'It's time.'
Nemuri leaned against the window of the bus, eyes closed.
His AFK farming life was finally about to begin.
Kyusoku Nemuri was a reincarnator.
However, he seemed to have just reincarnated into an alternate universe of Earth, where everything was just subtly different, yet familiar enough to live normally.
Which meant, regrettably, that his grand plan of buying Bitcoin early or investing in future stocks had been crushed before it even began.
Still, there was a silver lining.
He had a cheat!
The Sleeping System.
Every hour slept provided Nemuri with one coin, in which he could use it to spend on a wide variety of things.
It also had the additional benefit of waking up and sleeping on command, and that every dream would be a lucid dream.
However, the price of some things in the system's shop were so egregiously high that it could only really be considered a side gig at most.
For example, if an average male's physical ability was ten, and he could use coins to buy one point, he would need to spend five thousand coins for that one point in physical ability.
That one point was more than a year of sleeping for twelve hours.
At that point, it would have been cheaper to just exercise instead.
The only saving grace was that Nemuri could convert these coins into money.
With a conversion rate of one coin to 250 yen, Nemuri could earn half the minimum wage worker if he slept for twelve hours a day.
How efficient.
It was a very ambiguous system, indeed.
However, Nemuri came into this world as an orphan.
And without any backing, Nemuri didn't have many chances to 'AFK Farm'.
Furthermore, since he was supposed to go independent after graduating High School, he would have less chances to AFK Farm while also lucid dreaming in enjoyment.
Then, he found a somewhat familiar name.
Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School.
A fully independent High School, where students are separate from the outside world and all expenses are paid for.
Sheesh.
They pay for everything?
That's all you needed to say.
It was also the setting of an anime that Nemuri had watched before reincarnation.
However, Nemuri also had the memory of a goldfish when it came to anime from his past life.
The only reason he even remembered about the school was its 99% Employment Rate after graduation promise.
He did remember his friends from his previous life yapping about how everyone in the school was a fraud.
But Nemuri didn't care about that.
It was basically a place to gather seed money for three years and then buy expensive stock information from the system and then get rich passively and live a luxurious life.
Not that Nemuri even needed a luxurious life.
After all, his main entertainment came from a large aspect of the Sleeping System.
Guaranteed Lucid Dreams.
It was entertaining in the beginning, living out his self-insert life.
However, there was only so much material Nemuri could think of before running out. And coming from a broke orphan, he resorted to something he barely touched in his previous life.
Reading.
How else would he get material for his lucid dreams?
It wasn't like he had a phone.
Well, it was more entertaining than he gave credit for.
He willed a status screen in his head.
--<>--
Coins: 42083
[Store]
--<>--
There wasn't even a status window for his physical stats.
Upgrading the status window itself cost coins, and Nemuri wasn't about to waste coins on something so unnecessary.
However, so far, all Nemuri bought from the store was increasing his Memory stats.
Why, you may ask?
Simple.
What would be the point of reading a book to try and lucid dream it if you barely remember the plot?
Well, that was his own thoughts when he first bought a lot of Memory stats.
He quickly regretted that action soon after.
Since he never forgot, most scenarios quickly lost their novelty if he repeated the same scenario.
That made lucid dreaming itself boring.
In the end, Nemuri had to spend more coins to modify his memory itself.
So while Nemuri had Perfect Memory, he had to spend additional coins to gain the ability to put memories to the side, as in organizing these memories to be fainter, just so he could repeat scenarios.
He could recall the memory if he wanted, it was just that he normally didn't.
It sounded a bit dystopian, but this was just a different way to define what his previous life was, endlessly consuming similar but barely different media.
At least within his dreams he could do more.
He could climb Mount Sleepverest, swim across the Sleeplantic Ocean, and even act like a Sleeperhero.
Now that he invested into his dreams, he would now need to invest into his future.
And that future inevitably needed money.
Now one might ask, couldn't you go the dark route and use the coins to hypnotize people or buy blackmail and make money that way?
You can't.
The coins only affected his body, with money being the sole exception.
There weren't any works from his past life available for sale either, so he couldn't even go down that plagiarizing route so many predecessors before him took.
And Perfect Memory only applied to the memories formed after his reincarnation.
Buying original works from the system were also extremely expensive.
