Mature Fantasy Power Invasion

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Slurp... Stare—

In the far corner of Yuanyue Academy's cafeteria, Yan Huan nursed a straw stuck into an apple-juice box. Across from him, Yua Lina's eyes were glued to that shrinking carton as if it had personally offended her. She sat with arms folded, cheeks puffed, radiating sullen indignation.

Stare—

Hashimoto, mid-chew, flicked a glance at Yan Huan, then at Yua Lina. "What's with her today? She looks like someone swapped her dessert for pickles."

Ashley, still attacking her lunch, gave a soft laugh. "Same old story—bombed the placement test."

Stare—

Yua Lina's resentful glare snapped to Hashimoto; his chewing slowed to a guilty crawl.

"It's just a placement exam," he said, raising both hands in surrender. "Doesn't even touch your GPA. The dean called it a 'wake-up quiz.' Look, the last-place kid scored sixty-six—literally the number of the beast. You beat them by over six times. That's solid."

"It's NOT because of the test!" Yua sniffed, smacking the table with a dramatic flourish that promised universal retribution. "This is all YOUR fault! What did everyone say in the group chat over break?!"

Her accusing laser-beam locked on Yan Huan first. "President—you first!"

Yan Huan kept his trademark smile. "Lina, you know me. I'm always juggling part-time jobs. I even picked up an extra shift during break. Remember? You bought bubble-tea from my stand. Where was I supposed to find time to study?"

Yua's pout swivelled to Sakuramiya Hitomi.

The secretary dabbed her lips with a napkin. "You know me as well. I adopted a Maine Coon—little Mizuki. You came over to pet her. She was sickly the whole vacation; I nursed her non-stop. Never cracked a textbook."

She delivered the excuse with such refined poise that the tone sounded perfectly rehearsed.

Yua's pout moved to Hashimoto. Without missing a beat, the accountant shot a hand up. "Secretary, you know me—I'm hopeless. I spent break grinding gacha pulls and topping up for waifus. You invited me to co-op raids every night; not once did I open a book!"

Finally Yua turned to Ashley beside her. Ashley met her with a stare twice as cold. "Seriously? I'm the one who warned in chat that there'd be a placement test and we should review. All of you claimed you were 'too busy.' You didn't reply, yet you kept DM-ing everyone to hang out..."

"Waaaahhh!" Yua wailed, flinging herself toward Ashley for comfort. Ashley stuck out a palm, redirecting the blonde projectile into Sakuramiya's arms.

Thud.

Flat impact. Almost no cushioning. Yua's head rang.

"Owowow..."

Her sobs ratcheted up a notch. "No! I don't want to be the student-council mascot anymore! I want to be a study genius! President, Sakuramiya, Hashimoto—help meee!"

Sakuramiya patted her back as Yua burrowed deeper. Ashley's temple twitched; she smiled without warmth. "Funny—when you beg for help you skip my name. That stings a little."

Hashimoto scratched his cheek. "This morning the President mentioned restarting the remedial study group, mandatory for anyone behind. We two thought we'd co-run it. Lina, you in?"

Sakuramiya's hand, still cradling Yua, tightened imperceptibly. With practiced innocence she asked, "The President already discussed it with Hashimoto? You don't need my help?"

What does that mean—Spencer will be in the study group? What if sparks fly? Turning tutoring into matchmaking?! Sakuramiya had already mentally edited everyone else out of the picture and judged the situation urgent.

Yan Huan offered a soothing smile. "It's a bit messy... Hashimoto and I really want the summer corporate internship slot with Golden Lion Group; this is our foot in the door."

Truthfully, Spencer's Modifier was unstable and had once warped Yan Huan's thoughts. He wasn't sure if Sakuramiya would be affected. For her safety—and his own control—he'd decided to keep her out.

"Sakuramiya doesn't need the internship, so why bother—"

"It's fine." Sakuramiya's smile bloomed like frost on glass. "I've devised a whole regimen for helping struggling students. We can test its effectiveness."

Pink lips parted, she listed with terrifying sincerity, "Two full mock exams per subject daily, ten pages of math drills, ten practice essays, ten reading-comprehension passages, memorization spot-checks on sociology—then—"

Whether Spencer would break remained to be seen. Right now, Yua's face drained of color. She thrashed free of Sakuramiya's embrace and dove into Ashley's arms—this time unopposed.

"No—nooo! I don't want to be a study genius! I'll stay the mascot! Waaah!"

