[MF] Ch 25: Background Music

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The moment 1,000 Fun Points were spent, a red treasure chest covered in smiling faces appeared before Kaito's eyes. The chest was vibrating rhythmically, almost as if it was teasing him to tap it.

He rubbed his chin, circling around it experimentally—only to find that the chest moved with him, always staying in front of him.

"Oh…" Kaito raised a brow, then nodded. "So I can't interact with it any other way. Gotta touch it directly."

Then, with a dramatic pose straight out of JoJo, he declared, "Yare Yare Daze~ I, Kaito Kurobane, love saying 'fuckin No' to self-important bastards! You want me to touch it with my hand? Too bad!"

He lifted a foot. "Taste my stinky foot, you stupid box!"

With a loud bang, the chest exploded in a shower of dazzling fireworks that flooded his vision with blinding light pollution.

At the same time, a new achievement notification appeared.

This one was small—just 10 Fun Points—but the icon was a meme-like image of Kaito looking upward at an angle, saying {A perfect JoJo reference.}

Yes, Kaito was deliberately messing around. He wanted to see if trolling non-living things could still trigger achievements.

And it worked. Even though the target was just a system chest, he still unlocked one. Sure, it was only worth 10 points, but that was still progress.

The Fun System's freedom was absurdly high—it really did turn "everything" into fun.

Of course, whether he should abuse that fact was another question. This was just an experiment; Kaito didn't plan to keep farming achievements like this forever.

Fun should be fun. Playing dumb just for points would kind of defeat the purpose.

For now, it was time to see what sort of weird skill he'd drawn.

And yes, he'd already accepted it would be weird. Because, honestly, expecting a normal skill from this system would be the strange thing.

When the fireworks finally faded, what appeared was a glowing music icon, like a little music app logo.

The system message followed:

[Life Needs Its Own BGM]

[Effect: After activation, you can lock onto a target. A background track will begin playing centered on that target. Different tracks cause different effects, and people hearing the same music may react differently. Everything depends on the situation—and the user's creativity.]

[Extra Note: "How can you enjoy without background music? A Masked Fool without a BGM is just a mediocre one!"]

Kaito stared at it, expression twitching. "So this is… the power of pure absurdity, huh? What is this nonsense?"

Even knowing the Fun System specialized in ridiculous stuff, this one still made him laugh out loud.

He began to study it closely, and soon realized it was actually incredibly versatile. The "lock target" could be anything—people, animals, even objects. No cooldowns, freely switchable, toggle on and off at will. Pure, unfiltered fun.

A fittingly stupid-yet-brilliant toy from the Fun System.

As Kaito's first official skill, it wasn't exactly overpowered, but its flexibility opened up endless possibilities.

Yeah… the potential for mischief was off the charts.

Now all that was left was to test it in action.

Glancing at his remaining Fun Points, he still had 650 left. After a moment of thought, he spent another 500 on a "Super Gacha."

A slot machine spun into existence, bursting with color and light, before producing a new item:

[Mask of Fun]

[Effect: When worn, it hides your identity. Others will perceive your appearance as blurry and can't distinguish details like height or build. However, your aura remains faintly detectable.]

[Special Note: "An essential tool for a Masked Fool who goes out to deceive, prank, or seek fun. Just don't expect miracles—if you run into people like those from Dragon Ball who can sense Ki, you'll be exposed instantly."]

As Kaito finished reading, a creepy smiling mask appeared in his hand—its grin stretched too wide, mocking the world itself.

He rubbed his chin again and noticed it had an "edit appearance" option. He could customize it, though each change cost 50 Fun Points.

He decided to hold off. With only 150 points left, it was better to save them for emergencies. Once he earned more, he could make changes.

Later, maybe he'd design something like Tobi's spiral mask from Naruto, Batman's cowl, or something completely deranged—like that infamous panty-head mask from Prison School. Whatever the case, no one would actually see his face clearly anyway; their brains would automatically blur it.

It was all about the freedom—and chaos—of being a true Fun Seeker.

After stashing the mask away, Kaito called it a night. He'd been busy all evening and was dead tired.

...

The next morning, after washing up, he planned to visit Touko Aozaki to discuss fencing off some goods.

But just as he was leaving the hotel, he ran into a group of local police officers conducting guest checks.

In this capitalist-feudal hybrid country, that was unusual. Because of tangled interests, major hotels usually ignored the police—especially when it came to guest information.

Yet this time, the hotel was fully cooperating.

Kaito raised an eyebrow but remained calm. He politely answered the officers' questions, and they soon waved him off with a friendly "enjoy your stay."

Obviously, his identity as a normal University student didn't draw suspicion. But Kaito already knew what this was about—his "Iron Man" heist of the Yakuza and the leak of their blackmail material had pissed off the local big shots.

Those powerful figures, each with their own agenda, had united to launch a massive investigation, desperate to find the culprit.

Such cooperation among the city's "big players" was rare, so everyone under them was working extra hard—hence even ordinary guests like him were being questioned.

Too bad for them, the one who played the Avenger was Iron Man. What did any of this have to do with a random student tourist?

And besides, even that "Iron Man" identity was completely masked during the robbery. They couldn't find him even if they wanted to.

Right now, all they were doing was showing off their outrage and influence.

With that thought, Kaito made his way to Touko Aozaki's workshop—Garan no Dou, which also served as her home and magecraft laboratory.

...

Meanwhile, in the old-money district of Mifune City, within the grand Japanese-style mansion of the Ryougi family, a thirteen-year-old girl who looked like a living doll was listening quietly as her relatives discussed the same incident—the mysterious robbery of the Yakuza group under their family's control, and how their dirty secrets were leaked to the police.

Her name was Shiki Ryougi, eldest daughter of the Ryougi family and a first-year middle school student.

She listened without emotion, uninterested and unmoved. She simply continued her life as the family's proper young lady, attending school as usual.

What Shiki didn't know, however, was that deep within her soul, another self—one long dormant—had just begun to stir.

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