“I didn’t say that.”

“Unless she’s your girlfriend, there’s no reason to ask her to go to a party together. Right?”

What kind of logic is this?

I was about to snort derisively.

However, I realized that the atmosphere at the pool party had changed a bit. The girls around started staring at me intently.

One of the girls approached and said:

“Hey, take off your glasses.”

“…What? Why?”

As I looked at her with a wary expression, the girl seemed to get fired up and stepped closer, trying to touch my face.

“Let’s see what you look like. Take off those ridiculous glasses, will you?”

I frowned, a bit flustered.

Telling me to take off my glasses just to see my face? It wasn’t even funny.

‘After the high teen hunter mishmash, are they now trying to drag me into a serious school violence story?’

Just imagining it sent chills down my spine. I’d rather enter a dungeon alone and unarmed.

With an uneasy feeling, I was about to step back when Thompson firmly grabbed my arm.

“Won’t you let go of this?”

My bewilderment was short-lived. I looked at the approaching girl and Thompson in turn, then swung my right foot that I had pulled back.

Thwack!

“Ugh!”

Thompson collapsed as my sneaker hit his knee.

And simultaneously,

“W-What? Where did she disappear to?”

The brown-haired girl who had come right up to my face screamed.

A blue status window appeared before my eyes.

[Skill activated.] [Skill: Extra’s Basic (A).] [Erases presence for 60 seconds from the point of attacking or being attacked. Low-level hunters cannot detect the presence.

Probability of occurrence: 50%]

I calmly caught my breath, then leisurely walked past the girl who had turned pale as if she’d seen a ghost.

They wouldn’t know that I could hide my appearance like an invisible person after attacking.

Thompson, too, had fallen while clutching his knee, then looked somewhere into the air with a dazed expression.

Then, as if realizing something, he shouted with an angry face.

“Damn it, she’s an Awakened! Catch her!”

Thompson raised his voice, furious to the tips of his hair.

I couldn’t care less and grabbed something like an empty can from the table. The objects I picked up naturally became invisible.

Thompson seemed desperate to catch me and was running around, but it was useless.

How could he catch me when I’m invisible?

’23 seconds, 22 seconds.’

As the countdown to the time limit approached, I threw the can-like object I was holding at Thompson’s face.

It was the same pattern as when I punished the football team member who was bullying Adrian.

I kept activating my skill to ensure the 50% probability skill wouldn’t break, and I threw whatever objects I was holding at Thompson haphazardly.

Every time the skill activated, my skill usage time was extended back to 60 seconds. This was possible because there was no cooldown.

“Damn it, you crazy woman!”

Empty canned food tins, half-eaten banana peels, even someone’s carelessly discarded sock went into Thompson’s mouth as he was yelling.

Thompson was on the verge of going crazy.

I was so engrossed in watching this scene that I didn’t notice someone sneaking up beside me.

“Got you!”

It was one of the guys who had been at the pool.

He must have approached by reading the trajectory of the objects I was throwing.

The man lunged towards somewhere in the air.

Precisely, in the direction where I was.

“Ah!”

I screamed. There were only 24 seconds left on the time limit, and I was cornered at the slippery edge of the pool.

Huh?

The soles of my boots slipped on a puddle of water.

And splash, I fell into the pool.

‘This wasn’t part of the plan.’

Glug. My body sank into the water.

17 seconds left on the time limit.

I could see others wandering around above the water surface, even after pushing me into the pool. It meant my body was still maintaining its invisibility.

12 seconds left on the time limit.

My body sank heavily. The forearm that had been hit earlier was stinging with pain. Damn, with what strength did he hit the empty air so hard?

8 seconds left on the time limit.

And then it dawned on me.

Maybe not in my past life, but Juno Huntington’s body was a complete weakling who couldn’t even do survival swimming in an enormous beer bottle.

Damn it!

3 seconds left on the time limit.

In my panic, all the air I had been holding in my mouth escaped as bubbles. My hand, which I glimpsed underwater, was gradually becoming visible.

At that moment, someone plunged into the water surface, grabbed my hand.

Then, they roughly supported my waist and pulled me out of the water.

“Puh, puha!”

I inhaled deeply and spat out water.

“Cough, cough!”

Through my blurred vision, I caught a glimpse of the face of the man who had embraced me.

Tanned skin and gray hair…

I paused for a moment, then hurriedly brushed the hair away with my fingers. Then I saw the face of the man who had lifted me up.

“You are…”

The man had skin nicely tanned by the sun.

