I want to become a Kamen Rider

Mizutani Migen caught it deftly and waved his hand, saying, "Thanks, Uncle!"

"Mizutani," the uncle asked casually, with a hint of elder's concern, as he tidied up his fishing gear, "shouldn't you be in school studying hard at your age?"

"correct."

"Then why..."

"Because I'm an orphan, uncle. I have to earn my own tuition and living expenses."

"Feel sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize for. I'm doing just fine now, thanks to myself."

With a cheerful wave goodbye to the older man, Mizutani Migen chose to continue practicing his boxing.

Even knowing that she had no talent or ability, all she had left was her fist.

All the old, down-on-his-luck martial artist who had taken her in for a while left her was this martial art and a desire to become the strongest.

If her master were a normal person, she might be able to optimistically say that she still has a master to rely on. But her master carries far more burdens than she does, so he can't say such things.

With fists flying against the wind and feet treading on the waves, I constantly practice and strive, and have become accustomed to this kind of life.

Life is much better than before. At least now she can use her strength to catch a lot of fish, support herself, and even have money to feed her master.

If I remember correctly, my master insisted on not using his strength for anything other than combat and protecting others, which was actually very inefficient and unreasonable. If my master were just a little more "flexible," solving life's problems would be a piece of cake, and the time saved would be much more efficient whether used for combat training or rest and recovery.

Mizutani Migen still doesn't understand why his master has such an inefficient and unreasonable insistence. If we were to compare him to a game character, that person would probably be someone whose affection is incredibly difficult to raise, with tons of CGs and hidden events. Perhaps he'll understand this later when he unlocks events.

It's hard to say whether she was influenced by that person, since she used such power to speed up the fishing process.

'Mizutani, while you're diligently working and training here, others might be making even greater progress.'

A flat, emotionless thought echoed in her mind. It wasn't the Kyubey that always clung to her master, but the one she had made a pact with. It appeared silently on the deck, its white fur motionless in the sea breeze, its ruby-like eyes gazing at her with barely any emotion.

Aren't you worried?

"I'm very worried."

'Then why are you so calm...'

"Because of poverty."

Mizutani Migen didn't stop throwing punches; sweat dripped down his chin, and his voice sounded somewhat muffled in the wind of his punches.

People need to eat.

The rich girl characters in the story can ignore this issue, but people without money always have to fill their stomachs first before they can gain dignity, and only then can they talk about love.

She was admitted to the high school she is currently attending by being a sports student. Recently, due to her role as a Kamen Rider, she has been frequently absent from class because of fighting, recovering from injuries, and dealing with various emergencies. Her credits are in jeopardy, and she has begun to seriously consider whether to drop out of school and give up the school she worked so hard to get into.

Those who are scarred and wounded, yet maintain the glamorous facade of the world, are rejected by that glamorous world.

Mizutani Migen had long recognized this truth: the world is not fair.

It's so unfair, so unfair, so unfair.

Effort doesn't guarantee a reward, and being serious doesn't guarantee results. Even if you put in so much effort, with blood and sweat, it can't compare to what others are born with.

Even if the world were truly at peace in the end, and she and her master survived, her master would probably still choose to marry a rich girl.

Even so, she still chose to work hard.

Day after day, I never forget.

All she had were her fists, so she would use them to fight for and seize what she wanted.

The wind from her punches cut through the air, and sweat dripped onto the vast sea. The girl stood at the bow of the ship, which swayed with the waves, but she stood straight. When she finally threw her 13,004th punch and finished her morning lesson, an unusual commotion came from the direction of the port.

That huge whaling ship actually returned to port ahead of schedule?

Moreover, the condition of the ship's hull is clearly not right.

On the massive hull, near the waterline, were several huge, deep dents, as if struck by an invisible hammer. The metal plating was twisted and deformed, looking grotesque and terrifying. The ship was also much slower than it had been going, entering the harbor with a heavy, almost disheveled posture.

A large number of fishermen and onlookers quickly gathered at the dock, discussing the matter animatedly.

The girl reluctantly stopped what she was doing; this strange occurrence was far too bizarre. She nimbly jumped off the bow of the boat and squeezed into the chattering crowd in a few steps.

"What happened? Didn't you say you were going on 'scientific research'? Why are you back so soon?"

"Look at that ship! Goodness, has it hit a reef?"

"It doesn't seem like... it seems more like something..."

