Temperature Control in Academy City

Natsume Sonoko controlled the temperature of the grill, her hands moving non-stop, like a hardworking little bee.

After a while, he excitedly put a whole box of Kobe beef on the grill, carefully controlling the heat to prevent the beef from being burnt.

After a while, he took a spoon and scooped food from the hot pot into a bowl. He didn't care that the food was scalding hot and swallowed it whole.

The corners of a girl's mouth with a bun hairstyle were unconsciously filled with a happy smile.

I don’t know why, but I always feel really happy when I eat with friends. It’s very different from the feeling of going to the dormitory cafeteria when I’m alone.

"Hey, Natsume-san, don't you feel it's hot? It was just taken out of the hot pot."

Harukami-san was sitting next to Natsume Sonoko and said in a daze.

"Don't worry, Natsume-san is famous for not being afraid of heat." Senior Misaka patted Harukami Kimi's shoulder and explained patiently.

Chapter 168 Today’s Rain is Very Noisy

I swallowed a mouthful of the thick soup. The spicy taste in my mouth did not cover up the deliciousness of the soft-shelled turtle, but made it taste even better.

At this time, the originally gloomy dark clouds finally couldn't resist the call of gravity, and the heavy rain hit the glass of the dormitory.

"It's raining. Luckily I closed the window before."

Riri Saotome hurriedly stood up and carefully checked whether there was any rain seeping in through the window.

"The weather has been so strange recently. It was sunny yesterday, but I heard it will be like this for the next few days."

Hatsuharu swallowed the meatball in her mouth and said with some concern.

According to the information she had accidentally come across before, abnormal weather phenomena are gradually increasing around the world, and even some extreme weather is becoming more common.

Part of it may be due to global warming, but there is also a strange rumor on the Internet that it may be related to those behemoth ocean monitoring devices built by Academy City all over the world, and their central control system is located in a research institute in Academy City.

There is even a conspiracy theory that these ocean control devices can even temporarily affect the ocean current systems in some areas of the earth when certain conditions are met.

"It's just a normal situation. The weather forecast has already stated it."

Shirai struggled to get up from the ground, looked at the turtle drink that was poured into the sewer with some regret, and then resigned himself to his fate and sat down in his seat.

"By the way, nothing happened in the branch today, right?"

Shirai picked up the bowl, rubbed the lump on his head, and asked Uiharu.

"Everything is normal."

"By the way, the system server of Zhachuan Middle School was attacked several times today. But I have already reported the other party's IP address to the security guards. Looking at the time, the other party should have been captured by now."

Her face was red and there was some sweat from the hot pot, and Hatsuharu spoke absentmindedly.

"I see."

Shirai nodded, already accustomed to Hatsuharu's hacking skills.

In this way, in this small dormitory, there are already two top super hackers in Academy City.

The hacker issue was not important at the hot pot party. Instead, the most eye-catching person was a barbecue master.

Apply a light layer of cooking oil on the grill and then grill over low heat.

The use of heat must be just right; the highest level of barbecue is to make it crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

For a barbecue master who uses his ability to cheat, the difficulty is only to check the best barbecue temperature on the Internet in advance, and then make some calculations. She can definitely make the barbecue without changing the temperature.

Compared to "Magic Index", perhaps the world of Food Wars! might be more suitable for Natsume-san.

"Natsume-san, is the barbecue ready?"

Shirai Kuroko patted Natsume Sonoko's shoulder, picked up the tongs from the table and wanted to turn the grilled meat over.

When turning the noodles over, Shirai realized that it was unnecessary because both noodles looked equally cooked.

As a puff of hot smoke rose, a faint smell of burning entered everyone's nose. Natsume finally completed his first barbecue using his ability.

"I'll try."

Saten half squatted, picked up a piece of grilled meat, and swallowed it in one gulp with a strange combination of sweet bean sauce and mustard.

“It’s delicious. It tastes really good.”

Saten couldn't help but praise that the powerful combination of Kobe beef and the data-obsessed chef was like top-notch ingredients meeting an emotionless barbecue machine.

