[You survived in the victor’s camp of Professor Raregrills’ exam. It’s important to survive even if it means becoming a cowardly betrayer.]
[Psychological Prediction Experience Points +30]
[Unit Command Experience Points +30]
[Persuasion Experience Points +10]
[Action Prediction Experience Points +10]
[Operation Planning Experience Points +10]
[You survived a high-difficulty exam.]
[Acquired Title [Survivor].]
[You became a betrayer and were tolerated by the enemy as a commander.]
[Acquired Title [Betrayer].]
[Challenge [You Managed to Survive] accomplished and received a reward of 10,000 points.]
[Challenge [How a Betrayer Survives] accomplished and received a reward of 20,000 points.]
Survivor: Having survived a brutal battlefield, you deserve to be called a survivor.
– Title Effect: [Crisis Detection] Correction +10
– Title Retention Effect: [Crisis Detection] Correction +1
Betrayer: Betraying is easy, but surviving afterward is not. Everyone fears being betrayed by a betrayer. You’ve accomplished that hard task.
– Title Effect: Basic Favorability +10 (Temporary Lock)
– Title Retention Effect: Basic Favorability +5 (Permanent Lock; may maintain a minimum favorability of 5 even if negative favorability exists)
When I returned from the nightmare, I earned 600 total Function Experience Points and 600,000 points.
By killing Professor Raeb, I gained a total of 100 Function Experience Points and 10,000,000 points.
The difference is simple.
How much change you caused in the real world.
How much you contributed to that incident.
The former was a curse within a dream, so the points gained weren’t significant compared to the scale of the incident.
Instead, the contribution was absolutely high, resulting in very high Function Experience Points.
In contrast, a tremendous event occurred with an actual academy professor dying.
However, the contribution wasn’t high, so the Function Experience Points gained can’t be considered high.
‘What a bummer that it wasn’t a real battlefield!’
This exam, like the last, wasn’t from a real war, so I only earned 30,000 points.
But due to the difficult nature and high contribution, I gained 90 Function Experience Points in a short time and even acquired two titles.
While one had to struggle through death and perform crazy acrobatics to successfully betray and acquire a title, I simply obtained it.
‘This is the great thing about the Academy!’
No matter how hard the veteran players outside tried to collect rewards, one lecture inside is still better.
Even if time is counted by taking a day for every turn, it would take a month to navigate through a battlefield, whereas the Academy wraps it up in just two hours, how can you compare that?
That’s why even those veteran players who wandered outside out of curiosity about the world beyond the Academy eventually return, claiming that tuning’s end is stock.
“Oknodie. You played with me.”
“Huh? I said I would go easy on you from the start!”
“I can’t accept losing like this.”
Newbies got to do everything they wanted, I thought I had coddled them enough but looks like their thoughts were different.
“Remember this well. I will definitely defeat you in the next midterm exam.”
“Ignore it, Oknodie. It’s just the ugly whining of a loser envious of the winner.”
The comforting of Hestia made me chuckle.
She might think her armor clanking beneath her school uniform adds to her coolness, but honestly…
From the perspective of a veteran player, it was just laughable.
“You have nothing to worry about, Hestia.”
“Jaidas lost because he lacks the tricks, but when he accumulates experience, he won’t be an easy opponent. You’re not always going to win, right?”
“That’s true. But Jaidas is different from Warrior Ishtar or the archery apprentice Skola!”
“Is it a difference in talent?”
“It’s a difference of experience greater than talent!”
Let’s face it.
“That guy lost even doing what he wanted, and doesn’t realize that if I mess with what he wants to do, he’ll drop out even faster?”
At that moment, Hestia was stunned, like a heavily armored soldier who spotted a metal slime stuck to them.
*
6 PM.
Dinner time.
Thanks to the updated cafeteria menu for the second semester, I finally got an unlimited 10-point pass after a long time.
The menu consisted of meat side dishes, more meat side dishes, and even more meat side dishes!
It’s a meat festival, yay!
“Chef! Why is there so much meat?”
“Oh ho ho. Your seniors made too much experimental material by accident in the farm! It’s so much we can’t even use it all for experiments, so we made it into meat!”
“…What kind of meat?”
“Do you really want to know?”
…Guess the meat festival should only be enjoyed by friends.
I shouldn’t come back for a while starting tomorrow.
“Draw your sword!”
