Heroine-Saving System: Reborn In A Third-Rate Manga As The Protagonist-Chapter 86: Purchasing Manga
"Self-destruct?" One of the noble boys let out weakly.
There were three of them imprisoned here... two boys and one girl, all children of prominent nobles huddled against the cold ground in terror.
Like the boy who had been forced to threaten his father into attempting Saeko’s assassination, they were all meant to be bargaining chips for White Hall’s criminal operations.
"Are we going to die...?" The first boy’s voice cracked. He had deep wound marks covering his body which was clear evidence of torture. Though his eyes looked deeply traumatized, he was desperately trying to keep his composure.
The other two were cuffed with chains, but hadn’t been subjected to physical threats yet. It was just the psychological terror of captivity.
"That’s what it sounds like," the girl said with resignation.
She would have been banging frantically at the reinforced door if they weren’t all chained to bolts in the ground. "But didn’t you hear the announcement? All White Hall members have been killed. What if the person who did it came to save us?"
The third boy, chained with hands behind his back, gave her a pitying look.
"Assassin groups usually just kill each other over territory... at least that’s what Mama says," he said matter-of-factly. "I doubt they came here to help us. So we’re probably going to die anyway."
Heavy silence fell and tears gathered in the girl’s eyes as she began crying, the crying almost made the other two boys cry as well.
Suddenly...
BOOM!
The metal door was punched inward with tremendous force, making all three children tremble.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
A few more devastating punches shattered a hole completely through then powerful hands grabbed the jagged edges and ripped them apart, creating an entrance.
Koya emerged from the opening. However, he was still covering his face with the Order mask, and he’d changed into one of the White Hall uniforms he’d looted.
"Let’s go. Right now."
He sprinted over to the first boy and shattered the metal cuffs with a single enhanced strike and lifted the boy over his shoulder like cargo, doing the same with the girl on his opposite shoulder before tucking the third boy securely under his arm.
"Hold onto my body tightly and don’t let go no matter what."
At this point it didn’t matter who he was... They just wanted to survive and Koya burst out at full enhanced speed.
Behind them...
BOOOOM!
The treasury room exploded violently in a massive fireball and the children screamed in absolute terror.
’Well, thankfully I looted everything first.’ Koya thought. ’I still haven’t sold my gold yet so I need to find a vendor... but now, let’s focus on survival.’
「Main Mission」
「Save the imprisoned children and survive the detonation」
「Reward: 460 FP」
’The System values my life at only 460 FP?’ Koya’s eye twitched as he continued sprinting down the hallway past corpses. The facility was trembling violently... the structural supports were failing as the ceiling tiles started falling.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Multiple sections detonated in rapid succession and Koya leapt upward through the hole he’d broken through earlier.
Prison sections and even the walls exploded beneath him, shooting shrapnel everywhere. One piece shot against his leg, tearing through fabric and skin making blood seep out but he didn’t slow down.
He reached the upper side and landed hard. More explosions detonated below and the entire structure was still trembling like an earthquake then Koya burst into a full sprint, pushing enhanced speed to maximum without using Speed Blitz.
He soon reached the main living area with alcohol bottles scattered everywhere. The children were still screaming, but he slid past melting ice from the earlier battle and the section behind began detonating in chain reaction.
BOOM!
He sprinted through the exit corridor as walls collapsed and leapt upward with tremendous strength, reaching the first vertical shaft, landing on a small ledge next to where he had kept the metal cover before leaping again, shooting up through the shaft like a rocket and burst out of the well opening into cool night air.
Koya ran off to safe distance and gently set the three children down on grass. They were gasping, covered in dirt and cuts but they were alive at least and seconds after they escaped...
BOOOOM!
A massive underground explosion sent cracks spreading through the well structure like a spiderweb.
WHOOSH!
A violent eruption of flames escaped like a volcanic vent, shooting fire twenty meters high.
CRASH!
The well structure collapsed completely inward, creating a crater and a final explosion sent a mushroom cloud rising into the night sky.
Koya could hear police sirens approaching rapidly and the noble girl looked up with exhausted gratitude.
"Thank you so much, mister..." Her voice was weak and hoarse. "I know you’re not actually part of them... Anyone could see that."
She took a shaky breath.
"If you tell me your identity, I’m absolutely sure my parents will give you a hefty reward for saving our lives. They’re very wealthy and influential, and they—"
She suddenly lost all strength and collapsed onto the grass, passing out from exhaustion and shock.
The two boys followed seconds later, bodies finally giving out.
Koya leapt away into shadows just as the first Keropolis Police Department vehicle came screeching around the corner with flashing lights.
At least he’d accomplished his objectives and secured the Uzumaki Chains.
「Main Mission Complete: +460 FP」
...
About twenty minutes later, Koya stood with hands on his waist while checking his phone. This location was at the front of a cafe called Yume no Amai which was also known as Sweet Dreams.
This was supposed to be the designated rendezvous point where Bobby would pick him up.
He decided to call Bobby directly and after two rings, Bobby picked up.
