The next morning, Rhys woke up at six am sharp to begin his day. Although groggy, he shifted his feet into the bathroom and freshened up, brushing his teeth.
Within thirty minutes, he had finished his shower and prepping his bag, but that's when it hit him. "What exactly am I going to college for?" Rhys questioned, an eyebrow raised. All the targets seemed to have different majors, so how would he be placed?
"In order to help, the system placed you in the music major department so you don't humiliate yourself." Kane explained, making Rhys roll his eyes. Just what did this system have with insulting literally everyone?
As he made his way downstairs to cook breakfast for everyone, Rhys went on with his questioning spree. "What kind of school is this that has such diverse majors? It feels like it has every single major in existence."
"Ask the author, anything is convenient and cheap for the female lead to meet her match, right?" Kane stated, helping Rhys fetch his apron.
It seemed like no one else were awake yet, so perhaps he'd would have to wake them up, Rhys thought.
Opening the fridge, he prepared the ingredients needed to make pancakes, and continued. "What major is the female lead in? I don't think it mentioned it."
"She's in the medical major as well with Erin. He's the first male lead, then Seth, and then Xavier." Kane explained as he helped cut up the fruits for Rhys.
As he was about to ask more questions, Seth had come downstairs and greeted Rhys. Using his skill, he smiled in return and began a conversation.
"Good morning Seth, did you sleep well? Just a few minutes and I'll finish breakfast." He hummed, returning to his attention to the pan, he began flipping the pancake over.
"I slept great, the room is nice and cool and the bed was soft and fluffy." Seth said bashfully. Rhys mentally cheered for himself, as he did the laundry yesterday.
"I'm glad! Do you want fruits on top or the side?" Rhys asked, putting the pancakes on the plate.
"On the side, please. I'll take these to the table for you and set it up, could you wake up Xavier please? He's a heavy sleeper." Seth asked, kind of surprising Rhys but he agreed.
Why wouldn't Seth wake him up himself, they're friends right? Well, it doesn't matter. As he finished the last plate, he handed the job off to Seth and made his way up the stairs.
As he reached the top, he saw Erin emerge from his room and greeted him, only to get a small growl of acknowledgement. "Remind me not to wake him up." Rhys said to Kane in his head.
Entering Xavier's room, Rhys saw what a mess it had become despite all his hard work earlier, and he internally sighed.
Gently shaking him, Rhys was surprised as he felt something cold and soft on his lips. As he tried to pull back, he felt two arms wrap around his body and Xavier's head snuggle into his chest.
Now a blushing mess, Rhys was unable to think. In both his life and his host life, he had never kissed someone the lips, let alone a man.
Coming to his senses, he gently nudged Xavier off his chest and shook him once more. It took a minute, but Xavier eventually opened his eyes.
"Ah, Reece's" he mumbled, the first time Rhys had ever heard him say something in a soft voice. Although he was a blushing mess, he tried his best to bring Xavier downstairs.
"Uhm Xavier, breakfast is done." He stuttered, cursing at himself. Hearing that, the bubblegum boy seemed to wake up a little more, enough to realise what he was doing.
Grinning up at Rhy's, Xavier got himself up and apologised, now his perky self. "What's for breakfast?" He cheerfully asked as he grabbed Rhy's hand and dragged him down the stairs.
"Ah..." he blanked for a few seconds, when they made it down to the table, he answered. "Fruit cake"
"That's a weird way to say pancakes and strawberries." Xavier said as he took his seat. Rhys blinked repeatedly before taking his seat next to Seth, who only apologised for not informing him.
"No problem." Rhys said, starting to cut his pancakes. Although he finally accepted what happened, he wished he didn't. He now knew why Seth pushed the job to him so quickly.
"It's almost seven so if you guys haven't showered yet I suggest doing it ASAP, so we can get to school on time." Rhys said, trying to break the silent breakfast.
"Right right! Are you gonna drive us Reece's? What's your major? Can we eat lunch together?" Xavier questioned all at once with a mouth full.
"I think we've met someone who asks more questions than you." Kane muttered under his breath.
"I don't mind driving, or having lunch with you guys. I'm a music major!" Rhys said, trying to act as cheerful as possible.
Erin hummed in acknowledgement and Seth agreed about lunch. "I'm an engineering major and Sethy is a law major!" Xavier said proceeding to drink all of his juice in one go.
"Medical student." Erin commented, finally awake but still angry at nothing. Just then, Xavier's affection raised to four, and Seth's to four as well.
"How'd they increase?" Rhys asked Kane, still trying to keep up with wherever the conversation was going amongst them.
