Vol 1 Chapter 3 【Vol 1 – The Woman Next Door】

Sakurai Ami

Age: 30

Boyfriend: Married

Conquest Difficulty: E

Occupation: Housewife

Address: Unavailable at current level

Phone Number: Unavailable at current level

Conquest Info: 30-year-old housewife. Her marriage isn’t going well. She has a secret hobby of going to clubs without her husband’s knowledge. No children. Multiple affair partners.

The information that came up was one surprise after another. Starting with her age — I’d pegged her for late twenties at the oldest, but thirty? And she was married? I never would have guessed. She didn’t even wear a ring. The old saying about not judging a book by its cover came to mind.

Sakurai’s looks and figure were clearly a step above those of the convenience store girl. But unlike her, Sakurai’s Conquest Info had actually loaded. Which meant looks had absolutely nothing to do with whether information appeared. Trying to gauge conquestability by appearance was pointless.

Not that it mattered. The play was simple enough: use the 【Scouter】 to scan, then approach any woman whose Conquest Info actually came up. Nothing particularly complicated about that. And with a Difficulty of E, it seemed like even a Level 1 player could take a shot. The problem was the method. Getting the info was great, but I had no idea what actually to do with it.

Hit on her? That woman? Even if she was clearly fond of men, that felt like a wall too high for me to clear.

Still — trying something had to point me toward the right approach. Sitting still solved nothing.

Easier said than done, though. With no idea what I was actually supposed to do, I fell back and retreated to my apartment. Charging in without a plan would only lead to failure.

One thing was clear: Items were going to be essential for any conquest. On my own, I’d probably struggle just to get close. And that brought the whole purpose of the 【Item】 system into focus.

The 【Items】 had to exist to facilitate conquest. Sure, some of them might be more devious than others. But if I let the fear of that stop me from buying anything, I’d never make a single move.

In the end, the only thing I could rely on was 【Items】. The 【 Lv. 1 Scouter】 had already told me the game’s objective was conquering women. If that was true, then the other 【Items】 had to hold clues too.

I navigated to the 【Item Shop】.

My plan: buy everything on the list. Everything except the 【Foreign Car】 and 【Domestic Car】, anyway — those were priced well beyond reach. That left 【Sleep Spray】, 【Master Key】, and 【Camera】.

I went in intending to sweep the shelf clean. My fingers trembled faintly as I operated the 【Game Window】 — the numbers were nothing to laugh at. But I went through with it anyway.

The whole thing was over in seconds. In what was probably an instant, 950,000 yen had vanished.

Once purchased, however, the 【Sleep Spray】, 【Master Key】, and 【Camera】 didn’t materialize the way the 【Lv.1 Scouter】 had — no physical object appeared. My sense of reality dropped another notch. Then again, the existence of 【Items】 in the first place was already well past the bounds of reality.

Purchases complete. Time to inspect. I opened 【Inventory】, and the three newly added items appeared in the list. Equal parts anticipation and anxiety, I tapped through each one. Detailed descriptions appeared before me.

【Sleep Spray】

【A sleep spray — exactly what it says on the label. Boasts formidable potency.】

【Activate it in your Item Window, then focus your gaze on the target.】

【Duration: 1 hour】

【Effective range: 1 meter】

【Master Key】

【Opens any door.】

【Stand in front of the desired door and tap the Window to use.】

【Uses remaining: 6】

— Repurchasing does not restore the use count.

— After leveling up, repurchasing will restore the use count.

【Camera】

【A see-through camera. Capable of capturing absolutely anything.】

【Activate use, frame what you want to capture in your field of vision, and blink.】

【Uses remaining: 3】

The 【Sleep Spray】 and 【Master Key】 were exactly what their names suggested. The 【Camera】 was named plainly enough, too — but it came with a see-through capability I hadn’t imagined for a second. Felt like a bonus. The use limits on the 【Master Key】 and 【Camera】 nagged at me, though.

Still — items like these actually exist?

Curiosity detonated somewhere in my chest.

Break in with the 【Master Key】. Put her under with the 【Sleep Spray】.

Interesting, isn’t it? The thought colonized my entire brain — maybe that’s exactly what these 【Items】 were designed for. Which meant conquering a woman meant… sex?

Ba-dump.

Reviewing my romantic history — which was to say, the complete absence of one — made my pulse beat even harder.

No matter how I looked at it, these 【Items】 seemed to exist to make the very idea now flooding my brain actually possible.

If that were true, this game would be insane.

I needed to find out. I needed to know whether my theory was right. And since I still had no idea what the conquest conditions even were, this line of thinking wasn’t wrong — it was research. I used that excuse to push down the wave of guilty conscience rising in my throat and swallowed hard.

Then I ran to her apartment.

Knowing full well it was a crime, I moved as something had possessed me — morality, ethics, none of it registered against the fantasy the 【Items】 were weaving. The 【Scouter】 hadn’t shown me her address. But that didn’t matter. I already knew where she lived — I’d seen her come and go enough times.

I took the stairs two at a time. Sprinted down the hall and stopped in front of her door. Standing there, I pulled up the 【Item Window】.

【Use Master Key?】

The message appeared. My hand was shaking something fierce. The tension was unlike anything I’d felt before. The knowledge that I was about to do something I absolutely shouldn’t have made it worse — pushed me further like a devil was standing right behind me.

I tapped the message. The window vanished instantly—no visible change. I grabbed the doorknob and pulled.

The door swung open without a whisper of resistance, and I stepped inside. I crept forward — didn’t even think to take off my shoes — and barged into her apartment. Sakurai, who had been watching TV, must have sensed a presence, because she turned toward me. Our eyes met immediately.

— Shriek!

A scream erupted that nearly burst my eardrums. She bolted away from me, hurled the remote in my direction, and made a run for the kitchen. I panicked and lunged after her. I pulled up the 【Item Window】.

“Somebody help — there’s a burglar!”

But what appeared in front of her screaming face wasn’t an 【Item】 window. Suddenly, my body stopped responding. I couldn’t move a single limb. My vision washed white. Time itself had frozen. Sakurai’s motion stopped along with everything else.

What the hell is this?

Panic clawed up my throat. My eyes darted around frantically — and then two choice windows snapped into view.