Does gravity make me stronger?

...

Nothing else happened until Friday. On Thursday, Hachiman once again found an opportunity to bind with Nagasaki Motoyo, and the knowledge that the latter had learned was transmitted to his mind with a very high synchronization probability.

At Haneoka Academy, in Class 1-C, Miyami Ogiyu, carrying a bag of sealed documents, slowly entered the classroom amidst the solemn gazes of everyone.

"The exam is about to start. If you need to go to the bathroom, hurry up. The papers will be handed out in three minutes. Anyone who doesn't come back will get a zero."

After hearing this, no student would dare to go to the toilet, for fear of taking too long to urinate and getting a zero on their test.

Hachiman sat in his seat, calmly observing the gravity values ​​of the students around him.

As expected, on the day of the exam, everyone's gravity value increased by several points, and those "poor students" who didn't study much had a gravity value of nearly 20.

If he could represent the school and announce the cancellation of the exam at this time, wouldn't he be able to reap all the rewards from everyone?

Unfortunately, it's impossible to cancel anything.

I hope this exam is a bit easier, so I don't have to call my parents over; I don't even have a girlfriend yet.

'Brother Buddha, Brother Jesus, bless me.'

'Please, please bless me, may Hachiman Daisatsu protect me!'

As soon as he opened his mind, the students' anxious voices reached Hachiman's mind, and their prayers and pleas for help were endless.

But what's with the Hachiman blessing? Don't you know there's a student in the class with the same name?

As the exam approached, Hachiman became a little uneasy, especially when he saw that the proctor had changed from Miyami Ogi to the head of the teaching department, his heart leaped into his throat.

Don't be nervous, it's just that the proctor has changed. The academic genius Su Shi will protect me, Amen.

Mei Chuan Kuzi on the podium didn't say anything, but just coldly looked at her watch. When the exam time was up, she handed out the exam papers in one go.

"The first subject is Chinese, and the exam lasts two hours. Be careful to manage your time."

After receiving the exam paper, Hachiman focused intently on solving the problems.

There's not much to say about Chinese, it's his strong suit. He finished the test paper without much effort and estimated that he could get a score of 70-80%. The key is the score of the composition.

Of course, in the formal exam, Hachiman couldn't be as casual as when handing in homework; he still had to answer according to the examiner's wishes.

Two hours passed quickly, and even after all the exam papers were collected and the first exam was announced to be over, Mei Chuan Kuzi did not make any further moves against Hachiman.

It seems like it was a false alarm?

The afternoon arrived quickly. Since the first-year students had not yet been divided into classes, the science and humanities subjects were combined into one exam paper, with a total time limit of three hours.

The proctor was also Mei Chuan Kuzi, but this time, Mei Chuan Kuzi, who had been proctoring from the podium, took the initiative to come down and check on each student's progress in answering the questions.

When I walked up to Hachiman, he was sweating profusely as he solved a math problem.

What kind of question is this? It's incredibly difficult!

This exam was indeed very difficult, to the point that even a highly educated person like Hachiman wanted to swear and curse at the person who set the exam.

[So why isn't Hachiman making a happy sound?]

Do your homework happily, or just say you want me dead...

Because reading thoughts requires a certain amount of mental energy, although you may not feel it normally, in the exam room, your already insufficient concentration, coupled with the drain from using thoughts, will quickly leave you exhausted.

Furthermore, Hachiman had no intention of cheating using his abilities, since his goal was simply to pass, so he never activated his inner voice.

But when he noticed Mei Chuan Kuzi approaching, he still wanted to hear what the head of the teaching department was really thinking.

'This is Hachiman, doing math. His speed is okay, but his accuracy... well, it's just so-so.'

'The approach to this problem is good, but the fundamentals are too weak. Even the formula was memorized incorrectly. No wonder you got a low score.'

???

Upon hearing Mei Chuan Kuzi's thoughts, Hachiman immediately stopped solving the problem and instead began checking the previous questions.

A moment later, sure enough, the error was found in a basic multiple-choice question.

Damn it, I mistook a power function for an exponential function!

Thank you, Dean of Students!

So, right under Umekawa Kuko's nose, Hachiman changed the question.

Beside him, Mei Chuan Kuzi raised an eyebrow slightly.

'He actually corrected the mistake on this question; the kid's lucky, but he's still far from passing, several points short.'

How is this possible? I've done so much, and I still can't get a passing grade?!

Unable to believe he hadn't even passed, Hachiman didn't even want to finish the remaining questions.

Mei Chuan Kuko stared for a while and noticed that Hachiman's movements while doing the problem had slowed down.

"Your mental fortitude is lacking. You can't even write anything when I'm watching you? It's not that I'm targeting you, it's just that your exam paper is riddled with holes and completely worthless."

Then tell me where it's so vulnerable!

Hachiman roared inwardly.

This woman seems to have some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder; she subconsciously points out anything that's wrong in her mind.

Some of the difficult questions were pointed out, but he couldn't answer them even if they were pointed out. However, he could easily get points on some of the basic questions because he had simply memorized the wrong formula or made a mistake.

'How could this auxiliary line be drawn so roughly? It's too clever; it should be on the opposite side of the square. Oh, he guessed right again!'

'How stupid! You even got the physics formulas wrong. Is that how you calculate friction? Hmm, you got it right again. Did you deliberately write it wrong?'

