As soon as he arrived at the playground the next day, Tamazawa Shuxin was surrounded by five people. Although they hadn't fully accepted each other yet, they tacitly formed a circle around him.
"What on earth do you guys want?" Tamazawa Shuxin sighed helplessly.
"Tamazawa, don't be so exclusive! We're in the same class, we're a team!" Seeing the mischievous expressions on Furuya Rei and Matsuda Jinpei's faces, Tamazawa Shuxin retorted, "Squad Leader, do you think I can believe that? Besides, I consider myself a model student in the instructor's eyes, so would you please step aside?"
Before he could even finish, Furuya Rei cut in, "Oh, really? Then what was Tamazawa doing coming back in the middle of the night?"
Tamazawa Shuxin remained silent, but Morofushi Hiromitsu smiled to smooth things over. "Alright, Zero, Tamazawa, we're just curious."
Hagiwara Kenji chimed in from the side as well, "Yeah, Little Matsuda said that the other night you pinned Little Furuya and Little Matsuda down and beat them!"
"Hagiwara Kenji, that was just me underestimating my opponents slightly. Let's go again, a fair fight, and I will definitely win."
Tamazawa Shuxin immediately regretted it. He shouldn't have made a move—forbearance brings peace. "So what do you guys actually want? Are you asking me to join you, or picking a fight?"
"In the upcoming shooting practice, I want to compete with you!"
"I want to challenge you to hand-to-hand combat!" Furuya Rei and Matsuda Jinpei issued their challenges in unison.
"Fine. If you win, stop bothering me. If I lose, I'll submit to whatever you want!"
At the shooting range, Onizuka Hachizo was explaining the origins of the Sakura service pistols. Meanwhile, the sound of gunfire echoed continuously as targets were hit. Tamazawa Shuxin was stationed right next to Furuya Rei.
"Even though Furuya-kun initiated this challenge, I'll start shooting first!"
"Of course, please go ahead!"
Tamazawa Shuxin raised his arm, aligning his body horizontally. *Bang, bang, bang*—twenty rounds, all hitting the bullseye. Even Onizuka Hachizo was drawn over. "Aside from one of your seniors who got a perfect score on his very first try, another genius has actually appeared!"
Tamazawa Shuxin ignored Onizuka's words, instead looking at Furuya Rei with a mix of anticipation and a mocking glint in his eyes. "Furuya-kun, you're up!"
Furuya Rei instinctively clenched his fists. He didn't have absolute confidence he could hit every target, but he refused to admit defeat. "Tamazawa, the duel isn't over yet!"
Furuya Rei raised his gun. *Bang, bang, bang*—nineteen rounds in the bullseye, one in the eight-ring. He had lost. Just as he was about to concede defeat, Onizuka Hachizo's angry roar echoed from nearby. "Matsuda! Assemble that right now!"
Tamazawa Shuxin and Furuya Rei exchanged a glance and walked over to where Matsuda Jinpei was. Date Wataru and Hagiwara Kenji were already there watching the show.
"Ah, this guy's old habit is acting up again!" Hagiwara Kenji sighed helplessly.
Furuya Rei asked with curiosity, "Acting up again?"
Hagiwara Kenji turned around and explained what Matsuda had done in the past. Just as he finished his explanation, Onizuka's voice boomed out. "Shooting training is over, it's over! Everyone return your equipment, and Matsuda, you stay right where you are!"
Onizuka's shout echoed through the entire shooting range. Everyone except Matsuda Jinpei stood in line. Standing in the formation, Tamazawa Shuxin noticed that someone's expression looked a bit unnatural; especially upon hearing that a bullet was missing, that person subconsciously flinched. Concealing ammunition privately was no small matter. Tamazawa Shuxin was just about to report it when, unexpectedly, Onizuka directed his suspicions straight at Matsuda Jinpei.
