"Mmh..."
"Spencer, are you okay?"
Hearing An Le's soft and sweet call beside her, Spencer uncomfortably opened her eyes.
Glancing to the side, she dazedily saw a pink, tender chibi piglet looking at her with considerable worry.
Next to that pink piglet stood a blue piglet wearing black-rimmed glasses, and two dejected green piglets, all roughly the height of an average human.
"Hey, Doujinshi Society, are you still competing or what? If no one goes, it is an automatic forfeit for you."
"Um... Senior Jiang has already competed in two consecutive matches, and I went to a few as well. Zuo Chuan, Nino, do you think you could..."
By the bed, An Le looked at Spencer, who was still in poor condition despite being given a glucose IV, and then cast a troubled glance at the two boys sitting nearby.
The two hesitated and exchanged a glance before finally standing up and walking toward the boy from the other club at the door.
The boy seemed to know Nino. He glanced at the two of them, a faint look of disgust appearing on his face.
"Just you two?"
"...Yeah."
"Heh, alright. Just a reminder, do not go off looking at someone else's girlfriend halfway through the match again, Nino."
"..."
Watching the two green piglets being led away by a chibi magpie that was also as tall as a person, Spencer regained a bit of energy. She rubbed her eyes and sat up.
The pink piglet—no, An Le—watched Spencer sit up, her face lighting up with joy.
"Spencer, you are awake!"
"Mmh..."
"How do you feel?"
"My head is so dizzy... Tsk, that Ye Shiyu!"
Seeing that Spencer was still obsessing over Ye Shiyu, who had taken her out, An Le could not help but advise her.
"Do not think about Senior Ye anymore, just get some good rest."
Spencer clutched her head, glanced at the door, and asked.
"What was that guy saying just now?"
"I... I do not know."
"I actually know a bit about it..."
The blue piglet nearby... no, Jiang Yun, took a breath and spoke nonchalantly while looking at the door.
"That Nino advanced to the Far Moon Academy Outer Campus alongside another girl from the same district. They had an ambiguous relationship, more than friends but not quite lovers."
"I heard he already confessed and was waiting for the girl to respond."
Spencer was completely lost, but An Le was the first to realize something, her expression slightly changing.
Sure enough, in the very next second, Jiang Yun continued.
"But last semester, that girl suddenly got together with a senior from the Inner Campus. He could not just let it go, so he kept seeking out the girl, even displaying extreme behavior in public."
An Le pursed her lips and murmured.
"So..."
"So he was labeled as a pervert harassing someone else's girlfriend."
"..."
Spencer looked at Jiang Yun, finally realizing what had happened countless beats slower than An Le.
"Except for Vice President Sakuramiya Hitomi, the parachuted-in Spencer, and Ye Shiyu, many of the Inner Campus students have families who have known each other since childhood. They all stick together."
Jiang Yun spread her hands and smiled slightly.
"So the news spread very quickly. Others who did not know the inside story stayed away from him because of it, and often mocked him openly and secretly about this matter, leading him to become this misfit."
Spencer clicked her tongue in annoyance and complained.
"How does this broken school of yours even manage to divide into this crappy Inner Campus and Outer Campus? Does no one care about such bullying?"
Jiang Yun looked at Spencer and asked in return.
"Does not talking to you count as bullying? Does not playing with you count as bullying? Does laughing on the sidelines count as bullying? Do people constantly making fun of you under the guise of making friends count as bullying? How can anyone regulate that?"
"..."
Spencer fell silent, and Jiang Yun gave a self-deprecating smile.
"You are all underclassmen of the 47th generation, so just be content. It is already so much better now than before. At the very least, no one dares to do that kind of stuff out in the open anymore."
Seeing the atmosphere turn quiet, An Le hurriedly acted as a peacemaker, waving her hands with a smile.
"More importantly... Spencer, is your body okay?"
"...Oh? I am fine."
Spencer snapped back to reality, glanced at the time on her phone, and asked.
"School is almost over? I slept for that long... How did our club's matches go during this time?"
