distort people's perceptions and openly give him the reward.
Sometimes, it would send a message to his personal terminal and tell him to go pick it up at a store in the Keyaki Mall.
And sometimes, like now, it would silently stuff the reward into his pocket.
So far, Asakusa still hadn't figured out any clear pattern.
The only thing he could tell was that higher-rated rewards usually wouldn't make him go pick them up himself.
The ones that required self-pickup were mostly E-rank "exquisite little trash."
…Some of them sounded so useless just from the name that he didn't even feel like collecting them. Not being sent directly to him actually saved him some storage space in his dorm.
Anyway, let's check the info as usual.
[Name: Perseverance Headband]
[Category: Item]
[Effect: Wear it and set a goal. You will strive relentlessly toward it.]
[Note: "Push yourself! Just one last push!"]
"Mmm…"
With ice cream in his mouth, Asakusa blinked.
How should he put it…
It felt subtle.
If you asked whether this item was useful, then yes, it definitely was.
Not everyone was like Horikita Suzune.
Many people couldn't force themselves to persist at something, no matter how ambitious they were at first. Once it came time to act, they'd quickly lose motivation.
But with this headband, once you put it on, you'd turn into a hardcore grinding machine.
The problem was—
He didn't want to grind.
I was born to slack off, damn it. If I can coast for one more day, that's one more day.
Why the hell would I become a tryhard?
He'd already been a tryhard enough in his previous life.
Now that he had the diary, if he still had to grind like crazy, wouldn't that mean he wasted his cheat?
If he wanted to grind, he would've taken a day off the moment he got the White Gym membership card and burned through a year's worth of training in one go.
Why would he still be here a month later, with unused time left?
With the diary, casually writing every day and drawing rewards was way more enjoyable.
Grind your ass.
So for Asakusa, even though this item's forced-diligence effect matched its rating, he had already decided in his heart to let it gather dust.
…Unless he suddenly lost his mind and decided to work hard.
Well, whatever.
Take it slow. One day, my own divine transformation device will show up.
"Is the matcha parfait good?"
At that moment, Ichinose Honami tilted her head and asked with a gentle smile.
Asakusa smiled back.
"It's good."
Ah. So that's what I forgot.
...
The issue of "Major Bai" Shiranami Chihiro was soon settled.
After-school tutoring.
Paying attention in class went without saying—that depended on her self-discipline.
All they could do was set aside time after school to tutor Shiranami Chihiro and Shibata Hayato.
Ichinose wasn't too worried about tutoring.
Her, Asakusa, and Kanzaki Ryūji all had decent academic ability.
Helping Shiranami and Shibata was more than manageable.
Rather than tutoring, it was more like a regular gathering to strengthen bonds among close friends.
Still, she had been thinking earlier.
The direction Asakusa had been looking at…
Was it Sakayanagi Arisu?
When Wang Meiyu loudly corrected her sexual orientation, almost everyone turned to look.
But Asakusa hadn't started watching Sakayanagi at that moment.
He'd noticed her much earlier.
Of course, Sakayanagi's silver hair and the girl who followed her like a bodyguard were eye-catching.
But Ichinose felt that wasn't the real reason he was paying attention.
If it were him…
Her frail body, her cane, the way she needed support to walk.
Ichinose blinked and buried her doubts in her heart.
No matter what, the fact that Sakayanagi could attend this fully enclosed school and even drink coffee here meant her health was stable.
There was no need for excessive worry.
She wasn't worried.
And she believed someone else wasn't either.
...
Asakusa truly wasn't worried about Sakayanagi Arisu at all.
Sure, she had that "sickly" attribute.
Sure, she needed a cane.
But—
If you say she has heart disease, she drinks coffee every few days.
If you say she doesn't, she clearly needs a cane.
And despite supposedly having heart problems, she'd gone years at school without major incidents.
It was hard to tell whether she was extremely well-conditioned, or if it was just a setting meant to boost her "attack speed and crit rate."
Rather than worrying about Sakayanagi, he was more concerned about Komaki Mensei, who was lying in a hospital bed, slowly wasting away.
…Annoying.
Diseases like that—where no one is at fault, yet no one can be saved—were the most disgusting.
Lying on his dorm bed, Asakusa took out the headband.
The crimson silk band had the golden word "Struggle" printed on it.
The design looked kind of cheap, but the texture was surprisingly good.
But…
Would a silk headband even stay on properly?
He didn't know.
And he didn't plan to find out.
"..."
Even so, he couldn't help thinking about the description.
"Set a goal, and you will strive relentlessly for it."
Most diary rewards had very clear descriptions.
What it said was what it was.
But before actually using them, items never showed every detail.
Usage methods. Precautions.
All of that had to be explored on your own.
So here was the problem.
What exactly counted as a "goal"?
And what qualified as "relentless striving"?
If my goal is to unlock my genetic limiter and break my restraints,
Will it twist my thoughts and change my goal?
Or will it pretend nothing happened and simply not work?
If my goal takes a lifetime to achieve,
Will it lock down the rest of my life?
Or will it warn me not to set such a goal?
The effect…
Was far too vague.
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