I want to become a Kamen Rider

"In short, while I acknowledge her achievements and abilities, we have significant differences in policy. The aid to our Azure Island Knights Council will be provided through a card draw. Besides that person's perverse sense of humor, another reason is to prevent her from planting spies among us."

The minister gave a brief introduction to the card-drawing system, which was exclusively for his use.

The European Knights Council prioritizes providing assistance to the knights who have heavy combat duties. The knights arrange and assign the work tasks to the knights, and the combat allowances are paid by the European Knights Council.

Putting aside the minister's apparent covetousness revealed on the recharge page, in all fairness, it was already a considerable amount of assistance.

Knights are divided into six ranks: D, C, B, A, S, and SS, based on their combat abilities and special talents. However, since all the contracted knights in the world combined cannot defeat the Minister, there is no need for the Minister to be ranked.

Rank D and Rank C are probably contract knights who, thanks to the minister's efforts, are able to avoid brutal battles and live a carefree life, with combat power only sufficient to complete patrol missions.

B-class and A-class are the backbone of the force. The two knights, W and Takanashi, who helped her before, are roughly at the upper level of A-class and can already deal with more powerful monsters. Usually, multiple contract knights of this level will defend an area together.

S-rank and SS-rank are the top combat power among the contract knights in the world. There are 224 countries and regions in the world, but there are fewer than 50 knights of S-rank and above.

There are only ten SS-class individuals.

In other action-packed manga, these ten SS-rank knights would probably have impressive titles and reputations, but considering the man in front of her who keeps stealing her manga and his unremarkable reputation, she suddenly felt that the ten knights who are unique in the world were nothing special.

I think I can understand the minister's feelings a little better now. An era that produces many heroes is an unfortunate era.

"Come on, Mutina, whether I can take a break and get six hours of sleep a day, or continue to only get less than four hours of sleep, depends on your next gacha pull!"

"..."

Is it really a good idea to pin your hopes on gacha pulls? But she could also understand why the minister didn't want to bow down to the chairman of the European Knights Council.

Also, if the gacha results are terrible, will the minister have to resort to using his charm to go on a date with the chairman of the European Knights Council?!

Hiiragi Tina took a deep breath, feeling her palms sweating as she held her phone.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the eight large characters on the minister's clothes: "Mystery can't save the unlucky, and money can't change fate," and suddenly became curious.

"Minister, what do those words on your clothes mean?"

"Money cannot change destiny, and faith cannot change lineage."

The minister, in a super cool tone, said something that was probably not the truth. Considering his previous lamentations, Hiiragi Tina felt that the truth was probably closer to "stubbornly denying it."

But Tina Hiiragi nodded anyway, ruffling her hair. While she didn't intend to transform her hair into a starfish, crab, or jellyfish, she still imitated the movements from a card game she'd seen before:

"To preserve the minister's good looks, it's my turn to draw a card!"

Press your fingertip firmly on the card draw button.

The phone screen burst into dazzling light, with white, purple, and gold rays intertwining and shimmering, like a tiny firework blooming in the palm of your hand.

The light faded, and the cards flipped over.

Hiiragi Tina held her breath and counted—two A-rank knights and one S-rank knight!

"Thanks to you, Wu Tina, maybe I can sleep for seven hours a day from now on!"

"That sounds really sad. It should be something to be happy about, but hearing you say that, Minister, makes it hard to feel happy at all."

The result was already quite pleasing. Tina Hiiragi noticed that there was one last draw left, so she casually clicked on it.

There, there is red light.

It was not the mixed light of before, but a pure, intense, and seemingly all-consuming crimson.

The red light, like waves, reflected a beautiful figure.

"Um, Minister, what is Hongguang?"

"SS-rank".

"Eh eh eh?!"

The minister also came over, looking delighted with his success. He asked, "So, you made the aid recipients' information into cards and then used this abstract method to select them. Don't the aid recipients really have any objections?"

With this question in mind, Hiiragi Tina and the department head looked at the phone screen together. The red light gradually subsided, the cards flipped, and the images of the characters were reflected.

There was a blue-haired girl there.

The bottom right corner clearly states: First application location for support: Azure Island Knights Council/Kongwo's base, Reason for application: To repay a debt of gratitude.

The girl in the card has refreshing long blue hair, cute features, and most striking are her eyes that exude a strong sense of laziness and seem to be perpetually sleepy.

Unlike most other knight cards that use serious official photos, this SS-rank character was featured with a casual snapshot. In the card, she's nestled on a sofa, hugging a giant game controller, with a bookshelf piled high with comics and game discs in the background. Whether intentional or accidental, she flashes a slightly mischievous yet bewildered smile at the camera.

