My love index is at its maximum.

Tsukasa Tazaki believes in the inherent goodness of human nature, but if they dare to cause him trouble again, he will retaliate in kind, tenfold!

Chapter Four: We All Have a Bright Future

After climbing the rusty exterior staircase back to his floor, Tsukasa Tazaki was exhausted, covered in sweat, and panting heavily.

For the past ten years, the original owner had basically been a couch potato, and his health was so poor that he was frail and weak.

Looks like it'll be time to put fitness on the agenda...

Tsukasa Tazaki took out his keys and opened his own door.

A six-tatami room, about 9 square meters in size, plus a small kitchen and a small bathroom, that's all.

It's a bit shabby.

The room was almost entirely devoid of interior decoration, containing only a desk, a bookshelf, and a wooden wardrobe. The bed, a tatami mat laid directly on the floor, occupied one-third of the room's space.

It's not so bad, really. Once you have a lot of stuff, you start thinking about unnecessary things. For example, if you have a game console, you'll definitely waste a lot of time playing games.

Fewer items mean easier maintenance and the room is less likely to get dirty.

That makes perfect sense.

Although this little home is a bit run-down, it is generally satisfactory.

It's definitely not because the rent is cheap here.

The main advantage is that the transportation is relatively convenient, and it's close to Kabukicho.

Moreover, the rent is only 4 yen.

He turned on the light and changed into indoor shoes. After taking only a few steps, Tsukasa Tazaki covered his nose.

The weather has been quite humid lately, and because the room faces north, sunlight doesn't get in, so there's a faint musty smell in the air.

Satisfied my foot! The first thing I'll do when I have money is move!

Tazaki Tsukasa walked into the kitchen. There was rice cooked in the rice cooker that morning. He looked in the refrigerator and saw a small piece of chicken. He decided to make some chicken soup and just eat something simple.

His request was already very simple and straightforward...

But when it was almost done cooking, Tsukasa Tazaki frowned; they had run out of salt.

The nearest convenience store was about 500 meters away... He mentally calculated the calories he would burn on the round trip and decided to just make do.

After finishing his meal, Tsukasa Tazaki wrote in his diary: "Chicken soup without salt is like drinking chicken bathwater."

A pale, energy-saving light bulb hangs from a moldy ceiling. Fine dust particles float in the air. A moth circles around the lampshade, casting its lonely shadow on the ground.

The atmosphere was dull and boring.

After finishing his homework, Tsukasa Tazaki closed his notebook, checked the time, and saw it was 11 p.m.

He turned and went to the faded tatami mat, lifted the tatami mat, and put 4 yen inside. This was the rent he needed to pay in a few days. He only had 2 yen left.

Money goes by so quickly...maybe I should find another part-time job.

After washing up, tidying up the trash, turning off the light, I sat down by the window.

The Tokyo night sky was very bright, and the air carried a faint smell of alcohol and fatigue.

Not far away, amidst the bustling skyscrapers of Nishi-Shinjuku, many office cubicles still had their lights on, and occasionally one or two office workers could be seen standing in front of the glass windows, gazing blankly at Tokyo's dazzling night view.

Tsukasa Tazaki played on his phone for a while and accidentally clicked into the photo album, where he saw a picture.

A blonde, blue-eyed girl, incomparably beautiful.

Qichuan Wei, the person the original owner started liking from an age when she didn't even know what liking was.

The reason she attempted suicide by overdosing on pills was largely due to the rejection of her confession of love twenty days prior.

Tazaki Tsukasa looked at the photo and compared the two people's current situations.

She lived in a maze-like mansion, enjoying the care of a group of servants, skiing in the Alps in winter and surfing in Hawaii in summer; while she lived in a dark and damp rented room, drinking chicken bathwater and enjoying free Tokyo night views.

It's great, we're all having a good time.

……

The next morning at 7:30, I was woken up by the alarm clock while half asleep.

Tazaki Tsukasa yawned as he went into the bathroom, brushed his teeth with his eyes half-closed, washed his face, and put on a shirt and trousers.

call out!

Tie your tie.

My reflection is in the smooth mirror.

With clear pupils, a high nose bridge, and just woken up, his expression was slightly lazy, exuding the charm of a beautiful young man.

Her complexion was a bit pale and she looked a little thin; otherwise, her charm level would probably be even higher.

Tazaki Tsukasa picked up the trash he had collected yesterday, pushed open the door, and what appeared before his eyes was a view that was enough to make one lose their way.

In front of the residential building is a large park covered with greenery, and the sky is a bright azure blue. In the middle of the blue and green, the buildings of Shinjuku's bustling city center are scattered, as if delicately stacked as Lego bricks.

Suddenly, a feeling of dizziness spread through my chest.

This is Tokyo!

The scene inside and outside the door seemed like two completely different worlds. Tazaki Tsukasa gazed at the glass buildings shimmering in the spring sunshine and thought: I want to survive in this city.

"Ah~~"

He yawned as he swiped his card to enter the station.

"Train is approaching, please be aware."

Passengers transferring, please disembark in an orderly manner.

