1-5.  「Cheat ability discovered」

「What the hell is happening…?」

「I-I also don’t understand…」

Me and Yui tilted our heads, looking at each other like some kind of awkward confession scene. Oh yeah, speaking of which, my high school life, which should have been filled with pure and happy loving memories of confessing, is actually filled with hostile instead. So this empty atmosphere is quite fresh.

Then back on topic. What is the meaning of this? I don’t get this at all.

If a normal person takes so much effort to raise his or her level, then how did I manage to jump 18 levels after killing one single Red Goblin? If this is the norm for everyone, then Heroes would have been level 500 while commoners are 300 or something like that…

Just as I was confused and yearned for an answer to this big question in my head, funny enough, a voice from within my head answered me. No, it wasn’t really a voice, it was like information being sent into my mind and written into my consciousness.

『Hidden Skill 『Rapid Leveling』 increases the amount of EXP received by x200.

Applies for both General leveling and Skill or Magic leveling.

Teammates can also receive influences from this skill.』

Exactly those words were transmitted into my head from an unknown source.

「…what?」

「Onii-chan…what’s wrong…?」

「You said that information about your skill was…put into your head right?」

「Y-Yes」

「It just happened to me. Something about a hidden skill was written directly into my mind…」

「He?! Onii-chan has a special skill?!」

Yui’s eyes sparkled as she closed up and stared at me. The sweet smell of her sweat tickled my nasal cavity. Not really sure why, but I felt a tingle sense of being taken aback right there. It felt as if a girl I like suddenly appear in close distant, making me flustered.

If I give it some serious thoughts, I think I can blame the fact that we did meet for a long time. Yui’s appearance changed so drastically that I sometimes did, in fact, feel quite flustered when she’s too close to me.

「Yeah the information in my head said it was a hidden skill…」

I quoted the information by reading it from my head out loud to Yui. Hearing my words about this hidden skill, Yui eyes widened even more. She seemed to be happy.

「That’s amazing!! We should go back and tell those people!!」

「You see…」

It is plausible for Yui to suggest that idea. At first, they chased me out because I was weak. They looked down on me and thought that I was a waste of effort to keep. Then right now, when I have this ability, quite a cheat actually, I can return and tell them that I’m not worthless anymore. I can now level up faster and become stronger quickly.

However.

Why the fuck should I come back? Why should I contribute my strength to the douches that chased me away without having just a little bit of trust in me? On top of all of that, is there really a reason I should sit down, wagging my tail and poking out my tongue, waiting to listen to orders coming from them?

The wimpy heroes I read in some novels pissed me off by bowing their heads to a foreign King, letting him dictate their lives like an idiotic puppet of some sort. Unfortunate for humans of this world, even though I have an ability that sounds like a cheat, I won’t use it for the sake of the bitches that treated me like trash.

「Nope.」

「Eh?」

「I ain’t going back there…」

As Yui stared at me with bewilderment in her eyes, I cleared my throat, arranged my thoughts and continued without averting my eyes from hers:

「…though I don’t know how would using this skill turn out for my life, I still want to start my own life. No, fuck it, you know I’m not the kind with fancy tongue, so I’ll just bluntly say that I want to live my life for my own sake even though I can’t return to our world…」

I’ve been living my life in some gloomy corner of the streets and then get shunned from kids my age. I do sound like a creepy old man drunk with alcohol, but at the same time, I also want to live a life where I can be free and do things that I won’t even care to regret once.

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Uhh…I think I just sounded exactly like some stupid light novel protagonists didn’t I? I don’t think that matters too much right now though…Sigh, why does this happen when I try to make an emotional speech…wait, who am I even preaching to, anyway…

「…err, in other words…」

「Onii-chan wants to live a new life from scratch?」

When I snapped out of my silly inner conflict, Yui was smiling, cute as ever, looking at me with gentle eyes. Those eyes looked like they were singing some kind of cheerful song…

「Uhh, yeah. That’s right, to be honest, it’s better than siding up with those jerks. Besides…」

「Besides?」

The unease I felt earlier when I thought there was something fishy about them sending us back to Earth welled up inside me again. I’m not perfectly sure why am I feeling this insecurity thinking about that. My guts are just yelling at me that, that King and his crew aren’t trustworthy. I can guarantee that it didn’t come from me hating him because he kicked me out, though.

「Nah, nothing」

Since I’m not entirely sure about it, I don’t have to worry Yui any more than necessary. She’s a good girl, she’ll definitely feel troubled if I told her about this little anxiety of mine.

「…if onii-chan said so then I understand. I’ll follow you~」

「Are you sure about that, though…following me means we’re taking a way riskier--…」

「……」

「…oh…understood」

Heh. Seems like no words were needed, I could understand clear enough from her face. I wouldn’t say I’m not dense, but I’m not utterly hopeless either, if I do say so myself…

Clutching the cloth of my shirt at the part where the number of level is on my chest, I was lost in thoughts, trying to cope with the bizarre fact that I’ll be living a pretty wild life from now on. I suddenly felt the weight on my shoulders now that I need to survive and protect Yui as she’s my only family at the moment…

「…you’re just overthinking, Yui is strong with pyrokinesis, y’know~?」

When I came back to my senses again, Yui was burying her face into my chest, whispering a few words in her usual sweet voice

「Isn’t this, like, more of a good chance?」

「My little sister is too positive about this situation isn’t she…」

I smiled wryly as I didn’t really get what she was trying to imply, saying this is a good chance. Well, if it’s to die then yeah, this makes a pretty damn good chance to go meet my pops. He’s probably drinking sake while chewing on some strange looking food on the other side.

This is a world full of monsters, magic, demons and the likes. That’s why one can easily throw his life into oblivion the moment he lets his guards down. Even though I have a hidden skill, I still lack common knowledge of this world. Lack of information is a lethal flaw in a survival situation.

「That’s not what I mean…I was trying to say, um, this might be good f-for us…l-like, there was that empty period of 8 years, no?」

Ah. I see now.

As Yui explained her point with a blushing face, I noticed that she was quite correct, saying that this is quite a nice chance for us to make up for those 8 years we lost. That period should’ve been spent by us hanging out as siblings since we were pretty damn close back then. But instead, it only consisted of telephone calls any time I can spend like half an hour hearing Yui tell about things happened in her new school.

「Yeah…you’re right. This might just be the perfect time to make up for the time we lost…」

「Ehehe…」

Stroking her soft and smooth black hair, I once again confirmed the information about 『Rapid Leveling』 inside my head, making sure that I didn’t miss any information in that lump of explanation.

What’s left right now, is to actually put it into test once more to see if there’s any downside to it, and how effective it is.