The European Knights Council has a registered SS-rank contract knight named... Izumi Konata.

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Account Theft in Person (4K)

Sunlight lazily streamed through the windows of the Service Department, casting long, slanted patches of light on the polished floor. At midday, the members of the Service Department ate their meals, chatted, and played amongst themselves; unless someone came to make a request, the sun shone gently on.

Tina Hiiragi took out her bento box and glanced subtly at the club president.

It was the same familiar box, containing a few pickled fish and prawns. I don't know when it started, but the minister's lunchbox has been filled with more seafood.

Yukinoshita should have gone to the rooftop to eat with Yuihama, Hikigaya went to buy yakisoba bread, Azusagawa Sakuta has been on leave from school recently, but Aozora Island goes there every day. Now, only she and the club president are left in the clubroom.

She picked up her lunchbox and leaned closer to the minister. The plastic chair legs scraped against the floor with a soft creak. She picked up a round bamboo stick and stuffed it into her mouth. Watching the minister casually eating his lunchbox, she asked casually:

"Why did the minister decide to go to school today?"

"Oh, this... I obtained a key item that might be related to an important side quest. While organizing the other side quests, I remembered that there was one side quest that I hadn't completed yet, only half of it."

This guy and Mizutani Migen always like to use games as analogies; I wonder who copied whom.

"Only half done?"

"Yes, Houtarou Oreki."

Without any intention of keeping him in suspense, the boy sat there, sunlight shining on his profile, revealing his unadorned features.

"The original plan was to 'lure' Sakuta Azusagawa and Houtarou Oreki to Aozora Island, but due to various reasons, we only managed to complete half of it."

"Is the minister going to 'get' Oreki Houtarou next?"

"I hesitated a bit."

She watched him speak eloquently, the bamboo stalk leaving a chewy texture between her teeth.

"After all, becoming a Kamen Rider doesn't mean being glamorous and glorious; it's about burning in the shadows. Although we can now swindle some money from the European Kamen Rider Council to give you, it's still far from a good job. Azusagawa was kidnapped by Shocker and dragged into the inner workings of the world, forcing him to make a decision. Oreki Houtarou, on the other hand, is living his own life perfectly well. I can't exactly go up to him and say, 'You want to become a Kamen Rider? You even get a combat allowance if you join now.'"

Thinking that the man in front of her had probably only recently moved out of the bridge, Hiiragi Tina was a little puzzled.

"Minister, don't you want the money you swindled from the European Knights' Council... the aid you received?"

"I do not want."

"Why? Wouldn't this be more efficient?"

The despicable man suddenly put down his chopsticks and began imitating the electronically synthesized voice of a low-quality game NPC:

"Ding-dong, system notification: Your favorability is insufficient to trigger this memory event. A limited-time favorability-boosting errand quest is now being triggered for you—'Brave girl Hiiragi Tina, the Knights Club Captain works tirelessly day and night to protect world peace, and is exhausted both physically and mentally. Please set off immediately and bring back a bottle of cola to reward his efforts.'"

Finally, as if feeling that something was still missing, the man added.

"Rewards for completing the mission: +30 reputation with the Azure Island Knights Council, +0.1 favorability with the minister, and limited-time access to a key item."

Tina Hiiragi, who had already gotten up and was about to obediently go buy a Coke, couldn't hold back after hearing that her favorability rating had increased by 0.1, and waved her pink fists in the air.

"I won't even complain about the faction reputation, but running an errand only increases your favorability by 0.1. Isn't it a bit too hard to raise your favorability?"

Fan Kang spoke with righteous indignation:

"Watch your words. I'm a limited-time hidden character, okay? In principle, I can't be romanced. I'm giving you a chance to increase my affection level, and you still talk so much."

"Who would claim to be a hidden character? Besides, in a normal game, you should be able to reliably increase a character's affection level simply by giving them gifts!"

Every time she thought she was starting to care about the minister, this guy would shatter her illusions.

"It's precisely because giving money or gifts doesn't increase favorability that my favorability is so precious."

"...Although I always hear you complaining, Minister, about the kind of people Kyubey recruits, and how amazing the selection mechanism is, you yourself aren't much better! Two peas in a pod!"

Amidst the commotion, Tina Hiiragi took the money from the department head and went out to buy a Coke.

Although she hadn't played many of these kinds of games, she had heard of them.

