A/N: Don't know if you noticed, but I made Ichinose speak of Nemuri with 'Kyusoku-kun' instead of -san back in Chapter 2, mainly because it felt a bit OOC.
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As Nemuri arrived back in his dorm, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He raised it to his face with a hint of confusion before the only contact he had on his phone appeared in the notifications center.
Ichinose Honami.
[Ichinose Honami: If you have the class group chat muted, that's perfectly fine!]
[Ichinose Honami: {Thumbs Up Sticker}]
[Ichinose Honami: I'll text you important class announcements so you don't miss any important information!]
Nemuri paused, half-debating whether to ignore the message since he hadn't technically opened the chat, or respond.
It had been a while since he had texted someone. He hadn't been able to text anyone in this lifetime, since he hadn't had a phone.
'If I respond and Ichinose makes a conversation out of it…'
Nemuri inwardly shivered at how troublesome it might be.
To Nemuri, there was a big difference between 'not responding midway in a conversation through text' and 'not starting the conversation at all'.
So Nemuri chose the latter, locking his phone and setting it face down on the desk.
'I can just say I didn't see this text if Ichinose asks me about it later.'
Preemptively coming up with an excuse, Nemuri put his instant rice porridge in the microwave and decided to shower and wash up while it ran.
He had something of a cat's tongue, so having the rice porridge cool down while he was showering was his definition of min-maxing.
After showering and quickly finishing off the lukewarm porridge, he brushed his teeth and lay down on the bed.
'Somewhat firm, but firm enough that I don't sink far into the bed…'
'The school-issued blankets are a little thick, but I can turn on the AC, and I don't even have to pay for electricity, so it isn't much of an issue…'
'Nothing too itchy or ticklish either… this is a solid 7.6 sleeping location.'
Nemuri rated it with a hint of satisfaction.
Even if he could fall asleep and wake up whenever, a sleeping location's quality still affected how well he woke up and his overall comfort during sleep.
He couldn't prove it, but he believed the quality of a sleeping spot affected his lucid dreams.
He might never experience a 10/10 sleeping spot, but experiencing it once was his dream. If he ever got rich enough, he would definitely try to make one.
Snuggling further into the blankets, he relaxed his eyes, and his breathing softened.
A few seconds later, the only sounds one could hear in Nemuri's room were the quiet breathing coming from the bed and the soft spring wind blowing outside the windows.
Ironically, one could still see the sun outside, because Nemuri fell asleep at the very late time of 4 P.M.
Eight hours passed, with no other noise except the occasional muffled noises of loud speaking outside the dorms, and the buzzing of Nemuri's phone on the desk.
But unbeknownst to Nemuri, a sudden notification from a System he long thought was nearly useless appeared in front of his sleeping face, glowing light blue.
However, what was Nemuri dreaming of right now?
Well…
"I totally agree, Kyusoku-kun! Kanzaki-kun is a much better candidate for being the class leader!"
"He did ask Hoshinomiya-sensei about the school first, after all!"
"Yeah, yeah!"
"Ichinose is too kind-hearted to be the leader of Class B!"
"Hear, hear!"
…He was currently watching with a satisfied expression, thinking about how he would have liked the first day to go.
If there was an analogy, Nemuri put in prompts of what he wanted to dream, and his brain and the Sleeping System were the AI that generated the closest thing to it.
Of course, he wasn't playing as himself. He was watching Kyusoku Nemuri(Dream Vers.) live his dream from the sidelines.
Another Nemuri, wearing glasses, floated next to the real Nemuri.
"Though wouldn't it have been better to just slowly find evidence of the Behavioral Exam and then tell it to Class B? Class B isn't filled with idiots who can't tell stuff based on circumstantial information."
Nemuri(Nerd Vers.) asked.
Nemuri didn't even glance in his direction.
Nemuri could dismiss him whenever he wanted, but he didn't.
Apparently, even in his own dream, he wanted someone to explain his decisions to.
"Do you really think I have the motivation to find evidence of the exam and then tell it to Ichinose or Kanzaki?"
Nemuri explained, justifying his own actions.
"But you spent fifty thousand points just to avoid gathering evidence yourself."
"And convincing people," Nemuri added. "Don't forget that part. It's important."
