Shuichi Chiba gave her a light sp on her perky ass and said, "Where’s all this drama ing from? I’m not ied in immature little girls."

  Tsuki Akiyama let out a soft whine, somewhat vinced, and then expined her earlier point.

  "We don’t have any mann in our house. If I don’t act a bit more assertive, it wouldn’t be surprising to get bullied, right?"

  Shuichi Chiba fell silent. Single-parent families, especially sihers in Japan, have it really tough.

  Here, sihers find it hard to get jobs because employers think they o take care of their children and ’t fully it to work.

  So, when a husband passes away, it’s on for the ith children to fall to the bottom of society, sometimes eveing to unsavory means to make ends meet.

  On the surface, there are minimum welfare guarantees, but iy, Japan’s spending in this area is nearly ent.

  Among developed tries, Japan has the lowest ce rate for basie support. France reach 91.6%, the UK between 47-90%, and Germany up to 64.4%. Japan only manages 15.3-18%.

  Developed tries on average allocate 3.5% of their GDP for poverty alleviation, while Japan only spends 0.5%.

  I years, things seem to be improving, but back then, Mrs. Akiyama’s situation was clearly dire.

  "Iary school, when the cssmates found out that An- didn’t have a father, they often bullied her. And you know now that An- is a bit naive and easily fooled; she’s been tricked by her cssmates many times and still falls for it."

  Tsuki Akiyama looked at her sister's bad let out a small sigh. "At that time, we weren’t in the same css, so I was always a bit te to realize what was happening. But even if we were in the same css, I couldn’t be there for her every moment; she had to grow up. So I taught her to disguise herself, to act a bit aloof and unapproachable, to be a bit more capable—this way, she wouldn’t get bullied so easily."

  Shuichi Chiba patted Tsuki Akiyama’s head and said simply, "You’ve worked hard."

  Tsuki shot him a gre and huffed, "I’m not a weak girl who needs f."

  "True, someone like you is quite impressive," Shuichi Chiba chuckled. "But... maybe we should think about rewarding such a hardw president."

  Tsuki Akiyama perked up, her face full of mischief. "Is it a train ride? Maybe orain ter..."

  "???" Shuichi Chiba gasped, surprised. Tsuki was taking this to a whole new level of boldness.

  "Let’s skip the train; I’m afraid some overly enthusiastic bystander might report me as a pervert, and I wouldn’t be able to expin myself."

  But Tsuki Akiyama seemed not to hear, her eyes shining with enthusiasm and her breath being a bit rapid.

  Shuichi Chiba felt a twit his eyelid, sensing that if this tinued, he might really end up on a path of urn—he’d be heading toward the days of w the sewing mae.

  "I almost fot, let’s add each other on LINE for easier unication. Also, is there anything else you need help with at the ramen shop?" Shuichi Chiba pulled out his phone, interruptirain of thought.

  "Nothing else needed, but let’s talk about the reward. What exactly do you pn to do ter?" Tsuki Akiyama accepted his friend request and asked eagerly.

  "Then I’ll go ask the css representative." Shuichi Chiba rolled his eyes.

  "Wait, I’m serious," Tsuki Akiyama tugged at his sleeve. "In the past, the ramen shop catered mainly to local residents. Now that we’ve moved, it’s uhe old ers will e all this way for a bowl of ramen, so attrag new ers might be challenging at first."

  "Got it, I uand." Shuichi Chiba nodded, opening the system to cheuch funding would be o attract ers.

  However, just as he brought up the system interface, he received a new notification.

  [Tamako Akiyama Sense of Belonging +10, Administrator Monthly Sary +100,000 Yen.]

  Shuichi Chiba felt that persuading the css representative’s family to open the shop was an incredibly wise decision. The sense of belonging had increased so quickly, but he was unsure of the exact reason.

  Was it because he praised her cooking during breakfast, saying how delicious it was and how much he e, making her happy?

  Or perhaps it was the pleasant atmosphere of breakfast that eased some of the initial unfamiliarity and made her feel more at home?

  Or maybe it was the good rapport he had built with her two daughters?

  Shuichi Chiba couldn’t quite figure it out, but it seemed that plimenting her was always a safe bet.

  After closing Akiyama’s personal information, he clicked the button to summoler and silently stated his request—help with promoting the Akiyama family’s ramen shop after its opening.

  [Administrator requests te promotion for the ramen shop. This request will e 100,000 Yen. Do you wish to proceed?]

  Hmm? Another 100,000 Yen?

  Shuichi Chiba suddenly had a faint suspi that it might be the case that whatever he asked the butler for, the price was always this amount.

  Sarding the renovation issues with the two Ogawa dies, if he hadn’t applied te a reliable renovation team but had instead just requested the renovations directly, wouldn’t he have saved on renovation costs?

  What if he applied to tear down and pletely rebuild the entire shopping street as a skyscraper—wouldn’t that also only cost 100,000 Yen?

  Curious, he decided to give it a try. Shuichi Chiba quickly clicked to proceed, first resolving the ramen shop issue, then submitting a request for the shopping street restru pn.

  [Illegal application, please resubmit.]

  “...”

  Shuichi Chiba thought to himself that, as expected, the system’s loopholes were not easy to exploit.

  However, after thinking it over, he tried applying for a renovation of the shopping street again, only to receive another illegal application notice.

  After several attempts, Shuichi Chiba began to uand what kind of applications would be approved.

  First, the system had already indicated that during the operation of the shopping street, if he entered difficulties, he could request help. So, he o have an actual problem to resolve.

  Moreover, it seemed that only requests made on behalf of deserving shop owners who truly needed assistance would be sidered. After all, serving capable shop owners art of his role.

  Simply trying to fulfill his own desires was uo succeed.

  If he wao renovate the entire shopping street, it would probably require unanimous agreement among all the capable shop owhat a renovation was necessary.

  "Chiba-kun, what are you thinking about? It’s time to get orain." Tsuki Akiyama’s voice suddenly broke into his thoughts.

  Shuichi Chiba quickly snapped back to reality, realizing that he had unsciously followed Tsuki all the way to the train station.

  "Where’s the css representative?" He suddenly noticed someone was missing.

  "I asked her to travel in the rain." Tsuki Akiyama replied, her gaze intense and seemingly impatient.

  "..." Shuichi Chiba’s lips twitched slightly. This girl really had some urgent needs—so much so that she sent away her beloved sister.

  "Aren’t you worried about her being alone in the rain? What if something ued happens?" Shuichi Chiba couldn’t help but ask.

  "An- is old enough now; I ’t protect her forever. Besides, in today’s society, it’s not girls like An- that o be feared orain." Tsuki Akiyama expined.

  "That’s true..." Shuichi Chiba deeply resonated with this. In his past life, he had always tried to avoid sittihe opposite sex orain during his daily ute to school.