The OP Protagonist Want To Be Normal

‘What can I do to make all of this seem normal?’

Looking at the frozen objects and people around him, Akira began to contemplate.

His time stop had no time limit, because from activation to deactivation counted as one use. As long as he didn’t let time flow again, it would remain stopped indefinitely.

Therefore, he had plenty of time to think about the current situation.

To be honest, he had countless ways to handle this situation.

But if he restricted his superpower from infringing on the rights of others, it significantly reduced the methods he could use. For instance, memory replacement was no longer an option, as it would involve seeing other people’s memories, thus violating their privacy.

He had a deep respect for the basic rights of humans.

Under the condition of trying not to affect others, he now had two options.

One was to use “Time Rewind” to reset time to the moment just before his superpower went out of control and then do nothing, quietly waiting for his superpower to malfunction.

This way, the snack shelf wouldn’t be damaged.

On the surface, this method seemed perfect, but it had a fatal flaw.

That flaw was that he didn’t want to use Time Rewind.

Because if he used Time Rewind, he would know what would happen next, which would disrupt his anticipation of an unknown life.

Even though it was a very brief time rewind, it was something he couldn’t allow himself to do.

So, he absolutely wouldn’t use this seemingly reasonable method unless he had no other choice.

That left him with the second option: rationalize the snacks falling.

After ruling out the first option, he had no other choice but to go with the second one.

Now that he had his next steps planned out, there was no need to rush.

He decided to first select the snacks he wanted to buy, putting other matters on hold for now.

‘Let me think about what she has in her shopping basket’

As Akira pondered, he suddenly realized a problem.

He had frozen time; why was he thinking at all?

So, Akira turned his head to look at Kirisu Mafuya, who was frozen while choosing snacks.

Her pink hair naturally hung down to her waist, and her body, dressed in a uniform, curved gracefully, revealing beautiful lines. She held a shopping basket in her left hand and a bag of potato chips in her right, her eyes fixed on the chips, seemingly in the process of selection.

‘What a rare opportunity’

Akira slowly walked up behind her, took the shopping basket from her hand, and replaced it with his own basket.

‘Why bother selecting myself? I can just take hers, right?’

Confirming that her basket contained only snacks and nothing strange, Akira couldn’t help but praise himself for his cleverness.

As long as he didn’t choose anything himself, he wouldn’t fall into the trap of making the wrong selection.

Even if some of the snacks were not the type that most people liked, it didn’t matter because it was Mafuya making the selection, not him. He had simply exchanged their baskets for a moment.

So, the one making the wrong choice wasn’t him; it was Mafuya.

He was still just an ordinary person standing on the side of the majority.

Akira looked up at the snacks still suspended in the air. If he released the time stop now, at least three bags of snacks would likely hit Mafuya .

‘As compensation…’

Akira reached out and moved all those snacks to the side, ensuring that they wouldn’t hit Mafuya when time resumed.

With this done, Akira returned to his original position, ready to implement his plan.

First, he would use his power of restoration to fix the shelf that he had accidentally bent.

Then, he would create a minor earthquake using his superpowers.

Under his control, this earthquake would not cause any harm to people or property. The only impact it would have was to make the snacks suddenly fall, appearing reasonable.

Finally, he would use his power of superpower concealment to erase today’s surveillance footage to prevent anyone from noticing anything unusual through the security cameras.

This way, the reason for the snacks falling from the shelf could be explained convincingly.

‘All done’

Akira estimated when the events of time resuming would occur, ensuring that everything would go according to his plan, and nodded in satisfaction.

[Time begins to flow]

So, Akira released the time stop.

Clatter—

The snacks that had been suspended in the air, as soon as time resumed, were immediately affected by gravity and fell one by one to the ground.

At the same time, there was a slight tremor underground.

“What’s happening?”

Kirisu Mafuya looked at the suddenly fallen snacks, her face showing confusion.

“Eh, why is my shopping basket empty?”

She instinctively wanted to leave the area but quickly noticed something strange.

The shopping basket that had been nearly full in her hands had inexplicably turned into an empty one, as if the things she had picked earlier were all just air.

Seeing that Mafuya had noticed something was amiss, Akira quickly left the scene and headed to the checkout counter.

‘I’m sorry for making you choose again’

Akira silently expressed his apology to her as he watched her complete her purchase.

The commotion at the shelves quickly attracted the attention of store employees, but by that time, Akira had already left the convenience store, leaving only his silhouette.

“Grocery shopping successfully completed.”

Breathing in the slightly chilly outdoor air, Akira appeared unusually calm.

“Now all that’s left is to safely return home to complete today’s mission.”

Thinking about what came next, Akira visibly relaxed.

Going home was such a simple task for him.

He only needed a moment to teleport safely home.

But he couldn’t do that because most people wouldn’t teleport home.

So, he had to walk home like the majority of ordinary people.

“Going home is straightforward. I just need to retrace the route I took to the convenience store.”

Giving himself a mental pep talk, Akira prepared to embark on the grand journey called “going home.”

“Excuse me, sorry to bother you. Do you know where Yunshan Apartments are?”

Just then, a melodious female voice reached Akira’s ears.

“!!!”

Akira turned around to look at the owner of the voice.

The first thing that caught his eye was a sweet smile that seemed capable of healing all wounds. Delicate features spoke of divine favor, and fair skin shimmered in the sunlight, radiating a sacred glow.

A gentle breeze lightly tousled her waist-length golden hair, confirming that she was indeed a real presence in this world, not just a beautiful daydream.

“Are you asking me?”

Akira seemed a bit bewildered.

Major crisis!

What’s the reaction of an ordinary person when faced with a beautiful girl asking for directions?

He hadn’t searched for this kind of question before coming here.

How should he answer to appear like an ordinary person?