In this Second Chance at Life, where I can see skills as clear as day, everything feels like a breeze. And to make it even better, I’m spending my days joyfully with my First Love. - Chapter 24

And so, after finishing our second dungeon conquest, we returned to our normal daily lives. Honestly, I was just relieved we could go back to normal.

While I had already experienced this kind of thing once and managed to handle it relatively quickly, it was much harder for Ichika-chan.

Even though I had passed down enhancement and reinforcement skills to her, giving her stats far above average from the start, her stats had now ballooned to thousands of times what they were. If she wasn’t careful, even rolling over in her sleep could potentially destroy an entire town.

But since we still had to be back by nightfall, managing everything became quite the challenge. If my Teaching skill hadn’t leveled up, this world might very well have faced its end.

The fact that one’s own stats could be more terrifying than a dungeon—what even is that?

And so, we went back to being regular middle school students.

In my previous life, while I did enjoy middle school, I was what you’d call a “loner.” Back then, Haruhi and Code Geass were all the rage. I even remember using my untouched New Year’s money to collect every volume of Haruhi that was available at the time.

I’d spend my time with friends who shared the same interests, discussing and critiquing the shows.

However, in this life, I have a girlfriend.

Sure, I’m always training, I’ve cut ties with most of my classmates, and I’ve been steadily improving my control over Magic Pressure. Even so, my first-year teacher, who I didn’t get along with in my previous life, seems to be terrified of me, which probably caused some of my old-life friends to keep their distance.

Even though communication from our classmates is still passed to me through Ichika-chan, I have a girlfriend. In other words, I’m a normie.

Granted, the only friend I had—my childhood friend—has now become my girlfriend, so technically I have zero friends. But still, I’m a normie.

Not that it means much.

At first, my Magic Pressure was completely unrestrained. But once I saw our homeroom teacher trembling every time they looked at me, I started suppressing it entirely. Gradually, people began talking to me again.

They asked things like, “How far have you and your girlfriend gone?” or “What do you think is the cutest thing about Ichika-chan?”

When asked how far we’d gone, I answered, “We’ve told each other we love each other and have more physical contact now, but not much has changed from before we were dating. Oh, and we slept over together (not a lie).”

When asked what I liked about her, I replied, “I love everything about her, but if I had to choose, it’d be the adorable side she only shows me.”

Ichika-chan smacked me for that one, saying, “You’re causing misunderstandings!” But with an 18-times strength difference between us, it was like hitting iron. Seeing her wince in pain made me feel a bit guilty.

As a result, my classmates began to view me with a sort of reverent awe. Half of them thought, “When he said they slept together, he probably just meant they literally slept.” (Which was true.)

Looking back, I remember that in my previous life, it was around this age that I started learning about relationships. Much like how preschoolers laugh at bathroom jokes, middle schoolers are particularly curious about these topics.

Thinking about it rationally just reminded me that I was, in essence, an old man who had lived a previous life. Not that I intended to act overly mature or anything.

And so, using my experiences from my previous life, combined with the skills I’ve acquired in this one (Parallel Thought, Super Calculation, etc.), I achieved perfect scores across all subjects on our finals, just as summer vacation arrived.

(In my previous life, I scored 467 out of 500 and ranked around 15th. Ichika-chan, who missed two questions, scored 490 and ranked 7th.)

Last year, I was too busy studying for exams and too hesitant to take action. But this year is different. It’s my second summer vacation since becoming Ichika-chan’s boyfriend.

We’ve been together for over a year now. From my perspective, I thought my feelings were unrequited, but it turned out we both liked each other all along.

If possible, I’d like to take our relationship one step further. But I’ve never had a girlfriend before, so I have no idea what to do!

And what if I’m the only one thinking about taking the next step? If she rejects me, I might as well die on the spot.

With those restless thoughts swirling in my mind, the curtain rose on my first summer vacation as a middle school student—completely unaware of the world-altering events about to unfold.

◇

“Just like three years ago, it’s been crushed instantly again!! At this rate, it’s completely useless!!”

In a certain place, a beautiful girl clad in bikini armor slammed her hands on a table with a bang, throwing a stack of documents across it.

A silver-haired, beautiful boy responded calmly, trying to soothe her.

“Now, now… Look, it was just one person—well, two people the second time. Honestly, I didn’t think there was anyone from Japan, someone without magic or much combat ability, who could single-handedly take that down.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying! Instead of releasing such low-ranked dungeons, we should’ve gone all out from the start!”

“Hmm, but if we sent out something stronger than that, the Japanese—or rather, most of Earth’s population—would have been wiped out.”

