"Miku, I'm coming..."
When Souta arrived at the hospital room and saw a strange woman lying in the bed, he stopped mid-greeting.
The woman looked at Souta, who suddenly appeared, stunned at first, and then fell into a panic.
Before she could scream, Souta quickly approached her and concentrated divine power between his fingers, muttering softly:
"Look at my hand... it's swaying... it's swaying... you're very tired right now, you want to sleep... you're dreaming of a handsome man appearing in your room, he smiled at you... he's really handsome, but he's a man you can never have..."
Under divine hypnosis, the woman quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Souta let out a sigh of relief, then pulled out his system phone to check the time. "Huh? Over two months have passed? No wonder..."
The phone showed that it had been about two and a half months since he left the hospital.
Miku must have been discharged during that time.
After all, no one would wait in a hospital room for over two months.
Hospital stays cost money.
"Hopefully she didn't overthink it..."
Souta was a bit worried that Miku might think he tricked her, feel betrayed, and spiral emotionally again.
In the original story, her attitude toward humanity was extreme.
Men were worse than cockroaches in her eyes. Girls... were adorable toys.
She would interfere with others' wills using her voice without caring about the consequences.
She even caused spacequakes just to sing, driving people out of the city to make a stage for herself.
You could say she acted completely unrestrained.
"If she's not here, I'll collect faith first, then go find her."
Souta made up his mind.
He glanced at the woman on the bed, gently pulled the blanket over her, and teleported away.
Because he had enough divine power stored in the system shop for two or three uses, Souta didn't hold back during travel.
Relying on memory, he teleported to his destination in under a second.
Standing on the ground, Souta took a deep breath, savoring the rich scent of faith.
"Such dense faith..."
With a smile on his face, he made sure no one was around, then raised his hand.
Immediately, like rivers flowing, streams of faith power surged from underground toward his divine kingdom.
Planning to take it slow, he didn't retrieve the separated part of his divine kingdom, but only drew on the accumulated faith within.
Closing his eyes, Souta immersed his consciousness into his divine kingdom and saw everything glowing gold.
At the same time, the influx of faith washed over his divinity, raising its level.
Once all the faith was absorbed, Souta let out a satisfied hum.
Just as he expected, his divine rank rose to Level 5—the highest level of a demigod.
"My divine power capacity increased a lot..."
He used divine fire to burn away impurities and convert the faith into pure divine power.
To his surprise, even after exceeding his former capacity, the divine power didn't cap out.
It kept rising—up to five times the previous capacity—before the transformation started slowing.
"Not sure if the strength also increased?"
Looking at the soil and weeds around, Souta had an idea.
He drew a bit of divine power from the shop and concentrated it on his left index finger. Then he drew an equal amount from his divine kingdom and placed it on his right finger.
Using both to wish the weeds away, he observed the result.
The divine power from his kingdom was roughly twice as effective as that from the shop.
"Twice the power, huh..."
Looking at the cleared land, Souta calculated his strength boost.
Five times the capacity, double the strength... purely by numbers, he was now about ten times stronger than before.
Which meant, to break his divine shield now, an attack would need to destroy about one-sixth of the Japanese archipelago in one blow.
Realizing this, Souta smiled.
Takamiya Mio would have an even harder time dealing with him now.
Seeing the unused faith in his divine kingdom, he made a decision.
The divine power needed to nurture a "Authority" could be stockpiled in advance and stored in the system shop.
This portion of divine power couldn't be used—he had to save up enough to invest it all at once and successfully unlock a new "Authority."
"Hmm... why do I feel like a squirrel storing up for winter?"
After returning to Tengu City, Souta found a café, sat down, and used a laptop he created to connect to the shop's wifi and search online information.
The idol "Yoimachi Tsukino," who had "committed suicide," had completely disappeared from the public eye.
Replacing her was a revolutionary idol who had burst onto the scene like a comet—Izayoi Miku.
This idol never revealed her true appearance. Her performances included only scheduled CD releases and exclusive secret concerts attended by select female fans.
Even though she was now Japan's most famous celebrity, very few had actually seen her in person, leading some to doubt if she was even real.
She was like an idol who lived in a dream.
"To achieve this in just over two months... she must've been recklessly using her spirit powers..."
Souta sighed inwardly.
What he feared had happened.
Miku was heading down a path toward the same extreme personality as in the original story.
As her friend, Souta didn't want to see her become like that—isolated, trapped in her own world.
With that in mind, he used some divine power to obtain Miku's private contact info.
Then, with divine power, he created a phone card, connected it to this world's communication system, and called her. After five rings, the call was picked up:
"Hello? I don't know how you got my private number. Let me be clear—I don't want to be harassed. This is both advice and a warning. Got it? Goodbye."
"..." Souta smiled wryly and quickly spoke before she hung up: "It's me, Souta."
There was a ten-second silence before she responded:
"Wait...! Souta!? You... you're back?"
"Sorry for making you wait. I ran into something that delayed me."
After a brief explanation, Souta added:
"Do you still remember our promise? If you still want to meet, I'm at a café waiting."
He gave her the address.
"Wait for me. I'll be right there."
Miku's voice was hurried and didn't hesitate at all.
Since the call was still on, Souta heard other voices on her end:
"Wait! The autograph event is about to start—where are you going, Miku? The fans are outside waiting... Hey! Stop! Don't run!"
That must've been Miku's manager... hopefully she doesn't hate him for this.
Souta set the phone down and continued browsing.
On the screen were news articles about the two scumbags who had framed Miku—now publicly streaking to apologize.
Souta read them one by one, passing time leisurely.
But gradually, his expression darkened as he kept reading...