The System Won't Work Unless I Have Girlfriends

(Third pov)

"And most importantly," he added in a serious tone, "my grandson, are you winning?"

"Winning?"

Masamune looked at the old man, confused by his random question. Hachiro sighed as he picked up a teapot and poured tea into Masamune's empty cup.

Masamune continued with a chuckle, "Gramps, isn't it obvious? I'm technically the youngest person to win an F1 championship. I could proudly call myself a futurist, philanthropist, and billionaire teenager. That's an absolute win—wait, old man, stop pouring that tea!"

Masamune sighed as he looked at his cup. The tea Hachiro poured had now spilled everywhere.

"Like this cup, everything has a limit," Hachiro said. "The same applies to you. While money is one source of happiness, it doesn't mean it won't become a source of havoc. Even with money, you can't buy time for sleep."

Hachiro looked at his grandson's face. While his skin was clear thanks to treatments, he couldn't fool his sharp eyes.

"Look at those eye bags, punk. When was the last time you slept?"

Masamune sighed. "I'm not a fool or a hypocrite, Gramps. The sole reason I was able to bring back my family is this."

"That time is over now. Why not rest now and enjoy your time? You've earned enough money to last a lifetime."

"Then who'll take care of the company? I can't trust anyone but myself. Speaking of which, Shinomiya wants us to hand it over. Obviously, I chose war."

Hachiro closed his eyes. He couldn't stop him—it was too late. Masamune was a genius who had earned everything. Yet, his lust for money and power was like a kid during puberty.

"Masamune, this is my warning: while Makabe Investments is your creation, it still legally belongs to me."

Masamune looked bewildered. "Is that a threat?"

"Lighten your workload and rest. As for Shinomiya, you don't have to worry. Grandpa has already taken care of it. In exchange, just behave like a teenager for a while."

"Huh? For real?"

Hachiro laughed. "Hahaha! I met with the patriarch himself, and we've reached an agreement to strengthen our position in Japan."

Masamune hummed, his brow arching slightly. He then sighed. "Fine, I'll get at least five hours of sleep—"

"Eight hours of bed rest."

"Six."

"Deal," Hachiro nodded.

"Now, what kind of deal did you make with him?"

Hachiro simply laughed, which made Masamune uneasy.

"Stop laughing and spit it out, old man!"

"Take it easy. Well, I agreed to engage you to his youngest daughter, Kaguya."

Masamune nodded absentmindedly, thinking it was some crazy joke—then his eyes widened.

"You mean that Kaguya?"

Hachiro paused, then burst out laughing. "Right, right! I forgot she's your friend too. Hahaha! Don't worry about the press. We're keeping it private; it's just between me and the patriarch."

'This old fart!' Masamune gritted his teeth, a vein throbbing on his forehead.

---

(Masamune pov)

Five days had passed.

There were no classes today because yesterday, I finished the final exam for the first term before summer break. The teacher handed out the grades today. With my last-minute cramming, I somehow managed to rank 69th out of 210 students. Coincidentally, I like that number.

In classroom 1-A, I sat at my desk while Chika and Kaguya stood beside me.

"Heh heh! Finally, the exams are over! Now, I'll spend my entire summer break traveling! It's all thanks to Kaguya-san that my grades didn't drop too much," Chika said excitedly.

"What's so exciting about being ranked 75th, Fujiwara?" Kaguya glanced at me. "You even lost to this guy, which makes me wonder if I taught you properly or if you're just plain stupid."

I chuckled at that. Chika stared at me, speechless. "What? No way! What's your rank, Masamune-kun?"

"69."

"No! How could this happen? I swear I gave my all when Kaguya-san tutored me! I'm going to check again just in case you're lying, Masamune-kun."

Chika dashed out of the classroom, probably heading to the bulletin board where the exam ranks were posted.

"Why the sigh?"

Kaguya, startled by my question, rolled her eyes. "Nothing. I'm just in a bad mood because my ranking dropped."

I hummed in response. "I see. You're the smartest nerd in school, right? So what is it—10th? Maybe around 20th?"

Kaguya frowned at me. "Huh? Of course not. I dropped from first to second place."

"I see..."

"This is your fault too, Makabe. I had to take care of Fujiwara, so I didn't get first place."

"Haha. Okay, I'm sorry."

I don't get what's so important about school rankings. I get it, though—anything other than first place is for losers. As I listened to her complain, I remembered what Grandpa told me.

He said that Kaguya is now my fiancée based on an agreement he made with her father. In short, they've arranged for us to get engaged, like something out of an old-fashioned novel. That old fart keeps meddling in my life. His approach might be good for business, but it's the worst for the friendship between Kaguya and me.