"Instructor Onizuka, police officers need evidence. Besides, Matsuda Jinpei didn't even have the time to do it. He's already conspicuous enough; if he were to hide ammunition on top of that, wouldn't it just make him an obvious target for suspicion? Clearly, someone just used him as a scapegoat, and the one who hid the bullet is someone else," Tamazawa Shuxin shouted loudly.
"Tamazawa, you brat!" Just as Onizuka was about to blow his top, Date Wataru stepped in to smooth things over. Right on cue, a worker came looking for Onizuka to confirm the roof repairs.
"Listen up, make him hand over the bullet obediently."
"Yes!" Taking the opportunity, Tamazawa Shuxin slipped out of the formation. *Tsk, even though I know who took the bullet, I can't search them directly without evidence. What a pain.*
Tamazawa Shuxin walked over to Matsuda Jinpei. "I can tell you, but only after I beat you!"
*Crash!* A worker fell from the roof. To prevent a disaster, Onizuka leaped forward, but unexpectedly got his neck tangled in a rope and was on the verge of asphyxiating. Someone shrieked in panic.
"Can people with this kind of competence really become police officers? Besides, normal high-altitude work requires a safety harness. And now Instructor Onizuka gets his neck tangled in a rope—low-probability events like this happening around here almost feel normal in a world ruled by Conan-logic. Looks like the fastest way out is to find that missing bullet after all!" Tamazawa Shuxin scratched his head. Besides, he figured there was no need for him to intervene; after all, those five guys wouldn't just sit on their hands.
He wandered off on his own to the second floor and walked up to another worker. "Hey, this was your working error, right? But it's fine, you're about to be rescued by these five aspiring police officers. Still, as a bystander, I want to do something for the five of them, and that is..."
Assembly, loading, firing, catching—their seamless cooperation brought the matter to a successful close.
Up on the rooftop that night, Tamazawa Shuxin, who had spent the entire afternoon rushing through an anonymous commendation letter, yawned as he looked at the freshly grilled yakitori in front of him. Then, he heard voices from the other side.
"Normally, using firearms without authorization would only get us out of disciplinary action thanks to Instructor Onizuka pleading on our behalf. But because of the workers' praise and multiple anonymous commendations, the academy is actually going to award us!"
Furuya Rei's calm voice rang out. Tamazawa Shuxin wondered if his luck was just plain terrible. Listening to the two of them grow increasingly open with each other, he decided he shouldn't interrupt. But then he heard Matsuda Jinpei say, "Next up, I'm going to give that Tamazawa a thorough beating, and Zero, you lost this time too!"
Tamazawa Shuxin hadn't expected Matsuda Jinpei to still remember that. He immediately stepped out from the shadows.
"I'm asking you, is this matter really that important? Can't you guys just let me off?"
Matsuda Jinpei and Furuya Rei were startled. They hadn't expected Tamazawa Shuxin to be up on the rooftop as well. "Why is Tamazawa here?"
Tamazawa Shuxin clicked his tongue and pulled out the yakitori and beer. "Forget it, are you guys eating or not? If not, and since you're pretty much done chatting anyway, I think you can hand the rooftop over to me now."
"Tamazawa! You were actually eavesdropping on us! Come on, duel with me right now!"
"Matsuda, calm down. I don't think this is a good time for a duel, and besides, maybe this commendation was thanks to Tamazawa helping out."
Hearing Furuya Rei say that, Tamazawa Shuxin retorted, "You heard Instructor Onizuka chewing me out!"
Furuya Rei leaned against the wall, looking at Tamazawa Shuxin with an expression that said he knew everything. "I just happened to pass by and heard Instructor Onizuka saying that Tamazawa submitted a formal appeal opposing the academy's rigid rules and regulations."
Tamazawa Shuxin massaged his forehead. Even that got overheard; his luck really was rock bottom. "Seriously, I just couldn't bear to see someone who deserved credit treated unfairly because of some rotting system, don't read too much into it!"
