Now, Wake Up to Reality

The young man woke up with a jolt by the sound of an alarm clock, and found himself sleeping on the ground with bedsheets scattered all around the floor, feeling a sharp pain assaulting his neck.

"Ow, ow, ow..."

He stood back up while rubbing the sore spot at the back of his head, looking left and right trying to find traces of the white-haired woman to no avail. There's no one else in the small apartment room other than his lonesome, his stash of light novels, and a small collection of various scantily-clad figurines of voluptuous female characters.

In short, it was just a dream.

He let out a sigh as he sat on the side of his bed, realizing that it was all in his head, and that he had finally woken up to the harsh reality of being a loner once more.

He laid himself back down and grumbled. Perhaps it was the fact that he had read too much doujinshi in recent time, his dreams were becoming increasingly raunchier than the last. But what's strange is that it always involved that white-haired woman in some way, worse yet, his dreams would be interrupted right before reaching the climax as if to make a fun out of him.

"Ah, I should touch some grass..."

His head was still wrapped up in a daze, caught by that alluring figure of hers who whispered soft temptations like a succubus. If it wasn't for the familiar sight of his room, he would've thought that he was still dreaming.

「Welcome to the Anime Chat Group!」

「A multi-dimenstional messaging app that connects individuals across different realities, one that bridges the gap between the boundaries of universes. Do you wish to join?」

「Yes」「No」

That's right. That's why he thought it was his hallucination that produced this holographic display that was hovering in front of his eyes, given that his dream was so abruptly interrupted by the alarm clock, he thought that it was him simply lacking some sleep.

He merely gave it a glance before turning around and closed his eyes.

"---Wait, what the fuck?"

But then his eyes immediately darted back at the inconspicuous screen that appeared out of nowhere, only to find that it was still there.

An indescribable feeling washed over him, unable to process what exactly he was looking at. He could only stare dumbly at the message laid out on the hologram as his mouth gaped open. Numerous thoughts ran over his head in that instant, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find a logical reasoning that could describe it.

No, actually, he felt like he knew what the answer was deep down.

Yet he shook his head in denial. There was no way something so fictitious could happen in reality, right? But other than that one possibility, he couldn't find a more suitable explanation. His long years of reading webnovels further backed it up.

In truth, he also had a secret that no one else but him knew about, not even his parents. That was the fact that he is a reincarnated person from another world.

Now that he thought about it, initially, he would only get the feeling that he was somehow familiar with something in occasion, but later on things started to escalate when he began to remember things that weren't originally "his" own. Though he did eventually managed to figure out that those were in fact the memories from his previous life. The realization dawned on him when he read the name of a prestigious school on a news outlet by chance---Kuoh Academy.

Indeed...

As much as hard it is to believe, he was in fact reincarnated, and to the world of High School DxD at that!

But even if he didn't believe in it before, the holographic display was more than enough proof of that.

"...So is this supposed to be my cheat?"

He inspected the screen, reading its content over and over as if to make sure his mind wasn't playing any tricks on him.

In all honesty, he had been waiting for a cheat so long since regaining his previous memories that he had lost hope. A cheat was supposed to be a staple in every reincarnation, but he never received anything for 18 years. Now that he finally received a sign, he didn't want to set his expectations high for nothing.

Still, while he had some lingering questions as to why his cheat turned out to be a group chat of all things, he opted for the "yes" option without hesitation, fearing the invitation would suddenly get retracted if he took too long to respond, and simply chose not to think about it too much. After all, in a world that was supposedly ruled by gods and demons, nothing should come as a surprise to him at this point.

The previous message on the screen promptly disappeared while another one took its place.

『Thank you for accepting the invitation to the Anime Chat Group! Please wait while you're being connected. For more information, you may refer to the attached document on this message.』

"A group chat, huh."

If he guessed right, this so-called group chat should allow him to converse with some of his favorite characters. Though that would actually depend on whoever was going to be invited.

'I mean, duh, the name includes anime. What do I expect?' he retorted himself inwardly as he gave out a chuckle.

All that mattered to him right now was that god finally gifted him something. Even if it ultimately ended up being a chat group with only basic functions, barring those world hopping shenanigans and whatnot, he concluded that was still better than nothing at all. Additionally, the fact that it provided him the opportunity to talk with anime characters was already a great boon by itself. There were so many things he could think to utilize it for.

For instance, he could exchange valuable information with said characters and find potential avenue that he could exploit in his own world to amass a huge fortune.

Although money wouldn't necessarily do much against the supernatural beings of this world, he wasn't obligated to pursue them anyway, so he didn't feel the need to be concerned in that aspect. Plus, he had better things to think about right now.

He went to open the chat room and found that it was empty. There was no one in sight.

"I guess it'll take some time. I wonder who's going to come?"

He was very expectant to see which characters were going to be invited. He hoped at least that they weren't going to be difficult to deal with.

Soon enough, the system began to work its magic.

『Magus of Flowers has joined the Chat Group!』

「The Devil of the Rhine has declined the invitation.」

「Finding another suitable candidate...」

「Ding!」

『Sorcerer King has joined the Chat Group!』

『Rex Lapis has joined the Chat Group!』

『『 』has joined the Chat Group!』

「The Sword Demon has declined the invitation.」

「The Shield Hero has declined the invitation.」

「The Overly Cautious Hero has declined the invitation.」

「...」

『Due to invitations having been declined in succession, the chat group failed to meet the minimum membership count. As a result, all chat members will receive 1x Beginner Package as compensation for the mishap.』