Seeing his favorability rating increase, Luo Wei breathed a sigh of relief.
Indeed, teachers always like students who love to study.
He had made the right gamble this time.
Of course, just expressing a love for learning wasn't enough. There were plenty of studious kids - the library was probably still full of them even after school hours.
Looks still mattered.
A sickly, handsome boy in a white shirt, holding a cup of hot water with a melancholic gaze, and still so passionate about studying...
Probably no female teacher could resist, especially a young one. They might even be overwhelmed with sympathy.
Teacher Evelyn's gentle gaze was already overflowing with affection.
Luo Wei suddenly felt that those 100 charm points he had added weren't wasted after all - they were somewhat useful.
The two chatted about academics and school matters.
"There's too much paperwork to deal with in the Academic Affairs Office. Sometimes those guys really annoy me."
"But don't worry, just go home and rest. If they rush you, I'll handle it for you."
Evelyn seemed to dislike the school's higher-ups quite a bit and complained about many things.
Luo Wei listened with a smile while keeping an eye on his favorability progress.
[Favorability: 40↑]
Still not enough, it seemed he needed to step it up.
"How are you feeling now? Still unwell?" Evelyn asked.
Luo Wei nodded slightly.
"Thank you, Teacher Evelyn. I'm much better now."
"That's good."
Luo Wei gazed intently at Evelyn, his eyes filled with gratitude, admiration, and perhaps other emotions.
Then, he flashed a bright smile.
"I'm so glad it's you teaching our class, Teacher Evelyn, and not someone else. Otherwise, I wouldn't know how to handle many things."
"I really like you, Teacher Evelyn!"
The sunlight in the office was soft.
Looking at the young man's smile before her, Evelyn's gaze became somewhat dazed.
It was a rare kind of smile. When he smiled at her, all the afternoon sunlight seemed to fall on his face.
Luo Wei faintly heard the young woman's breath catch.
A moment later, realizing she was losing composure in front of her student, Evelyn quickly averted her gaze.
"Um... Haha, of course, teachers are the best..."
She joked.
"You little rascal! Are you trying to butter me up?"
"No way! I'm very strict! When it's time to fail you guys, I show no mercy!"
Luo Wei dramatically wailed, "No... After four years without classes, I've become the bottom of the class..."
"Teacher, you don't know how hard I've been studying late into the night, just to be on the same starting line as everyone else in class..."
"Yeah, right!" Evelyn rolled her eyes at him.
"I've seen your records. You were a good student four years ago. How could you possibly not keep up with our progress?"
Luo Wei chuckled.
The banter lightened the atmosphere considerably.
Evelyn, who had been a bit awkward earlier, could finally face the young man before her again.
She began organizing the materials Luo Wei had filled out.
"No need to thank me. This is what a teacher should do."
"Teachers love good kids like you the most. I'm glad to see you working so hard."
"If there's nothing else, you should go home now! I don't want to keep you from resting!"
It sounded like she was politely asking him to leave.
However, she kept chatting with him for quite a while, not really seeming like she wanted him to leave immediately.
Luo Wei felt a long-lost warmth.
The pain of having his chest pierced, the constant deaths and resets, the nearly hopeless Helena...
It all seemed like something that had happened long ago.
His long-taut nerves finally relaxed.
Luo Wei looked at Evelyn gratefully, this time with the most sincere smile.
[Evelyn]
[Favorability: 54↑]
[Character favorability has reached above 50, system reward has been issued]
[Please check...]
Suppressing his excitement, Luo Wei waved goodbye to his teacher.
As he reached the door, he suddenly seemed to remember something and stopped.
"Oh right, Teacher Evelyn, there's one more thing."
"Hm? What is it?" Evelyn looked at him.
Luo Wei glanced around at the bookshelves and asked a question he had been wanting to ask for a while.
"Teacher, do you know magic?"
"Magic?" Evelyn asked, puzzled. "Why are you asking about that?"
"Well..." Luo Wei quickly thought of an excuse, "I've always been very curious about magic, but I don't have the talent for it, so I could only study our Magic Engineering Major..."
There's only one character difference between "magic" and "magic engineering" in Chinese, but they are completely different concepts.
Graduates of his major were purely tools, existing only as cogs in the great Magic Engineering Industrial System.
But if he could meet a truly powerful person who knew real magic, perhaps the current crisis wouldn't be so difficult to handle.
Unfortunately...
Evelyn shook her head, "I don't know magic."
"I see..."
Seeing Luo Wei's expression, Evelyn's tone became uncharacteristically severe.
"Magic is not something beautiful. It brings madness and destruction. Being tainted by it is misfortune."
She warned, "Don't think I'm exaggerating, Luo Wei. Listen to your teacher, don't try to get involved with magic."
"Yes, teacher..."
Although he still wasn't sure if she knew magic or not, since she said this, Luo Wei couldn't continue asking.
He gently closed the office door, with a hint of disappointment.
Although he hadn't learned anything about "magic", the trip to the office had been quite fruitful.
Luo Wei quickly checked his rewards.
[You have received a skill exchange voucher. Please choose one from the random skill pool]
[1. Skill: Firearms Shooting (Beginner)]
[2. Skill: Inspiration Surge (Proficient)]
[3. Skill: Negotiation/Pacification (Master)]
The rewards on the panel surprised Luo Wei. He didn't expect the current favorability rewards to give such useful things.
Had the damn system finally shown some mercy?
All three choices before him were tempting to Luo Wei.
[Firearms Shooting (Beginner): Gain firearms knowledge, shooting skills at amateur hobbyist level, requires Strength and Stamina above 30 points]
[Inspiration Surge (Proficient): Briefly increase Inspiration value, greatly enhance perception of mysterious things, requires Inspiration above 50]
[Negotiation/Pacification (Master): Insight into psychology, soothe emotions, lower target character's defenses, each use can suppress 20 points of contamination, CD: 24h, requires Charm above 80 points]
Luo Wei briefly looked them over. Although the first two could improve his survival and investigation abilities,
Firstly, amateur-level shooting skills were a bit useless - he had been to shooting ranges before.
And he couldn't even exchange for [Inspiration Surge].
[Luo Wei]
[Race: Human]
[Attributes: Strength: 32, Constitution: 25, Agility: 38, Charm: 100, Inspiration: 49, Sanity: 45]
So the best choice was still the last skill, [Negotiation/Pacification].
This skill was at the master level, and it sounded powerful from the description.
It could be activated without anyone noticing, and the effects of soothing emotions and reducing contamination could be used on Helena.
This was much better than the beginner-level suppression drug.
Without much hesitation, Luo Wei directly chose the third skill.
[Negotiation/Pacification (Master)]
[Exchanged]
After exchanging for the reward, Luo Wei's mood inexplicably improved.
Whether it was the chat with Teacher Evelyn or the favorability reward, this trip had truly been fruitful.
It seemed that the choice to go to the office was indeed correct.
However, when he saw Helena's figure again on the way back,
Luo Wei's good mood instantly vanished.
"Brother..."
She stood in the middle of the corridor, her gaze inquisitively glancing towards that office.
"Why were you gone for so long?"