Short hair dyed gray. A prominent nose bridge. Clear, wide eyes came into view, and finally, gently upturned lips caught my attention.

The man was wearing a thin t-shirt, which had gotten wet and was clinging to his body as he entered the pool.

He looked at me once with a cheerful face, then walked through the pool still carrying me, heading towards the edge.

And he put me down at the edge of the pool.

Even though it couldn’t have been easy to carry and move a woman, his face looked as relaxed as if he were moving a doll.

The man spoke in a voice tinged with laughter:

“I wondered what all the commotion was about.”

Despite his playfully smiling face, his voice resonated deeply from within.

“Were you an Awakened too?”

“Too, you say?”

I asked, startled.

The man seemed to ignore my words, looking around distractedly.

Then he pulled something out of the water and held it close to his face.

It was my glasses.

“There’s no prescription in these? Wow, is the nerd look just a concept?”

“Give those here.”

The man made a gesture of putting my thick-framed glasses on his nose bridge.

When I quickly snatched them away, the man pouted his lips.

Given his languid action, it was closer to him ‘letting’ them be taken away.

“How cold, after I helped you.”

“…”

I glared at the man after fixing my glasses.

‘Come to think of it, this face looks familiar.’

The man seemed to be a student at this school.

And if he was a man I hadn’t had the chance to face during my year of adapting to the school, there were only two types:

Either a drama’s male lead I didn’t want to get involved with,

Or one of those rowdy school athletes.

Or possibly both.

Before I could think deeply, I opened his character information window in front of the man.

A blue window popped up before my eyes, but the man just blinked his black eyes, not noticing anything.

[Character Information.]

Name: Victor McQueen.

Rank: S.

Skill: Superhuman Strength.

Exclusive Skill: Stand Firm (Locked), −.

Trait: Ace of the Field.

When I opened the details, attributes like agility, strength, and flexibility were all ranked S.

In other words, flawless.

I almost cheered as if I had discovered my own gold mine.

‘There’s another S-rank in our school besides Adrian!’

For some reason, despite being an S-rank Awakened, this man hadn’t shown up at the Awakened gathering in the gym.

He was truly a hidden gem.

However, my joy was short-lived as I had to stop abruptly.

‘Wait, Victor McQueen?’

I couldn’t help but frown.

‘Don’t tell me, the ‘Vic’ the football team mentioned earlier…’

Victor McQueen is one of the male lead candidates who gets entangled with the female lead in Season 2.

He was also the captain of the football team, famous for being a ‘playboy’ at Roingham High School.

[This is the timeline separator]

I had heard quite a few rumors about Victor McQueen.

Isn’t the law of high teens always with the football team?

Victor McQueen was one of the protagonists who faithfully followed the high teen cliché.

He was achieving excellent results as a school athlete, and girls definitely liked Victor.

Thanks to his nicely tanned skin, cheerful personality, and straightforward behavior, he was a social butterfly who made friends regardless of gender.

And another default setting given to Victor was that he was a famous ‘playboy’ who frequently changed girlfriends.

‘Well, it’s all just a stepping stone for going all-in on the female lead.’

It was such a boring setting that it made me yawn – the notorious playboy later meeting true love and reforming.

‘By the way, it’s no coincidence that Victor McQueen, a male lead candidate, is also an S-rank Awakened, right?’

Adrian was S-rank too. This world seems to revolve strictly around the protagonists.

I looked at Victor, who was smiling in front of me while I was in the pool, then stood up.

A large question mark appeared above Victor’s head.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“What?”

That’s a lie. Actually, I’m going to look for Adrian.

I’ve already seen all the unseemly sights because of Thompson, and it’s about time I meet Adrian to complete the proxy awakening quest.

If there’s any harvest, it’s that I found more Awakened at school, but…

Of all people, it had to be Victor McQueen, who monopolizes everyone’s attention.

Fortunately, my wristwatch was waterproof, so it was safe. Looking at the watch, it was almost 12 o’clock.

‘There’s still enough time. If I can just meet Adrian before 12…’

I wrung out my wet clothes. Not only the white short-sleeved t-shirt but also the brick-colored checkered shirt I was wearing over it were soaked.

While I was gathering my hair strands and wringing them out like laundry, Victor put his hands on the edge of the pool, pulled himself out, and came out.

Then he went to a sun bed, came back, and handed me something.

“Hey, Nerdy Glasses! Wear this.”

“What is it?”

Glancing at it, I saw it was a navy shirt.

It looked way too big for me at a glance. It seemed to be a shirt Victor himself had been wearing.

“Why are you giving this to me?”