CHAPTER 33: MATH TEST

Nick’s gaze drifted from the window to the blue panel hovering just in front of his eyes.

No one else could see it. They never could.

[Ding! You have daily objectives!]

‣ Pass the upcoming math test

‣ Try out for any sports team (0/1)

‣ Make at least one new friend (male or female)

Rewards: +500 EXP, +1 random skill coupon and an A-rank magic spell of your choice!

He read it once, twice, then let out the softest huff of laughter through his nose.

Pass a math test. Try out for a team. Make a friend.

Things normal high-schoolers could do.

Things the old Nick would have sold every part of his body to accomplish even one of.

Now? They felt like warm-up quests.

Nick’s lips curved into a quiet, confident smile.

He gave the panel a small nod, the way a knight salutes his liege, and flicked his finger.

The blue screen dissolved like smoke.

Easy.

He also noticed something interesting.

He got bigger rewards for completing objectives in the real world than in the game world.

He wasn’t sure why.

Maybe the danger levels in both worlds were just so much different that even normal scenarios here counted as high-level tasks to the system.

It was hard to say... but it wouldn’t surprise him.

『I’ll worry about that later.』

The rest of the morning classes went by in a flash.

"Is that really Nick Aarden?"

"No way. That’s a transfer student cosplaying as Nick."

"He’s missing acne and 300 pounds kek!"

"Did he sell his soul or just his body fat?"

"Both. Definitely both."

Bree Hoffman sat three rows over, legs crossed as she angrily chewed on the tip of her thumb hard enough to leave teeth marks.

Her boyfriend is Derek.

He’s a linebacker and Jace’s close friend.

He’d been boring her for weeks.

Apparently he was worried about something and Anna had also said the same thing about Jace.

Now Bree was scouting for the next shiny thing to climb and be relevant in school again.

『I can’t believe I treated him like shit...』

She bit harder on her thumb.

In her eyes, she may have accidentally thrown the shiniest thing in the entire school off a cliff.

Oops.

She watched the way Nick’s blazer stretched across his back when he wrote something down, the way his long fingers and perfect nails held the pen like it was a quill instead of cheap plastic.

He was going to be king of this place in a week.

Maybe even less.

Bree’s tongue touched the roof of her mouth.

『I have make him mine... fast...』

For his part, Nick kept his head low with a blank face.

He only answers when teachers called on him.

But Miss Adeline?

She was conducting psychological warfare!

"Nick, sweetheart, could you clean the board?"

Soft smile and a cute wink.

His teacher is very cute!

"Nicholas, darling, the bottom left corner still has some chalk ghosting~"

Another soft smile, plus deliberate finger-brushing when she handed him the duster.

Every. Single. Time.

Their hands touched so many times today.

And each time her cheeks would turn red.

He was on his fifth trip to the whiteboard when a girl in the second row whispered.

"God, even his ass looks expensive."

It was loud enough for half the class to hear.

Someone choked on their own spit.

Nick pretended not to hear, wiped the board with calm, mechanical swipes, and walked back to his seat while thirty pairs of eyes tracked the movement of his shoulders like it was a tennis match.

He was tired of being a walking thirst trap.

He’d fought a dragon last week. This was worse.

Jace sat in the back left corner.

His gripped his pen tightly as he stared at the same line in his notebook for forty straight minutes.

Tap...Tap... Tap...

His pulse hammered in his ears.

『He’s dead. He’s dead. I’m sure he is...』

The guy two rows up turned and glanced out the window like he was bored.

But that almost killed Jace’s heart.

Killing someone by mistake will do that to a person.

Across the aisle, Susan kept trying to whisper to him.

"Jace, that’s literally impossible. There’s just no way this guy is Nick, okay? This one lives in my estate! Nadine has a big crush on him so... so it’s not like I don’t know what I’m saying! This is an impersonator! Shameless!"

She paused, tilted her head.

"Okay, but he does have the same cute blue eyes that Nick does just a little sharper... maybe?"

Realizing what she just said, she flailed her hands.