"What happened to becoming the class strategist?"
"I thought about the work involved and lost motivation."
Even Nemuri(Nerd Vers.) couldn't help but pause at the shamelessness of Nemuri's statement, adjusting his glasses.
"That was supposed to be the part you considered before saying anything."
"I considered it eventually."
"So what are you going to do now?"
Nemuri gestured toward the classroom, where his classmates were still agreeing with everything his dream self said.
"Now I'm enjoying the version where it worked."
"..."
Nemuri(Nerd Vers.) paused before another Nemuri, this time with a large ahoge on his head, floated up to join the conversation.
"You're not making any friends with that mentality~"
"...I don't need friends."
"That's edgy."
Nemuri(Kind Vers.) retorted with a somewhat amused smile.
"...Okay, that was a little edgy. I guess I do need friends." Nemuri backed down. "I mean, I'm basically talking to figments of my imagination right now."
"...How lonely am I to do that? Even if the System supplements you guys. It's like I'm talking to Character AI, ew."
Nemuri shivered.
"That's going too far." Nemuri(Nerd Vers.) complained.
"...Sorry." Nemuri backed down quickly, naturally because he was the one who helped create them.
Nemuri (Nerd Vers.) was basically Nemuri, amalgamated with all the intellectual texts Nemuri had interacted with.
Since it was a 'being' created by his imagination, it was an insult to Nemuri(Nerd Vers.) to be compared to Character AI.
"Still, making friends is pretty hard…" Nemuri mused, reminiscing about his past experiences after his reincarnation.
"Maybe that's because you haven't found the 'right friend'~" Nemuri(Kind Vers.) proposed.
"Everyone in this school is a weirdo." Nemuri countered.
"Well… there's bound to be normal people, no? No way an author can make all 160 first years weird in their own way…?" Nemuri(Kind Vers.) said, but with a tone that didn't instill any confidence.
"...I guess so." Nemuri sighed. "Still too much work to try and make one."
"That's true."
"Mhm."
The other two Nemuris nodded. Even if they had different flavors, they were still, in essence, Nemuri.
"Hmm… Okay, I'm satisfied."
Nemuri nodded.
After Nemuri finished that sentence, both other Nemuris said their own goodbyes, and the classroom scene slowly faded into black.
This scene preceded him waking up.
It may have seemed short, but dreams were things that didn't have a set time.
Nemuri didn't know how it worked, but the moment he was satisfied with the dream, he would wake up at the time he wanted to. Naturally, if someone nudged him to wake up, the end of the dream would also coincide with him being woken up due to that nudging.
Nemuri didn't know how the hell it worked, but he didn't question it.
He wanted to wake up before school started, so he should be waking up around then.
7:30 AM.
So convenient.
His eyes felt heavy as he slowly opened them.
He expected a room lit by sunrise, but instead, he found a glowing, light-blue system screen.
'...What the…'
In his past fifteen years of living with the Sleeping System, the screen had never appeared unprompted except for when it appeared the first time.
[You have spent a night at Advanced Nurturing High School, an important node within this World.]
[Reward: Trial Access to two Sleeping System {Premium} features until the start of next month.]
After Nemuri finished that last line, as if waiting for him to finish reading it, the blue screen disappeared.
"...Hmm."
His eyes might be tired, but that didn't mean his brain was working any slower.
As soon as the screen disappeared, Nemuri sat up on his bed, still snuggled within the blanket.
He summoned the system screen.
☁️ ‧₊˚ 💤 ‧₊˚ ☁️
Coins: 44098
[Store]
[Hotspots] - Trial Until May 1
[Quests] - Trial Until May 1
☁️ ‧₊˚ 💤 ‧₊˚ ☁️
'…Even the screen borders upgraded.'
He knew about the Premium version of the Sleeping System. It was the upgraded version of his system, and it also displayed his information, though it seemed it didn't let him see it during the trial…
But he missed out on this many features this entire time…?
Regret welled up inside Nemuri.
…He would need to see what each of these features did before regretting it.
