22. The World's Foremost Tea Ceremony Tournament

Investment, as the name suggests, is the process of converting currency into capital with the aim of achieving sustained and stable returns. It is a true test of an individual’s insight and judgment.

However, in the current economic downturn, while the investment industry may not be suffering from the kind of explosive collapse seen when a bubble bursts, nine out of ten investments still result in losses. Furthermore, the investment capital provided by this first phase of the reward is not actually very large.

One hundred million yen.

It certainly sounds intimidating. Yet, converted into Chinese yuan, it is only five million. In Tokyo, where land is worth its weight in gold, if one truly wants to invest in a large-scale joint-stock company, this amount of money would be looked down upon. Therefore, it can only serve as seed funding, similar to an angel investor. Besides, the moment this investment reward appeared, Haruno Tsukasa had already thought of a way to combine it with his grand plan for the "Gold-Digging Miss."

[Investment Stage Card: Limited to commercial investments, manifested in the corporate account of a joint-stock company. If misappropriated for private use, the funds cannot be applied to the entity itself through any channel.]
[Phase One Quota: 100 million yen]
[Please explore the completion criteria for this phase and how to trigger the disbursement of the next phase of investment funding on your own.]

A pale red light screen appeared before his eyes.

Haruno Tsukasa rubbed his temples, his mind relaxing slightly as he made the screen fade away. He paced over to the desk in his bedroom, sat down, and pulled out paper and pen to sketch out his thoughts.

"Investment is not the purpose of spending this money."
"This money should be used to satisfy malicious desires."
"It’s just that limiting the scope to smaller amounts that can satisfy these desires while also trying not to lose money is quite difficult."

It would be best not to lose money.
Even better if he could make a profit.
After all, this achievement reward was clearly labeled as a phased reward card. How to obtain the next phase of funding depended entirely on his own exploration, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that the second phase would surely provide more money.

This effectively put an end to Haruno Tsukasa’s idea of casually throwing money at gold-diggers to open shops just to satisfy their greed. After all, for many seasoned gold-diggers, getting a chance to "come ashore" from the sea of nightlife is an opportunity they crave. This is why so many young women open bubble tea shops, nail salons, or small beauty parlors—accumulating capital for a few years allows them to successfully wash their reputations clean.

Of course, not everyone is like that.
But for Haruno Tsukasa, besides that demographic, he had better options.
For example, female university students.
This was the demographic he had anchored onto.

This brings to mind the education system that has been rising in Japan since the Meiji Restoration. Because Japanese students receive a complete and systematic education from primary school through university, even those without talent can be cultivated into capable, independent individuals. Physical education here is taken seriously, with a level of emphasis almost on par with academic studies. The curriculum is comprehensive from an early age.

Not to mention that high school students can work part-time to earn money once they turn fifteen—not necessarily out of financial necessity, as most students do it to develop their skills. Those willing to start a business are generally a bit bright and have certainly drafted rigorous procedural plans.

One wouldn't say the success rate is incredibly high, but at least it won't be a case of nine out of ten failing. The original host’s attempt was just too reckless, which was a different matter entirely; one could tell at a glance it was destined for failure.

Moreover, in an atmosphere where the status of women in the Japanese workplace is extremely low, a female university student who chooses neither to marry and become a housewife nor to enter a company as an ordinary corporate drone clearly possesses ambition.

Ambition means she is easy to control.
Easy to control means fewer troubles.
And if she becomes hard to control, he can cut his losses in time.

As for why Haruno Tsukasa didn't think a woman with obvious ambition like Kurosaki Shizuki was easy to control?
Forget it.
With her thirty years of life experience and master-level tea ceremony skills, she was not someone to be trifled with. Rather than playing mind games with her, it was better to invest in a few less devious female college students.

Everything has a point of diminishing returns.
One must still pick the softest persimmon to squeeze.
Why suffer needlessly when you can steamroll through?
Furthermore, judging by the designer bag Kurosaki Shizuki was carrying yesterday and her clearly expensive clothing, 100 million yen likely wouldn't truly impress her. Adding another zero might be the only way to overwhelm her. Being best friends with Saika Suzumiya, she was either on a similar level or slightly above or below—in any case, she was not at the level of a common corporate employee.

Moreover, Kurosaki Shizuki is a doctor. As a notoriously high-paying profession in Japan, someone who has passed the professional medical certification can easily earn an annual salary exceeding 15 million yen; she certainly doesn't lack small change.

