Yoshiiro Chiose glanced at the remaining lifespan displayed in the bottom-left corner of the system interface.
One month and three days!?
That's nowhere close to being enough!
She had no choice but to keep scrolling through the options. She needed the starting scenario with the best cost-to-value ratio.
And if making someone feel regret inside the simulation was what generated extra lifespan, then this choice right now might be absolutely crucial.
After all, she only had one month left to live. The number of times she could afford to fail was next to nothing.
[Daughter of the Upper Class: Your starting point is excellent — born already in Rome, so to speak. Barring any accidents, you'll never know hardship in this lifetime. Cost: 20 years of lifespan.]
[Daughter of the Middle Class: Your starting point is above average. There's not much to worry about, and if you seize the opportunities life presents, climbing the ladder is no great challenge. Cost: 10 years of lifespan.]
"..."
Chiose realized she apparently couldn't afford a single one of them. Was one month of lifespan so pathetically little that she didn't even qualify to get on stage?
[Daughter of the Lower Class: Your starting point is fairly ordinary. Barring accidents, you'll likely live a calm and unremarkable life — but that's not so bad, is it? Cost: 1 year of lifespan.]
[Daughter of a Wanderer: Your starting point is one of hardship. Having both parents alive would already count as lucky. Cost: 0 years of lifespan.]
[Birth Mystery Box: Randomly draws one of the above. Cost: half a month of lifespan.]
"There really is… no good option here."
The ones at the top were out of her price range, the second-to-last was a hellish starting position, and all of them gave Chiose pause.
Her fingers fidgeted, swiping back and forth across the light-screen indecisively.
Since she only had one month to live anyway… why not go all-in on the half-month Mystery Box?
If it paid off, it'd be a massive profit. If it didn't, she'd only lose a little.
Either way, one month and half a month both led to the same dead end. Might as well gamble before she died — at least she'd go out with some dignity.
And so, Yoshiiro Chiose decided to go all-in.
[Please choose your Talent (three talents are randomly generated each time for your selection).]
[Hyperthymesia: Cost: 10 years of lifespan.]
[Sanity Locked: Cost: 5 years of lifespan.]
[Fragile: Cost: negative half a month of lifespan.]
"???"
"I'll take the one that gives me life."
What even was this? A freebie?
Besides, dying inside the simulation was just dying in the simulation — who cared about life and death in there? As long as she wasn't fragile in the real world, it was fine.
[Please confirm your selections: Birth Mystery Box — Fragile.]
"Confirmed!"
With Chiose's selection made, the light-screen flickered briefly and then winked out at the speed of light.
In the instant that darkness fell, Chiose was still silently mouthing her little sister's name.
Once she finished pulling off this big score, she was absolutely going to go home and ruffle little Kyoumoto's head to her heart's content.
Kyoumoto shared their mother's surname, Haizuka. That name seemed cursed somehow — everyone who bore it was destined to be unhappy.
Her eyes grew heavy. Muttering under her breath, Yoshiiro Chiose slowly sank into unconsciousness.
...
The world was so blurry.
Yoshiiro Chiose forced her eyes open. What greeted her was her own tiny, infant hand.
[So this… is the simulation.]
It was realistic. Disturbingly, completely realistic.
[Have I… turned into a baby? Hmm…]
She pried her eyelids open the tiniest crack and looked around at the unfamiliar bedroom.
Not very big… but warm and cozy. Was this a nursery?
It looked like it had been hastily converted from a study — ah, so the Mystery Box had apparently landed her in an ordinary household.
Not a bad start. Basically a profit. Nice.
A simulation was still a simulation, after all. If she'd actually picked the wanderer start, she'd just be subjecting herself to suffering… starting as a wanderer, she might not even survive the first month of the simulation.
That said, the wanderer-type start seemed to have fewer restrictions. She could always plan that one out more carefully for later.
A thick little cotton blanket lined the baby crib beneath her, its yellow downy softness making Chiose feel genuinely comfortable. She tried desperately to roll over and found she couldn't do a single thing.
[My body… is so fragile. Are all children's bodies this helpless?]
The ceiling was a warm orange-yellow glow. The early spring air inside the room was crisp and fresh — there must have been a heater of some sort running. It was nice. She hadn't gotten to enjoy something like that in years.
She wondered how her little sister was doing right now…
Time didn't stop just because Chiose missed her. While she was zoning out at the ceiling, the nursery door had already swung open.
"Honey, the baby's awake! This little one is so quiet — nothing like her older sister."
[Older sister? What does that mean?]
Chiose tried hard to move her limbs and felt like an absolute idiot — like a fish flopping around on dry land.
"There we go, let Mama hold you."
The woman stepped forward and effortlessly scooped Chiose up. Great — now Chiose was a helpless fish flailing in mid-air instead.
[What is a little baby supposed to do… cry?]
Chiose tried to cry, but she couldn't manage it. Her brand-new baby brain was a complete blank.
She was exhausted. She wanted to sleep for a decade and never get up.
[Can't sleep… I want to observe this simulated world a little longer. Come on, cry loudly — don't let the simulation-parents suspect anything.]
She couldn't cry.
Maybe if she thought of something sad she could squeeze some tears out.
The woman calling herself her mother was gently patting and rubbing her back and bottom with warm hands. Chiose pressed her face against the woman's shoulder and strained with everything she had to make a sound.
Okay… sad things… sad things…
During the summer break at the end of her third year of middle school, she'd had absolutely no time to have fun! Her parents had died when she was in sixth grade, leaving her with barely any memories of them.
She'd worked and worked and worked. She'd kept the household together, kept it together, kept it together. She had…
She'd blinked, and just like that, she'd lived through all three years of middle school completely alone.
It was so unfair. And even after going through something that miserable, she still had only one month left to live now.
Even worse — if she didn't complete the simulation properly, her little sister would be left to fend for herself on the streets after that one month was up.
A blind little girl wandering alone on the streets, what would she even…
"Waaah!"
The more she thought about it, the sadder her life really was.
No need to hold it in anymore. She might as well let it all out, just like a proper baby would.
Just a little secret cry. No one in the simulation would laugh at her for it.
The moment baby Chiose started crying, she heard a second wail rise from the cradle nearby.
"Waaah!"
[The source of that voice… is that the so-called older sister?]
"Don't cry, baby, don't cry — oh, Yuji, come hold little Sai! Little Tomoru is crying now too, raising kids is such a headache, especially a pair of twins."
Takamatsu Hikaru's black-blue hair was already dotted with traces of sweat. She shot a withering glance at her husband, Takamatsu Yuji, and scooped up the other small infant.
Perched on her father's shoulder, Chiose gradually stopped sobbing. Her gaze had been stolen away by the tiny baby cradled in her mother's arms.
Just a few little tufts of gray hair on top of her head, small and dumb-looking — she was adorable. She looked almost exactly as cute as Chiose's real sister, Haizuka Kyoumoto.
That little one was also peering right back at her, one finger stuffed in her mouth, studying Chiose with a pair of exquisite garnet-red eyes.
What was her name?
"Shh, Tomoru, don't cry — Mama's here, Mama's right here."
Tomoru?
What a lovely name… just as lovely as her real sister's name back in reality.
[Attention, attention! The mission target has appeared — thirty centimeters to the left. Target's name:]
[Takamatsu Tomori]
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