Tokyo, but I'm a deceitful scumbag.

"What do you see?" Kikuri Iji tilted her head in confusion, but then squinted and said:

"However, I did get headaches while reading this book."

"It's quite impressive to have this level of sensitivity; no wonder he was the only one who chose to call the police."

"What's the meaning……"

"nothing."

Hideyuki Hoshino closed the book:

"Thank you for your cooperation. That's about all I wanted to know. If possible, I'd like to take these teaching materials back and study them."

"Do as you please, I never want to see these things again."

Kikuri Ichichi paused, then asked, "Are you... confident you can succeed?"

"more or less."

Hoshino Hideyuki answered casually.

Kikuchi Ichichi breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Although she felt that trusting another fraudster was a foolish thing to do.

but……

It's better than having no hope at all.

Thinking of this, she laughed self-deprecatingly.

"...Don't be too hard on yourself."

"what?"

Iji Chikiku looked up and found Hoshino Hideyuki looking at her with a very serious expression.

The flippant and teasing tone that had been present since we met was completely gone.

"It's not your fault that you were scammed."

Hoshino Hideyuki's tone was flat, yet it conveyed an unvarnished certainty: "It's already quite good that you managed to hold on until you went to the police station. You've worked hard these past six months."

These are the fox's heartfelt words.

That Kayaba Nobuaki was clearly using illusion magic to bully people; even the police fell for it. The fact that this woman was able to break free already shows that she has a special talent in some area.

"Leave the rest to me. I will get the 1505 million yen back to you in full."

Ijichi Kikuri was stunned for a few seconds.

This was the first time she had heard such words since realizing she had been scammed.

Shouldn't I be more hard on myself...?

It was clearly a rather superficial attempt at comfort.

But why, why does my nose feel a little sore...?

Hideyuki Hoshino smiled slightly and stood up.

He took out three 10,000-yuan bills from his pocket and placed them in the center of the table.

"This is the money for the bento box, as well as the advance payment for errands I've been given. Don't be surprised, I don't want my business partner to go hungry."

"If you need anything else, please contact me. The phone number on the fake business card is still valid."

"Well then, goodbye~"

Hideyuki Hoshino lifted his foot and walked out.

As Ichikiku held the money and business card, she noticed that not only her nose but also the corners of her eyes were getting wet.

"please wait!"

Hideyuki Hoshino turned around and saw Kikuri Iji bow deeply to him.

"Thank you for helping me!"

"You're welcome."

He blinked, then said:

"Oh, by the way, there's one more thing."

"Please say!"

"While those tiny toes are cute, next time you should probably wear socks that aren't torn, like black stockings. I highly recommend them!"

"?!"

Wow, he has such good eyesight!

One minute later.

Iji Chikiku's face was still flushed.

Meanwhile, Hideyuki Hoshino had already arrived on the street, humming a little tune.

The weather outside was perfect, with clear blue skies and bright sunshine.

On the riverbank nearby, delinquent teenagers from a nearby high school were engaged in a turn-based battle full of youthful exuberance, the sound of fists hitting faces ringing out incessantly, crisp and pleasant.

Hideyuki Hoshino stretched and called Tetsuya Inuyama.

"Moshi moshi, I'm off work now. Want to go home and play Monster Girl Hunter together?"

"Ten o'clock on a weekday morning? Are you deliberately trying to annoy me...?"

On the other end of the phone, the middle-aged office worker sounded unusually tired: "I'll be working until at least 9 p.m. today."

"Oh wow, you've run into a tricky case?"

"It's less about being tricky and more about being bizarre... We arrested a male escort, and after investigating, we found out that his real identity was actually a captain in the Maritime Self-Defense Force... Just thinking about dealing with the media and the Self-Defense Force makes my head spin..."

"The JMSDF captain's side job is being a gigolo? Hahaha! This place always manages to give me a little surprise!"

Hideyuki Hoshino laughed so loudly that he startled a stray cat on a nearby rooftop that was trying to catch a bird.

The birds flew away in fright, the cat pounced but missed, and meowed angrily, while the fox laughed heartily.

"Stop laughing... How are things on your end?"

"I've gotten everything I was supposed to get, and it's confirmed that Nobuyuki Kayaba is no ordinary person."

After finishing his sentence, Hoshino Hideyuki added, "I might need some technical support. Can your friends from the time before last still help me?"

"That's no problem."

Inuyama Tetsu readily agreed, and then asked:

"If the other side really is a superhuman, are you confident?"

"It's a bit more complicated than I imagined, but how will I know if I don't try? To be more specific, I need to go to the site to find out."

"...If there is any risk, please prioritize your own safety. I don't want to play Monster Girl Hunter without teammates in the future."

"Don't worry, how could I bear to see you all alone, with the Fire Dragon Girl pinning you down, just because you've lost your teammates?"

There was a slight pause on the other end of the phone, followed by a series of incomprehensible words.

Phrases like "How can a player's actions be considered bad?", "I can beat the Fire Dragon Girl by myself", and "I've never liked her butt model" filled the air with a cheerful atmosphere both inside and outside the phone.

Hoshino Hideyuki listened with a smile for a while, then casually hung up the phone.

Chapter 8 is the end; the fox's actions have been seen through.

The first weekend of August is the perfect time to make sentences using the words "midsummer," "cicada chirping," "youth," and "orange-flavored soda."

However, enjoying the summer of youth is a privilege reserved for young people. For those who are already adults or middle-aged, the primary concern is how to collect more Fukuzawa Yukichi fragments.

Therefore, it's only natural to sometimes spend some money on classes to improve oneself...

"With just a little money, you can learn the secret to easily earning 100 million yen and reaching the pinnacle of life... I bet many of you here think that way?"

In the lecture hall of the Abe Department Store, Kayaba Nobuyuki suddenly spoke into the microphone, startling the students who were somewhat drowsy.

Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to success.

"If you don't agree with this statement, you can leave now, and I will refund your money in full."

After waiting a few seconds and seeing that no one moved, Kayaba Nobuyuki nodded in satisfaction.

"I am very pleased to see that everyone is determined to continue on this path."

"In that case, we will certainly not let you down!"

"While there are no shortcuts to success, I assure you that our course will help you find the right path and avoid unnecessary detours..."

The last row of the classroom.

Wearing sunglasses, Hideyuki Hoshino listened attentively to the entire lesson.

Ok……

Even just looking at his eloquence, Mr. Kayaba Nobuyuki is quite remarkable.

Add to that the arrangement of the whole room, and 1 plus 1 is greater than 114514, no wonder even the police fell for it...

He took off his glasses and looked around.

The paid textbooks on each student's desk exuded a familiar aura; without a doubt, they, like the ones in Iji Chikiku's hands, had undergone special treatment.

On the walls around the classroom, on the doorframes of the front and back doors, and in the corridors of the office building, there were slogans encouraging the students. The words on them also seemed to twist and writhe in the fox's eyes, emitting whispers that burrowed into the ears of the unsuspecting people.

All of these bizarre things are interconnected and converge into a single entity.

This can no longer be described as mere magic.

In my hometown in my previous life, this would be called an illusion array; in Japan, it would be called a barrier.

At this point, the fox completely understood Kayaba Nobuyuki's methods.

Firstly, he is very skilled at the tricks of entrepreneurship lecture scams, setting up a trap that seems reasonable at first glance, which greatly reduces people's resistance.

Based on this, special texts were written using ink mixed with blood, and a barrier was set up with slogans and calligraphy as major nodes and textbooks as minor nodes.