Chapter 20

“3-8-8 Higashimachi… Ah, this is it.”

Following the address sent by Gojo Satoru, Kazuma Hatori first took a train to Musashino Station in Tokyo, then walked along the streets of Higashimachi until he stopped in front of the dessert shop with a long queue.

Through the large floor-to-ceiling windows that replace the walls, Kazuma Hatori can easily see the interior decoration of the store—a romantic French style, with the overall design composed of high-quality platinum and porcelain white. The warm fluorescent lights illuminate the entire store brightly, giving the various desserts in the window a sophisticated and elegant feel.

It's clear that this place isn't cheap; no wonder it's the shop that Gojo Satoru chose.

Even so, customers still lined up from inside the store to outside, stretching all the way to the potted plants at the corner, moving forward at an extremely slow pace.

When Kazuma Hatake took two steps forward and joined the long queue, the girl in front of him couldn't help but turn around and glance at him several times, and even secretly nudged her friend to join in the watching.

It wasn't just because of the high-class kimono that looked like it was for a banquet, but also because of his extremely handsome appearance and powerful, aloof aura.

They don't seem like the type to stand in line at the entrance of this store at all... The contrast is huge.

Yuqu Yi was completely unconcerned about the NPCs staring at him—unless they had a question mark or exclamation mark above their heads as quest markers, he basically considered them as mere decorations in the scene.

After a moment, a slight commotion came from ahead, and the sound of hushed conversation reached his ears.

"Whoa, are they not selling [God's Dessert] today?"

"Is Master Kawamura in a bad mood?"

"I thought I'd see him at least once before the store closed..."

"It doesn't seem to be related to my mood. The shop assistant said something happened."

"Oh no, has something happened? No...!"

[God's Dessert]... Although he thought the name was a bit too chuunibyou (a Japanese term for someone with delusions of grandeur), when Kazuma Hatake picked up his phone and turned on the screen, the content of the email was crystal clear—

"I want to eat the [As You Wish] dessert shop at 3-8-8 Higashimachi! It has to be made by Master Kawamura himself! Please!"

At the very bottom of the email, Gojo Satoru also simply sketched an emoticon of anticipation.

Not only is he super excited, but in Kazuma Hatori's opinion, it's also super cute.

If it were his friend Mikoshiba, he might have been unable to resist loudly criticizing him, "This is clearly a grown man in his twenties acting cute! And he's 1.9 meters tall! Has your white-haired fetish filter become so thick that you can't see reality anymore!?"

But Kazuma Hatori just finds it cute; it's that kind of unreasonable and illogical behavior.

Speaking of Mikoshiba himself, he always plays those games where he dates beautiful girls, and he secretly collects figurines of beautiful girls, afraid that others will find out that he is an otaku.

After putting away his phone, Kazuma Hato left the group and headed straight for the shop window, intending to ask the staff what had happened to Master Kawamura, who could make "divine desserts".

No matter how cringeworthy the name "[God's Dessert]" may be, it's a favor gift that the beautiful Daigo specifically requested!

Compared to the lively tone of Gojo Satoru's email, Hatori Kazuma's reply was concise and to the point.

"good".

But who can say that Gojo Satoru wasn't happy when he received this email? At least Ijichi Kiyotaka, who was responsible for driving him back to Tokyo, wasn't.

"Mr. Gojo seems especially happy today..."

Glancing in the rearview mirror at Gojo Satoru, who was chuckling to himself while looking at his phone, Ijichi Kiyotaka honestly voiced his inner thoughts.

"Hmm? I'm happy every day."

When Gojo Satoru raised his head, he tilted it slightly, resting his elbows on his crossed legs and supporting his chin with his palms. His words carried a smiling threat.

"Try to tell me which day I was unhappy, Ichichi?"

"…………"

Kiyotaka Ijichi, who was driving, immediately focused his gaze on the road ahead, pretending not to have heard what he said.

That's so unreasonable! Just two days ago, when he saw the pile of business trip assignments given to him, he complained loudly that he didn't even have time to go fishing...!

“We’ll be back in Tokyo in three hours,” Kiyotaka Ijichi quickly changed the subject. “Are we going to a vocational high school or an apartment?”

As the head of the Gojo family, Gojo Satoru naturally possessed countless assets.

Besides Kyoto, the main base of the Gojo family, he also owns several private apartments in Tokyo, where land is extremely valuable. However, he is usually busy with a lot of teaching, missions, meetings and paperwork, so he rarely has the opportunity to stay in his own apartment. He usually stays in local hotels or college dormitories when he is on business trips.

During the busiest times, Gojo Satoru was used to staying up all night or taking a short nap in a speeding car, which he considered a form of rest.

It's quite rare to be able to finish work and go home early like today.

"No, take me here."

Gojo Satoru gave an address, which was the meeting place he and Hato Kazuma had agreed upon.

Having finally managed to change the subject, Kiyotaka Ijichi didn't ask any more questions. He slightly turned the steering wheel, stepped on the gas, and the black sedan accelerated onto the national highway, speeding towards Tokyo.

