Masato waded through the sea of students, eager to leave as soon as possible.
'Okay...the math classroom is only about 20 meters away.' Masato thought as he checked the time in the top-right corner.
[4:30 PM] It read.
'Aiko said to meet here back there around 5...gotta hurry up.'
𝘣𝘶𝘮𝘱
"Ow! Hey watch it, dude! The exit's over there ya know?"
Masato looked up towards the guy he had just bumped. It was Shinichi.
"And where did you go for like, half the class? You had to take a huge dump or something?" He said.
'Ugh, I really don't want to see this guy's face right now.' Masato thought.
"I had to go to the infirmary, haha." Masato forced a fake laugh. "Must've been the natto I ate this morning or something."
"Natto? Well that explains it. Anyways, wanna meet up behind the school? I got something to show ya." Shinichi said, a slight smile forming.
"Nah man, I think I'll pass on that one. I gotta do something after school." Masato said as he started moving towards the classroom.
"You? What do you gotta do that's more important than spending time with your friend? You got a girlfriend or something?" Shinichi said jokingly.
Masato's lips twitched slightly.
'Shit, I don't want him to find out about Aiko. I have a bad feeling they might try something to her if they found out I'm friends with her.' Masato thought.
"I wish, haha. I just have to do something with my family right after I get my bag from the classroom." Masato said.
"Oh, alright then." Shinichi said with a blank expression. "I'll see you at the school gate though, yeah? I reallly want to show you something later."
"Maybe. I'll probably get scolded by the teacher for a bit so I'll probably be here for a while." Masato said. "Just go home, you can just show it to me tomorrow or something."
𝘛𝘤𝘩. "Fine, I see how it is." Shinichi said as he shoved his hands into his pockets and started to walk away. "See you later then, dude."
---
'Phew, he's finally gone.' Masato thought. 'Now, into the classroom, shall we?'
Masato walked up to the door and slid it open. The teacher was sitting at his desk with arms folded and a stern expression.
"Masato, I thought you were only going to the bathroom for a few minutes?" He said coldly. "I didn't expect you to be there for 32 minutes and 23 seconds."
'Dang, this guy counted down to the second?! Well, it's Satoshi-sensei, after all. He micromanages basically everything in his life.' Masato thought.
"I'm sorry Sensei, I had a worser case of diarrhea than I expected." Masato said. "I hope I didn't miss anything too important. I had to go to the infirmary for it after all."
"Oh? The infirmary, eh? You should have a slip then, yes?" Satoshi-sensei said.
"Of course I do. It should be in my back right pocket...." Masato said as he reached towards his pocket.
'Shit shit shit, what do I do? I don't have a slip!' Masato thought. 'System!'
[You called, user?]
'I can make a paper slip using magic in this world right?'
[Yes, of course user. Everything in this world is made of mana, therefore anything can be turned into another using mana manipulation. However, please do keep in mind the mana type of the material when transmuting an object to another.]
'Wait I have to take into account material typing?!'
[Of course, user. Otherwise you could turn paper into gold, and that would be too broken, would it not?]
'Shoot! Well then what thing do I have in my pockets that I can use to turn into the slip? Hmm....' Masato pondered. 'That's right, I can just use the paper stamp ticket I got from that ice cream store a few weeks ago! That's in my left pocket though...'
"Hmmm? Why is it not there?" Masato said, acting confused. "Let me check my left pocket real quick."
"I don't have all day, Mr. Masato." Satoshi-sensei said.
[Superb acting, user.]
'Shut it! Now, I just need to find the ticket.....here it is! Time to transmute!'
Masato closed his eyes briefly and imagined turning the paper ticket into a yellow slip. The ticket glowed a faint light blue.
'Every word, every letter, the doctor's signature.....done!'
Masato pulled out the completed yellow slip. A faint mana trail dissipated shortly after.
[MP: 74/75]
"...Well then, it seems you really did go to the infirmary." Satoshi said. "You can go ahead and take your bag. You're free to go Mr. Masato but please do take care of yourself and your 𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘦𝘮 diarrhea."
"Thank you Satoshi-sensei, I will." Masato said, grabbing his bag. "Hopefully I'll see you tommorow, if it gets better, haha."
"Only time will tell, Mr. Masato. I bid you farewell today." Satoshi-sensei said, waving his hand gently.
'.....PHEW. That worked out too well! Diarrhea though hahaha, that was such a weird excuse, but I'm surprised it paid off.'
[Well, you put more points into CHA, did you not?]
'Oh yeahhh, that's right. I completely forgot about that. Huh, that'll come in handy then.'
[It certainly will, user. Have you inspected your new features yet?]
'Hm? Oh right, from the quest. No, not yet.'
[Well, you can inspect them at a later time then, user. Just know that you have more "advanced" options now, per se.]
'Oooh, can't wait.' Masato thought with a smile.
As Masato was walking down the now mostly deserted hallway, he heard footsteps coming from the staircase to his left. Masato could deduce that it was around four people from his experience in the other world.
'Shit, is it Daichi and his cronies?' Masato thought, fleeing silently into a nearby corridor.
Masato peeked towards the hallway and saw someone. It was Daichi. He seemed to be looking around for someone. Not long after, he made a hand gesture, and three others appeared next to him, with Shinichi at the side. They seemed to be talking.
'Oh man, they must be out to find me.' Masato thought, sweating a little bit. 'I'm not going through that again, no way!'
Masato pulled up his interface and saw an exclamation point next to [Scan] and pressed it. It showed two options stemming from the large icon: [General] and [User].
'Huh? This is new...does [General] give me info about my surroundings?' Masato thought. 'Let's try it out.'
𝘵𝘢𝘱
A sonar-like pulse emanated from Masato, and highlighted every surface and object that it came into contact with, eventually reaching Daichi and his group. On the bottom-right of Masato's view, a bird's eye view of the highlighted areas was shown, showing dots for objects and lines for surfaces.
'Woah, that's cool. System, can I inspect materials with this?'
[Unfortunately, you'll have to unlock that trait, user]
'Ah, alright.'
"Well, time to tango then, motherfuckers." Masato said.
He wouldn't be disgraced a second time.