Hinano stared at the wad of bills that had vanished from her hand in an instant, clearly stunned for a moment. Then a radiant smile bloomed across her face—one that said she had just discovered Ren Kuroda's biggest weakness.
A reward of one hundred thousand yen, plus a "good citizen bonus"? Ren had absolutely no reason to refuse. Compared to grinding away at part-time jobs, tagging along with Hinano's group to bust a yokai or two was practically a vacation.
He even briefly considered whether he should just become a quack exorcist full-time… though, in hindsight, he had no idea how the market even worked. He might very well have been the lowest-paid exorcist in the entire country.
It was a profession where you risked your life—yet he was proudly accepting a fee so low it wouldn't even cover an apprentice's basic appearance rate. And he was still pleased with himself… how embarrassing.
Once their deal was struck, Hinano left humming happily, and Ren easily slipped into school afterward.
Sure, Hinano's entire interruption made him late again, but Ren didn't care in the slightest. Being late was practically his daily routine.As long as the rich lady was satisfied, skipping class was no problem.
Even Ren—who originally insisted that Hinano's group would only get in the way—ended up compromising. Why?Because the rich lady was willing to pay more, of course.
In Ren's eyes, Hinano and her friends were rich… cough, very rich—rich, incompetent, thrill-seeking hobbyists.
Well, rich people did love chasing excitement. And from Hinano's earlier analysis, Ren judged that the troublemaking yokai this time probably wasn't that strong. If they paid him extra, babysitting a few rookies while they gained experience wasn't a problem at all.
High-school coursework was basically child's play for Ren, a transmigrator who'd already graduated from a decent university in his previous life.The teaching methods were different, sure, but his early maturity and academic competence meant people thought he was some kind of "genius."
His teachers, on the other hand, were utterly exasperated with their so-called "problem student."
Ren was constantly dozing off, zoning out, or simply not paying attention. They wanted to challenge him, but he had already mastered everything they taught—leaving them helpless.
The principal had a love-hate relationship with Ren. Complaints about him poured in daily.He wasn't the type to commit major offenses, but he racked up minor ones absolutely nonstop. Any ordinary student would have been expelled long ago.
But Ren's grades were among the very best in school, more or less guaranteeing top scores on his future entrance exams.
So the faculty settled on a compromise: as long as he didn't disturb anyone, they allowed him to participate in club activities during class time.Geniuses receive special treatment—everywhere, always.
Having endured countless suffocatingly dull lectures, Ren left the classroom with the teacher's blessing, strolling out in high spirits.His classmates watched him go with open envy.
They all knew that on top of his academic excellence, Ren was also the captain of the kendo club.In ancient times, someone like Ren would've been a national hero—one who could dominate the battlefield on horseback in the morning and handle governmental affairs in the evening.
Ren closed the classroom door slowly. The moment it clicked shut, he heard a flood of system notifications in his mind—his reputation value steadily climbing.He couldn't help but grin. He never expected that simply skipping class would earn him so much admiration from the students…
But after repeatedly harvesting the same batch of "leeks"—the school's students—Ren finally noticed a problem.
The system claimed that different levels of admiration produced different amounts of reputation.However, he found that the students in this school were giving him less and less reputation over time.
Reputation gained from humans was called human reputation, and reputation from yokai was yokai reputation—but Ren had never actually received reputation from a yokai before.
But the sudden appearance of Yamato Kuka and the others yesterday had made him realize something important.
The reputation he received wasn't fixed—it varied wildly from person to person.
Because all his earlier reputation came from ordinary students, Ren never noticed the disparity.But after the rat-yokai incident last night, his system notifications revealed that Yamato Kuka and Kamishiro Isshin's admiration generated more reputation than anyone he'd ever encountered.
Combined with the fact that Kujō Hinano and her friends also produced much more reputation than an average student, Ren guessed that the amount generated wasn't just based on the intensity of admiration—but also on the admirer's strength.
Although he had never met Yamato Kuka and Kamishiro Isshin before, their reputation values made it clear they weren't ordinary people anymore.
Arriving at the kendo club grounds, Ren found the place completely empty. Without hesitation, he grabbed a bamboo sword from the rack and began swinging it rapidly through the air.
Large clubs like kendo and archery regularly competed at the national level, so the school allocated them plenty of spacious training grounds.
Since classes hadn't ended yet, the other members hadn't arrived. Ren didn't need to hold back—he swung the bamboo sword at full intensity.
He could feel it—his kendo technique was right on the verge of another breakthrough.
Actual battle was the fastest shortcut to improvement. The experience gained from repetitive bamboo-sword drills was barely one percent of what he earned from last night's combat.
The rat-yokai swarm might have been weak individually, but their sheer numbers and suicidal ferocity made them an excellent test of mental resilience.
And the Rat Demon King…Even though Ren eventually had to use his Half-Demon Transformation to bring him down, the fight had undeniably elevated his strength.
This kind of real combat experience was leagues beyond anything sparring with high schoolers could offer.
Practice matches and life-and-death battles were fundamentally different. Breakthroughs only truly happened when facing death head-on.
Don't be fooled by how skilled some kendo club members looked—they only had sparring experience. In a real battle, Ren was confident he could kill someone at their level in just a few exchanges.
In short, the current kendo club members were delicate greenhouse flowers.Ordinary kendo and the brutal truth of a life-or-death fight were two entirely different worlds.
In real combat, there were no rules.Your opponent aimed straight for your vitals, and they weren't going to stop just because you yelled "time out."