Mieko Shibasaki's Awkward Moment

"Ring ring!"

Early in the morning, Fujino was jolted awake from his dreams by the noisy ringing of a phone.

"Damn it, why does someone always call me this early in the morning?"

Fujino grumbled, slowly sitting up in bed and shaking his head to clear it.

He took out his phone and saw the contact name "Mieko Shibasaki" displayed on the screen.

Looking at the contact name on his phone, half of his anger instantly vanished.

So it was the client, that's fine then...

A moment later, he answered the call and asked the person on the other end, "Excuse me, Ms. Mieko Shibasaki, what can I do for you?"

"Detective Fujino, do you have time right now?"

Mieko Shibasaki's voice came from the other end of the phone.

Fujino glanced at the clock on the wall, thought for a moment, and replied, "I have to go to school today, so I probably won't be free until 4 PM."

"In that case, I'll come over in the evening then."

"Come over in the evening?"

Fujino exclaimed in surprise, "By the way, Ms. Mieko, aren't you supposed to be preparing for your concert?"

Mieko Shibasaki sighed and explained, "That was the plan, but Tatsuya seemed to have sprained his back when he got home last night, so the concert today has to be canceled..."

"Sprained his back?"

Hearing this, Fujino Doji frowned, feeling that something was not right.

Sprained his back...

Did those two really fight until late at night?

A moment later, a playful smile crept onto Fujino's lips.

At noon, in Class 2-B, during lunch break.

The tree shadows outside were dappled, and a gentle breeze blew, making the time feel like autumn again.

Fujino sat by the window in the classroom, propping his chin and gazing at the system's profession interface before him:

[Student: Advanced (500 Proficiency points away from breakthrough)]

[Professional Skills: Student Discount (Advanced: Whether in the system or in reality, the host will enjoy a 10% discount!; Note: The current skill has encountered a bottleneck due to its professional level. Please break through the professional bottleneck.) Natural Scholar (Intermediate: Enhances the host's learning ability by 150%)]

"The 'Student Discount' has hit a bottleneck?"

Looking at the system interface, Fujino muttered to himself.

The secondary profession levels in the system were roughly divided into four tiers: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert.

From lowest to highest, each level gained one profession skill point.

Reaching the Expert level would grant about four points.

And the highest level for a professional skill was Advanced, requiring three professional points.

Clearly, if one possessed two upgradeable professional skills simultaneously, the allocation of only four points would not be enough to max out both.

Therefore, he had long anticipated the bottleneck for his current student profession skill.

If he guessed correctly, there should be higher levels beyond Expert.

But he wasn't sure what those levels were.

Perhaps it was first job change, second job change, who knew?

"But speaking of which, upgrading from Advanced to Expert requires 500 proficiency points. How many proficiency points would it take to upgrade Expert to that unspeakable level?" Fujino's gaze fixed on the remaining 500 proficiency points needed to upgrade his student profession, and he couldn't help but complain.

Originally, he would gain fifty proficiency points for a day of studying at school. After acquiring the "Natural Scholar" skill, he even gained over a hundred proficiency points daily.

However, lately, the benefits from attending school had been diminishing.

Today, he only gained fifty proficiency points for a full day at school... and it might even be less in the future.

"Could it be that the proficiency points are decreasing because I've caught up on all the homework I missed?"

Fujino guessed, then let out a long sigh, "It seems I'll have to speed up the advancement of my 'Natural Scholar' skill from now on."

After upgrading "Natural Scholar" to Intermediate, his learning ability increased by approximately 0.5 times compared to the Novice level.

This meant that knowledge that originally took him six hours to complete, including the "Natural Scholar" skill, now only took him four and a half hours...

Teitan High School classes start around 8 AM. Lunch break begins four hours later at 12 PM, and afternoon classes resume promptly at 1 PM, lasting until around 3 PM.

The total class time for the day was only eight hours, with nearly an hour of break time interspersed.

After a careful calculation, the time actually spent on studying was less than seven hours.

The "Natural Scholar" skill's improvement would allow him to learn more in less time.

This was exactly what he needed, as he was now attending school every day, and the more he learned, the more his benefits were severely reduced.

After all, being able to learn more meant gaining more student proficiency.

And more student proficiency points would help him raise his student level sooner and break through the bottlenecks of his student professions.

"Fujino-senpai!"

At that moment, a familiar voice sounded in his ear, interrupting Fujino's thoughts.

He turned his head and saw Suzuki Sonoko, wearing her school uniform, close before him.

"Hey, hey, Fujino-senpai."

Suzuki Sonoko came up to Fujino and asked with a light laugh, "What score did you get on this quiz?"

"My quiz score? I honestly didn't pay much attention."

Fujino frowned.

The quiz must have been the math test from that morning. The results had come out before lunch, and he had been too eager to study to check.

After thinking for a moment, he took a test paper out of his desk drawer and replied to Suzuki Sonoko, "Full marks, I suppose?"

"Eh?"

Sonoko leaned in to take a look and was stunned, "It really is full marks..."

"Speaking of which, Sonoko, what score did you get?"

Fujino casually mentioned it to Sonoko as well.

"Ah... well..."

Sonoko stammered awkwardly, unable to speak, and tightly clenched the test paper she was holding behind her back.

She had originally intended to come and offer some comfort to Fujino, who was in the same boat as her.

But she never expected that Fujino would actually get a perfect score...

Now, this situation was a bit awkward.

"Why did Fujino-senpai get full marks too!"

Back at her seat, Suzuki Sonoko gripped her test paper, looking at the scattered red crosses on it, and scratched the back of her head vigorously.

"Sonoko, I suggest you really try to buckle down!"

Ran, sitting in front of her, turned her head and smiled slightly, "If you paid attention in class and weren't so 'delicate and sickly,' your grades wouldn't be this bad."

"Ran!"

Suzuki Sonoko's face turned red at the words, "I'm just not the type of person with a talent for studying. Learning requires talent, you know..."

As she spoke, she glanced resentfully at Fujino, "Take Fujino-senpai, for example. I remember he failed the last exam, too, and now he got full marks on this one... Hmm, it must be a matter of talent!"