Normally, shouldn't boys run errands for girls? Shouldn't boys feed girls to increase their affection? Shouldn't boys help girls and trigger special events? Why is it the other way around with the minister?

She skillfully approached the vending machine, inserted coins, and pressed the button. With two "clunks," a bottle of iced cola and a bottle of her favorite orange soda rolled out. As she bent down to take her drinks, she saw two figures standing under the shade of a tree not far away—it was Hachiman Hikigaya, who was supposed to be buying yakisoba bread, and opposite Hachiman Hikigaya was Sakuta Azusagawa, who was supposed to be "absent from school" today.

The two seemed to be talking about something, but she didn't pay much attention.

Everyone has a lot of things to do. Not everyone is like the minister, who compares himself to a hidden character whose favorability is extremely difficult to raise, and who will even organize the things he didn't finish before as side quests.

Rather than gossiping about the relationship between Sakuta Azusagawa and Hachiman Hikigaya, she was more interested in complaining about just how many contraband items had been smuggled into Soubu High School recently, to the point that the disciplinary committee members were standing at the school gate all day scanning them with a scanner.

He walked back to the Service Department classroom and tossed the cola to the department head.

Thinking about the previous gacha results, Tina Hiiragi picked up her orange soda, took a small sip, and asked casually:

"By the way, Minister. When will those contract knights we contacted before, uh, I mean, like that SS-rated one, be coming to Azure Island to report for duty?"

"You think this is a real game? Once you get it, you'll belong to our Azure Island Knights Council. They're just here to help us. They're on a labor dispatch basis, and the European Knights Council will pay their wages. They're just here to do some work for me."

"I see. But I saw that the reason given in the aid application was 'repaying a debt of gratitude.' Do you remember that, Minister?"

Fan Kang didn't take it seriously and flipped through the comic book in his hand.

"I've saved at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, contract knights, and helped countless others."

Hiiragi Tina looked out the window; she could no longer hear the cicadas chirping.

A leaf detached from the branch and fell towards the ground.

She held the slightly cool soda bottle, feeling a chill on her fingertips.

Autumn is here.

……

……

In the afternoon, the autumn sun, still carrying the lingering heat of summer, hung high, scorching the boundless sea of ​​sand. Golden grains of sand, bathed in this sunlight, seemed to flow like molten gold, radiating waves of heat that distorted the view. The wind whipped up fine dust, emitting a low, mournful wail. Against this desolate yet magnificent backdrop, a solitary figure stood alone.

The young man, who had nominally returned from Europe but had actually traveled to almost every corner of the world, stood atop this sea of ​​sand, with the students of the Azure Island Knights Training Class in the distance.

Unlike usual, the one standing on the other side of the desert today, about to face Fan Kang, is not Azusagawa Sakuta, but rather—

Hiiragi Tina.

The purple-haired girl's face was full of confusion, as if she were saying, "Eh, I'll hit the club president? Really?" It wasn't that she lacked courage or was afraid, but rather that she couldn't understand it.

But Fan Kang didn't explain. He simply took out the card, looked at the arrogant figure reflected in the sunlight, flicked his wrist, and threw the card like a dart straight at the girl on the other side of the sand sea.

"then."

The sound wasn't loud, but it was enough to penetrate the heatwave of the desert.

A hypothetical verification is about to begin.

Tina Hiiragi instinctively reached out and caught the flying card. It was slightly cool to the touch, its metallic texture a stark contrast to the scorching sand. Fan Kang had expected this guy to be interested in the power or the method of use, but instead, his focus had drifted to the color.

"Hey, Minister, who is this pink knight?"

"That's magenta."

"But it clearly gives off a pinkish vibe..."

"If I were the rightful owner of this knight, I probably wouldn't be able to resist hitting you. I already told you it's magenta."

"Clearly a fan..."

"Alright, alright, just think of it as 'the pinker the color, the harder the beating.' If I'm not mistaken, this knight... will be very strong."

Too lazy to explain about the color anymore, Fan Kang urged.

"Swipe your card."

Tina Hiiragi obediently took out the Alien Rider Driver and transformed.

The familiar, chilling purple energy clung to the girl's petite body like a living thing, binding her like painful thorns. A scream inevitably rang out as her body twisted and deformed in the purple light, and the form of a monster began to emerge.

Just as the purple monster's form was about to solidify, Hiiragi Tina, suppressing her discomfort, precisely inserted the magenta card in her hand into the card slot in the center of the driver.

Then, with slightly awkward movements, he pushed and closed the two sides of the driver. Instantly, a torrent of energy burst from the driver like a dam breaking, dispersing the entangled purple evil energy.