บท 2: Working
After he had sold everything that he could to the second-hand games shop, Seiji finally received a sum of money that was sufficient to pay off the rent.
But it was only enough for the rent. After he paid, he would have little money left over, and if he didn’t think of something soon, he would run out of money within three days after paying the rent.
The original Seiji truly deserved what he got. Originally, his family gave him enough living expenses for half a year’s worth of rent and food, but this guy wasted it all in two and a half months; he didn’t even consider the implications of lacking money to buy food!
If Seiji wanted to comment on the previous person’s ridiculous actions, he could rant endlessly for three consecutive days and nights… Let’s just forget about it.
The original Seiji also stopped going to school a long time ago, and Seiji didn’t intend to go back to school either. Currently, he was completely free every day, so he decided to find a job first, thereby making enough money to ensure that he didn’t starve.
Truthfully, although there were various methods to obtain money through saving and loading, Seiji didn’t intend to use his cheat that way; he didn’t want to wantonly use his power.
So, in the end, he decided to get a job. However, with such a fat body that lacked any skills, what could he possibly do? If he went to places such as restaurants, any normal manager probably wouldn’t hire him.
Seiji contemplated deeply before finally thinking of a solution.
There was a street filled with businesses nearby, and it seemed that a number of stores were employing people to stand in full-body costumes to attract customers, so Seiji felt like this job would be suitable for him.
After all, you wouldn’t be able to see him!
His fat body, low attractiveness, and the wretched atmosphere around him… as long as he hid inside a full-body costume, none of that would be a problem!
These costumes only contained children’s dreams, not a fat otaku!
But could he really obtain a job?
Well, in his previous life, he had already passed the tests to become a government worker, so Seiji felt like he should make an attempt.
But at the first store, he was rejected instantly—where was his resume?
Even a job like this needs a resume… fine, he’ll return home and prepare one.
Then, the second store wasn’t hiring.
The third one wasn’t either.
As for the fourth store…
The fourth store was just putting up a sign to hire a costumed employee!
And the store manager was a great beauty!
"Oh my! Just when I put the sign up, someone already came."
The woman was around thirty years old, slightly foxy, with permed brown curly hair and a majestic chest. She dressed like an office lady, with form-fitting formal clothes, a short skirt, black stockings, high heels; her entire body oozed with sex appeal.
Especially when she clasped her hands against her chest—the moment where her chest jutted out almost caused Seiji’s lower half to have a reaction.
If this had been the original Seiji, he probably would have started sexually harassing her already.
Seiji forced himself to control his expression, without exposing even a hint of being a lowlife—after all, that would incur a destructive amount of disgust.
The woman took his resume and looked at it for a minute.
"You’re still a high school student, so why are you applying for this full-time job here?"
After she said this, the options appeared—
[A: None of your business bitch!]
[B: Because of some personal reasons, I’ve temporarily dropped out of school, and need money now.]
[C: For the beautiful you.]
Obviously, the correct answer was B.
"Because of some personal reasons, I’ve temporarily dropped out of school… And currently, I could use the money. Please hire me, the salary at first… it can be lower than usual."
He chose the most honest and polite option, and he made a great effort to request the job with sincerity.
*Ding!* [Friendship level has increased!]
"Well… According to your resume, you have no work experience. This is indeed a problem; although this job appears easy, it still requires a certain degree of patience and skills." She rubbed her chin hesitantly.
"I’ll give you half of the normal salary at first; if you don’t do a good job, you’ll be fired immediately. If you perform well, I’ll give you the normal salary after one week. Will you accept these conditions?"
"I accept!" Seiji instantly agreed.
And so, he acquired a job.
The beautiful store manager’s name was Rika Amami.
It was a confectionery shop—one that sold various desserts, cakes, and drinks. Their store costume was the lucky mascot of a popular anime, and they'd apparently acquired licensing rights to advertise with it, so the full-body costume was created with great care, which meant that it was quite popular with many children and even some teenagers passing by.
The full-time job’s hours were from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon, and 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
After one day on the job, Seiji discovered that this job was much more difficult than he expected.
First, it was a huge drain on his strength mostly because the costume was stiflingly hot; even with the store manager being considerate for him and putting some bags of ice inside, after a while, he’d get soaked in sweat.
Besides that, there were more mischievous kids than he was prepared for, and they often kicked or hit the costume; even though it didn’t hurt, if he wasn’t careful he’d trip, and that was a huge problem.
Making money wasn’t easy anywhere…
Although it was quite tiring, he had to persevere, so he treated it as losing weight.
The next day, before Seiji went to his job, he sought out Mika to pay his rent.
Mika Uehara was surprised at how fast this guy paid his rent. In addition to this, her sharp senses told her that the fat guy in front of her seemed slightly different from the fat otaku before.
Did he really self-reflect and change his ways? She held a trace of confusion as she watched him leave, but she forgot about it quickly.
Who cared? After all, she received the rent money!
Seiji arrived punctually to his job every day, and he stopped eating snacks and fast food, instead buying his own ingredients to cook.
As he was single for 30 years in his past life, even though he wasn’t a skilled cook, it was no problem to feed himself, and it also saved him money.
Waking up and sleeping early, working hard, and eating healthily.
Just by living a normal life like this, his stats were gradually increasing!
One week later.
"Thanks for your hard work, Haruta-kun."
In the afternoon, after he finished his job and changed back into his regular clothes, the manager Rika Amami handed him a cup of iced coffee.
This was the first time!