Mei Chuan Kuzi didn't pay much attention. After all, no normal person would think that the other party had the ability to read minds. She just thought that Hachiman was too careless. If he didn't check properly, it would be difficult for him to get all the basic questions right.

Keep going!

Hearing the inner voice stop, Hachiman greedily urged on, but Umekawa Kuko had already walked far away.

No, come back quickly!

I'll at least wait until I reach the passing grade before I leave.

'This kid, how did he improve so much in science? That's impossible.'

That's because Sister Su Shi works hard enough.

That's not true. I myself studied it carefully for a week.

Hachiman shut down his inner thoughts and began to refocus his attention on the exam paper.

Three hours later...

"Ugh, I'm free!" Chihaya Aine stretched and yawned, looking refreshed, after collecting the papers.

"Aine, this exam was so hard!" Chihaya Aine's friends came to her one after another to complain after the exam.

"Oh, really? I think it's fine."

"That's because Aine is very smart."

"Hehe, no way... Tomorin, Hachiman, what do you guys think?"

Gao Songdeng didn't react much. For her, grades were the second most important thing. Right now, she was more focused on Sunday's performance, so she said somewhat absentmindedly, "As for me, I feel like there's no difference from before."

Hachiman rested his chin on his hand and said calmly, "It's alright, the math was a bit difficult."

"It's a bit difficult, is Hachiman a top student?" Aine's friend asked in surprise.

Then, she whispered to Aine, "Aine-chan, your little boyfriend's grades aren't very good, are they?"

"What? He's just my friend," Chihaya Aine quickly explained, but she glanced at Hachiman a few times out of the corner of her eye, clearly concerned.

'Do Hachiman and I look like a couple? Hehe, Hachiman must be really happy to hear that.'

Yes, I'm happy (reading in a monotone).

Hachiman packed his schoolbag, ready to go home.

He didn't have any work scheduled for this weekend, and since his midterm exams were over, he didn't need to go to Nagasaki Motoyo's place for a while.

and so.

This is a day of freedom!

He wanted to go back immediately and play on his PSP all night.

"Wait a minute, Hikigaya-kun!" Takamatsu Akari grabbed Hachiman's sleeve, speaking nervously, "I...I have something I want to give you."

"What?" Hachiman turned around.

Then, Takamatsu took out a performance ticket from her bag.

"These are our tickets for Sunday's live show. If you're free, Hachiman-kun, you can come over..." she said timidly.

"This is our band's first performance, and I really hope Hachiman can come. But even if Hachiman doesn't come, I'll still do my best to keep the show going!"

Shocked by the inner strength of Takamatsu Akari, which was completely different from her outward appearance, Hachiman blankly accepted the ticket, thought for a moment, and said, "If there's nothing else, I'll definitely come."

"Don't worry, Tomorin, Hikigaya will definitely come. If he doesn't, I'll just drag him from home," Aine said without any concern.

"Hey, hey!" Hachiman retorted.

"Hehe!" Aine stuck out her little tongue, deliberately acting cute. "Anyway, Hachiman would never want to make Tomorin sad, right?"

"..."

That's something that can't be refuted.

From beginning to end, he regarded Takamatsu Akari as his younger sister in Tokyo.

He would feel terribly guilty if he didn't go see his sister's first performance.

[He has such a strong bro vibe!]

Ah, people without younger sisters just don't understand.

Sometimes I feel that it's tough on Komachi to have such a burdensome older brother like you.

Don't try to sow discord between Komachi and me!

"Well then, Hachiman, see you the day after tomorrow."

"Oh."

----Cut line----

I was suddenly surprised to find myself ranked around 40th on the cat update leaderboard.

Chapter 85, Chapter 084: Shengxiangzi

Before going home, Hachiman received a text message from Toyokawa Shoko who needed to see him, so he went to the record store instead.

On the way, he happened to meet Xiangzi, who was walking from the other end of the corridor.

　"Good afternoon, Hachiman, how did the exam go?"

Xiangzi walked over nonchalantly, seemingly unconcerned about the midterm exams that were so important to most students.

Very well, you two-faced Xiangzi, I am your wall-breaking man!

Dare to raise your gravity value even higher!

Speaking of gravity, the number on Xiangzi's head did change slightly.

4-> 15

The increase was not significant, and can be considered a normal fluctuation in sentiment.

Withdrawing his gaze, Hachiman felt a strong urge to complain: "It's alright. I've realized something during this time: compared to working, studying is really a cost-effective thing."

Looking at the boastful Hachiman, Xiangzi obediently asked, "Oh, why?"

"Hmph, in the boss's eyes, it's only right for working slaves to work as hard as they can to get their wages."

"Therefore, even if you work yourself to the bone, your superiors will not give you a raise. Instead, they will criticize you harshly when you slack off or when you work hard."

"But learning is different. No matter how well you learn, others won't benefit from it. So you could say that the only beneficiary of learning is the learner himself!"

Of course, Nagasaki Motoyo is an exception. She has been carrying a heavy burden, and with the added responsibility of tutoring her own child, she has practically been reading the equivalent of three people's books all by herself.

"Yes, I've been watching Hikigaya study diligently these past few days," Shoko said gently, as if stroking a cat's fur.

No, how did you know?

Did they install a surveillance camera on me?