"Seth probably increased due to you waking Xavier up and not taking your anger out on him, while Xavier seems happy to have someone to match his energy. Erin just looks like he hates you." Kane responded.
"You didn't need to throw in that last part!" Rhys grumbled, finishing up his plate. When they all finished, Seth and Rhys took to cleaning up as the other two took their showers. It wasn't until 7:32 am when they both finished, and got to the car.
"Let's see, the college is about half an hour away if we include traffic, so we still have another half hour to spare, let's go do something fun!" Xavier cheered, taking shotgun again.
"It'd be better to just get there on time." Erin said, glaring towards the smaller boy. Seth on the other hand tried to stay neutral and looking out the window despite the car not even moving yet.
"We can take a little bit of time to get there, so I can stop by a drive through to get coffee, but I agree with Erin, we should get there with at least twenty minutes to spare, we still need to find our way around."
Cheering, Xavier agreed and Erin nodded, satisfied once he heard the word coffee, Seth gave an apologetic smile to Rhys and nodded along.
The car ride wasn't anything special, mainly Erin and Xavier bickering over the choice of music and them discussing why they chose which major.
"And that's why I'll be a food engineer!" Xavier commented as they arrive at the drive through window. Although it had just been twenty minutes, it felt like the longest one Rhys had experienced, and there was still another twenty minutes to go, and every weekday until he completed this world.
As Rhys took everyone's orders, he was quite surprised to learn that Seth had chosen the most bitter, while Erin chose of the sweetest, with Xavier choosing an in between like himself. Guess he can't assume tastes from personality, but at least he knows their preferences now.
The rest of the drive to school was the same as the first half, but this time Xavier was on a sugar rush that even Seth couldn't save them from. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't of let him have coffee." He frowned.
"No worries" Rhys tried to say but at the same time Erin spat out "Keep your child on a leash." Although he thought that too, Erin really was blunt.
As everyone arrived and went their separate ways per their schedule, and class was about to begin. Rhys took a seat at the end of a middle row, in order to look out the window. He didn't need this class since he was already successful, so why bother?
Although his plan was to go unbothered, his classmates had other ideas, such as introducing themselves and making friends with him, gross.
Although Rhys was about to say he didn't need friends, he remembered that he needed to act friendly, in case one of his targets found out he was actually an asshole on par with Erin.
"Nice to meet you too, I'm Rhys." He smiled, using his skill. It was nearly the next level, and he couldn't wait to just evolve it already.
It didn't take long for Rhys to realise why people were introducing themselves to him either, thanks to Kane.
"Don't get too comfy with them. They're only approaching you because of your looks and the background the system gave you." Although Rhys knew that, he had a slight urge to yell at Kane for indirectly insulting him.
After being questioned a lot, Rhys finally got a break when the teacher entered, and began to doze off, writing down notes every once in awhile in order to look as though he were listen to their strict teacher.
The cycle continued until lunch break arrived, excusing himself from everyone, to find the cafeteria where they all agreed to meet up.
It didn't take long for Rhys to find Xavier and Erin, who were swamped by a group of people around them, probably asking for their numbers. "Male lead effect, huh?" Rhys muttered as Kane nodded.
Running up to them, he made his way through the crowd easily, and received a system mission. He groaned. It was only day one!
"OBLIGATORY SYSTEM MISSION"
"Erin Keller has mysophobia, the fear of germs, and some people are getting too close for comfort. Find a way to save him from getting touched by a stranger before Seth Hyls arrives. Rewarded upon completion, failure to complete mission results in losing one memory."
"Isn't that too harsh a punishment?" He hissed out looking at the people. There were at least ten people who were watching the boys.
As a boy was about to talk to Erin, he pushed himself between them and cut him off, little time to think about what he was doing.
"Sorry, but could you leave us alone, we're waiting for a friend to have lunch with. It may overwhelm him if he suddenly sees a bunch of people with us." He smiled using his skill, Xavier now also taking the hint.
"Sorry about all my new friends, Reece's, Rin, I didn't mean to cause you guys problems." Xavier said, pouting and clinging onto Erin's arm.
"That doesn't count as a stranger right?" Rhys internally freaked, not ready for punishment.
"I don't think he counts as a stranger since he's a roommate." Kane commented as Rhys let out the breath he was unknowingly holding him.
With Xavier now ignoring them, the crowd soon disappeared. "For only being the third male lead, he has a huge social impact." He thought.
"Well he was entertaining them, the other two just stand out if you haven't noticed." Kane sarcastically said.
"Oh shut up." Rhys hissed back, covering Erin's left side until Seth finally arrived, panting, just as the world froze.
