“There’s something I want to talk about. Can I have some of your time?”
“Yes, of course. Come in.”
Rush Winhelm visited Zenon at night.
On the surface, Zenon acted like a main character and invited him inside, but within his heart, he grumbled that this could not be more annoying.
(A conversation event? What a pain… But I guess it doesn’t hurt to raise his favorability.)
In Luminous History, there were conversation events where party members would visit the main character at night.
On their own, these events meant nothing in particular, but depending on the content of the conversation, favorability could be raised. And once it was raised to a certain point, an event specific to that character would play out.
There were other ways to raise favorability, but the events where the main character got to speak to someone alone in their room at night felt a little special.
Depending on the circumstances, they even got to sleep with characters of the opposite sex… But as Zenon thought that, he also thought that such a thing only happened when the favorability was way up, and that did not matter with a boy like Rush in the first place. And so, he urged him to talk.
“So? What do you want to talk about?”
“…There’s something that’s troubling me a little. Should we show kindness to people called scum…”
(Ah, yes yes. I see where this is going. I get it.)
Zenon speedran Luminous History in his previous life, so he had all the best options to these conversation events memorized.
This one was about Rush questioning his sense of justice. And by clearing away his doubts, his favorability should be raised.
Here, choices would not pop up like in a videogame, but… This was too simple for that to matter.
And as if showing off his abilities as a speedrunner, Zenon uttered to Rush the same words the main character in the game said.
“There’s no need to waver. Evil should be punished. Isn’t that obvious?”
“…Yes, you’re right. But we need to stand on the same stage for that to happen, right? Would that turn me into scum too…?”
“There are times when you need that much resolve. People put their hopes on ones who show such resolve.”
Rush quickly raised his head upon hearing that, and looked at Zenon.
And as he was confident that Rush’s favorability towards him was rising, he answered his question.
“Yes, you’re right…! If I have the resolve to get my hands dirty, I’ll never really become true scum. That’s it, right!?”
“Exactly! There’s a huge difference in the resolve of people who stick to their ideals, and the ones who don’t!”
“I see…! Then everyone should understand it too. They should show that they understand what I’m going to do, right?””
“Of course they will! I’m sure they’ll show that they know what you’re doing is right, and help you!”
A perfect answer… Zenon thought back to the conversation event, and picked the answers that would raise Rush’s favorability the most, as he encouraged him.
Rush stood up with a happy smile on his face, and held Zenon’s hand tightly.
“Thank you Zenon! My worries are all gone thanks to you! I’m not like that scum Yuugo! I’ll acquire power far beyond his! And when I do, you’ll be the first one to see it!”
“Yes, I can’t wait!”
(All right! The greatest touch! It really is simple! Being invincible with my game knowledge is so fun, LMAO!)
Zenon thought this was pretty meaningless, but if he treated it as practice for the conversation events he really cared about, it was not completely worthless.
After clearing away Rush’s doubts and seeing him off, Zenon remembered something and grinned.
(That’s right! How about I go visit Claire in her room? I should be able to do that too. And if I keep doing it and raising her favorability, I’ll be able to sleep with her soon…!)
Nighttime events were not just passive. Players could also take action to raise the favorability of characters they liked.
Zenon remembered that, and immediately decided to go see his beloved Claire.
(If I was in the middle of something good with Claire and a weird system message popped up, that would spoil the fun. I’ll leave everything off. I should be able to do that. After all, this is a game world.)
He wanted to spare himself of any tactless interruptions during his rendezvous with Claire.
And since he thought system messages popping up in his head would ruin the mood, he thought to himself to turn them off as he left his room.
(Wait for me, my little Claire! Zenon the main character is coming to see you!)
He had already forgotten his conversation event with Rush, and skipped as he went to see Claire with a cheerful feeling in his heart, but… He made two mistakes.
One was what he talked about with Rush. What he said was not the problem, but the fact that he failed to really notice what Rush felt like was.
Yes, it should have been mostly the same as the conversation event with Rush that he knew. But was what he looked like as he spoke really the same as the Rush Winhelm he saw in the game?
If he really got a good look at him here… He should have been able to notice there was something different about him.
But Zenon did not do that. He thought it was the same as the event in the game, and treated the Rush in front of him, with real human emotions, as if it was an event in the game. That was one mistake.
The other, was turning off system messages.
A very important message was delivered to him soon after, but… Zenon was too focused on his rendezvous with Claire, and completely missed it.
That led to an incident that involved not just the academy, but the whole city, but Zenon showed no signs of even noticing it.
The message that should have reached him because he had Rush as a party member was as follows.
‘Rush Winhelm’s fate has been extinguished. He has been removed from your party, and can never join again.’
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‘Facepalm’ what an idiot…! I hope karma gets you and make it drop on you junk!
This is the difference between the henshin hero and this idiots, the first one doens’t know a thing so he treats anyone like a real human being, the idiots know this world is bases on a Game but they keep thinking the people here are npc not humans
It’s increasingly clear at this point that the actions of the p***-game reincarnator(s) are what’s caused the story to diverge into a toku story with darker undertones.
We know those creating toku monsters are looking for folks with the right sort of mindset, and in their rush to ignore the timeline and speed-run adult events, Zenon and friends may be leaving all sorts of jealous, vengeful or otherwise ideal-for-the-baddies meat way ahead of when they’d normally have fallen.
In jump-starting a problem that should have simply led to their fun times originally, the world ended up needing a Rider or two, or maybe a full Sentai team.