Broaden Your Horizons

In the cozy warmth of the classroom, Chen'an took out the revision papers his teacher had assigned and prepared to complete as much of it as possible during the evening self-study period. Today was Friday, and they would be able to leave school by tomorrow afternoon, so some of their homework for over the weekend had already been issued.

He was about to begin his mathematics paper when he felt Lu Gang elbowing him. "What?" Chen'an glanced at him, confused.

"Are you sure Pan Yuguan won't cause any more trouble?" Lu Gang asked, looking vaguely worried. Just now, Chen'an had dragged him back to the classroom when Pan Yuguan ran out to retrieve his basketball.

Chen'an rolled his eyes. "Who knows how long he'll take to get back here? The park isn't exactly accessible from our school. Plus, I'm not stupid enough to wait for him in this weather." The sky had turned dark, and the temperature had dropped significantly. Coupled with the cold wind on the basketball court, only a fool would choose to stay out there instead of eating dinner, as they should.

"True," Lu Gang agreed. "But what if he gets angry and tries to pick a fistfight with you? He's a sports student; you can't beat him."

Chen'an waved a hand. "Fighting isn't allowed at school. He wouldn't dare."

"And what about tomorrow at noon, after school ends?"

Chen'an nodded seriously. "You're right. When I get home tomorrow, I'm going to go to the internet cafe for a while, so I should catch up on homework now."

Lu Gang just stared at him in bewilderment.

***

Pan Yuguan, who had finally made his way to the park, braved the cold wind as he searched through the bushes. Finally, he found his basketball buried in a pile of shrubbery that smelled inexplicably foul.

His face was as dark as a thundercloud, but the thought of being able to put Chen'an in his place filled him with relish.

However, when Pan Yuguan arrived at the basketball court with his–now clean–basketball, it was empty. There was no sign of Chen'an.

His knees threatened to buckle in the same instant that his head started swimming.

"How dare that motherfu–"

He cut himself off with a sneeze.

He was slightly dizzy, and his temperature was burning up. He had better see the school nurse. A dazed Pan Yuguan left the basketball court, sniffling.

He wasn't finished, though. At noon tomorrow, he would get his friends from outside school to wait for Chen'an at the school gate!

Let's see if Chen'an still had any tricks up his sleeve then.

He sneezed again.

"Why does my damn throat hurt too?"

***

As Pan Yuguan went to the nurse's office, swearing, Chen'an sneezed in the classroom. "Is someone cursing me?" he muttered, rubbing his nose.

"Do you even need to ask?" Lu Gang said. "If I were Pan Yuguan, I'd be so mad at you I wouldn't be able to sleep at night."

Their evening self-study periods were his favorite time of the day, because he could read web novels from 6.30-9.30pm straight. That was more than enough time for him to catch up on all the novels he was keeping up with. Unfortunately, some of them were updated too slowly, with only one new chapter a day, when all he wanted to do was binge on dozens of them.

However, he was still worried that Pan Yuguan would fly into a rage after being humiliated.

"Why don't I accompany you out of school tomorrow?"

"It's fine. There are more important things to worry about. As for you… there are only a few days left until the college entrance examination. You could afford to pull your weight a little more." Chen'an cast a meaningful glance at the phone in Lu Gang's hand.

Chen'an was already halfway through his paper. Lu Gang surveyed his surroundings and perked up when he found everyone engrossed in their work.

"Do me a favor and help me keep a look out while I watch this video."

***

The evening self-study period ended in a flash. What Lu Gang had claimed would be one video had turned into several, long enough to last the whole three hours. With Chen'an's help, he had managed to evade the surveillance of their form teacher, who had appeared in the window twice for a spot check.

Perhaps Chen'an was delusional, but as long as their teacher was standing outside the class, Chen'an could vaguely feel his gaze even without turning around–a once-impossible feat.

Class 37's form teacher was an elderly man; many of his former students were already grown up and married. With his experience spying on students, most of them wouldn't be able to detect his presence.

But now Chen'an was different. It was as if he had developed a sixth sense.

The feeling was indescribable–but also undeniable.

Thanks to Chen'an's acute senses, Lu Gang managed to avoid all their teacher's sudden inspections. It was only after self-study ended that he pulled Chen'an aside with a quizzical expression.

"There's something off about you today," he said, sizing his friend up.

"What?" Chen'an hadn't revealed anything about the system, so there was no way Lu Gang could have detected it.

Lu Gang circled Chen'an and gave a sigh. "For a second I thought you had sprouted a pair of eyes on your back. How did you detect whenever our teacher was near?"

He paused, deep in thought, before his eyes lit up.

"Have you finally decided to broaden your horizons and check out those videos too? Is that why you're suddenly so much better at keeping an eye out?"

"Please shut up."

***

The first day in this alternate reality was finally over.

The benefits of having the system on his side had already made themselves clear. His mind was more focused and his thoughts were sharper, and his body had become lighter and more agile. Even his sixth sense had become much more sensitive, as his evening self-study had proven.

He had never felt anything like this before–and it was only the beginning!

His only regret was that his current achievement points were insufficient to open the next dungeon. It was a pity, but he had to accumulate them himself, and even then, there was no guarantee of how many each task would earn him. Currently, the most achievement points he had gotten in a row were the five points from when he had killed several monsters in one shot. Excluding that, his usual rate of one or two points was too slow.

But such things couldn't be rushed. After all, he had only entered this alternate reality a day ago. He hadn't even left the school campus.

And it wasn't as if he were completely clueless about how this world operated–if he had been able to earn points from buying sausages, perhaps that would apply to other foods too: green melons, eggplants, fish snacks…

Chen'an returned to his dormitory room with Lu Gang, which they shared with two other top students. They were what others would call quirky; they spent almost all their time studying. More than ten minutes had passed since self-study ended, and the two of them had yet to return to their room. From experience, they were likely still in the classroom doing papers. They would only return to the dormitory when the security guards started chasing them away.

Since they were alone, Lu Gang approached Chen'an with his phone.

"Thanks for helping me out during gym class today. I've got a rare collection of books here. Want to see if you like them?"

"Do I look that horny to you?" Chen'an shot him an unamused smile.

"One of them is about Yui."

"… I'll need to borrow your charger tonight."