This Isn't the College Life I Had in Mind...!

A private room in the dorm for Awakened students at a prestigious Korean university.

I sprawled out on the plush, top-of-the-line memory foam bed and hummed to myself.

“Man, this really is a prestigious university. Or maybe they specially built these dorm rooms for Awakened students?”

Ordinary students supposedly had to fight over the bathroom every morning in rooms shared by two or four people, but as someone admitted through the Awakened Special Admissions Track, I was given a perfect private room with my own bathroom, plenty of space, and even a mini-fridge. On top of that, I got a glorious research cooperation scholarship worth 10 million won a month.

Having left the house where I’d always been surrounded by my family and claimed a space all to myself, I was finally starting to feel the reality of my comfortable, worldly campus life.

I spent the few days before classes holed up in the dorm, lazing around and enjoying some much-needed rest. Then, on the day of my first required major course, I finally took my first step into university life proper.

[Introduction to Awakened Research and Understanding Mana]

When I opened the lecture hall door, I saw just two people—a man and a woman—sitting awkwardly far apart in the middle of the vast, empty tiered lecture hall.

They were the genuine Awakened freshmen who’d passed the rigorous interviews, unlike the ‘fakes who forged their documents’ the assistant had mentioned. In other words, they were the classmates I’d be stuck with in this dreadful department for the next four years.

“Oh, hi! You must be the last freshman!”

A sturdy-looking girl with short hair and a tracksuit jumped up first and cheerfully offered me her hand. Beside her, a young man with horn-rimmed glasses, who’d been staring intently at his laptop, gave a hesitant nod.

“They said there were three freshmen admitted through the Awakened track, so I guess we’re all here. Should we introduce ourselves?”

“Sure! I’m Park Doa! I’m a combat-type Awakened, and my ability is ‘Strength Enhancement’! Right now, all I can do is triple the strength in my arms, but someday I want to enhance the strength of my whole body.”

Doa laughed heartily and flexed her arm as if showing off her biceps. Sure enough, the faint mana emanating from her body had the unmistakable feel of a physical combat ability.

“I’m Lee Jihoon. I’m a non-combat Awakened with the ability ‘Fine Mana Detection.’ I can sense mana stones or signs of Gates within a ten-meter radius a little more keenly.”

Jihoon added in a timid voice, nearly mumbling the words.

Strength enhancement and mana detection. By the standards of Earth’s primitive magical system, they made for a pretty classic combatant-and-scout combination.

Well, plenty of Awakened people probably had simple abilities like these, so I supposed it wasn’t that strange.

“I’m Kim Suyeon. I’m technically a year older because I had to retake the CSAT…. But a one-year difference isn’t a big deal, so just talk to me casually. I’ll do the same with you.”

“Ooh, so mature. Then I’ll talk casually! Suyeon!”

“W-well, you should still be a little polite since I’m a year older….”

“But I can’t call you ‘senior’ when we’re both first-years, can I?”

“Just be casual. I don’t mind.”

I mean, I’d even talked casually with an elf hundreds of years older than me before! One year wasn’t a big deal at all!

“So, Suyeon, what’s your ability? Oh! You don’t have to tell us if it’s something you’d rather keep private!”

“No, it’s nothing particularly special that I need to hide. I have a fat-burning ability.”

“Huh? Fat?”

At my words, their expressions grew utterly blank. Well, I guessed neither of them had ever seen an ability that burned fat before.

“Yeah. I can burn subcutaneous fat by touching someone’s abdomen or elsewhere on their body. To put it simply, it’s a diet massage.”

My shameless reply left a strange silence hanging over the lecture hall for a moment.

The two classmates, who’d been expecting something vaguely fantastical on par with strength enhancement and mana detection, looked deeply bewildered, with a hint of pity in their eyes.

“O-oh, haha! Th-that’s a really great ability! It’s essential for modern people! You must make a lot of money!”

“W-well, even if I can’t help with anything else, I can help you with research.”

They were looking at me as if I were some poor soldier who’d gone off to battle armed with nothing but a fork. But, if anything, I was quite pleased with how things had turned out.

I hated getting saddled with bothersome work just because people thought my ability was impressive.

I was a pitiful non-combat Awakened with a weak ability and practically zero fighting power, so I’d leave all the dangerous stuff to you two!

Keeping the mana in the three circles around my heart completely hidden, I gave them a bright smile.

