Chapter 73: Preparations…?

The computer science class passed by quickly, as coding always does for some reason, despite us not doing a whole lot. Just setting up IDEs, and then making a popup with a clickable button. Not physically clickable, but like… mentally. It was surprisingly easy too. Just make a frame, shove some text on it, shove a button on it, pack it all up, and render. Just like windows on a computer. Nothing BDSysteM could help with unfortunately.

According to Robbe, there’s still a lot of limitations in their rendering capabilities along with performance issues crazily enough, but they’re making steady progress. Somehow. That’s where my knowledge cuts off. I don’t know much about the backend backend stuff, like how programming languages themselves work, other than that they interpret text and do magic stuff with it. I’ve tried learning a little here and there but it gets really complicated really fast once you get down to bytecodes and assembly languages and whatever else. And then hardware.

Following the computer science class I went straight to my next, system knowledge, which I shared with Melody. It was back in the Celestria Building, and strangely enough, it was a small class size. I would think everyone has to take this class? Probably just different times.

By the time I entered, the class room was about half full and I found Melody sitting along the left wall with an empty seat beside her that I stole for myself. We greeted each other then paused since the class was only a minute away from starting. Quickly scanning the room, I couldn’t find anyone else I knew.

The layout was similar to the leadership class we had yesterday, a series of rows down toward the center where a professor was sitting behind their desk waiting for students to file in. Not surprising given that they probably just copy-paste the layouts. The colors were more generic though. Just gray everywhere. Once the students all entered, there were around forty people, so relatively small I think. Most of my classes have been pretty small. Maybe that’s just something they do here.

The professor began the class like any other by introducing himself. He was named Professor Barton and he never told us his first name. His hair was completely gray and he was easily the oldest-looking professor I’d had so far. He looked a little more professor-like as well, with glasses that he had to keep poking back into place. After the brief intro, Professor Barton began his lecture. “Now, this is not a history class. but a brief history is essential to understanding the current functions of the system, because they have not always functioned the same.”

After the first sentence of content, I heard Melody move around and glanced over, seeing her pop open her laptop, and gently rest her hands atop the keyboard in perfect typing posture just as perfect as the rest of her, presumably to take notes. She also noticed me. Then I blushed and looked away, pulling out my own laptop to start taking notes in case there’s something actually important in the history of the system. Which I doubt there is, since I can always just ask my system to answer for me… right, BDSysteM?

Maybe if you beg. BDSysteM replied rudely. I’ll also tell Melody.

The professor continued speaking after a brief pause to push up his glasses again. “For example, it was not always possible to have half a credit. Around a hundred years ago that changed. Minor, but noteworthy. Fifty years before that, level progress didn’t show any percentages. It still doesn’t if you’re level zero, which should be all of you.”

Yep. All of us. Level 0. I wonder how many people are actually level zero. Surely a handful have done something related to their system and earned some levels. Maybe not the combat focused ones, but normal household things or support systems or whatever else.

“Now, there is of course more than that, but those are some of the recent, more noticeable changes. In your lifetime, there may be another change. Or maybe not. Not much is known about the system, which brings me back to the purpose of this class.” Professor Barton paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. “Everything is theoretical and could always change, either from the system or from ongoing research.”

Despite not really thinking I’d forget anything said so far, I jotted down some notes onto a doc.

System changes. All changes are random stuff no one really cares about. Last change 100 years ago. Maybe change soon? How change?

Yeah, I’m a great notetaker. Anyway, the professor continued his speech, shifting away from history—he really wasn’t lying when he said brief, huh—and instead focusing back on the present, pulling up a huge spreadsheet titled ‘Stat Level Distribution.’ The top row was labeled with different ranks, starting with S tier primary, then S tier secondary, then S tier base, then A tier, then B tier, and so on until it reached E tier, which only had the base stat. That must suck, just having the same stats for everything, being so unspecial. Is unspecial a word? Sounds like a word that isn’t a word but should be a word.

“The first major topic of this class will be a discussion over the power differences between tiers, not so you feel jealous of your peers, but so you have a better understanding of what is meant by, say, a C tier level dungeon,” Professor Barton said, stepping to the side of the board and letting everyone have a clearer view. “This chart will also be available on the course page, so no need to memorize it all.”

Too bad there’s no X tier on the chart. Too complicated I guess. Probably since there’s so few of us. And I still need to graph that equation BDSysteM spouted out a while ago.

The rest of the hour was spent with Professor Barton going over the chart and briefly going over what a dungeon or monster ranking really means. Basically, a dungeon ranking is meaningless since the first floor of an S tier dungeon would have monsters with stats similar to level one on the distribution chart meaning basically anyone could raid it other than E tiers while a B tier dungeon on floor fifty or something would have insanely high stats.

There was some long equation for estimating it based on the number of floors the dungeon has and of course there’s still differences in the quantity of monsters and whether or not the dungeon actually sees you as a threat. I tried to take some notes but… yeah. I guess that’s why there’s a discussion section for this class.

When the class came to a close, Melody and I spun to face one another and she decided on our plan for the day. “Let’s drop our stuff off at the dorm and prepare you, then we can go to a gym.”

“Prepare me?” What the hell does that mean? Prepare… how do you prepare a person? Stuff them? Since you stuff some foods before you cook them. That’s preparing. Stuff some anal beads into me then watch as I struggle to walk… and then struggle to do literally anything as we exercise. Although that sounds a little dangerous? Probably fine if it’s just walking or something but I don’t know what Melody wants to do for exercise.

I think everything has that issue. Unless it's just like… making me wear a collar or some slightly too revealing clothes. Stuff that makes people stare but not comment and just knowing everyone is watching as I struggle to lift up some weights… this is going to be one hard workout.

“More like prepare for you, actually.” Thanks for the clarification, Melody. That makes even less sense. What do you need to prepare for me, at our dorm, if we're going out? Preparing for later tonight? But then why before the workout? And earlier you said your idea would still work during our exercise I think.

Melody packed up her things into a small black bag then stood up and I followed after her. We quickly left the building then went straight back to our dorm, where I promptly took off all of my clothes and stared at fully-clothed Melody as she contemplated something. “So…?”

“Do you have any… tight crop tops?” She finally asked, facing me and scanning over my body.

Tight crop tops. I’m pretty sure all I have are the few normal clothes I bought and then the fifty billion things we bought, so just skirts, socks, and underwear basically. “I don’t think so.”

“Hmm…” Eventually, Melody nodded her head. “Put on a short skirt, panties, bra, and ankle-high socks, then come over to my room and I’ll find something that fits on you.”

“Okay,” I replied and we both went upstairs to our rooms. I did as told, putting on some black lingerie, a short black skirt, and some black socks, then walked over to Melody’s room, where I saw a small gray camera sitting in the center of her bed. Not small small, but like, not a huge long lens professional thing, just a normal camera with a normal size lens.

“That was quick,” Melody said, noticing my entrance, before stepping away from her closet carrying a handful of clothes. Seeing me staring at the camera, she explained. “I want to show you how cute you are.”

Uhhhhh… pictures of me? Wearing revealing clothes, covered in sweat… oh god. Don’t show me how perverted I look! And there’s no way it doesn't progress into me doing, uh, special things and Melody taking pictures from special angles. Let my brain be in denial a little longer about how perverted I am, please? This is going to make me way hornier than just doing things in public... being able to see what I look like doing things in public...

“Try this,” Melody said, tossing me a black garment before I could come up with a response. As I caught it, she set the pile of clothes onto her bed then brought out an orange duffle bag from under her bed, sliding the clothes into it, before placing the camera on top.