I really don't want to have a girlfriend.

Kasumigaoka Utaha was stunned for a moment, but accepted the fact faster than she had expected, and did not feel the slightest bit shocked by the truth.

"So, you're saying that your brother's slumber wasn't caused by you, and you were even protecting him during this trial?"

"That's roughly right, but I won't say anything more, since you probably wouldn't understand anyway."

Kasugano Sora casually dismissed the top student in her grade with disdain, then waved her hand and said, "Alright, if you don't hurry up and explain your background and purpose, I'm going to start dealing with you, okay? Don't think I'm just bluffing. As long as we're in this room, I can kill even a god for you to see."

"This is ridiculous? Who's the real protagonist of this novel anyway..." Kasumigaoka Utaha muttered speechlessly, still struggling, "If I were you, wouldn't you really like to share information?"

She said calmly, "I don't plan to. Anyway, it's no use knowing it will leave anything behind in the end... Now, I just need to do my own thing."

"Tch, she really is stubborn..." Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't help but click her tongue in amazement.

She now has two options in front of her.

First, confess and you'll be treated leniently. Give the other party the information you have, which is also your only bargaining chip. This should keep you safe for the time being, and you might even be able to find out more interesting things.

Secondly, he resisted the strict punishment, continued to confront her who possessed unknown powers, and sought an opportunity to escape and find Tenkuji Yu for help.

Okay, so what should we do?

Chapter 48 There's a girl here who's been imprisoned!

"strangeness……"

As she prepared to go downstairs to prepare dinner, Yuu Tenkuji glanced at the wall with some concern.

Next door is Kasugano Sora's room. Their house isn't very soundproof, especially the two adjacent bedrooms. If they make any noise, the neighbors can hear them from the corner of the room. As a result, the siblings are very careful about their actions. They always wear headphones when playing music or watching videos, and they go to the balcony to make phone calls to avoid disturbing each other or hearing any awkward or strange noises.

Especially with Yuu Tenkuji's physical abilities approaching those of a monster, even if he stands in the middle of the room, if he focuses his hearing, he can hear Kasugano Sora's breathing while sitting at her desk, not to mention her cursing while playing games or her snoring while sleeping.

So, to avoid giving her younger sister no privacy, Yu usually tries to ignore the noises from the other side of the wall, pretending that her hearing isn't actually that good. She has also reminded Sora to be more careful no matter what she does, or that it would be fine for her to move downstairs to her parents' room to sleep.

However, Sora refused decisively, saying that "there's nothing that Yu can't hear," and seemed completely indifferent to it. Since she said that, Yu naturally didn't have much of an opinion. He gradually got used to the occasional sounds of typing or slamming the controller coming from the next room, and only felt strange when it became completely quiet one day.

And now, that strange moment has arrived—

About ten minutes have passed since Kasugano Sora went upstairs to her room, and there has been no sound from the next room; it is deathly silent as if no one is there.

If he didn't want to become a pervert who eavesdrops on his sister, he would have already pressed his ear against the wall and used all his hearing to confirm her safety.

"I'm probably just overthinking it... What could possibly happen during a trial?"

He touched the wall with his palm, but in the end, he didn't bother with anything further and went downstairs to cook as if nothing had happened.

After dinner was ready, when I went upstairs to call my sister down for dinner, Kasugano Sora quickly opened the door, continuing to sway her long silver hair, and walked to the dining table to sit down.

"I'm starting to eat."

Halfway through the meal, Tenkuji Yu casually asked, "You seem unusually quiet today. Are you tired from playing games?"

Kasugano Sora paused in her chopsticks, then picked up a bite of food and replied casually, "Yeah, I was just lying in bed playing on my phone, and when I got tired, I was just about to go to sleep... But speaking of which, I didn't expect you to actually be eavesdropping on what was going on in my room."

"No, it just happened to feel strange." Yuu's tone was quite relaxed. "I already told you my hearing is very good, and the walls are very thin, so even if I don't want to hear it, I can't help but pay attention."

"Oh? Then it's alright." Kasugano Sora said casually, biting her chopsticks. "Don't worry, I'm watching the volume. It's only natural that you can't hear anything. If you could hear me, I'd be annoyed. I don't want to bother you or anything... Anyway, it's all for you, so give me some praise."

