"Hmm... it tastes good" I couldn't help but remark as I drank my cappuccino.
I arrived at the cafe, ordered my drink, took a seat and now I am drinking it as I thought about my previous encounter with Elinalise in the alleyway.
Elinalise, a beastfolk, an E+ ranker, and her friend, Allen, a human, also an E+ ranker, who she grew up with in the slums.
They are both part of the main cast.
Their plotline is pretty simple. They came to the prestigious academy so that they could secure a stable future in which they wouldn't have to sleep on an empty stomach ever again.
Currently, the reason they are extorting money from the students who they think are weak is because they need money to help their granny who had sheltered them, the only adult who had shown them kindness.
Their granny suffers from a terminal disease which she was diagnosed with just last month, right after the results of the entrance exam of the academy were released. The medicines she requires cost quite a lot.
And this made, Allen and Elinalise decide they weren't going to join the academy, they were planning on earning money to help their granny but their granny who knew about their dream of entering the academy and securing their future couldn't let them do it.
She had watched those kids for a long time, these kids who would sometimes get beaten up by some nasty people, these kids who would try to fill their bellies from the leftover food thrown in the trashcan by other people, these kids who use papers, sometimes cardboard and sometimes they would even use the trashcan itself to protect themselves in the stormy weather.
But, they worked hard every day, kept training themselves diligently, studying from the torn-up books they could find, sometimes even resorting to stealing and as a result getting a brutal beating but they never stopped training themselves, and then one day she approached them and asked them.
What do you want to do?
And then they replied
We don't want to live like this, one day, we will enter the academy, graduate as top-ranking students, and live without having to ever worry about how we are going to survive another day.
The look they had in their eyes, that, that she couldn't help but be drawn to, that unwavering drive.
This world was similar to mine in the regard that there still exists a clear distinction in society between those in the upper class, those in the middle, and those in the lower class.
While the academy only allows admission through a student's own merits and strength, nothing changed that the world wasn't so simple enough.
Arts, weapons, skills, training ...all these things need money.
It was the same in my world, kids with an upbringing in the perfect environment were simply far ahead of those who had grown up in a less ideal environment.
Resources, they are important.
But some people can't afford these resources.
And that creates a barrier.
Entering a prestigious academy, an academy that every kid on the continent would want to attend, in a competition like that, it was obvious that the kids who lacked resources would be at a great disadvantage.
Watching these two kids who were at a great disadvantage, working hard every day, she couldn't help but cheer them on and that was how one day she finally approached them, deciding to shelter these kids, so that they could focus on achieving their dreams.
She wanted to help lighten their burden, even if she could only do a little.
And that's why she couldn't let herself become the reason for these two to not attend the academy.
It was a lot of work but she somehow managed to convince Allen and Elinalise to join the academy.
The academy offers part-time jobs for the students as well and the pay for the students is much better than what they could earn through a part-time job outside of the academy.
That was their initial plan, to take on several part-time jobs in the academy, that was why they arrived so early ...until their plan changed when they were threatened by some hooligans.
They realized the loopholes in the academy rules. How the academy won't intervene with the scuffle between the students so they decided, they gonna just go ahead and become the freaking hooligan themself.
But they made sure to follow certain rules.
Not to go against someone stronger than them, not to go against someone who could potentially be some big shot in the outside world, while the academy protects and treats all its students equally, they knew if they angered some big conglomerate kid, they would one day have to deal with it outside of the academy.
In other words, they will only go up against kids who are weak and don't have some big backing.
And that's why I gave Elinalise that huge amount of money. She is sure to show it to Allen and Allen being the thinker would probably become cautious against me, cause the amount is simply too big for some no-name kid to give them.
In other words, I won't have to deal with them again.
At any rate, it's not like the money they are collecting would matter, in the end, it's going to return to them once again.
According to the novel, the money they are collecting right now, they won't be able to send to their granny and their granny will die by the end of this month, at the hands of some random bugler.
Quite a sad thing but eh, their problem, what's that to do with me?
That's right, nothing.
There are tons of people who die every day and besides that granny is terminally ill, even if let's say hypothetically that I manage to figure out the random date that she is going to be attacked by the burglar and save her, what then?
Sooner or later, she is going to die.
I'd say her dying sooner is better, that way these two won't have to suffer during some crucial moment of the future.
Finishing my cappuccino, I stood up from my seat, still wondering what I should be doing.
There was still quite a lot of time before the entrance ceremony started and I'd decided to visit my room once I was done with the entrance ceremony.
As I opened the booklet and started looking for places to pass my time, my eyes fell on a particular spot as I made up my mind.
Let's fuck with some people.
.
.
.
.
