Strategy

Two years had passed since Corius had entered preschool. Other than the incident wherein he cried at school because he was overwhelmed by the number of people watching his livestream, not much else happened. In fact, thanks to [Inferior Prodigious Intelligence], he was even given a couple awards by their homeroom teacher, something his parents unsurprisingly bragged to their neighbors whenever they got the chance to do so.

Aside from that, the number of people concurrently watching his livestream gradually increased with every passing day, reaching over seven thousand viewers by the time a year had passed, and over ten thousand by the time two years had passed.

Even though that was the case, he had no clue that he had achieved this number due to those watching him thinking that he was stupid for attempting such an achievement. Nevertheless, he still made the most out of it, spending his points wisely as he thought about how he would be able to achieve constant exercise and a balanced diet in his current condition.

…

"And our valedictorian for Calesa Village Primary School, school year 2028 to 2029, is Asa D. Santos!" On a raised platform, a man in his forties recited out words from a sheet of paper in front of him as faint music could be heard playing on the background.

Hearing those words, Corius stood up from his seat as his parents and his siblings look at him with pride on their faces. Taking in a deep breath, he then walked towards the raised platform as everyone clapped in response to the announcement of the man.

Looking at his current surroundings, he could not help but think about how much time had passed since the start of this run. 'I think I'm finally getting used to it.'

Thinking about the items he had bought from the shop using the Worldrunner Points he had accrued during these past two years, he could not help but have a light smile on his face as he went up on the platform, accepting the award given to him by the man on the platform. 'In any case, once this event is done, I can start using those items before I start my first year of elementary school.'

After saying his thanks to the middle-aged man in front of him, he then headed to the podium at the side of the platform, taking a step on the stool behind the podium to let his face be seen by the audience. Watching the great number of people that had attended the same event his parents did, he could not help but feel a hint of nervousness, only for it to disappear as he remembered that much more were watching him through the livestream.

Realizing this, he exhaled out a light sigh as the middle-aged man gave him a microphone. "And now, let us hear the valedictorian's speech."

Hearing his cue, Corius then recited the speech he had prepared with the help of his parents and his homeroom teacher, knowing very well not to show his true level of intelligence just yet. However, even though he only relied on [Inferior Prodigious Intelligence] for the most part, both his parents and his homeroom teacher were still thoroughly impressed with what they read, making them wonder if they were actually interacting with a six year old.

"…and with that, think of life as a set of cards. You may not get the deal that you want, but that does not mean you can't make the most out of it. Thank you." Ending his speech there, Corius stepped back from the podium as he bowed to the audience soon after. In response, a sonorous applause resounded through the place, with a few even cheering as they could not help but feel touched by his speech.

…

"Now where the hell did you learn all of those words, Asa? At one point, you almost made my nose bleed!" Cap joked as their family walked the way home.

Laughing in response, Corius replied, "I didn't. Mama and Papa taught me all of those words. My homeroom teacher also taught me some words as well."

As he thought about his response, he could not help but think about the homeroom teacher he had interacted with for the past two years. Though he did not take the initiative to really interact with her, from the various times she had interacted with him and the others, he could tell that the woman loved her job with all her heart, making sure that everyone that came to class left with smiles on their faces. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to see her again, he could not help but feel a bit sad.

"What's wrong? Do you miss your classmates already?" Celia asked, noticing the sad expression on Corius' face.

"It's not that," replied Corius. "I just thought about our homeroom teacher."

"You won't be able to see her again, right?" Carlo asked in response, to which Corius could only nod.

Seeing Corius' response, Carlo could only chuckle as he offered, "If you want, we could come visit her at her house from time to time."

Hearing that, Corius profusely nodded. "Can we?"

"Of course we can! As long as your mother doesn't mind," said Carlo in response before looking at his wife beside her. In response, Celia lightly smiled as she told Corius, "As long as it makes you happy, son."

"Yay!" Naturally, Corius cheered out in joy, bringing a joyous atmosphere to the family as they eventually made their way home.

…

Nighttime.

Currently, all of the people in the Santos family were sound asleep, snuggling up to one another as they slept on a large woven mat. However, there was one person among them that woke up at this time.

'It's finally time to make progress,' thought Corius to himself as he slowly stood up from the woven mat, making sure not to wake up any of the others while they were sleeping.

Just as he was about to get farther, his father woke up from the slight movement Corius made, prompting him to ask what Corius was doing at this hour. Fortunately, after Corius told him that he was just going to go to the bathroom, his father nodded and quickly returned sleep, prompting him to inwardly let out a sigh of relief.

'I should really learn how to soften my footsteps,' muttered Corius inwardly as he slowly made his way to the backyard.

Feeling the cold breeze of the night wash over his body, Corius took in a deep breath as he opened up the livestream feature in his system.

'It's already reached 11 thousand concurrent viewers,' he thought to himself, soon commanding the system to open up the shop to see how many points he had amassed so far.

Whoosh!

Seeing that he had amassed yet a great amount of points once again, Corius then took a look if he still had an attempt to buy an item from the shop for this month. Sighing in relief once he found out that he did, he then went ahead and bought the item he was eyeing for a while, prompting the image of the item he bought from the shop to appear in his hand not long after.

"A Reinvigoration Bar," Corius muttered as he examined the item in front of him. If one were to look at it from afar, it would look no different from a normal energy bar, with the only difference being the unintelligible set of characters written on its packaging. "According to its description, one portion of the bar is enough for me to have great amounts of energy to spend for half a day. Speaking of which, there's like 60 portions here."

"In any case, this solves the constant exercise part," he murmured before bringing out another item from the system. Soon, a small bottle which contained multicolored liquid appeared on his free hand. "And this solves the balanced diet part."

"Nutrient Recreation Fluid. According to what the system says, this allows me to eat anything I want, and it'll transform all of the food I ate into the nutrients the body needs," he said, finding the effect quite interesting. "Thankfully, one bottle of this stuff will last me for a month."

As he thought about it, he could not help but wonder what kind of changes his body would undergo after utilizing the effects of the Reinvigoration Bar and the Nutrient Recreation Fluid. As he only had one attempt to buy an item every month, he alternated between the two, allowing him to have 12 pieces of both items. In other words, he would be to achieve constant exercise and a balanced diet for an entire year before having to redo the whole thing again.

Getting excited at the thought of finally making progress towards achieving Immortality%, Corius went ahead and consumed a portion of the two items as he started the training regimen he had come up with on a whim in the middle of the night.

…

Within the far corners of the universe, there existed a megalithic structure that dwarfed even entire star systems in size. This structure was none other than the headquarters of the Worldrunners organization.

Inside the structure, within one of the thousands of rooms, was a woman in her thirties. Currently, she was watching a livestream of a young boy undergoing strenuous exercise in the middle of the night.

Watching the livestream with a solemn expression, the woman eventually closed the stream as she contacted someone through a specific device. Sometime later, a person appeared within the room she was in. "What are your orders, ma'am?"

"We've received reports that there's a Junior Worldrunner attempting a nine star achievement. As part of the content moderation committee, it's our goal to make sure that no other Worldrunners attempt the same thing this rookie Worldrunner did," the woman replied. "Shut their livestream down and bring them back to their home planet."

Hearing the woman's words, the person could only nod in response. "As you wish, ma'am."

With that, the person left the vicinity, leaving the woman alone as she gazed outside her window, her thoughts unknown.