…………

When Kazuma Hatake stepped out of the line and came to the counter, one of the shop assistants bowed to him apologetically.

"Excuse me, sir, are you here to buy something? You'll need to wait in line..."

If you ask the shop assistants directly about Master Kawamura, they definitely won't tell a stranger anything; they'll just give you a perfunctory answer.

After a moment's thought, Kazuma Hatake opened his mouth and began to spout nonsense with a straight face.

“I am here on behalf of Kadokawa Publishing. Based on Master Kawamura’s outstanding achievements in confectionery creation, we had previously agreed with him to conduct several in-depth interviews starting today, until we successfully compile and publish his autobiography.”

The expensive kimono that he was dressed in by default when he entered the game, combined with his cool and composed aura, made Kazuma Hatori's words very persuasive.

Not to mention, given Kawamura's extremely high profile in the dessert world, he is frequently interviewed by television news, newspapers, and magazines.

The end of the line that Kazuma Hatake had been in was about ten meters away from the store entrance, so none of the busy staff inside noticed that just a minute ago, this young man was a customer.

"Oh, I see..."

Kazuma Hatake's explanation was so impeccable that the shop assistant immediately became more respectful, but when he spoke again, his words were full of distress.

"It's like this, Master Kawamura suddenly stopped coming to the shop yesterday. No matter how many times we call or knock on the door, there's no response. But the neighbors say they can hear whispers coming from his room at night, like... chanting scriptures."

After a moment of contemplation, Yuqu Kazuma asked.

Did he used to chant scriptures?

The shop assistant shook his head: "I've never heard of him being a Buddhist."

"I see."

Kazuma Hato nodded. "After all, I have an interview assignment to complete, and I can't go back to report with such a lazy excuse. Could you please provide me with Master Kawamura's address? I have to bother you for a moment."

Judging from his world-building of the game, Master Kawamura is most likely possessed by some kind of cursed spirit.

After all, Fushiguro Megumi said that the only source of cursed power is negative emotions, and cursed spirits are products that are born from the accumulation and sedimentation of negative emotions expressed by ordinary people.

"Okay, please wait a moment."

The clerk bowed slightly, took out sticky notes and a pen from the drawer of the counter, and began to write down the address.

At the same time, a pop-up window appeared in front of Kazuma Hatori's eyes.

[Currently triggered delegate:]

Master Kawamura's predicament: Master Kawamura seems to be plagued by something troublesome. Please help resolve that "trouble" before he dies.

Death countdown: 3:59/4:00.

Reward: Gain the auxiliary skill [Abstinence and Forbidden Views].

Kazuma Hatake was startled when he saw the countdown appear.

This isn't Kawamura's countdown to death; it's clearly the countdown to the death of [God's Dessert]!

Kazuma Hatori took the sticky note, turned and left, his clothes billowing in the wind. The shop assistant, who was about to say something polite, was stunned and could only watch as the young man, with an even colder expression and more hurried steps than when he arrived, quickly left the shop and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The shop assistant opened his mouth, but suddenly felt a little guilty for readily giving out the address.

He probably wasn't planning on going to the boss's place to beat him up...

Having obtained the address, Kazuma Hatake didn't care what the shop assistant thought. He opened his phone, compared the map, and confirmed that the master lived not far away. He then hailed a taxi on the roadside and headed straight to his destination.

Creak.

The wooden axle made a labored turning sound.

"-.-..--.-.---/--..-.----....."

The indistinct murmurs echoed and overlapped from the doorway, from the corner, from the ceiling, and from the vibrations of every inch of air, then fed back into a deeper hum.

The man, curled up at the back of the closet, held his head in his hands. His lips, which had been dry and cracked from not eating or drinking for two days, were clenched tightly, as if to resist the madness and chaos that seemed to be crawling into every pore.

At first he would try to call for help or struggle, but now he has long since given up.

As for where the monster came from and why it targeted him, even when he first asked these questions, he received no response whatsoever.

"-..-.--...------/-.-----..-..-.-"

The enormous eyeballs are arranged in a string of beads, which are then held in the palm of the hand and moved.

With each shift in the position of the prayer beads and each sweep of his pupils, the man felt a problem with his perception—heaven and earth were reversed, black and white were confused, and the scent of fragrance transformed into sharp blades, cutting back and forth on his skin.

He felt himself gradually approaching death, even though the process was so long that the pain gradually dulled, and thus he was released...

Bang!

When the first gunshot rang out, he thought he had misheard.

But then, a series of crisp gunshots not only completely interrupted his endless ramblings, but also made him slowly lower his hands from his head.

An inverted space, chaotic light and shadow, misaligned senses... were they all just hallucinations?

"I...am I saved?"

His vision cleared again, and he looked at his trembling hands, murmuring to himself.

No, not at all.

The cold words came from above him—the man's body stiffened.

The pistol that had fired several times was now held in the hand of the strange young man who had broken into his house, hanging there gleaming in front of him.

"You have one hour to make me a [God's Dessert]."