Tokyo Soft Rice King.

Tokyo Soft Rice King

Author: Ghost Under the Night

Summary:

Reborn in Tokyo, I'm talentless and immoral, all I want to do is lie down and relax, but alas, I have no money.

However, it's impossible for me to work; I need to find a way to be a kept man immediately.

Since no mature and beautiful rich woman is willing to support me... then I'll find a potential future rich woman, nurture her, build up her favorability, and then use that favorability to monetize it!

This is Kuroba Akira's unique "lying flat" secret: the theory of cultivating future meal ticket investment.

As long as we can control the rise and fall of goodwill and maintain a good balance between ships, then...

He'll be living off his wife until he dies; it's only a matter of time!

Our motto is: "Lie down, give up, and live off your wife!"

……

Breaking news! Mr. Akira Kuroba, a well-known entrepreneur and investor who had been missing for a long time, has finally been rescued. Several of the main culprits are female friends with whom he had an ambiguous relationship since his student days.

Next, please watch a clip of Mr. Kuroba Akira being rescued.

"Why... why is my favorability rating... going up instead of down after I asked you for so much money?!"

I thank Mr. Akira Kuroba for sacrificing himself to prove two points.

First, the stock market's popularity is unpredictable.

Second, being a kept man will eventually come at a price.

……

Third, this book features a harem, but there is a warning about the twisted nature of female characters.

Volume One

Chapter 1: Campus Life Starting from Zero

"No way……"

A dejected high school boy stood in front of the vending machine, turning over all his pockets, but couldn't even find a ten-yen coin.

They finally ran out of ammunition and food.

The piercing chirping of cicadas filled my ears, the air in my field of vision seemed to distort and sway, beads of sweat trickled down my forehead and cheeks, and I felt as if my soul was slipping away from the top of my head.

Damn it, how can summers in island nations be this hot... Tokyo! Hot!

It's already the last day of August, but there's no sign of the temperature dropping.

He reluctantly bent down and reached out to touch the coin return slot, wondering if someone had forgotten to take their change after buying a drink, but in the end, he found nothing.

Although he wasn't exactly wealthy in his previous life, he was at least able to support himself as a corporate slave, and he had never been this poor before.

Not only did he fail to become a winner in life after reopening, but he also fell so low that he couldn't even afford a cold drink. It's just too tragic.

He now faces a difficult choice.

That would be to slink away from the vending machine like a loser, or...

One last gamble!

So, as a man who stands tall and upright, it goes without saying what choice he should make at this moment, right?

Damn you, God! I'm coming to settle this score with you!

He continued to bend over, his knees slowly lowering, his hands supporting him on the ground, his whole being displaying the ferocious posture of the king of beasts hunting...

Success or failure hinges on this one move!

Come on! Koi!

For true duelists, everything is inevitable!

"Kuroba-kun, no matter how short of money you are, you can't lie on the ground and look under the vending machine's base, your uniform will get dirty."

What appeared in sight was not a coin that would change one's fate, but a pair of black leather shoes. Judging from the shoe size of 23cm (size 36), the owner of these shoes should be around 1.55 meters tall.

For a Japanese girl, this is already considered quite tall.

Looking up through the black over-the-knee socks, he saw the girl covering the hem of her school uniform skirt with her hand, her defenses impeccable, preventing him from glimpsing the abyss beyond her absolute territory.

Having been seen in such an embarrassing state, he... Kuroba Akira, felt no shame at all, and stood up, dusting off his uniform as he argued.

"I'm not looking for the dropped coin, I'm just checking my luck for the day."

Upon hearing this, the girl's eyes widened in surprise, and she even raised her hand to cover her mouth.

However, what surprised her was not the stubbornness of the person who had been caught red-handed, but rather the fact that Kuroba Akira had spoken.

"Kuroba-kun, so you can talk?"

"...I'm not mute, of course I can talk."

Kuroba Akira rolled his eyes, tugging at his collar to let in some fresh air while muttering to himself.

The girl tapped her cheek, giving a reason for her surprise.

"Since we were assigned to the same class, a semester and a summer vacation have passed, but I have never seen Kuroba-kun speak to anyone."

"Humph……"

Kuroba Akira couldn't refute this, because he really didn't say a single word to his classmates during his first semester of high school.

It seems I only exchanged a few words with Ms. Kobayakawa, who taught Chinese. The teacher was even moved to tears because Akira Kuroba was willing to speak.

It's not that he doesn't want to talk, nor that he wants to put on a cool and aloof persona; it's simply because... he can't speak Japanese!

As a pure-blooded Chinese who grew up under the red flag in his previous life, Kuroba Akira was a veteran anime fan who had been immersed in Japanese culture and the Japanese film industry for many years. He had a considerable understanding of Japanese culture and the film industry, could read the Japanese syllabary, knew many internationally renowned actresses, and could even recite some lines that were engraved in his DNA. However, it was still too difficult for him to have a normal daily conversation like a local.

