Rain suddenly placed a hand over Shion's shoulder, a bright friendly smile appearing on his face—though the fake and shameless cunning hidden behind it was painfully obvious.
"You want me to join your team?" Rain said loudly on purpose, his voice perfectly clear for the surrounding students to hear while his eyes secretly glanced around from side to side, clearly checking something.
Shion instantly stared at him suspiciously.
"What nonsense are you talking about!?" he snapped back without even trying to sound friendly.
But at that exact moment, Rain quietly shifted the energy flowing inside his body and directed a portion of his gravitational power toward Shion.
The pressure descended instantly.
Shion suddenly felt his body becoming several times heavier than before, as if an invisible mountain had crashed onto his shoulders. His legs trembled violently under the sudden force.
'W-What is happening!?'
He instinctively tried to resist, but it was already too late.
His knees slammed directly onto the floor.
Meanwhile, Rain quickly released the pressure in the very next second before anyone could properly notice what had happened. Then, with the same shameless smile still on his face, he grabbed Shion's arm and "helped" him back up like a generous saint taking pity on someone.
"Alas…" Rain sighed dramatically while shaking his head. "If you're going to beg me on your knees like this, how could I possibly refuse?"
Shion instantly slapped Rain's hand away from his shoulder and glared at him furiously.
"Who the hell is begging you!?"
His eyes were practically burning with rage, yet underneath that anger, cold sweat had already started forming across his forehead.
'What is this bastard planning now…? That pressure from before was definitely his doing.'
Meanwhile, Rain remained completely calm on the surface.
'Just a little more… a little more pressure. Without that, this dudblade won't be useful at all.'
But before he could continue pushing things further, his eyes suddenly landed on a figure approaching from nearby.
The moment he saw them, Rain's expression instantly brightened internally.
'Now THAT'S perfect timing.'
At that moment, the approaching figure looked less like a person and more like the perfect push needed to set the entire show on fire.
Rain immediately revealed a bright and friendly smile the moment she arrived, even though deep inside he absolutely did not want to do this. After all, acting nicely toward her would only improve their relationship further.
"Oh? If it isn't Clytie," he greeted smoothly.
Clytie looked slightly surprised by how Rain was suddenly acting around her. Compared to before, he looked far more approachable and strangely gentle.
'He looks even cuter like this… ah, so adorable.'
The passion practically burning inside her eyes became impossible to hide.
'Damn… did I overdo it?' Rain thought while suddenly feeling a strange chill run down his spine for absolutely no reason.
Clytie tilted her head slightly. "What are you guys talking about?"
Rain casually pointed toward Shion beside him with a helpless sigh. "This guy here is desperately trying to get me to join his team. He even knelt down begging me earlier. Pretty touching, honestly."
"DON'T LIE!" Shion instantly exploded in protest.
But unfortunately for him—
Clytie's gaze had already shifted toward him.
'Hmm… have these two already become friends?'
Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
'Shion… you backstabbing traitor.'
The disappointment and suspicion hidden within her stare was so heavy that Shion nearly choked on air.
'What did I even did this time!?'
At that moment, Shion genuinely felt like the entire world had silently united together just to ruin his life personally.
Clytie instantly returned to her cheerful self and clapped her hands lightly with excitement. "Really? Then if Rain is joining, I'll join the fun too."
"I REALLY didn't do anything!" Shion immediately protested while desperately trying to defend both his innocence and remaining dignity. "And I never begged this guy either!"
Unfortunately for him, absolutely nobody cared anymore.
Rain looked at Shion's pitiful behavior with complete second-hand embarrassment.
'This dudblade really turns into a full simp in front of Clytie… pathetic loser.'
The sight physically hurt Rain's soul somehow. As someone belonging to the same race — No, as a fellow male—watching Shion act this pathetically in front of a girl filled him with unbearable second-hand embarrassment.
Still, his expression remained perfectly bright as he turned back toward Clytie. "Of course, how could I possibly say no to a beauty like you? And besides, the more the merrier."
Clytie instantly flinched slightly before a faint blush appeared across her face. "D-Don't flatter me like that…" she said while letting out a small embarrassed giggle.
Rain casually shrugged with a teasing smile. "Hey, I never lie to beauties."
'Do I seriously have to flirt this much…? Sigh, whatever. As long as I can get a good grade from this and avoid unwanted troubles.'
For a true gacha player, grades held terrifying value. Honestly, probably even more than for actual honor students. After all, who wouldn't love seeing a shining golden S-rank appear dramatically before their eyes?
Sadly, the highest grade here only went up to A+.
A truly disappointing world.
"Come on, stop teasing me already!" Clytie complained shyly while walking beside him.
Soon the two of them simply started walking away together while chatting and laughing naturally, completely leaving Shion behind.
Meanwhile, Shion remained standing there alone as a random dry breeze passed by dramatically like he had been abandoned by society itself.
"D-Don't ignore me… I'm still here too…"
But deep down, he already understood the cruel truth.