Maybe he didn't miss out on too much…
☁️ ‧₊˚ 💤 ‧₊˚ ☁️
[Hotspots - Current Region: Advanced Nurturing High School]
[Permanent Hotspots]
Library - 2 Coins/Hour - 1 Coin/30 Minutes
Outside(Weather Dependent) - 3 Coins/Hour - 1 Coin/20 Minutes
[Monthly Bonus Hotspots]
Convenience Store - 5 Coins/Hour - No Minute Conversion
Any Clubroom - 6 Coins/Hour - 1 Coin/10 Minutes
[Weekly Bonus Hotspot]
Student Council Room - 12 Coins/Hour - 1 Coin/5 Minutes
[Daily Bonus Hotspot]
First Year Hallway Boys' Bathroom - 15 Coins/Hour - 1 Coin/4 Minutes
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[Note: Waking up or leaving a Hotspot pauses progress toward its next payout. Progress resumes when the user sleeps in that same Hotspot again. If the Hotspot expires, any unfinished payout progress is lost. Coins already earned are unaffected.]
☁️ ‧₊˚ 💤 ‧₊˚ ☁️
"No…"
Nemuri reached for his head in regret.
"No…!"
'Just by sleeping at the library, I could basically double the rate I get?!'
This didn't even include the other Hotspots, where he could get twelve or even fifteen times as many coins per hour!
From Nemuri's memory, the Premium for the Sleeping System cost a staggering 30,000 Coins, which was double the amount he spent to get his Perfect Memory.
Nemuri's brain worked fast.
His hands covered his mouth, his mind racing.
If he only did the Daily Hotspots for twenty-four hours, it'd only take roughly eighty days to make his coins back. Though doing the full twenty-four hours was unrealistic, even doing twelve hours meant it'd take less than half a year.
'...I missed out. I missed out!'
Though judging by the location of the Daily Bonus Hotspot, there might be days where it was practically impossible to be there without some maneuvering, it didn't matter.
No matter what, he would earn his coins back before graduation or he would get pretty damn close.
And judging from it saying 'Current Region', it might even change depending on location. So he could have used this even before getting the trial…
…Kyusoku Nemuri was truly drowning in an indescribable emptiness.
With a shattered heart, he opened the Quest section.
☁️ ‧₊˚ 💤 ‧₊˚ ☁️
[Quests - Region: Advanced Nurturing High School]
[Daily Quest - Triple 5's]
Sleep with 5 people around you in a radius of 5 meters for 5 minutes. - (Non-Cumulative)
Reward: 55 Coins
[Weekly Quest - Sleeping Princess]
Sleep for a total of one hour while being Princess carried. - (Cumulative)
Reward: 250 Coins
[Monthly Quest - Usurper]
Sleep for a total of one hour while sitting on the Student Council President's Chair - (Cumulative)
Reward: 1000 Coins
☁️ ‧₊˚ 💤 ‧₊˚ ☁️
Nemuri paused before sighing in a hint of relief.
While the Quests page did offer more income, the benefits didn't drastically outweigh the losses.
The Hotspots were game-changing because of the income difference, and all he needed to do was sleep in those locations.
The Quests required at least some kind of action from him, which he didn't even like to do.
…Well, today's Daily Quest offered fifty-five coins for something he could probably do without trying.
Nemuri conveniently moved his attention to the other two.
Though the coins were definitely a large sum, they were hard to match. From his impression of the Student Council President at yesterday's ceremony, and from his larp knowledge, getting to sit in that seat would be quite the task.
Though… if it seemed too hard, Nemuri just planned to give up.
It wasn't like there was a punishment for not doing the quest.
He knew when to cut his losses.
That didn't mean he wasn't going to try, but… yeah.
But now, having looked at these two features, Nemuri wondered.
'Should I buy the full Premium Sleeping System…?'
What if he was missing out on more features for profit…?
But he did get a free trial…
…He was getting ahead of himself.
The rates looked amazing, but he hadn't earned a single coin from a Hotspot yet. Finding somewhere to sleep and being allowed to stay there were two different things.
He had until the month ended to find out how much he could actually earn. Why spend thirty thousand coins before that?
That was practically six or seven years of progress, gone in a single purchase.
For now, though… he would definitely have to take advantage of today's Daily Bonus Hotspot.
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A/N: Keep in mind readers, I'm still thinking about blink... im just in my cote phase rn...