My daily life in various anime crossovers can't possibly be this sci-fi.

The last one in the third grade group, and also the one who least resembles a third grader.

About six minutes later, the last petite girl appeared at the door.

"Huff...huff...ha..." The girl was panting heavily from the prolonged sprint. But even though she was so exhausted that she needed to hold onto the doorframe to stand, she still wore a confident smile and made a bold declaration:

"Hahaha! All the mediocre ones have already made their appearances, and the last one to come, that's μ's ace!" The girl laughed loudly. "NI~CO NI~CO NI! How about it, you guys over there? You're so shocked by Nico-chan's unparalleled cuteness that you can't say a word and can't do anything but obediently pay up, right? Right?"

Yes, this Ms. Yazawa Nico is the legendary ace of μ's... Yes, that's right... isn't it?

"Ah...haha, hello there." Jiang Jinghua tried hard to hold back his laughter.

Although it seems a bit eccentric, Yazawa Nico's petite figure, which appears to be underdeveloped, and her rather pink and round pretty face, do give off a cute and silly vibe when she says these strange things... Yes, cute and silly, the key word is "silly".

"Ah, anyway, now all nine of us plus one more are here!" Yazawa Nico shouted, leaning against the doorframe. "So, everyone! Let's march together, under Nico-chan's leadership, toward the battlefield of our destiny!"

"Hurrah!" The two first-year students (except for Maki Nishikino) and Honoka Kousaka responded enthusiastically.

"You're very energetic." Nozomi Tojo smiled. "If you're this motivated every day, you'll have no problem saving the school or achieving both fame and fortune, don't you think?"

Why is there such a huge gap between first-grade and third-grade students... and it's completely the other way around?

"Each of these nine beautiful girls is quite an interesting person," Jiang Jinghua thought.

Since fate had played a cruel joke on him, giving him the opportunity to travel with these nine people, he was determined to seize it. Although Jiang Jinghua felt he wasn't qualified to be their friend…

"You must have confidence in yourself." Kato Megumi's advice still echoed in my ears.

...But as long as you start working hard today to become qualified, that's enough.

what

Section 39, Chapter Thirty-Nine: Heading Towards Another Dimension

The ten people walked out of the waiting room with great enthusiasm, carrying large and small bags, and headed towards the boarding gate.

"Hey, Nico-chan, where are we going now?" Rin Hoshizora asked.

“To Alaska,” Nicole replied.

"Where is Alaska?"

"Hmph, Alaska, huh? That's a very famous place in Northern Europe..."

"Um, Alaska is actually in North America," Jiang Jinghua corrected.

"Huh..." Nico Yazawa's smile froze for a moment, but she quickly recovered. "Hmph, you don't need to tell me! I was just making a little joke with my junior! A little joke, huh? Alaska in South America, that kind of thing..."

"North America, oh."

"...So noisy! It was just a slip of the tongue! How could the world's cutest Nico-chan not know that Alaska is in North America?!" Yazawa Nico was on the verge of exploding.

"Okay, okay, I got it. By the way, Nicole-chan is the cutest in the world." Jiang Jinghua suppressed a laugh. "Satisfied now?"

"That, that's more like it..."

How did this guy manage to advance to the third grade without repeating a year?

"Wow! Look, Umi!" Honoka pointed to a silver-gray plane with sharp, angular lines in the distance. "It's so cool! It looks like a stealth fighter!"

“That’s not a stealth fighter.” Sonoda Umi shook her head. “That’s a supersonic transport aircraft specially designed by the Foundation for high-speed deployment of government personnel worldwide. It can fly at Mach 3, and I’ve heard that the comfort level is… passable, if you consider its terrifying speed.”

“Mach 3…” Honoka nodded. “That’s several times faster than a regular plane.”

"Um, Senior Jiang!" Xingkong Lin moved closer to Jiang Jinghua, "Will there be food on the plane? Will there be a restroom? Is there a TV to watch?"

“From what I understand…” Jiang Jinghua paused, “none of those three items are present.”

"Huh?" Hoshizora Rin looked disappointed. "The noodles in the airplane meal were so delicious..."

Why do you think that food tastes so good?

"Because those planes fly very fast, it's dangerous to move around on them," Jiang Jinghua explained. "But precisely because they're so fast, you can just bear with it for a little while."

Guided by the airport flight attendants, the group put their luggage into the cargo hold, and then boarded the plane while chatting and laughing.