Yuu Tenkuji offered a completely insincere consolation: "Yes, yes, yes, Sora is a sensible child~"

Qiong pouted, dissatisfied with his completely dismissive attitude, and bluntly said, "I'm not a child, I'm twenty-four years old, I'm an adult!"

"I'm not even twenty yet, you're progressing way too fast..."

After finishing dinner, Kasugano Sora washed the dishes and went upstairs to her room.

She wasn't afraid that Tenkuji Yu would suddenly open her room door and grab a black-haired thief from inside.

Whether she's going to the toilet or to eat, Kasugano Sora always locks the door whenever she leaves her room. The lock on the door is specially made, and no matter how talented her older brother is in both literature and martial arts and is proficient in locking, he still has to rely on brute force to break through the final barrier and enter her room.

But before that, she had plenty of ways to stop him and wasn't afraid of any accidents happening!

"You're nothing to fear!"

With that confident murmur, Kasugano Sora opened the door and saw Kasumigaoka Utaha under the fluorescent light, trying to escape from the absolutely soundproof room, shouting at the wall:

"Is anyone there? There's a girl holding another girl captive here! Please come quickly and save me! Respond if you hear me!"

"Give up, no one will come to save you even if you scream your lungs out."

Kasugano Sora wasn't angry. She just leaned against the wall, coldly watching Kasugano Sora's monkey-like performance, and didn't forget to close the door behind her.

“My room is independent of the spacetime coordinates. With just a thought, it will disconnect from this trial world and drift away again on the river of time where nothing exists.”

As she spoke, she walked to the window, opened it, and threw a crumpled piece of paper out.

The view outside the window was still just as night was falling, and you could see elderly people taking a stroll at night if you looked down. However, the crumpled paper disappeared the moment it left the window.

Not long after, it returned to Kasugano Sora's hand as if by teleportation.

"So without my permission, firstly, you can't jump out the window to escape, and secondly, your voice won't reach You. Even if they want to save you, they definitely won't be able to find the entrance."

Looking at Kasumigaoka Utaha's increasingly grim expression, she smiled with a hint of amusement and wickedness and said, "So you've got a checkmate, Kasumigaoka-senpai."

"...Okay, I admit it, it was naive of me to think I could escape from this weird place on my own."

Suppressing her restless heart, Kasumigaoka Utaha slumped her shoulders, sighed in utter disappointment, and said listlessly:

"So what's your purpose in locking me up here? Are you planning to starve me to death? Or are you trying to slowly torture me to death?"

She bit her lower lip lightly, revealing a pitiful expression, but her pretense went too far, and her act was immediately exposed.

"I don't have that kind of perverse sense of humor. It's just that you're stubborn and refuse to reveal any information, no matter what."

Rolling her eyes, Kasugano Sora didn't bother to look at her and closed the window: "I was originally planning to deal with you in some other way, but after thinking about it carefully, you might become an unexpected trump card since you suddenly barged in. So I'll keep you here for now and let you go after things settle down."

"Your statement..." It feels like you're about to start some kind of war.

Kasumigaoka Utaha sensed something, but didn't have time to ask.

"Don't worry, as long as you stay in this room, time will almost stand still. Eating, drinking, and relieving yourself will no longer be necessary. It might just be a little boring."

As she said this, Kasugano Sora kicked the cabinet in the corner and pointed at the TV next to her with her chin: "I need to use the computer, so I can't lend it to you, and only I can connect to the internet... As compensation, there are thousands of games and dozens of game consoles here, all of which I'm tired of playing. That's enough to keep you entertained for decades. You shouldn't be bored to death, right?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha looked speechless and said with a black line on her forehead, "You might as well give me a pen and paper so I can concentrate on writing."

And even if the game is fun, playing it in a godforsaken place for years would drive anyone crazy!

Kasugano Sora suddenly realized: "Oh right, I forgot you're a novelist."

Then he took out a stack of manuscript paper and a fountain pen from the cabinet and slammed them onto the table in front of her.

"Here you go, what you wanted."

Kasumigaoka Utaha was completely speechless.

"...I mean, you're not really planning to keep me stuck here for years, are you?"