Even if he kept talking now—nobody was going to listen to him anymore.
Shion stared at Rain with eyes filled with pure rage, his fists clenched so tightly that veins bulged across his hands while his teeth nearly cracked from grinding against each other.
"I will NOT forgive you for this—!"
But before he could even finish speaking, his words abruptly stopped midway.
A strange chill suddenly crawled down his spine.
An extremely bad omen.
The kind of feeling one gets right before calamity personally descends upon their life.
'This feeling…!'
Shion couldn't properly explain it, but he instinctively realized one thing immediately—whatever was coming next was going to be very, very bad for him.
And unfortunately for his own good…in a bad way.
He didn't have to wait long to experience that feeling up close.
A soft tap suddenly landed on Shion's shoulder.
"Are you Shion?" a gentle voice asked, her tone soft and fairy-like.
Still irritated and boiling from everything earlier, Shion turned around with annoyance written all over his face.
"What if I am? You got a problem or something!?" he snapped without hesitation.
But the moment he properly looked at the person in front of him—
'She is…?'
It turned out to be one of his fellow classmates, a girl with a surprisingly gentle appearance.
"I don't got a problem… ah, sorry," she corrected herself while lightly giggling at her own mistake.
'She's actually not bad… looks pretty gentle too,' Shion thought as his eyes unconsciously wandered over her figure for a moment. Nice curves, attractive proportions, above-average looks—overall, definitely pleasant to look at.
Then the girl's smile slowly darkened.
"I alone don't got a problem…" she said sweetly.
"…but WE got a problem."
The moment those words left her mouth, Shion suddenly noticed it.
He was completely surrounded, not by one or two girls but by an entire group of them closing in around him from every direction.
'What the FUCK!? Why are so many girls surrounding me!?'
Shion's face instantly lost all color as he looked around in pure panic. One step back. Another step back. Sweat poured down his forehead while his survival instincts screamed at him louder and louder.
Something about the way these girls were smiling felt extremely dangerous.
The fairy-like girl lightly covered her mouth before speaking sweetly, "Girls~ it's this shameless thief who stole our honeypie away from us." Her smile slowly widened into something terrifyingly dark. "Let's teach him a proper lesson so he never interrupts ladies' matters again."
Shion's eyes widened in horror.
"W-WAIT! I CAN EXPLAIN—"
Too late, the girls instantly swarmed him from every direction like starving wolves finally finding their prey.
"GET HIM!"
"Shameless bastard!"
"How dare you steal Rain away!"
"Kick him harder!"
"MY RIBS—!" Shion screamed as the first kick landed directly on his side.
Then another kick landed, followed by another one right after without giving him even a second to breathe.
A complete beating storm descended upon him as Shion curled into a miserable ball on the floor while girls continuously kicked, stomped, and smacked him without mercy. Dust flew everywhere while his pitiful cries echoed through the hall.
"STOOOP—!"
"NOT THE FACE!"
"WHY ARE YOU ALL SO STRONG!?"
Even nearby students silently backed away while pretending not to see anything. Nobody wanted to interfere with an angry girl mob. That was simply common survival knowledge.
Meanwhile, far away from the disaster—
Rain casually glanced backward for a moment before immediately looking away again like nothing happened.
'Yep… definitely not my problem anymore.'
Back inside the battlefield, Shion could only suffer endlessly while tears almost formed in his eyes.
'I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS… R-RAAAAIN!!'
Rain thought back to the beautiful disaster he had just witnessed and couldn't help the deeply satisfied smile spreading across his face.
"Now THAT was a good show," he said proudly.
Clytie immediately looked confused before her eyes lit up with curiosity. "Which show? Tell me! Tell me! I wanna see it too!" she said excitedly while moving closer.
Rain only let out a deep sigh before gently patting her head. "That kind of show isn't for kids."
Clytie blinked slowly after hearing that.
'…But I'm already an adult, aren't I?'
For a second, even she looked uncertain about the answer herself.
Meanwhile, Rain internally praised his own intelligence.
'It really was a genius idea…'
When a problem becomes too troublesome to handle personally, the best solution is simply throwing it onto someone else. Once another poor soul starts suffering in your place, then technically speaking—it's no longer your problem anymore. Simple. Efficient. Beautiful.
Sure, maybe it wasn't the morally correct way to solve things, but it was definitely the most skin-saving method during times of crisis. After all, as long as another person could still breathe and suffer instead of you, then everything was fine.
And everyone knew one universal truth anyway—
Good people die early.
Meanwhile, the shameless and vile somehow survive through every catastrophe imaginable.
The instructor suddenly raised his voice across the hall.
"START NOW!"
The moment those words echoed out, students immediately began entering the portal in groups of three one after another. Surprisingly, the numbers matched perfectly, leaving nobody alone without a team. The giant blue portal continued rippling as students disappeared inside it continuously, like being swallowed by another world entirely.
Rain also started walking toward the portal alongside his group, a confident grin already spreading across his face.
"Time to grab myself an A+."