Chapter 30: I Was Supposed to Have a Perfect Score

"A four-course major? Not a single person in the world has ever earned three degrees at once—at most, people manage dual degrees. Are they really treating me like a deity? And it doesn’t seem like a university president alone would have the authority to set such a precedent," I thought to myself.

"This is way too absurd. Is someone deliberately setting this up?" Athena appeared beside me and spoke up.

Athena and I were thinking the exact same thing. Seeing me fall silent, the President seemed to guess my thoughts and said with a chuckle: "I know this is hard for you to fathom, but this is a direct directive issued to me by Ministry of Education. Furthermore, I happen to know that your National Exam score was originally supposed to be a perfect score, wasn’t it?"

Even I, the person in question, didn’t know about this—how could he know?

"In fact, your score on the entrance exam should have been a flawless maximum mark. The grader who reviewed your paper reported your results to the head of the Tokyo grading board, who then reported it overnight to the Vice Minister of Education. The ministry immediately issued an urgent notice instructing them to temporarily hold back your official breakdown and follow their arrangements. The ministry then held an emergency overnight meeting, which I also attended. The committee decided not to publicly broadcast your exact raw score to the outside world to avoid overwhelming media frenzy and unneeded trouble for you. As for which university you’d attend, the presidents of every elite university practically fought to the death for you. In the end, the Minister decided to let you choose freely—which is why, even before admission letters were officially dispatched, you had essentially received acceptance offers from every top-tier university. At that meeting, the Minister also decided to trial a new experimental education model on you to see how it performs!"

Athena chimed in from the side: "See? What did I tell you? I said it had to be a perfect score!"

I shook my head with a bitter smile: "So you’re essentially using me as a lab rat? And requiring me to major in four primary fields—isn’t that going to be the death of me?"

"Haha, with great ability comes great responsibility! I’ve personally reviewed your exam papers; your academic level is already on par with a doctoral candidate. I trust you can pull it off. Our higher education framework has many rigid flaws that desperately need reform. The ministry will be monitoring your academic progress closely to fine-tune the upcoming nationwide educational policy!" the President explained.

"Fuitsu, agree to it. Don’t worry, don’t you still have me?" Athena said, blinking her eyes playfully.

Hearing Athena’s reassurance, I turned to the President: "Alright, I’ll give it a try!"

"Excellent! If you need anything else, just speak up!"

"I don’t want to live with other people. Let me live outside the campus!" Athena said.

I nodded and said to the President: "I’m not used to sharing a room with anyone. If possible, could I rent an apartment off-campus?"

Hearing my request, the President frowned slightly: "In principle, the university doesn’t encourage students to live off-campus, though we don’t have an absolute strict rule against it. However, off-campus safety can be a concern. How about this? I’ll arrange a room for you in the faculty dormitories. That way, you won’t have to share a room with other students, it’ll be much safer, and your neighbors will all be professors and lecturers. If you ever run into academic doubts, you can easily seek their guidance. How does that sound?"

Since he had put it so generously, what else could I say? I agreed to the President’s suggestion, which conveniently saved me a chunk of rent money. The President then made a quick phone call to have a room arranged for me, instructing a female secretary named Ms. Kindaichi to guide me over with my luggage.

While I had no idea what the standard student dorms looked like, seeing the faculty quarters gave me quite a shock—a towering eight or nine-story building nestled right beside a charming artificial pond with scenic views. The interior decor was practically on par with a three or four-star hotel. The secretary led me to a fifth-floor room near the stairwell, stood at the doorway, and looked at me: "This is the room arranged for you. Go ahead and take a look inside."

Pushing open the door, I surveyed the surroundings. The entire studio room was roughly 40 square meters, fully equipped with a balcony, private bathroom, and a spacious living area—if it were any larger, it would be a full one-bedroom apartment. Nodding in satisfaction, I said to the secretary: "This place is fantastic! Thank you so much!"

"Haha, no need to thank me—it’s the least the university can do! Most of the residents here are young lecturers not much older than you, so you can chat with them often and make some friends. The senior professors live in the quieter quarter on the north side of campus; they’re all very curious about you right now, so if you ever have academic questions, feel free to drop by. I’m sure they’ll share everything they know without reservation. Take a look around and see if you need anything else. If you do, just let me know and I’ll have someone arrange it."

"No need, this is already more than enough. Having too much special treatment isn’t good!" I shook my head, thanking the secretary.

"Alright. Tomorrow is the official start of the semester. At around 8:00 AM, there will be an opening ceremony in the Great Auditorium. The President asked me to notify you that you’re scheduled to go onstage and deliver a speech as the freshman representative. In the afternoon, you’ll head to your assigned classroom for your first class meeting."

"What?! Me, go onstage? No way! Also, which class am I supposed to report to in the afternoon?" I was caught completely off guard by this sudden news.

"You are this year’s nationwide top scorer—if you don’t go up, who else qualifies? Yesterday, Professor Shuyan specifically went to the President to have you assigned to the Marketing Department, so head there tomorrow afternoon!"

"Why didn’t the President mention any of this to me just now?" My head drooped, my voice completely drained of energy.

Secretary Kindaichi gave a sly, mysterious smile: "If he had told you back then, would you have agreed? But don’t bother trying to find him now—you won’t catch him anywhere unless it’s at the Great Auditorium tomorrow!"

Her words thoroughly crushed my lingering hopes, tossing me straight off a cliff. That President is a total old fox!

Secretary Kindaichi patted my shoulder with a laugh: "You stay here and brainstorm what to say at the ceremony. I have other duties to attend to, so I’ll be off!" With that, she closed the door with a smile and departed.

The moment the door shut, Athena and Venus couldn’t wait to pop out. Bouncing and hopping around like young girls, they began exploring our new home. Venus immediately started bossing me around, giving orders on how to redecorate the space. Decorating advice was fine, but the terrifying part was that she actually wanted to paint the walls hot pink! How would it look for a grown man like me to live in a bright pink room?!

Athena, on the other hand, wasn’t interested in interior design; she was simply ecstatic to see two single beds, squealing happily: "Finally, a real bed to sleep on!" Hearing her made me break out in a cold sweat.

Unpacking my luggage, I put my clothes into the wardrobe, only then realizing I hadn’t bought toothpaste or towels yet. I turned to Athena and Venus: "I’m heading out to shop! Anyone who wants to join, sign up now!"

Before my voice even faded, two beams of colorful light shot straight back into the bracelet. It seems shopping holds an irresistible charm even for goddesses. Locking the door, I walked downstairs and began wandering around the campus.

Relying on the directional signs along the pathways and my fairly solid sense of direction, I checked out Tokyo University’s iconic landmarks—the historic Yasuda Auditorium, Sanshiro Pond, and various research institutes. Some of the high-security laboratories even had armed police officers standing guard, which was truly impressive. I also visited the Great Auditorium where I was supposed to be tomorrow, as well as the Faculty of Economics. After strolling around for over two hours, I had only managed to cover a tiny fraction of the campus, leaving me to marvel with a sigh: Tokyo University is ridiculously huge!