Holy mother of slime, I wasn't bullying your kids, I was just playing with them!
What? Why are your eyes turning red? Aren't you just a slime, when did the slimes start to shoot lasers outta their eyes?
I ducked, barely saving myself from being incinerated.
Without wasting time, I ran towards the transparent wall, striking my foot into the wall with enough force to help me jump into the air high enough to reach the slime's monster head.
Tightening my grip on the sword, I sent a powerful strike, destroying the brain inside that gelly-like liquid that protects it's brain, killing it in one go.
With the monster dying, I finally cleared the wave as I started to fall towards the ground.
Hm? Where am I? What am I doing?
Well, I wanted to waste some time before the entrance ceremony starts. As such, I decided to do what I thought would be the most fun.
I came to the training facility!
...And it was empty.
How am I supposed to fuck with people if no one's gonna be there?
This kinda ruined my plan.
Regardless, now that I have come here, might as well go ahead and do what I came for.
The training facility had several floors, each one was absurdly large.
The facility is divided into several areas, combat simulation area, magic training ground, physical conditioning, tactical training hall, Healing and recovery practice, survival training zone, and several others and these all are divided further down the line.
This academy sure didn't hesitate to spend the money, did it?
Shaking my head, I started walking toward the combat simulation area, specifically the virtual combat zone.
I entered into the transparent box-like chamber shit after pressing my ID card onto the rectangular metallic stand.
And then a voice rang out.
What monsters would you like to fight against?
"Slimes, let's start with the slimes. The weakest monsters."
Affirmative.
What level would you like to start with? It's recommended to go with the basic level.
"Advanced."
Affirmative. Deploying the virtually created slimes.
Virtually created slimes ...or monsters were quite literally what the name suggested. They are mostly made of organic matter, basically, they are like clones. As for their brains, it's fitted with low-level AIs that act like these monsters.
That's why, this environment was quite safe, these monsters would never kill. They will, however, wouldn't hesitate to inflict injuries.
That's how they are programmed, not only that, these monsters are a bit weaker than the original monster from the dungeon.
Well, they are a copy, so it made sense.
What weapon would you like to use?
"Sword"
The moment I said it, a sword fell on the ground which I picked up.
Soon, I found myself surrounded by quite a lot of slimes but...
Hm?
"Hey, bring a wave of about 1000 of these"
According to my data, the current you wouldn't be able to handle such an intense wave. It is not recommended.
Well, makes sense. Since I am registered as a G+ ranker.
That's why it's going to be fun.
"No problem, bring it"
Fighting slimes for someone like me wasn't a big deal, the problem however was, that I was planning on fighting against a large horde or army, or whatever you want to call it, in an enclosed space.
This was the important part.
I needed to train like this, capable of fighting against dozens of monsters, not just fighting I needed to deal with them as fast as possible.
Each demon is capable enough to control hundreds and millions of beasts, and that's why training like this was important.
Of course, didn't change the fact that for now, I had come here solely for the purpose of shits and giggling.
The chances of survival are zero percent and the chances to last longer than 5 seconds are less than 0.1 percent. Would you still like to continue?
"Yes, of course. I like those odds"
Unlike this AI, I knew how strong I truly was.
I knew I could deal with this much, the question however was, how long would it take me to deal with them?
Regardless of which, I wonder how the AI will react to me successfully dealing with the wave it's about to release.
I had come expecting a few people would be here and then shocking them all but eh, I will take this AI to have fun with for no-
Suddenly, I felt a presence watching over me.
Not the cameras but someone physically being in my proximity, watching over me from a distance.
Someone to fuck over.
Great.
What? I am an attention whore? Well, fuck you.
Soon, my vision was filled with slimes, tightening my grip on the sword, I wasn't planning on using mana, aura, or any other component of World's Will.
Just pure swordsmanship.
I let the memories of all that Enyo and Sofia had taught me about swordsmanship flood my mind as I began moving my feet.
.
.
.
Congratulations! You have cleared the 1000 slime monster wave in 7 minutes and 55 seconds.
Error.
You have achieved an unachievable feat, as such, kindly understand that this anomaly will be reported to the higher authorities.
"Yeah, I understand"
The entire reason, I did it was because the authorities needed to know about this. I mean, I can't really hide my strength, you know?
The entire reason I decided to come to this academy was because it provided me with all the facilities I could think of to train myself, and if I were going to hide my strength I wouldn't be able to use these facilities which would defeat the entire purpose of coming to the academy.
It went without saying that the academy was the best place for me to train myself leisurely, without having to worry about safety and all.
Regardless of which, nothing could change that it's going to stir everything up.
But ...
I looked at the time that it took for me to clear the wave, almost 8 minutes to clear the weakest horde of monsters. This wasn't good. I wanted to clear the wave within a minute, with purely swordsmanship.