The cheapest work from the system was priced at a very generous 30000 coins.
And anything regarding the future was similarly expensive, with the future stock/crypto information being priced at 50000 coins.
So the goal was to sleep as much as possible while also earning enough points and coins surplus to get enough seed money by graduation in order to get rich and live the rest of his life in relaxation!
Nemuri himself wasn't ugly, but rather was on the more beautiful side of people, however he was rather petite, which made no sense.
It made sense why he was extremely weak, sleeping all the time, but if he slept all the time shouldn't he be tall?
This was injustice!
He could buy height but who'd actually spend such precious coins like that?
He had considered using his looks to bag a sugar mama who were into his type, but his main experience with talking to women in this life was only in his dreams.
And… human interaction was just so tiring.
He'd rather sleep and dream about pulling the Sword in the Stone and unifying Britain.
While Nemuri didn't remember much about the plot of Classroom of the Elite, he just needed to stay clear of the seemingly absolutely perfect main character Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, and his eventual harem of frauds.
All his knowledge came from the Season 1 of the anime, which was already faint, and his friends' complaints about the Light Novel.
But that was already enough information.
Nemuri inwardly nodded.
What a perfect plan.
"Um, excuse me…"
Additionally, Nemuri was confident in his own intelligence as well.
Rather, not really his intelligence, but more his Perfect Memory that he wasted his money on.
So as long as he paid attention to classes and didn't stand out as a troublemaker, then all was good.
Might as well use something he spent money on to its fullest extent.
"...Excuse me…?"
While his physical ability was probably comparable to Sakayanagi, who was literally born with a physical defect, she didn't get expelled, or did she…?
He forgot.
Perfect Memory didn't apply to his previous life's memories.
Darn.
"Hello…!"
He could feel a tap on his shoulder.
Nemuri paused.
'...Who's disturbing my monologue?'
He opened his eyes groggily. While he could wake up and sleep at will, it didn't mean he didn't feel groggy after waking up.
That was the only bad point. He still felt the physical effects if he slept for too long.
Since he didn't feel hungry while sleeping, he tried to sleep for more than 24 hours over a weekend, and he woke up feeling extremely sore.
The only grace was that he didn't get any bed sores.
After that, he normally slept for a while, took a small break, and then went back to sleeping.
He looked to the direction of the noise, opening his eyes, to be face to face with a girl.
"...Hmm?"
Light baby blue eyes locked with light purple eyes.
--<>--
Shiina Hiyori was a normal girl.
Albeit a quiet, literary girl, but a normal girl nonetheless.
A romantic at heart, she wore the uniform for her new High School with anticipation, and waited for the bus that would lead to her High School life with expectations.
After all, High School was a common setting when it came to romance novels.
Maybe she herself could experience a heart pounding romance during her time at Advanced Nurturing High School?
Well, it was just a passing thought.
Hiyori herself knew how unrealistic it was to expect such a scenario happening in her life.
Book in hand, hoping to attract like minded literary fans, Hiyori entered the bus, and… there was a schoolmate here already?
Hiyori knew herself that she lived near the earlier bus stops on this route, so she expected to be one of if not the first person from Advanced Nurturing High School on the bus, but it seemed there was a schoolmate here!
Still in the mindset of making friends due to the start of her new school life, she first glanced around the bus.
After checking that it was relatively full that it wouldn't feel awkward to sit next to her school mate, she made her way next to them, before sitting down.
Judging from the lack of reaction from the school mate, were they sleeping…?
As an avid fan of mystery novels, Hiyori wanted to do a quick analysis of her new school mate.
While they were petite, around the same height as her, a very noticeable Adam's apple signified that they were male.
He had long sky blue colored bangs that covered his eyes and a majority of the boy's face.
'Feels like the type of character in romance novels where they're a hidden beauty…'
Hiyori mused, before stopping herself. 'Classifying people into stereotypes isn't a good habit, Hiyori!'
'Oh maybe I've looked for too long…?' Hiyori thought, before pulling out a novel that was popular enough to be recognized, but specific enough to attract literary enjoyers.
Don Quixote.
It was also a book enjoyable enough to read on the ride to school.
As she put more of her attention into reading the novel, more and more students entered the bus, and more adults left, with a majority of the people on the bus being her new school mates.
