Chapter 84
Finally, as expected, Satoru complained that the coffee Mont Blanc was "too bitter" while sticking out his tongue, and then secretly took half of Kazuma Hagoromo's raspberry cheesecake in exchange for his Mont Blanc.
Kazuma Hatake could only pretend to admire the scenery, allowing Satoru Gojo to secretly scoop out a piece with a spoon. His eyes lit up the moment he put it in his mouth, and he kept scooping. When he realized that he had eaten half of it without realizing it, he guiltily took his own Mont Blanc to make up for it.
Fortunately, Kazuma Hatori wasn't a picky eater—he tolerated the slightly bitter Mont Blanc coffee well and ate it all.
After Xia Youjie and Jia Rushao successfully met up with them, the four of them went to a nearby karaoke bar and sang karaoke all night long.
Gojo Satoru truly lived up to his self-proclaimed title of "super talented." Not only was he incredibly energetic while holding the microphone, but he also sang exceptionally well.
If the sound system and radio reception are up to par, it can even reach the level of a live concert.
Kazuma Hatori cooperated by shaking the jingling bell, adding to the atmosphere.
In comparison, Kazuma Hatake's performance can only be described as average.
The "ordinary" part is that he doesn't have many songs that he can sing completely.
Even if they can sing, they can only sing the climax of the song; for the rest, they can only hum along with the accompaniment.
It's very much in line with the singing level of an average person.
It falls into the category of "Should I praise him? I can't quite find the words. But if I don't praise him, I can see that he has already tried very hard."
When Kazuma Hatori handed over the microphone, behind his seemingly calm expression, he could be described as having breathed a huge sigh of relief.
He's never even been to a karaoke bar in the real world... Mikoshiba tried to drag him to a blind date, but he refused several times.
Gojo Satoru probably sensed Hato Kazuma's nervousness, and instead of mocking him, he rubbed his head back and forth and gave him a bright smile.
When he was with Kazuma Hatori, he was always in a good mood, feeling light and carefree, like a kitten kite being pulled by a string, its tail, which was deliberately left untied, swaying in the spring breeze, leisurely and carefree.
Shoko Ieiri took the microphone and began singing the song she had requested.
Her voice has a slightly melancholic, husky quality when she sings, which is very unique.
Xia Youjie, despite his unconventional attire—wearing long hair in a bun, with a single strand of bangs on his forehead, and wearing wide-legged pants favored by school delinquents, causing misunderstandings among police officers when he went to the police station—sang surprisingly soothing songs.
"I thought Jay would sing heavy metal rock."
Gojo Satoru whispered his complaints into Hato Kazuma's ear.
Because the sound system was so loud, practically booming, Gojo Satoru subconsciously raised his voice as well, so that Hagoromo Kazuma could clearly hear what he was saying.
"...Wu, you're judging people by their appearance."
So, when Xia Youjie sat back down, he vaguely heard this sentence—he didn't hear the whole thing, but that didn't stop him from guessing what the other person wanted to express.
"Hey—then you shouldn't judge people by their appearance at all,"
Gojo made a face at him.
"You actually think Ichima is super gloomy and has a problem with you? Hmph, you're having a paranoia, aren't you?"
Kazuma Hatake: "..."
"Overly gloomy" isn't quite right, but it's true that some people have opinions about it.
Xia Youjie: "..."
If it weren't for the last mission, he would still think that way now...
However, after that [doll attack incident] mission, Natsumi's opinion of Kazuma Hatori changed drastically. He even shrugged and smiled, not minding being teased by Gojo Satoru.
"So you can't say there's anything wrong with me singing ballads."
As the only four students in their class, and even in their grade, it was quite rare for them to have such an opportunity to get together and play.
Outside of class time, everyone usually takes turns doing tasks. Even when in a team, it's unlikely that there will be a time when all four of us need to do one task together.
Gojo Satoru was always especially happy on nights when they could sing songs, chat, drink juice, and clink glasses.
After all, the Gojo family is extremely boring and rigid. Even if he wanted to make friends with his peers, they would only see his "six-eyed" and "next head of the Gojo family" labels, and then abide by the rules and would not approach him again.
He insisted on coming to the vocational college to study, just so he could enjoy this carefree and relaxed youth!
The lively party lasted until late at night, and even the last bus had stopped running, so we had to take a taxi back to the college.
The next day was Monday, and all three of them except for Kazuma Hatake were so sleepy that they kept yawning, which made Masamichi Yagami stare at them several times.
