The next day, after a rough round of negotiations over house chores, we headed to the university for the freshman introduction. And by "rough," I really mean it.
It seems that my new roommates have some rather peculiar personalities. Notably, Kyoya was the only one who was willing to do chores since no one else is capable. So, both of us decided to assign them the easier tasks.
We walked for half an hour before reaching the main building, and everyone except me was exhausted.
"Did none of you work out? Not even a little?"
Kyoya, the most mature of the four and the one who seemed to have some work experience, responded. He was also the least affected by the exhausting walk up that steep hill.
"Masachika... ugh... It's not us who are weak; it's you who's a freak!" Kyoya replied.
"Thank you!"
I owe my thanks to Ayano since it's those never-ending badminton rallies that helped me level up my [Stamina] skill to level 30. In fact, it's now at 42, but it isn't just badminton anymore; I've started getting into more intriguing adult sports recently. Honestly, I think I might be getting addicted to it. Not that it's a bad thing; I also gain other benefits from it besides the enjoyment.
"Well, let's part ways. Everyone has their own seat, right? We'll regroup afterward," I said.
After promising to meet up later, each of us went our separate ways.
I found a seat in the front row, right in front of the professor's desk, and began to observe the other students.
Two reasons I realized I was in some sort of anime were the variety of hair colors and the overall appearance of people. Back in my previous life, most Japanese people had black hair, but here, I saw a spectrum of different natural hair colors. I'm not an expert in genetics, but it seems common for a child to have a different hair color from their parents. For example, there was a couple with blue and green hair walking with their pink-haired daughter. It was strange for someone not from this universe.
Secondly, the physical appearance of the people here was striking.
Girls were cuter, and women were more alluring; the same went for the guys. Even newborns were irresistibly cute. It was rare to see anyone with acne, and almost no one had freckles. Oh, and I also noticed that no one had a fever higher than 38.7 degrees.
These were all things I've seen countless times in anime.
So, to sum it up, people here are both more attractive and peculiar overall, but in this particular classroom, I noticed some borderline strange individuals.
There was a girl in a wig, a mask, and a beret who seemed to be hiding her identity—and she was succeeding, as I was the only one who cared. Another girl was dressed in an all-black outfit, with black lipstick, dark rings under her eyes, and silver piercings all over her body.
And then there was a thug. No more to add—just a stereotypical thug with a green mohawk and the appearance of a tough guy. He was oddly strange enough that even others noticed.
But someone else caught everyone's attention... me.
I could feel their gazes on me, surprised to see a kid among them. A few of them seemed excited to have a legal shota as a fellow student in their class. I won't correct them; I'm a shota alright, just not in the legal sense.
I just need to avoid poking my nose where it doesn't belong. I enjoy female company like any other guy—no, probably a lot more—but I don't like to create drama in my life, or rather, in this world. As the saying goes, "Don't shit where you eat," or whatever the idiom is.
---
After a long speech from the department director and an inspiring one from Misaki-sensei, we looked around a bit before everyone returned to their own activities. And so, college life began for real. The first lessons weren't easy, as we had to follow the teachers while they worked with older students and took notes.
They made sure to explain clearly what they were doing and took extra time to ensure we were following along. I appreciated these lessons; they were far more engaging than the boring ones I experienced in my previous life. I felt fortunate to be considered a prodigy because I certainly wouldn't have had the patience to leave school and become a gangster.
I also started to make friends and avoid being a loner, which was essential for creating connections with people I could invite to work for me. There were some interesting talents among my classmates, but one group of friends really stood out: my roommates.
Tsurayuki is skilled in scriptwriting, Nanako has a fantastic voice (and I still wonder why she's in the acting program instead of the singing curriculum), Shinoaki is a talented artist, and Kyoya... well, I suspect he might be a returnee or even a time traveler. During some conversations, he dropped facts that seemed completely nonsensical from a typical student's perspective. When others asked how he knew these things, he mentioned he had worked in that area for a while.
I'm willing to bet he is a time traveler, especially since he once talked about his favorite baseball player—who doesn't exist in the normal league. A little digging online revealed that he was still a college student playing in the college league and was being scouted by a couple of teams in the national league, but nothing solid had come of it.
Given that I'm pretty sure I'm living in some kind of anime world, this wasn't too surprising. What did catch me off guard was that, despite everything, Kyoya is a real chill guy. You can talk to him about just about anything; he's friendly, not introverted, and has a personality you can admire, along with a clear objective in mind...
He's the kind of protagonist you wouldn't expect to have typical protagonist traits. A breath of fresh air compared to the usual introverted loner with no interesting qualities. Honestly, he's such a good person that even if he were the lead in a harem story, I'd give him my blessing.
By the way, I also enjoy harem stories, but not the ones typically found in Japanese anime and manga—more like the ones featuring Chinese emperors. It's interesting to think about how I might fit into that narrative.
Switching gears back to interesting people, there's also a girl named Eiko Kawasegawa, who has a passion for art. As the author of her story might stereotypically depict, she has red hair, as red often symbolizes passion. Now, three weeks into the semester, Misaki-sensei assigned us our first significant homework project: creating a three-minute film with the theme of 'Time' in groups of four.
This created an awkward atmosphere in our group since we had five people. "Well, you four should stay together, and I'll work with someone else," I said. The others looked at me, troubled, probably thinking I was 'sacrificing' myself for them.
"Also, it's not because of you guys, but there's this hot girl in this class... anyway, don't worry about me," Masachika added.
"Pervert! I was worried about you!" Nanako exclaimed.
"Thank you for the compliment!".
"That wasn't a compliment!" Nanako shot back.
"Well, it's time to force my way into her group. See you at home! And Nanako, please don't burn the water!"
With that, I left them, with Nanako totally calm and not shouting.
The reason I left them to work on their own was that each of them was a genius in some way, and I wanted to see what they would create together. So, I made my way toward Kawasegawa-san.
"Eiko-chan, let me join your group!" I called out. It's a fun fact that I think she has something of a bone to pick with talented people—a trait I discovered and planned to leverage. It was refreshing to see the tick mark appear on her forehead at my shout.
Every day is a good day to be a little mischievous.
---
Ultimately, I joined her group. There were four roles, each based on specific tenets: direction, technique, casting, and production. I was assigned to casting, while Eiko handled production and direction. I jokingly teased her because Misaki-sensei referred to production as "ass wiping."
There's something special about Eiko that makes me enjoy annoying her. It's not any kind of strange love; she doesn't interest me romantically, and she has a little crush on our young time traveler.
One late evening, while I was working on a story I planned to publish later, I received a message from Yuki.
"Happy Birthday, Onii-chan! :*"
"Huh... I almost forgot about it... Wait, it's still ten minutes before midnight," I replied.
Her response melted my heart.
"I know, but I wanted to be the first to congratulate you."
Too cute~ I appreciated the message from my "World's Best Imouto," and we continued texting for the remaining time until she had to go to bed just before midnight.
As the clock struck midnight and the world shifted from 23:59 to 00:00, I received a notification.
//
Congratulations, you're now 9 years old.
Several limitations are now lifted.
You can now level up to level 10.
You can now train your stats.
Your seal on Mana is lifted.
[Dungeon Creation] is now usable.
[King of Awakening] is now usable.
//
Ha... Hahaha! And I wanted to sleep for tomorrow!
"Well, no time to grind like now!" I said, sounding like a true Gamer!