A man stood in the distance, half-hidden in a corner where the light barely reached him. His face remained completely swallowed by shadow, but his eyes were fixed on Mr.Nobody. He tilted his head slightly.

"So... you still don’t remember anything, do you?" he murmured quietly.

Not far away, Mr.Nobody blinked as a faint glow appeared in front of his eyes.

"...What now, system?" 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

The system window expanded, displaying a new interface.

[System Notification] Shop feature unlocked.

He frowned slightly. "A shop? What exactly can I even buy from this thing?"

As if responding, a list appeared on the screen

[1] Weapons

[2] Skills

[3] Moves

[4] Face Features.

"...Face features?"

He paused.

Then his eyes widened.

"Wait... you’re telling me I can actually get a face?"

Without hesitation, he opened the category. A list of different faces appeared, all of them were unrealistically handsome faces like male leads. He scrolled through them, completely focused.

"...No way, will I be able to look so handsome?"

He selected one. A prompt appeared.

[Insufficient Points]

"...What?" He stared at it. "What do you mean insufficient?"

He asked in frustration. "Hey, system. What kind of points are we talking about?"

The answer came instantly.

[System] Points are earned when the user defeats bad guys.

"...Then how many do I have?"

[System] Current points: 60.

He narrowed his eyes. "And how much does this handsome one cost?"

[System] 500 points. (〜￣▽￣)〜

There was a pause.

"Faaaaaah?!"

He threw both hands up, as if grabbing the system window itself. "Are you kidding me right now?! That’s highway robbery, dude!"

He started to literally hold the system window with both arms in frustration. "Give me that face already! I want a face! How long do I have to live like this... this faceless Slenderman with bowlcut hair like face ?!"

"...Nobody?" The voice snapped him out of it. Then, Nobody slowly turned his head. Toma was looking at him with a confused expression.

"What were you saying all by yourself again and why were you moving your hands like that?"

"...It’s nothing," he said quickly. "Just... doing some arm exercises."

She raised an eyebrow. "Weren’t your arms shot?"

He paused for half a second. "...Exercise helps recovery."

Toma stared at him. "You’re acting really strange."

"You’re overthinking," he replied quickly. "Let’s go."

They started walking again.

After a moment, Mr.Nobody spoke, trying to sound normal. "By the way... where are you studying currently, Toma?"

Toma smiled a little. "Hanong Le University, English Department, fourth year."

"Wow... that’s nice."

Then she added casually, "You know, my birthday is in two days."

He blinked. "Really?"

She nodded. "You’re invited. Don’t miss it."

He smiled without thinking. "Of course I won’t miss it."

A small silence followed. Then he asked quietly, "Hey... am I too ordinary to talk to?"

Toma stopped for a second, then looked at him properly. "Why would you say something like that? You’re a great person, Nobody. You helped me when those people tried to take me. Not everyone would do that."

Her voice softened. "I’m glad I met you Nobody."

Mr.Nobody went silent. For a brief moment, something warm settled inside him. He looked away slightly.

"...She’s really different," he thought. "I don’t know why... but I feel like I could do anything just to protect that smile."

"Let’s go," Toma said.

He nodded, "Yeah, let’s go."

....

Two days later.

Mr.Nobody stood in front of a large house, staring at it.

The system window appeared again.

"...What the hell now?"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[system window] A gentle reminder

[reminder] User’s scene has shifted

[System Notification] Main Plot Event: "Blossoming the Cake of Tomorrow"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"...Again?! Sigh....Can I at least get something useful this time?"

The system responded.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[System Suggestion] The user may convert personal images into physical items.

（￣︶￣）↗

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"...Images?" Then he remembered that selfie. Toma had taken it while they were eating pastries. She was smiling brightly while he was in the frame, completely focused on eating. "...That one."

The system activated.

A moment later, a printed photo appeared, neatly framed like a gift.

Mr.Nobody stared at it "...Is this really a fighting system or a romcom system?"

He shook his head slightly, then looked at the house again. "...Whatever. Let’s just go inside."

Taking a small breath, he stepped forward and entered the house.