Ashley sighed, pinching the blonde's ear. "Sakuramiya's joking. Nobody's assigning that workload."

"Heh-heh..." Sakuramiya hid a smile behind her hand, eyes gleaming with frightening sincerity.

Yan Huan propped his chin, watching the poor girl. "Lina, one test doesn't define you. It's just a wake-up call. And honestly, you're the only one who ever called yourself the council mascot."

"President..." Eyes brimming, Yua gazed at him—only for Ashley to douse the moment with ice water.

"Well, besides me, that's what I've always thought."

"Ashley!"

As for Sakuramiya...

Yan Huan stacked his empty tray. "Finished eating? I'm heading back to nap in class. What about you guys?"

Ashley and Hashimoto were off to the off-campus shopping strip. Sakuramiya would return to the council office. Yua, scars freshly healed, skipped away to hang with the senior girls in the upper-grade building.

They returned their trays, split up at the cafeteria entrance. Only Yan Huan and Sakuramiya walked toward the freshman building.

Yan Huan yawned, a lazy, drawn-out sound. A breeze slipped past, teasing a few strands of hair across his eyes.

Beside him, Sakuramiya moved with effortless grace, the same breeze catching the pale-pink tips of her long hair. She was petite, yet next to Yan Huan's 184 centimeters she never seemed fragile—something in her bearing made sure of that.

Spring stirred; youth in full bloom. Boy and girl, side by side. They had always looked right together.

"President." Sakuramiya spoke while Yan Huan still had his eyes half-closed in mid-yawn.

"Mm? What's up, Sakuramiya?"

"Earlier I said I wanted to join the study group. You never gave me an answer."

Yua's interruption had cut their earlier conversation short, and Yan Huan had ended lunch before it could resume. Now she brought it up again.

Yan Huan blinked, gave a helpless smile. Spencer's Modifier wasn't something harmless, and Sakuramiya had no resistance. If it warped her mind... After half a year together, she was a close friend; he couldn't let anything happen to her.

"I get what you're implying, but—"

"Also, President, you've been yawning a lot these past two days." Sakuramiya cut in before he could finish.

Yan Huan blinked in mild surprise and turned to find Sakuramiya Hitomi already watching him.

"President, you're already swamped—classes, student-council duties, then a part-time job after school. Now you're adding tutoring on top of all that. You must be exhausted."

She looked straight at him, eyes earnest.

"So, even if it's only a little, let me lighten the load. After all, I'm the vice-president."

Whatever she had planned to add after "after all" never made it past her lips.

Yan Huan's fatigue wasn't from overwork; the guy had energy to spare—probably too much yang and nowhere to vent it. Still, hearing Sakuramiya worry about him felt nice.

He swallowed another yawn and gave a polite shake of the head. "Whenever I need help, I never stand on ceremony with you. But this time I'll pass. Next time for sure."

Sakuramiya pressed her lips together, but the words had already run their course. She nodded, shelving the topic for later.

They reached the foot of the teaching building; time to part ways.

"Have a good lunch, President."

"You too, Sakuramiya."

Yan Huan headed for Class 1A on the ground floor while Sakuramiya climbed the stairs.

The corridor was deserted; even his classroom was empty. Off-campus, the shopping street was probably livelier. He planned to grab his books, find a quiet spot for a nap and some self-study, then head to the mah-jongg tables. Today was Tuesday—originally he and Ye Shiyu had an elective crafts class together. He'd enrolled her just to spend more time together and keep an eye on her and the Modifier.

But the crafts teacher had emailed this morning: anyone who wanted to buy supplies downtown could hop on the school minibus; everyone else would see her Thursday. Yan Huan had bought his supplies during enrollment, so he was off the hook.

Mah-jongg, here I come.

Humming, he stepped out of the classroom—and walked straight into the faint scent of peonies.

No way.

He paused at the threshold, then craned his neck into the hallway. There she stood: a cool, aloof girl in a white sundress, black hair cascading like a waterfall. Her beautiful, expressionless face only flickered when she saw him.

No need for introductions—it was Ye Shiyu.

She cradled a cloth bundle against her chest.

Yan Huan's heart sank. He felt like an office worker who'd already clocked out for the weekend only to have the boss announce an emergency meeting.

Thank heavens for Perfect Expression Management; the smile never left his face.

"Shiyu sis!"

He beamed and waved. Ye Shiyu walked over without a word.

