Chapter 49: Sonoko Suzuki’s Embarrassment

"Ring!"

Early in the morning, Fujino was once again jolted awake by the loud ringing of his phone.

"Damn it, why is someone always calling me early in the morning…"

He grumbled as he sat up in bed, shaking his head to clear away the drowsiness.

Taking out his phone, he saw the caller ID: [Shibasaki Mieko].

Seeing the familiar name, half of his irritation instantly vanished.

Oh… it's a client. That's fine then.

After a brief moment, he answered the call, speaking doubtfully into the receiver, "Miss Shibasaki Mieko? What can I help you with?"

"Detective Fujino, are you free right now?"

Mieko's voice came from the other side of the line.

Fujino glanced at the clock on the wall, thought for a moment, and replied, "I've got school today, so I won't be free until after 4 p.m."

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

"In the evening?"

Fujino raised an eyebrow. "But… don't you have that concert to prepare for?"

Mieko sighed lightly and explained, "That was the plan, but Tatsuya seemed to have twisted his back coming home last night, so today's concert has been canceled…"

"Twisted his back?"

Hearing this, Fujino's brows furrowed deeply—he felt something fishy.

Twisted his back…?

Don't tell me… those two fought until the middle of the night?

After a moment's silence, a faintly amused smile curled on Fujino's lips.

———

Noon, Class 2-B, during lunch break.

Outside the classroom, sunlight filtered through the branches, accompanied by a gentle breeze. For a moment, it felt like autumn had returned.

Fujino sat at his desk, chin resting on his palm, staring thoughtfully at his system's professional interface:

[Student: Advanced (500 proficiency points required for breakthrough)]

[Profession Skills:]

Student Discount (Advanced: Whether in the system or in real life, the host enjoys a 10% discount on all purchases! Note: Current skill has reached the bottleneck for this profession level; please break through to unlock further benefits)

Natural Scholar (Intermediate: Increases the host's learning efficiency by 150%)

"So… the student discount's already hit its bottleneck, huh?"

Looking at the interface, Fujino couldn't help muttering to himself.

The system's profession levels were roughly divided into four tiers: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Peak.

With each level increase, you gain one skill point for distribution.

Reaching Peak would give him four points in total.

However, professional skills could each go up to Advanced, requiring three points each to max out.

If he wanted to max out two skills simultaneously, four points wouldn't be enough.

So Fujino had long expected to encounter bottlenecks like this with his current skill distribution.

If his guess was correct, there might even be higher ranks beyond Peak—maybe something like first or second-class transitions, or some other advanced progression system.

Who knew?

"But still… if it takes 500 proficiency points just to get from Advanced to Peak, how many will it take to reach whatever level comes after that?"

His eyes fell on the remaining required proficiency: 500 points.

He couldn't help but grumble inwardly.

At first, he'd been earning about 50 proficiency points per day just by attending school. After unlocking Natural Scholar, that number could even exceed 100 points per day.

But lately, his earnings had dropped sharply.

Just today, after a full day of classes, he'd only gained 50 points… and it might decrease even more in the future.

"Is it because I've already caught up with all the coursework I was behind on?"

Fujino speculated, then sighed, "Looks like I'll need to focus on upgrading Natural Scholar soon."

After upgrading to Intermediate, Natural Scholar had boosted his learning efficiency by 1.5 times compared to Beginner.

In other words, something that used to take him six hours to learn now only took four and a half.

Classes at Teitan High typically started at 8 a.m., with a break at noon, and resumed from 1 p.m. to around 3 p.m.

Altogether, that's about eight hours of school time, minus about an hour for breaks, meaning actual study time was just under seven hours.

By further enhancing his Natural Scholar skills, Fujino could cram more learning into even less time.

This was exactly what he needed right now.

The more knowledge he could absorb, the more Student proficiency points he could earn.

And more proficiency points meant breaking through to Peak level sooner, unlocking the bottleneck on his student profession.

"Fujino-senpai!"

Right then, a familiar voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

Turning his head, he saw Sonoko Suzuki, dressed in her school uniform, standing right in front of him.

"Hey, hey, Fujino-senpai."

Sonoko leaned in close, smiling brightly. "How'd you do on this morning's quiz?"

"The quiz? Honestly, I didn't pay much attention to it."

Fujino frowned slightly.

The quiz must've been that math test they took earlier this morning. Results should've been posted before lunch, but he'd been too preoccupied with studying to bother checking.

After rummaging through his desk drawer, he finally pulled out the paper and casually replied, "Looks like I got a perfect score?"

"Huh?"

Sonoko leaned closer for a look, and her face froze in disbelief.

"…It is a perfect score."

"By the way, how'd you do?"

Fujino followed up nonchalantly.

"Ah… that…"

Sonoko stammered, her voice faltering, as she nervously clenched the test paper hidden behind her back.

Originally, she'd come over intending to console Fujino in their shared academic struggles.

But now… this bastard had gotten a perfect score!

Talk about awkwardness.

"Why can Fujino-senpai get a perfect score?!"

Back at her desk, Sonoko clutched her crumpled quiz, glaring bitterly at the messy red marks all over it.

"Sonoko, I think you should start taking your studies a bit more seriously."

Ran, sitting in front of her, turned her head around and smiled gently. "If you actually paid attention in class and didn't always play the 'delicate and sickly' act, your grades wouldn't be this bad."

"Ran!"

Sonoko's face flushed red. "I just don't have any talent for studying, that's all! Studying takes talent too, y'know…"

As she spoke, her gaze drifted over to Fujino, her expression full of helpless frustration.

"Like Fujino-senpai—didn't he fail his last test? Now he's suddenly acing everything… yep, definitely a talent problem!"

(End of Chapter)