### Chapter 49: The Embarrassment of Suzuki Sonoko

"Ding ding ding!"

Early in the morning, Fujino was jolted awake by the annoying sound of the phone ringing.

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

Fujino complained as he slowly sat up in bed, shaking his head to wake himself up.

Pulling out his phone, he saw that the caller ID displayed Shizaki Mieko.

Seeing the caller ID, his irritation diminished.

It was the client; it was no big deal…

Moments later, he answered the call and asked curiously, "Is something wrong, Miss Shizaki Mieko?"

"Detective Fujino, do you have time now?"

On the other end, Shizaki Mieko's voice sounded concerned.

Fujino glanced at the clock on the wall and replied after a moment's thought, "I have school today, so I'm unavailable until after four this afternoon."

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

"In the evening?" Fujino was puzzled. "But, Miss Shizaki, don't you have to prepare for the concert?"

Shizaki Mieko sighed and explained, "Originally, yes. However, Tatsuya seems to have twisted his back when he returned home last night. The concert has to be canceled for today…"

"He twisted his back?" Fujino's brow furrowed, sensing that something was amiss.

Twisting his back…

Did they end up in a brawl that lasted all night?

After a moment, Fujino's lips curled into a playful smile.

---

Noon, Class 2-B, during the lunch break.

With dappled sunlight filtering through the windows and a gentle breeze blowing, it felt like autumn had returned.

Fujino sat by his desk, resting his chin on his hand as he stared at the system interface:

[Student: Advanced (500 points from breaking through to the next level)]

[Career Skills:

Student Discount (Advanced: Enjoy a 10% discount both in the system and in reality!; Note: The current skill is capped at this level. Please break through the career cap to progress.)

Natural Genius (Intermediate: Enhances learning ability by 150%)]

"Student Discount has hit a bottleneck, huh?"

Fujino murmured to himself while examining the system interface.

Career levels are roughly divided into: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Top-tier.

Each level-up grants one point for skill allocation.

Reaching the top tier grants about four points.

The highest skill level is Advanced, requiring three points.

Clearly, with two upgradeable career skills, four points are insufficient to max out both.

So, the bottleneck for the student career skill was anticipated.

If he guessed correctly, there should be even higher levels beyond the top tier.

But what those levels are, he doesn't know.

Maybe a first and second tier or something similar—who knows?

"Anyway, if it takes 500 points to upgrade from Advanced to Top-tier, how many points are needed to reach that indescribable level?"

Fujino looked at the remaining 500 points of proficiency needed for the student career upgrade and couldn't help but grumble.

Initially, he earned 50 points of proficiency in a day of school, and with the Natural Genius skill, he earned over 100 points daily.

But recently, his returns from school have sharply declined.

Today, he only earned 50 points of proficiency in a full day of school… and it might get even less in the future.

"Could it be because I've caught up on the missed coursework, so the proficiency gain has decreased?"

Fujino speculated and sighed, "Looks like I need to focus on enhancing the Natural Genius skill."

After reaching Intermediate level, Natural Genius improved his learning ability by about 0.5 times.

That means what used to take six hours to learn now takes only four and a half hours.

Teitan High School starts classes at 8 a.m., with a lunch break at noon and classes resuming at 1 p.m. until around 3 p.m.

In total, there are about eight hours of classes, with nearly an hour of break time.

So, the actual learning time is less than seven hours.

The enhancement from Natural Genius would allow him to learn more in less time.

Given that his learning returns were decreasing, this was urgently needed.

After all, learning more means more student proficiency points.

And more proficiency points help in breaking through the student career bottleneck sooner.

"Fujino-senpai!"

At that moment, a familiar voice broke his train of thought.

He turned to see Suzuki Sonoko in her school uniform approaching.

"Hey, Fujino-senpai."

Sonoko stood in front of Fujino, smiling lightly, and asked, "How did you do on the recent small test?"

"The small test? I didn't really pay much attention."

Fujino frowned.

The small test must have been the math exam that morning. The results were announced before lunch break, but he was too busy studying to check.

After a moment's thought, he pulled out a test paper from his desk and replied, "It should be a perfect score."

"Huh?"

Sonoko leaned in to take a look, her eyes widening in surprise. "It really is a perfect score…"

"By the way, Sonoko, how did you do?"

Fujino casually asked.

"Ah… well…"

Sonoko awkwardly fumbled with her words, her hand gripping the test paper tightly behind her back.

She had intended to comfort Fujino, who she thought might be struggling.

But she didn't expect Fujino to get a perfect score…

This situation was a bit embarrassing.

"Why did Fujino-senpai also get a perfect score?"

Back at her seat, Sonoko looked at the red marks and corrections on her test paper, scratching her head in frustration.

"Sonoko, you'd better work hard!" 

Ran, sitting in front of her, turned around with a smile. "If you paid more attention in class and weren't so 'sickly,' your grades wouldn't be so bad."

"Ran!"

Sonoko's face turned red at Ran's words. "I just don't have a talent for studying. Studying requires talent, after all…"

She then looked at Fujino with a forlorn expression. "Like Fujino-senpai, who failed the last exam and now got a perfect score… It must be a talent thing!"

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*End of Chapter*