Pitch-black humanoid figures.
Mocking smiles hung on each of their faces.
A seemingly friendly voice said beside her: "Classmate Tsukasa, sorry to trouble you to continue helping us buy lunch today~"
Sitting in her seat, Tsukasa silently clenched her fists.
"No..."
She wasn't given a chance to refuse.
A second black face had already appeared in front of her.
"Yatsuhata, let's go to karaoke together~"
She looked at those black faces behind her.
It felt extremely disgusting.
Suddenly, a sharp pain struck.
Her hair was being pulled by a black face.
"Yatsuhata, you don't actually think you're someone special, do you?"
"Senior inviting you to hang out is giving you face!"
Tsukasa looked coldly at that dark face.
Pah!
Who would want that kind of 'face'?
She only felt disgusted!
"You must come with us today."
"No running away, do you hear me?!"
A scene from her memory slowly surfaced.
Tsukasa felt herself burning with rage.
Fuming!
Back then, she had run away, and that was why so many things that made her feel powerless happened later. But even now, she still couldn't find a better way, which was why this nightmare kept haunting her.
She didn't argue with the dark face in the dream.
Tsukasa suddenly stood up and slammed the dark face against the wall, acting swiftly and decisively with all her strength.
The dark face collided violently with the wall.
There was a loud "thud."
The wall was instantly covered in bloodstains.
Then, she opened her eyes.
The familiar ceiling... everything just now was only a dream.
A... pointless nightmare.
Tsukasa climbed out of bed.
She knew her mental state was definitely problematic, with quite serious violent tendencies. In her past life, she had wanted to kill people more than once over trivial matters, but in the end, her rationality had prevailed, so she hadn't done anything terrible.
"That dream again..."
Tsukasa felt very depressed.
It might be because of the recent events at school that reminded her of this unforgettable past. Although her logic told her it was just a small matter, she simply couldn't forget it.
She was clearly a Transmigrator.
To think she was actually bullied in middle school; it felt ridiculous just thinking about it.
But in reality, what difference does being a Transmigrator make?
If you weren't a genius in your past life and didn't have a 'cheat' after transmigrating, you're no different from an ordinary person, are you?
Don't talk about how a mature mind can plan for the future in advance.
That's essentially no different from armchair strategy!
The simplest example.
That would be studying.
When an adult soul transmigrates into a child's body, many people take it for granted that as long as this person is willing to work hard, they can become a top student.
But that is simply impossible
to achieve.
Setting aside the world-building, different national backgrounds, and the environment one was born into.
The simplest thing.
That 'one percent of talent' completely blocks the path forward.
Tsukasa had also naively thought once.
That as long as she was willing to work hard, she would definitely succeed.
But the result was cruel.
This approach did work in elementary school.
She was indeed called a genius back then.
But after reaching middle school.
She found that everything changed.
Even though she studied hard—and even if her innate learning talent wasn't high—by relying on rote memorization and her memories from her past life, she still managed to remember the knowledge points taught by the teachers. However, her ranking still dropped quickly. Having entered with a top-ten ranking, no matter how hard she worked later, she hovered around the top fifty.
What was the reason?
Talent.
Family background.
Those were the two most fundamental reasons.
Although she was a Transmigrator, her talent hadn't changed compared to her past life, and she had no Transmigrator 'cheat' either.
Furthermore, she was an orphan.
An orphan who only had the conditions to attend school because of social assistance.
Even if she wanted to take cram school classes to improve herself.
She didn't have the money for it.
From that moment on.
She knew that being a Transmigrator was no big deal. Perhaps the only benefits transmigration gave her were her female gender and a pretty face.
But... how could she be willing to sell her body?
She was a Transmigrator, after all.
So she chose to give it her all.
She abandoned everything else and focused entirely on studying.
It didn't matter that she had no money for cram school.
She still had the money to buy exercise books.
It didn't matter that she had no talent.
Because she had an adult's mindset.
She could force herself to study hard.
It didn't matter if she couldn't catch up to those top-student geniuses.
She only needed to maintain a position in the upper-middle tier.
But at that time, she never imagined that an accident would come so suddenly. Just because she didn't have the extra energy to manage her social circle with her classmates, she was slapped with various labels. Just because she was good-looking, she provoked Jealousy.
Faced with school bullying.
She had resisted.
But it was useless.
The teachers didn't have the ability to help her.
She had no background to save herself.
Even if she wanted to request help from the media, she had to consider the impact on the school and the potential consequences for herself afterward.
If she truly knew nothing, she might have just hardened her heart and dared to do anything. But she understood the consequences of doing so; being cautious meant she couldn't do anything.
And so.
She experienced the horror of school bullying.
If her mindset hadn't been that of an adult, knowing how to be vigilant, observe, and escape, she might not have been able to endure it long ago.
But even then, she came home with injuries almost every day. In an already poor household, she had to spend extra money on medicine. Life during that period was simply a nightmare.
But looking back, she still felt very lucky.
Because she only suffered superficial injuries.
Most importantly.
She survived it.
She couldn't imagine what would have happened if she hadn't survived. Whether she resisted or gave up, the ending waiting for her would surely have been hell.
The result of resisting.
At the very least, she would definitely have been expelled from school.
And giving up... she didn't have the right to give up.
Because she had no family to support her life.
If she gave up on her studies.
It meant she gave up on her life.
As Tsukasa washed her face and looked at herself in the mirror, she mocked, "Is there a more incompetent Transmigrator than me?"
Probably not.
She answered herself in her heart.
Yeah.
Ultimately, it's still my own incompetence.
Not being born into a wealthy family.
Having no talent.
Not having the luck to obtain either.
That is also a kind of incompetence.
Now, Tsukasa only wanted to get good grades upon graduating high school so she could qualify for university assistance.
Scholarships were out of the question.
No talent.
No money.
Winning was absolutely impossible.
She was an orphan.
A 'weakling.'
Although many people at school liked to bully the weak.
The subjective sentiment in society was to sympathize with the weak. So as long as she achieved certain results, she could apply for aid and student loans; these were all her future paths.
So now, the only thing she needed to avoid was encountering the same kind of things as in middle school. Fortunately, in her current high school class, her presence wasn't as strong as it was in middle school.
Because her class had Wakaba-san, who had an even higher beauty level.
And high school classmates all knew how to use makeup now. As long as she didn't wear makeup and grew her front hair a bit longer, her appearance was relatively less noticeable.
Although being unsociable did tend to attract those flies, there was a classmate in the class who was even more withdrawn and gloomy than she was.
So... as long as she was careful.
High school should be a peaceful time, right?