As Haruto walked through the main courtyard, the atmosphere shifted from morning chatter to a stunned, buzzing silence. The students began to part like the Red Sea, their eyes darting between the sleek, high-class carriage and the boy who had just stepped out of it.
"Wait, is that Haruto?" someone whispered, loud enough to echo.
"Since when does he ride in a royal carriage? Look at that crest... that's the Royal Seal of the Castle!"
"He looks... different," a girl nearby murmured, her eyes trailing over his frame.
"Did he always look that fit? He's not bulky, but he looks like he could snap a training dummy in half."
Haruto felt the heat of a thousand stares, and his "Gamer" instincts screamed a warning: STAY LOW. He remembered warning—if he stood out too much, if he looked like a "God's reincarnation" instead of a "Student," the Reapers in the 99th Layer would lock onto his signature.
To hide his presence, Haruto quickly pulled his team closer, using them as a human shield. He leaned in between Lustra , Bellona and Ivory, making it look like he was just part of their group. He even reached out and pulled Toya closer, putting an arm around the boy's shoulder as if they were just two friends walking together.
The girls in the hallway, who used to turn their noses up at the "Bored Gamer," were now staring with flushed faces. But Haruto didn't care about the popularity—he was using the goddesses' intense auras to mask his own.
The atmosphere in the hallway was suffocating. Haruto walked with his head down, but his mind was racing faster than his "Physical Boost" could keep up with.
The three goddesses—Lustra, Bellona, and Ivory—were walking in a daze. They felt like they had woken up in a different world. To them, everything had changed in a single night. Lilith, who was usually their distant and dangerous rival, was suddenly acting like a benefactor, gifting royal carriages and bonding with Aetherna. They couldn't shake the feeling that Lilith and Haruto were operating on a level they couldn't see, especially after knowing she stayed the night.
"Is she planning something with him? Did something happen on that balcony that changed the rules of the game?" Lustra wondered, her eyes darting suspiciously toward Haruto.
Meanwhile, Haruto felt like his brain was about to short-circuit. Every step he took felt "heavy," but not because of his muscles. The world felt... strange. The colors of the academy seemed too sharp, the whispers of the students too loud. He started to question everything.
"Is this the God of Creation's doing?" Haruto thought, his grip tightening on his bag. "Did AETHERIS distort my reality while I was in the Void? Why does everything feel so 'artificial' today?"
Then, a cold realization hit him. He remembered AETHERIS's words: "To win a glitch game, you must delete a corrupt file." He realized he wasn't feeling "strange" because of a curse. He was feeling this way because he was finally starting to see the world for what it was—a series of codes and system rules. The "Physical Boost" wasn't just making him stronger; it was fine-tuning his senses to detect the "glitches" in the people around him. He wasn't scared anymore. He was just... focused.
Haruto stood tall, his eyes sharp and focused. "I'm fine," he muttered, his voice carrying a new, grounded authority that surprised even the goddesses. He pulled away from the group and began walking toward his classroom with a steady, mechanical rhythm.
Every step felt like he was navigating a simulated map. As he moved through the crowded hallways, the social atmosphere felt like a dense wall of data. He could see the students reacting in real-time:
Group of boys glaring at him, their faces twisted because of the royal carriage and the goddesses flanking him.
Girls who previously ignored him now whispering behind their hands, their cheeks flushed as they tracked his new, lean physique.
Teachers looking up from their rosters, sensing a shift in the "Bored Gamer's" presence that they couldn't quite put into words.
Haruto ignored it all. He kept his gaze fixed straight ahead, repeating a mantra in his mind: I am just a normal person. I am the same Haruto as yesterday. This is just a game, and I am the player.
Haruto pushed the door open and stepped into the classroom. His mind was a cold, calculated engine. I'm not here to fight, he told himself. I'm here to observe. Today, Kallen is just a data point. Study him. Analyze the corruption. That's it.
The room was buzzing with its usual morning chaos. In the center of the noise was Kenjin, Haruto's regular classmate, leaning back in his chair and surrounded by his usual clique of fan girls. Seraphine sat nearby, her presence calm but sharp.
At first, nobody really looked up. Haruto was the "Bored Gamer," the background character they were used to seeing. But as he walked toward his desk, the atmosphere in the room hit a sudden, jagged snag.
The rhythm of the chatter died down. One by one, heads turned.
The change was impossible to ignore. The Haruto they remembered looked under-nourished, almost fragile, like someone who lived on energy drinks and skipped every meal. But the person walking past them now was different. His uniform, which used to hang loosely on his frame, now fit perfectly across his shoulders. He wasn't a hulking giant, but he had an undeniable, lean density—a "pumped" look that made him look like a predator disguised as a student.
The girls, who were already drawn to the mysterious allure of his black Head-Up Display (HUD), found themselves staring at his new physique. The combination of his cold, distant eyes and his sudden physical transformation made him magnetic in a way that felt dangerous.
Seraphine stood up as he passed, her eyes scanning him with an intensity that bordered on suspicion. She stepped into his path, her voice low.
"Is that... really you, Haruto?" she asked, her gaze lingering on the way his presence seemed to distort the air around him.
Haruto didn't slow down. He didn't even look her in the eye. "Yeah," he muttered, the single word flat and dismissive.
He walked straight to his seat, ignoring the gasps and the frantic whispering breaking out behind him. He sat down and stared at the blackboard,
The moment Haruto's bag hit the desk, the dam broke. The girls who had been whispering from a distance suddenly swarmed his seat like a localized hurricane. The air in the back of the classroom became thick with the scent of various perfumes and the high-pitched chatter of sudden, intense interest.
"Haruto! Seriously, what happened to you over the break?" one girl squealed, leaning over his desk. "Can I be your friend? Like, for real this time?"
"You should come sit next to me, Haruto! The light is much better over there," another chimed in, touching the sleeve of his uniform as if trying to confirm his new, solid physique was actually real.
The "Bored Gamer" was being suffocated by the very attention he loathed. But just as the crowd of girls began to press in too close, the temperature in the room plummeted. A heavy, divine chill swept through the classroom, silencing the giggles instantly.
Lustra, Bellona, and Ivory stepped through the door, their auras radiating a "keep away" signal that was almost physical. Behind them, Toya followed, letting out a long, weary sigh that seemed to carry the weight of all his frustrations from the night before.
The fan girls didn't need to be told twice. One look at the goddesses' icy expressions sent them scurrying back to their original seats like startled birds.
However, as the girls retreated, a new atmosphere took hold: Pure, unadulterated jealousy. The boys in the class, who had spent years treating people like Haruto as a non-entity, were now vibrating with resentment.
Kenjin was the worst. He sat at the front, his face twisting into a mask of suppressed rage as he watched his "loyal" fan girls lingeringly look back at Haruto. He had been the King of the Classroom, and in less than five minutes, Haruto had dismantled his throne without saying a single word.
Some boys looked on with bitter disgust, while others simply stared at the floor, unable to handle the fact that the "under-nourished geek" was flanked by three literal goddesses was now the classroom's main attraction.
Haruto felt the bile rise in his throat. He hated this. Every stare felt like a probe, a potential "System Flag" that could alert the higher layers to his existence. But he had no choice. The three goddesses moved with practiced grace, taking their regular seats directly surrounding him—forming a protective, yet suffocating, triangular perimeter.