"Hey, I’m finished with the mission. Where are you currently?" Koya asked. He really wanted to get home and have dinner.
Silence.
"Bobby... you listening to me?"
More absolute silence.
Koya simply cut the call and sighed deeply.
"I should have known this would happen... the guy literally doesn’t speak, so calling him is completely useless."
He would lounge around waiting for Bobby, and if the man didn’t show up in ten minutes, he’d just head home with a taxi or something.
"Hm... a cafe and a manga store right next to each other?" He blinked with interest. This was actually convenient for killing time productively.
He could get fresh content for his streaming channel, which he desperately needed. Koya turned and walked into the manga store.
The interior was absolutely amazing with rows upon rows of shelves packed with manga organized by genre.
He’d been relying entirely on the collection that the original Koya had accumulated, but the major issue was that most had already been used to make review videos...
His content library was running dangerously low. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Interestingly, the manga selection in this world wasn’t drastically different from his original world’s offerings.
There was a middle-aged man behind the counter, and the manga he was currently reading had an extremely questionable cover featuring a girl in a very compromising position.
However, he had absolutely no shame about it whatsoever.
"Welcome to Manga Tengoku!" He greeted cheerfully while setting his manga down. "Please take your time browsing and bring whatever you want to the counter. If you’d like some personal recommendations based on genre preferences, just let me know."
He leaned forward conspiratorially.
"Also, at the far edges of the store..." He gestured toward the back corner. "We also sell, you know, those kinds of materials. Things meant specifically for men and women of refined culture, if you understand my meaning."
Koya stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"I see..."
He pulled out his phone and opened his streaming account. He’d accumulated a lot of direct messages asking whether he’d abandoned the channel entirely...
He genuinely didn’t mean to neglect it, but he simply hadn’t had enough free time to even read through a single manga lately with all the missions and training but there were numerous recommendations from followers for his next livestream review.
Namely, a manga called 「勇者として召喚されたが?全員殺してやる」(Yūsha to shite shōkan sareta ga? Zen’in koroshite yaru - I Was Summoned as a Hero, But? I’ll Kill Them All)
It was mostly recommended by his followers. For now, he was searching through shelves for the "Vengeful Hero" trope section.
The classic setup where the summoned Hero gets betrayed and abandoned, then returns for brutal revenge.
It was an annoying cliche that got recycled endlessly, however people apparently believed it was better than the usual generic isekai fare. As a reviewer, his job was to test it out objectively and give brutally honest critiques and he found the series in a specially designated display section... apparently this was currently very popular.
He could see the Japanese kanji clearly since one of his dedicated fans had sent him the Volume 1 cover image previously.
The artwork showed a silver-haired young man with blood stains covering his face while holding a sword pointed forward dramatically.
Behind him were several people in elegant heroic armor with expressions of absolute fear.
The kanji 「1巻」 (Volume 1) was prominently displayed in the top corner with bold lettering.
"Silver hair protagonist, huh? First major red flag already," Koya muttered under his breath critically while examining the cover art more closely.
Silver hair was actually a genuinely good aesthetic color choice when done well... he loved it on Tori, for example. Her silver hair looked absolutely beautiful and suited her elegant personality perfectly.
But silver hair on manga protagonists almost always meant you could smell the recycled cliches from a mile away.
It was basically a visual shorthand for "overpowered protagonist with tragic backstory."
"Let me guess the entire plot already without even opening Volume 1..." He said to himself while examining the remaining volumes on display. "He gets trapped in some special dungeon that only he can enter for some contrived reason, levels up the entire way through grinding weak monsters that somehow give massive experience points, gets his hands on some divine-tier legendary weapon that’s conveniently perfect for his specific skillset and maybe picks up a dragon companion or a pixie sidekick that will inevitably become his romantic interest and wife by Volume 5 despite the age-gap being questionable at best."
Manga protagonists were basically all the same recycled template with only minor superficial variations to pretend they were unique.
’Hey, at least I legitimately have a vampire wife and a dragon egg...’ he thought with genuine amusement at the comparison. ’It only becomes truly cliche if my dragon egg somehow hatches into a cute girl instead of an actual dragon. Please System, please let it be an actual dragon and not another waifu.’
Despite his harsh criticism, he took all the available volumes from the shelf... Volumes 1 through 13, which was surprisingly long for a revenge story. He placed them into the shopping cart and pushed it toward the far edge where the owner had advertised materials for "men and women of culture."
As he reached that section, it felt like he’d been transported to an entirely different world.
He was experiencing Pornhwa for the first time.
Wherever he looked amongst these shelves, there were covers featuring women in bikinis, lingerie, and extremely skimpy clothing. The art quality was surprisingly high.
It felt strange but simultaneously fascinating from a pure artistic perspective.
As he scrolled past various titles, he saw one cover featuring a girl who was noticeably shorter than usual, wearing a bikini on a beach setting.
She had a petite, flat figure. The title was prominently displayed in English above the Japanese subtitle:
[BARELY EIGHTEEN]
Someone nearby was reaching for that exact volume and the person was wearing a hat pulled low to cover their face, but Koya immediately recognized the distinctive hair color.
