I'm fighting the evil mega-corps and secret villains of this world, but hooking up the MC with his harem is the real challenge! 2 (Overpowered Isekai CYOA / Gakuen Toshi Asterisk)

Those at the top of Seidoukan Academy's rankings tended to be the most cautious about engaging in duels. Especially when the way rankings worked in this school was for the winner and loser to swap their ranks.

It is only natural. All who gain power are afraid to lose it.

With that in mind the first criteria for my first opponent had to have a certain type of personality, that of the battle-loving or risk-taking Genestella.

It wasn't an uncommon personality. You could find a Genestella willing to fight by just turning around a block.

Rampant discrimination during their childhood had been cultivated by the IEF's deliberately unfair policies usually causes Genestella to have a load of pent up stress, leading to many a Genestella wanting a target to lash out at. And this environment gave them exactly that.

All this was for the purpose of driving them towards jobs that required use of their superhuman abilities… violent uses. Whether working for a private military company, police force, or, in the worst case, a crime syndicate, Genestella were always in demand.

It made me feel a little sick that I was taking advantage of a type of person that had been influenced in that direction due to economic, political and societal influences.

It was a stupid sentiment, of course, as every person's life experiences no matter what the state of the world would be influenced in several directions no matter what. I suppose it's just the way I was raised… and my own biases making me view everyone in this world as a victim of the author's setting rather than fully independent individuals.

"Hey dude, you wanna fight?"

I went up to the green-haired, below-average looking older student and asked him straight up in a friendly manner. Shooting him my brightest smile while I was at it.

"Haaaaah!? Do you know who you're talking to?!"

I faked a nervous smile as I gulped down some saliva then shook my head slowly. Making the derpiest face I could from my practice sessions in trying to imitate Konosuba expressions.

"H-hey, Noel, he looks like he's new to the place. It won't look good if you pick on a newbie-" The older student's groupie was being the smartest person in the school yard, fortunately for me, minor fodder characters like this guy tend to have a low WIS score.

"I don't give a damn about that crap! If he is then I'm doing him a favor by teaching him how things work here. You, what's your name! If you like you're going to be looking over your shoulder for a long time."

"L-Lucas Meyer."

"The name's Noel Karsh, 8th Rank and one of the Page One's. And you, Lucas Meyer, just got the privilege of being challenged by me."

A ring of students formed around the two of them as both our school crests glowed a bright red in response to the challenge.

Just as planned.

Technically there were two other candidates for me to challenge, but I picked this guy since he met the other criterias with the highest scores in comparison to the other two.

All my shortlisted opponents were male, as male characters are a lot less important in battle harem academy stories than female characters. My other criterias, however, include things like "are they below average looking?" and "do they have an interesting backstory?"

Everyone knows that the main character of a harem light novel can only look average, at worst (except stories like Tanaka the Wizard and Accel World), and handsome (like Ikki Kurogane) at best. Any significant male side-character needs a good character design (be it Bishounen or Bro-Tier) so that they don't have a punchable face and can afford to be included in a single non-colored novel illustration or two.

And quite frankly? This guy takes the cake for having a face that screams 'His Fodder Level is over 9000!'

"Oi, accept!"

"Hiiii! I accept!"

"Good! Now clench your teeth!"

I backpedaled and 'clumsily' made for the pockets in my coat.

Stepping Stone 1 didn't bother to say anything more as he activated his Lux and waved it about threateningly before dashing at me.

Of course, this all happened in slow motion to me. I was putting an effort to not go past the speed of a peak human and had to 'cap' my displayed reaction speed even though watching the living mook moving was like watching a video on "Playback Speed 0.0001".

I made a move to expose the school crest on my uniform for him to take a slash at it, then activated the localized EMP device in my hand that caused Lux's to short-out just before it struck my crest.

At the same moment I used my other hand to pull the trigger on my custom designed "gun" that shot out a black bubble onto his face. Then used the "recoil" of the gun as a way to convincingly be thrown back a few paces.

The bubble stuck to his face immediately began to expand as it took in the air from the surroundings.

"Huh, what the- Gah! What is this shi-"

Talking was not a free action and in those few seconds of shock I had silently created some distance and dropped several pellets that quickly formed a dense smoke cloud.

By the time he tore off the bubble from his face with his free hand, my opponent found himself stunned at how the bubble wouldn't leave his hand and was still expanding, his Lux still failing to activate and that his ability to see me had been completely cut off.

At this point in time, the crowd was complaining about the lack of visibility as much as he was.

"Hey, what gives! I can't see a thing."

"Is this his ability as a Dante?!"