"..."
An Le scratched her cheek somewhat awkwardly and did not reply.
The expressionless Jiang Yun beside her was straightforward.
"We lost all of them."
"Hah?! All... lost all of them?! How many matches did you compete in?!"
Spencer's eyes widened, instantly freezing in place.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yun shook her head, showing no apology on her face.
"Be understanding, after all, we are all weaklings. Plus, there were too many challenging clubs; even the Model United Nations, who had already given up, came over to farm us like roadside mobs..."
"..."
Spencer swallowed hard, not knowing what to say.
At this moment, she felt very much like she had dominated the top lane and reached a godlike streak, only to go back to base due to a tower-diving mistake, and upon looking back, found her remaining four teammates being spun around like spinning tops by the opponents.
Seeing the atmosphere fall silent, An Le quickly smiled and consoled her.
"B-But, overall, because you won so many matches this morning, Spencer, our points are still in the positive."
"Positive by one point."
"S-Senior Jiang!!"
An Le flushed red, letting out a pitiful sound.
But Jiang Yun merely adjusted her black-rimmed glasses; her words were always so sharp.
Just as An Le did not know how to follow that up, Nino ran back in a panic from outside and said to An Le and Jiang Yun inside.
"Um... everyone, the event we drew requires four people, so An Le, Senior Jiang, you two..."
"O-Okay! We are coming right now!"
An Le hurriedly stood up, and Jiang Yun hopped off her chair, reminding Spencer as she walked toward the door.
"Now we are not even positive by one point."
"Senior Jiang!!"
An Le pushed Jiang Yun and quickly ran out of the infirmary, while also smiling at Spencer, whose body was still weak.
"Spencer, you just rest here for a bit, I will go call Nurse Yelena!"
"..."
Spencer furrowed her brows and looked at her slightly limp palms.
No, just plundering the loot of the losers was still too slow.
Her stamina was a weakness; at this rate, the stamina she gained could not keep up with the consumption at all.
Moreover, she did not know if it was an illusion, but she had discovered something about the superpower in her body...
In the past, when she seized people's things, she liked to use money or other equivalents in exchange, which could be considered forced buying and selling.
Generally speaking, the amounts Spencer gave were very difficult for the other party to refuse.
Such behavior could also earn her that so-called energy, enhancing her strength and other attributes, just like when she seized the camera from Yurianna and the others this morning.
However, it yielded far less energy than seizing things without giving any compensation.
"..."
Following her hypoglycemia, Spencer's body was extremely weak, but for some reason, her brain worked faster than ever before.
She suddenly thought:
If, tomorrow, she went and seized the belongings of more irrelevant people, she would definitely become even stronger!
This way...
Victory would come easily!
Thinking this, it was as if her Ren and Du Meridians had been cleared; the exhaustion on her face was swept away once again, and returning to her true self, she revealed an evil smile.
Anyway, she would just be robbing that flock of birds who liked to bully people, so what was wrong with that?
Click...
Just as Spencer was thinking this, the door to the infirmary opened.
Spencer thought it was that annoying Nurse Yelena, but when she raised her eyes, she saw a familiar green peacock walking in.
"Oh?"
It was Yan Huan.
"...Awake?"
Carrying a bag of things, he glanced at Spencer, who was sitting on the bed giggling foolishly for some unknown reason, suspecting that this girl had entered her previous "Super Idiot Mode" again due to hypoglycemia.
"W-What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to be an honest person. I promised you earlier to increase the probability of your mother answering your calls, but since you ask..."
Having confirmed that her condition was fine, Yan Huan then asked,
"Shall I leave then?"
Hearing this, Spencer was slightly taken aback. She wanted to hear Yan Huan's so-called method to "increase the probability of getting through to her mother," but it was too shameful for her to speak words of retention.
Thus, as Yan Huan prepared to turn and leave, her small, timid voice came from the other side.
"D-Do not go..."
