Chapter 1

The progress bar increased from 1% to 3%, but it didn't tell me anything about activation conditions.

Hank Liston was just queuing up for another round as he cranked up the volume further, his curses and the game sounds quaking the entire room.

Ben Singer was tossing and turning, while Zac Kimmich frowned, but neither of them complained.

Still, Hank saw that and snorted. "What's that look for? I can't even celebrate my triumph, huh? If you're that upset, you can leave—don't stay here and ruin the mood."

Ben finally poked his head out from his blanket. "Hank, I really need to sleep. The interview starts at nine, and it takes an hour to get there…"

"How is that my business?" Hank demanded, reclining against his chair. "You don't bother preparing during the day, and you now blame me for gaming? What's with that? Stop trying to blame your shortcomings on the rest of the room."

"I'm not telling you to turn it off, but just quiet down a little…"

"Don't you start!" Hank snapped. "My boombox is premium imported stuff! You touch it, you pay for it—the full amount! Do you think you can afford it with your intern salary?"

In reality, those speakers were actually bought off eBay second-hand, and he made me polish it the day he bought it.

I just didn't call him out on it, only keeping my ears under my pillows.

In the end, Hank simply liked making others suffer—the more they bore with it, the more highly he thought of himself.

[Polymorph spell progress: 7%]

Zac sat up just then, ruffling his hair as he growled, "Just cut it out. You're young, so losing sleep is fine. Hank, you can stop after this round. As for you, Ben… Don't get so petty. Be more understanding toward your roommates."

Ben gave him a look. "I've been bearing with this from midnight to three in the morning. You call that petty?"

Zac sighed. "Calm down—I'm not accusing you of anything bad. This is just how Hank is, so why bother? Just bear with it for one night and it's over."

I turned to look at Zac then. "And why don't you bear with it too?"

Zac frowned. "Don't make this worse. I'm solving the problem here."

"More like putting down the person who asked a question."

Hank suddenly burst out laughing, smacking his table. "There! You hear? Mr. Scholarship is lecturing us again! Always acting like he's a big deal just because he cleaned the room! Did anyone ask? Go be performative all you want, but we don't owe you anything!"

I frowned. "You were the one on duty last week."

"I forgot. What are you gonna do about it? Clean the room if you want, but don't complain about it after."

He then reached for the thin toilet paper roll, ripping off the last two sheets and throwing both on the floor.

However, I recognized the rolls I had bought just yesterday and the empty bottle of laundry detergent, which I last saw Hank taking to the laundry room with his sneakers.

"When are you going to buy new detergent and toilet paper?" I asked.

"It's just a few bucks!" he snapped back. "And you have thousands in scholarship money! You're always so petty, when you only got that scholarship because you're always sucking up to the professors."

"And what does my money have to do with you?"

"Everyone shares everything in this room! And you only ever clean your side of the room too, so get off your high horse!"

Zac quickly butted in, saying, "That's enough, Carl. You're being a little petty here—it's all consumables, and it doesn't matter who uses it. When Hank buys some, you can use his."

However, I was staring at Hank's desk, where his mini fridge stood, protected with a lock and chain.

The brat would write his name even on a single bottle of water if he bought it, and it was a thirty-minute lecture if anyone so much as touched it.

[Polymorph spell progress: 12%]

Hank was just queuing into another round and didn't even turn around as he growled, "For breakfast, it's two sausage muffins and a Diet Coke. Wake me at half past seven, and if you're late, you're buying double."

"Fine."

They all turned to me right then, surprised that I agreed to it so quickly.

Naturally, Hank got even more smug. "You could've learned to behave from the start, but you had to make us go through everything until you learned who was the boss instead, didn't you?"

I ignored him, as my eyes were glued to the System.

The progress bar never slowed and kept increasing steadily.

-

It was daybreak when Hank finally closed his laptop.

However, not even two seconds after getting in bed, he kicked the bed post. "Who the hell just oinked?!"

No one answered, so he pricked his ears up and listened for seconds, his expression darkening.

But only he could hear it.