"Thank you as well… you’ve also been working hard." Seiji took the coffee and had a taste—it was pretty good.
"This is your salary for the past three days." With a smile, the beautiful store manager handed him an envelope.
Seiji opened it and took a look.
"It seems a bit much."
"Just count it as reward money; you were better than I thought you’d be."
"Thank you…" Seiji gratefully took the money.
"Haruta-kun, I didn’t feel like it was appropriate to ask before, but actually I’m rather curious; why was it that you dropped out of school?"
"This…" Seiji smiled wryly, "it’s because… well… I was quite terrible in school before."
"I think Haruta-kun is a nice boy, a hard worker, and very polite." Rika blinked in confusion.
"That’s because I’ve reflected deeply on my actions and decided to start a new life. But my actions in the past cannot be erased."
"Haha, you’re just a student, but you seem to have quite the story."
"It doesn’t matter if you’re a student; life is about living." Seiji replied lightly.
This wasn’t a conversation option—it was his personal realization.
"It has nothing to do with male or female, young or old, life treats every person the same way; you may not receive anything for your efforts, but if you don’t do anything and give up on everything, then life will give up on you."
This comment moved Rika, and the words he said so lightly seemed to have deep philosophy behind it, especially coming from a youth.
*Ding!* [Your favorability rating has increased.]
Seiji took glanced at the system while sipping his coffee, but he almost ended up spitting it out!
With just one sentence he had actually gained 10 favorability points with the beautiful store manager!?
He worked his hardest for an entire week, and he only obtained 10 favorability points from that!
He was speechless—it was truly difficult to comprehend what women were moved by.
Because of these 10 points he suddenly received, the store manager now viewed him as a "friend" in the system, meaning that Rika Amami was no longer treating him as a mere employee.
Although Seiji felt it was pretty nice, it was of little significance—after all, he didn’t intend to go out with this store manager.
After finishing his coffee, he took his leave.
Seiji then bought some ingredients from the supermarket, before heading home.
The sky was darkening, and the air was slightly stifling, indicating that it was about to rain, so he increased his pace.
When he was almost at his apartment, he could make out some strange sounds.
"Why are you rejecting me!?"
"Let go, pervert!"
The second voice sounded like a girl that he knew, and a notion flashed through Seiji’s mind, so he quickly saved a file in the system.
Then, he followed the sound and saw a student with dyed-blonde hair and a western-style school uniform pushing the landlord’s daughter against the wall and slapping her face while ranting angrily.
"You made me lose face, you stupid ****! It’s an honor for me to want you! You were *** around everywhere so happily, but I didn’t even care and wanted you to be my girlfriend but you actually rejected me—you shamed me in front of everyone!"
Under this blondie, Mika Uehara was struggling fiercely, her cheeks were tear-streaked, as well as red from being slapped.
"Stop… I didn’t…" She desperately tried to shout, but the blonde-haired student covered her mouth.
"You’re still saying you didn’t, everyone says so…"
*Smack!*
A clean hit with his foot.
Seiji secretly approached the blondie from behind and kicked him straight in the back of his head, causing the blondie to fall down instantly.
Mika Uehara was surprised for an instant as the blondie slumped to the ground, but then she noticed the huge figure in front of her.
"Are you alright, Miss Uehara?" Seiji reached his hand out to her.
Mika Uehara just stared at him in shock.
"That hurt, you bastard…" Somehow, the blondie had stayed conscious after taking the heavy kick, and he struggled to get up.
*Smack!* Another ruthless kick.
With a cold expression, Seiji accurately kicked the blondie’s lower half.
It seemed like blondie’s eyes were about to bulge out of his forehead, and with a strange shriek, he fell over in the fetal position on the ground, convulsing madly—it was clear that he wasn’t able to stand up anymore.
"Let’s get up, Miss Uehara. Would you like to call the police?" Seiji spoke once more.
He didn’t give a damn whether or not he severely injured the blondie; if something really happened, all he had to do was load again.
Perhaps due to his confident appearance, Mika Uehara felt a sense of safety, so she took his huge hand and let him pull her up.
"You…you bastard, do you know who I am…" The blondie glared at him viciously.
"A ** hoodlum who didn’t get what he wanted." Seiji frowned and thought about kicking blondie again in the face, but he considered that bloodying him would frighten Mika, so he said instead, "Miss Uehara, let’s call the police after all."
"No… no need…" Mika Uehara hesitated for a while before weakly saying, "he’s my classmate…"
Appeasing him wasn’t a good method. Seiji took a look at the spiteful expression on blondie’s face and was utterly convinced that there would problems again later down the road, but since the victim was saying this, she must be worried about something else.
Well, if they weren't going to call the police, there was no need to stay here like idiots. Seiji quickly pulled Uehara away from this location.
The apartment wasn’t far from here, and Mika lived on the first floor, since she was the landlord’s daughter.
Seiji brought her to the door, noticing that she couldn’t even put her key into the keyhole properly because her hand was shaking so hard.
"Let me." Seiji took the key from her hand and opened the door for her.
"Where’s your mother, the landlord?"
"She’s not here today…" Mika said weakly.
"Give her a call, then drink some hot water. You should listen to some music; you’ll feel better after you calm down." Seiji said.
Considering the impression that the original Seiji had left her with, he decided not to go in with her, and he turned around to leave.
"Wait!"
Suddenly, Mika called out to him.
He turned around, seeing a pitiful expression on her face, and he noticed that she was still trembling.
"How about you… come in for a while?"
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