Even Moth Zhengdao was probably wondering to himself – they hadn’t been given any tasks last weekend, so why were they so exhausted?
Generally speaking, the next few days consisted of regular classes, practical training, and some exorcism missions to accumulate experience.
Sometimes it's solo, sometimes it's in pairs, and the four people are randomly scattered and then regrouped, supposedly to train teamwork skills.
After repeating this several times, Kazuma Hatake opened the [Request] interface and found that Natsume Yuuki's trust level had increased a little more, becoming [71%/80%].
Just like the favorability rating, the trust rating becomes increasingly difficult to increase as time goes on.
After Kazuma Hagoromo and Natsuyuki completed the mission that was specially designed for them, Natsuyuki became noticeably friendlier to him, and would even teach him some fighting techniques during sparring sessions.
“If your weakness lies in using spell power, I recommend that you strengthen your combat skills,” Xia Youjie said. “Based on my observation, although sorcerers can use spell power to enhance their physical fitness, they often appear rather rough in combat skills and are more inclined to use it in combination with spells.”
Kazuma Hatake readily accepted the suggestion—since he couldn't use spells at the moment and could only rely on [Black Flash] for damage output, he should indeed practice some melee combat.
Although it sounds strange to train physical skills in a game, he was willing to put it on his agenda after discovering that the training was indeed effective.
Moreover, Gojo Satoru is also very skilled in physical techniques, and his flexibility is also excellent, making it easy for him to do backbends and stretches.
"The more top-tier a mage is, the more essential physical training becomes."
After some thought, Gojo Satoru realized that developing Hagoromo Kazuma's skills in martial arts was indeed a good choice. Not only could he protect himself, but he could also easily catch his enemies off guard.
"If you're not used to fighting bare-handed, you can use some magical artifacts. Do you have any weapons you usually use?"
Kazuma Hatake pondered for a moment and realized that in his previous life, he hadn't used any other weapons besides pistols and fists—as for the real world, sorry, he only had the power of knowledge.
"Revolver."
Gojo Satoru: “…………”
Aside from spellcasters who can conjure up spell-filled projectiles out of thin air, no one would use such a weapon, right? After all, spell tools aren't consumables; how could you possibly create a bunch of projectiles for someone to use...?
What kind of things did this kid used to play with?!
"No, choose another one."
After Gojo Satoru waved his hand and explained to him, "Spears, katana, vajra, meteor hammers, any kind of cold weapon you want, we can make them. They are more durable, have a simpler structure, and there are more craftsmen who can manufacture them."
"I see..."
After careful consideration, Kazuma Hatake gave an answer.
…………
During this time, the patriarch remained silent, and even Ayako Sakura stopped bothering him.
This is normal, since the other party doesn't have the kind of intuitive statistics that can quantify trust like he does, so how could they accurately judge whether this incident has made the other party completely trust him?
Moreover, if this kind of scheme is repeated a few times, even a fool could guess that there's something wrong with it.
Gojo Satoru put on his newly customized sunglasses—although they were almost identical to his previous ones, he was clearly very happy and showed them off to Ieiri Shoko and Natsuyu Suke for several days in a row.
This was a gift from his good friend, Yizhen!
Xia Youjie narrowed his eyes, wanting to put on a helpless expression.
A few days later, a sample copy of the magazine was delivered to Kazuma Hato and Satoru Gojo, specially driven over by Tomoya Tsukichi.
"No matter how many times I come, I always think, your school is really quite remote."
Tomoya Tsuji: "I even looked it up, and it turns out it's a religious college? I can't imagine what it's like for you guys to have classes there."
After all, this was just the official statement, so Gojo Satoru could only give a perfunctory answer, eagerly anticipating opening the magazine packaging.
His photo with Kazuma Hatake was prominently featured on the cover.
"It's the cover?" Gojo Satoru looked up in surprise. "Didn't they say it was just the inside pages at first?"
“Indeed, we originally planned for it to be inside the pages,” Tomoya Tsukichi said with a smile, “but the editor-in-chief strongly recommended that you be on the cover, saying that many readers would definitely buy it.”
Gojo Satoru raised an eyebrow, suddenly remembering that he and Hato Kazuma had both forgotten to check the URLs the other had sent, which were supposed to determine [just how popular they were].
However, nothing happened when he went shopping last time, so it must have been just an ordinary day.
Gojo Satoru put away the magazine and thanked Tsukichi Tomoya. On his way back, he opened the website on his phone.
[Fellow fans, this time it's for real!]
A large, highlighted title appeared prominently at the top of the forum.
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