Surviving Every Worldview

Chapter 40: There is a title with the same name (3)

He was assigned to the next room, A102.

Naturally, since it was a dormitory, the rooms were exactly the same, with the same student ID cards.

Jang Ji-sang. First year.

I glanced at his student ID card, remembered the name, and shifted my gaze to the window.

Obviously, the view outside shouldn’t have changed since I moved right next door to it from my room, but…….

For some reason, the view outside this window is completely different from what I saw from my room.

There was a futuristic building nearby, and a medieval tower in the other direction.

Intricate magic circles float in the sky.

It felt like they tried hard to include most of the elements because they had to invade reality while representing the worldview called ‘Academy.’

Jumping through space with a screen door may actually have been surprisingly magical.

“Seon-woo, sit down!”

“Oh, yeah.”

We sat down around the table and continued the chat.

We introduced ourselves, and I told him what brought us here.

“So you were just out for a walk, passing by the school, and then the episode started and you were dragged to the Academy?”

“Yeah. I was so scared that I hid in a classroom or something for a while, and then I saw the card key in my pocket and came to what looked like a dormitory.”

“Bad timing…….”

Jang Ji-sang was told that the students were not immediately hostile to us, so there was no need to run and hide.

He didn’t believe me at first, but when I told him about my experience, he sighed in relief.

“Phew, that’s good to know, I’d be hiding here for days if I didn’t know it was safe.”

“I found an exit, and I can show you if you want to go back.”

“Um… no. I’m sure there aren’t many people in here right now, and I should probably get something out of this, right?”

“You can do that.”

Too bad.

I thought I could just casually knock out one competitor.

Turns out, he’s someone who knows how to approach an episode.

“But I’m stuck, I would’ve done something if they’d attacked me, but I’m just dropped into a fantasy school and I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, it’s a lot better than if you suddenly had to fight the undead, isn’t it?”

“It’s safer than that, but I can’t see any way to get ahead, and back then, every time I saved a group of people, I got better at it.”

“You mean……by yourself?”

“Yeah. I just got used to the zombie grossness and went around the neighborhood saving people.”

I’m surprised.

I thought he was still a little vulnerable because he was my age, but he wasn’t.

‘Usually people my age just wake up to internet posts.’

If he was able to organize his own rescue from the second day of the episode, it’s at least not a D grade.

Like Do-yeon, it’s more likely that he had awareness from the start.

I’m sure he’s as skilled as I am, if not more so.

Unexpectedly, there might have been a real competitor to fight for the title.

“How did you two do it? I see you’ve already settled in, so I assume you did something big in the first episode?”

“Well, we helped a hospital.”

“A hospital? I’ve heard of that before. Can you tell me more about it?”

“Oh… well, nothing much happened, but…….”

“Oh, come on, I’ve been doing a lot of disaster relief work lately, so I know a thing or two.”

Jang Ji-sang didn’t give me a chance to change the subject and kept asking questions.

In my heart, I wanted to tell him, because he seems like a good person but I couldn’t.

The country’s first “story,” the bus mass movement incident, the serial killing in the middle of the night, all of those events that became hot topics in a certain cycle were connected to me.

The cracked mask was shown on TV, the red current from the riot batons was known on the internet, and the area where the buses were massed is known by those in the area.

Whoever it is, I can’t reveal myself anymore.

Two people know enough about me…….But this one. He seems like the kind of person who will pry if I don’t tell him.

I thought, “I’ll make it up as I go along, and I’ll find out later.”

Should I say that he looks like the kind of person who would ask the very next day, “I heard there is no such hospital, but didn’t you say something wrong?”

Or maybe the unwritten rules will help?

In the manga, when you’re having an important conversation, something else happens and you don’t hear the rest of the story.

I wish they’d let it pass in moderation, not just stand still.

Tsk tsk!

……I wonder if the unwritten rules really helped me.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and it was a ringtone I’d never heard before.

“Wait.”

I meekly turned on my phone and saw an unfamiliar app on the start screen.

It was an app called Academy Scheduler, with a blue background and a white bell icon.

“Sis. Do you have an app like this on your phone?”

“Let me check… Uh, I have it.”

“What are you two talking about? Show me.”

Seorin frowned as she looked at the Academy Scheduler on her phone.

As I explained, the app was also installed on Jang Ji-sang’s phone.

“I don’t know why they’re messing with other people’s stuff without permission.”

“More than that, look at the notifications. They’re all the same.”

A map of the academy appeared, showing us where we needed to go.

[12:40] Training Center

“Training grounds? What the……?”

Maybe he hadn’t seen the map, but Jang Ji-sang hadn’t realized that there was a training ground.

No, even before that.

He even seemed to think it was strange that the academy had a “training center” at all.

I cautiously asked Jang Ji-sang.

“By any chance, how much do you know about the Academy world?”

“What? Isn’t it just a school?”

“Ah…….”

This guy, too, had no idea.

That’s understandable since it’s a web novel.

But, even after going through the undead, is it right to think of this place as ‘just a school’……?

“Think of it like a wizard academy. It’s a school, but it teaches swordsmanship and magic.”

“Ah, it’s like those movies, I’ve seen a few of them when I was younger, I think I recognize them.”