Yet even though they were approaching the High School, the boy next to her still had no signs of waking up…
Worry started to creep in.
How tragic would it be to miss school because you slept in the bus ride?
"Um, excuse me…" She whispered.
No response.
"...Excuse me…?"
No response once more.
Now she was even more worried.
While she herself didn't like sudden physical contact, she could see the necessity sometimes.
"Hello…!"
She tapped on the boy's shoulder.
After waiting a few seconds, as she was about to tap on the boy's shoulder again, the boy turned his head groggily, locking eyes with her.
'He's… adorable?'
The boy looked like a sleepy cat, and tilted his head.
"...Hmm?"
He hummed, brows furrowing in confusion.
A soft voice comparable to silk emanated from his throat.
"Umm… we're almost at the school."
--<>--
'Ehh, already…?'
Nemuri glanced at the electronic sign that verified the girl's statement before looking back to the girl.
'...She's very pretty.'
"Um… Thank you."
He gave a quick bow in thanks.
The girl shook her head.
"It's fine. It'd be unfortunate to miss school just because of a nap."
"Still, thank you." Nemuri lowered his head, and caught a glance at the book on her lap.
'Don Quixote? She knows ball…even if it really isn't ball knowledge.'
Nemuri nodded in approval at the book in her hands.
With a more digitizing world and an increasing popularity in visual media such as YouTube, the number of youth who read actual books only declined.
He had imagined being a Knight multiple times in his dreams himself.
It was quite romantic, that concept of Chivalry.
--<>--
While Nemuri glanced at the book in Hiyori's hands, that small nod of approval didn't go unnoticed by the observant Hiyori.
Seeing that small nod of approval, that could only mean one thing.
'...Is he a reader…?'
"Um, Do you know this book?" Hiyori raised her voice in hope.
Nemuri tilted his head at her question, not expecting her to make small talk.
"...Well, isn't it a popular novel?"
Hiyori caught onto Nemuri's way of talking about the book in her hands.
'If he's referring to Don Quixote as a novel, he has to have some interest in reading…right?'
She knew herself that reading was a fading hobby in recent times. Who knew she'd find one next to her so quickly?
Hiyori knew this stratagem of always carrying a book around her would work eventually!
"What about the novel do you like?" She asked.
'Eh…I thought she looked like a shy person.' Nemuri thought. 'Why's she so talkative?'
She looked pretty enough to be a heroine, and it was already breaking Nemuri's intentions in enrolling.
But it wasn't respectful to just ignore her either!
"...Well… I think the concept of romanticizing chivalry is entertaining…" His social battery was quickly draining...
However, Hiyori brightened up at the answer. "I think so too—"
[NOW ARRIVING AT TOKYO METROPOLITAN ADVANCED NURTURING HIGH SCHOOL.]
She was interrupted by the sudden bus announcement, to her disappointment.
Nemuri was the exact opposite.
'Bus you're my number one!'
After the announcement ended, and as students were getting off, Nemuri set foot on the ground and stretched.
"Hnngh!"
And then sighed in relief as he relaxed.
"Haaa."
'Damn that felt good.'
However, opening his eyes after the stretch, Hiyori was standing there, as if waiting for him to finish.
'...What the?'
As Nemuri awkwardly lowered his arms, Hiyori took the opportunity to introduce herself.
"I forgot to introduce myself earlier, but my name is Shiina Hiyori, Class 1-C."
'...Class 1-C? Isn't that the class with the delinquents? Was this girl a hidden delinquent this entire time…?'
A chill went down Nemuri's spine.
'...Is my relaxed AFK Farming life finished already…?'
"...Kyusoku Nemuri, Class 1-B." He said after a pause.
"Um… it was my first time meeting someone who had the same hobbies as me so I might have been a little bit too excited." Hiyori gave a quick bow. "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable."
'Eh? She saw through me? Maybe… she isn't as bad of a person as I thought?'
All Nemuri could remember from Class 1-C was that one delinquent leader and that was it. Maybe there were some good people from 1-C and all of this was just prejudice…?
'She's probably going to forget about me soon anyways.'
After all, Nemuri's sleep addict habits and withdrawn personality weren't good ingredients for making friends, even at the orphanage.
"No, it's fine. I just… wasn't used to talking with someone about novels—"
"Really?" Hiyori interrupted, eyes gleaming.