Holding the door, Yan Huan glanced at Spencer on the bed, whose face was slightly red, her eyes darting away in obvious embarrassment, and a smile crept onto his face.
He had not planned to leave in the first place.
He walked over to Spencer's hospital bed, set the bag he was carrying by his feet, and spoke.
"How is your body feeling?"
"I am fine... Tsk, that Ye Shiyu. Losing to her is really frustrating."
Just thinking of Ye Shiyu's annoying face made Spencer uncomfortable.
But glancing at Yan Huan in front of her, her eyes shifted slightly, and a wicked idea sprang to her mind.
She was going to take revenge on Ye Shiyu.
She pretended to look nonchalantly out the infirmary window, but her eyes sneakily and maliciously peered at Yan Huan as she warned him.
"Today, what I said on the athletics field was not a lie. You had better be careful."
She was referring to the matter of "Ye Shiyu looking at you with improper intentions."
'Wow, so Sister Shiyu is actually that kind of person. How could this be? I am scared to death!!' (Expressionless, monotone reading).
When Spencer exposed Sakuramiya Hitomi in front of Yan Huan, it was truly a shattering of her image, so devastating that Yan Huan still had not recovered from it.
But Ye Shiyu?
It was already a pile of ruins to begin with, how could there be an image left to shatter?
No matter if it sank eighteen levels underground, Yan Huan would not be the least bit surprised.
"Stop talking nonsense. Are you going to listen or not?"
"Oh?"
Spencer turned her head, feeling a bit depressed because her "sowing discord tactic" had failed.
'Huh, why is it not working?'
But looking at Yan Huan, she could not leak any more information.
Because unlike Sakuramiya, who was like a self-destructing truck, Spencer had no concrete evidence against Ye Shiyu.
Even though she was certain that Ye Shiyu truly harbored evil thoughts about Yan Huan.
'Hmph, ungrateful Yan Huan...'
'When that Ye Shiyu catches an opportunity to ruthlessly violate you, do not blame me for not warning you today!'
"Alright, let's get down to business."
Yan Huan took out his mobile phone, glanced at the time, and explained to Spencer.
"Do you know what a time zone difference is, Spencer?"
"What is that?"
Left with no choice, Yan Huan could only explain it to her according to the textbook definition.
"In other words..."
"In other words, at this exact moment, the time is different between here and your hometown in Ying Country. Your hometown has both summer and winter time, and right now it is Daylight Saving Time."
Yan Huan glanced at the current time and said to Spencer,
"Linmen's time is twelve hours ahead of Ying Country. It is currently 4:38 PM, so in New York, where the Jinshi Group headquarters is, it is 4:38 AM right now."
"Oh, oh!"
Spencer's brain finally caught up. She sat up excitedly and said to Yan Huan,
"So that means, a lot of the times when I call Mama, it is sleeping time over there!? That is why she does not answer?"
"...That is a possibility."
Yan Huan was actually phrasing this very tactfully.
Time zone differences objectively hindered communication between two people far apart, but out of twenty-four hours in a day, a person's average sleep time was only about one-third of that.
No matter how deviated the schedules of two people in two different places were, there would always be an overlap.
In other words, no matter what, it was definitely possible to get a phone call through.
But Spencer's situation appeared extremely delicate...
Multiple sources of intelligence indicated that she was the only daughter of the Jinshi Group's boss, and Yan Huan had also witnessed an unprecedented level of importance placed on her by the Jinshi Group.
Spencer was an idiot and might not understand time zones.
But how could her mother, sitting in that position, not understand it?
If she could understand it, she should easily be able to calculate her daughter's active time frame in Linmen.
Even if she just proactively made a single phone call, it would not lead to Spencer showing such a strong craving to get a call through to her mother.
Therefore, Yan Huan felt: 'I am afraid there is more to this than just a time zone issue.'
Fortunately, Yan Huan was a cautious person. The promise he had made to Spencer at the time was "to help increase the probability of getting through to her mother." Otherwise, if the call did not go through, it would be difficult to explain when this girl demanded after-sales service. Spencer revealed an excited smile, held up her mobile phone, lay on the bed, and began calculating the time.