"I never expected you to have a sense of justice, Tamazawa!" A visible vein popped on Tamazawa Shuxin's forehead.
"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? It was clearly a problem caused by an outdated system, yet they expected individuals to take the fall for it. Isn't that just shoving others to the front lines while hiding in a tortoise shell? The fault lies entirely with those people at the top—sooner or later, I'm going to beat them up!"
At that moment, Furuya Rei felt that if Matsuda Jinpei and Tamazawa Shuxin ever teamed up to beat up the higher-ups in the police force, he would find it completely normal.
As soon as he finished speaking, Tamazawa Shuxin realized how inappropriate those words sounded. Yet, they hit dangerously close to home for the two guys opposite him. "Ahem, enough talking. My midnight snack is getting cold. Are you guys going to eat or not?"
After that, the three of them drank beer and ate yakitori together, and Tamazawa Shuxin's tolerance for the pair unconsciously rose quite a bit.
Back in his dorm room, Tamazawa Shuxin opened the gacha panel. So far, he had only done twenty pulls, and his merit points were still left over. Meanwhile, both the manga and forum sections remained inaccessible, leaving only the 2D fanfic web portal open. Curious, Tamazawa Shuxin clicked inside.
*[{Gin/Glenlivet | Workaholic Lone Wolf MMD}]*
*[{Glenlivet / The Blade's Thousand-Layer Schemes}]*
*[{Police Academy Six-Piece Suite / Echoes of Glory}]*
*[{Vodka/Gin? No, Gin/Gin / Danger Signal}]*
*[{Glenlivet / Abyss Trap}]*
*...*
Tamazawa Shuxin looked at the options above. "Glenlivet? This is a code name that never appeared in the original work! And the Police Academy Six-Piece Suite? Looks like I still couldn't hold back!"
Wanting to find out who Glenlivet was, he clicked on *The Thousand-Layer Schemes*. And right there on the screen was his own face—the exact same face he'd had in his past life!
*I'm just a bottle of wine in the Organization, a true believer surrounded by undercover agents!*
*Competing with Gin on performance quotas every day, definitely the Boss's sharpest blade!*
*Hunting down undercover rats to expand the Organization is paramount, and infiltrating the Red faction is a must...*
After reading through it, Tamazawa Shuxin found it completely impossible to look at that face straight. "Ahhhh! Why?! I'm clearly right here, what's going on with this face?! And the shipping pairings? This isn't real! It's not real!"
Unreconciled, Tamazawa Shuxin clicked into another solo video, but eventually resigned himself to his fate. That was indeed his face, the appearance he wore in his previous life.
"No way, what on earth is going on here? It couldn't possibly be my alternate identity avatar, could it? How could I possibly have such a weird sense of humor? No way, I need to do a gacha pull to calm down!"
Tamazawa Shuxin opened the banner. To cheer himself up, he directly rolled on the beginner banner. A guaranteed rainbow glow appeared at the sixtieth pull: *{UR Card [Glenlivet]}* materialized before Tamazawa Shuxin's eyes.
A speechles silence, heavy as Louis XVI's guillotine. Before the blade drops, it's sheer agony; once it falls, there is a strange sense of settling closure. "This must be destiny! Let me see what this is all about!" Tamazawa Shuxin clicked into the character card panel.
*Glenlivet*
*Name: Unlocked*
*Abilities: Combat S-Rank, Hacking A-Rank, Firearms A-Rank, Disguise A-Rank*
*Tags: Arrogant, Lone Wolf, Sharp Blade*
*Status: Direct Subordinate to the Boss*
Tamazawa Shuxin looked at the card depicting his past self with jet-black hair, brown eyes, and sword-like brows. The name remained locked, shrouded in a mist that bluntly warned of the immense danger lurking within. Without a moment's hesitation, he chose to convert it directly. He wanted to see with his own eyes just what was going on here!