Late-Night Talk

First-year freshman dormitory building, room 217.

After taking a hot shower, Tatsuya Sakuya changed into a loose and comfortable set of loungewear, grabbed a canned iced black tea from the single-door mini-fridge, and pushed open the sliding glass door to step out onto the small balcony.

The evening breeze rushed over him with the cool chill of the night.

He looked out into the distance past the safety railing; the Keyaki Mall in the center of the campus was still brightly lit, and the cheers and commotion drifting from a few distant dormitory buildings could still be faintly heard.

The dormitory accommodations at Advanced Nurturing High School were truly beyond reproach.

Independent bathrooms, a dry and well-lit balcony, and high-speed campus wireless internet—for the vast majority of eighteen- or nineteen-year-old young people who had just left family supervision and stepped into university life, this place was no different from heaven.

Snap.

Ordinary horse piss, iced National Cellar.

The chilled aluminum can pressed tightly against his palm.

Tatsuya Sakuya took a sip of the iced black tea and gave it a glowing review.

Ding-dong.

His phone rang, and Tatsuya Sakuya turned it on.

The icon with the words "Lovingly United Class 1-D" on the screen was flashing madly with red notification dots, and unread messages had already skyrocketed to "99+".

Tatsuya Sakuya tapped his fingertip twice and swiped open the group chat interface.

Seriously, what are you all even talking about? I only looked away for a few minutes, and it's already 99+.

At this moment, the Class 1-D group chat was a scene of blazing commotion.

The first messages to pop up were several pictures sent by Ike Kanji.

In the pictures, Ike Kanji's room contained a brand-new home gaming console, a matching pair of dual wireless controllers, and two boxes of Red Bull energy drinks, with the point deduction receipt placed right beside them.

Ike Kanji: [Check this out, bros, the Switch 2 from the third-floor video game store at Keyaki Mall. I got the whole set for a little over sixty thousand points total. Everyone come to my room to play games after school from now on.]

Immediately following that were a few clothing-try-on selfies sent by Yamauchi Haruki (with his face censored) and a picture of a high-end wagyu beef dinner, which he then unsent.

Yamauchi Haruki: [Oops, accidentally sent the picture out.]

Yamauchi Haruki: [Hahahaha, nice, nice. I'll definitely go if I get the chance. I bought a high-end jacket today and went to the top-floor teppanyaki restaurant in the mall to stuff my face. It feels amazing, one hundred thousand points is totally impossible to spend!]

Sudo Ken: [Hmph, I bought Kobe Bryant-collaboration Kobe 5 Protro basketball shoes for twenty thousand points.]

The atmosphere in the group was rapidly heated up by these three guys, and many freshmen also chimed in one after another to post pictures, showing off the results of their wild shopping spree tonight: designer bags, high-end cosmetics, and imported snacks.

For students who had just stepped into university life, fresh people and things were always exciting, coupled with the huge sense of satisfaction brought by the one hundred thousand points, which was enough to make their urge to share burst at the seams.

Tatsuya Sakuya silently observed everything on his phone. He did not make any comments, simply setting the class group to do-not-disturb mode.

Just as he was about to turn off his phone, the icon with the pink little flower avatar in the direct message list suddenly lit up.

It was Ichinose Honami.

Ichinose Honami: [Good evening, Tatsuya-kun. I hope I'm not disturbing your rest. [Bear waving.png]]

Tatsuya Sakuya replied simply.

Tatsuya Sakuya: [Good evening, Ichinose. How are you getting along with your classmates?]

Ichinose Honami: [Everyone in Class 1-B is so enthusiastic. A few female classmates just came over to chat with me, and everyone is discussing the nice clothes and delicious food they bought at the mall tonight.]

Ichinose Honami: [However, to be honest, seeing everyone spending wildly, I still feel a little uneasy inside. Even though these one hundred thousand points were solidly deposited into our personal accounts, it just feels like everything came too easily.]

Tatsuya Sakuya: [I still think the use of points should lean toward being conservative. After all, they might come in very useful at some point.]