Mizutani Migen approached several experienced old fishermen who were marveling at the sight and listened intently.

One of the old fishermen, a pipe in his mouth, squinted at the battered whaling ship and sighed in a thick Kansai accent:

"It's weird, really weird. That scene... it felt like those big guys weren't swimming at all, they were running for their lives! They were panicking and running for their lives! It was like... something unseen, something more terrifying than us, was chasing them!"

Another old fisherman nodded in agreement, still feeling a lingering fear.

"Yes, that panic was something I've never seen in my entire fishing career. Even the normally docile humpback whales went berserk... and in their panic, some of them just crashed straight into the boat with tremendous force..."

The fragmented words pieced together the general events—the whaling ship collided with a pod of whales fleeing for their lives.

However, the idea of ​​whales fleeing for their lives is a false premise. Whales are the rulers of the ocean and the largest known animals to have ever lived on Earth. Great white sharks and killer whales may be able to prey on some, but there should be absolutely nothing that can drive away a pod of whales.

The girl raised her head, her gaze passing over the noisy crowd, over the battered whaling ship, and into the vast, boundless depths of the sea, where the sun still shone brightly and the sea surface shimmered.

She felt a chill.

The master always looked up at the sky, as if the trouble came from beyond the heavens, but... what if there was something in the water too?

Chapter 77 My Turn, Draw Cards! (4K)

At noon that day, the Service Department.

The campus wind always carries a hustle and bustle, mixed with the noise of the popular kids who are enjoying their youth and sweating it out. If it were the old Tina Hiiragi, she would have looked at those people with envy, but now, she doesn't envy them anymore.

She has realized her long-held dream and found something new to aspire to; she has a goal and something she wants.

In the very beginning, she just wanted to spend her school life peacefully and quietly. Later, she wanted to make friends and go out with them on Sundays like everyone else, sharing what she liked and discussing what she wanted to explore. And then, admiring others, she wanted to become a Kamen Rider.

His desire to make friends and become a Kamen Rider has been fulfilled, but he has started to want more. Perhaps, as the minister said, the most brilliant ultimate flame can illuminate the deepest abyss, but it cannot illuminate the greed and darkness in people's hearts.

Only through everyone's joint efforts can we kindle the firewood and ignite a spark in the darkness.

Hiiragi Tina took small steps to push open the door of the Service Department and walked inside.

Judging by the time, everyone should be here by now. If the minister were here, he would be sitting in that very conspicuous spot.

"minister……"

Before he could even speak, he choked.

Because a minister was sitting in a very conspicuous position, which might sound a bit grammatically incorrect, since ministers are usually quite conspicuous. But today, he was even more conspicuous.

He had a red ribbon tied around his head that read "Victory is certain," and he wore a white robe with the eight characters "Mystery cannot save the unlucky, and spending money cannot change fate." In front of him was a small incense burner with cheap incense sticks stuck in it.

It's incredibly eye-catching!

The minister's subsequent series of actions, combined with his attire, his hands clasped together, and his chanting while looking at his phone screen, evoked the ancient rituals of bathing, changing clothes, praying, and burning incense.

"Give up, Second Minister, your remaining gacha pulls are as faint as a candle in the wind."

Dead Fish Eyes arrived a little earlier than her and was holding a paperback book, offering a sharp critique.

"Hachiman, you don't understand. Even if I have only a few gacha pulls left, I can't give up hope. This is my fight to avoid a future of dying from overwork!"

Have you decided what to write on the tombstone?

"Wild dogs don't need tombstones; they run until they rot."

Hiiragi Tina was startled by the scene and also became curious.

She walked cautiously toward the minister's direction. As she passed the dead-eyed man, Hachiman Hikigaya gazed at the minister's figure, his already lifeless eyes filled with even more sorrow.

"He was covered in flags, and from a distance, he was hardly recognizable as a human."

The minister took a deep breath, as if gathering all his life's fortune into his fingertips, raised his phone high, and roared as if wielding a holy sword:

"My turn, draw a card!"

Then, it let out a series of mournful cries.

"Why is it another B-rank knight... This C-rank is even worse... Hmm, this A-rank is useless..."

It sounds like Kamen Rider is getting a card game.

Hiiragi Tina crept closer, tiptoeing to peek at the captain's phone screen. The screen did indeed display a standard gacha game UI: dazzling gacha animations, card-flipping effects... but the icon displaying the gacha items in the lower right corner looked very strange.

