Girls are sensitive to a lot of things.
Like when a guy's whole vibe suddenly changes.
The gender ratio in the CS Department was pretty extreme—only 6 girls among 25 students in the class.
Aside from Imogen Blake, who was buried in her studies and side hustles, the other 5 girls had been paying varying degrees of attention to Arden West since the semester started a month ago.
After all, he was the class heartthrob.
But through observation, everyone figured out that Arden's financial situation was pretty average, and he was kind of a loner who preferred staying in his dorm.
The girls' interest significantly cooled off.
After all, college girls wanted an exciting life, and guys who could deliver that usually came from money.
However, over the past few days, Arden had developed this indescribable presence whenever he showed up to class.
Was it confidence? Or maybe that composed demeanor that comes from having serious backing?
Imogen glanced up at Arden. She wanted to sit with him, but all 6 girls in the class happened to be sitting together, and she felt too self-conscious about breaking away from the group.
So she didn't dare speak up.
"Hey, Emma."
"Mm, hello." Emma Anderson's gaze fixed on Arden, her eyes inexplicably wandering over his physique, making her feel a little parched.
For three days straight, Arden had been staying off-campus.
Every night, he'd send her a short video as a safety check-in, proving he was at a hotel.
It sounded innocent enough, but Arden—whether he was doing it on purpose or just being careless—every time he sent a video, it was a bit... suggestive.
Either he was at the pool, or he'd just gotten out of the shower.
Or he was in the executive lounge wearing a bathrobe that subtly revealed his sculpted chest.
All these luxury high-end settings, combined with his ridiculously good physique.
The past few nights, Emma had watched Arden's videos before bed—first unable to sleep, then dreaming about him.
She'd actually dreamed about her student for several nights in a row.
This was completely inappropriate!
Now, seeing Arden face-to-face, Emma recalled those fragmented, absurd dream sequences, and her cheeks flushed.
Even worse, Arden was wearing a fitted athletic shirt today that accentuated his broad shoulders and tall frame, making him look exceptionally masculine.
Emma couldn't help wanting to look, yet felt guilty inside. Quite the internal conflict.
[Ding! Detected an increase in Emma Anderson's favorability. Current favorability: 51.]
Arden had discovered information about his advisor Emma's favorability two nights ago.
He'd just finished sending Emma a selfie video for his safety check-in when the system notification popped up.
And every so often, the favorability would tick up a bit.
Last night, same thing happened.
This made Arden wonder—could Emma actually be into him?
Before heading out today, Arden had reviewed his chat history with Emma.
He'd identified a pattern: all three selfie videos shared the commonality of being shot in luxury hotels, and they all happened to showcase his enhanced physique from the body strengthening serum.
So today, Arden wore clothes that highlighted his build.
The result matched his expectations—after seeing Emma, she clearly showed unusual emotional responses.
And her favorability had increased to 51.
Just 9 more points, and she'd be at the level where she'd be willing to date him...
Wait, Emma, really?
Looking at the proper, dignified Emma Anderson, he never expected her to be into physiques.
This was actually a good thing, Arden thought.
He'd heard Emma came from an academic family with serious connections, and those connections weren't limited to Bayside City—they had higher-level implications.
After all, she was from Los Angeles.
She was probably way more influential than some small-time showoff like Evan Thornton who was also from Los Angeles.
No harm in building a relationship with Emma.
If her favorability kept rising to over 80, and she became locked in as a spending target, the system would have another avenue for cashback.
After all, the meaning of 'indulgence' was obtaining genuine inner happiness and enjoyment, and everyone's pleasure triggers were different.
In that case, collecting different types of confidantes was actually beneficial to Arden's wealth accumulation!
Right, no problem—it's all about making money. Nothing shameful about it!
Arden mulled this over without saying much more to Emma, then quickly walked to the back of the classroom and dropped into the seat next to Ryan Wells.
"My useless child, did you finish grinding that main quest for me?"
"Finished. I'm grinding the event for you now. This event's brutal—players on the forums are complaining like crazy."
"Does my account have any trouble with it?"
"What trouble? You've got a fresh 6+5 main DPS, plus the abyss environment buff. It's easy mode, dude."
"Good stuff."
Honestly, Arden didn't really care about rewards from high-difficulty stages anyway. The resources were for gacha pulls, and for gacha, you just needed to top up.
It was just that since he was playing a mobile game, he definitely wanted to achieve completionist goals.
Kind of like collecting confidantes... interesting!
After watching them finish talking about the game, Tyler Shaw couldn't help asking, "Arden, you've been staying off-campus these past few days?"
"Yeah, had a relative visiting."
"Oh, I see."
"What's up, need something?"
"Nothing, just curious."
Honestly, Tyler felt like Arden had been pretty mysterious lately—first getting an iPhone, then not coming back to the dorm at night.
Oh, and he'd become friends with Imogen Blake.
Now it seemed like the entire CS Department was buzzing with rumors that Arden and Imogen were playing League together.
After all, in CS, there were way too many guys and hardly any girls. They were all thirsty STEM dudes with their romantic aspirations thoroughly suppressed.
And a stunning beauty like Imogen Blake, placed in the CS Department, was basically a flawless diamond.
Countless people wanted to approach her, including Evan Thornton.
They'd tried every method imaginable—stylish approaches, creative ones, even purely materialistic ones.
For example, with the materialistic approach, one rich guy had reserved a $300+ set meal at a steakhouse near campus and invited Imogen to dinner.
To avoid making Imogen uncomfortable, the guy had even directly told her via text that she could bring her roommates, and he himself didn't have to show up.
That was genuinely impressive.
But Imogen completely ghosted him.
In contrast, Arden was hitting it off with Imogen—how could people not be envious?
"So what's it like gaming with the Ice Queen? Must be exhausting—pretty girls are usually terrible at games and super demanding." Tyler probed.
"I think it's pretty chill. She's not bad," Arden said honestly.
At that moment, Evan Thornton pulled off his headphones with a resentful expression. "Arden, I know you're in Silver rank, and Silver players are all wild cards who love freedom, but promise me—when you play with her, take good care of her and let her have her way a little, okay?"
"...I'll try."
Arden was internally sweating.
Wait, surely nobody in this class knows that Imogen is a Challenger, right?
Looking at Evan's constipated expression, Arden found it hard to comment. This guy seemed too caught up in some romance novel fantasy.
Fortunately, Emma soon announced the start of the class meeting.
After covering a few minor announcements, Emma led everyone to discuss today's main agenda.
"Next week during Fall Break, the school has a freshman autumn outing vlog event. Students who aren't going home and are staying on campus can team up with classmates to travel around areas near the city, film and edit the process into a vlog. Afterward, the Student Activities Committee will collect and evaluate the vlogs, and winners will receive cash prizes plus quality practice credits."