"Should I come with you to your classes today, Vee?"

Jeff's suggestion easily cheered Veena, easing the anxiety she felt about her first day of college.

"Mhm! Please stay with me all day—"

With a bright, cheerful smile she lunged at Jeff, wanting to hug him, not caring about the ogling stares of the guys around them or the envious looks from the girls eyeing Jeff.

"—Ehh?"

However, her attempt—or rather, demand—to be pampered by her beloved senpai was interrupted when her high school friends, who were taking the same course, appeared behind her and caught her, pulling and dragging her away from Jeff.

"Nope, you're coming with us, Veena."

"Weren't you with senpai yesterday?"

"You have to tell us what happened."

"And give us our souvenirs."

"No~! I want to stay with Jeff-senpai!"

After watching Veena give him a pleading look while being taken away by her friends right in front of the Business Administration College, Jeff took his leave and headed toward the Engineering College.

It wasn't that Jeff wasn't worried about the guys ogling Veena. But since Veena's friends—who knew she had feelings for him—were with her, Jeff trusted them to drive off the guys who might approach Veena. Not to mention the Returner Fantasy System would warn him with another quest concerning Veena's safety.

Besides, Veena's cruel fate at college wasn't about to start yet: Jeff already learned what would happen after reading Veena's Archive, the reward for Quest 18, while he was preparing their breakfast earlier.

For now, meeting up with his friends was a luxury—a privilege granted to him—and Jeff wasn't going to waste it.

---

"So...?"

"So what?" Jeff muttered, annoyed at Marc's question, as if he should already know what Marc was asking.

"Do you really want us to spell it out for you, Jeff?" Kris said; his smug grin alone gave Jeff an ominous feeling about whatever his friends sitting on both sides of him were scheming.

Whatever it was, it would surely be troublesome, he thought. But before he could stop them, the two continued with their planned mischief.

"We didn't want to do this..."

"...but you leave us no choice."

The two suddenly stood from their seats, getting the attention of everyone around them. They took a deep breath before shouting so loud their voices carried to the next rooms.

"Please tell us stories of your harem conquests, Jeff!?"

"Shut it, both of you!"

Jeff hurriedly grabbed Marc and Kris by the backs of their shirts and yanked them down into their seats, but it was already too late—all of their friends inside the classroom were already on him.

"Didn't you just get yourself a girlfriend?"

"Even Jeff already has a harem?"

"Damn it, I thought we were the same."

"You're the only one who couldn't get a girlfriend, dude."

"So you're just the same as Kris and Marc."

"So you're just another womanizing pervert."

"Give back the respect I gave you, bastard."

A barrage of remarks—surprise, envy, hatred, and mockery—was hurled at Jeff, including some for Kris and Marc. But the remark that stood out most came from the girl who had just sat beside the three of them.

"I always thought you were the extremely loyal type, so it's kind of hard to believe what Kris and Marc said."

The complimentary remark came from a girl who held the title of their college goddesses—not only beautiful because of her slender, striking figure and charming face, but also friendly, approachable, easy to talk to, and caring toward her friends. The exact type of girl who would make any man she met on the first day of college fall for her.

Her name was Klea, and Jeff, Kris, and Marc couldn't deny that the three of them had indeed fallen for her charm on the first day they met her.

With their titles as Harem Lord—now officially including Jeff—Kris and Marc indeed made a move on her. Only to be rejected, since Klea was the extremely loyal type when it came to her boyfriend.

Klea's boyfriend, Liam, was, of course, tall and handsome, matching her beauty. But to Jeff, Kris, and Marc, he was just a generic handsome guy that any girl would forget within less than 24 hours.

He didn't have any remarkable feature and was always behind Klea like a background character. He was a plain, handsome guy who seemed to have no life except for Klea. His only redeeming feature was that he was a good guy, but if it wasn't for his position as Klea's childhood friend, they'd doubt even Klea would notice him.

And that boyfriend of hers had just taken a seat beside her.

"I'm sure Kris and Marc are just teasing, right Jeff," Liam said.

"They sure are, fucking bastard."

—"Ehh?"—

—"Huh?"—

Jeff's sudden outburst—not only in his harsh words but in the murderous glare in his eyes and the dangerous aura everyone could feel—caught everyone off guard and alerted Kris and Marc, since they recognized Jeff's rage.

It was the same rage Jeff had when he was about to kill Trud, wanting to smash his head with a sledgehammer after they beat him in the beach parking lot—the same rage Kris and Marc felt upon learning about Trud's crimes.

"Jeff?"

Yet Jeff immediately took control of his outburst and rage upon hearing Klea's worried voice.

"I mean, they sure are fucking bastards, aren't they, Liam?" Jeff said, forcing a friendly smile as he corrected his wording.

It worked on everyone else, including Klea and Liam, but not on Kris and Marc, who knew Jeff like a brother.

"They are... but isn't that a bit harsh..." Liam muttered, stammering with his words due to the fear that still lingered within him.

Right then, the professor arrived, and their class began, pushing the incident and the news about Jeff's harem out of everyone's minds—at least until after class ended.

---

"What the heck was that?" Marc asked, holding Jeff down at his left shoulder to prevent him from standing on his chair and storming into the next class.

"Don't tell me you're planning to kill Liam to add Klea to your harem?" Kris added, doing the same with Jeff's right shoulder.

It was the only conclusion Kris and Marc could reach from Jeff's sudden outburst.

There was nothing wrong if Jeff made a move on Klea and ended up stealing her from Liam. After all, it would be Liam's fault if he didn't fight hard enough to keep Klea by his side, and it wouldn't be Klea's fault if she ended up falling for him—besides, Jeff would surely love Klea if that happened.

Kris and Marc's only problem was that Liam was also their friend—the same as Klea. And they weren't bastards enough to make a move on their friend's girlfriend.

However, that wasn't true anymore since Jeff's regression. Jeff didn't consider Liam a friend anymore since the day of Klea's funeral on his timeline—No, since the day Klea killed herself after Liam abandoned her.

"Stop with that murderous glare, bastard," Marc said as he stood from his seat and headed to the next class.

"At least explain it to us before you drag us into it again," Kris added as he followed Marc, hinting that they would help Jeff in case he planned to do anything reckless again like when they confronted Trud and his henchmen.

"Don't worry. We'll get some action very soon."

Jeff wasn't sure how to explain what would happen to Klea in the near future, but he was confident he could handle it on his own.

Regardless, he would need Kris and Marc's help again in a different matter—something that would happen tonight, as he had been notified by the Returner Fantasy System during their class.

---

[RETURNER FANTASY SYSTEM]

[Quest 19 – Welcome Party]

[Reward – Returner Curse]

[Objective – Save Veena from Fresh Girls Hunters]

[Countdown – 12 hours]

---

Fresh Girls Hunters: an idiotic, rumored organization of men at Capital City University said to hunt first-year college girls during every college's welcoming party.

Their modus operandi was to get girls drunk at the party so they could take them somewhere to have "fun" and fulfill their lustful desires.

It was a clichéd and overused plot, yet the victims' suffering didn't end that single night with no memories. She would be blackmailed into becoming the man's girlfriend and be tormented again and again. When that man grew tired of her, she would be passed or exchanged to another man's girlfriend—again and again—until she quit her studies or endured until she graduated. That way the crime would be safely hidden, as it always had been.

Veena had suffered that same fate on Jeff's original timeline due to his negligence and foolishness.

For whatever reason Veena didn't ask for help—even if it was because she had turned her dependency to the man who would soon hunt her—Jeff would not let that happen again.

Even if it meant killing those bastards along with everyone in their organization and burying their bodies under the university grounds.

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