007 Shimizu Corporation

[DEATH]

The red font slowly emerged in the pitch-black screen.

Kamiyagawa's consciousness also returned to reality.

"Damn, dead again."

It was a little after 6 a.m. on Monday.

As usual, Kamiyagawa arrived at school early and started a game in the cherry blossom forest.

This time, he chose to explore the north section of Karin High School in the Strange Tale World, the school building area.

After spending a lot of time avoiding headless high school students and barely finding an entrance to the school building untouched by monsters, the next second he got his butt nicked by a headless JK hidden in a corner of the corridor.

No gaming experience whatsoever.

Everywhere in this world seems to be hiding dangers.

All weekend, and with this morning's attempt, Kamiyagawa had spent five lives without finding a new NPC or picking up new items in the game, just dying in various ways.

Besides, the progress of mapping exploration wasn't going smoothly either.

Based on the game's indication of locations for quests, Kamiyagawa had only explored 36% of the Karyou Ghost School in the Strange Tale World, which was far from the 80% completion required for the mission.

There were too many areas that he simply couldn't get close to because of the wandering headless high school students.

"However, I'm now getting somewhat accustomed to this almost perverted game difficulty."

Kamiyagawa, as always, picked up the newly appeared Substitute Paper Person from the ground, slung his bag over his shoulder, and then left the school.

Today, he had taken a day off with his homeroom teacher's permission to go to the Shimizu Corporation building in Sumida Ward on a weekday, hoping for a chance to meet Nagasawa Keisuke.

Whether to earnestly complete the task that connected the game world with the real world was something to talk about later; at the very least, he needed to observe the situation.

After leaving the school, Kamiyagawa didn't immediately head for the train; instead, he killed some time in a comic book store.

The goal was to avoid the morning rush hour.

The trains heading to the city center during the morning rush were packed with people in each carriage, squeezed together like sardines in a can.

Kamiyagawa didn't want to endure that.

An hour later, on the train.

Though he had avoided the morning rush, there were still no seats available in the carriage.

Kamiyagawa just casually found a spot near the door to stand, put on his headphones, and with a posture exuding a blend of three parts melancholy and three parts aloofness, he gazed out the window.

As the train moved, the changing scenery outside and Kamiyagawa's reflection on the window intertwined constantly, the light was mild, and it suited being self-admiring.

"I'm just an ordinary, yet good-looking male high-schooler," Kamiyagawa thought to himself.

He also noticed that a nearby office lady in a white blouse, hip-hugging skirt, and long hair tied up, kept sneaking glances at him from time to time.

No help for it, handsome people are eye-catching wherever they go.

Speaking of which, with this face of mine, if I were to use gaming terms, it must have some "affinity with the opposite sex" trait for sure.

And yet the original owner of this face managed to die bitter from a failed confession.

Truly, a good hand played terribly.

"But since I've taken over this body now, that kind of thing won't happen. I'm quite good at playing my cards well, after all, my hand was pretty good in my past life too."

...

Sumida Ward, Azumabashi-Town.

After arriving here, Kamiyagawa, guided by the map navigation, finally made his way to the Shimizu Corporation building successfully.

From the size of the office building, Shimizu Corporation seemed to be a medium-to-small size enterprise.

Kamiyagawa walked straight in, directly heading to the reception desk on the first floor, with no one stopping him.

The receptionist, a woman in her early twenties wearing a business uniform with short hair and a slightly baby-faced look, touched up her hair as she saw Kamiyagawa approaching, and gave a friendly smile:

"Hello, little brother. What brings you to Shimizu Corporation?"

This was the so-called "affinity for the opposite sex."

No young woman could resist a handsome guy from the senior class.

"I'm not that young, sister," Kamiyagawa held the Thousand Silver Needles in the palm of his hand and showed a polite smile, "I am looking for someone. Is Nagasawa Keisuke an employee here?"

There were over a hundred employees at Shimizu Corporation.

It was certain that a receptionist wouldn't remember everyone's names, but she did know Nagasawa Keisuke.

Inside Shimizu Corporation, no one did not know Nagasawa.

"Are you related to him?" the receptionist didn't rush to answer but instead asked in return.

Kamiyagawa responded calmly and tightened his grip on the small silver rod:

"A younger brother, I am his cousin. Miss, could you trouble yourself to call Keisuke's department and have him come down?"

The effect of the Thousand Silver Needles triggered.

The receptionist watched Kamiyagawa's handsome face, her expression slightly vacant, feeling certain that what he said must be true, he couldn't be lying.

The small details such as "clearly being cousins but having to rely on someone else to make contact" were completely overlooked.

The brotherly relationship between this handsome young man and Nagasawa Keisuke must be solid!

The short-haired receptionist said "please wait a moment," turned around to dial a number on the desk phone, and spoke quietly into the receiver before hanging up.

"Section Chief Nagasawa will be down shortly."

"Thank you, sister."

The combo of the lying bonus effect from the Thousand Silver Needles and a few clever uses of "sister" thoroughly bamboozled the receptionist, making her cheeks blush without realizing and her smile grow warmer.

Seeing the conversation atmosphere was quite good, Kamiyagawa decided to press on:

"By the way, sister. How is Keisuke's performance at the company? His family is quite concerned."

"Section Chief Nagasawa? He's young and talented; he has strong abilities, and both Miss Ono and the president are pleased with him. His colleagues in the company say that there might even be a chance to attend Section Chief Nagasawa and Miss Ono's wedding next year."

The receptionist said this, highly praising Nagasawa Keisuke, while also revealing a bit of personal, private information about him.

But after all, this beautiful boy was Section Chief Nagasawa's cousin, so it was definitely okay to speak about these things.

"Miss Ono? That sounds like the president's daughter," Kamiyagawa was very pleased with the receptionist's loose lips.

"Of course. Eh? Section Chief Nagasawa hasn't mentioned it to the family?"

"I'm just a cousin."

Kamiyagawa casually emphasized his current persona without directly answering the question.

He thought to himself that Nagasawa Keisuke was living quite the life, even managing to get close to the boss's daughter.

During the conversation, the elevator door on the side of the lobby "dinged" open, and out stepped a young man in a suit and leather shoes, with slicked back hair and gold-rimmed glasses.

He was the type of person who exuded the aura of a successful individual in every move he made.

He cast a cold glance at Kamiyagawa standing by the reception, his face turned cold and he walked straight over, and in front of the receptionist, addressed Kamiyagawa:

"I don't know you. Who are you?"