Surviving Every Worldview

Chapter 41: There is a title with the same name (4)

“Why? If you fight him, you’ll be able to get off easy.”

Sister Seorin asked, puzzled.

Jang Ji-sang seemed like a normal, nice guy, with no particular flaws.

“He’s a competitor, too, so there’s no need to be too friendly with him.”

“Maybe, but…….”

“Besides, the enemy in this episode is called ‘Student’, and we can’t get any information until we fight him.”

We may have to fight every student here someday.

I couldn’t think of a better opportunity to gauge the average skill level of the students without exerting myself.

I also needed to recognize my own capabilities.

My story, [Text Thief], is a skill that only shines when I’m stealthy.

I also realized my limitations when I’m spotted.

Honestly, I’m confident that I could fight my sister to the death.

Despite the different story classes, [Death Wish] is more specialized in combat.

What specifically do I need to work on now?

This was a good opportunity to figure that out.

“Let’s just grab someone and casually ask them to fight. I don’t think they’ll refuse if we act naturally.”

“Just be careful not to get hurt.”

“If you think you’re going to get hurt here, let’s just go home.”

“Just say you’ll be careful, that’s a long way of saying it.”

We decided to each find a suitable person and prepare for the duel.

Jang Ji-sung realized that we were looking for someone separately, and he quickly found another student.

Is it because the professor told us not to spar with our friends?

Since there was a student who approached us first and asked to practice with us, we were able to complete the preparations without much difficulty.

“Are you ready…….?”

The students sat together in groups of two and chatted.

The witch professor came forward, dragging a wheeled chair.

She waved her hand in the air, and a magic circle appeared and dropped the tablet PC.

“Then, Yoo Seon-woo. You come up first. I remember all your friends, so it would be best not to even think about coming up with them.”

“…….”

In the world of the Academy, is there a professor who knows everything about interpersonal relationships?

I leave my cell phone with my sister and climb onto the ring, even though I’m only getting tidbits of information.

In the corner of the ring, the floor shifted, revealing a small arsenal hidden beneath.

Rows of batons of varying lengths and thicknesses were lined up, along with rubber bullet guns and thin rods.

All of them are training weapons of the same color and material.

I don’t have to worry about getting hit.

I picked up a baton similar in length to the riot baton I used before.

The other student held a pistol with a thin rod.

After a few moments, the small arsenal closed, and we stood in the marked spots.

“Ready, you two?”

“Yep.”

“This is…….”

[Your story begins.]

[You’ve been spotted.]

I began my story, an ability unique to our ‘reality’ that does not exist in other worldviews, watching the reactions of the students and professor.

I worried about what would happen if I activated it in front of everyone, but luckily no one seemed to mind my behavior.

“Ready.”

The circuitry embedded in my uniform glowed and connected me to the training center.

An electronic board attached to the ring projected information on my eyes, including my opponent’s weapon and location.

Head 100, torso 30 to 50, arms and legs 15 to 30.

It was a list of information that reminded me of the sports competitions I’d seen on the news a few years ago that borrowed game-like rules.

“Let’s go!”

Before I had time to think, the match began.

At the same time, the other student fired a rubber bullet at my head.

It didn’t make a lot of noise, and the bullets were loud and slow for training purposes.

However, it’s only slow compared to real ammunition.

Boom!!!

I lifted my baton and knocked the first rubber bullet out of the air.

My arm tingles slightly from the impact.

I can’t keep dodging small bullets like this, so I cover my head with my arm and move on.

Focusing on dodging, I also pay attention to blocking and parrying attacks.

I thought I could dodge them easily, but the rubber bullets were flying toward my marked spots with uncanny accuracy.

It’s not that I’m good at this, it’s that I’ve been practicing this trick all along…….

It didn’t matter if it was pure skill or not.

“Ugh……!!!”

One of the rubber bullets I failed to dodge hit me in the forearm.

It didn’t hurt much, perhaps the special uniform cushioned the blow.

Soon, the training center recognized it and subtracted 17 from the 200 number in front of my name.

This is how you deduct points from each other, and when you get to zero, you lose.

So this is how I thought it would be……!

‘Forget it, I’m used to it!’

I lunged forward, hoping to take advantage of the gap.

Instead of reloading, my opponent raised the staff he held in his left hand.

With a sweep of the wand, the stray rubber bullets were telekinetically levitated and sent flying at me.

Twelve rubber bullets, each were traveling at a different angle and speed but all of them, all of them were aimed at my head.

Thud! Thud!

I ran low, dodging the ones that flew in front of my eyes and catching a few in non-critical areas.

It wasn’t too difficult to ignore them, as they were slower than a gunshot.

The stray bullets were flying back at me, but they only seemed to clump together and chase me.

Just before they caught up, I stomped my foot and jumped high to dodge a bullet, and then I dropped toward the closest student and raised my baton.

“What……?”

The student who had lost me in his line of sight whipped his head around, confused.

He must have been glaring at me, but I was confident I could outrun him.

To turn away and avoid someone’s gaze even when there is no obstacle to hide one’s body it’s a trick I learned from the serial killer in the middle of the night.

[Not detected.]

The falling baton struck the other student directly in the head.