"Let me think... Mama usually wakes up around seven or eight in the morning. Linmen is twelve hours ahead of there. So if it is seven or eight at home, here it would be..."
As she calculated, the smile on her face gradually faded.
"Seven or eight... in the evening..."
"..."
Sitting in his chair, Yan Huan watched as she slowly locked her phone, placed it against her chest, and stopped talking.
And what exceeded Yan Huan's expectations the most was that upon realizing this, her face did not show deeper confusion, but instead only revealed sadness.
Yan Huan vaguely sensed: Spencer actually knew the reason why her mother did not call her.
'Could it be the traditional plotline where her mother is too busy with work and thus ignores her?'
'And because she lacked discipline from a young age, she turned out like this today?'
'But that makes no sense at all.'
Judging from how Hermes's expression would turn into an Agni-style smile every time anything related to Spencer was mentioned, it was obvious that he was under so much pressure he was about to explode.
Although Hermes was easily swayed by money, he was a man who knew how to steer with the wind. He was very adept at discerning the urgency of a matter from just a few words.
If Spencer was a child neglected by her mother, given her qualifications, even if she was expelled from Far Moon Academy, going to any other school in Linmen would be more than enough. Hermes would have plenty of excuses to brush off the Jinshi Group.
Yet he displayed an immense fear of 'if Spencer perishes, I perish...'
There was only one possibility for this situation: the boss of the Jinshi Group, namely Spencer's mother, had personally spoken with him on the phone.
This made Hermes realize that Spencer was extremely important to her mother, which allowed him to foresee the grave consequences of neglecting her.
"..."
'Contradictory.'
'It is truly too contradictory.'
'Are rich families all this complicated?'
'My life is much simpler...'
'If one person eats, the whole family is full.'
Yan Huan looked at her blankly staring at the ceiling while holding her phone. He hesitated for a moment and was just about to ask when there was a sudden knock on the door behind him.
Knock, knock, knock...
Spencer snapped back to reality and looked at the door in disbelief, exclaiming in shock,
"No way? They lost and came back this quickly?!"
She thought it was the heavily defeated members of her Doujinshi Society.
Yan Huan spoke up, inviting the person in,
"Please come in."
The door opened, revealing the Taekwondo Club President outside, whose eyes were shining with light again.
"President! I am here!"
"Alright, wait a moment."
Yan Huan lowered his head to open the bag at his feet, while Spencer looked at the person in total confusion and said,
"Wait, why did you let this defeated opponent come here? To laugh at me?"
"..."
Yan Huan ignored her, simply pulling out the Black Belt that Spencer had snatched from the bag at his feet and handing it to him.
"Great, my Black Belt! Thank you! Thank you, President!!"
"No problem. You can go now."
Before the Taekwondo Club President could even rejoice while holding his Black Belt, he was badly startled by Spencer, whose eyes were wide open and whose expression was gradually becoming terrifying.
He hurriedly thanked Yan Huan again, then immediately turned and bolted.
"What are you doing? That was my war loot!!"
Yan Huan glanced at the exasperated Spencer on the bed, observing her to see if she had grown weaker because the plundered item was gone.
But after taking a quick glance, he noticed this girl had actually become more energetic out of pure anger.
"..."
On his shoulder, the Black Cat, Myau-chan, materialized like a ghost and said to Yan Huan,
"Your guess was wrong, meow..."
"...It certainly seems that way."
Yan Huan ruffled his black bangs, looking a bit depressed beneath his Mask of Perfect Poise.
He had originally planned to take advantage of her illness to return the things she stole this morning, in order to test the mechanics of her Modifier.
This girl had thrown the shotput more than twenty times and still managed to break the men's world record. This definitely had to do with the enhancements from her Modifier.
Although he did not hold much hope. After all, usually, the blonde bastard who NTR'd the female lead would not just take her back to hold her in the palm of his hand like a princess and cherish her.
