Chapter 1: Becoming Gensokyo's Debt King.
.....
Kihara felt like he had just fallen for the biggest scam of his life.
Right now, he was sitting inside a noisy McDonald's, meeting up offline with someone.
Across from him sat a girl, Calm temperament, fair skin, long black hair, and an elegant aura that faintly resembled a noble lady.
She was… way too pretty.
His hand trembled slightly as he lifted his cola, the sacred "otaku happiness drink" and took a sip.
The fizzy burst and sugar rush finally helped calm his nerves a little.
He licked his lips and asked cautiously:
"…Are you really 'Tyrant Warrior'?"
The girl smiled faintly, resting her cheek on her hand. Her bright red eyes shimmered with amusement.
"What? Don't I look like your online best bro~?"
What kind of "manly bro" had a deep voice online… but turned out to be this small and beautiful in real life?!
"Miss… be honest with me. How much did Tyrant Warrior pay you to pretend to be him?"
"Hmph. You act like a reckless brute in-game, but offline you're timid like a rabbit."
She pouted slightly, then somehow pulled out a sheet of paper and slapped it onto the table, pushing it toward him.
"Kihara, I heard you've been job hunting lately. A friend of mine happens to have an opening. Want to work there?"
"…Tyrant Warrior, you're not some shady recruiter, are you?"
At this point, Kihara was about 30% convinced that she really was his in-game partner.
After all, job hunting was something he had only ever mentioned to her.
He reached for the paper to read it carefully, Completely missing the sly smile curling at the corner of her lips.
Still calling yourself cautious? Taking a document from a girl you just met without hesitation…
Looks like my appearance really lowered his guard.
Good. That made it easy to trick my only online friend into Gensokyo.
As Kihara's thumb touched the paper, It felt like he'd been pricked by an invisible needle.
A drop of crimson blood seeped out, spreading across the page, forming strange yet beautiful patterns.
The paper suddenly burst into radiant light.
"WHAT THE—?!"
In the next instant—
A sense of weightlessness hit him.
Beneath his feet, abyss, filled with countless crimson eyes had opened without him noticing.
And he fell straight into it.
Kaguya Houraisan walked up to the edge of the rift with her hands behind her back.
Beside her, a golden-haired beauty, both youthful and ancient, appeared silently.
Kaguya handed over the blood-stained contract.
"The contract is complete. Yakumo Yukari, I'll leave Kihara to you."
Yukari accepted the contract and tucked it into her sleeve, smiling faintly.
"You tricked your only online friend into signing a contract like this… doesn't your conscience hurt at all?"
"Hmph! The fact that I personally came all the way here to meet him is already a blessing!
What's the big deal about making him sign a simple work contract with Gensokyo?
Who knows, he might even thank me later!"
"…Well then. Pleasure working with you, NEET Princess."
Kaguya rolled her eyes.
She really shouldn't have let Yukari access the internet. Judging from her wording, she had clearly read plenty of online content about them.
But Kaguya wasn't one to take a loss quietly.
Smiling without warmth, she replied.
"Same to you—eternally 18-year-old youkai sage."
.....
Kihara's Gensokyo Diary.
Day 1:
Woke up in the Human Village. Got lost and ended up playing with Cirno at Misty Lake.
Day 2:
Went to Misty Lake to play with Cirno.
Day 3:
Played with Cirno. Caught a cold.
Day 4:
Kihara, how can you be this useless? You finally made it to Gensokyo, and all you do is play with that idiot Cirno?!
Day 5:
Played with Cirno.
Day 6:
While playing with Cirno, got teleported by Yukari to Eientei.
Day 7:
Everyone in Gensokyo is now my creditor.
Inside a simple countryside wooden house, two "people" stood facing each other.
One of them was none other than one of Gensokyo's sages.
Yakumo Yukari, the youkai of boundaries.
She handed Kihara a stack of debt notes, her smile as unreadable as ever.
"What an ambitious man… borrowing money from everyone in Gensokyo right from the start."
"I didn't! I never did that! Stop making things up!"
Kihara immediately threw the notes away, waving his hands in denial.
These past few days, all his attention had been on Cirno.
He hadn't even interacted with anyone else, so how could he possibly owe money?
Yukari lightly tapped the wooden floor with her parasol.
"Doesn't this house… and the scenery outside feel familiar to you?"
"…Now that you mention it…"
The wooden house… the messy open field… the strange crates and mailbox outside…
The sense of déjà vu grew stronger.
Kihara suddenly remembered the three packets of wind-resistant seeds he had found in his bed when he woke up.
"…Stardew Valley?"
"Correct."
Yukari smiled.
"After you signed the contract, Gensokyo's core changed.
This entire area was created specifically for you.
As a result, the Hakurei Barrier, which normally only requires maintenance once every hundred years, now needs repairs next month.
And you should already know, if the barrier collapses…"
She paused.
"The worst-case scenario is the complete destruction of Gensokyo.
That's a consequence neither you nor I can afford."
She looked at him with a knowing smile.
"So… isn't it perfectly reasonable that you now owe Gensokyo a massive debt?"
Kihara was about to argue,"You and Kaguya forced me into signing that contract!" but then he stopped.
If Gensokyo was in danger… and he was the one who could fix it…
Wouldn't that make this the perfect starting point for a Gensokyo harem route?
A spark lit up in his eyes.
He puffed out his chest and declared passionately:
"Yukari, for the sake of Gensokyo (and its beautiful girls), I'm ready to go through fire and water! Just tell me what to do!"
Yukari's lips curled slightly.
In her soft, alluring voice, she said three words:
"Extract the dragon veins."
"…Extract what?"
Kihara's smile froze.
"Dragon veins. Fortune. Call it whatever you like."
"…Yukari, how about we start with something easier?
Like teaching Cirno math, cleaning the shrine for Reimu, or arresting Marisa the flying thief?"
Kihara knew his limits.
Aside from his looks, which might let him live off a rich woman, he was just an ordinary guy.
No way he was built for life-threatening missions.
And "extracting dragon veins" sounded like a nine-deaths-one-life kind of job.
Yukari, however, seemed to see right through him.
"Relax. It's a task you can solve with your looks. No fighting required."
"…Oh?"
His eyes lit up.
"Do tell."
"The instability of the barrier comes from this new area being too empty.
There's no one guarding the key nodes.
But in every world, the protagonists carry luck powerful enough to stabilize those nodes."
Kihara immediately understood.
"So… I just need to go to other worlds, bring back the heroines, and make them willingly settle in Gensokyo to stabilize the area, right?"
"Exactly."
Seeing that Yukari didn't object to his "heroines only" interpretation, Kihara was moved to tears.
He rushed forward and grabbed her soft hand dramatically.
"I've wandered half my life without purpose! If you'll have me, I wish to serve you as m—"
BONK!
A loud crack echoed.
Yukari calmly put away the frying pan she had just used to knock him out.
"Hmph. You think I haven't read Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
Trying to pull a fast one on me? You're still far too naive."
With that—
She slipped into a gap and disappeared.
"…The Gensokyo Population Revival Project has officially begun."
...
(T/N: Phewww a new translation everyone, this one is good.)
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Thank you for reading.