"Ichinose?" The moment he said that name, the person stopped completely in their tracks as if halted by an invisible force then slowly turned to face him with a face that was absolutely red with embarrassment.
The hat covered most of her facial features, but he could still clearly see that her entire face was flushed crimson.
"Ko-Ko-Koya-kun..." She couldn’t muster any coherent words beyond stuttering his name then she immediately vanished using her invisibility skill, apparently forgetting that Koya could still perceive her clearly even when invisible thanks to Sensory.
As she disappeared, he didn’t even bother trying to convince her to reappear. He understood the embarrassment completely.
He was personally used to consuming "slop" content which was low-quality isekai and power fantasy garbage for review purposes but what if that slop was combined with explicit smut? Did it make it sloppier, or somehow transcend into a new category entirely?
"I need some good recommendations to start with," Koya muttered under his breath.
Ichinose suddenly reappeared, still looking extremely shy and flustered.
"Koya-kun... you’re actually into this kind of thing?" She asked nervously while quickly snagging the manga she’d originally wanted.
"It’s genuinely my first time in this section," he replied honestly. "I wanted to get something to broaden my content review range, but I don’t know what titles to go for. Any suggestions?"
Ichinose’s eyes lit up despite her embarrassment.
"Oh! Well, if you’re completely new to the genre, I’d recommend starting with something that has actual plot and character development alongside the... other content." She began rambling enthusiastically, her shyness temporarily forgotten as genuine passion took over. "Maiden’s Secret Garden has surprisingly good character development and explores themes of consent and communication really well. The protagonist actually has realistic emotional responses instead of being a blank self-insert character. Office Affairs After Hours is great if you want workplace romance with actual stakes and realistic relationship dynamics that feel earned. My Childhood Friend Can’t Be This Forward subverts a lot of standard childhood friend tropes while still delivering on fan service moments, and the main character actually has agency and a distinct personality instead of just being a passive observer to events happening around her."
She continued listing titles with detailed explanations of their strengths and weaknesses, plot structures, art quality, pacing issues, character development arcs, and where they fell on the spectrum between pure smut with no substance and actual storytelling with integrated adult content that served the narrative.
Koya couldn’t help but chuckle genuinely at her passionate and incredibly knowledgeable analysis that demonstrated she’d clearly spent considerable time thinking deeply about narrative structure in adult content.
"You’re extremely well-versed in this stuff, Ichinose. I’m genuinely impressed by the depth of your knowledge and critical analysis skills."
Her face immediately turned absolutely scarlet again as the sudden realization of what she’d been doing hit her like a truck.
"I-I-I just read a lot! For pure research purposes! Purely academic interest in narrative structures!" She stammered defensively.
Koya took one of her recommendations... Maiden’s Secret Garden, Volumes 1 and 2 and placed them into his cart alongside the revenge isekai series.
Ichinose glanced at the other manga already sitting in his shopping cart and her eyes widened slightly when she saw the revenge isekai title.
She didn’t say anything aloud, but internally she was absolutely screaming.
That revenge isekai manga... that was the exact series she’d been recommending to her favorite anonymous manga reviewer for weeks now through direct messages on the streaming platform.
Was this just a coincidence? Or...? No, it had to be coincidence. There was absolutely no way Koya-kun was her favorite streamer.
Right?
The two of them walked together to the counter where the store owner greeted them with a knowing smile.
"Ah, both a gentleman and lady of culture! Excellent taste, both of you." He examined their selections appreciatively. "The revenge isekai is quite popular right now... our bestseller this month. Volume 14 releases next week."
He glanced at the adult titles.
"And these... classic choices. Good balance of story and content. You both have refined tastes indeed."
He calculated Koya’s total. "That’ll be 8,400 crowns for you, sir."
Koya paid using Hakai’s black card without hesitation. Ichinose settled her own purchase separately, still thoroughly flustered.
They moved outside together, with Koya holding the shopping bag containing all his manga and adult material purchases.
Ichinose noticed the cafe next door... Yume no Amai and her expression brightened.
"Oh! Yume no Amai has really good desserts and drinks. Would you maybe want to stop there for a bit? My treat, since you... um... saw me in that section and didn’t judge me for it."
Just then, a familiar black car pulled up smoothly to the curb.
It was Bobby.
"Ah, sorry Ichinose. My ride’s here," Koya said apologetically while walking toward the vehicle. "Maybe another time when we’re both free?"
He opened the passenger door and entered... However, Bobby didn’t start driving. Instead, he sat there motionless and then handed Koya a piece of paper with neat handwriting:
[I want to eat some ice cream in that cafe before we leave. Order me vanilla.]
Koya’s eye twitched as he read the note. He sighed deeply and exited the car again and Bobby followed, his expression completely neutral and unreadable as always.
Koya turned back to Ichinose, who was frozen mid-wave, clearly confused by the situation.
"Actually... can I take you up on that cafe offer after all?"
