Chapter Text
"Am I pretty?"
It was late at night in Japan. A tired office worker, just off work and wanting to get home, suddenly found a woman standing in his way.
"Who the fuck are you?" he asked.
She was tall. Even though a surgical mask covered the lower half of her face, her striking features stood out. The office worker swallowed nervously.
"Am I pretty?" she asked again.
"P-Pretty!!"
After a tense pause, the Slit-Mouthed Woman slowly lifted her head. Her eyes flashed with something unsettling as she reached up and pulled down her mask.
"How about now?"
"You— Ahhhhhhh!!"
——————————
"Found you. Slit-Mouthed Woman."
As soon as the urban legend finished with the office worker and started to leave, a voice called out nearby.
"Hmm?" She turned around, confused, and saw Ren step out from the shadows of an alley.
"Am I pretty?"
The Slit-Mouthed Woman was a well-known urban legend who only appeared at night. She always asked the same question to anyone she met. If they said no, she would attack right away. If they said yes, she would use her shears to cut their mouth to look like hers.
Ren didn't answer.
Instead, his hands moved quickly as he formed a series of seals.
"Mystic origin of Heaven, root of all vital force! Forged through countless ages, I manifest this power! Across the three realms, the Way reigns supreme! Golden light, shroud my form!"
The Slit-Mouthed Woman stared, confused by what he was doing. Then, a bright golden light suddenly appeared around Ren.
Her face changed from puzzlement to fear. The golden light gave off a powerful, deadly feeling.
"Golden Light Spell! Eradicate!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!
The blinding light shot forward. The Slit-Mouthed Woman had no time to react. The energy hit her and wiped her out completely, leaving nothing behind.
At that exact moment, a mechanical voice chimed in his mind.
[Demon successfully exorcised: Slit-Mouthed Woman!]
[Reward: Yin Energy +1500!]
"Not bad..."
Fifteen hundred points of Yin Energy was a good reward for defeating a famous urban legend. Ren nodded, satisfied, and walked away.
He didn't pay any attention to the office worker who had fainted from blood loss.
——————————
Back at his apartment, Ren ran a bath to relax before bed. The place was tiny, maybe four or five hundred square feet.
Rent in Japan was expensive, and even this small room cost him a lot each month...
"Open character profile."
After his bath, he grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and called up his system in his mind. Right away, a virtual screen appeared in front of him, only he could see it.
[Demon Exorcism System]
Host: Ren
Constitution: Radiant Monarch Physique
Skills: Golden Light Spell (Lv. 3) | Palm Thunder (Lv. 2)
Yin Energy: 1500
The system looked pretty basic, but it was the result of everything he had done in the last two weeks.
About two weeks ago, his life changed completely when he woke up as an exchange student in Japan.
At first, he found himself at Sobu High School, sharing classes with the unreachable Yukino Yukinoshita, getting scolded by Shizuka Hiratsuka, and seeing Eriri Spencer Sawamura in the art club. He thought he had ended up in a lighthearted anime crossover.
But then he discovered that this world was also home to deadly urban legends.
Luckily, the Exorcism System had activated just in time. The Golden Light Spell, Palm Thunder, and his Radiant Monarch Physique were all starter rewards.
"Now that I've broken a thousand Yin Energy points, I can finally do a low-tier draw."
Yin Energy was the system's currency and could be used in different ways.
One thousand points got him a low-tier draw, ten thousand for a mid-tier, and a hundred thousand for a high-tier draw. He could also use points to level up his skills. According to the system, levels one to three were beginner, four to six were intermediate, seven to nine were advanced, and level ten was mastery.
Before running into the Slit-Mouthed Woman tonight, he had already hunted down a few lesser evil spirits.
"Might as well test my luck. Let's see if a low-tier draw gives anything decent."
He had spent all his earlier Yin Energy on upgrading the Golden Light Spell and Palm Thunder, so he hadn't tried the draw feature until now.
The system responded immediately. The moment the words left his mouth, a prompt fired off.
[Low-tier draw initiated…]
[Reward: Mystic Physiognomy!]
A huge wave of face-reading techniques and divination knowledge rushed into his mind. The amount of information was overwhelming and made him dizzy, but his Radiant Monarch Physique helped him recover quickly.
"Mystic Physiognomy, huh? Not bad at all."
He was happy with the reward. It didn't have the destructive power of the Golden Light Spell or Palm Thunder, but it was useful in its own way.
The skill came from wandering monks in medieval times and was unmatched for reading fortunes and understanding fate through facial features.
'If I ever go broke, I can always set up a fortune-telling booth...'
It seemed like a good backup plan if he ever needed to make some quick money.
Let's dump the remaining five hundred Yin Energy points into it.
For now, a level three Golden Light Spell and level two Palm Thunder were strong enough. Five hundred points wasn't much, so it was a good amount to start leveling up his new skill.
[Demon Exorcism System]
Host: Ren
Constitution: Radiant Monarch Physique
Skills: Golden Light Spell (Lv. 3) | Palm Thunder (Lv. 2) | Mystic Physiognomy (Lv. 3)
Yin Energy: 0
Maybe the skill was just easy to learn or maybe it was a low-tier technique, but those five hundred points were enough to push it straight to level three.
"Time to sleep."
Ren looked at his status screen for a moment, then closed it and got into bed. He had school in the morning, and staying up late would only give him a headache.
…
The next day.
Yawning, Ren walked onto the Sobu High campus. He went to his desk in the second-to-last row by the window. The back-row window seat was known as the legendary protagonist spot. It was the perfect place to stay unnoticed.