“So what? That planet has 7 billion people. Wouldn’t it be better if 99% of them died?”

“Even so, that’s still 63 million people left. Humans really are absurdly plentiful, aren’t they? But remember, what we want is balance, not slaughter.”

“Then—then!!”

“The real issue is that it was all taken down by a single person. If that’s the case, we’ll just have to prepare something spread out enough that no single individual can handle it.”

“B-but such a widespread and large-scale effort would create distortions in the world, wouldn’t it?”

A bespectacled young man with wings—otherwise unimpressive—chimed in with concern.

“True. Up until now, we’ve been leveraging the distortions that naturally formed at the epicenters.”

“If that’s the case, then it’s a simple solution! If there are no distortions, we’ll just create them ourselves!”

“Create them ourselves, huh? If it’s only around magnitude 3, I could probably manage, but the dungeons we’d be able to send would end up incredibly weak. Especially for something on a large scale.”

“That’s fine. Weak is better than nothing.”

“But if we send something that weak, won’t that person just crush everything in an instant?”

“Don’t worry about that! I’ll personally deliver something massive to that human’s doorstep!”

“A massive earthquake? …Look, that human might become a valuable asset in the future. If you destroy their home or something, they might bear a grudge and come charging straight at us.”

“Are you implying a mere human could challenge us?”

“…Well, based on what I saw, that human’s strength stat was 7 billion, and their magic stat was 30 trillion. Their base stats might only be on par with a vampire, but their enhancement skills are off the charts.”

“7 billion… 30 trillion!? Th-that’s practically demi-god—or no, even lower god-class stats! …For a human, that’s terrifying.”

“Exactly. And that’s why I’ll personally send my servants to deal with them.”

“Servants!? …Are you saying you’re going to send actual demi-gods?”

“Indeed. Using the distortions created by their descent, I’ll establish an enormous dungeon.”

“If that’s the case… assuming that human survives, things are going to get really interesting.”

“Indeed.”

Unbeknownst to Yasushi, a new and greater threat was beginning to take shape in the shadows.

In a certain place, a beautiful girl clad in bikini armor slammed her hands on a table with a bang, throwing a stack of documents across it.

A silver-haired, beautiful boy responded calmly, trying to soothe her.

“Now, now… Look, it was just one person—well, two people the second time. Honestly, I didn’t think there was anyone from Japan, someone without magic or much combat ability, who could single-handedly take that down.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying! Instead of releasing such low-ranked dungeons, we should’ve gone all out from the start!”

“Hmm, but if we sent out something stronger than that, the Japanese—or rather, most of Earth’s population—would have been wiped out.”

“So what? That planet has 7 billion people. Wouldn’t it be better if 99% of them died?”

“Even so, that’s still 63 million people left. Humans really are absurdly plentiful, aren’t they? But remember, what we want is balance, not slaughter.”

“Then—then!!”

“The real issue is that it was all taken down by a single person. If that’s the case, we’ll just have to prepare something spread out enough that no single individual can handle it.”

“B-but such a widespread and large-scale effort would create distortions in the world, wouldn’t it?”

A bespectacled young man with wings—otherwise unimpressive—chimed in with concern.

“True. Up until now, we’ve been leveraging the distortions that naturally formed at the epicenters.”

“If that’s the case, then it’s a simple solution! If there are no distortions, we’ll just create them ourselves!”

“Create them ourselves, huh? If it’s only around magnitude 3, I could probably manage, but the dungeons we’d be able to send would end up incredibly weak. Especially for something on a large scale.”

“That’s fine. Weak is better than nothing.”

“But if we send something that weak, won’t that person just crush everything in an instant?”

“Don’t worry about that! I’ll personally deliver something massive to that human’s doorstep!”

“A massive earthquake? …Look, that human might become a valuable asset in the future. If you destroy their home or something, they might bear a grudge and come charging straight at us.”

“Are you implying a mere human could challenge us?”

“…Well, based on what I saw, that human’s strength stat was 7 billion, and their magic stat was 30 trillion. Their base stats might only be on par with a vampire, but their enhancement skills are off the charts.”

“7 billion… 30 trillion!? Th-that’s practically demi-god—or no, even lower god-class stats! …For a human, that’s terrifying.”

“Exactly. And that’s why I’ll personally send my servants to deal with them.”

“Servants!? …Are you saying you’re going to send actual demi-gods?”

“Indeed. Using the distortions created by their descent, I’ll establish an enormous dungeon.”

“If that’s the case… assuming that human survives, things are going to get really interesting.”

“Indeed.”

Unbeknownst to Yasushi, a new and greater threat was beginning to take shape in the shadows.