Since the expedition team consisted of ten people, the small transport plane only had ten seats. The cabin was cramped, with just enough space for one person to pass between two rows. There were five rows of seats in total, and Jiang Jinghua sat in the second-to-last row.

There are no windows on the plane. Once everyone has boarded and the cabin door is closed, the cabin becomes completely enclosed.

"Good morning, passengers," the loudspeaker announced. "Please ensure you have fastened your seatbelts. This journey will take approximately..."

……

"Ah...hahaha...Kotori...no...come closer..." Inside the transport truck, Honoka Kousaka was talking in her sleep at an abnormally loud volume, "...Don't pinch me...it tickles..."

Not just Honoka Kousaka, but almost everyone was in a state of extreme drowsiness.

Alaska is not the end of the journey: the group still needs to travel from an airport located in the coastal region to an interdimensional teleportation center located inland. They are currently traveling in an armored transport vehicle with a top speed of only about 60 kilometers per hour… and coupled with frequent snow-covered roads, the journey is quite long.

Everyone was quite excited when we left Tokyo. However, the long journey of several hours and the almost completely enclosed train carriage had worn away any enthusiasm. Now, everyone is fast asleep in the train.

That was a true "sleeping in a ball": in the row of seats in front of Jiang Jinghua, Minami Kotori was asleep with her head resting on Umi's lap, while Sonoda Umi, also asleep, had her arm draped over Kotori's waist. As for Honoka... she had completely left her seat and was lying face down on the ground of the military vehicle, her stomach pressing against Umi's feet, curled up in a rather unnatural ball—it was amazing that she could still sleep in this state and talk so enthusiastically in her sleep.

The only person still awake in the car right now is Jiang Jinghua, and even he's in a rather drowsy state. Although everyone's sleeping faces are incredibly cute, after watching them for two or three hours straight, even he seems to have been infected by everyone's "high spirits."

Just as Jiang Jinghua was about to lower his head and close his eyes to catch some sleep, a majestic march-like piece of music suddenly filled the car. This meant that they had finally arrived at the legendary interdimensional travel center.

……

The transport vehicle drove directly into the central underground teleportation area, so the sleepy-eyed group successfully boarded the teleportation device as soon as they got off. When they emerged from the teleportation device for the second time, the surrounding environment had changed from the steel structure underground to the azure sky of a typical subtropical island.

According to the information Jiang Jinghua had reviewed in the car, the area they had arrived at was an archipelago called "Sakharov," located in the temperate region of the northern hemisphere in this alternate dimension. The islands were not industrially developed; all the surrounding tall concrete buildings belonged to the foundation, so the archipelago's scenery was completely unpolluted, making it a pleasant tourist destination.

Bathed in golden sunlight, the distant sea stretched out as clear as the sky. The surface displayed a beautiful pale blue hue, conveying a sense of pristine beauty. Even for Jiang Jinghua, who had lived two lives, the scenery was undeniably stunning, but neither he nor the other nine showed any interest in appreciating it.

"Ugh... I'm so sleepy..." Honoka Kousaka murmured weakly. "Where's the inn...?"

"The so-called 'travel fatigue'..." Nozomi Tojo said while yawning, "...is what we're in right now, isn't it?"

In short, Jiang Jinghua's first (or in a sense, second) interdimensional travel began amidst a chorus of yawns.

what

Section 40, Chapter 40: Let's Go Hiking Together!

So, what should we do next?

After finding a place to live, Jiang Jinghua lay in bed for two or three hours and thought to himself.

It was still daytime in this alternate dimension, so there was still plenty of time to do. Jiang Jinghua took out his phone, opened the text message from the school, and planned to check the assignment list. Since it was an field trip, the assignments were definitely the top priority…

Hey! What kind of ridiculous idea is this?! As Jiang Jinghua looked around, he suddenly realized something was wrong. When can't I do my homework? Shouldn't the most important thing right now be building good relationships with everyone?

So, what activities can both strengthen relationships and help complete assignments at the same time...?

"Knock knock knock!" Just then, Jiang Jinghua heard someone knocking on the door.

"Jiang-kun!" Judging from the voice coming from outside the door, it should be Honoka Kousaka. "If you're not sleeping, or secretly doing something shady, please open the door!"

If you guess I might be sleeping, could you please not shout so loudly...?

Jiang Jinghua opened the door, and standing outside was Honoka Kousaka, dressed in brown casual clothes, looking as if she was going on a hike.

“There’s a small hill around here, right? And it’s quite high,” Honoka said. “So, the nine of us are planning a hike, just to get some exercise and enjoy the scenery. Do you want to come?”