I immediately spun the baton over my hand and caught it in reverse, delivering a swift blow to the student’s jaw.

After two rapid-fire attacks in a split second the other student’s points were quickly deducted, and he was down to zero.

118 points to 0. Sparring time 26 seconds.

It was my victory.

“……Now get down. You two.”

The information projected into my eyes faded neatly as the duel ended.

As I returned my baton to the armory and slid down to the ring, the professor rolled her chair on its wheels with her legs and approached me.

The……chair was worn, and it spun on its way over.

“Good work, but I’m going to have to scold one of you.”

“What?”

“I’m talking about you. You.”

I wondered if he meant me, but the professor pointed to the student standing next to me.

“It’s good to only use strategies that are good for winning in sparring. That’s because this professor takes all of that into account.”

“…….”

“But we’re not in a competition, are we? I don’t give you good marks for using a weapon that only favors the rules of dueling. You didn’t even win.”

“Haha…….”

The student averted his eyes, as if embarrassed by the point.

Regardless, the professor was busy scribbling away with her capacitive touch pen.

“And…Yoo Yeon-woo.”

“Yeah.”

“Well. That’s all well and good, but why are you looking around so much today? Did you lose something?”

Did I?

There were so many curious things during the duel that I stared at them all, but I wondered if they noticed my behavior.

Professor Witch was eyeing me suspiciously.

…Is she accusing me of being a little bit of a prankster?

“No, no. I’m fine, I just had a personal problem today.”

“…… Really?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you could go to the counseling office if you had a problem?”

“I’m not that worried.”

“Huh.”

Professor Witch said after scribbling some more notes on her tablet PC.

“Good work, now go and switch with someone else.”

I bowed and went back to my seat.

Professor Witch seemed to be watching me… but soon she called for the next student, and two students got up and climbed into the ring.

The rest of the time, I could just sit back and watch.

“How was it?”

Sister Seorin asked quietly, tilting her head toward me.

“Just… normal, probably trickier than the undead, since they have human intelligence.”

“Can I honestly assume the difficulty has increased?”

“Yeah. That’s about it.”

Unlike the undead, who are driven by instinct, they are fully human and have several “professors” to guide them.

However, it’s not all straightforward.

For example, since they’re human, some of the students will be able to ‘surrender’.

“Good. They’re the ones we have to fight after all…….”

“Wait, what does that mean?”

At that moment, another voice broke in from the side.

It was Jang Ji-sang.

“Why are you so sure already? They’re just ordinary students. They might not be our enemy……?”

“Most people from other worldviews are enemies, and a few are neutral at best.”

“But, you can’t imagine, these ordinary students would want to kill people from our world.”

Jang Ji-sang wasn’t wrong.

The students were learning combat techniques, but not to kill people.

These academies are created to fight public enemies like monsters and demons.

Normal-looking students would attack us, fellow humans, like that?

It wasn’t something people could easily imagine.

“However, it’s a given that these students are our enemies.”

“…Why?”

“Because the slot machine says so.”

“……ah.”

Jang Ji-sang muttered, “That’s right…” and let out a deep sigh.

No matter how sneaky it is, the information we are informed at the beginning is an absolute fact.

No matter what process we go through, we are destined to face the students in the end.

“Well, how about this? The fight hasn’t started yet, right? So we can try to prevent something that might trigger it, or try to talk them out of it.”

“We don’t even know if that’s a possibility, we’re just seeing these students for the first time, we can’t trust them.”

“It’s……possible.”

Jang Ji-sang looked around at the students spread across the large training ground and asked.

“In other words, there’s a possibility that things will work out as I say?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. You’ll be able to work things out with the students here.”

I corrected my sitting position and turned to Jang Ji-sang.

“You might be the first one to die in this episode, I’m not cursing, I mean it.”

“If that’s the case, I’ll get out, it’s okay.”

“I don’t think so, and I don’t want to help.”

“Oh, that’s okay, I’ve thought it all through.”

No matter how you slice it, Jang Ji-sang’s mind was made up.

This was unacceptable to me, who was convinced that students were the clear enemy but it wasn’t an idea I had to resist.

“……I will support you wholeheartedly.”

“Yeah, me too.”

His turn came, and Jang Ji-sang finished the conversation and stepped forward for the duel.

I looked at him and muttered quietly.

“……He’s like the main character.”

“Which part?”

“The part where the protagonist is willing to believe in something if it seems unfair, even if the evidence is clear.”

Wrong. There has to be a way to make this work. Like this.

I don’t like that.

The protagonist is in denial when everyone else is in agreement.

They say it’s romantic, but he’s the protagonist after all, so isn’t that how things work out?

He’s simple in his thinking, trusts people easily, and causes his own anger.

Such a romantic protagonist looks great because he has the ability to make up for it in the end.

This is because the unwritten rules help the protagonist.

Even if you can’t be the protagonist, it’s cool to act like one…….

I didn’t want to make risky choices based on the unwritten rules.

We’re playing ‘survival’.

I don’t want Seorin or Do-yeon, who are helping me, to be in danger so I can’t help Jang Ji-sang.

“I hope nothing bad happens…….”

I waited for the duels to end, then left the academy, having completed my scouting for the day.

Just like that, the curtain opened on the second episode.