Starting out this hard completely defeated the original purpose of Haruno Tsukasa’s "Grand Plan for the Gold-Digging Miss."

Finding the right candidates was a difficult task.
Someone with both the ambition to start a business and the "bad girl" attributes of being a gold-digger—how to find a group and filter out those most suitable for him wasn't simple. It made him ponder for a long time.

After searching for information on his phone for half an hour and studying a map of Tokyo for another ten minutes, he finally set his sights on a location in Bunkyo Ward, the educational heart of Tokyo.

"Ochanomizu..."
Haruno Tsukasa whispered to himself.
His eyes grew brighter.

Ochanomizu, aside from being famous for the Ochanomizu Station—a site for "sacred pilgrimages"—and religious facilities like the Yushima Seido, is the area with the highest density of schools within the educational hub of Bunkyo Ward. For example, Meiji University and Juntendo University are located there.

But the moment he saw this place, what Haruno Tsukasa thought of was Ochanomizu University.
As a leader among Japan’s national comprehensive women’s universities, even with rumors about it being the "backyard of Tokyo University," one cannot deny the school's excellence. At least there were plenty of female students.

And the fact that it had a poor reputation—wasn't that exactly what he wanted?
One must know that anywhere women gather in large numbers, ripples will form, even in the calmest of places. In Ochanomizu University, rumored to be a hotbed for tea ceremony masters and gold-diggers, finding a "good girl" might not be as hard as the rumors say, but to find a "bad girl," one wouldn't even need to open their eyes.

Just looking at the number of elaborately dressed and intellectually pretentious female students he had scrolled past on social forums, Haruno Tsukasa even suspected there were enough "tea masters" in that school to host a "World's Greatest Tea Ceremony Tournament."

Even if it weren't that extreme, there would certainly be no shortage of potential "evil women."
This was simply his dream school!

Having settled on his target group, the path forward became as clear as clouds parting. Haruno Tsukasa never fought a battle unprepared. Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. Losing isn't the scary part; the scary part is having no prior planning and no post-mortem summary, and then tripping in the same place multiple times. Especially in interpersonal relationships, sometimes a tiny detail is all it takes to fall short of success.

For example, how much money should be spent, and when should it be spent? Or, if necessary, when to offer one's own purity—how to make a "bad girl" submissive?

He wrote it all down, point by point.
There might be omissions, and there might be problems.
But if he didn't plan with pen and paper and relied only on his brain to adapt on the fly, the mistakes would only multiply.

This wasn't just about conquering "evil women."
This was about building a career!

Haruno Tsukasa wrote and sketched for a long time. The sparrows on the utility poles had flown away, the cloudless sky grew brighter, and the temperature gradually climbed.

After an unknown amount of time, the phone resting beside him rang, interrupting his train of thought.
He tapped his pen twice, looked at the full page of content he had written, let out a long breath, and capped the pen. Only then did he pick up the still-ringing phone and glance at it, his expression turning surprised.

The memories in his mind churned, quickly bringing up everything about this person, and he answered the call.

"Haruno, why did it take so long to pick up?"
"I was writing something just now."
"Almost forgot it's Monday today. Are you at the ward office? If you're busy, should I call back later?"
"No need, I resigned."
"Resigned?" The man on the other end of the line was stunned for a moment, then exclaimed happily: "That's great! I told you that job wasn't worth it! Always getting bullied and not earning much salary. It's better to try applying to a big company!"

The person calling him was Komatsubara Shun, Haruno Tsukasa’s roommate during his time at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.

In his memory, this guy was thin and short, with dyed yellow hair. His looks were actually decent, but whether it was because he watched too many adult films, he always gave off a sleazy vibe. His aura was greasy, and his hobby was staring at girls with the eyes of a dung beetle looking at excrement; whenever he saw a pretty one, he looked like he wanted to pop his eyeballs out and glue them to her chest and legs.

Before he had even been at university for three days, he had added the contact information of every girl in the department, sent them affectionate morning and night greetings, and confessed his love to four or five girls simultaneously.

Logically, behavior like this should have landed Komatsubara Shun on the "campus wall of shame," making him a rat everyone shouted to beat. But in reality, even though his reputation was as foul as a decade-unwashed toilet within days of starting university, he had cycled through over a dozen girlfriends during his four years there—and he had "played" with all of them, regardless of their height or weight.