Nemuri tilted his head. "...Yes? I don't mean to degrade the hobby, but reading isn't that popular for people our age."
"I get that feeling," Hiyori nodded in understanding. "Um, If you don't mind, would you like some recommendations?"
"...I don't mind." Nemuri nodded, and glanced at the nearest clock. "But let's walk if we're going to continue…the Entrance Ceremony is going to start soon."
Hiyori turned to a nearby clock. "Oh! I almost forgot."
While Nemuri was short, standing at an extremely petite 154 centimeters, Hiyori was shorter, standing at a short 149 centimeters.
So even unintentionally, they matched paces.
"So…what are the recommendations, Shiina-san?"
"Hm..." Hiyori hummed in thought. "Do you have any preferences, Kyusoku-san?"
"...Not really. I have been interested in getting more into mystery novels though."
In terms of genres, mystery was low on Nemuri's priority after he read a few of the popular ones.
After all, even if he dreamed a mystery, if he tried to insert himself as the main character, there would be no suspense, since he would come up with the culprit on his own.
However, an idea popped into his head.
Maybe he didn't have to be the main character this time. He could be the orchestrator, and then imagine the reactions after that.
So with this concept in mind, he planned to read more mystery novels when he went to the library.
"Oh!" Hiyori herself was a fan of the mystery genre. "Then have you read some of Agatha Christie's work?"
"Yeah," Nemuri nodded, "I've read most of her classics, like Murder of the Orient Express and Death on the Nile."
"And did you enjoy it?" Hiyori had to know whether Nemuri enjoyed the author's work before recommending it.
Nemuri nodded. "The two I read were pretty interesting."
"Then…have you heard of Endless Night by her?"
"I've heard of it at least. Is it good?"
'Kyusoku-san is surprisingly well knowledgeable in literary works!'
Hiyori was pleasantly surprised, but nodded. "I think it's one of her more underrated works."
"Got it." Nemuri nodded. He'd check it out the moment all the orientation stuff was over. "Thanks for the rec."
"No problem, Kyusoku-san," Hiyori shook her head. Just the experience of recommending a book to someone was a novel experience.
"If you don't mind, Kyusoku-san, do you have any recommendations yourself?" Hiyori asked.
The reason she wanted to give a recommendation was because she craved the relationship similar to a book club, where they shared novels and then shared their opinions on them.
But immediately proposing a book club to someone she just meant was a bit awkward.
'So getting Kyusoku-san used to sharing opinions and recommendations was just the first step!'
Hiyori wasn't going to let go of Nemuri that easily!
"...Depends. What are you looking for?"
Hiyori's eyes sparkled. 'So he's receptive to this already?'
"Well, maybe romance?"
"Romance… Have you read Wuthering Heights before?"
Hiyori nodded. It was a classic romance novel after all.
"Then have you read some of Daphne du Maurier's works?" Nemuri asked.
She shook her head. "Is it similar to Wuthering Heights?"
"Well, I'd say it's similar. If you can find it, Rebecca by her is a good read."
"Rebecca…" Hiyori mumbled, as if keeping it to memory. "Thank you for the recommendation Kyusoku-san. Do you like reading romance novels?"
"It's not so much as liking more than just reading anything that seems entertaining."
"That's a good mindset, Kyusoku-san." Shiina nodded. While she herself had preferences when it came to reading, it was always good to experience something new.
As they arrived at the gymnasium, Nemuri turned towards Hiyori.
"It was nice to talk to you Shiina-san." He gave Hiyori a languid bow, making his way to the Class 1-B line.
"You too." She bowed in return.
'Will we ever meet again?'
Was a feeling that arose, as she watched Nemuri become more distant.
'Well, there's only so many students in such a small space for reading.'
'So I guess it's only a matter of time.'
'I wanted to talk longer though…'
--<>--
A/N: I explained in my Blink fanfic about the reason why this is actually getting a schedule instead of the TBHX fic, but i only wrote that cause of a call, and didn't really plan ahead. I already had a plan here.
Chaps will have similar lengths, so this will definitely be a once a week fanfic!
However, there'll also be a few goals cause...why not?(even if its before 15k words)
I didn't look over it, so if there's grammar issues, feel free to point it out and ill fix it
--<>--
500PS - Extra Chap
--<>--