silence.

Hoshino Aoi responded with silence.

It was as if the existence hidden in her mind had completely disappeared.

Hoshino Aoi's eyes flashed, and the pencil in her hand twirled lightly between her fingers.

Her posture was nimble and a bit nonchalant, which made the little boy sitting next to her glance at her subconsciously.

However, the next second, his gaze was caught by Hoshino Aoi.

Um?

Hoshino Aoi followed the line of sight and looked in the direction, with a hint of indifference in her eyes, but in a second, there was suddenly a little more light in them.

The little boy sitting next to her had light golden hair and wheat-colored skin. When he noticed she was looking at him, he quickly looked away, but she still noticed the hint of light purple in his eyes.

Hoshino Aoi confirmed his identity almost immediately.

It’s Touko when she was a child!

Her eyes suddenly lit up, and she looked at the person next to her with a focused and serious look, which made Fūya Rei, who was sitting next to her, instantly nervous.

He subconsciously thought that she was also curious about his different hair and skin color from others. The shyness that came from being caught while peeking at others instantly faded away, and he immediately went into battle mode.

So... so cute...

Now, Hoshino Aoi's eyes became brighter, and the look she gave him became more focused.

Seeing this, a blush slowly appeared on Fūya Rei's face.

However, she was so angry that her face turned red because of the guess in his mind. Of course, there might also be some shyness mixed in that he himself was not aware of.

This made him unable to help but glare at her, and before Hoshino Aoi could react, the little light golden head turned to the other side in annoyance. Even though Hoshino Aoi was spinning the pen so fast that it almost flew up, she didn't even glance at her again.

certainly……

It just looks like that.

After all, with Hoshino Aoi's current level of sensitivity, it was easy for her to notice his sneaky glances at her. She was just pretending not to know and teasing him.

but……

As she lowered her head to write the paper, she thought silently in her heart:

"Anyway, I still want to thank you for putting me in Touko's class."

She deliberately omitted a subject in this sentence.

And if the system responded next, it would mean that her guess was wrong.

Even when the plot is in progress, in other words, when the system's control over the world is at its lowest, the world consciousness has no way to compete with it and can only let it operate at will.

But if the next person to respond is the world consciousness, then it means that her previous guess was correct.

While the plot is going on, the system has no way to intervene in the world, so the world consciousness can throw her to where it wants her to go.

As for Furuya Rei...

Just like how the system had originally placed her directly near Rei Furuya, for the world consciousness, he was undoubtedly the best 'bait' it had released to attract her.

But this also illustrates one thing.

That is, in the battle between it and the system, she is a very, very important link, so important that it must win her over to its side.

Of course, although it was a test, Hoshino Aoi was actually 99% sure that the reason why she appeared here was entirely due to the behind-the-scenes manipulation of the world consciousness.

After all, according to her guess, since she would trigger such a special copy - going directly back to the past, it means that this plot will appear in the comic forum.

It has basically been confirmed that the comic forum is controlled by the world consciousness, so the result is obvious.

Hoshino Aoi blinked gently, and her crow-feather-like eyelashes trembled slightly, making it impossible to tell what she was thinking at the moment.

'……You're welcome.'

A strange voice suddenly sounded in her ears, very soft and thin, a bit like a child's voice, but it also made Hoshino Aoi feel certain.

She was right.

If when she changes her vest, the system's control over the world is 10 points, and even time can be controlled, then when she is in the plot, the system's control over the entire world becomes 5 points - she can only be forcibly controlled when she does something that is inconsistent with her personality.

But if what she does is logical, then even if the result is not what the system wants, it has no way to forcibly control her.

And it also has no way to control the direction of the comics.

This means that, at least at this time, its control over the entire world is only 5 points at most.

So what if it’s a plot within a plot?

Will its control over the world be even weaker?

Is it low enough that the world consciousness can carry it and contact her?

That's why Hoshino Aoi deliberately designed this, and the result was exactly as she expected.

In the meantime, she also determined her importance in this game.

This will make things much easier...

"The system doesn't know when it will discover your presence, so let's skip the unnecessary probing and get straight to the point."

A smile gradually appeared in her eyes, and her tone was obviously meaningful.

"After all, if I'm not mistaken, you probably don't want it to notice your existence, right? Comic Forum, ah, no, maybe I should call you world consciousness?"

"...You know I exist?"

There was obvious surprise in the tone of World Consciousness.

It didn't expect that Hoshino Aoi would know of its existence, nor did it expect that she would know that the comic forum was under its control.

After all, even the external system doesn't know about this matter.

But since she could guess that it was actually behind the comic forum, then could it be understood that all this was actually an inevitable result under her guidance?

This made it feel shocked and a little guilty.

After all, before she pointed out its identity, it and the system had the same idea.

Seduction, threats and exploitation.

From the very beginning, they did not put Aoi Hoshino on the same level as them.

Fortunately, it still has a chance to correct its attitude.

The world consciousness has a little bit of a pitiful system, but it is really just a little bit. Soon, it abandoned its face as the world consciousness and turned to complain to Hoshino Aoi excitedly.