"This was an easier mission that kissing one! You scared me." Rhys whined, as now he looked like a paranoid idiot.
"No one said it was difficult, you just assumed it was because it was mandatory." Kane retorted, sitting on Rhy's head.
"MISSION COMPLETED"
"Mission successfully completed, two attribute points received."
"I'd be happy if it weren't for the fact being handsome attracts too much attention. I never had to leave the house before, I never knew my face did this to people." Rhys said, sounding as narcissistic as they come.
"Right, right, host. Then what are you going to spend your attributes on?" Kane asked, looking at the screen.
"I'll just go for charisma. It'd be easier to hide how rude I am." He said, checking out the subcategories for charisma.
"Authoritative, personality, and aura?" He muttered, not knowing what it all meant. This is when Kane explained again.
"Authoritative charisma makes you more charming for leadership positions, like class president, in a future world something like a great emperor." Hearing this, Rhys nearly chocked. He could eventually end up as an emperor?
"Anyways, personality charisma is the one you want, it's similar to Xavier's. Although he ignores people or was a bit rude yesterday, he's still loveable due to his energy. Finally, aura charisma just gives others who look at you the feeling you're a nice person."
Not caring to hear anymore, Rhys just used them both on charisma and exited the screen to check out his new skill, with four minutes remaining.
"I'm not feeling anything different." He said as he read the skill, the abcs. What is with this system and weird names?
"The people you talk to will be even nicer to you, or believe you're not a bad person for now." Kane said, reading the skill along with Rhys.
"Skill unlocked, the abcs level 0. This skill when used let's the host write messily, almost illegible, in the world's language. Using this skill repeatedly allows host to level it up."
"What the hell is the point of this worthless skill?" Rhys whined, his handwriting was already neat and tidy, why would he need a downgrade?
However, Kane on the other hand was beyond excited. "You need to immediately level it up host! The system is so generous for giving you this as a college gift. You need to read it more carefully! Remember that last part?"
"The world's language?" He questioned, raising a brow. So? He already knew how to write in English, it's his main language.
"No! If you go to a magical world, they may have their own language, you understand? I may not be able to tell you what it evolves into, but I can tell you that you need to evolve it!" Kane nagged, causing Rhys to roll his eyes and wait for the world to start again.
As things soon returned to motion, Rhys watched Seth continue to pant before giving his explanation. "Sorry I'm late, my classmates kept asking me who I was going to have lunch with and I was trying my best to respectfully decline."
Rhys understood Seth well. The poor guy was not only shy but good looking, the worst combo. It must of been hard for him to be swamped by all the people who liked his handsome face.
"Life is difficult for handsome men in these worlds, huh?" Rhys commented to Kane, patting Seth on the shoulder.
"You sure said it host, especially since they attract those female leads." Kane spat out, as if even saying the world female was venomous to him.
"Let's get going, then! Next time for lunch let's just meet up somewhere else? The college is open campus." Xavier said.
How convenient, Rhys thought, only for Kane to respond seriously. "How else would the female leads and male leads escape in their own world of love during their school life?"
"I swear this world had no plot other than girl falls in love with handsome men at college." Rhys thought as Erin spoke.
"We can meet at Rhys' car, he can drive us somewhere." Erin commented, taking advantage of Rhys' ability to drive.
As the three of them nodded without Rhys' input, they made their way to his car, leaving Rhys to catch up. "Geez, thanks for including me in on that." he muttered.
As the four of them left to the car, Rhys sighed. "I know it's weird to bring it up now, but aren't classes in twenty minutes?" He asked Xavier, who was right beside him.
"Why not ditch a few minutes? Or enter with fashionably late?" He winked, pushing Erin into the car, along with Seth.
"Hurry up, before they realise, step on it!" His yelled jumping into the car, Rhys wasn't actually opposed to this, since he didn't like the classes anyways, and if he can keep them away from school, the likelier they were to not see the female lead.
"That's right I don't even need to take them to school!" Rhys thought, putting in the keys. Kane protested into his ear.
"Don't be stupid, host! It's easy to keep the female lead away in an easy world, don't just trap them in the house! You already messed up the first meeting anyways." Kane commented as Rhys raised a brow. He didn't do anything?
"In the original novel during lunch the female lead meets the group of boys when she accidentally gets lost and finds them sneaking away from the crowd. Since you have a car, the scene never happened. Good job being rich." Kane said, patting Rhys on the shoulder as if he actually did something.
"Right..." he said in his head as he drove off, not caring how far their destination was. All that was on his mind was getting those affection points up, and driving away the female lead.