"What are you doing?" Noshiro was startled. She lowered her voice and said shyly, "It's class time now."
"I just discovered something very strange," Lu Chen paused. He wasn't sure if he should tell Noshiro about it.
It wasn't that he was worried Noshiro would harm him; he was a nobody, and all the information about himself had been provided by Noshiro. Since she knew about his amnesia, there were too many ways to hurt him, and Lu Chen couldn't possibly guard against them all.
He felt he had encountered a paranormal event, and dragging Noshiro into it might not be a good idea, as she was just an ordinary JK.
Wait, does an ordinary JK grow horns?
Noshiro whispered, "What is it?"
Realizing that the girl in front of him wasn't an ordinary person, Lu Chen considered it carefully and decided to tell her his discovery: "When I went out, I found that the other students seemed like NPCs in a game…"
Seeing the look of confusion on Noshiro's face, Lu Chen rephrased it: "They're like actors performing a play on stage. No matter what the audience does, they only follow the script they rehearsed. Does that make sense?"
"I think I understand what's going on," Noshiro's expression turned a bit strange.
Lu Chen asked, "Do you know anything?"
At that moment, a blonde, mature woman wearing a white shirt, black skirt, and tights walked in. She was clutching a book to her chest, her ample bosom pressed into a distorted shape, like a water balloon about to burst.
Her face carried a hint of laziness; she looked either half-asleep or utterly indifferent to everything. She scanned the classroom, her gaze lingering on Lu Chen and Noshiro for a moment before moving on. She said nothing more.
"Everyone, open your textbooks. Today we're going to discuss the techniques for using carrier-based aircraft."
Noshiro reluctantly pulled away from Lu Chen, offered an apologetic smile to the blonde woman, and then lowered her head, writing and drawing in her book.
She knew the inside story! Lu Chen was a little delighted. Fighting alone against something beyond his understanding in a strange place made him truly uneasy. Now that he had a nominal girlfriend fighting alongside him, he suddenly felt much more confident.
Lu Chen had intended to ask Noshiro for details after class, but midway through the lesson, Noshiro returned the notebook she had taken. Puzzled, Lu Chen opened it and saw Noshiro's recent writing on the first page.
Noshiro: Before you realized you had lost your memory, your behavior was very similar to theirs. They might have experienced a situation similar to yours. You are not the first to awaken, and you won't be the last. Everyone will be waking up over the next few days. It's just that right now, you're the only one who has lost your past memories. Don't scare yourself.
At the bottom of the page was a crude smiley face drawn by Noshiro with a marker pen.
Lu Chen looked up in astonishment, meeting Noshiro's eyes. He finally understood why Noshiro's expression had been so strange earlier; it was a mix of surprise and suppressed laughter.
He grabbed his pen and wrote: When did you wake up?
Noshiro took the notebook and wrote: Yesterday.
Lu Chen fell into contemplation. He looked up at the blonde teacher on the podium. She would occasionally glance at him, and whenever they made eye contact, she would look away even faster than he did.
She was also a living person, just like Purifier in the previous class.
Noshiro was sitting on Lu Chen's right. He turned to his left. On his left was a purple-haired girl wearing the academy uniform and a plaid miniskirt, her bare legs tucked under the desk.
She was slightly shorter than Noshiro. Her medium-length purple hair was tied into a single ponytail with a black hairband, and she wore a small black cross hairpin on her forehead and a small crown-like decoration on the top of her head.
The girl's face was full of earnest concentration as she listened intently to the teacher's lecture, her right hand, adorned with a blue bracelet, writing ceaselessly.
As if feeling Lu Chen's gaze, the girl turned her head and met his eyes. Her blue pupils showed a look of confusion, which quickly turned to shock and shyness, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
"W-What are you doing?" the purple-haired girl cried out instinctively. The blonde woman on the podium paused for a moment before continuing her lecture as if nothing had happened.
"Sorry," Lu Chen withdrew his gaze. She was also fine.
The small commotion caused by the purple-haired girl made their area the focal point of the class. Everyone's eyes were once again fixed on Lu Chen, but this time, he noticed a difference.
Thinking back carefully, when Purifier called on him in the last class, everyone was looking at him, but it was just the normal reaction of an average person, fundamentally no different from the girls outside the classroom. This time was different. Lu Chen saw many pairs of vibrant eyes, filled with rich emotion, a stark contrast to his previous experience.
So fast? I just told Noshiro about my discovery, and now you're all waking up one by one? Did you all plan this prank to scare me?
The class was difficult to endure. As soon as the bell rang for the break, Lu Chen immediately rushed out. He paused at the doorways of a few classrooms, and sure enough, everything had changed.
Seeing him standing at their doorway, many girls gave him curious looks. Some inexplicably blushed. Even bolder girls acted as if they had spotted a treasure, quickly walking toward him.
"Hello, student, you…"
Lu Chen ignored them and returned to his classroom, sitting next to Noshiro. "The awakening speed is a bit too fast. In less than an hour, everyone seems like a different person."
"Some people had already awakened but didn't show it," Noshiro explained. "They thought you were still asleep, so of course, they wouldn't do anything unusual. But you changed so much today, everyone noticed."
That only explained a small part, and it wasn't enough to convince Lu Chen. "I still feel like something isn't adding up."
"Then you should work hard to uncover the truth," Noshiro took out two bento boxes from her desk and smiled. "But before that, let's fill our stomachs."
After two classes, it was lunchtime. Hearing Noshiro, Lu Chen realized he was hungry. He often skipped breakfast to sleep in, and by noon, he'd be starving. Being able to last until now was an exception.
"Did I use to skip breakfast?" Lu Chen muttered. He had recovered a tiny fragment of memory, but it seemed irrelevant to him.
Noshiro, however, heard the comment and looked solemn. "I cannot pretend I didn't hear that. A good body requires a reasonable meal schedule."