I've noticed that the Shinomiya family hasn't been trying to crush me lately. There's no other reason for that than the fact that I'm going to be their in-law. It's so annoying. Even though this feels like an anime world, I still find myself in this ridiculous situation.

"Hey, did you hear me?"

"Hm? Yeah, I did."

Does she know we're engaged? She's still acting normal, though.

"Kaguya."

"Huh? What? And I told you not to call me that so casually."

"Okay. Say... can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Just hypothetically, if you and I somehow got married, would you be okay with that?"

"Ugh..." Kaguya looked at me, speechless. "No. Not in a hundred years. Impossible. Even if you were the only man left in the world, I wouldn't find myself in that situation."

So, she doesn't know yet. That means only a few people in her family know about it. This proves Kaguya doesn't have much influence in her family.

"I see. I said it was hypothetical."

"It's still annoying. I mean, you've got Fujiwara now, so why would you say something like that? Scumbag."

I just smiled and raised my hand in mock surrender. Kaguya sighed, looked around, then smirked at me.

"I didn't realize you had this kind of question in mind. Did you forget who I am? Why would I, Shinomiya Kaguya, lower myself to date—let alone marry—someone like you, Makabe? I mean..." She raised her nose and covered her mouth with her hand. "That's so cute."

"What the...? Okay, I get it. So, drop the face, Kaguya."

Kaguya smiled and chuckled softly. "Well, I might consider it if you begged on your knees and offered me your body, soul, and a country as a starter. So, what do you think?"

"Hahaha. No, thank you."

I think my mouth twitched. Yeah, screw it. I think that's impossible for me too.

---

Finally, school ended early today, and I got home by 11. The first thing I did was read the file Yaeko arranged for me. It was a private investigation on someone who randomly declared that he was just like me.

"So, he's the first son of one of the three major Yakuza clans, the Yamaguchi-gumi."

Tenjo Yuuya. Same age as me. There's nothing particularly notable about him except that he's a direct descendant of a Yakuza family. Right, so this guy is actually a mangaka and novel author who goes by the pen name Kira.

When I said there's Jujutsu Kaisen in this world, it's not Gege Akutami but this guy who drew it. On top of that, he's also the one behind Attack on Titan. That makes it pretty clear he might've gotten a Gege Akutami and Hajime Isayama gacha from the system. Let's not even mention his other ongoing works. Interestingly, I noticed he started as a mangaka and novelist six years ago—the same year I woke up in this world.

First off, my reincarnation remains a mystery.

I have no idea why I woke up as a fifth-grade, fat ass kid named Masamune back in late 2007.

Since I can't figure out the answer, moving on was the best thing I could do.

Living life as Masamune with my past life memories—and excluding the system, I took every opportunity to my advantage.

It's taken six years to become the man I am today. Although, I've never changed. Even though there's a system, I only use it because it aligns with my goals recently. In short, I just live the way I want without becoming a slave to it.

Sure, I've checked the spoilers the system gave me. They're basically anime from my previous life.

So what? I asked myself. It's cool, but what am I even living for? I work myself to death because I like it. I do it for myself—not because I'm overly obsessed with chasing some heroine from an anime. The only explanation is that I'm just a natural bastard.

As for Tenjo Yuuya, he's no threat to me or my interests. We haven't spoken much since that day, even though I was sarcastic with him. But he had the audacity to tell me what to do.

.

.

.

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"Thank you for your patronage. Please come again," I said to a customer leaving the café with a smile.

Since I didn't have anything else to do, I decided to help my mom at the cafe. Although it's annoying to work with a mask on to hide my famous ass, but Grandpa was right—I should take a little break.

"Ma-kun, it's alright. You don't have to clean the tables," Mom said to me.

"Don't worry, Mom. I'm bored, okay? Let me work."

As I cleaned a used table, the sound of a ding! from the bell caught my attention, signaling a customer had entered. I glanced back.

"Welcome—"

"Yo, brat."

She had dark purple hair tied in a ponytail and reddish-brown eyes. Her outfit stood out: a fur coat wrapped around her neck, a jet-black jacket, a white shirt underneath, a belt with a circular buckle holding up a short skirt, stockings with floral patterns, and zippered boots.

That was the woman who greeted me.

"Ah, it's been a while, Hana-san."

It's my sugar mommy, Kirisaki Hana. A few weeks ago, she texted me that she'd be in Japan on this date and time, and she really came on time.

The woman giggled as she took off her glasses. "I told you to call me Mommy, didn't I? Anyway, let's talk a little since I only have 1 hour, 12 minutes, and 36 seconds left before my next schedule," she said, while Kinue, my mom, pouted at me in the background.