The Dream.
It was the same unchanging modern cityscape, and they appeared once again on the rooftop water tower.
"You're here," Hoshimi turned to look at Yukino, whose form was materializing behind him.
"..." Yukino said nothing as she stepped forward a few steps and sat down next to Hoshimi, gazing at the steel jungle in front of her.
"How is it? Impressive?" Hoshimi asked.
Yukino nodded, then shook her head.
"Hmm?" Hoshimi raised an eyebrow, "Yukino, do you mean it's impressive, but since such sights exist in reality, it's not particularly impressive?"
Yukino's beautiful eyes widened in surprise as she looked at Hoshimi beside her.
He actually guessed her thoughts completely? Incredible...
This man really knew how to read minds.
"Heh," Hoshimi laughed, stretching lazily, "So, what do you want to do tonight?"
"'Removal: Modified,' you promised me."
"Well..." Hoshimi rubbed his chin, looking troubled.
"What? Is the trustworthy Hoshimi planning to break his promise?" Yukino smirked, mimicking Hoshimi's tone to provoke him.
"It's not that, just... are you sure you want to learn it?" Hoshimi hesitated.
He was worried Yukino might misuse it. This wasn't a joke.
Using 'Removal: Modified' wouldn't bring fatal danger, but its side effects were severe.
If it reached its limit, it could be deadly.
Hoshimi looked at Yukino, feeling a headache coming on, "Yukino, how about reconsidering? I can teach you something else."
"No, I want this." Yukino was as determined as a child fixated on a toy.
"..." Hoshimi's headache worsened.
He stood up, ready to jump off the building to relieve some stress.
However, as he jumped, Yukino followed him down.
As they fell rapidly, Yukino stared at Hoshimi beside her, coldly saying,
"What, Hoshimi, are you planning to break your promise?"
Seeing Yukino, who was no longer afraid of heights thanks to his training, Hoshimi was speechless.
He spread his hands helplessly, "I'm not breaking my promise. Just give me some time to prepare before I teach you."
"How long? Give me a specific time, I can wait."
"A week... No! A month! I'll teach you in a month!"
With Kotoko Iwanaga's arrival, he felt he might learn something even more powerful and safer.
Delaying for a month would give him time to tempt Yukino with something safer and more powerful, making her give up on 'Removal: Modified.'
"Alright! It's a deal!" Yukino agreed immediately.
"It's a deal."
With the matter settled, there was no need to jump anymore.
Hoshimi grabbed Yukino's wrist, taking her directly to the street.
"So, what do you want to do tonight?" Hoshimi asked again.
Yukino thought for a moment.
After a while, she looked at Hoshimi, "I want to study, can we?"
"..." Hoshimi was speechless.
Sis, don't do this. It makes me look lazy and unambitious...
"Sigh," Hoshimi sighed lightly, nodding helplessly, "Fine, as you wish."
After all, he had stolen a kiss from Yukino before leaving.
If he didn't treat her well now, she might be more cautious next time, not giving him another chance.
Seeing Hoshimi's helplessness, Yukino's eyes curved into a smile.
This didn't seem so bad. Hoshimi's attitude softened, their relationship got closer, and she could use his dream realm to enhance herself.
Not bad at all.
"Then let's go study." Hoshimi took Yukino's hand and directly transferred them to a library.
He led her to the reading area and sat down, "What do you want to learn? I'll help you find the book."
"..." Yukino looked back at the endless bookshelves, doubtful, "Are all these books real?"
"Yeah, they're all books I've read, so they're real."
"Huh?!" Yukino looked back to confirm.
The bookshelves were endless, each one filled with books.
A rough estimate put it at least hundreds of thousands of volumes. Could this lazy Hoshimi really have read so many books?!
She didn't believe it!
"Oh, I misspoke. These are all books I've scanned through." Hoshimi corrected himself.
"Scanned through?"
"Yeah, like flipping through a book in a few minutes."
"Hmm?" Yukino looked at Hoshimi puzzled, "Do these scanned books have content?"
"Yes, my dream is magical. Any information my eyes collect can be perfectly reproduced in my dream. You can think of it as total recall."
"..." Yukino was silent. She scrutinized Hoshimi for a long time before saying, "Hoshimi, you're really unambitious."
"..."
I just want to be happy, not study.
"Hoshimi, do you remember all these books yourself?" Yukino asked.
"No, just because my eyes collect the information doesn't mean I remember it. But my dream will retain all the information without missing a thing."
"..." Yukino felt a bit envious.
If only she had this ability...
"Alright, stop envying me. What's mine is yours, and yours is mine. It's the same."
Noticing Yukino's thoughts, Hoshimi wrapped his arm around her waist to comfort her.
"Get lost!" Yukino glared at Hoshimi, but didn't shake off his embrace.
"Yukino, what book do you want to read?"
"..." Yukino pondered.
Though she said she wanted to study, she wasn't very driven by academic pursuits. She had mastered high school knowledge, and further improvement required lots of practice exams.
So, rather than studying, she wanted to read some extracurricular books.
After some thought, she asked, "Do you have Henryk Sienkiewicz's 'Quo Vadis'?"
"Yes, but no Japanese version. Is the English version okay?"
Yukino frowned and looked at Hoshimi suspiciously, "Why do you have the English version?"
"..." Hoshimi's mouth twitched, saying nothing. He silently raised his hand and pulled an English version of 'Quo Vadis' out of thin air, placing it in front of Yukino.
He had mentioned before that he was a "study king" in his past life.
Coming from a small town and entering a top university, he faced financial difficulties with tuition and living expenses.
He had no choice but to study hard, use his grades to earn scholarships, and work part-time for living expenses.
He chose tutoring as his part-time job, and among all subjects, English and Math tutoring paid the best.
But as a non-English, non-Math major competing with professionals, he had to show something special.
And the simplest thing was certificates.
So, he passed the CET-4 and CET-6 exams in his freshman year, BEC Higher in his sophomore year, and IELTS and TOEFL in his junior year.
As for how he studied...
One was memorizing exam vocabulary.
Two was doing exercises.
Three was reading classics, starting with bilingual editions and then moving to English originals...
Yukino calling him unambitious wasn't because he truly lacked ambition, but because he was tired of studying.
Now, he got headaches just looking at books...
"Hoshimi, how's your English?" Yukino suddenly asked while flipping through the book.
"Not bad, just okay..." Hoshimi rested his chin in his hand, suddenly feeling a headache.
"Can you explain this paragraph and read it out loud for me?"
Yukino pushed the book to Hoshimi with a blank expression.
Reading this pure English classic gave her a headache. Her English was decent, but handling English originals was still too difficult.
She suspected this lazy Hoshimi had intentionally picked an English original to make things hard for her.
===
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