After exchanging greetings with Kazuya, Toratoro wagged its tail and sent her off. It seemed reluctant, but Yoko couldn't take it home. Her mother had said before that if Toratoro entered the room, she would kill it. She could only pat its head and hug it.
Toratoro stood at the door for a long time before going to the corner and lying down. It carefully licked the fur on its abdomen. Kazuya glanced at it, noticing a bald spot on its belly. It seemed a bit strange, but he didn't think much of it. He turned back and continued studying.
Despite Toratoro eating, drinking, and sleeping with him, it still considered Yoko as its true owner. However, Kazuya didn't find it annoying. After all, loyalty is a valuable quality.
As he immersed himself in studying, the midnight quickly approached. After putting down his pen and rubbing his eyes, he stood up and paced around the room. Studying was always a mentally draining and tedious task. Although there might be geniuses in the world who find long hours of studying enjoyable, Kazuya clearly wasn't one. He felt increasingly boring for forcing himself to study for a long time.
He wandered around the room for a couple of circles, stretched his muscles, then lay down and picked up the two books that Naotaka had given him. With the determination to learn everything available, he opened the books. He integrated the "Secrets of the Sasaki Ittoryu" into the [Ancient Swordsmanship] and learned the "Hard Body Techniques" as well. Then, he opened the status panel to check his attributes:
...
Name: Kazuya Matsuoka
Occupation: Student in Hope Peak Academy
Title: None
Vitality: 38/100
Strength: 16
Agility: 19
Stamina: 18
Intelligence: 16
Charm: 20
Skills: Japanese LV 8, English LV 6, Ancient Swordsmanship LV 7, Home cooking LV 4, Chinese medicine LV 1, Hard Body LV 1
Passive Effect: Neat Handwriting, Sword Mastery
Active Effect: British Accent, Dual Weapon Grip, Sword Specialization
Available Skills: Meditation Battle, Anticipation, Four Diagnostic Methods
Equipment: Crude Casualwear
Owned money: ¥75,400
...
After looking for a while, he couldn't help but feel a stomach full of grievances that couldn't be expressed. Damn mobile games! Leveling up is ridiculously difficult, and experience points are added in a frustrating manner.
He didn't want his charm to be too high, but the points for this attribute increase rapidly. There's a strong sense of an impending peach blossom calamity, and it doesn't bode well.
He was thinking of increasing intelligence, but which skill adds intelligence? In original game, combat skills focus on strength and agility, magic skills on intelligence, life crafting skills on stamina, and miscellaneous skills can potentially enhance charm. But in the current situation, where can he learn magic to improve intelligence?
After pondering for a while, he gave up and turned to the newly learned skill "Hard Body". He opened the introduction and found that it was a form of unarmed combat, falling under the category of Aikido, which is a Japanese martial art. Judo is akin to wrestling, Karate involves punches and kicks, Aikido is more about joint locks, and Kendo is for weapon combat.
Despite the name "Hard Body" sounding like wearing iron armor, it primarily focuses on joint techniques, a form of grappling. "Hard" refers to maintaining one's own posture, standing invincibly, then forcibly disrupting the opponent's posture, seizing the opportunity to subdue the opponent or take away their weapon.
However, in today's civilized and lawful society, even if one trains to leap like the wind, with a sword as swift as lightning, fearless against handguns, what about automatic rifles? Not to mention cannons and missiles? Moreover, armies number in the tens of thousands, with aircraft, tanks, and warships. Even if one's individual combat prowess is exceptionally high, thinking of rebellion is a fool's errand.
Nevertheless, he quite likes the "Ancient Swordsmanship" for self-defense. So he then turned to the thought imprints brought by the book "Secrets of the Sasaki Ittoryu", finding it different from the common books collected by Kanae Shimazaki.
The swordsmanship recorded in this book is much more intricate and profound, truly delving into various details of sword combat. It's wicked and ruthless, straying far from the realm of sports. This book is genuinely written to teach the art of killing, with each strike targeting vital points like neck, chest, abdomen, and other vulnerable areas, explaining group battles, one-on-one duels, ambushes, and counter-ambushes.
Kazuya became interested, closing his eyes to learn it for a moment, then activating "Meditation Battle" to test the effectiveness of this tenichique.
His eyes closed, and after a while, the muscles on his face twitched slightly. A faint hostility emerged, revealing a sense of menace. This made Toratoro who was napping in the corner of the room suddenly stand up, with its doggy eyes filled with confusion and fear. It stared at its second owner, unable to understand what kind of strange activities its owner engaged in all day.
It timidly moved towards its doghouse, but it was too late. Kazuya, covering his neck, suddenly opened his eyes. He had killed eleven people in the meditation battle, all within a short twenty seconds in real world. His complexion was somewhat pale, and he was sweating profusely, panting heavily to alleviate the extreme discomfort of being "killed" mentally.
Kazuya instinctively glanced around with a hint of hostility in his eyes after taking a breath. Meanwhile, Toratoro reacted swiftly. Stirred by the remaining hostility in Kazuya's eyes, it immediately lay on its side, exposing its belly, wearing a sycophantic smile on its dog face.
Ignoring the foolish dog, Kazuya laid down and felt somewhat pleased. This unique swordsmanship insight is indeed stronger than those common books, and it has genuinely improved his real strength against enemies.
He squeezed the book and felt that it was genuinely valuable, even though it was almost useless in daily life.
Due to historical reasons, Japanese also has idioms. In the past, Japan had its own language but lacked a unified writing system. When they started exchanging with China, Chinese characters were directly adopted, becoming the language of the upper class. However, the original native language continued to be used in the lower class. This led to the distinction between "Onyomi" (音読み) and "Kunyomi" (訓読み), where Onyomi is the direct transliteration of Chinese words. Haruna enjoyed using idioms as a personal hobby and Kazuya didn't mind. What bothered him was that she always came up with phrases that left people speechless.
Kazuya was left speechless. I'm going to your house to work. Why does it sound like I'm begging for food?
However, Haruna herself admitted that she was a fool. In the face of such an attitude, there were many times when you couldn't argue with her. Arguing with a fool, are you a fool too?
Kazuya was silent for a moment, deciding to ignore the term "beg for food." He had some tolerance for that. "I'll leave once the new person arrives."
Haruna asked with a mix of confusion, "Why? Is it because the food is not good?" She didn't think that the petty squabbles between her sister and Kazuya were a big deal. In her opinion, if her sister and Kazuya fought, he didn't suffer any losses. Instead, she always felt that the food at home wasn't great.