"That Lucas guy looks slow as hell, wait, could he be-"

"FUCK! What is this cr-" I shot him again as I silently moved under the cover of smoke, unlike him, I could "see" him perfectly clear by using my developed "spatial sense" that I gained after many failed attempts to use World Portal as a high-accuracy scrying method.

I was also using the lessons I've learnt from my infiltration mission into Terra Omega's knock-off version of the League of Shadows to its fullest extent, alongside a touch of pragmatism to exploit how utterly alien this type of battle would be to a Genestella student.

"Stop shoo- gah! Where are- fuck you shot me in the dick! Mph! That's it!"

He started charging about the smoke like a frightened bull as the black bubbles began to slow him down and his movements. Unfortunately for him, this weapon was a complete copy of Syndrome's security systems' weapons that subdued Mr. Incredible, in other words, this weapon was made to defeat superhumans.

If he had magical abilities or an Orga Lux then they would probably have a way to get rid of the black goo bubbles. Needless to say, I knew that damn well, and one of my criterias (although a non-critical one) was that I wanted to fight a run of the mill Genestella.

By the time the smoke cleared up, my dear starter opponent was already stuck to the ground with the bubbles covering 70% of his body.

"I suggest you surrender, good sir. After all, the defeat conditions of a duel is either the destruction of your school crest or being rendered unconscious. Unfortunately, as a normal human, I'm not sure if I have the strength to stab your crest hard enough to break it."

"No way! That's impossible! Guh, you cheating bastard…!"

"A lesson on the school rules. There are no limits on the number nor type of weapons used in a duel or an official match. So what will it be?"

"Fuck yo-ooooooo!"

To his credit he attempted to struggle despite being completely covered in the black bubbles.

A couple of seconds later the AI announcement rang out.

"End of duel! Winner: Lucas Meyer!"

Without missing a beat I quickly took out yet another 'weapon', I pulled the trigger on the gun, releasing a high-pitched noise for a brief moment.

Then I used one of my various methods of dismissing duplicates to the black goo bubbles disintegrate into nothing at a moderate pace.

The gun didn't really do anything, other than annoy some people with sensitive ears, but it was used as a cover/excuse for the dispersion of the bubbles.

A quick slap and the guy was up and about again.

"There we go. Good fight."

"Like hell-"

"Well… I'm just going to go now."

I turned my back on him and started to make my exit. He, predictably, tried to attack me from behind.

But in his current state he was only barely superhuman and I easily countered the attack by throwing him over my shoulder without looking.

After smashing him into the pavement, in self-defense, I hurriedly continued in another direction to go about my own business.

Of course, by this point, the crowd overcame their stunned disbelief and began to go wild with applause mixed with cautious skepticism.

"Holy crap! The new guy defeated the Eighth Rank!"

"I-is it even legal for a human to fight?!"

"Wait, you believe he's actually human?"

"That's ballsy as fuck!"

"Kyaa! He's so dreamy!"

As expected of the fickle peanut gallery.

I only waved in a nervous-looking fashion while giving the girls my best normie smile before fast-walking my way out, leaving behind the groaning former 8th Rank student on the ground.

I lost most of the crowd in a few minutes, only to end up running into a few older students who… started to wave and run towards me with an extremely happy look on their faces.

"Luc! I can barely believe my eyes!" "Comrade Meyer! We just saw the fight on the net-" "Lucas you fucking mad man! Ahahaha!"

I blinked twice and checked my eyes. What a coincidence!

To think that I would see my club mates, and my first senior club members, here so soon!

"Ben! Lionel! Alessio! Hey yeah, it's been an eventful afterno- woah! Hey, put me down!"

They started throwing me up and down as if I just scored them the winning goal of a football match! Well... I can't say it's the first time this has happened…

Flashback...

Benjamin Wickli, Lionel Germann and Alessio Hugentobler were two years older than me, they were all Genestella's who joined the club I started in my first year since they needed to join one when there weren't enough new students that joined the Genestella-only Football Team and they were forced to disband.

"Long-standing discontent with the monarchy erupted into mass protests against food rationing in February, this would later be called the February Revolution as the Monarchy was overthrown by-"

"Why do we have to learn this obso.. Obsolescence stuff!" "You mean Obsolete?" "It's human history, you dimwit." "If you don't want to learn it then you can leave, human history is for humans, not monsters!" "You want to say that to my face!" "Punch me and you'll go to jail for life!" "That's not how the law works!" "Yes it does!" "No it doesn't!"

"Oi! Boys! And Ladies. Calm your tits or no one is getting any pizza!"