"Then I won't be polite either." Misaka-senpai said with her hands clasped together.

The hot pot party lasted until one o'clock in the afternoon. The scene was quite lively and even Natsume was sweating from the heat.

It’s not the high temperature brought by the food, but the spicy taste contained in the hot pot that stimulates the pores all over the body, just like taking a hot bath.

By the time the hot pot party was over, Zuo Tian's dormitory was in a mess, with only the hot pot soup still bubbling.

However, it seems that everyone's appetite is not very big, and most of the food they brought was not finished, and they could still eat it until the evening. The only thing that was solved was the beef of Misaka-senpai and the turtle of Shirai-san.

At this time, Natsume was lying motionless on the floor, his hair was disheveled, his pupils were dilated, his expression was dull, and his entire spirit seemed to have been drained away.

Of course, this was definitely not food poisoning or something like that. Natsume was just taking a break after dinner and lying there not wanting to move.

I once thought about taking a walk after dinner to help digestion, but it didn't seem to be suitable for Natsume, so I finally chose to wait quietly for digestion.

"Ah, I feel so full." Hatsuharu opened her mouth slightly and breathed hard, seeming to be a little overfed.

"Then let's start the reading club later. Now everyone should take a rest." Senior Misaka said with a smile.

"Agree!"

The sound of pages turning filled my ears, and the air was filled with the smell of hot pot and books.

As the reading club began, Natsume's expression became a little bored. It was so boring. The hot pot party was more interesting.

Natsume is a person who believes in doing things at the right time. For example, he finishes his reading notes before the holiday starts, and then he can play all the time during the holiday.

But the world is never as we wish, and everything is irreversible, so we can only face the reality bravely.

I flipped through the assigned book in my hand, which was lent to me by Shirai-san.

Natsume, who was a little bored, turned his head to the side. He was surrounded by people who were reading books seriously and taking notes seriously.

Since everyone was working so hard, that girl with a bun felt embarrassed to do something else, like taking out her cell phone to surf the internet.

Natsume Sonoko had already finished reading these designated books in class last semester. Now she had no interest in them at all. She was even half-heartedly paying attention to Lingzi, which made her seem like she was absent from class.

Banri and Harukami were transfer students, so they didn't complete the study notes requirement, but when they were serious about it, they were just as serious as the others.

As for Misaka-senpai, although she completed her homework like Natsume-san, she still marked some key points in the book, which formed a sharp contrast with a certain bun-haired girl.

"Everyone is working hard, so I can't slack off. Cheer up, I can definitely do it."

Natsume Sonoko managed to calm herself down, breathing in and out continuously, and silently encouraged herself.

"It's finally done." Shirai-san said.

After just over an hour, Shirai, who had a lot of experience in writing letters of repentance, completed the task first, followed by Saten.

It was somewhat surprising that Chuchun, who had always had good academic performance, was stuck with his reading notes and only managed to finish them in the evening.

"It's so hard."

With a hint of tears on her face, Hatsuharu closed the book with a look of relief on her face.

"Thank you for your hard work." Saten-san patted Uiharu's shoulder to comfort her.

"Then as compensation for your hard work, the second hot pot dinner will officially begin." Saten said with some pride.

...

It was past lights-out time when I left Saten's dormitory.

Naturally, the hotpot in the evening couldn't last that long, and the rest of the time was basically spent playing a popular board game that Zuo Tian brought out.

A few of them were having a lot of fun and had been playing until now. When it was almost time to meet with the dormitory supervisor, they reluctantly left.

It was raining heavily in Academy City at this time. The raindrops were hitting the ground like soybeans, and even the vision became blurred.

Since the sewer pipes in the Academy City are very well laid, there will be no flooding even if it rains heavily for a few days. However, it has caused some trouble for the few people who were preparing to go back to the student dormitory.

Walking under the rain, the Tokiwadai trio did not hold an umbrella, but there was a transparent barrier that blocked the rain from all directions.

"Thanks to Natsume-san, otherwise we would have been soaked when we returned." Misaka-senpai said with a sigh of relief, and even Shirai-san nodded in agreement.

