A damsel in distress (Part I)

Hajime was lying on his bed, and staring at the ceiling.

'What a day.'

After helping his friend with the math homework, Hajime decided to call it a day.

'I'm tired, but it was worth it. The system helped me, and even gave me answers to the hard questions.'

Hajime had never had such difficult math homework before, and he had no idea where to start.

'If it wasn't for the system, I would have been in trouble.'

The system helped Hajime a lot and answered his questions. Before, Hajime would have struggled to solve the questions, but now he could easily solve them.

Hajime thought back to his previous life before the system. He remembers only scoring average grades in most of the subjects, but with the system and the skills he has acquired, he was confident to ace the test. It almost felt like a cheat, the abilities of the system were broken and he could easily answer any questions thrown his way.

'If I could just answer the questions that are on the test tomorrow I would score straight As. This is a cheat, but I can't abuse it. Using the system too much will only cause trouble, so I should only use it when it is necessary.' Hajime thought to himself, he wouldn't want to abuse the system and get suspicious.

Hajime felt a rumble in his stomach, and he realized that he hadn't eaten anything since morning.

"Ahh I'm hungry, maybe I should eat something."

Hajime then went to the fridge to grab some food but only to find it half empty. There was no more rice or anything left. His mother was working late so she was not going to be back anytime soon.

"Damn it, I forgot to buy some groceries."

Hajime spent so much time trying to master the system that he forgot to replenish the groceries.

"Guess I have no choice but to grab some food from the convenience store."

Hajime got up and grabbed his wallet, then he put on his shoes and jacket.

"I need to grab some instant food. Let's see what the convenience store has."

Hajime stepped out of the door, and into the cold night.

'It's a bit chilly today, but it isn't too bad.'

Hajime walked down the road and enjoyed the fresh air.

'It's been a while since I've gone out, I've been so focused on the system that I didn't have time to go anywhere.'

The convenience store was just a couple of minutes' walk away, so Hajime didn't need to ride his bicycle.

Hajime slowly makes his way to the convenience store, enjoying the cool breeze. The sound of crickets chirping in the background, and the feeling of grass under his feet. The sky was clear, and the stars were shining.

As Hajime walked he noticed how silent the neighbourhood was, usually, people were chatting on their phones or cars driving by.

However today it is unusually quiet, the only sound Hajime can hear is his footsteps.

After a while Hajime reaches the convenience store, the automatic doors slide open and he steps inside.

Hajime took out a shopping basket and started walking around the aisle, grabbing whatever he thought was good. In the end, he grabbed some onigiri, instant noodles, some sandwiches and some bottled tea. Most of Hajime's diet consists of instant noodles and rice, so he doesn't have a wide variety of food, mainly this was due to the lack of money. Though the system allowed him to change this, by completing missions.

'Maybe I should try buying a different meal, I've been eating the same things all the time. Perhaps, I should buy something different.'

Hajime looked around and spotted the bento section.

'Let's see, they have chicken katsu, pork katsu, and fish. All of them look delicious.'

Hajime grabs one of the boxes and opens it.

"Hmm, this looks good."

He then proceeds to grab some rice and a bottle of water.

"That should do it."

Hajime heads to the cashier and pays for the food.

"That'll be 3000 yen, sir."

"Alright, here you go."

Hajime hands the cashier the money and receives his change.

"Thank you, Have a nice night."

Hajime thanked the cashier before leaving the shop, he then activated the console of the system to put his groceries into the item box.

'This is convenient, now I don't have to carry the heavy bag.'

With a flick of his wrist, the groceries were stored in the system with a spark of blue light illuminating his face, it was becoming a blessing for Hajime to have the system, it was almost like cheating.

'I should be careful not to abuse this, I don't want to be caught.'

Hajime was wary of accepting the gifts of the system, he was afraid of being put into a difficult situation. After considering this possibility, Hajime came up with a way to limit the usage of the system, this way he could minimize the chance of being noticed.

"Now, I should get home. It's cold."

However, before Hajime could take a single step a shriek was heard behind him.

"Ahhhhh!"

"What was that?" Hajime said as he turned his head.

*Ding*

[Mission Unlock: Damsel in distress]

The mission screen popped up with a simple pop-up saying "Help." The Mission was sent to his notification page without any commands, surprising Hajime.

'What is happening?'

Hajime immediately swiped the notification, bringing up a detailed explanation.

[Damsel in distress, a mission has been assigned to you. This mission requires you to save a woman from a group of muggers, You have been offered 10,000 pt as a reward.]

Hajime was stunned, his body froze after reading the description of the mission.

'Should I accept this?' Hajime thought.

*Ding*

The mission has been activated.

'Huh, what?!'

"Hey! Get away from me!"

It was a young woman, who was being harassed by a group of men. Her clothes were in disarray, and her hair was a mess. She had tears running down her cheeks and looked terrified.

As Hajime approached the scene he realised the voice sounded familiar.

"Come on missy, we just want to have a little fun with you." One of the men said and started laughing.

"Please! Stop!"

Hajime widened his eyes in disbelief as he noticed the girl. "Makato-san?"

Makato Yuki, the Ice Queen? Hajime never expected his school's council president to be the damsel in distress. Yuki was always prim and proper, not a hair out of place and wore a knee-length dress. However now she was different. Her hair was in disarray, her shirt was torn and there was a big scratch on her cheek. She looked like she was in a fight, but Hajime was confused about why 3 men were looming over her, smirking.

What is the Council President doing here? Usually, she would stay after school due to working on the Student Council business, but here she is in front of him. However, Hajime's thoughts were interrupted.

"Missy? Hey, what's the big deal? You're freaking out over nothing!" Another man said while laughing.

"Please..."

Yuki started crying, she couldn't do anything but just beg for her life.

The men noticed this and laughed even harder.

"You're so cute. I want to keep you all to myself." The blonde thug said while grabbing her arm and licking his lips.

*Ding*

[Mission expires in 40 seconds]

Hajime was alerted by the message coming from the system. It was asking if he was ready to activate it.

'Am I going to do this?'

Hajime stared into Yuki's fear-filled eyes, trembling in the men's hands.

'What am I doing? Why am I not doing anything?' Hajime's eyes finally opened, and he moved forward to intervene, grabbing Yuki out of the man's arms and in turn grabbing the attention of the men in front of them.

"Oi who the hell are you!?"

"What does that have to do with you? Did you think you could do anything against us, kid?"

"You don't know who you're messing with!"

Hajime was furious, he was seething with rage. He was facing a crisis in front of him but he was overwhelmed by the situation, he couldn't decide if the risks of being found out by using the system were worth using, when a ding sound he heard from the system was heard through his ears.

There it was, the system notification, the blue screen hovering in front of Hajime, begging to be used, teasing him, trying to convince him...It's almost like it could read his mind but he has gotten familiar with the system, as much as he felt apprehensive about using it...

*Ding*

[Concluding System Activation, Detecting Threats...Complete]

[Detecting Weapons...Complete]

The notifications about the stats of the enemies started popping up and displayed the level and the status of the opponents Hajime was dealing with, even though the systems were so perceptive.

Unknown to Hajime, the skill set of each of the enemies was displayed in a log listed with different colours, and according to which colour the names were listed.

The warnings began ringing in Hajime's ear, asking him to stop for any rash decisions and attempting to lead him to the log. Hajime felt the blood pumping in his ears.

'I don't care!' Hajime screamed in his head.

He marches towards Yuki and the three men and cries out at the top of his lungs,

"Hey! Leave her alone!"