Luckily, Jang Ji-sang understood with only a light explanation.

This allowed me to quickly get back to the point.

“Seon-woo, this notification isn’t the only strange thing.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Doesn’t this app look like it’s been used a few times already? It doesn’t look like it was just installed.”

Seorin was right.

When I opened the scheduler, I saw a bunch of calendars, notes, etc. that I had set up…as if I’d been using it for weeks.

“Well… I guess I shouldn’t ignore the schedule. Shall we go?”

“I’ll go with you if you go-”

“Uh, can I come with you then?”

I nodded and opened the door to the dormitory.

Even though the other Awakened here would be competition, I didn’t want to get in the way already.

With that, we set out for the training grounds.

‘By the way…….’

Just before entering the screen door, I glanced back with a question.

I was in room 101, and Jang Ji-sang was in room 102, a few seconds later.

In other words, the order of receiving a room is the first to enter the academy.

The problem was that Seorin was given room 102.

Doesn’t this mean that there is a girl who has already entered the academy and received room 101?

……Somehow, I had a feeling that there would be a lot of competition this time.

* * *

12:38 AM.

The training center is huge, like a live-fire range, kendo hall, and gym all rolled into one.

I walked in on time, and there were already a lot of students sitting and waiting.

They were all in uniforms, but they also freely wore decorations such as bone necklaces and short robes.

“They’re looking at us.”

“Isn’t it because sister is drinking?”

“……ah.”

A few students stared at us for a moment, but soon turned their attention back to their phones.

I wonder if it was just the sound that made them turn around.

Inwardly relieved, I blended in among them.

“Hmph. No one’s… absent, is there? Not that it matters.”

A few minutes later, a girl in a wide-brimmed hat walked in from another door, rubbing her eyes.

She could have been standing next to any other student, but I could tell she was a professor or something.

No matter what a witch character looks like, there’s always something out of the ordinary.

The professor lifted her hat and said,

“If you haven’t slept yet, you’ll know that the remaining training will be all sparring in preparation for the ‘practical training’ in two weeks… That’s good. I can just sit down.”

At the mention of the word ‘practical training’, the students stopped talking and stiffened.

Even the students who were looking at their phones frowned for a moment.

What’s the point of doing this in practice?

I’ll have to look up the announcement and investigate later.

Right now, I can’t even raise my hand to ask a question…….

“Excuse me!”

Jang Ji-sang, who was sitting next to me, quickly raised his hand.

“I didn’t hear it because I had a problem, but what’s the practical training?”

“Jang Ji-sang, I think I saw you at the announcement last week… It’s a schedule where we go outside to kill enemies under the guidance of a professor.”

“I’m sorry!”

“Right… Well, that’s good. If you don’t know, you should have asked earlier.”

After receiving the answer, Jang Ji-sang lowered his hand and looked at us.

“I was too embarrassed to ask the question.”

“Once you get over your embarrassment, the information will come quickly, right?”

“……Thanks.”

I jotted down the information I’d just learned on my phone.

First, I wrote down the “practical training” experience the academy students would have in two weeks.

Then I wrote down that the professor naturally recognized Jang Ji-sang as one of his students.

‘Jang Ji-sang? I think I saw you at the announcement board last week.’

The professor knew Jang Ji-sang but Jang Ji-sang had just met the professor for the first time.

We were also seeing everyone in this school for the first time, and there was no one who looked at us like we’re new students.

In other words, in this space, we were treated as if we were academy students from the beginning.

It was like being possessed by a ‘parallel me’.

I felt possessed at that moment when I was admitted, assigned to a dormitory and class, and living my life as a freshman.

‘But why is Jang Ji-sang so nonchalant?’

I thought as I stared straight ahead.

No matter how I thought about it, Jang Ji-sang seemed more and more suspicious.

Was he really dragged to the academy like us in the first place?

He seems like a real person, but who knows?

At that moment, I thought.

[You get three choices.]

For the first time in a very long time, I had a choice in front of me.

—

PAGE

You’re transported to the Academy as soon as the episode begins, and you’re learning the rules of the place.

By your side is Lee Seorin, of course, but you also have a newcomer, Jang Ji-sang.

You’ve decided not to antagonize him, even though he’s the one you’ll be competing against at the end of the episode.

But for some reason, you don’t like Jang Ji-sang.

It’s a feeling you can’t quite put your finger on, but in a world of unwritten rules, it’s a gut feeling you can trust.

You don’t hate him…but how close you’ll get to him is another matter.

What would you do?

Avoid encountering him as much as possible.

Maintain a relationship that’s not distant but awkward.

Befriend him because he seems like a nice person.

—

While I was weighing my options, the training center was preparing for the fight.

The floor of the state-of-the-art training center opened up to form a ring, and students prepared to climb into it one by one as the professor spoke.

“…Just pick your own spot and climb in the ring.”

“Is that okay?”

“No fighting. Not before I’ve established the order.”

Laughter fills the training center.

Then, Sister Seorin appeared from behind, patted my head, and asked.

“Who do you want to fight? I don’t think the professor will be happy with me.”

“Well…….”

I answered my choice and Seorin question at the same time.

“Anyone except Jang Ji-sang.”