An announcement came over the loudspeaker, and amidst the jostling of the crowd, Tsukasa Tazaki squeezed into the 8:00 Chuo Line car.

I got off at Yotsuya Station 20 minutes later.

I didn't meet Naoko, nor did I meet Midori from my high school days.

After exiting the station, walking across the bustling avenue, and turning onto the ramp leading to the school gate in front of a large shopping mall, I found myself surrounded by more and more students wearing the same uniforms.

Bathed in the April sunshine, the high school girls' skirts swayed gracefully, exuding youthful energy that tempted one to peek under their skirts.

Tsukasa Tazaki stepped into Kitagawa Private Academy, walking on the pink and white cherry blossoms that covered the school path.

Upon entering the school gate, you are greeted by a tall oak tree, which is at least a hundred years old. Standing under the tree and looking up, you feel as if even the sky is blocked by its green leaves.

Beyond the oak trees lies a school path lined with cherry blossoms. Crossing this path, you reach the school building. The school building is built on a high platform with a good view; from the rooftop, you can see the coastline of Tokyo Bay in the distance.

The school has four buildings: a regular teaching building, a vocational teaching building, a club building, and a comprehensive building. Each building at a right angle is connected to the other two adjacent buildings by sky bridges. The open space in the middle of the quadrilateral school buildings is the sanctuary of the popular students – the central courtyard.

To the left of the school building is a playground used for both baseball and soccer, next to which are six tennis courts. At either end of the playground are a swimming pool and a gymnasium, which contains basketball and volleyball courts.

Just by looking at the superb facilities, you can tell how extraordinary this school is.

Kitagawa Academy, the best private high school in Japan, was founded in 1870 and is a product of the Meiji Restoration.

This place boasts top-notch teaching facilities, a strong faculty, and a high-quality student body, making the tuition exorbitantly expensive.

Over three years, the total tuition fees will amount to 800 million yen.

How exaggerated is it?

For example, the tuition for a typical national high school is around 100 million yen in the first year, and 70 to 80 yen for the following two years. The tuition for a typical private high school is around 150 million yen in the first year, and around 100 million yen for the following two years.

The expensive tuition fees, along with the equally expensive extracurricular activities, are simply unaffordable for ordinary families.

Most of the students here can be summed up by a line from Kafka on the Shore: they are almost all children of upper-class or wealthy families. As long as they don't make any major mistakes, they can go directly into university. They all have straight teeth, are clean-cut, and talk in a boring way.

Of course, in order to maintain college entrance examination pass rates and to promote the idea that society is fair, the school offers a number of special admission slots, admitting about 10% of the top-performing students from ordinary families each year, reducing their tuition by half and providing them with substantial scholarships.

Against this backdrop, the students at the private Kitagawa Academy can be roughly divided into four classes.

First: People like Yui Kichikawa, who are extremely wealthy and have powerful connections.

Second: Generally, they are wealthy and have connections.

Third: Those who have no money or background but have top-notch academic performance.

Fourth: People like Tsukasa Tazaki, who are marginalized members of large families, have no money or background, and whose grades are average.

I inexplicably ended up at the bottom of the food chain...

While changing into indoor shoes in front of the shoe cabinet, Tsukasa Tazaki secretly felt a surge of excitement.

Those are all past perfect tenses. If it were future progressive tense, it would definitely be a reversal of fortune... By the way, what is the grammatical structure of future progressive tense again?

The structure of an affirmative sentence is: subject + shall/will + be + present participle + other.

Having reinforced another point of knowledge, Tsukasa Tazaki was in a good mood. Walking along the elevated corridor leading to the classroom, the bright and gentle sunlight of late April shone on his face, making it glow.

My classmates, all wearing the same uniforms, walked around me. He was the son of a company president; she was the daughter of a member of parliament; that chubby boy seemed to have received a recommendation letter from the University of Tokyo; and I had just drunk chicken bathwater last night.

We all have a bright future!

Chapter Five: You're insane! Are all pretty women your wives?

Back in his classroom in Class 1-F, Tsukasa Tazaki went to his seat by the window in the back row and quietly reviewed the material for today's monthly test.

Although this knowledge is something we learned in our past lives, we must not be careless. After all, Japan is a populous country with over 100 million people, and with such a large population, the probability of a few psychopaths emerging is very high.

Tsukasa Tazaki felt that he still needed to study hard and diligently in order to achieve a high ranking among his peers and thus receive a generous scholarship.

If you don't study, but instead play and mess around, you'll certainly have a very comfortable life.

But you must know that laziness is the greatest weakness of human nature. If you get caught up in laziness, you've ruined half of your life.

Tsukasa Tazaki even planned to emulate Lu Xun by carving the character "早" (early) on his desk to keep himself accountable.

As the exam time approached, the classroom filled up. A gentle breeze drifted in through the glass windows, carrying a faint, refreshing scent of the sea.

Good morning... Tazaki.

Murakami Mizuiro, who had just finished the soccer club's morning practice, greeted them and sat down in front of Tazaki Tsukasa.

"morning."