Although Shirai-san's spatial movement is convenient, he can only move less than a hundred meters at a time, and in the time between movements, he will inevitably be drenched by the rain.

"Onee-sama, have you heard that the eighth level 5 will soon appear in Academy City?" While walking, Shirai suddenly spoke.

Chapter 169: Rumors about the Eighth Place

The eighth person with super powers? Misaka-senpai paused for a moment.

I had heard a rumor on the streets before that the board of directors was preparing to select the eighth person.

It seems that not much confidentiality measures were taken for this matter, and some unimportant news has already leaked to the outside world. The only mystery is the final candidate for the eighth place.

If divided by time points, the first seven can be said to be the first batch of super-powered people in Academy City. They appeared at a relatively close time to each other, and it can be said that they have used up most of the accumulation since the establishment of Academy City.

After this group of people with super powers appeared, no new people with super powers appeared in Academy City for more than a year, until the news of the eighth one came out not long ago.

"Onee-sama, Natsume-san, I was also shocked when I heard the news. I originally thought it was a rumor, but I found out from Hatsuharu that a new blank file for the eighth person has been created in the library." Shirai-san said thoughtfully.

The library contains information on almost all people with special abilities. Although problems have occurred recently, the information is basically correct.

However, viewing the specific information of lv5 requires extremely high permissions. Under normal circumstances, you can only access the information that has been officially released. If nothing has been released, you can only see blank files.

As if she remembered something, Misaka-senpai looked a little hesitant and subconsciously glanced towards Natsume Sonoko.

As for the eighth place, could it be Natsume-san?

After all, the appearance of the eighth person was too coincidental. Accelerator was defeated not long ago. If the two are connected with each other, then there is a high possibility that it is Natsume-kun.

Just as Misaka Mikoto looked towards Natsume Sonoko, she immediately caught a glimpse of a girl with a bun on her head with a strange look on her face.

Whenever Natsume is happy, he can't hide his emotions at all, and others can tell at a glance that something is wrong.

Just like when we were playing the board game together just now, as long as we drew a good hand, we could find problems on Natsume's face in advance.

Walking on the water-stained path, Natsume pursed his lips, trying his best to endure something and restore his expressionless state.

Upon hearing that her level 5 file had been created, Natsume Sonoko felt inexplicably happy, and even the expression on her face gradually distorted.

However, being too complacent is not a good thing. You still have to be reserved. Natsume Sonoko quite agrees with this point.

"Natsume-san really knows something."

Retracting her gaze, Misaka-senpai understood.

Originally, the credibility was only about three or four points, but when seeing someone's expression, it immediately soared to seven or eight points.

"I heard someone talk about it today. If the news is true, we'll know after the physical test in September." Senior Misaka said.

"Sister, in fact, Kuroko thinks so too. The physical test is less than five days away. I wonder which school will be the level 5 student this time."

Shirai-san rested his chin on one hand and frowned slightly, as if he had transformed into a famous detective again.

"That school? I thought, maybe it's from our school."

Misaka-senpai raised her head and looked at the curtain that was blocking the heavy rain, and said with a strange look on her face.

"From our school!? Onee-sama, do you have inside information? Could it be that guy Guangzi? No, that's impossible. Maybe it's a third-year senior?"

Shirai's eyes became empty and she started to check things one by one in her head. Before long, her face became serious.

If it was in his own school, there would be more than fifty suspects, which coincides with the number of level 4 in Tokiwadai Junior High School.

"Heizi, I was just saying it casually, you'll know when the time comes."

"Besides, it's getting late now, so we'd better hurry back to the student dormitory."

Senior Misaka showed a trace of helplessness on her face and waved her hand to explain.

Although Natsume-san is very likely, no one can be sure before it is announced, so he may not be a student of Tokiwadai.

Listening to the conversation between Misaka-senpai and Shirai-san, a girl with a bun-like haircut slowed down her movements slightly, as if she was thinking about something.

"Misaka-senpai, Shirai-san, actually, just last night, the dorm supervisor asked me to fill out a medical examination form."