"Don't worry, I can adjust the time and speed up the process appropriately... If Yu's situation is optimistic, she might be free soon."

Speaking in a tone that left her completely uneasy, Kasugano Sora pulled out a chair and sat down, her pale eyes looking directly at her, seemingly somewhat displeased: "Besides, do you think I enjoy being with you? If you weren't somewhat useful and there wasn't anywhere else to take you in, I would have kicked you out of my room long ago."

Plopping down on the bed, supporting the heavy weight in her arms, Kasumigaoka Utaha crossed her arms and pouted, "I didn't want to either. Who knew I'd end up here like this? If you could tell me some information, maybe I could find a way to solve this."

"Sorry, this is prohibited."

Without knowing anything about the other party's background, Kasugano Sora didn't intend to tell her anything more; as for threatening the other party to exchange their life for information, she was really not good at it, so she gave up after a brief attempt.

After all, in her memory, although her relationship with Kasumigaoka Utaha wasn't exactly friendly, it was at least much more amicable than with those "girlfriends." She hadn't formed any irreconcilable feud with her, so there was no need to be so heartless.

Ultimately, it's because this senior's experience was so pitiful that even Kasugano Sora couldn't help but feel sorry for her when she recalled it...

"Fine, I guess I'm just bored."

Shaking her head, Kasugano Sora sighed softly, a rare warmth appearing in her eyes: "Wait a minute, let me think about what I should say."

Although things were finally starting to move forward, Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't be honestly happy at this moment. She just looked at the silver-haired woman in front of her, who was deep in thought, with a subtle expression.

"What exactly is this feeling of being pitied...?"

It inexplicably makes people unhappy.

On another note, Kasugano Sora left the room in adult form, but returned in her underage form, only transforming back into an adult form after closing the door...

Is it because she doesn't want Tenkuji Yu to know that she can change size?

I wonder if changing size like this all the time will damage the bones...

"What are you thinking?"

“Some trivial things.” Kasumigaoka Utaha blinked, turning her gaze back to her. “And you? Have you thought of anything you can tell me?”

"Well, that's about right." Kasugano Sora touched her long hair, a half-smile playing on her lips, her feelings indescribably complicated. "Although it's a trivial matter, if I had to say, it's probably the starting point of everything, isn't it?"

"Oh? I'm all ears."

Kasumigaoka Utaha straightened up and sat on the bed facing the silver-haired woman in a white coat, her expression gradually becoming serious.

It seems she didn't bring the notebook into this dream, and she can't contact them in reality, nor can she leave this room where she's at their mercy—helpless, she can only obediently listen to others like this.

However, given the privacy of Tenkuji Yuu and the connection between "God" and "Notebook," Kasumigaoka Utaha was extremely curious, both publicly and privately, and naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity to easily obtain information.

For novelists, a little gossip can be helpful in sparking inspiration.

"So, where should we begin?"

Kasugano Sora tilted her head slightly, as if searching through a vast memory bank for that small, yellowed photograph, unconsciously adopting a nostalgic tone:

"By the way, back then, Yu was still using the 'Life Achievement System.' It was crude and rudimentary, and there was no confidentiality agreement, so he could say whatever he wanted... Looking at it now, the enhanced 'Girlfriend System' was definitely the best fit for him."

"Hmm, what about the Life Achievement System and the Girlfriend System..." Kasumigaoka Utaha nodded seriously, then asked with a blank look.

"what is that?"

"you do not know?!"

Kasugano Sora was taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered, her expression turning serious as she pursed her lips, processing the information: "I see. So you really did get in using other cheating methods, otherwise you wouldn't be unaware of the system's existence... In that case, you probably don't know about the Light Orb and its power either, right?"

"What are you talking about? Is it the setting of the novel?"

Bombarded by unfamiliar terms and feeling as if the other party had unknowingly extracted more information from her, Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't help but irritably roll up her long hair in front of her chest, and her heels unconsciously started to shake.

Kasugano Sora hesitated for a moment, but decided to explain to her what almost everyone who had been intimate with him in the past knew.

"After switching to the 'Girlfriend System,' Yukinoshita and the others probably refer to it as 'God,' right? After all, there's a protection agreement."

"Lord God..."