"Yu, I want to ask you to be my boyfriend!"
In the kitchen, Ichika's cheeks were flushed. At this moment, the girl's eyes were filled with tangled thoughts, and her mind was in complete chaos, filled with both shock and fear.
Ichika was surprised that she had actually said it to Nakano Yu, and for a moment she even admired her own courage.
As for the fear, Ichika was afraid that Nakano Yu would reject her.
She didn't know why herself, but after saying that ambiguous sentence, she felt a great sense of unease.
In fact, she knew that her words were full of ambiguity, but she just wanted to see what Nakano Yu's reaction would be.
Isn't that strange? She wanted to ask Nakano Yu to pretend to be her boyfriend, but she didn't expect that when she said it out loud, it would turn into a confession.
Ugh! Forget it! In the worst case, if Yu rejects her later, she'll just explain it clearly to him.
It's just… when she thought about Yu possibly rejecting her, Ichika felt a lump in her throat, as if something important was about to be taken away from her, and all she could do was watch helplessly.
While her thoughts were swirling, Nakano Yu finally snapped out of his surprise and then gave Ichika an unexpected and extremely direct answer:
"Alright."
"Huh?! Yu, Yu, you agreed?!"
Hearing that, Ichika froze, clearly not understanding what was happening.
Yu… Yu really agreed to her confession?! No way, right? He must be joking?!
Then… then, does she still need to explain?
Or… should she just be with Yu like this? Actually, it seems… maybe it would be better not to explain? If Yu really becomes her boyfriend, his behavior during filming will definitely be more natural, right?
Just as Ichika was thinking about not explaining anything to Nakano Yu, his next words shattered that subtle joy in her heart:
"Ichika is preparing to participate in 'Now Starting? Serious Love Season 2,' right? Arima-san told me about it, and I was wondering why Ichika wasn't going."
"Ah? Y-yes… No, by the way, what did Yu think it was about?"
Hearing that, Ichika quickly raised her head. The shy blush on her face disappeared, leaving only a smile—a very fake smile.
"Oh~ I thought Ichika was really confessing to me. If that were the case, it would've been pretty awkward for me, after all I'm a man who wants to open a harem!"
Nakano Yu fully noticed Ichika's reaction, and at that moment he found it amusing, so he said that.
"Yu is dreaming unrealistic dreams again. But since you agreed, I'm relieved. Ah~ I'm sleepy, I'm going to take a nap. Anyway, I probably won't have classes this month."
She reached out and gently pinched his cheek. At this moment, Ichika looked more like an older sister. After saying that, she yawned, lazily waved her hand, and left.
But Ichika had only taken a few steps when Nakano Yu heard her murmur, very softly, yet it couldn't escape his ears:
"Yu, idiot…"
He chuckled softly and didn't think about it anymore.
It wasn't time yet. At the very least, he had to first make Ichika accept the harem.
Ah, right, he still hadn't seen his new authority.
Time to gamble with luck again!
Excited, Nakano Yu followed Ichika's footsteps upstairs and returned to his room.
He sat on the bed, focused his thoughts, and the long-unseen system once again appeared before his eyes.
The system was still as simple as ever, but after iterative updates, in addition to the [Daily Quests] panel and the [Lottery Wheel], a personal panel had been added.
However, that personal panel didn't display Nakano Yu's various attributes; it only showed his name, the authorities he currently possessed, and the items in the system space:
[Host: Nakano Yu]
[Authorities: Ten Incarnations of the War God, Twilight of the Gods, Ama-no-Iwato...]
[Items: Holy Sword Joyeuse, Miura Yumiko's pink milk tea cup, Miku's high socks, Nanatsujiya limited edition mochi...]
That's right, the system panel was that simple. Nakano Yu's system had always maintained a minimalist style. Although there were no detailed numerical values, that was enough for Nakano Yu, as long as no particularly absurd Heretic God appeared in this world.
Even if some particularly absurd Heretic God did appear, Nakano Yu still had the Warrior with the golden sword, who could sever the authorities of gods, and he would definitely be able to heavily injure the opponent.
"I didn't expect it to be this thing. If I remember correctly, this spilled out of Amaterasu's mouth, right?"
Pushing aside his wandering thoughts, Nakano Yu's expression became somewhat strange as he looked at the additional authority on the system panel.
"Ama-no-Iwato."
Nakano Yu didn't know much about this authority, but Amaterasu had forcibly dragged him into it.
In the barren space of Ama-no-Iwato, Nakano Yu could feel that his power was suppressed by as much as 20%. It could be said that if he were to face an opponent slightly stronger than himself, using Ama-no-Iwato would immediately turn the situation around.
Just as Nakano Yu was thinking about this, the system suddenly popped up a detailed description of Ama-no-Iwato:
[Ama-no-Iwato: From the Heretic God Amaterasu, an authority with the attributes of earth and darkness. When the sun goddess was enraged by the foolishness of the gods, she chose to withdraw into a cave in despair, and the world lost its light, the land became barren, and demons ran rampant! Until the gods rejoiced in front of Ama-no-Iwato, luring the sun to come out.]