She’s in front of her boyfriend after all.

"Not that your eyes aren’t pretty too!"

Jace didn’t hear a word.

He was too busy sweating through his varsity jacket in fifty-degree weather.

･･･

Then came the math test.

Miss Adeline passed the stacks down the rows like she was dealing playing cards in hell.

"Sixty questions. One hour."

She shared more test papers.

"The top four scores will represent us against Primrose High in two weeks. No pressure."

Groans rippled across the room.

The smart kids flipped to page one and immediately looked like they’d been betrayed.

Susan got swarmed.

"Sue, question two... what the hell is a Jacobian matrix doing on a high-school test?"

"Bruh, what is question six even about...?"

"Susan, please, I’ll venmo you twenty bucks—"

"She’s too rich for that!"

"What’s number four? I know the formula but I wanna be sure you know it..."

She sighed and started speed-whispering hints.

They were all grateful.

"Haah, Susan is a benevolent goddess!"

"She’s our class rep for a reason!"

Nick opened his test and scanned the first page.

"Hrmm..."

He frowned bitterly.

It wasn’t a scared frown though.

Just a genuinely confused one.

Miss Adeline noticed immediately.

『Sigh~ It’s probably too hard for him... I know he got a cute glow up but he’s never been good at any subject or topics we teach in class.』

She frowned like a gremlin.

『Kind of a turn off if you ask me...』 (¬////¬)

Even as a teacher, she’s not afraid to admit it.

Her heels clicked as she elegantly walked over.

She leaned down, one hand on the back of his chair.

"Nick, it’s okay if it’s too much right now. You’ve been away for a while. Just do your best."

Her voice was sweet like honey.

She sounded more like a supportive girlfriend.

The class erupted.

"Miss A, that’s favoritism!"

"You never baby us when we bomb!"

"Teacher’s pet privilege just because he’s hot now!"

Miss Adeline faced them with terrifying eyes that looked like they could melt her glasses.

"Everyone shut up or I will make this an open-book test worth two hundred points. Focus."

"Yes, ma’am!"

The entire class chirped in perfect unison.

Susan looked at Nick with pity and scribbled answers on a spare sheet to slide over later

"He probably needs some help..."

The test is only important for straight A students.

She just didn’t want him to get embarrassed again.

Miss Adeline peered at Nick’s paper, ready to comfort.

Then her eyes widened.

"Wait... why would you use the divergence theorem for question six?"

"That’s... actually a cleaner method."

"Question twelve... no, you’re right again."

"Seventeen? Twenty-three? Thirty-nine?"

He got them all right!

She snatched the test straight out of his hands.

Nick blinked once, then turned to stare mournfully out the window like a man awaiting execution.

"I’m done for..."

Miss Adeline speed-flipped pages.

The room held its breath.

She reached the last page.

Slowly, her lips parted.

"Ninety-five percent..."

She sounded shocked and tired.

"Maybe ninety-six. I have to double-check two of them to be sure, but..."

She was like a lost chicken on the road.

"You even got the Ivy-League-level questions right. On a test I designed to wreck seniors."

The classroom detonated.

"WHAT?!"

"No way he didn’t cheat!"

"Who even is this guy?!"

"I’m transferring. This isn’t fair."

Miss Adeline lifted a brow sharp enough to cut glass.

"Explain the confused face, then. You looked like you were trying to solve world hunger."

Nick chuckled sheepishly.

"Oh, that..."

He had a closed-eye smile that somehow made half the girls clutch their desks.

"Ah... well. I kind of solved everything in the first twenty minutes. Then I got cocky and started looking for questions I could deliberately get wrong so I wouldn’t get dragged into the quiz team."

He paused.

"Now that I think about it... saying it out loud makes it sound really stupid, doesn’t it?"

The entire class was silent.

This isn’t the Nick Aarden they knew.

Both in looks and brains.

[Ding! You’ve passed the math test and shocked all your classmates that bullied you!]

[Ride on! 1/3 daily objectives completed!]

Two more to go.