*CLANG*
Suddenly snapping her head up from her phone, Haerin glanced forward...and there, under the light of a torch, was a familiar figure.
With messy purple hair, clumps visible due to the lack of combing, cascading down to her waist, Serena casually walked forward, her eyes locked onto the notebook in her hands.
She's smart, right!?
Haerin hadn't spoken to Serena much, even when they were children, due to her insociable attitude and isolated nature, yet in the face of zero allowance, that didn't stop her.
Approaching the oblivious Serena, Haerin happily asked as if they were friends.
"Hey Serena, some late-night studying? I was about to do the same thing. Want to study together? I-"
Hearing Haerin about to go off on a rant, Serena lazily looked up from her book, her messy bangs almost blocking her purple eyes, and said irritably, as if talking itself were a chore.
"I don't need to study. And you? You're an idiot, so you'll fail either way."
With those condescending words, she glanced back down at her book, as if Haerin weren't even worth her sight, and walked off silently.
"..."
Fuming, her body trembling with anger, Haerin could only glance at Serena's back.
"Who the hell does she think she is!?"
More motivated than ever, Haerin made a right and entered the empty library, taking a seat at one of the desks on the first floor.
Turning on a lamp, she rapidly pulled out her textbooks and notebook, resisting the urge to turn on her smartwatch.
Yet...just as she opened her textbook, ready to begin....
*BANG*
A resounding bang echoed from the bookcases behind her, spreading throughout the entire library.
Instinctively, Haerin's hand reached downward, grasping the hilt of her sheathed sword tensely, ready to attack.
Glancing to the right, the direction of the sound, she spotted, amidst the maze of bookcases that towered up to the ceiling,...a student kneeling under a torch?
...
...
...
It was perfect.
Due to the practical tomorrow, everyone was either sleeping to recover their bodies or cramming for the written exam in their dorm room.
Kneeling down, under a familiar bookcase, I used the light of the torch above me to rapidly scan the book titles in the area.
I needed money to buy a personal AI dummy bot, and there was no time to waste.
Later in the book, there'd be a treasure hunt within the academy as everyone, even the teachers, scrambled to find a secret vault, filled with millions of golden coins.
It shouldn't make a dent if I took one or two...hundred thousand, right?
Finally finding the correct book, the title reading "Transmigrating as an Extra Third-Rate Villain," I smiled and reached forward.
Grasping the book's spine, I instantly pulled it backward, and, as expected, a force prevented me from pulling it completely out.
A moment later, a familiar sound echoed.
*CLICK*
However, surprising even me, a much louder sound suddenly followed, as the wooden bookcase suddenly opened, revealing a hole.
*BANG*
Falling backward, banging my head against the opposite staircase, I took a deep breath.
Nobody should have heard that...right?
I had already watched Serena, the only person crazy enough to be awake at this time, walk out.
Yet...I couldn't help but notice a blue shine on my body.
...no, surely not.
My entire body was glowing a light-blue, like a star in the night sky, with dozens of holographic lines starting at my body and stretching into the library.
At this point, I didn't even care if I had been caught.
How...am I possibly supposed to fight someone like this?
There were over a hundred lines, all ending on different points of my body.
Finally, tilting my head and following the lines, I found a familiar figure sitting at a nearby desk, gazing right at me.
We instantly made eye contact, her jade-green eyes meeting my ocean-blue ones.
Ah...I see.
If it had been a normal person, or even a teacher, I would have been furious at my lack of power.
Thankfully, the cause of my lines was one of the World's strongest talents, so I could give myself an excuse.
In the next moment, though, a sudden feeling of confusion overwhelmed me.
What was she doing...in the library?
The girl who refused to touch a textbook, paid no attention in class, and openly mocked academics was studying in the middle of the night.
Snapping me back to reality, her voice suddenly sounded, echoing throughout the empty library.
"w-wh, did you hear that!?"
Silently nodding my head in agreement, I slowly glanced before me at the now open hole in the bookshelf, hoping she couldn't see it.
At that moment, though, just as I was about to back away, she said, as if having a light-bulb moment.
"y-you're in my class, right? I remember you! Dr. King always calls on you during that history class."
"..."
Serena never bothered to raise her hand, Carissa always remained silent in class...and despite their incredible strength, the rest of my class...was average at academics.
Thus, over the past week, despite my never raising my hand, I had become Dr. King's go-to call on whenever the classroom went silent at one of his questions.
Taking my silence as a "yes," she suddenly continued, pointing at her notebook while hiding her expression as if embarrassed by something.
"Are you studying...as well? I heard working in teams is better for everything. After all, you can cover double the mater-"
Hearing her go off on a rant about teamwork, I shut my ears and closed my eyes.
No.
How do I say no?
She could pay all the gold coins in the world, and I wouldn't ever tutor her.
Haerin...was programmed by me to be terrible at academics. Her carefree attitude, physically focused training programs, and short attention span were all intentionally implemented to prevent her from receiving good grades.
It would take hundreds... no thousands of hours of teaching to rewire her personality.
Though I was somewhat intrigued.
What could make a character like her stoop down to the level of asking me for help?