The reason was simple: he was rich.
As a Tokyo native, Komatsubara Shun’s family had been in the second-hand business since his grandfather’s generation. By the time his father’s generation took over, they had caught the wave of the bursting bubble economy, making a fortune while everyone else was lining up on rooftops, weeping and taking "leaps of faith."

As everyone knows, when the economy is in a downturn, the "lipstick effect" begins to rise, and second-hand shops thrive accordingly.

Second-hand shops are actually just resale stores. The second-hand market might look inconspicuous, but after the bubble burst and people were financially strained, highly cost-effective second-hand goods entered many people’s field of vision. It was this "bargain-hunting" mentality that made the second-hand market explode.

As far as Haruno Tsukasa knew, Komatsubara Shun hadn't worked since graduation, proudly becoming a NEET, with his daily tasks consisting of eating, drinking, and having fun. But he certainly had the capital for it. And he was actually good to him. In Haruno Tsukasa’s memory, the original host had even borrowed 2 million yen from Komatsubara Shun during his startup period.

Of course, the original host had paid it back later.
After all, in this era, in a sense, money between average friends is more important than feelings, and friends willing to lend money are a rare species.

Haruno Tsukasa had a decent impression of Komatsubara Shun. His thoughts returned to the present, and he replied, "Anyway, I probably won't be looking for a job anytime soon. I plan to take a break for a while."

"Even better! I called you to ask you to come out and have some fun. How about it? Do you want to join that 'couple party' I mentioned to you last time?" Komatsu laughed on the other end and asked mysteriously.

Hearing him suddenly bring up the party, Haruno Tsukasa’s heart stirred, and he asked, "When is it being held?"

This wasn't the first time Komatsubara Shun had called him.
Less than a week after he first arrived in this world, Komatsubara Shun had called, inviting him to attend this so-called "couple party." But because he had just arrived and hadn't sorted out the original host’s interpersonal relationships, plus the unfamiliarity with his surroundings had made Haruno Tsukasa uncomfortable, he had politely declined at the time.

However, now...
Haruno Tsukasa felt he could participate.
A "couple party."
It was essentially a singles mixer. Such parties were usually alcohol-fueled, with an equal number of men and women, playing drinking games like "King's Game," suitable for relaxing.

However, based on the current situation, it was unclear whether these "tipsy parties" were truly just for relaxing, but judging by the frequency with which Komatsubara Shun—a guy who lets his little head control his big head—attended them, it probably wasn't just about relaxing the mind; it likely involved relaxing the body as well.

As for the women attending such events, even if Haruno Tsukasa used his toes to think, he knew they wouldn't be "good birds."
Perhaps there would be unexpected gains.
Even if there weren't, wasn't this a way to enjoy life?
The purpose of making money wasn't to stare at a bunch of cold numbers in a bank account, but to use those numbers to explore things he was interested in, to go to places he hadn't been, and to experience pleasures he had never dared to imagine.

"There's one in the next two days," Komatsubara Shun said after a moment of silence, seemingly checking his schedule.
"In the next two days? Don't people work?" Haruno Tsukasa asked in surprise.

Komatsubara Shun clicked his tongue, his tone somewhat speechless as he said, "The people who play this usually aren't ordinary office workers; they're mostly college students or NEETs."
"I almost forgot..."
"White-collar parties are usually on the weekends."
"That doesn't matter to me."
"That's fine. I'll let you know when there's an event. It's been a while, we should have a couple of drinks..."

The two chatted a bit more, mostly gossip about old university classmates, with Komatsubara Shun talking and Haruno Tsukasa listening. After all, the former was not only a sex-starved ghost but also the most famous gossip-monger at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology—a real "long-tongued" gossip.

However, by the end, the conversation inevitably circled back to women. One moment he was lamenting about one, and the next he was leering about another, looking exactly like a villain from a hentai series.

Hanging up the phone, Haruno Tsukasa moved the device away from his left ear, finally relieved from the guy's nagging.

But just as he hung up...
Another call came in.
The reason for this was simply that Haruno Tsukasa had been on the line with Komatsubara Shun for so long that the other call hadn't been able to get through.

Just when Haruno Tsukasa thought it might be a telemarketer or Saika Suzumiya, the name of the contact displayed on the screen made him pause for a moment, though he immediately felt it was quite normal.

"Auntie Shimizu..."