Even Today, the Genius High School Programmer Cashes In on Day Trades, Completely Flustered by Beautiful Girls' Growing Affection. - Chapter 45: The Second Prop.

The Second Prop.

We slipped through the school gate just barely before the bell, avoiding a late mark.

The first period had ended.

It was now the short break between first and second period.

I took out my smartphone and began typing into the Lime chat window.

Ooyama: Here are the photos I mentioned this morning.

Attachment: Pgene_photo1

I attached the second prop and sent it.

It was a file without any extension.

A reply came back almost instantly.

Nanase: I can’t see anything~ Did you send the wrong picture?

The corner of my mouth curled upward.

Ooyama: Sorry, my bad. These are the right ones.

Attachment: Pgene_photo1.jpg , Pgene_photo2.jpg

This time they were proper .jpg image files.

The two images were nothing more than random Passion Generator photos I had grabbed off the internet, with my own full-body picture photoshopped in. Classic collage work. Something I could throw together in about five minutes.

A pro would spot the fake immediately, but for casual viewing on a phone, it would probably pass.

For now, buying time was all that mattered.

As expected, Nanase replied: “Whoa~ Amazing! Next time, get me tickets, okay!”

I simply replied with “Got it.”

I somehow managed to endure the rest of the morning classes, desperately stifling yawns.

During lunch break, I headed to the school store to buy bread.

When I returned to the classroom, four people had already pushed their desks together and were waiting for me.

“Kousuke, we were waiting~”

“Kousuke-kun, you’re late.”

“Was the store crowded?”

“Hey, hey, what kind of bread did you get today?”

It seemed this had already become my new daily routine.

Not bad at all.

I had to protect this daily life too.

Just for today, please let nothing happen.

I prayed with all my heart.

This morning, there had been a teacher on watch near the shoe lockers.

Yukina’s class didn’t have PE today either.

Whether my prayer reached or not, nothing happened that day.

I decided to walk home with Yukina.

The girl beside me kept stealing glances up at my face, clearly in a good mood.

She seemed especially fond of my swept-up bangs.

Still, the stares from the surrounding students were as painful as ever.

“It’s Yukihime.”

“Who’s that guy next to her?”

“Was there always such a handsome guy around?”

“I know him. Pretty sure his name is Takahashi.”

Not a single letter was correct.

Even though Yukina had said she’d be fine, I still walked her all the way to her house.

There could be no “what ifs.”

Only after I confirmed she had gone inside did I head back to my own home.

I still had one more job waiting for me tonight.

***

Back home, I dove straight onto my bed like a collapsing puppet.

When I woke up, it was 26:00 — in other words, 2 a.m.

I had slept for over eight hours.

Ah… that felt good.

My stomach was growling.

I quickly polished off a cup of instant ramen.

I was starting to get sick of cup noodles.

I really missed the bentos Yukina made for me.

After that, I took a shower and sat down in front of my computer.

It was now 3 a.m.

I opened the command prompt on the PC screen.

On the pitch-black, inorganic display, I typed in the commands.

My heart was filled with prayer.

“Alright… work properly even in the real environment, okay?”

I took one deep breath.

Then I slammed the Enter key.

The program began to run.

After a short while, an emulator software window opened on the monitor.

The window was still completely black.

Eight seconds passed.

Did it fail?

I prayed silently.

Please!

Then, a vertical smartphone home screen gently faded into view inside the window.

It was Okazaki Nanase’s phone screen.

“Yes!”

I had successfully hacked and taken control of Nanase’s smartphone.