It says "Number of times aid was provided".

After the minister shakily tapped the recharge page, something went even further. Instead of options like "648 yuan gift pack," there was a shocking list of "transaction" entries:

[One Date]: Redeem 5 aid attempts

[Five Dates]: Redeem 30 assist attempts + Exclusive Support Token (Small)

[Holding Hands]: Redeem 10 assistance attempts + Exclusive Support Token (Medium)

[Embrace]: Redeem 20 aid attempts + Exclusive Support Token (Large) + Temporary S-Rank Knight Support Card (1 card)

[Kiss]: Redeem 100 aid attempts + Exclusive Support Token (Extra Large) + Temporary SS-Rank Knight Support Card (1 card)

[Marriage]: Unlimited chances to redeem aid + a super flashy Kingsoft icon (labeled: Billions in assets) + a similarly flashy chibi-style girl icon (labeled: Super cute girl)

Hiiragi Tina's heart suddenly tightened, but she breathed a sigh of relief when the department head didn't choose any of the options on the recharge page in the end, but instead closed the recharge page.

"Wu Tina, you've come at the right time. Help me draw the winning numbers; I'm having terrible luck."

The minister handed over the phone without even turning his head.

Without complaining about how the department head found out about her, Tina Hiiragi hesitantly took the phone:

"Minister, what is this gacha page?"

"Exit the software and go back to the main page."

Tina Hiiragi followed the instructions and exited the gacha interface. The software name that appeared before her eyes was not some pay-to-win gacha game like "Kamen Rider: Heroes Assemble" that she had imagined, but instead it clearly stated - "Global Knight Council · Data Integration Platform".

"Click on it again and find the 'Kuuga Exclusive' option."

Hiiragi Tina scrolled through the function list and quickly found the "Kuuga Exclusive" entry in a prominent position. Clicking on it, the phone seemed to automatically pass some kind of advanced permission verification, and the familiar gacha page reappeared.

The minister then began to explain, his tone tinged with a hint of helplessness and... a headache over someone:

"This is what happened. A very talented and ruthless woman emerged in Europe. She worked with me to sweep away the dark forces around Europe with lightning speed. Of course, it was mainly me who did the work. She only played a role that was insignificant to me, but quite significant compared to the Knights Councils in other parts of the world."

Now that things have come to this, Hiiragi Tina probably understands the relationship between the Knights Council and the Minister.

To paraphrase a famous quote from Xie Lingyun of the Southern Dynasties, which she had only recently learned in her classical Chinese class, the total fighting strength of all the knights in the world is one shi (a unit of dry measure), with the minister alone possessing eight dou (another unit of dry measure), and the other knights sharing two dou.

Considering that the minister rarely affirms or acknowledges someone's talent so directly, the "strongman" the minister speaks of must truly be remarkable. Although he claims the talent is insignificant compared to the minister, simply being compared to him is already quite absurd. The contributions of the vast majority of contracted knights are incomparable to those of the minister.

"The European Knights Council has done most of what it needs to do, so it can naturally free up its resources to help the Knights Councils in other regions."

“Is this a good thing?”

"Of course it's a good thing. The problem is that the European Knights Council wants to take this opportunity to complete the integration of the global Knights Council under their leadership. With their overwhelming financial resources and surplus manpower, they will subsidize and assist contracted knights in other regions. That's the reason for the development of the software you see in your hand. Ever heard of the Marshall Plan? It's something like that."

Tina Hiiragi's historical records aren't very good, but that doesn't stop her from taking out her phone to search for them on the spot.

She looked at the Marshall Plan, which involved the United States providing economic aid to other European countries after the war to help them rebuild, while also exerting intervention and influence in the political and military spheres.

"It should be a good thing that someone has stepped forward to integrate the Knights Council and unify the allocation of forces, right?"

"It's a good thing, but considering the chairman of the European Knights Council himself... it's hard to say it's purely a good thing."

"Didn't the minister say that he was a very talented person with shrewd methods?"

"Yeah, she's really amazing. Her fighting skills are beyond question. She's good-looking and comes from a good family, but she has mental issues."

Tina Hiiragi looked at the strange gacha page in her hand.

"And that weird gacha page and that recharge system..."

"It was the work of the Speaker of the European Knights Council."

"That recharge system, the last option is marriage, because..."

"Because I previously rejected her marriage proposal."

The minister calmly stated a very significant fact.