"I put the table back now." "Don't flip it again, we eat Lucas's stuff there." "Okay okay."

I picked up a lot of things by observing how master-chefs cook their food, somehow, my cheat skills allowed that to transfer to cooking other sorts of food. In the end, I managed to make super delicious meals that would get them to sit around and listen to reason.

Eventually the racism and other normal student kinds of tensions began to dial down.

At first they were kinda abrasive to me and the other members of the club, especially the human (majority) members, but after I helped them with their studies and got everyone to join our historical (and D&D ) RP sessions they started to see things my way.

Well, I mostly did all of that to keep them attending the club, as they weren't that interested in pre-Invertia history and I was really trying to start a revolution to take down the mega-corps… at the time. I sorta gave up when I realized everyone couldn't be bothered to think deeply and had normal teenager worries.

All the fun activities where I tried to incorporate or stealthily educate them on how Socialism and Social Enterprises were better than Capitalism taken way too fucking far like the IEF's were my last ditched, high-effort attempts.

It worked out somewhat, but not by a lot, so I kinda gave it up as a lost cause and focused on being the best club president and friend I could be to everyone.

And that meant introducing them to high culture...

"Hey guys! And girls. I found these ancient movies from a time just after the Invertia. They were never shown in theatres since technology was advancing so quickly back then to the point that the film and DVD age was over before the directors knew it. In any case, you can't find this stuff on the internet at all, and the movies are pretty damn good despite the low tech! You know what that means…!"

"MOVIE NIGHT!" "Popcorn!" "Wait, how is it movie night if our club activities is in an afternoon-"

"Yes, that's right. Movie Night. Alessio, forget what I taught you for one minute and don't question tradition, it's called movie night and that's that."

"What's it called?"

"Star Wars! We have six films to watch, this one from New Hope onwards is called the Original Trilogy. And this one from Phantom Menace to Revenge of the Sith is called the Prequel Trilogy."

Alessio raised his hand again, "Is there a sequel trilogy then."

"Of course not. There are only six Star Wars films. A sequel trilogy does not exist."

"... Hey, Lucas, you okay?" Lionel, who jokingly uses "Comrade Meyer" from time to time as a way to annoy me (I don't like commies), addressed me normally as he waved his hand in front of my face after setting me down.

"I'm sorry. I was having a flashback."

"I see." Alessio nodded and started to pat my shoulder, "These flashbacks happen often?"

"Increasingly… Today."

"Bah! Too much thinking! Focus on the important things and on the present! First day and you're already a Page One! Hey, come, come, I know a good restaurant we can celebrate at. Lots of chicken, good idea, yes?" Benjamin, who is more often known as just Ben, quickly brought us all to a store called… Ben's Fried Chicken.

I looked at him with genuine shock as he smiled with pride.

"No way!"

"Oh nononono… it's 'yes way'. I quit high school when I learned they were teaching us to be slaves of the capitalist machine just like you said and started my own restaurant. I have three shops now! And it's all thanks to you teaching me how to fry chicken and your secret spice! I reserved 20% of profits for you."

"Oh hell no, this is your hard work!"

"15%."

"0%."

"This is not how negotiation works."

"I have altered the deal."

"Okay, I pray you will not alter it further. But from now on you eat all chicken here free, okay?"

I hugged him and found myself genuinely happy at my friend's success. He managed to overcome the economic and social disadvantages to open his own business.

We spent time catching up over fried chicken.

At some point Lionel asked me about the AI I was working on, I grimaced as I told him that it was a successful project, and I had a really nice hologram AI waifu… but she's in an isolated server as a punishment for using some of my other holodeck servers to make a hentai doujin gangbang simulation while I was out.

We slurped our drinks awkwardly for two minutes before we resumed talking.

Lionel and Alessio were still studying in Seidoukan Academy, they also mentioned something about starting a reading club with some people using the books I gifted them. Lionel was also doing some extra work for the Materials Department in order to get more experience while Alessio joined the newspaper club.

"Newspaper club? So what, you go around doing tabloids now?"

"Well yes, and no. We do a lot of interviews and journalist types of work." Alessio, not so discreetly, took a napkin from the table.

Then he took out the pen I gave him as a gift from his coat. He exchanged glances with Ben and Lionel, in response, the both of them started to keep an eye on the other restaurant patrons.

"It is a… very time consuming, a lot of dedication is needed." He continued to speak even as he drew a colored black star with some shadow lines following it. "I don't get much sleep nowadays."

Shadowstar. He was working for the Intelligence Division of Seidoukan Academy.