'Wait a minute...'
'If returning stolen items to the aggrieved party does not cause any weakening, then if she robs them again later, will there be additional gains?'
Yan Huan suddenly realized this point, wondering to himself if he had unintentionally discovered a 'perpetual motion machine' where a Host could repeatedly exploit their Modifier's loopholes...
He glanced at Spencer, whose face looked entirely innocent, thinking to himself that it was a good thing this girl was an idiot and could not think that far ahead.
If Spencer had even a tiny bit of intelligence, given the power of her Modifier, she probably would have completely destroyed Ye Shiyu today.
"..."
Thinking up to this point, because Yan Huan wore the Mask of Perfect Poise on his face, he did not show the slightest abnormality.
He merely asked back with a natural expression,
"Which clause in the Club War rules promulgated by the Student Council says you can collect war loot after winning?"
"...Hmph, what rules? It is all nonsense meant to trick idiots!"
"Heh."
Spencer glared at Yan Huan in extreme displeasure, but upon realizing that her body had not become any weaker, she could not be bothered to argue with him.
The room fell quiet once again. Yan Huan sat silently in his chair, waiting for the contacted owners to come and retrieve their belongings.
Click...
The door opened again. Yan Huan turned his head and saw Sakuramiya Hitomi walking in.
"President..."
Yan Huan looked at Sakuramiya Hitomi, slightly startled, before the familiar smile reappeared on his face.
"Sakuramiya, has everything wrapped up over there?"
Sitting on the bed, Spencer glanced at the smile on Yan Huan's face, her azure eyes reflecting his current appearance.
In the next second, the expression with which she looked at Yan Huan instantly turned incredibly disgusted, her brows furrowing deeply.
"Yes, the final match of the first day has concluded. Yaqiao and the others have already uploaded the point standings of the various clubs onto the website. President, you..."
Sakuramiya Hitomi walked into the infirmary and was just about to continue explaining when her eyes caught sight of Spencer lying on the bed behind Yan Huan.
She instantly performed a vanishing smile trick and looked at Spencer, asking,
"Why is she here?"
"Ah, she is..."
Before Yan Huan could explain, Spencer shifted her disgusted gaze away from him.
She looked down her nose at the green peacock in front of her and directly cursed,
"None of your damn business why I am here!"
"You!"
'Did this girl eat gunpowder?'
Yan Huan cast an astonished glance at Spencer, who was full of disgust and immediately starting a war, and then glanced at Sakuramiya Hitomi in front of him, whose face was once again covered in shadows.
'Alright, alright, Spencer, you really turned your aggro-taunt skill on, didn't you.'
'You can get into a fight with a Modifier Host everywhere you go?'
'This morning you clashed with Ye Shiyu and got easily outsmarted.'
'And now, before you've even recovered, you can't wait to start a war with Sakuramiya Hitomi?'
This time, Yan Huan could not just sit back and watch the show, because he sensed that Spencer was genuinely furious right now.
Unlike their secret bickering in public before, it was just the three of them now. He feared they would actually start throwing down with their Modifiers in a moment.
"Alright, Sakuramiya did not come here to see you anyway..."
Yan Huan made a prompt decision, directly picking up the bag nearby, standing up, and walking toward Sakuramiya Hitomi.
Looking back at the suddenly bristling golden-haired lion, Yan Huan grabbed Sakuramiya to leave.
"Today's matches are completely over. Your club members should be back to check on you very soon. Bye-bye."
"..."
Spencer, however, could not even be bothered to look at Yan Huan, simply turning her head to stare out the window.
Yan Huan pulled Sakuramiya by the arm and walked out of the infirmary, running into An Le and the others who were just coming back.
An Le's eyes had just lit up upon seeing Yan Huan, but the very next moment, she saw Sakuramiya Hitomi being dragged by him.
"Xiao..."
Her smile stiffened slightly, and her words choked in her throat.
"President."
"Hello, President."
The rest of the people greeted Yan Huan one after another.
