"Never mind," Mr. Maddox waved. "Continue with your work. I'll be in my office." He then picked up his book and made his way back to his desk.

Michael shrugged and returned to his shelving. He had started sorting the books on the cart to make it easier to shelve based on the route he normally took. Then, since he still had about an hour til cla.s.s started, and he'd already finished his homework for the day, he decided to implement the edits he'd received from his parents and Mr. Maddox. This only took him 30 minutes to complete, so after that he decided to work on some of the database structure for the project for his parents. He took out some draft paper from his bag and began to sketch it out.

He thought about how his original conception had s.h.i.+fted after reading those new books. Then he thought once again about how a lot of his life had s.h.i.+fted over the last little while. If the System had never showed up in his head, he'd probably still have done this project for his parents, but the work would have been sandwiched between playing video games and last-minute scrambling to finish homework he had overlooked due to playing said video games.

"And now, I've barely spent a few minutes on my console since school started... I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad!", he thought to himself. Academically he was doing well, and physically he was showing mild signs of improvement, and he found a certain amount of satisfaction in that, but the sheer joy of mindless video-games or television was now absent from his life. He wasn't sure that was a good thing.

"Can I ask what you're working on?", a voice suddenly interrupted Michael's reverie. He looked up to see Mr. Maddox peering over his shoulder at the model diagram he had drawn.

"Ah, this is for a piece of work I'm doing for my parents' company. I'm designing a database system and an interface for a large warehouse. They're looking to modernize their internal record keeping and inventory management," Michael explained.

"I see... is this something you do often?", Mr. Maddox asked.

Michael nodded. "I've been working for them for a couple of years now. It doesn't impact my schoolwork, and it's a fun challenge."

"Interesting. Well, at some point, I might have some additional work for you, then. We can discuss that at a later date. For now, I suggest you get ready for cla.s.s."

"Ah, yes! Thank you, sir. Have a good morning, and I'll see you at lunch!"

---

Ms. Blackice wasn't in cla.s.s today, much to Michael's chagrin, but he exchanged work with her a.s.sistant Richard again and followed along. It was largely review, and Michael mulled around the thought of reading ahead on his Algebra textbook again. However, after briefly entertaining it, he decided that he should focus on the number of other things currently on his list first.

After cla.s.s, Jeremy told him that he'd discussed the plan with Ben and they'd love to talk to Michael in person about it. They made plans to meet at the cafe the following evening. Afterwards, Michael pa.s.sed an uneventful Chemistry cla.s.s before preparing his lunch and returning to the library. Mr. Maddox was tutoring a few senior students on one of their courses, so he made his way to the front desk and got straight to work. He shelved the few books that had acc.u.mulated over the morning, a.s.sisted a few students with taking out some books while he ate his lunch, and emailed his updated draft to his parents and Mr. Maddox for their review. Afterwards, he said goodbye and headed to English cla.s.s.

He greeted Ms. Aldrich as he entered, who nodded at him, and then he went to take his seat by the window. Today's cla.s.s was largely focused on helping students prepare their outline, so Michael didn't have much to do. He listened diligently at the beginning, but then couldn't help but get bored. He then had the idea to ask the System to display one of the books he had scanned, so that he could surrept.i.tiously read it in the corner of his eye while appearing to pay attention.

The book in question was one of the last he'd grabbed from the few concerning internal martial arts available in the library. There wasn't much there related to this previously unfamiliar term - Michael knew what all of the individual words meant, but he'd never heard them used together. They also talked about the body in ways he wasn't accustomed to, and referred to aspects of the body he wasn't familiar with. He started to doubt the legitimacy of the book.

"System, what's going on here?", he asked.

"What's the deal with the way this book is talking about the body? There was a lot of this stuff in some of the other books, too, now that I think about it. But this doesn't match what we see in biology cla.s.ses. Is this for real?"

>

"But, is it right?"

>

"So what should I be asking?"

>

"...so, less 'is this real', and more 'does it work'?"

>

Michael continued to think about this. He decided to put the concept of biology and physical systems aside and instead focused on the task he was trying to solve by following these books.

"A lot of these movements seem to be very slow, and they also seem to be quite isolated. It's not like swimming or those weightlifting movements the tesserarius showed us. How are these supposed to help my coordination?"

>

"So, do it right, then do it fast?"

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>

At this point, the bell rang and it was time to head to gym. Michael left the cla.s.s with Jeremy and Valeria, oblivious to the pair of eyes watching him from the front of the cla.s.s.

---

During gym, Michael inadvertently fell into breathing in the same rhythm he had been following in his evening breathing sessions with the System as he continued to thing about the 'body sense' he and it had discussed during English cla.s.s. It was only afterwards that he realized that he didn't seem to be nearly as tired after the laps as he normally was, and decided to store that little piece of information for later.

After laps, the tesserarius instructed them on a series of calisthenics exercises, though they weren't being tested so they only performed a single set of each exercise - the intention was to make sure that they understood the form they would be tested on. Thankfully, due to a combination of the low requirements and having at least most of the day to recover, Michael was able to make it through the exercises. He had been worried that his performance would fall significantly, like the run last week, due to the work from the morning.

Once they had completed the exercises, the tesserarius reminded them that they'd be tested at the end of the month, and also let them know that the following day they'd have a guest lecture related to their games preparation. The cla.s.s then ended and Michael said goodbye to his friends, promising to accompany Jeremy to the cafe after cla.s.s the following evening so that they could discuss his proposal. He then went back to the library.

His evening s.h.i.+ft was quite calm, as there was minimal shelving to do since lunch, and very few students were milling about. He spent the time scanning grammar and style guides for English as he had planned a few days ago, and then reviewing them. This also let him check that item off of his new task list, which he was quite pleased with. He hadn't fully explored the possibilities of that list yet but having it gave him a certain peace of mind, just like writing out all of the steps he needed to complete to get through the Regional Games had helped to give him clarity the week prior.

At 5pm, he said goodbye to Mr. Maddox and made his way home, once again practicing the breathing method he had been working on with the System. The effects weren't as drastic as they had been in cla.s.s, but they still lent him a certain peace of mind.