[Ability: Sunless Day: Can pull any target into Ama-no-Iwato. Ama-no-Iwato will actively suppress 15% to 50% of the power of enemy individuals, depending on the external sunlight. This ability is ineffective against sun gods.]
[Ability: Feast of the Gods: Applies half of the power suppressed by the ability [Sunless Day] to the user.]
Seeing the abilities of Ama-no-Iwato, Nakano Yu raised an eyebrow.
This authority wasn't as simple as he had thought.
Suppressing enemy power inside Ama-no-Iwato based on external sunlight? Earlier, his power had only been suppressed by 20% when he was pulled into Ama-no-Iwato. It seemed that the weaker the external light, the stronger Ama-no-Iwato's suppression ability.
It seemed that Amaterasu had dug her own grave.
Also, applying half of the suppressed enemy power to himself.
This ability was extremely powerful. If he encountered an existence much stronger than himself, Nakano Yu could pull them into Ama-no-Iwato. If he were lucky, he could directly suppress 50% of the opponent's power, and he himself would gain a 25% boost!
In that case, it would be a game-changing divine skill! Everything depended on luck.
However, Nakano Yu had always believed in his luck. Although he was quite unlucky in small matters, in these crucial major events, luck had never failed him.
Thinking this, the young man took a deep breath, closed the pitifully small personal panel, and opened the lottery wheel.
Nakano Yu now had five remaining lottery attempts. A few days after returning from Woodland Cottage, Nakano Yu had accumulated enough for one ten-pull. Of course, that pull was completely empty, all uneven amounts of yen. He didn't know whether the lousy system had "reformed" or what, but it no longer even gave original panties.
It could only be said that the system got worse with each upgrade; it didn't give anything good.
But none of that mattered. Nakano Yu opened the system this time with only one purpose.
After killing the Heretic God Amaterasu, Nakano Yu remembered hearing the system say that he had completed a hidden quest. Although his head had been spinning at the time, Nakano Yu still remembered it clearly.
After all, the reward for the hidden quest included an opportunity for independent authority selection!
In other words, he could now designate one authority! However, he could only choose from the authorities available on the current wheel. Still, given the system's usual behavior, a permanent independent selection of a five-star authority was already pretty good.
The problem now was that Nakano Yu wasn't sure what kind of authority he should choose.
If he could choose freely, Nakano Yu would without hesitation prioritize the Heretic God's [Omniscience and Omnipotence], but the system clearly stipulated that he could only choose authorities available on the wheel.
And the upgraded wheel had three marked authorities that Nakano Yu could choose from.
The first was "Super Transformation" from "Heretic God Tezcatlipoca," which allows the user to, by using the authority, transform into "Obsidian Mage," "Ocelot," "Demon Bird," "Annihilation Flame," and "Serpent Servant."
However, the prerequisite for transformation is sacrifice, and once transformed into one of the Five Forms, one can only remain in that form for one week and cannot transform into the remaining four.
This ability was quite useless for Nakano Yu. Power enhancement through transformation wasn't significant for him anyway, let alone after he had obtained "Ama-no-Iwato, the Hider of the Sun." So Nakano Yu discarded this authority without any hesitation.
The second authority came from "Flash of Lightning" of the "Heretic Fallen Angel Remiel." Remiel is an angel who controls illusions and lightning. Her authority grants super-fast movement intertwined with lightning, and also allows flight, which was an ability Nakano Yu currently did not have.
After all, Nakano Yu could only fly by standing on Joyeuse, which was slow and hard to control.
In addition, "Flash of Lightning" also possesses the ability to create clones and turn oneself into lightning to evade attacks, and it also has "Black Thunder," a powerful offensive technique that is not inferior to "White Horse."
However, after using "Black Thunder," the user cannot enter a super-speed state for a period of time, which is a drawback.
But for the current Nakano Yu, possessing the authority "Flash of Lightning" would undoubtedly represent a comprehensive improvement in his strength, whether in speed, attack, or defense; it would be a very good choice.
Even so, Nakano Yu did not immediately choose "Flash of Lightning," but instead looked at the final authority—"Wing Contract."
"Wing Contract" originates from Nike, the goddess of victory in Greek mythology. Its ability is to create flying contractors and raise their combat power to the level of a subordinate god, capable of participating in divine wars. Moreover, since the contractor is the "sword" of the ability user, if the contractor kills a disobedient god, Nakano Yu will also obtain that authority.
However, in terms of combat, "Wing Contract" has no other effects aside from enabling telepathic communication with the contractor and understanding their current state. But the mere ability to raise a human's combat power to the level of a subordinate god was already extremely powerful.
He just didn't know what this ability would look like if used on Miura Yumiko and the others.
Nakano Yu felt that "Wing Contract" probably wouldn't be able to strengthen an ordinary human, who wasn't even a mage, to the level of a subordinate god. But in this world, even one percent of a subordinate god's power would be enough to deal with those strange beings and monsters.
After a brief consideration, Nakano Yu made his decision and used the opportunity for a designated authority:
"System, designate authority: 'Wing Contract'!"