After arriving in front of the class, "Okay, I'm heading to my classroom now, honey," Daisy said while kissing Dennis's cheek. Dennis just nodded without answering, though he did kiss Daisy's forehead in return. After Daisy left, Dennis took a breath and exhaled before stepping into the room. As he walked in, "shhht"—every single head turned to look at him, making Dennis flinch. Ignoring the dozens of eyes staring at him, he lowered his head and walked straight to his seat in the back.
Seeing a stranger sit in the spot of someone who was usually overlooked—yet hard to miss because of his massive size—the entire class was stunned. The facial expressions of everyone, without exception, showed they couldn't believe what they were seeing and were dying to know what had happened. Some even squinted their eyes, slapped their own cheeks, or pinched their arms, hoping that what they were seeing was a mistake and trying to make sense of their own eyes. After that, whispers began to fill the air.
"Is that... the fat kid? The one Jason shared yesterday... is that him?" a girl asked in a whisper.
"No doubt about it, he's the guy from Jason's photo yesterday. So that's Dennis? Seriously?" another girl asked.
"This is very insane, I heard a watermelon fell on him and now he looks like that. Man, I want a watermelon to fall on me too if that's the case," a young man muttered.
"Okay, later when we go home, we'll go to the supermarket and buy a watermelon. I'll drop it on your head so you can change, and when we have kids later, it'll improve the gene pool," said the girl next to him, who was apparently his wife.
"If that really is Dennis... then he's a perfect match for Daisy now... there goes my chance. I was actually planning to divorce the person next to me and go after Daisy... sigh, how depressing," another young man said, accidentally speaking his heart's desires aloud.
"Huh... you want to divorce me? I'm not losing to Daisy, don't you dare try anything," the girl next to him shouted, grabbing and pulling the young man's ear.
"Ow... ow... let go... let go, that hurts!" the young man cried out.
"Ugh... why did I ask for a partner swap back then? I was actually paired with Dennis at first... I'm so jealous of Daisy. I regret who I'm with now," a girl said, also accidentally letting her true feelings slip out.
"Huh... what do you mean? You regret being my wife? You want a divorce?" the young man next to her asked.
"N... no, I'm sorry! I was just kidding. Please don't divorce me, honey," the girl said, panicking as she desperately tried to coax her husband.
Eventually, the whispers turned into full-blown arguments between couples inside the classroom. The guys were jealous because their wives were looking at Dennis with a different kind of gaze. The men who were unhappy with their wives and wanted to pursue Daisy—thinking their only rival was the "old" Dennis—felt disappointed, while those with partners in the classroom next door gossiped intensely.
Meanwhile, Dennis, who was trying to ignore what he heard, felt increasingly pressured because he was now the object of conversation, yet not a single person actually spoke to him. Just like usual, he was alone in class.
Dennis observed all his classmates; he saw that the state of his class was slightly different. Almost everyone was paired up, carrying weapons, and belonging to various races. There were some with green skin, some with long ears, and even some with dragon horns, though the majority remained human.
Of course, in his heart, he knew the sight before him was very different from what he knew before, even though most of his past life memories had faded and even disappeared. Dennis could only stay silent, staring at his desk as if it were the most interesting thing in the universe.
"Based on what the admin staff said earlier, those who undergo an awakening definitely experience a physical change. Maybe they meant their race? Even though I don't remember my previous life anymore, I still remember my favorite game," Dennis muttered to himself.
"Thump," Dennis turned his head. His eyes widened as he saw Jason standing slack-jawed in the doorway, having dropped his sniper bag on the floor. It was obvious Jason was staring at him in shock; the gears behind his eyes could practically be heard spinning fast, trying to process the image in front of him. He struggled to wrap his head around it, not wanting to believe that the man he saw at Daisy's apartment was sitting in Dennis's seat—and was clearly Daisy's husband.
Dennis, seeing Jason staring blankly and remembering how Jason had photographed him and spread it through the group chat, stood up and approached him. He picked up Jason's fallen bag and hooked it back onto his shoulder, looking down slightly since he was a bit taller than Jason.
"Your bag fell. Please delete that photo from yesterday. Thanks," Dennis said in a deep voice that, as his friends noticed, had also changed from how it used to sound.
"O... okay, dude," Jason stammered.
Jason immediately pulled his smartphone out and opened it, his fingers dancing across the screen as he deleted the photo he had shared yesterday. Afterward, he held the screen up to Dennis's face to show him. Dennis naturally looked relieved and smiled.
"Thanks," Dennis said, serious and sincere.
But Jason looked strange. His face turned pale and his mouth hung open; he looked terrified, as if he were staring at a literal nightmare in front of him. Then, the entire class fell silent. A confused Dennis turned to look at the room, seeing all his classmates suddenly go quiet and avoid his gaze. They immediately pretended to talk to one another, the noise level dropping instantly.
"Wait... what's wrong with them?" Dennis asked, baffled.
"S... sorry, dude, can I go to my seat?" Jason asked.
"Huh... go right ahead," Dennis answered, confused as to why Jason was even asking for permission.
Jason immediately bolted inside, pulling a girl along with him who seemed to be his wife, Kimberly. She was whispering to Jason, and Dennis caught her words: "See? I told you shouldn't just go around sharing gossip, honey. If he kills you, what am I supposed to do?"
"Huh... what does that even mean," Dennis muttered to himself in confusion.
He turned to see Jason and his wife sitting at their desk; the wife was rambling at Jason while occasionally glancing back at Dennis, her fear clearly visible. Dennis returned to his seat and sat down. He was baffled because the silence in the room had become so heavy and suffocating. It was as if he were emitting radiation that forced his classmates to face forward, not daring to look back, whispering whenever they spoke—even though everything had been fine before.
As he thought long and hard, he realized something: none of the other guys had a body as large and muscular as his. Add to that his class status—a Barbarian—which exuded an air of intimidation to those around him just by standing still. It hadn't really mattered at first because no one noticed, but once Jason arrived and they interacted, everything changed. The color drained from his face again; he suddenly understood why his classmates were acting this way toward him.
He was being seen as a thug or a delinquent. It was different from when he was viewed as an outcast—the fat, cross-eyed kid who didn't smell good. This also explained why Bella was so angry seeing him walk with Daisy; Bella surely thought he had hurt the fat Dennis, her childhood friend, regardless of the cruel things she had actually said about Dennis. The result for Dennis in the end? He was still all alone.
"My god, even after changing, I'm still being ostracized. This has to be a joke, dammit," Dennis said to himself as he looked down and rested his head in his hands.
After the school bell rang, a male teacher entered the room. Without wasting any time, he looked straight at Dennis and mentioned he had heard from the admin staff that Dennis had undergone an awakening. He then asked the classmates to congratulate him, but suddenly, he felt that the atmosphere in the room was strange, silence but suffocating.
He noticed the faces of his students, who looked pale and terrified, and then they all remained silent. Meanwhile, Dennis just kept his head down, not knowing what to say. In the end, the teacher didn't say anything else and went straight into the lesson as if nothing were wrong, though his face clearly said, "Hmm... I'll find the cause of this unpleasant atmosphere later."