Morning light spilled through the curtains, cutting soft golden lines across the floor of Mineta's room. He stirred, then sat up with practiced ease—no more sleeping in, no more lazy mornings.
His alarm hadn't gone off yet, but the System had already greeted him with a soft pulse of light in his peripheral vision.
[Ultimate Training System] Good Morning, User. Daily Bonus: +5% Training Efficiency (Streak: 3 Days)
Mineta stretched, cracked his neck, and rose to his feet. No groaning, no complaints. Today was for growth, and he wasn't wasting a second of it.
He moved to the mirror first, brushing his teeth with intense focus. The System buzzed again:
[Charm Training Mode: ACTIVE]Technique: Confidence Posture Practice – Morning Routine[Charm +0.1]
He smirked slightly, holding his posture, shoulders relaxed, chin raised—not arrogant, just composed. Confidence was a skill, and he was learning to train it just like strength or strategy.
After washing up, he selected his outfit carefully. Nothing loud, just a crisp, clean set of clothes that actually fit well. He'd studied posture videos the night before, mimicking confident stances and practicing subtle expressions that conveyed charisma instead of creepiness.
He struck a pose in front of the mirror—not to admire himself, but to log progress.
[Ultimate Training System] Charm Proficiency: +0.2%Mirror Presence Practice: Completed (3/10)
That done, he moved on to the real work.
Training Block 1: Sticky Arts Development – 30 minutes
Mineta had arranged a small obstacle course in his backyard using broom handles, lawn chairs, and wooden boards. With a small satchel of pre-harvested sticky balls clipped to his belt, he launched into drills.
Toss. Connect. Pull. Move.
He moved like a machine, attaching balls to surfaces and swinging between them using attached cords. The System tracked each motion with ruthless precision.
[Swing Training I: +1.1%][Basic Manipulation: +0.5%][Quirk Proficiency: +0.4%]
One failed swing almost landed him face-first in the dirt, but he adjusted his grip, using a nearby tree to stabilize himself.
"Recover, adapt, try again," he muttered, repeating the mantra he'd written in his notebook.
He ended the set by flattening balls to create adhesive patches, then tested their strength by pulling attached objects of varying weight.
[Sticky Arts Tree: +0.6%]
Training Block 2: Tactical Thinking – 20 minutes
Back in his room, Mineta knelt on the floor surrounded by sketches and diagrams. He rewatched yesterday's footage of the slime villain incident, pausing at key frames to analyze angles, line-of-sight, and potential countermeasures.
He scribbled possible adaptations:
Use decoy balls to distract slime mass
Conceal adhesive nets in narrow corridors
Employ two-stage traps: one to bind, another to extract
The System chimed:
[Tactical Tree – Basic Strategy: +1.1%][Strategic Thinking: +0.6%][Intelligence: +0.2]
Then came the new addition to his routine.
Training Block 3: Charm Training – 20 minutes
Mineta took a seat at his desk, but instead of studying strategy, he pulled out a small book titled "Presence: How to Win People Without Saying a Word."
He practiced facial expressions in the mirror—subtle smiles, neutral yet confident gazes, gentle blinks instead of wide-eyed stares. It wasn't about trying to "look cool"; it was about learning social intelligence.
Then he moved to voice training, reading aloud from a random news article with different tones: calm, assertive, playful. He recorded himself, played it back, cringed slightly, then tried again.
[Charm Proficiency: +0.5%][Charm: +0.2]
He made a note in his journal: Try light jokes tomorrow. No creepy stuff. Keep it smooth.
The System responded instantly.
[Ultimate Training System] New Subskill Detected: Social Awareness I – 0.4%
Training Block 4: Strength & Endurance – 10 minutes
His body was still small, and muscle mass would take time, but that didn't stop him. He knocked out a round of push-ups, planks, and jump squats, focusing on perfect form.
His arms shook, but he finished the set.
[Strength: +0.1 | Endurance: +0.1]
Breathing hard, he lay on his back for a moment, letting sweat roll down his face. The System waited patiently.
By noon, Mineta had taken a shower and dressed again, this time slipping into something a bit nicer before heading to the park. He had planned another practical field test for his sticky ball trap variants, but he also noticed something new.
As he walked through the park, posture straight, movements composed, people looked at him a little differently.
Less like a joke. More like a presence.
A woman jogging with her dog nodded at him politely. A group of kids playing soccer gave him space instead of mocking him. A few older teens barely glanced his way—and that was exactly what he wanted.
Unremarkable enough to be ignored. Confident enough to not be dismissed.
He smiled to himself.
[Charm Proficiency: +0.3%][Hidden Stat Detected: Presence – 0.2%]
Back at the tree from yesterday, Mineta set up another climbing test. This time, he used the net launcher he'd cobbled together last night—essentially a slingshot device made from tubing and a bike handle.
He fired a sticky-net toward a tree trunk. It expanded slightly mid-air and latched on.
Then he tested swinging again—more fluid now, with cleaner transitions.
[Swing Training I: +2.0% (Total: 6.5%)]
He swung three times in succession, each landing smoother than the last. After the final one, he hit the ground, rolled, and pulled himself to his feet without pause.
The System flared to life again:
[Ultimate Training System] Tactical Tree – [Basic Strategy]: 10.1% ✅Special Notification: Hidden Path Unlocked – "The Tactician's Way"Perk: Passive Analysis (1%) – Gain minor insight during real-time decisions
Mineta froze. He opened the System panel and checked the stats.
[Ultimate Training System – Stats Panel]
Stats:Strength: 5.2 (+0.1)Agility: 5.4Dexterity: 6.4Endurance: 5.5 (+0.1)Intelligence: 9.3 (+0.2)Charm: 3.8 (+0.3)
🪄 Skills Panel:Quirk Proficiency: 8.8% (+0.9%)Strategic Thinking: 7.1% (+0.6%)Swing Training I: 6.5% (+3.1%)Basic Manipulation: 1.7% (+0.5%)Charm Proficiency: 1.0% (NEW)Social Awareness I: 0.4% (NEW)
🌲 Skill Tree Progress:🔗 Mobility Tree: [Basic Balance] → 21% | [Swing Training I] → 6.5%🧠 Tactical Tree: [Basic Strategy] → 10.1% ✅ (Hidden Path Unlocked!)🕷️ Sticky Arts Tree: [Basic Manipulation] → 1.7%✨ Charm Tree: [Social Presence] → 0.3%
🛠️ Suggested Training Plan (Tomorrow):
25 mins Sticky Arts (Mobility or Utility focus)
20 mins Tactical Review (Scenario-based strategy)
20 mins Charm Practice (Presence & Speech)
15 mins Physical Training (Strength + Endurance)
Est. Gains:+0.6% Quirk Proficiency+0.5% Swing Training+0.6% Strategic Thinking+0.4% Charm Proficiency+0.2 Strength | +0.1 Charm
That evening, Mineta stood in front of the mirror again. His hair was still purple, his height still unimpressive. But his expression… it was focused, even kind of cool.
He brushed his hair a little differently, just to experiment. Added a spritz of cologne he found on his dad's shelf. Not too much.
"You're still Mineta," he told himself. "But you're not the same one from before."
[Ultimate Training System] Character Growth Milestone: Multi-Path Development (Tactical + Charm)Reward: Next Training Efficiency Bonus Increased by 15%
As he climbed into bed, the System gave one final update:
"You've begun to reshape more than your fighting style.""You're reshaping perception—yours and theirs."
And for the first time in his life, Mineta didn't feel like pretending to be someone else to be accepted.
He was becoming someone worth accepting.
One swing, one sticky ball, one smirk at a time.