Chapter 7
Rain began falling from the sky.
Naturally, it was hell for anyone who had to go on an expedition.
“Today’s expedition.. will be evaluated in three categories.”
“Teamwork, individual ability, and self-evaluation score.”
Naia said, batting away the rain with magic.
As the whole world grew soaked.
Only she remained perfectly dry, which was quite beautiful.
As if.
Wasn't she just like a spirit?
Naia had once been mistaken for a spirit.
Her languid eyes, mysterious air, and appearance.
Those three things alone.
This had been one of the things I hadn't understood in the game.
She was mistaken for a spirit just because of her appearance and air?
But.
I came to understand it.
She was..
Very much like a spirit.
“Monsters will appear during the expedition.”
“There will also be.. traps.”
“It might even… take a while. You may run into food shortages.”
“You’ll have to overcome all of that.. through your own efforts. It will be extremely difficult.”
Naia distributed small lights to the students.
As if handing out.. spirits.
“This is.. a small apology from the academy for failing to account for the weather.”
“The expedition should normally be canceled if it rains on the first day.”
“But circumstances on the adults’ end made it unavoidable.”
“I wish you all.. good luck.”
Naia said this and vanished into thin air.
Like someone who had never been there.
Too fast to be magic.
Too real to be an illusion.
As expected.
She was being incredibly mysterious, just like her.
But.
I couldn't focus on that.
‘… It’s normally canceled when it rains?’
In the game, the weather during expeditions was usually not clear.
Cases of torrential rain like this were rare.
But expeditions were almost never held on bright, sunny days.
For good reason.
‘This place has a rainy season in spring?’
Just as Jeju Island has a ‘bracken rainy season’ from March to May.
This expedition area on an island south of the academy was in its rainy season right now.
‘According to the setting.. it hasn’t been long since the expedition area was changed.. Did I get that wrong?’
This didn't make sense logically, either.
Even if it hadn't been long.. it had been at least five years.
If so, subtracting that much from Naia's late twenties would put her in her early twenties, wouldn't it?
‘Is there.. something I don't know?’
Mel Academy wasn't a game released all that long ago.
Nor was it a game whose every secret was known.
To begin with, I hardly played games like that.
Old games that had already been fully explored didn't get many views.
Because that meant there was no easy profit left to milk.
That's right.
‘I didn't have much information about Naia, though..’
My knowledge wasn't perfect.
I'd accumulated enough knowledge to freeload my way through things.
But it was full of gaps if I dug deeper.
Which was why I had to freeload even more.
But I had no time to think.
“Let’s go.”
Because we had to deal with what was right in front of us first.
—-
“Creepy.”
Kanghan stepped forward, rolling his shoulders and loosening his neck.
His stride was bold, completely at odds with his words.
I followed right behind him.
“Come to think of it, haven’t we just met?”
Kanghan glanced back and said to Bin.
Bin nodded.
“We have.”
“But you made a rather bold request.”
“Wasn’t it a good proposal?”
“It wasn’t a bad one.”
Even as he said this, Kanghan tilted his head.
It wasn't a method most people would have thought of.
It was clearly an exam where the groups competed against each other.
He'd never expected anyone to ask to cooperate like this.
“But what exactly made you approach our group with that proposal?”
“I just did, I guess.”
Bin replied nonchalantly.
He'd simply done it.
It was a remarkably carefree thing to say.
It was also something he said every day.
But.
In truth, “I just did” was also a phrase that explained nothing.
Kanghan wasn't particularly clever.
Yet for Bin's actions to pass without explanation..
They seemed extremely strange.
That was why.
Kanghan couldn't help jumping to conclusions.
He knew Bin and Ena had been together since the first day—or rather, since the entrance ceremony.
He figured there had to be something between them.
“You and Ena seem to have gotten pretty close.”
And.
At those words, Ena immediately cut in.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Get lost, you bitch with nicotine-rotted lungs.”
“I don’t want to hear that from some worthless bastard who gets beaten by that idiot knight every day.”
…”
Bin thought.
Honestly.
Even if I’d come in without having played the game,
I think I would've realized in a single day that these two were sworn enemies.
“Um.. excuse me.”
The other team members started trying to calm them down.
It had been the same thing over and over since earlier.
Ena and Kanghan would pick fights with each other.
Then snarl at each other.
Bin would mediate, and they'd be fine for a while.
Then, after a little time, they'd start fighting again.
But.
Now that Bin had become the subject of the argument,
he was in a position where it was hard to say anything.
Mizha was dizzy from this absurd team situation.
‘We would have been better off.. just doing this ourselves.’
Fortunately.
The situation was sorted out quickly.
For some reason, Kanghan backed down first.
