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Akira looked at his account balance. He still had one hundred sixty thousand points.
After all, he'd just paid the school authorities 1.2 million points.
After dinner, he returned to his dorm as usual to begin his daily basic boxing training.
For the past two weeks, he'd consistently adhered to basic training: footwork, punching speed, breathing rhythm... each item practiced repeatedly.
To be honest, Akira didn't feel any significant improvement.
After all, this was the real world. There were no levels, and no "Experience +1" prompts constantly popping up.
But just like consistently exercising every morning, he intended to continue doing this.
After all, persistence is the most fundamental prerequisite for doing anything well.
He practiced until almost 7:30 when there was a sudden knock on the door.
"Who is it?" Akira immediately stopped and grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat from his body.
"It's me, Shimizu-kun!" A girl's voice came from outside the door.
"Excuse me, could you please state your name? I really can't tell who you are." Akira was stunned for a moment, a hint of helplessness in his tone.
If it were an old friend of many years, he might recognize their voice, but a female classmate? He truly couldn't distinguish them.
That's why he sometimes found people who just stood at the door and said, "It's me" particularly annoying—if he recognized them, great, everyone's happy.
If he couldn't recognize her, how awkward would that scene be?
"It's Karuizawa Kei, Shimizu-kun! How could you not recognize my voice?" The voice from outside the door carried a hint of petulance.
Akira couldn't help but find it a little amusing.
Isn't it perfectly normal not to recognize her?
If he could truly recognize someone just by their voice, that would be truly unsettling.
After all, they were just classmates who'd exchanged a few words.
He couldn't quite fathom the purpose of this uninvited guest's visit.
However, since she was already standing at the door...
Akira hesitated for a moment, then walked over and slowly opened the door.
"Shimizu... Wow! You, why aren't you wearing clothes?" Karuizawa was silently complaining about him taking too long to open the door, but to her surprise, what greeted her eyes was the boy's bare upper body.
His powerful muscles, taut from his recent workout, gleamed with a healthy sheen under the light.
Karuizawa's gaze was like a magnet, unable to tear away.
'This physique... it's too unfair!'
Akira's build was astonishingly good, even surpassing the male models Karuizawa had seen in fashion magazines recently.
'Come to think of it, I even touched him once last week.'
She suddenly recalled how, last week, to get on better terms with Akira, she'd deliberately grabbed his abdomen.
She remembered the sensation clearly—hard and firm, and surprisingly pleasant to the touch.
This made her involuntarily superimpose her current feelings onto that memory.
The sound of her heart beating in her chest also became exceptionally clear.
'Is this... sexual tension?'
That kind of attraction, needing no words, purely stemming from biological instinct.
Just like wild animals are attracted to stronger members of their species.
What's more, she was already a girl who severely lacked a sense of security.
'No, it's not! I'm not some animal in heat!'
She mumbled to herself, finally forcing her gaze away from him.
However, Akira saw this clearly.
He wasn't blind. Karuizawa had stared at him for several seconds. How could he not notice such a movement?
"Karuizawa-san... you're acting strange. Wasn't one touch last time enough?" Akira said, following her train of thought.
A quick glance would've been fine, but what did staring at him for eight full seconds mean?
She was really that hungry for his body, wasn't she?
"Uh... You! Hurry up and put some clothes on! Really!" Karuizawa's earlobes instantly flushed red. She lightly pushed him and casually grabbed a T-shirt from his bed, throwing it to him.
However, after throwing the clothes, she didn't leave, but simply turned her back to him.
"..." Akira didn't say much. He looked at her back and slowly put on the T-shirt.
"I'm changed," he called out.
"Speaking of which, you didn't come all this way just to smell my sweat, did you?" Akira casually picked up the towel draped over the back of the chair and wiped the thin sweat from his neck.
Karuizawa finally turned around, the blush on her face not yet completely faded, but she'd already adopted her usual slightly petulant expression. "Who came all this way? I just happened to be passing by and remembered something I needed to ask you."
"Oh? What is it?"
"You haven't shown up at the boxing club these past two days! I've been going all by myself."
"The club president told me to try not to go, saying I'd affect the training of other new members."
"Huh? Affect what? I think that black guy from Class C has a physique pretty similar to yours."
Akira raised an eyebrow slightly. "As a manager, you shouldn't say things like that in front of him. You might get beaten up. I won't help you then. You'd be asking for it."
He vaguely guessed who she was referring to, likely a first-year student from Class C, but he couldn't recall the specific name at the moment.
Karuizawa's body stiffened at his words. Realizing her slip of the tongue, she quickly cleared her throat twice to cover her embarrassment. "...I understand."
After a moment of hesitation, she stammered, adding, "Um... the message I sent you last time didn't mean that the points weren't enough... In short, the portion I owe you will definitely be paid in full. You don't need to worry about that..."
Akira watched her slightly stiff movements and couldn't help but shake his head again internally.
Just the class fee alone was twenty-five thousand points, not to mention the additional expenses required for the monitoring system's operation.
Akira secretly calculated that the number in her account had probably already hit rock bottom, possibly even falling into the negative.
At this point, was she still trying to act tough?
Just then, Karuizawa's phone suddenly rang.
She casually pulled her phone from her pocket, glanced at the caller ID, and pressed the answer button directly.
"Hello? Chiaki? Is there something you need at this time?"
"What? Kushida-san came to the dorm to find you? And it's about the class fee again?"
"In any case, I absolutely won't pay! And you're not allowed to agree to her either! Didn't the four of us already agree to stick together?"
"Eh? You said you're looking for me again? But I'm not in the dorm right now!"
"...Actually, I'm at... Shimizu-kun's room right now! Don't get the wrong idea! We're just discussing club activities!"
After Karuizawa hung up, her fingers quickly tapped on the phone screen again.
Akira, nearby, had heard the entire conversation clearly.
It seemed the reason the Class D gyaru girls' clique had been delaying paying the class fee was because of Karuizawa.
However, in Akira's judgment, the person involved probably hadn't thought that much about it. It was simply that she didn't have enough points to pay the class fee.