episode_0032

An evil power that can control other people’s minds.

However, thanks to that very evil, it was a power that enjoyed cult, no, major-level popularity in the market for eroge, doujinshi, and erotic novels.

Just imagine. The old maid of a boss who was hysterical towards me yesterday, now sucking my dick and calling me master at night!

Or my childhood friend, whom I had a crush on, suddenly getting a boyfriend one day, and my jealousy exploding, so I use hypnosis to have my way with her thoroughly and achieve pure love [a pun playing on ‘purely’ and ‘give birth to’, implying forced affection and offspring]!

Finally, the high-caste woman who used to torment me becoming my cum pet and whimpering!

Doesn’t just imagining it make your heart pound?

That is the power of hypnosis.

[Reward] [Hypnosis]

And such a power was now being given to me.

“Hmph! Hehehehe!”

Naturally, such an evil laugh burst from my lips; honestly, anyone else would have reacted the same way.

‘With this, I too can have the most beautiful high school girl!’

I pressed the reward confirmation button, harboring such dark fantasies.

[Please hold both palms facing the sky.]

Suddenly, this message appeared.

‘Hold my palms to the sky, suddenly?’

What kind of nonsense is this?

I thought, but wanting to quickly receive the hypnosis, I obediently followed the instructions.

Thud.

“Whoa!”

As I held my palms facing the sky, something dropped onto my hands.

What fell from the sky was a wooden box engraved with a familiar symbol that looked like a giant eyeball, something I’d seen many times before.

With a deep smile playing on my lips, I put down the box with the trustworthy symbol and rubbed my palms together.

It’s common practice to soften your hands like this before unboxing.

After rubbing my hands once, I placed my finger on what appeared to be the lock button.

“Alright. Let’s confirm. Da-ra-ran, da-ra-ran~”

I hummed a very familiar BGM as I opened the box. And then.

“No. What the hell. It’s Sakura?”

I couldn’t help but frown deeply.

What was inside was not the hypnosis app or anything I had expected, but rather…

[Too Easy Hypnosis Basics!] [10-yen coin with a string attached]

I knew what this was, but compared to what I had originally expected, it was a terribly shabby set of components.

If it had just been the book, I might have rejoiced, thinking it was hypnosis activated by snapping fingers or using a trigger word, but seeing the coin, it was all too easy to deduce how it was meant to be used.

Therefore, I placed the box on the floor and wailed.

“Nooooo! My snap-hypnosis-induced top-tier high school beauties dream is gone!”

After cursing the world once like that, I calmed my excited mind.

Yes. I knew it.

Because if it was hypnosis from 2009, snapping fingers or this type of coin-based hypnosis was the trend.

I rationally knew that fact all too well, but…

‘Couldn’t they have just given me a smartphone…’

I grumbled to myself once, then thought, ‘Well, it’s a reward, so I should check the contents,’ and examined the components again.

First, the coin with the string attached…

‘Just a regular 5-yen coin and string?’

It was just an ordinary coin and string, and the book…

‘No. Is this like one of those textbooks from the internet? ‘Too Easy Hypnosis Basics,’ my ass…’

As someone who’d never been to college, I didn’t know much, but I’d seen posts in online communities about properly understanding textbooks, so it wasn’t completely unfamiliar.

Naturally, there were no other components besides these.

Damn it. What a stingy reward.

I clicked my tongue and decided to read this ‘Too Easy Hypnosis Basics’ book that didn’t look easy at all.

After all, I had nothing else anyway.

‘Well, it did say ‘basics,’ so it should be easy, right?’

To my surprise, the book, which I read with a mix of worry and expectation, truly contained a wealth of useful information about hypnosis and related topics.

The problem was that if you removed the hypnosis content, it became a psychology-like book.

For example, this part here…

[Human psychology is largely divided into two types. One is superficial psychology. What we commonly do, such as 【actions or thoughts】, falls under this superficial psychology. The other is deep psychology. What we know as 【instinct】 corresponds to this deep psychology…]

See? This looks like a psychology book, not a hypnosis book.

Well, what could I do? I had to read it if I wanted to master hypnosis.

Besides, it wasn’t very thick. It wasn’t something I couldn’t read at all.

About two hours after I started reading this strange hypnosis book.

“Hmm… it’s more interesting than I thought?”

I was able to finish a more satisfying reading than I expected.

For some reason, it was a reading session where I learned beneficial things about psychology.

The problem, however, was that there was nothing to learn about hypnosis itself…

What’s funny about this book is that it contained various case studies and cautionary notes regarding hypnosis, but it completely lacked information on how to actually learn hypnosis, which was the most important part.

‘Is this right?’

This isn’t some vegetable bun without vegetables [an idiom for something lacking its essential component]…

Thanks to that, I couldn’t help but think that this damn screen was trampling on my pure devotion to hypnotizing the most beautiful girls in the prefecture.

As I contemplated predicting the future and perhaps spreading some shit into the world, just then.

[New skill acquired!] [Skill slot unlocked!] 【Skill】 [Basic Hypnosis]◀

Fortunately, I was able to gain hypnosis in an unexpected way.

‘Woohoo! Hypnosis acquired!’

