The thug scoffed, emboldened by his friends. "This is MIT, pretty boy. Things work by respect here. And you have none." He raised his fist to punch Ethan's face.

Ethan's reaction was a blur of professional precision.

Ethan ducked slightly, dodging the punch with a speed that barely registered. Then, without even using his System abilities, he simply used a short, perfectly placed boxing hook he had learned before his awakening. The blow slammed directly into the thug's jaw.

The sound was a dry crack that echoed in the semi-empty auditorium. The thug fell to the floor, eyes rolling back, unconscious before his body hit the linoleum.

The three remaining friends froze, their expressions transforming from arrogance to terror. The boy who had just fallen was the captain of the wrestling team.

"Does anyone else have a property issue or a problem with the seating arrangement?" Ethan asked, his voice calm as he brushed nonexistent dust off his suit sleeve.

The three thugs scattered without a word, dragging their unconscious leader out of the auditorium. The rest of the watching students rushed out, avoiding eye contact with Ethan. The message had been delivered: the new kid wasn't just a genius; he was dangerous.

Hailey, still visibly shaking, looked up at Ethan. "You knocked him out!" she whispered.

"Problem solved," Ethan said, regaining his earlier smile. He gently took Hailey's hand, helping her regain her composure. "You saved me from getting lost. Let me buy you coffee and we can talk about the homework. Do you have a number I can text?"

Hailey blushed fiercely, but the adrenaline rush and the relief of seeing her tormentor knocked out won out. "Y-yes," she stammered, quickly giving him her phone number. "But I have to go. My next class is a lab session."

"A lab session?" Ethan repeated, his interest piqued. The thought of getting his hands on some actual equipment or coding excited him more than the abstract logic class. "That's great! I have one too. Which one is it?"

"It's the first session for 6.08: Introduction to Integrated Circuits and Hardware Design," Hailey explained, already walking quickly toward the main building. "It's a foundational course for all EECS students."

They reached the lab wing, a sterile, well-lit hallway filled with the quiet hum of advanced machinery. They entered a large room lined with long workbenches, each equipped with oscilloscopes, soldering irons, and computers. The air smelled faintly of burnt plastic and copper.

As they took seats at an empty bench, Ethan quickly sent Lena Rossi a follow-up text to finalize the meeting time for Jason and Cassandra. "Get the paperwork ready. Today. We need to start structuring the AI company immediately. I want the IRS situation handled before they even notice."

Hailey, meanwhile, was fiddling with a small breadboard and a handful of resistors, her expression concentrating on the components.

"Okay, Hailey, what thrilling circuit are we building today?" Ethan asked, leaning closer, enjoying the faint scent of cinnamon from her hair.

"We have to build a simple Binary Counter using logic gates," Hailey whispered, trying to decipher the complex diagram on the screen. "But I'm not sure where the clock signal input should go. The schematic is confusing."

Ethan leaned over, his arm brushing against hers, and casually scanned the diagram. He smiled internally; this was indeed elementary. His System's AI core could model the entire circuit in a microsecond.

"The issue isn't the clock signal, Hailey," Ethan said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "The issue is the JK flip-flop

you're using. It needs a pull-down resistor on the Clear input to avoid floating voltage and spurious resets. It's a common mistake in the introductory labs."

Hailey stared at him again, her mouth agape. "A pull-down... that's not even in the instructions!"

"It's what separates a student from an engineer, Hailey," Ethan said, giving her a confident wink. "Start with that. I'll get the parts list for the next phase ready."

He didn't need the System for this; this was his domain. He felt a genuine surge of satisfaction, the kind that came from knowing something no one else did. The $70 million was nice, but this felt like true power.

Ethan finally finished his classes for the day. He glanced at the complex circuit they had built, feeling a low-level satisfaction.

Hailey smiled, clearly delighted that they shared every class. "I can't believe we have all the same classes! It's great!" She was thoroughly impressed by Ethan's level, asking him if he could teach her.

"Of course," Ethan said, his voice smooth. "Whenever you want. I can give you private lessons."

She blushed furiously, nodding enthusiastically. "Really? That would be amazing!"

Ethan then asked her what she was going to do next. "I'm here on a scholarship, so I'm staying in the dormitories," she explained. "But I have a mandatory student course there today. I can't miss it, or they might revoke my scholarship."

Ethan chuckled, testing the waters. "I could always use a cute roommate. You could come live at my place."

She immediately rejected the idea, shaking her head emphatically. "No, no! I don't want to be a bother. I'm going to make it on my own."

Ethan laughed, seeing her stubborn pride. "Relax, Hailey. Don't take me seriously."

He noticed a large crowd of students heading in the same direction—toward the dormitories. Intrigued, he began walking toward the commotion from the back.

As he walked, he spotted the thug he had knocked out that morning. The guy was lumbering along, clutching his jaw, his face a bruised mess of resentment. Ethan laughed inwardly, amused at the quick karma, and continued toward the increasingly excited crowd.

As he reached the commotion, he heard someone organizing the students. Apparently, it was the season for room changes. Due to an internal policy, students were not allowed to keep the same rooms with the same people throughout the year. This rule had been newly implemented by the academic body to force students to get used to new faces and socialize—which would be great news if the majority of the students here weren't highly introverted, meaning the last thing they would do was socialize with each other.

Ethan watched as they called out names one by one until a girl on the podium shouted: "Ethan Blake...!"

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