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Interestingly, Asakura observed that while Yanami Anna's eating posture wasn't particularly elegant, she didn't gobble her food either. Her cheeks were always puffed out, which reminded him of the Hamtaro he had kept in his previous life, and he found it quite cute.
Yet, despite this cute eating style, Yanami Anna could finish her meal, which was twice the quantity of his, in roughly the same amount of time as him. In a sense, it truly showed that one should not judge a book by its cover.
However, considering that she could eat those baby-fist-sized hot spring buns in a single bite, it seemed nothing was truly unacceptable.
After lunch break came physical education class.
At Soubu High School, PE classes for boys and girls had slightly different activities, but they were mixed to save educational resources.
This roughly meant that when the boys were active, the girls would sit in PE formation on the field or at the edge of the gymnasium and watch them exercise. When the girls were active, the boys would stand nearby discussing whose gymnastics uniform was more suggestive.
While a certain boy's righteous declaration, "Those who abolished bloomers should go to hell!", received approval from a chorus of male classmates, Asakura hid in a corner to take a call.
"Hello, Ryunosuke, do you really have to call me at this time? It's still class time. Unlike you, I'm an honor student who attends school diligently, takes attendance, and earns credits."
"I called you precisely because I knew you were in class. That way, you won't always be clowning around and complaining, wasting too much of my time."
"Are my words that boring…? But speaking of which, it's quite an honor that it's you personally calling today, not the little maid."
"The little maid is currently undergoing maintenance. There were some issues with the previous AI model, and it will take some time to completely eliminate the bugs."
"In any case, thank you for the program earlier."
Asakura didn't have much talent in computers and programming. The 'room where you can't leave unless you XX' he created earlier, and the operating program that connected a series of devices including monitors and surveillance, were all written by this expert. Although to the other party, it was just 'a crude thing that doesn't even count as a university graduation project,' the user-friendly operation was very convenient.
"Boring…"
"You want to see rivers of blood? How twisted, Ryunosuke."
"No, not at all. Besides, our relationship isn't good enough to call each other by name, is it?"
"Don't be so cold, Akutagawa-kun."
"What's with that name that sounds like someone who'd commit suicide at 35? Please call me Akasaka-sama properly."
"Alright, alright, Akasaka-sama." Asakura said in a tone as if coaxing a child.
He met Akasaka Ryunosuke during his part-time job, but he had never actually met him in person. Their communication was mostly through phone calls and an AI software developed by the other party called 'Maid-chan.' However, 'Maid-chan' was still in its early stages of development and often had strange bugs, allowing Asakura to obtain a lot of real information about Akasaka Ryunosuke from it.
Initially, the other party was indignant about this, but over time, he got used to it. Asakura was not the type of person who liked to harass others and maintained a good social distance, which unexpectedly led to them becoming quite familiar with each other.
"Compared to this boring stuff, what about that thing we talked about earlier? Any new progress?"
"As for the IBN5100, I found another one, but I suggest you don't get your hopes up too high."
"Just get it. You don't need to worry about the rest. I have something I'm pursuing."
"The legendary phantom program, G. Bible?"
"Exactly, the G. Bible, a program rumored to be a compilation of a legendary game developer's lifelong experience, encompassing 'all possibilities of games in the world'."
"I think something like that sounds like an urban legend, after all, it sounds a bit too exaggerated…"
"That's just your limited perspective. In our industry, there are many similar rumors. For example, it's said that someone once developed software that could harm all of humanity and could be stored on just one disc…"
(Note)
"Humans are too fragile, aren't they?"
"What an arrogant perspective. Aren't you human?"
"To tell you the truth, I'm actually a Magic user." Asakura said seriously.
Even through the receiver, Asakura could almost hear the awkward breathing on the other end.
"I got carried away and talked for too long. Anyway, remember to mail me the IBN5100 you found."
"I found that IBN5100 in a dilapidated shrine. Its condition might not be very good, and it might even be broken, you know?"
"It's fine, I can fix it myself. You just need to send it over."
"As expected of Ryunosuke… By the way, wasn't there a big company that was interested in your technology and wanted to sign a contract with you? Can't you ask them to help you find that program you're looking for?"
"If it were that easy to find, it wouldn't be called a phantom program. Moreover, that legendary game producer spent the rest of his life in Chiba, so the IBN5100 and tapes recording the G. Bible are most likely in the Chiba area."
"You have a lot of confidence in me, don't you?"
"Not a lot. It's just that when we worked part-time, I felt you were quite good at rummaging through trash."
"Hey!"
Although he said that, in a sense, it was true.
Back then, Asakura had no Magic power in his body, and even though he possessed the two Magic spells, Snake and Scale, they were almost unusable.
That's right, 'almost.'
As mentioned before, besides being able to turn things into Snakes, Snake also had the effect of controlling Snakes or communicating with them.
This ability consumed very little Magic power, so even Asakura at that time could barely use it. Even if he overused it, it only manifested as mental fatigue, which could be cured by a good night's sleep at home.
So, as long as he found a large number of wild Snakes, Asakura could control them to serve him—they couldn't do complex tasks, but finding things was very simple. And the Snake's long, slender body was also very good at getting into places that ordinary people couldn't reach, often discovering many things. With the help of Snakes, Asakura was quite famous in the nearby area for a while as a jack-of-all-trades for finding lost items. This might also be the origin of Akasaka Ryunosuke's impression of Asakura as 'very good at rummaging through trash.'
Although Asakura wanted to continue chatting with Ryunosuke for a few more minutes, the other party was notoriously energy-efficient. After giving him a few instructions, he immediately hung up the phone. Even if Asakura called back, the other party wouldn't bother to answer, only asking him to leave a message.
Helpless, Asakura could only hang up the phone.
Before he could even put his phone back in his tracksuit pocket, he saw the physical education teacher behind him looking at him with displeasure.
Oh, no, he was done for.
Note: This is a reference to Detective Conan, where there's a plotline about a computer game system engineer named Itakura Table who was commissioned by the Black Organization to develop a program, but ultimately abandoned the development due to a change of heart, feeling that 'for the sake of all humanity, this program must not exist.' Because of the era, this incredibly powerful software only needed one disc as its medium… Actually, this is still relatively good. If you go back a few more years, it might have become a 3.5-inch floppy disk, which post-2000 generations in China might not have even seen in real life.
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