As I agilely moved towards the next classroom after filling three regular tomes, I felt a tingling sensation wash over me in a crowd of students who could barely handle just attending lectures.
On a cool autumn day, my heart raced and my skin tingled for…!
━━━
[Understanding of Sing]
1st Special Privilege (20) – [Symptoms of Sing’s Murderous Impulse]
━━━
As expected, this is it.
Sing, who had been tame for a while, suddenly changed!
Sneaking around with stealth that not even a squirrel bouncing around in the trees would notice, he climbed up the nearby branch.
From below the tree, I saw Sing facing off against some students.
Unusually, the three facing him were girls.
It’s hard to imagine any guy starting a fight with Sing, who would slash a person with a sword in anger. Those girls had real guts.
Thinking they might be upperclassmen, I glanced at their clothes and confirmed they were definitely first years.
Are they crazy?
Suicide hopefuls?
“Shut up!”
“Pfft. How barbaric. We didn’t say anything wrong, so why’re you getting mad?”
“You seem like Oknodie’s servant. Just like your master, human life appears cheap to you.”
“If you don’t draw your sword, I won’t slash you. Well, I absolutely won’t draw it~”
“If you don’t draw it, what will happen? What can you do? Pfft!”
They were nothing special, just ordinary students.
What were they relying on to act like this?
I widened my field of view and senses to take a closer look.
From my vantage point in the tree, beyond the four of them facing off in front of the bench, I spotted a hidden instructor in the bushes.
I also saw a third-year upperclassman lurking behind a nearby building wall, watching the first-years with keen interest.
There were even fourth-year seniors flying around with invisibility and flight magic, glancing down at the newbies.
‘Huh?’
Upon closer inspection, the instructor had a recording crystal ball in hand.
Suddenly comprehending the situation when I spotted Camela, who was menacingly smiling from afar.
Camela’s Organization.
Using the pet contract that Camela provides, she compels others to submit under her will through hidden clauses.
Originally, she should have revealed her true colors starting from the first semester of second year, but she acted sooner than expected.
The target is Sing.
She’s attempting to lure the instructor into capturing violent acts with the crystal ball by secretly marking Sing, using a contract framed as a way to avoid expulsion.
Then those girls stirring up trouble must be her henchwomen?
If sadistic individuals were walking around with pet contracts, I could understand why they would be so reckless.
Tugging at my sleeve was the fake younger sister produced by Titosso’s ring, urging me not to just sit there.
Of course, I had no intention of staying passive.
After getting my understanding up to 80 and turning her into a precious companion, I couldn’t let her be snatched away by a chapter boss!
[Throwing]
With all my might, I hurled a stone towards the bushes.
The startled instructor blocked the stone with a barrier.
The moment their vigilance was directed ‘up’, I triggered a wand spell from below, trapping the instructor’s ankle.
━━━
3rd-Tier Earth Magic – Sinkhole
Activation Formula – [Earth][Descent][Acceleration]
As the ground gave way, the instructor instinctively sprang from the ground, thinking of swamp magic.
In that brief moment, she detected my presence on the tree and our eyes met. I had to commend her for that.
“Ambushing an instructor, what is the meaning of this?”
“Gah. Why are you coming out, Instructor?”
“Are you trying to play dumb? To launch such a threatening stone attack and even cast a spell?”
“I just have a hobby of sneakily climbing trees, throwing stones into the bushes, and sinking the ground!”
“Is that a valid excuse? The intent of your actions has already been recorded in this crystal ball.”
“Really?”
“Even violating rules in front of an instructor incurs a fine. If you ambush an instructor, you’ll have to pay a hefty bail to avoid being locked away in the Great Prison.”
The girls who were initially full of bravado suddenly glanced at each other, chuckling at my unexpected capture instead of that of Sing.
“Turns out you were really a barbaric kid?”
“I guess your wildness was too strong to stay near civilization.”
As Sing tried to unsheathe his sword using [Silent Sheath], I leaped down from the tree, sheathing my half-drawn sword.
“It’s a bad habit to draw a sword anytime!”
“You… why are you stopping me? Do you even know who I was about to attack?”
“Think carefully, Sing. Why would I reveal my new hobby in front of everyone?”
The shock passed over Sing’s face.
Now he realized the merit of this remarkable kid who intervened to keep him from falling into the trap set by Camela’s Organization!
“Are you saying the hobby of throwing stones and sinking the ground while pretending to be hidden in a bush isn’t real?”
Of course, there’s no such hobby!