“Haha! I’ll back down this time.”
“Back down or not, you’re the one who was wrong.”
“Sure, sure. I’m a broad-minded person.”
Ena also tilted her head slightly at Kanghan's attitude.
He wasn't normally someone who backed down so easily.
What was with him?
But.
The most dangerous time was when you thought you had won.
“Bin, let me give you some advice.”
“Someone already likes Ena. You’d better be careful. They’re gnashing their teeth, thinking a rival has suddenly appeared.”
Ena's face flushed instantly as she shouted.
“What the fuck are you talking about!!”
Kanghan merely laughed.
And Bin knew exactly who he meant.
“I’m not interested.”
Bin had no intention of getting involved in a romantic squabble right now.
Every step was like walking on thin ice.
If I got expelled or held back at the academy right now, I felt like my life would be in danger.
How could I do something like that?
‘.. It’s a game, too.’
But.
To anyone else, that answer sounded quite bold.
“Trying to win her over… Bold, aren't you?”
Kanghan whistled.
Ena's cheeks turned slightly red.
“Everyone, stop fooling around. An enemy has appeared.”
Mizha said as she drew her bow from behind her back.
Everyone fell silent in an instant.
“So this is the real thing.”
Bin saw the black shadow he had sensed up ahead.
It was a monster.
Its entire body was covered in fur.
So completely that it was impossible to tell what its actual body looked like.
Its legs seemed a little longer than a human's.
It walked on all fours.
It had a monkey's tail.
Its eyes were cherry-red.
Its face was sharp and broad, reminiscent of a shark.
“...”
His body began to tremble slightly.
Seeing a real monster.. I was somehow a little scared.
Actually.. that was only natural.
Until recently, I had been an ordinary modern person who had never even seen a monster.
I couldn't even handle large dogs very well.
Phew..
But there was no need to be nervous.
I was going to freeload my way through this.
- Whoosh!
“Whoa!”
Kanghan pounced on the monster.
Kanghan, who had only seemed a little big before.
Had become a beast.
When he stepped forward with his heavy sword,
a powerful aura spread in all directions.
- Slash!
But Mel Academy was no pushover.
This place, despite being merely an event that appeared in Weeks 1 or 2,
was one of the hellscapes that made 50% of users quit the game.
Bin already knew that.
“Behind you! There’s another one!”
Mizha shouted.
The forest on a rainy day
was no pushover either.
Because the rain drowned out human hearing,
making the archer's role as a rear guard extremely important.
It also blurred their vision,
causing everyone's abilities to drop sharply.
But.
They were all strong.
Most academy students had led brutal lives,
and monsters had always been their friends, while death was like a companion to life.
Right.
I was an outsider here.
“Bin! What are you doing!”
A voice came from beside me.
It was probably because I was standing still.
“Thinking.”
No matter how hard I tried to keep up with them,
I couldn't.
People who had trained since childhood.
Honestly.. how could I beat them?
But I had no intention of giving up.
It wasn't for any particular reason.
I just didn't want to fucking die.
Bin gathered mana at his fingertips.
A speck of mana floated up above his hand.
“Ugh.. This is my lot in life.”
Bin loosened up his motionless body.
Then he took a small object from his bag.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
***
Ena was watching Bin.
Bin glanced at the monster once, then looked at the ground.
He looked as though he were lost in thought.
He seemed a little frightened.
‘.. Has he not fought many monsters?’
Indeed.
Seen that way, it made a little more sense.
Freezing up at the sight of a monster was a common symptom in people seeing one for the first time.
‘He was incredibly gutsy at the entrance ceremony.’
Ena couldn't quite understand.
Honestly, the academy had far more monsters than that one.
He'd fooled all those incoming students, only to be frightened by a monster?
At that moment.
Bin began to move.
He sighed and rummaged through his pocket.
‘.. What? Had he prepared something?’
I'd heard that people sometimes prepared for expeditions because they were fairly major events.
But this time, there hadn't been any time to prepare at all, had there?
Ena stopped attacking for a moment and looked at Bin.
Bin pulled out a small tennis ball.
‘.. A tennis ball?’
Ena tilted her head at the inexplicable action.
What on earth was he planning to use it for?
‘Could he be planning to throw it?’
He wasn't.
Bin cut the tennis ball open with a knife.
“Hyah.”
Inside was a clump of mana.
Bin hurled it.
‘That’s just an Energy Bolt, isn’t it?’
Ena stared at Bin, dumbfounded.
‘Could it be that this so-called genius can’t even use a single spell properly?’
It was an unfair thought that Bin would have resented if he'd heard it.
After all, Bin had been an empty shell to begin with; weren’t they the ones who had built him up into something he wasn’t?