Ichinose Honami: [Mm, I will. I'll try to explain this to everyone in the class too. [Happy smiley face.png] Thank you, Tatsuya-kun. You always manage to give answers that put people at ease.]

Tatsuya Sakuya: [It's getting late. The Class 1-B monitor-in-training should get some rest early too.]

Ichinose Honami: [Heehee, I haven't even become the class monitor yet! Well then, I won't disturb you anymore. Good night, Tatsuya-kun! [Stars and moon.png]]

Having ended the late-night chat with Ichinose, Tatsuya Sakuya had just picked up his phone to go make his bed when another message popped up in his direct message list.

Airi Sakura: [T-Tatsuya-kun, sorry to bother you! [Nervous clenched fist.jpg]]

Across the screen, Tatsuya Sakuya could imagine the kind of mood Airi Sakura on the other end must have been in when she typed out this line of words.

Tatsuya Sakuya: [Good evening, Sakura-kun. Are you getting the hang of using the camera?]

On Airi Sakura's end, "Typing..." was displayed for a long time, and then she sent a picture with extremely high clarity and very full light-and-shadow colors.

Tatsuya Sakuya swiped his fingertip across the screen to enlarge the picture. It was a campus night view taken from the upper-floor balcony of the girls' dormitory, where the streetlights in the foreground and the upper floors of the mall in the distance had distinct layers, and the composition possessed a lot of spiritual charm.

Airi Sakura: [This is what I just took with the camera on the balcony. Because I don't really understand how to adjust the sensitivity for night mode, the dark areas in the photo seem to have a bit of noise. Did I adjust the parameters wrong? [Timorously asking.png]]

Tatsuya Sakuya clicked on the picture to study it carefully, and replied objectively:

Tatsuya Sakuya: [You didn't adjust them wrong. The night view composition is very clean, and the focus point is also very precise. The noise is just a normal phenomenon caused by insufficient light at night and the sensitivity automatically raising itself. If you want to reduce the noise, you can try slowing down the shutter speed by half a stop and using a camera tripod to secure the camera to prevent shaking.]

Airi Sakura: [Really? That's great! I thought I broke the camera. Thank you, Tatsuya-kun! Also, if you hadn't helped me smooth things over today, I might have been in trouble.]

The relaxation and gratitude leaking between the lines were about to overflow the screen.

Tatsuya Sakuya: [Just a small favor. If you have any questions about photography or equipment in the future, you can send me a message anytime.]

Airi Sakura: [Mm, thank you, Tatsuya-kun. Well then, I won't bother you anymore. Good night, Tatsuya-kun. I hope you have a wonderful dream!]

Tatsuya Sakuya: [Good night. Sweet dreams!]

After sending this sentence, the chat interface quickly returned to quietness.

Tatsuya Sakuya put away his phone, and casually closed the balcony's sliding glass door and soundproof curtains.

He reached out to grab the voice recorder placed on the desktop, its silver-gray metal shell emitting a cool-toned sheen under the light.

He pressed the recording button on the side, and the red indicator light at the top lit up, signifying that recording had begun.

He lowered his voice, sequentially switching between different volumes to test them, starting with his ordinary conversational voiceprint.

Then he softened his breath, spitting out short sentences with a voice that was almost as faint as a mosquito's hum, and deliberately moved the voice recorder toward the direction of the balcony to take in the sporadic commotion outside.

After a moment, he stopped the recording, plugged in the matching earphones, and pressed playback.

The earphones clearly replayed his own voice, and even the low murmurs could be completely distinguished.

The sound collection effect in a quiet environment was reliable enough.

However, if one were in a public place like a corridor or classroom, a huge question mark would have to be placed over the recording's effectiveness.

Having confirmed that the voice recorder's functions were normal, Tatsuya Sakuya finally put it away.

Silent records would be the sharpest sword in this school.

Tatsuya Sakuya turned off the main room light and closed his eyes to prepare for sleep.

Because tomorrow was the first class of the school year.