By the way, hiking is a great activity! Just collect some plants and observe some animals on the mountain, and you can write an ecology report; then draw a simple topographical map of the area around the mountain, and maybe even write a report or two on the arcane analysis of the rocks on the mountain...

“Of course we’ll come together.” Jiang Jinghua nodded. “I might need to prepare a little while, can you wait a bit?”

“Of course!” Honoka replied. “Actually, Nico-chan is still lying in bed and doesn’t want to get up, so we weren’t planning on leaving right away.”

"Okay, see you later." Jiang Jinghua closed the door.

Jiang Jinghua took some simple testing equipment, paper and pens, and binoculars out of his suitcase and put them into his backpack. As for clothes, he was already wearing casual outdoor clothes.

After tidying up his things a bit, Jiang Jinghua left the room.

He walked to the small courtyard downstairs in the residential area, where seven people had already gathered.

"Hey? Not bad, Jiang." Tojo Nozomi noticed Jiang Jinghua's current attire. "Out of the ten of us, you're the only one dressed like you're going hiking."

"Well, I had no choice, because I still have a lot of homework to do, like sampling, surveys, and writing reports. Wearing clothes with lots of pockets makes it easier to carry my school supplies and such," Jiang Jinghua said.

"What a cat?" Hoshizora Rin was shocked. "She finally gets to go out and have fun, but she has to do homework at a time like this... How pitiful!"

"I'm not here for fun. I'm using the foundation's public funds for an inspection tour. The focus is on inspection, not travel," Jiang Jinghua shook his head. "I can't waste the foundation's education funds. Oh, by the way, how were you selected?"

“Although we attend a regular school, all nine of us are actually magicians, and classical magicians at that, connected to the Clock Tower,” Kotori Minami said. “Recently, the Clock Tower has been trying to establish a good relationship with the Foundation, which represents the modern magic force. You probably know that, right, Jiang? So, the reason we’re in the same team as you, a student from the Foundation, is that the Foundation is returning the favor.”

"I see." Jiang Jinghua nodded.

Just then, two people came down from a nearby dormitory building. The one walking in front was Maki Nishikino, and the one she was leading, walking behind with a tired expression, was Nico Yazawa.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Maki said. "It took me a lot of effort to get Nicole out of bed."

"Ugh... I'm exhausted... Don't bother an ace like me with something as mundane as hiking..." Yazawa Nico said, looking sleepy. "I haven't had enough sleep yet..."

"Alright! Now all ten of us are here!" Honoka Kousaka shouted excitedly (does this girl ever not get excited?), "Then! Let's head towards that mountain whose name we still don't know!"

"...Never mind, whatever makes you happy." Jiang Jinghua thought for a moment and decided not to complain.

……

The mountain that Honoka described as "still unknown in name" is not an undeveloped, barren mountain. At its summit stands the largest observatory in the Sakharov Islands, and the mountain also contains considerable storage facilities, holding a significant amount of ship parts and ammunition. Therefore, the route the ten are currently taking is one of four hiking trails built by the local government.

From Jiang Jinghua's position, he could now roughly see the entire mountain. The mountain wasn't very high, with a summit elevation of about 600 meters. The vegetation on the mountain was quite lush, with many tall trees. Since it was winter, most of the trees had bare crowns, and the withered yellow grass was visible to Jiang Jinghua.

The ten people continued along the road, passing through densely populated residential areas, and arrived at the foot of the mountain.

At the entrance to the mountain peak at the foot of the mountain, a military sentry post was set up. However, as soon as the two sentries recognized the ten people from another dimension, they saluted them and did not linger with them. Instead, they readily opened the entrance.

"Yosh! Let's have a mountain climbing race! Let's see who gets to that huge observatory first!" Rin Hoshizora shouted as she dashed off like a shot.

"What? A competition?" Yazawa Nico, who had been listless the whole way, suddenly perked up as if she had been injected with chicken blood. "As long as it's a competition, I will never lose to anyone!"

"You two idiots." Ayase Eli shook her head, looking helplessly at the two who had already dashed off like a shot. "If it were a real mountain climbing race, running this fast would exhaust them in two minutes."

“If it’s going to be a competition, I’m definitely going to fail miserably.” Jiang Jinghua shrugged. “I’ll have to write a bunch of reports on the way.”

Following the somewhat narrow mountain path, the group slowly made their way to the summit, enjoying the cool mountain breeze.