---
"Akashi-senpai practices here every night?"
"Only sometimes."
After a hundred spikes, Akashi Asuka still felt warmed up and ready for more. Nishimori Tomohiko, the one tossing balls, was already on the verge of collapse.
Akashi Asuka glanced at him.
Kid's stamina needs work.
He can't last long,
Or he gonna have a hard time keeping up with others later.
He wasn't sure if Nishimori sensed the meaning behind his look, but the boy's face suddenly flushed red.
"It's okay, Akashi-senpai. I can keep going."
Akashi Asuka shook his head.
"That's enough for today."
"But..."
"Body management is part of an athlete's training too. Pushing yourself too hard isn't always a good thing."
Before Nishimori could finish, Akashi Asuka cut him off. "Besides, after all that practice, I'm getting hungry. Time to head home and eat."
"Yes... I understand."
Nishimori's voice dropped low.
Akashi Asuka noticed his disappointment. After a moment's thought, he added, "Don't look so down. Your sets today were good. Thanks for the help. Be careful on your way home."
Nishimori's eyes brightened slightly. His voice grew stronger.
"Yes! I understand."
······
After saying goodbye to Nishimori and leaving school, Akashi Asuka stopped by a store on his way home and bought some ingredients. What he'd told Nishimori wasn't just an excuse... His stomach really was growling.
The energy the system used to boost his body didn't come from nowhere. It worked more like accelerating the results of his own training. The effects were obvious, but it burned through his body's stored energy much faster.
Akashi Asuka's family was a typical salaryman household.
Both his parents worked office jobs and kept busy schedules. At this hour, they still hadn't gotten off work yet. Unless it was a holiday, Akashi Asuka usually ate dinner alone—either cooking for himself or grabbing something outside.
The original Akashi Asuka had never learned how to cook.
But for the current Akashi Asuka, that was actually a good thing. He still hadn't figured out how to act around this body's parents.
In his past life, he'd been an orphan.
He'd long gotten used to being alone.
Even if these weren't his real parents... if Li Mingshi's actual parents had shown up back on Earth, he probably wouldn't have known how to get along with them either.
After eating and taking a shower...
Akashi Asuka returned to his bedroom. The clock on the wall read just past seven.
He stared at it and froze for a moment.
'In my whole middle school life back then, I don't think I ever went to bed before seven thirty. Now that life's this relaxed... I don't even know what to do with myself.'
After lying there for a while...
Feeling too restless to just laze around, Akashi Asuka got up, pulled his textbook out of his bag, and started reading.
Truth was, since starting college in his last life, he forgotten the most of the stuff from the middle school. But the curriculum here in this country was simple enough that it didn't matter. At a regular school like Sengoku Middle that followed "happy education" principles, third-year content was about as hard as first-year middle school back there.
In less than two hours...
Akashi Asuka had already finished an entire textbook.
At this pace, he figured he could start previewing high school material in under two weeks.
...
9:00 PM
Akashi Asuka got into bed right on schedule.
He wasn't particularly sleepy yet, but this was part of self-management too. His planned training load was heavy, and middle schoolers were still growing. To keep his body recovering properly, he needed both extra energy intake and more sleep.
The standard sleep time for ordinary students was eight hours.
To guarantee full recovery, Akashi Asuka budgeted himself nine and a half hours.
······
Next morning.
6:30 AM
Akashi Asuka woke up right on time. As he sat up, he instinctively moved his arms and paused in surprise.
'Is this the system's recovery effect?'
He checked his body condition and realized his recovery speed was far better than expected.
He'd thought yesterday's extra training several times his normal volume, itwould leave him sore and stiff this morning. But aside from a slight muscle fullness, his body felt completely normal.
His stomach, however, was extremely hungry.
'Makes sense. With the way this system pushes grinding, even a strong body would break down without protection. A recovery mechanism like this is basically necessary.'
'But if that's the case... maybe I can push my training plan even harder.'
His original plan had been to practice low-energy basic skills from six thirty to seven thirty—one hour total.
But with the system's protection in place, Akashi Asuka felt he could grind a bit more aggressively.
For example... adding another thirty minutes to an hour of stamina training.
Anyway, middle schools here didn't start morning reading until 8:50 AM. Even without the system, wasting that much morning time would feel like a crime to him.
······
[Ding...]
[The best time to grind is in the early morning. Using others' sleep time to secretly grind is a requirement for any qualified Grind King.]
[Congratulations. During daily training—receiving—you trained twice as much as your teammates and completed a low-level grind.]
[Earned: Receive Grind Points +0.1]
······
[Congratulations. During daily training—receiving—you trained three times as much as your teammates and completed a mid-level grind.]
[Earned: Receive Grind Points +0.2]
······
[Congratulations. During daily training—jumping—you trained twice as much as your teammates and completed a low-level grind.]
[Earned: Jump Grind Points +0.1]
······
[Congratulations. During daily training—jumping—you trained three times as much as your teammates and completed a mid-level grind.]
[Earned: Jump Grind Points +0.2]
······
8:10 AM
Akashi Asuka finished his grind... ahem, *morning training*. Drenched in sweat, he rushed to the bathroom, took a five-minute shower, then wolfed down an extra-large breakfast he'd prepared the night before. He also packed an extra-large bento for lunch.
8:30 AM
Akashi Asuka left home and headed to school.
8:46 AM
He walked into his classroom, dropped his bag, and went to the restroom.
8:49 AM
Akashi Asuka returned to his seat and pulled out his textbook.
At the exact same moment...
Sengoku Middle School's morning reading bell rang.
(End of Chapter)