My Bugged System Made Me Too OP!-Chapter 61: A middle ground

Amelia lowered her gaze as her mother’s words settled over the table.

Her fingers slowly intertwined in her lap, and she nodded slightly, guilt written clearly across her face.

"Yeah..." she said quietly.

"...you’re right, mom."

Her voice was soft and hesitant, almost as though she was afraid to speak any louder.

Across from her, Evangeline didn’t immediately respond.

Instead, she seemed to drift into her own thoughts.

Her eyes rested on the table in front of her, but the distant look in them made it clear that her mind was somewhere else entirely.

’So this is why they’ve both been acting so weird...’ she thought, softly biting her lips.

Over the past few days, both Noah and Amelia had been behaving differently.

Amelia had seemed distracted and nervous.

Noah had looked unusually tense, as if he was hiding something important.

And now everything made sense.

Noah had been suspended from the academy, and not even for a fair reason.

The thought made Evangeline’s chest tighten.

’To think Noah got suspended unjustly...’ she thought, clenching her hands slightly on the table as frustration bubbled quietly inside her.

Part of her wished she could do something about it.

She wished she could march straight to the academy and demand answers from the instructor responsible.

She wanted to confront them, to tell them how unfair it was to punish Noah like that.

However, the thought quickly died out from her mind.

There was nothing she could do.

Her shoulders sagged slightly.

At the end of the day, they were poor with zero connection or even influence.

If she actually went to the academy to argue with them, they wouldn’t even take her seriously.

At best, they would politely dismiss her.

At worst, they might even make things more difficult for Noah.

The bitter truth settled heavily in her chest.

’This isn’t the life we dreamed of...’ Her thoughts drifted even further. ’...is it... Atlas...?’

The name lingered silently in her mind, when suddenly, she felt a light tap on her shoulder.

Evangeline blinked in surprise and turned her head.

Noah was standing behind her.

She hadn’t even noticed him get up from his chair.

He looked down at her with a calm expression.

"We’ll be okay," he said gently. "You don’t have to think so much."

For a moment, Evangeline simply stared at him.

’I didn’t even know when he got behind me...’ she thought as she looked at him.

His words and presence felt strangely reassuring, reminding her of a certain someone.

After a brief pause, she nodded.

A small, wry smile formed on her lips.

"Alright," she said softly.

*

A few minutes later, Noah was lying on his bed.

The room was quiet.

Noah rested one arm behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling.

After a moment, he exhaled slowly.

’Power is everything in this world...’ he thought.

It wasn’t a new realization.

In fact, it was something he had already learned a long time ago.

The academy had made that truth painfully clear.

Students with talent and strength were respected, and those without it were ignored—or worse, stepped on.

The same thing applied outside the academy as well.

People with power controlled their own lives.

People without it were forced to endure whatever the world threw at them.

Noah’s eyes narrowed slightly as he continued staring at the ceiling.

He could go back to the academy after his suspension was over, reveal his true strength.

Show them what he had become, and shock everyone at the academy.

The thought was quite tempting.

But after a few seconds, Noah slowly shook his head.

’No...’ His eyes sharpened slightly. ’That would be a bad idea.’

If he suddenly displayed overwhelming strength after years of being considered weak, it would immediately attract too attention.

People would start asking questions.

Where did his power come from?

How did he improve so suddenly?

Why had he hidden it all this time?

Noah exhaled quietly.

’I need to think of something better.’ he thought, his gaze fixed on the ceiling.

There were several problems he needed to solve.

First, he couldn’t reveal the truth about the system.

That alone was something he had already decided.

The system was the greatest advantage he possessed in this life. If anyone found out about it, things could quickly spiral out of control.

And in a world where strength dictated everything, drawing the attention of the wrong person could be extremely dangerous.

But hiding the system meant he also couldn’t openly display the full extent of the power it gave him.

That led to the second problem.

He couldn’t allow people to continue thinking he was completely weak and helpless.

If that continued, situations like what had happened with Amelia would never truly stop.

And Noah wasn’t about to allow anyone to trample over him or his family again.

His expression hardened slightly.

’Not again.’ he thought.

But revealing his full strength was also out of the question.

Which meant he needed something else... a balance.

A way to show just enough ability that people wouldn’t dare provoke him, while still keeping his true strength hidden.

Noah’s eyes narrowed slightly.

’A middle ground...’ he mumbled inwardly.

For a few seconds, the room fell completely silent as he thought about it.

Then suddenly, his eyes lit up as realization struck.

At the same time, the corners of his lips slowly curled upward.

’I have an idea...’ he thought.

If he executed it correctly, he could achieve exactly what he needed.

People would stop seeing him as a useless weakling.

At the same time, no one would suspect the truth about the system.

Noah sat up on his bed.

Reaching down beside the bed, he grabbed his school bag and placed it in front of him.

The fabric rustled softly as he unzipped it.

Inside were several books.

He reached in and brought out a couple of them, placing them neatly on the bed.

The familiar scent of old pages drifted faintly into the air.

Noah glanced down at the books and smiled faintly.

’It’s nice I made sure to borrow these before I got suspended.’

A faint smirk appeared on his lips.

’Now let’s get to reading... and completing the quest.’ he thought, opening the first book.

*

The next day.

Noah closed the book in front of him with a quiet thud.

A satisfied smirk appeared on his face.

Beside him was a stack of books.

Several of them were piled neatly next to his bed, while a few others remained scattered around him.

All of them had come from the academy library.

When he was suspended, he had made sure to borrow ten books before leaving.

Noah glanced at the pile beside him.

He had only borrowed ten books.

But over the past day, he had been reading them repeatedly.

Not because he needed to understand them.

In truth, most of the material inside them was already familiar to him.

But the system didn’t care whether the books were new or not.

It only cared about the completion of the task.

And Noah had taken full advantage of that.

[Daily Quest Completed: Read 10 Books (10/10)]

[Reward Granted: 20 EXP]