So when he discovered that he had transmigrated to an island nation and had no extra benefits or systems, even the usually refined and easy-going man couldn't help but point to the sky and curse.

Blanch!

God the hell, you're insane!

What about Lao Tzu's perks as a time traveler?!

It's one thing if you don't provide the system! But at least include the 'local dialect'!

What's the point of going to school like this! What kind of high school student are we?!

Despite his complaints, he still had to keep studying. After all, it seemed that Kuroba Akira was unlikely to return to his original world, since he didn't even know how he had transmigrated.

Thus, Kuroba Akira began his arduous self-study process with tears streaming down his face.

I borrowed my landlady's old elementary school Chinese textbook, which her granddaughter used before. I would wear headphones to practice listening in class, and go to the library to devour those books with alien-like scripts after class. When I got home, I would pester my hot-tempered landlady to practice my spoken Chinese.

Day after day, and after intensive training during the summer vacation, Kuroba Akira finally raised his Japanese language skills to the beginner level of Lv1.

Don't underestimate this beginner level. It's already at a level where even locals can't tell anything strange about it. If someone knew that Kuroba Akira was a transmigrator, they would have to say: "Your Neon Valley red bean paste is really good!"

The girl in front of him was the second person Kuroba Akira had formally spoken to after learning the local language... the first was his landlady.

"So was there a trigger for your sudden speaking out?"

"There wasn't any particular trigger; it was just that my teenage rebellion was over, and I was able to remove the barriers in my heart."

After saying that, Kuroba Akira couldn't help but laugh. He'd reached puberty fifteen years late!

The girl blinked, accepting the obviously perfunctory explanation. She clasped her hands behind her back and revealed a charming smile that could make any naive teenager fall in love at first sight.

"I see. So, that means I was Kuroba-kun's first love."

"..."

In that instant, even the middle-aged Kuroba Akira felt his heart race.

That's quite an ambiguous statement...

Looking at her smiling expression, Kuroba Akira couldn't tell whether she was genuinely natural or just pretending.

"However, I hope that Kuroba-kun is not talking to me because he is so friendly to every stranger, but because he knows me. After all, if I am the only one who knows Kuroba-kun, it would seem a bit presumptuous of me."

She took a half step forward, leaned her upper body forward, and brought her face close to Kuroba Akira's as she asked.

"So, Kuroba-kun, do you know what my name is?"

"..."

Kuroba Akira couldn't answer immediately, but it wasn't that he didn't remember or had forgotten; after all, they were classmates.

There are only about thirty students in a class in Japan. It's understandable that he doesn't know the students in the next class, but he shouldn't forget the faces of his classmates, especially since almost half a year has passed.

There was just a small mishap during the self-introduction session on the first day of school.

At the time, Kuroba Akira was in a state of double confusion, thinking, "I don't understand what 'Nehonggou' means!" and "Who the hell am I?!" So she was too busy with her own questions to remember her name, even though she had introduced herself.

Incidentally, Akira Kuroba's self-introduction went like this...

Stand up! Be silent! Look straight ahead! Be resolute! Say no word! Stand in meditation like an ascetic!

Ten seconds... twenty seconds... thirty seconds...

After a suffocating minute, the homeroom teacher and Chinese language teacher, Motoko Kobayakawa, who couldn't bear to watch any longer and didn't want to waste any more time, briefly introduced Akira Kuroba's name on his behalf and gently urged the other students to try to befriend him.

However, a self-introduction that is close to absolute zero (digging one's own grave) cannot be changed by the little bit of care from the class teacher.

Kuroba Akira was thus labeled as a gloomy weirdo whom no one wanted to associate with, and on the first day of school, he was unanimously relegated to the lowest level of the class by his classmates, even lower than Otaku.

Of course, Kuroba Akira has always been indifferent to this.

He was actually quite happy, because he had finally learned his new name and how to pronounce it, even though the price was a whole semester of living a life of solitude.

Perhaps it was around that time that the girl in front of me remembered the name Kuroba Akira.

However, Kuroba Akira thought he would never have any interaction with his classmates until graduation, but he didn't expect to strike up a conversation with her here, and it was she who took the initiative to talk to him.

Is it because it's summer vacation and there aren't any other classmates around that you dared to approach and talk to them? No, shouldn't you be even more scared if no one's around?

Who knows if this gloomy, strange person is a psychopath... Generally speaking, that's what people would think.

But her attitude was a bit too friendly, so what was her purpose in getting close to me?

Despite her adult mindset, Kuroba Akira did not become complacent because of the girl's gentle treatment; instead, she became wary.