"Alessio, what have I said about the importance of sleep? Don't worry, I brought some sleep supplements with me, you just take double the dosage and you'll get more rest in less hours immediately. You can't keep this up though, I don't think it's good for your long term health."

Don't put yourself at risk for no good reason. It's dangerous getting involved with the mega-corps this directly, even if it's just through the school.

"I know, I know. I am just giving it a try, the club president was just… very pushy."

So he was scouted out? Now that's more difficult...

"I see. I guess the next time we meet you're going to complain all about your new club president to your old one eh?"

"Hahaha. Yes, and this time, I am old enough to drink! Ah, but you're not, so we better keep the party quiet okay?"

"Yeah, definitely."

To no one's surprise, our rooms are bugged.

Alessio passed the napkin he drew on to Ben, who crumpled it and went to the kitchen to get rid of it for good.

We said our goodbyes after chatting for a bit longer.

Man… I came here to get a MC to lure out the main villains since I thought it would be the safest way to do things, but it looks like my high-school battle academy life is going to get more complicated, as expected.

I was stuffed with good old fashion chicken by the time I returned to my dorm rooms.

Once I've set up a few AI powered devices to spoof the monitoring device feeds, I took a nice quick shower before turning in for the night. At least, that's how it would look like.

I crawled around a bit until there was enough space to form a puppet body, that looked like a duplicate of me, underneath my body and the blanket. Then I teleported out of there into my laboratory on Terra Omega.

The upgrades on my newest [Ultraman Bemular (Netflix) ver.] unmanned armor had just been completed. I have at least one of these babies doing vigilante work around Terra Omega in my place while I wasn't in this world.

I occasionally set this armor loose to make some ominous appearances on the post-Invertia world too, especially during school hours just to give myself an alibi if they ever cross-checked the sightings in the future.

"Well then, let's get this over with."

The food delivery program I made recommended to me the next areas that I needed to provide food to. I would usually provide food for a household, typically baskets of bread, a particularly dried type of super-fish (that a villain tried to feed me to once…) and drinking water, that will last them for weeks.

It was the least I could do for the people suffering under the yoke of the tyrannical, greedy mega-corps, whose purpose has degenerated to only the continuity of business for the sake of profit. A pathetic and sad excuse for an existence that only serves itself.

"Okay. So this time I have to do Sydney, yet another weird anime-only European monarchy and a village in China." Creating a replica of one of my Ultraman suits, I uploaded the information to the suit's system which then started to list down the coordinates and addresses of the households I needed to visit.

I opened a World Portal, and after a few tries, I got it as close to the first address as I could.

I began the Teleport and Replication spamming fiesta.

Under the rule of the integrated enterprise foundations, the system necessitated trapping a certain number of people in poverty. This was not an uncommon story. Yet it is these everyday stories that stirred my heart with compassion.

It only took me less than a tenth of a second to feed one household for weeks. Sometimes a bit longer if there isn't enough space in the tiny slum homes and I had to improvise the amount.

I knew I wouldn't be saving the entire world this way, but at the very least, I had done a small part in helping these people survive and save a bit of money to try escape the worst of the poverty traps.

After that, I began setting off to work and train for a few hours, then went off to get 4 hours of sleep to finish off my day.

The moment I returned to my bed was the moment I sneezed again.

Damnit. I don't know who keeps talking or thinking about me during my sleep-hours but goddamn if they couldn't pick a worse time to do so.

It would be much more convenient if they did it in the afternoon, at least there would be less risk of having my sleep disrupted.

There was a much larger hullabaloo over yesterday's fight this morning.

I had Lionel and Alessio to thank for evacuating me during lunch hours and for a few minutes after school. They left soon after as they had their internship and "club activities" respectively, so I had to fend for myself after that.

There were loads of challenges sent at me since most believed I would be their easiest way to a Page One (top 12 fighters) rank, of course, I declined all of them since it was my right to do so.

Not that I couldn't kick their asses, but I would simply rather not have to pull out a new trick from my box every time I face a Dante/Strega with special abilities.

It's better to just wait for the Official matches to put on a huge show where I would control the fight to such an extent that no one would bother challenging me again.

Hmm, come to think of it, that's kinda like what the situation is with Claudia Enfield, who is ranked 2nd in the entire school.

"Oh my, why if it isn't the Black Balls Man!" A girl's voice rang out along with friendly laughter just as I thought I found a shortcut back to my dorms.

"Of all the nicknames why did that one have to stick so strongly?" I groused and complained in a low tone before offering a friendly smile on my face.

"Hello there, how can I help you? If this is a challenge then I will have to decline, I didn't really get much sleep last night."