Yan Huan glanced at An Le and smiled faintly.
"An Le, we still have some things to attend to."
"Ah, okay. Walk safely, Xiao Huan."
An Le's face flushed slightly as she watched Yan Huan smile at her before leading Sakuramiya Hitomi away in another direction.
The other club members entered the infirmary first. Only An Le kept watching their backs until they completely disappeared before retracting her gaze.
"How did the match go?"
Seeing her club members return, Spencer finally turned her head.
"We lost."
"..."
She was not surprised in the slightest.
Taking a quick glance, she noticed some bloodstains under Nino's sleeves and asked,
"What happened?"
Nino waved his hand and said,
"It is nothing."
But Jiang Yun sighed and looked at Spencer.
"The person competing against us was that enemy of his. He kept targeting him during the match."
The so-called enemy was that Inner Campus senior who claimed 'his girlfriend had been harassed by him.'
"...It is fine, I will just wipe it off."
Nino seemed to have gotten over it long ago. With zero expression on his face, he simply said this.
"Tsk."
Jiang Yun said no more. She opened her phone and continued,
"The leaderboard has been uploaded by the Student Council. First place is indeed the Track and Field Club; they have already scored over a dozen points. If we want to enter the finals and even win so that you won't be expelled, Spencer, our club must place in the top eight."
Zuo Chuan Da Zai lowered his head and carefully glanced at Spencer, saying, "But Spencer's physical condition..."
Hearing this, Spencer bit her thumb, her expression looking quite awful.
Right now, the Doujinshi Society's points were completely flat—no points lost and no points gained, which meant they had worked all day for nothing.
If they wanted to reach the top eight, they had to keep winning before the available points from other clubs were snatched up by the stronger ones.
But her own stamina...
Thinking of this, Spencer's previous idea grew increasingly firm.
"I am fine. Just wait, tomorrow I will snatch all our points back."
She clenched her teeth. As she spoke, the expression on her body slowly began to be covered in a spine-chilling phantom shadow.
She was going to use her superpower to plunder even more people.
The next day, morning.
Wearing bluetooth earbuds and humming a song, Bai Yi walked with bouncy, cheerful steps down the corridors of Far Moon Academy, carrying the gift she had prepared for Yan Huan, as she headed toward today's Club War battlefield.
"..."
Just as she passed an intersection in the corridor, behind her, Spencer, dressed in a gray hoodie with her hood up and hands shoved in her pockets, silently trailed behind Bai Yi.
Step-step... step.
"Hmm-hmm-hmm..."
Music was playing in her bluetooth earbuds, and she was humming along when she suddenly felt someone tap her on the shoulder.
She paused slightly, took off the bluetooth earbuds, and looked behind her with a puzzled face.
"Eh? Who is—"
Just as she turned her head, the golden hair spilling out from under the hood immediately caught her eyes.
What entered her vision next was Spencer's face, wearing a wicked smile.
"!!"
A chill of dread instantly surged into her heart, and she instinctively backed away, wanting to run.
But Spencer's hand gripped her shoulder tightly like iron pincers, rendering her immobile.
Watching Bai Yi's face pale bit by bit, Spencer leaned in slightly. Looking at the exquisitely packaged gift bag held in this red-crowned crane's hands, she asked,
"What kind of treasure are you holding there? Let me see..."
"S-Spencer?! W-What are you doing?"
Bai Yi's face went white, and she hurriedly hugged the gift bag tightly to her chest.
But in Spencer's eyes, those defensive measures were practically non-existent. On the contrary, the more she resisted, the more excited Spencer became.
"I am not doing anything. I just want to see what this precious thing really is."
'T-This has my new song and a gift in it.'
'I was planning to let Yan Huan be the first to hear the new song!!'
"I do not believe you! Y-You let go of me!"
"Heh, it is not up to you whether you believe me or not."
Spencer chuckled, her face covered in shadows.
She simply reached out her free left hand, inching it toward the gift bag in Bai Yi's arms,
"N-Nooo!"
"Give it here!!"