Upon hearing that I had acquired hypnosis, I felt the smile that had been buried deep underground just moments ago ascend back to my lips.

‘Hehehe. Finally, a top-tier high school beauty for me too…’

Thinking that, I tapped the skill to see how to use it.

[Basic Hypnosis][LV: 1] [Effect activates by tying a 5-yen or 50-yen coin to a string and swinging it left and right.]

This was information I already knew very well.

What I needed to know was how many times this hypnosis could be used and how long it would last.

And that was explained in great detail below.

[There is no limit to the number of times the user can use hypnosis per day, however, there are restrictions on the hypnosis that can be cast on the hypnotized subject.]

[Hypnosis Usage Count.] Superficial Hypnosis: 3 times Deep Hypnosis: 0 times

Of course, along with this basic information, there was also a warning about this power.

[*Warning. If this is violated, the target’s mind may collapse.]

‘Their mind could collapse…’

At those words, I involuntarily frowned, recalled a past event, then quickly shook my head and resumed reading.

As I shifted my gaze past that chilling warning, the most important duration information appeared.

[Superficial Hypnosis] [Duration is determined by the target’s command compatibility.]

Simply put, if you cast a perverted hypnosis on a perverted person, the duration will be longer.

[If command compatibility is not met, memory of that hypnosis may be lost.]

Additionally, if compatibility is high, there’s a higher chance the memory will remain intact, and if it’s low, there’s a higher chance the memory will be erased.

As I continued reading through the explanations, the last line was truly something to behold.

[Deep Hypnosis] [When using deep hypnosis, there is no duration to speak of, as it can alter everything about the target, including their personality, traits, character, intelligence, etc.]

It can alter everything…

At that one line, I felt the excitement that had just been bubbling within me instantly settle.

This deep hypnosis could literally overturn a person’s life.

In short, it was a power that dangerous and frightening.

‘To manipulate someone’s entire life.’

I had done something similar in the past, so I knew how immense this power was.

‘It was a terrible experience.’

And the danger of this power as well.

Of course, what I had done had nothing to do with mind-related matters, but there was a similarity in the ability to manipulate a person’s life.

‘I should restrain myself as much as possible with this.’

Deep hypnosis wasn’t available yet, but seeing the words ‘level’ and ‘basic,’ it might become usable as the level increases.

Having roughly finished contemplating hypnosis, I sighed deeply and looked at the book again.

But why was this given to me?

‘No. Then why was the book given? It’s not even an instruction manual…’

As I thought that and looked at the book again, a strange screen popped up.

[Skillbook: Basic Hypnosis]

And I was briefly astonished by that phrase.

‘Holy hell. There’s a skillbook too?’

One, by the fact that there were skillbooks in this game.

And two…

‘Wait, then can I use magic like Fireball too?’

Because of the expectation that I could use fantasy abilities.

And thinking about it again, I seemed to recall seeing a strange pile of books in Hanaya.

Those were probably all skillbooks.

‘Magic that one can only acquire by remaining a virgin for 30 years? Me?’

It was certainly an appealing prospect.

After thinking about skillbooks for a while, I regained my composure and checked the rewards again.

I had been so distracted by the hypnosis, but in fact, there were several other rewards besides it.

[Rewards] [Stamina Potion × 5] [Aphrodisiac × 5] [Instant Perfect Hair Growth Tonic × 5] [Elixir] …

The rewards weren’t particularly important besides the hypnosis… No. Wait a minute.

[Instant Perfect Hair Growth Tonic: It will make any bald person grow natural hair.] [Effect: 2 years]

‘Holy hell.’

It seemed like another jackpot.

It wasn’t just because the effect was good.

‘If I recall correctly, this was something Hanaya sold for 100 million yen each…’

It was because this item was worth a billion won each.

‘Just one of these could fetch 1 billion… no. I think I could even get 2 billion?’

One might wonder how such an item could fetch 2 billion won, but wouldn’t this be considered a cheap price to truly wealthy people suffering from hair loss?

I thought that to myself and carefully hid the hair loss remedy in my pocket.

You might ask if I won’t use it?

Originally, this body’s hair just gets cut constantly, it’s not that hair doesn’t grow.

‘Now that I think about it, my hair has grown quite a bit, hasn’t it?’

It’s probably time for a cut soon… but this time, I should ask them not to.

Since I’ve gained a handsome appearance anyway, I should properly groom myself too.

I thought that to myself and closed the reward screen.

As I was doing so, there was one reward I hadn’t checked yet.

It was the remaining list of scenario over-clear rewards.

And from that reward, I hit another jackpot.

What was inside was nothing less than…

[Scenario Over-Completion Reward] [Subspace Pocket]

A subspace bag… no, wait.

‘Pocket?’

Because it was a ‘subspace pocket’.

I subtly widened my pants pocket and thought.

‘This?’

Wondering ‘why a pocket?’, I read the description of the Subspace Pocket.

[Subspace Pocket: A subspace is created within the pockets of the clothes you are wearing. Any object can be placed in the pocket. However, living beings cannot be entered.]

With that explanation, I couldn’t help but think:

Perhaps this scenario isn’t so bad after all?