Chapter 410: Surprise! There Are Still Ninety-Nine More of These Heart-Shaped Bentos

How to motivate mortals was a vital subject any qualified deity had to study.

…

He originally wanted to get more information out of the System, but right after that, the System started snoring like “Zzz… Zzz… Zzz…” in his mind.

So stop snoring like Yukinoshita!

What terrible sleeping habits!

Himekoji initially thought the System would only snore for a bit and then stop. But he hadn’t expected the utterly brazen System to keep annoyingly snoring the whole night…

This made Himekoji, already filled with worries, even more unable to sleep.

He tossed and turned for ages, barely falling asleep near dawn.

…

For Himekoji, waking up the next day felt like a brand new start.

First, he had overslept.

Second, he found out that Nanami hadn’t saved him – she just left for school without waking him.

And finally, he was starting to get a small understanding of the new “work pattern” explained by the System.

It remained to be seen if the Options themselves were truly gone forever. But he’d gotten a glimpse of this new mode.

Now, whenever he focused his mind, he could see inside his head a whole huge clump of wildly varied tasks popping out non-stop, each followed by the words “Acceptable” and “+1”.

In other words… It meant the old “triggered, then must complete even at risk of death” tasks had been replaced with ones he could choose?

But wait a second!

What was up with this flood-like quantity of tasks…

All sorts of bizarre, never-repeating missions, so many it was dizzying!

At the very top, hung a prominent energy collection gauge.

And the energy collected so far was…

2%.

Could it be…

That “+1” he saw earlier actually meant “+1%”?

If that was the case…

Was it… maybe a bit too easy?

Because, among the hundreds of tasks, Himekoji had already spotted quite a few that seemed laughably easy for him!

For example, while he was just making a bento for his Imouto, a whole bunch of new tasks suddenly popped up – most just barely different by changing the target person’s name.

[Make a Heart-shaped Bento for Nanami and give it to her.]

[Make a Heart-shaped Bento for Mashiro and give it to her.]

[Make a Heart-shaped Bento for Kano and give it to her.]

…

Even names Himekoji had almost no memory of appeared!

So, who was Kano?

And why were there even tasks for giving bentos to Hayama and Tobe?

[Make one for Kaito…]

[Make one for Berry…]

As Himekoji scrolled down the list, his shock grew. These names beyond this point were completely unfamiliar people!

But… could it be done like this, then? Fill up the energy gauge all at once?

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Even though it felt a bit like wishful thinking, since the possibility existed, he absolutely had to try it!

Thinking that, Himekoji immediately rolled up his sleeves, full of energy.

“Accept!”

“All the bento-related tasks, accept every one!”

“Hikari! Stop just watching! Get over here and help!”

…

Several hours later—

“It’s done!”

Himekoji had made bentos for a full hundred people!

With Hikari’s help, they packed them all up.

Then, already having gotten up late, he rushed headlong towards school.

He arrived smack in the middle of the day.

Although this meant he’d skipped all his morning classes, at least he’d made it for lunchtime.

Dragging a large suitcase full of bentos and carrying an overloaded backpack stuffed with bentos, Himekoji stepped into the Classroom with a touch of anticipation.

Carrying gear like he was about to go on a long trip, he naturally had to enter through the back door.

Next to the back door was Miura’s seat.

Deciding to hand out the bentos in order, Himekoji gave a light cough and called Miura’s name.

“Huh? Himekoji?!”

Hearing Himekoji’s voice seemed to make Miura jump,

“Wh-what are you doing?”

Her reaction seemed overly intense.

“Ah, well, I made you a bento. Please accept it.”

Himekoji said smoothly, pulling one box out of his backpack from the hundred and presenting it directly to her.

“Huh? B-Bento?! But I, but I…”

But I already made one myself. That’s what she had meant to say. But before the words came out, Miura seemed to miraculously stop herself. Instead, words stumbled hesitantly out:

“N-no, wh-what are you suddenly giving me a bento for? Wh-what’s your idea? Wh-what are you scheming? Let me warn you, I-I’m not the kind of person who gets bought off by just one bento!”

“Huh?”

Himekoji hadn’t expected to face such fierce resistance handing out his very first bento.

No… He should have seen it coming!

This was exactly how bad his reputation was at this school…

But this is just a small setback. It wasn’t time to give up yet.

In order to gather enough energy soon!

Fighting!

Himekoji cheered up again.

“S-sorry, I disturbed you, I’ll just give it to someone else then.”

“Give it to someone else?”

Miura was stunned for a moment, then as if thinking of something, she hastily said,

“Ah, s-since you prepared it just for me, I guess I could accept it with little effort, because I forgot to bring my bento today… uh, ah… right! That’s it! Hmph, you got lucky!”

As soon as she finished, Miura already reached out and snatched the bento from Himekoji’s hand, like she was afraid he might really give it away to someone else.

It truly had a queen-like plundering style.

If not for her flushed face…

Also, worth mentioning, Miura’s other hand sneaked under the desk at that moment, guiltily zipping up her schoolbag.

Inside, she hid her “forgotten” bento for the day.

“Eh?! H-heart… Heart-shaped Bento?! Himekoji, what do you mean?!”

Opening the lunchbox, Miura was first attracted by the carrots decorating the rice—they were actually heart-shaped!

“Even the side dishes are my favorite, asparagus and shrimp? Y-you researched a lot and put in a lot of effort, huh…”

Miura’s face turned even redder, and she twisted her hair by her ear nervously, waiting for Himekoji’s “explanation.”

However, the “explanation” didn’t come at all.

Could he be shy?

Hmph, that pervert!

If he was shy, why did he give it in front of the whole class with everyone watching?

It made me feel very, very embarrassed…

“Wh-why aren’t you saying anything?”

Miura stammered as she looked up.

Then—

Huh?

Wait!

Where is he?!

Finally, she found that Himekoji, who had been standing by her desk just now, had already run to the other end of the classroom.

When did that happen?

How did he escape so fast?!

She saw that smug-faced guy with his schoolbag zipper wide open, inside visibly stuffed with bento after bento.

“Totsuka, Totsuka, here’s for you~~”

“Hayama, there’s one for you too.”

“Huh? So you’re Kaito! You’re actually in the same class as me? Great, please take this bento!”

“Kano, come, this one is for you.”

…

Miura’s face darkened visibly.

The heart-shaped bento with asparagus and shrimp, everyone actually got one?

It was like mass-produced items from an assembly line!

The word “heart” in this so-called heart-shaped bento was way too cheap, right?!

Miura glanced down at the one she was eating; she had thought it tasted great and enjoyed it earlier, but now it suddenly tasted like old, waxy food.

And Himekoji gave out copies of this same heart-shaped bento she received…

He had a whole bagful!

…

“Kano? What’s wrong? Take the bento if I give it to you, don’t be polite! Huh? You’re not scared I put drugs in it, are you? Don’t worry, I’ve reformed myself, I’ll be a new person from now on.”

“Though I feel like I’ve corrected this countless times already, my name is Katou.”

“Wh-what?! Drugs?”

The classmates around who heard Himekoji’s self-defense suddenly woke up—

“Damn! It’s bad! I almost forgot! This bento was from Himekoji, that pervert!”

“Yeah, yeah, how could he ever be so nice?!”

“Ugh— ugh—”

“Oh no, I foolishly ate a few bites earlier, hurry and find a way to vomit it up!”

“But… but… he’s clearly a pervert, why is his bento so yummy?! I can’t bear to throw it up!!!”

…