When Hikari Aoi returned to his dorm and opened the virtual interface, he was momentarily stunned as he looked at the friendship points section.
It displayed 100.
Yesterday, it had only been 20.
And before that—
It had been zero.
In other words—
Today's interaction with Raiden Mei had directly given him a full 80 friendship points.
Now—
He could perform another Friendship Supply.
As for the reason—
Although he had spent more time with Mei today than yesterday, the difference wasn't that large. The gain in friendship points shouldn't be so easily influenced by how they interacted—at least, not to this extent.
So it probably had nothing to do with their sword practice.
Instead—
It was likely because Mei's favorability toward him had increased significantly.
Yesterday, he had still been a suspicious stranger.
Today—
They could already be considered friends.
Even close friends.
Mei had truly sensed a part of Hikari Aoi's feelings—
His desire to become stronger.
If friendship points could continue to increase at this rate daily—
Or even grow further—
Then just Raiden Mei alone might allow him to draw one Friendship Supply every day.
And in the future—
Once he came into contact with more Valkyries and potential Valkyries—
He might even be able to perform a ten-pull every day.
Of course—
By that time, the primary function of Friendship Supply would probably just be to provide coins.
If he wanted to truly increase his strength—
He would still have to rely on the advanced supply that consumed crystals—
Which had yet to appear.
Shaking off these thoughts, Hikari Aoi focused his mind and performed a Friendship Supply.
He had no intention of saving up for a ten-pull.
The previous ten-pull had been all green items—
Which proved that Friendship Supply had no guaranteed system.
So it was better to use the points immediately.
Getting stronger sooner was always better.
Three seconds later—
Looking at the blue glow of the item before him—
Hikari Aoi fell into silence.
…So Friendship Supply could also yield two-star items directly?
Then his previous ten-pull being all green—
…Was he just extremely unlucky?
No, no, no.
It must be that Friendship Supply not only lacked a guarantee, but also had a very low probability of yielding two-star items.
This eleventh draw producing a blue item—
Clearly meant his luck was good!
Unfortunately—
What Hikari Aoi obtained wasn't a two-star Stigmata.
It was merely a two-star item—
A Homu Spicy Treasure worth 2,000 coins.
Otherwise—
He wouldn't be thinking so much.
He'd just be happy.
Watching the coin count on the interface jump to 5,000, Hikari Aoi stopped overthinking and directly closed the interface.
To fully upgrade his two-star Selena (Top), he needed 10,000 coins.
He was still far from that.
Although he had drawn a two-star Homu Spicy Treasure—
In essence—
His strength hadn't improved.
…No.
Compared to when he had just obtained Selena (Top)—
He had become stronger.
His training during this time wasn't wasted.
Hikari Aoi shook his sore right hand.
During sword practice earlier, even though he sometimes used both hands, his right hand had always been the primary one.
Now—
Its condition was far worse than his left.
Looking at his right hand, which was trembling almost uncontrollably, Hikari Aoi grinned.
"Keep working hard, my 麒麟臂…"
"In the future, your goal should at least be—one punch, one Honkai Beast."
And then—
He continued training.
Rest?
The slow walk back from Senba Academy to his dorm had already counted as rest.
If he waited until his hands and energy were fully restored—
That would take at least two or three days.
Hikari Aoi had no intention of wasting that time.
According to scientific theory—
Teenagers should sleep 8 to 9 hours.
Adults should sleep about 8 hours.
That was considered the healthiest duration.
But Hikari Aoi had no intention of strictly following theory.
After a week of experimentation—
He discovered that with his physique, six hours of sleep provided the same recovery as eight hours for an ordinary person.
So he consistently slept from midnight to six in the morning.
Under normal circumstances—
That wouldn't be insufficient.
But that was for people who didn't push their bodies to extremes.
Hikari Aoi's daily training load—
Was enough to exhaust even a strong adult man.
Six hours of sleep simply wasn't enough to fully recover.
Today—
Was a new day.
The start of the week.
A day when students returned to school.
Compared to others who constantly complained about long school days and short weekends—
Hikari Aoi actually felt relieved.
Although he knew it wasn't ideal to doze off in class—
Thanks to the teachers' leniency—
Weekdays were far easier for him than weekends.
At least during the day—
He could rest a little.
If interacting with Raiden Mei relaxed his mind—
Then school from Monday to Friday—
Allowed his body to recover.
Fortunately, he already had a solid grasp of high school knowledge.
Even though his behavior didn't match that of an ideal student—
His grades were excellent.
Otherwise—
The teachers would have insisted he pay attention for the sake of his future.
Facing the helpless gazes of his beautiful teachers—
Hikari Aoi felt slightly apologetic.
But he had no intention of changing.
He wasn't wasting time on purpose.
"Hikari Aoi, are you still not coming to the cafeteria with us? It feels like you've never been there at all."
As usual—
The invitation came.
Even before he answered, the girls already knew what he would say.
After all—
They had heard it many times.
"No, I brought my own food. Maybe next time. Sorry."
A polite but firm refusal.
The girls could only sigh helplessly.
At first—
They thought Hikari Aoi was rejecting them indirectly.
That perhaps the girl who invited him wasn't his type.
The first girl who asked him had even been sad for a while.
But later—
They realized—
He gave the same answer to everyone.
Absolute equality.
Now—
No one felt hurt anymore.
Instead—
They were a little happy.
Silently, they continued trying—
Believing that persistence would eventually pay off.