Not that I couldn't solve that by just flushing my body and infusing it with my potent mana if I needed to… but it was as good an excuse as any.

I ended up meeting the Student Council President.

"Good afternoon Mr. Meyer."

"Afternoon Miss. Enfield."

She was a beautiful, slender girl with blinding platinum-blond hair. There was a sense of calm, or rather, serenity with the way she spoke.

I admired her for that, at least.

The way she could keep herself in control despite being exhausted from a lack of sleep and overwork.

I can recognize someone that didn't get enough sleep any day.

"So you did recognize me! Claudia Enfield, president of the Seidoukan Academy Student Council. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

She gently proffered her hand, and I calmly shook it

"Lucas Meyer, former president of my school's Pre-Invertia history club. Pleasure to meet you too. Just for the record, I only added the title because you did and I thought it was an Asterisk thing. So correct me if I'm wrong."

"Oh no, it is perfectly acceptable and will make an interesting first impression if nothing else."

She didn't say anything more for a while and I got the feeling she wanted me to ask her what this was about. Well, I wasn't going to let her have her way that easy.

"I didn't think you had the time to come all the way to say hello, or, well, just hang around in this part of the school. Not that I expected everyone who's anyone to say "hi" to me since that will mean I've gotten a big head just from having a lucky win."

If nothing else she seemed amused by my response.

"A lucky win? I've heard some people call it that… but the general consensus is that you were in control of every stage of the fight."

"Well I suppose that's true… from a certain point of view."

"A certain point of view?"

Feeling a bit cheeky, I took a step back and began a little dance number.

"Prez I know you think you can't trust me~ That I'm a liar you shouldn't believe~ " Holding the note I quickly got on one knee and continued, "But please know that it's all true~ From a certain point of view~"

One of the perks of being a side-character with OP powers is that I've learnt to have loads of audacity and embrace the fun sides of life. Just as I behaved back during club hours I was more than brave enough to meme and make references that no one else in this world would understand when I got the chance.

Claudia stared and stared… then burst out in soft laughter, covering her mouth like one of those ojou-types.

"Y-you're not how the rumors say you're like at all!"

"I haven't even taken a look at them and I bet at least half of them are fake news."

"Oh, haha, that's certainly true. I've heard of some outrageous ones during my time here."

"From one president to another, even if we're on totally different levels, we should definitely share our experiences over some tea and scones. Ah, leave the baking to me, I'm quite decent at cooking myself."

"Yes, maybe we should."

"By the way, here."

"This is…?"

"Sleep supplements. I can tell an insomniac when I see one, I have trouble sleeping myself. It won't help you sleep easier but it will get you more rest for fewer hours by getting you into the REM stage of sleep quicker. Ah, since you're a Genestella, you might need to double, triple or quadruple the dosage."

"Why… that's perceptive of you. And… thoughtful too." This was the second time she seemed genuinely surprised. "I think I've seen this brand before. Ah, but it's a different company's products, the IEF backing us might have a fit~"

"Sorry."

"I'm kidding. Oh yes, I was having so much fun I nearly forgot to tell you something important… The scholarship students at our school have several special privileges beyond exemptions in tuition and various fees. One of those is priority in the use of an Orga Lux."

"Ah… those…"

"Yes. Why don't we discuss this further in my office?"

I got the feeling that wasn't the only thing she wanted to discuss in a more private setting.

"Huh? Sure, but, couldn't we talk now?"

"No. This demands a degree of secrecy. They say the walls have ears and the doors have eyes and there is hardly any of that out here..." Claudia went on, as if she'd read my mind. "This place is a maelstrom of schemes and trickery. It's not as safe as you might think."

"Great. King's Landing 2: Electric Bongaloo, the anime adaptation."

"...?"

Her perplexed expression was quite cute.

On Official Matches, FYI

Official matches were selective examinations held once a month by the school. Because the consent of both parties was necessary to duel, one could decline indefinitely. To prevent high-ranking students from using that as a loophole to keep their position, they were required to fight at least once a month. As a rule, in an official match, a high-ranking student did not have the right to decline a challenge from a lower-ranked student.

For the monthly standoffs, students were separated into three tiers. The first tier consisted of the highest ranks, otherwise known as Page One; the second of lower-ranked fighters, dubbed the Named Cult; and at the bottom of the heap were the unranked—the "unlisted."

Although a ranked combatant was not permitted to refuse a challenge from a lower-ranked one, fighters could only challenge up to one tier above. In other words, to challenge a Page One, being in the Named Cult was a prerequisite. The only way for an unlisted to leap to Page One was by winning in an ordinary duel.