I know, Sofia and Enyo who I had met in the hidden dungeon would have been able to.
Sheesh, I am still lacking.
Stretching myself a little, I decided to prepare myself against the second wave.
Let's keep going until I clear the wave at the desired time.
"You are a first-year student, right?"
I turned towards the guy who finally decided to stop watching me from the distance.
"That's right. And you are?"
"I am one of the supervisors of the combat area"
"One of the...?"
"There are usually several supervisors for each division here"
"So, where did they all go?" I couldn't help but ask.
"No one expects a first-year to use the training facility right before their entrance ceremony. Sure, a few might come for a tour, but no regular student would start training just a few hours before the ceremony. Even if some nutjobs like you do show up, the AI here is designed to ensure safety. We supervisors are primarily here for cases of emergencies."
So, your job is basically similar to that fire extinguisher in the school that every student wishes to use one day but that day never arrives?
Why the hell does your job sound so relaxing?
"What if an emergency occurred? I don't think the supervisors should be neglecting their duties like this"
"No one is neglecting their duties, kid. That's why, I am here. I lost the rock-paper-scissors" He said with a defeated tone, I could feel his regret, his great loss.
Oh, I can't say anything about it except
"...Sucks man"
"Right? And just when I thought nothing more bad would happen, you showed up." He glared at me.
"What did I do?"
"Noah, a first-year student, G+ ranked. It makes no sense for you to be able to defeat a wave of 1000 slime monsters. You will be accompanying me, we need to re-check your status." His tone was bordering between formal and accusing.
"Just so you know, I literally had my status checked at the entrance gate, you know?"
"Doesn't matter, we will do it once again." His tone was firm, leaving no room for disagreement.
"Well, sure. Go ahead and lead the way" I replied, leaving the box-like chamber.
Usually, the sounds of what's happening outside and inside wouldn't traverse through these transparent walls but he probably disabled that function when he came to talk to me.
Oh well, mission fuck over others, successful.
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.
=======================================
Name: Noah
Rank: G+
Class: None
Affinity: None
Skills: None
=======================================
"This doesn't make a lick of sense..." The man muttered looking at my status for the 3rd time now.
Of course, it wouldn't make sense to you.
In this world, there was no way to falsify your status, or more accurately, there was no way to falsify it when it was being checked in such a thorough manner.
But I was different, my system followed my commands, and I can talk with my damn system.
I realized I could falsify my own status when my system had changed the words Demonic energy back to its original form Soul energy.
The absolute master thing that that midget had told me about wasn't just for the show. It does have its uses.
And now, I am using that feature.
You could question me, why am I showing my strength but then hiding my true rank in the system?
The answer to that is pretty simple. As I had said, I came here to train and use these advanced-level facilities to help myself grow stronger, so it didn't make sense for me to hide my strength but revealing my rank as E+ would be a different thing altogether.
People didn't grow up that fast in just a month.
This could cause a different type of uproar. There was a way to level up faster, it was by killing others, be it monsters humans, or any other species, as long as you manage to kill someone higher ranked than you you can grow fast enough.
Info that I was told by the midget.
The only way that people of this world know to grow stronger in a short amount of time is by going into the dungeon and killing monsters, which worked on a similar principle that the midget told me about.
And what do you know? Entering a dungeon before the age of 18 is illegal until and unless you have a special sort of permission.
Put two and two together and it doesn't take a genius why I can't reveal my rank to them.
That's why I decided to deal with this issue as soon as possible since I had to at one point.
...Of course, I kinda wanted to fuck with them a little but whatever.
Anyway, I looked at the status screen and focused on the words, class, affinity, and skill.
From what I have gathered after clearing the hidden dungeon and those midgets, class, affinity, and skill that are given by the system help the person to circulate the required component of World's Will through a person even if they don't have any proficiency in it or can't feel it.
I don't have that kinda automated process, I have to learn everything to do on my own and balance and harmonize these components on my own but that was fine, if I had to be connected with the system in any way that would be only detrimental in the long term. Even if it takes more work when compared to others I still prefer not having my system influencing me in ways I am not even sure about.
"You are free to go," The man said with a tired sigh, scratching his head, breaking me from my thoughts.
"So, you aren't even gonna compensate me for all the time you wasted? What has the world come to" I complained.
"Shut your trap man and just go"
I shrugged and started walking away.
It was kinda fun watching people stress over stuff they didn't understand. Oh well, it has nothing to do with me.
"Where are you going to go now?" I stopped and turned towards the man who had posed another unexpected question to me.
Where else?
"Back to the good old grinding. After all, there's still time in the entrance ceremony."