This was the moment my wonderful human shields, who would make my college life comfortable from here on out, came together.

But my naive hopes were thoroughly crushed as soon as classes and lab life got underway in earnest.

“All right, Suyeon! Yesterday, we had the assistant run on the treadmill at 10 kilometers per hour, so today, let’s measure your brain waves while you touch his belly after he runs for 30 minutes at 15 kilometers per hour!”

“Professor! I really think I’m going to die…!”

Under the direction of a mad old professor, the three of us freshmen were forced to spend every day trapped in an underground lab, being put to work on bizarre and primitive mana experiments.

As a supposedly weak fat-burning Awakened, I had to touch the assistant’s belly while he ran on the treadmill, with brainwave sensors plastered all over my head and a haggard look in my eyes.

The assistant’s belly was soft at first, but it’s gotten firmer over time. This is getting kind of weird!

As for the other two? Jihoon had been painstakingly measuring the mana levels of various mana stones, but when the predicted time of a nearby Gate’s appearance drew close, they dragged him out to the site. Doa was on the athletic field measuring mana consumption at different levels of strength enhancement.

Hmm…. This isn’t the kind of college life I had in mind. Is it because this is an Awakened research department? Or is something else wrong?

There are only three Awakened students here, so use us a little more carefully!!

A dreadful month passed like that, and at last, an unexpected curveball came flying into my hellish daily routine.

“Everyone! I have good news!”

The professor burst into the lab, eyes sparkling as he waved around a stack of papers.

“We got government approval! Tomorrow, all of us freshmen are going on a field trip to a real Gate!”

“What?! A-A Gate?!”

Jihoon shouted, his face turning pale, while Doa clenched her fist in excitement. I took my hand off the assistant’s abs, which had grown firm after all that fat burning.

“We’re going to study how Awakened abilities work inside the unstable mana field of a Gate! We’ve hired plenty of Awakened people from outside to escort us, and this is the safest Gate rank there is! It’s only F-rank! At worst, there are only horned rabbits in this Gate, so there’s absolutely no need to be nervous! We’ve rented a bus, too, so come to the campus entrance by tomorrow morning dressed for the activity!”

The professor’s bold announcement.

I frowned, feeling a strange sense of foreboding at his words.

A safe F-rank? Horned rabbits? Well, I mean, they’re not especially dangerous aside from charging at you with their horns…

It had only been a little over a year since Gates first opened in this world, and nothing inspired less confidence than people who still didn’t fully understand Gates confidently declaring them ‘safe.’

Ugh…. Well, if it gets dangerous, I can just use magic to take care of things without anyone noticing.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

“All right, Suyeon! There’s absolutely no need to be nervous. This is a very safe, low-level Gate that was just explored yesterday. We’ll simply measure how your ability reacts to the mana field inside, then come right back out. Think of it as a light stroll!”

The professor, who’d finally plastered my head with sensors, said in an excited voice.

At least it’s nice that I don’t have to keep touching the assistant’s belly anymore…. I mean, his abs.

I was standing in front of an F-rank Gate on the outskirts of Seoul, surrounded not only by the professor and the assistant, but also by Awakened members of an outside guild assigned to escort us.

The other two? They’d already gone in under the outside Awakened escorts’ protection.

Ahem. Anyway.

F-rank Gates were said to be home only to insignificant monsters, like horned rabbits or poisonous snails, whose attacks were so simple that even an ordinary adult man could beat them with nothing but a club.

Thanks to that, they were the Gates most popular with people hoping to become Awakened, and they were kept under strict management.

And there I was, about to step into one.

Ugh…. What a pain. If it weren’t for the university scholarship, I wouldn’t have come to some bothersome place like a Gate!

Should I have just forgotten about college and focused on making money? Earn a ton of money and gather a ton of mana…. And then…. Hmm…

What was I planning to do with all that money and mana? Didn’t I have some kind of goal?

Oh, right. Before I came into this body, I’d wanted to separate the woman’s personality and give her body back to her.

In that case…. What was I supposed to do with the old person’s personality after separating the woman’s?

Should I make an artificial body with alchemy and put the old person in it? No, but making an artificial body would take far too many materials.

Simply dying…. I wasn’t too keen on that. It wasn’t that I was afraid of death itself, but giving up when I could keep living just didn’t sit right with me.

Hmm…. Well, I could take my time thinking about my goals. For now, I should focus on what’s right in front of me.

I stepped into the Gate before me.