"Sakura, do you have anything else to do next?" Shangguan Che closed the club brochure and turned to ask.
"Nope." Sakura Airi gave a gentle shake of her head, the ends of her hair swaying slightly.
"Then come with me to fill out the Soccer Club application. I'll treat you to dinner afterward."
Shangguan Che said it confidently, though in his mind, he could hear the "Personal Points" on his phone silently wailing.
"Okay, but you don't have to spend money on me, Shangguan." Sakura hurriedly waved her hands, looking a little embarrassed.
"It's fine. It's just a little money." Shangguan Che said it casually, but the "Points" in his mind were already complaining furiously: "Kid! Look at how much you've spent today! Keep this up and you'll be eating air by the end of the month!"
As he spoke, Shangguan Che caught sight of a familiar figure from the corner of his eye.
Hirata Yosuke, surrounded by a group of girls and shining like a little sun.
His eyes lit up, and he thought, "This is a perfect chance to get closer. My friend, I'm coming to 'rescue' you!"
"Sakura, I'm going to bring someone over. Wait here." Leaving her with that, he shouted "Friendship! Bonds!" in his heart and charged toward that "sun."
Shangguan Che grabbed Hirata by the arm and, before he could react, yanked him out of the crowd of girls and dragged him all the way to the Soccer Club recruitment booth.
After running just a few steps, he was already panting. "Weird, how long has it been since I ran? Why am I so out of shape? Didn't I donate money to improve my physical fitness?"
He instinctively opened his phone and saw a system email marked in red. He immediately understood. "Oh, so the attribute points don't take effect until nighttime, and I can even choose where to put them. What a ridiculous delay!"
"Shangguan? Shangguan?" Hirata's voice pulled him back to reality.
"Ah, right. What is it, Hirata?" Shangguan Che stopped and awkwardly scratched his head.
"Nothing. I just noticed you suddenly spaced out." Hirata smiled warmly. "By the way, you dragged me over here so suddenly. Was there something you wanted?"
"Nothing major. I just wanted to fill out the Soccer Club application with you," Shangguan Che said smoothly. "That way, I can ask you if there's anything I don't know how to fill in. You don't mind, do you?"
"Of course not. Ask away—I'll tell you everything I know!" Hirata's smile was still as warm as the sun.
"Thanks so much!" Shangguan Che thought happily, The plan worked.
"No need to be so formal," Hirata said with a smile. "I didn't know you liked soccer too, Shangguan."
"I wouldn't say I like it," Shangguan Che said, waving a hand dismissively. In his mind, he thought, It's mainly so I can trade honors for Personal Points. Aloud, he said, "I'm just pretty good at playing, that's all."
The Soccer Club application was actually very simple, and Shangguan Che could have filled it out himself.
But he figured, Since I said I'd ask questions, I can't exactly lie. So he deliberately came up with a few unimportant questions to ask Hirata.
After a few minutes of fussing over it, they finally finished the form.
He turned around and saw Sakura chatting with a group of girls led by Karuizawa Kei. They were clearly waiting for them.
"Shangguan, why did you suddenly drag Hirata off just now?" Karuizawa Kei came over and glared at him in annoyance.
Shangguan Che froze. "Huh? Was my analysis of the character introductions wrong? That can't be. I wrote those character settings myself."
Suppressing his confusion, he tentatively asked, "Um, you're Karuizawa Kei, right?"
"Who else would I be?" Karuizawa Kei frowned, her tone tinged with impatience.
"Nothing. I just thought you looked familiar," Shangguan Che said deliberately. "I feel like I've seen you somewhere before. You wouldn't happen to have a twin sister, would you?"
He pressed the question in his mind: Do you? Do you? If you do, that means my analysis was right;
If you don't, then something's wrong with Karuizawa.
It can't be me who's wrong, can it? I have to trust myself!
"No." Karuizawa Kei's voice suddenly weakened. She avoided Shangguan Che's gaze, then hurried over to Hirata.
Shangguan Che was utterly baffled. Wait, something really is wrong with you?
It's only the second day of school! How has the plot gone so far off track?
He stared at Hirata and Karuizawa's backs, then shook his head. "Forget it. What's done is done. I'll eat first and figure it out later."
He turned to Sakura with a smile. "Come on, Sakura. Let's go get dinner. I said it's my treat!"
That evening, Shangguan Che used his "Clairvoyance" ability to check the dorm addresses of the four classmates he planned to help.
He reassured himself, This is preparation I have to make in case something unexpected happens. It absolutely isn't because I want to peek into the girls' dorm!
Besides, the boys' and girls' dorms are in the same building, and anything I'm not supposed to see gets automatically censored. I can't see a thing anyway.
The next morning, as the first rays of sunlight slipped through a gap in the curtains and fell on his desk, Shangguan Che sprang out of bed.
He stretched mightily and felt an unprecedented lightness throughout his body. His muscles had a faint ache when he flexed his arms, but it wasn't fatigue—it was a sign of strength.
"All that effort really paid off!"
Shangguan Che couldn't help clenching his fists and throwing a few punches, remembering the "attribute point booster meal" he had made for himself the night before.
"Looks like I'll have to make this meal part of my daily routine. If I keep it up, I'll eventually get rid of this 'weak' constitution!"
After washing up, Shangguan Che instinctively opened the system panel and clicked the "Daily Draw" button.
The wheel spun rapidly across the screen before finally stopping on the "Ordinary Item" section.
The prize was a retractable black ballpoint pen, its body smooth and free of any unnecessary designs.
"Now that's more like it. A plain, everyday life calls for a down-to-earth prize like this."
Shangguan Che smiled and took the pen in his hand. The moment his fingertips touched it, the system displayed a prompt: "Special item detected. Store in system inventory?"
He paused. The system hadn't let him store ordinary items like the notebook and eraser he'd encountered before.
"Looks like this black pen isn't ordinary. It's different from all the other items that didn't come from the system."
Shangguan Che immediately selected "Yes." As he watched the pen disappear from his palm, anticipation stirred in his heart. "Maybe it'll come in handy someday."
After breakfast, Shangguan Che walked into the classroom with his schoolbag on his back.
The class bell had already rung, and the teacher at the front was explaining mathematical formulas, but the classroom wasn't as quiet as he'd expected.
Several boys in the back were whispering with their heads lowered, while someone secretly spun a pen beneath his desk. A glance around the room revealed that hardly anyone was taking notes attentively.
Shangguan Che frowned and silently took a notebook and pen out of his schoolbag.
He began his "respecting teachers and valuing the way" routine again. Even in an unfamiliar school, he couldn't shake his habit of listening attentively in class.
His pen moved quickly across the page, recording the teacher's key points and the derivation of each formula.
"Too bad. Neither Japanese nor history will join my 'respecting teachers and valuing the way' family, no matter what."
He couldn't help grumbling to himself.
During Japanese class the day before, the teacher's explanations of classical literature had been so obscure that his mind had wandered. History class was even more boring; the endless dates and events had made his head spin, so in the end, he'd had no choice but to memorize everything by rote.
"Fine. If you won't join, you won't join." Shangguan Che shrugged, silently resolving:
"When the next exam results come out, we'll see if you two still want to leave me out! Once my math and English scores come in, I'll show you the consequences of not paying attention in class!"
At the thought, he straightened his back and listened even more intently, "respecting teachers and valuing the way."
Before you continue