Andrew couldn't believe what he was seeing right now.
Well, he could believe it but he was inclined to not want to.
"Bro, where the fuck is my girl at?! This protagonist's charm doesn't even make sense… she didn't even bat an eye at me!"
Andrew grimaced upon thinking this, he didn't get trapped in thought for too long, but it definitely hit his self-esteem.
"Well whatever, my time will come, it'll just be with side characters and not main protagonists. There are plenty of beauties around…"
Andrew finished his pondering, and then he approached Zachary.
"Yo man, what's up bro?" Andrew asked with a sly expression on his face.
"Nothing much… why do you got that look on your face though?" Zachary responded, with a slight feeling of being violated for some reason.
"Nah it's nothing bro… who's that girl though?"
"Huh, what girl?"
"That girl who just eyed you up bruh, don't play stupid with me!" Andrew said, cackling in his head.
"Look bro, I really don't know what you're talking about. I have no idea who that girl is… I've never met her in my life I swear!" Zachary quickly said in attempts to defend himself.
"You definitely got something special within you Zach, that shit was insane. She didn't even turn her gaze to anyone else upon entering the school, but not only did she stop in front of you, she smiled at you and made direct eye contact."
"I'm not busting your balls, that's good shit. She hot as a mfer bro." Andrew said slyly with a laugh, slapping Zachary's back with a bit more force than he meant to.
"Regardless, let's just get into the school… What's your schedule looking like Andrew?"
Zachary was trying to pivot this conversation, he could feel the eyes of many students looking at him with envy and wonder.
"I got 8:30 AM basic breathing technique class for first period until 11, and then I got lunch from 11:10-11:45, Intermediate combat class from 12-1:30 PM, Academic Literature from 1:40-2:50, and then to finish off the day Intermediate body tempering class from 3:00-4:30…"
Andrew showed Zachary his piece of paper, in which Zachary held up his next to Andrew's.
Andrew was a little star-struck upon seeing what classes Zachary was taking.
"Bro, you got genius tier classes for every single one?! Not only that you got a full schedule of martial arts!"
"The faculty must've seen your potential, this is kind of nuts for a low grade talent." Andrew said, scanning the piece of paper multiple times, making sure he didn't misread it.
In reality, he was only a little surprised, he knew this kid would experience a bunch of rivalries in the genius placement.
"Yea I was kind of shocked too…" Zachary said, "However this is the first step towards supremacy, no way am I gonna back down from this!"
Zachary had a resolute expression on his face, Andrew smiled seeing this out of good faith.
"Yea… keep getting stronger so I can also get stronger…" he thought to himself with a greedy expression unknowingly creeping onto his face.
Whatever opportunities Zachary faced, he would also get a small piece of the pie as well.
This was just what he wanted out of this young disciple in training.
"Alright, we don't got time for dilly dallying, let's get our asses inside before we're late." Andrew said, before taking the lead and walking into the school.
….
Andrew and Zachary quickly separated, as their classes were on opposite sides of the building.
Thankfully, everyone had the same lunch period, which Andrew considered a blessing, as it gave him time in the day to meet up with this protagonist.
Andrew quickly found his classroom, he walked inside and sat in the far corner of the back row, closest to the window.
Students quickly filed in, filling in the remaining seats.
Andrew did a cursory scan of the students, checking their talents in case of a hidden gem.
"Hmm, doesn't seem to be anything too worthwhile in here… maybe I was too hopeful of the basic class." he thought, refocusing his attention to the front of the room.
No more than 5 minutes passed before the teacher walked into the class.
Andrew was quickly dumbfounded, this teacher was simply too beautiful in his eyes!
Now, in reality she wasn't like supermodel tier, however she gave off a youthful but experienced demeanor.
Her eyes contained much deeper maturity than any of the students at least, and her body… well, it certainly met the standards of this world.
"Goddamn… this gonna be a rough class for my teenaged body…"
Andrew quickly stabilized his mind, he took notice of the rest of the students in the class.
Nobody heeded too much attention.
After all, not many students had a taste in older women, especially when they viewed her as somewhat forbidden and untouchable.
"Good morning everyone! This is the basic breathing control class. I'll keep it short and sweet as to not waste time, this class is specifically designed to help all of you ready your minds for the path of cultivation, to center yourselves in the face of potential imposing dangers…"
"I don't have too high of expectations for this course, all I ask is that you pay attention and learn the material thoroughly, as unfortunately I do have to test you on some fundamental ideas."
"Well, I look forward to working with all of you. If there's any problems that occur you can feel free to meet me in my office at any point. I'm here until 8 PM most days. My name is Julia Smith, but you may refer to me as Ms. Smith…"
"Okay, let's get started then— the first lesson is exploring subjective experience and philosophy through the mind's eye…"
The teacher's voice carried a slightly cold, yet comforting tone.
Anyone could tell she was a capable person, so Andrew decided to sneak a peek at her talent.
"Oh! That is quite interesting indeed…" he thought to himself, his expression slightly turning serious.
[Status - Julia Smith
Stats - unknown
Talent - Level 5 Mid Rank Agility Talent (5X Agility)
]
"This one! This will be my next talent to copy for certain!"
Andrew steadied his gaze, and came to this resolution in his mind.
It was the perfect talent for him at this point, and it covered his relative strangeness in his strength if he ever got retested at some point.
The lecture continued on from here, and Andrew made sure to take note of everything that was being said.
He already knew most of what was being taught at this point, however he kept note of the structure of what was being taught.
He knew from his past experiences learning there was surface level information, and then there was the invisible layer of information being the actual structure.
The structure is what formed the base foundation of what was being discussed, forming an almost geometric sequence of information that created a stable center general point.
At least, this is how Andrew defaulted to viewing everything that he discussed with people.
This was the most efficient way of compressing, and this was even the actual method used by the ASI in his past life to discover the truth about the universe.
Upon comparing structure, Andrew did feel a few menial things he could add as scaffolding to his understanding, however they weren't truly necessary.
"There's always something new to learn…" he thought while sighing internally.
This was his core philosophy of life, there was always something new to add to his toolbox of understanding, nothing was useless.
Soon after, the bell rang, meaning class was already over, and it was time for him to get something to eat to refuel his brain and body.
Andrew navigated to the cafeteria, hopping in line at the buffet-style counter.
He scanned the food options, they definitely didn't look as good as he was hoping.
"Damn, I could cook something better than this with a blindfold…" he thought, before shimmying his way down gradually to the chicken breasts and mac and cheese.
After taking a generous serving of each, he grabbed a fork and started scanning the cafeteria.
He quickly landed on an individual towards the middle, completely alone at a table for 12.
He made his way over to the table, sneaking up on the figure.
"Yo!" Andrew suddenly yelled, slightly jolting the kid from the back.
"Goddamn bro… that wasn't funny!" Zachary's voice resounded as he jolted.
…..