......

"What brings you to the freshman building, Shiyu sis? Something up?"

Ye Shiyu gave a small nod.

Just as Yan Huan's grin threatened to crack, she opened the bundle and produced a small black bento box. Her name was written on the lid in neat characters. She lifted the lid: rows of perfectly arranged cookies.

Yan Huan blinked. "Did Auntie Chen make these for me?"

Ye Shiyu tilted her head, hesitated. "...I made them."

Yan Huan raised an eyebrow, ready to tease, when she added, "There's something I'd like your help with."

The words tumbled out as though pushed by nerves. She lowered her eyes and pulled her laptop from the bundle. "Since last night the computer's been really slow. Everything takes ages to open and random ads keep popping up. I'm not familiar with Linmen repair shops, and I don't want to bother Mom..."

"I see."

Slow, unresponsive, pop-ups? Disk issue or...

Yan Huan asked, "Shiyu sis, did you bring the charger?"

"Mm."

He checked the time. "I know a bit about computers. Let me take a look first—might save you a trip to the shop."

"Okay."

"Let's go to my classroom. It's empty."

"Mm."

He led her into the deserted room and sat at his desk. Plugged in the laptop and pressed the power button—though it was already on standby; Ye Shiyu must have hoped it would magically heal overnight.

It hadn't. The moment he touched the trackpad the cursor lurched like a drunk.

Ye Shiyu sat beside him, hands on her lap, long lashes fluttering as she watched.

"Shiyu sis, anything out of the ordinary on the computer lately?"

"...No."

"Download anything new?"

"No."

Classic—three questions, three denials. Time for detective work.

"Password, Shiyu sis?"

"Mom's and my birthday—06270903."

Yan Huan keyed it in. The desktop loaded, revealing a life-sized photo of an exquisitely dressed doll as the wallpaper.

Dragging the cursor felt like hauling a boulder. A glance at the desktop and system tray showed no obvious bloatware—no "little-bird wallpaper" or other junk. Remarkably clean.

"No rogue programs visible."

Ye Shiyu nodded.

"Disk space looks fine—C drive, D drive..."

Another nod.

Yan Huan glanced sideways. Every time he muttered a finding, she bobbed her head like a girl who knew nothing about computers or games, content to echo him.

Secretly delighted—utterly delighted.

Still, since neither software nor disk was the culprit, what was going on?

He opened Task Manager and clicked the Performance tab. The moment the numbers appeared he nearly swore: CPU utilization pinned at 100 %—with no apps running.

He switched to Processes. System tasks were hogging the CPU—abnormal for any length of time, and the source of the pop-ups.

Classic downloader virus.

He raised an eyebrow. "Looks like you've got a trojan, Shiyu sis."

"It's probably just a virus, Shiyu sis. Grab an antivirus program off the web and run a scan—no big deal."

"Mm-hmm."

Yan Huan really is good at this stuff, she thought, hugging the tin of homemade cookies she'd brought as thanks for fixing her laptop.

But the apology gift she still owed him was nowhere near ready.

Yesterday she'd meant to ask what he liked, yet the words had stuck in her throat.

Now, with only the two of them here and the mood calm, it felt like the perfect moment.

She parted her lips, lifted her eyes, the question right on the tip of her tongue—

"Yan—"

But the moment she looked up, she saw his cursor drifting toward the browser icon on the taskbar.

The icon was already there, which meant the browser was open.

She suddenly remembered: this morning she'd tried to open it again, hoping to revisit that strange website.

It had loaded—agonizingly slowly—just as Auntie Chen called her to leave for school. She'd simply minimized the window, snapped the laptop shut, and stuffed it into her bag so Yan Huan could take a look.

A whole morning of classes had wiped it from her mind; she'd left the browser running.

And now Yan Huan was about to click it open?

"Shiyu sis, I'll download an antivirus for you—it'll be quick."

Inside...

There was something inside that he absolutely must not see!

Beside him, Ye Shiyu's face went pale. Her phone slipped from her hand, the screen flaring a wicked violet.

Lips trembling, she blurted out the name only her mother ever used—

"Xiao Huan."

"Huh? Shiyu sis, what—"

Startled, Yan Huan turned—

Only to find a familiar deep-purple vortex swirling on the phone's screen.

[Effect: Individual Hypnosis]

[Duration: 15 minutes]

[Countdown: Start]

Yan Huan: "???"