Chapter 66

Since that day, Yu Hye-won never brought up the idea of doing physical training with me again.

She must have been caught off guard and taken a severe beating.

No matter how strong Yu Hye-won’s stamina was, it couldn’t possibly surpass mine after spending years in active duty within Sikrito.

If your physical strength doesn’t keep up, even wearing an expensive suit won’t allow your body to handle intense Aura maneuvers.

It’s the same principle why top-notch fighter pilots with all sorts of flight-assisting devices don’t slack off on their strength training.

Yu Hye-won, having only been in the Academy for a year, would have to wait until graduation season to catch up with me.

And there’s still a very high chance she wouldn’t be able to do so then.

Apparently, my supposed lung disease was nothing but a defense mechanism created to shield me from mental shock.

I hadn’t run in a long time, yet I didn’t feel out of breath; instead, I felt refreshed.

Thinking that I had been faking illness made me chuckle a little.

The professor staff has finished creating and obtained the dean’s approval on the final curriculum for this semester.

Though the standard curriculum had already been established before the vacation, it all had to be redone from scratch because of the sudden education system reform.

The focal point of this semester’s curriculum will be “Understanding Cooperative Combat.”

This new education system overhaul thoroughly overturns the traditional combat concepts of existing heroes.

The current freshman class is a generation that grew up watching various media portray solo star heroes.

As such, students have already ingrained in their minds that heroes are celebrities who resolve everything alone, capturing the attention of the masses.

Popularity and fame, high-paying salaries – these reasons entice students to apply to Hero Academies despite the perilous job conditions.

To shatter these pre-conceived notions embedded in the students’ minds and teach them how to fight as a “team,” time is necessary.

For this reason, the entire semester has been dedicated to “Understanding Cooperative Combat.”

Of course, this won’t involve sitting at desks for theoretical lessons.

Instead, students will be pushed to constantly move as a unit, similar to an army, to foster a sense of team consciousness. All lessons will be conducted on a team basis.

The lecture content centers on cooperative combat, and several specialized heroes from the field have been invited to assist.

Those heroes were separately sent from the Organization, but even without confirmation, their status as Sikrito active members was obvious.

Currently, Sikrito is the only group that operates as a team.

Right now, I’m on my way to the research building to attend a seminar designed for the professors hosted by those experts.

There is a large seminar room in the research building where various events typically organized by Academy professors are held.

“Hello, Professor.”

In front of the seminar room, the administrative director Chae was checking attendance and greeted me.

Seeing her face, I was slightly startled.

Would a ghost walking out of the morgue look something like this?

Currently, Chae’s ash-gray complexion was pale, and her hair looked as messy as a broom.

I heard rumors that she’s been working while being hooked up to nutrients, and she had a small bandage on her arm.

“You’ve been working hard. Your face doesn’t look too good.”

“I’ve been here for over five years, and this semester feels the most intense.”

“I imagine so.”

“Ever since the emergency summons, I haven’t had a proper night’s rest for a few weeks. I really feel like collapsing. But still…”

Chae looked up at me with a weary smile.

“It’s nice to see Professor. I feel like I’m getting a 100,000-won nutrient shot or something.”

“Is 100,000-won worth good?”

“It’s quite expensive.”

“Ah, I see. Thank you.”

Chae smiled and marked a heart-shaped check next to my name.

“Please enter, Professor.”

The seminar room was already more than half-filled, and faculty members continued to file in behind me.

The Academy faculty consists of hundreds of people. I don’t know the exact number.

Of course, this count includes everyone from simple janitors to facility managers; the number of faculty members truly responsible for the education and administration of students is less than a hundred.

As I sat down, the heroes conducting the seminar began setting up their laptops on the podium.

There were two of them—male and female—and I hadn’t seen their faces before.

In Sikrito, team members rarely know each other unless they’re on the same team, and most of the time, they don’t know what others do.

Perhaps they weren’t even from Sikrito but others.

Since they were wearing plain civilian clothing without any insignia, there was no way to guess who they were.

“Professor!”

Professor Jin sitting behind me tapped my shoulder while smiling.

“Hello, Professor Jin. You seem fine.”

Professor Jin is always bright and energetic.

Although recent sudden institutional reforms might have been tough, she seemed to have overcome them and was back on the rise, just like a flight-focused hero should be.

“I haven’t been doing badly, how about you, Professor?”

“I’m doing well too—very good.”

“I heard you’ve been training Min-ha and Hye-won rigorously?”

“Seems like starting together from the first semester has helped them progress quickly.”

“I’m jealous. My students are still bumping into each other like it’s chaos.”

“You’ve been working hard. I hope this seminar proves helpful.”

“Hello, Professor.”

Professor Hyun-ju sat beside Professor Jin and greeted me, her exhale carrying the strong smell of cigarettes.

“It’s chaos over here.”

Professor Yu looked around the slightly chaotic seminar room.

“I heard from some active heroes that it’s messy in the field right now. The Management Bureau is trying to merge some Hero Offices, and the heroes are resisting as they don’t want that.”

“Of course. The offices are independently run businesses. Under what pretext would the Management Bureau dictate their operations?”

“From what I hear, if they don’t comply with control, the Management Bureau might forcibly limit the number of requests they can receive, but these active heroes aren’t pushovers.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

Professors Jin and Yu are also active heroes.

They’re here from the Management Bureau, deployed specifically to the Academy.

Currently, in this Academy’s official records, I’m the only person who has retired.

Just then, the dean entered the seminar room followed by department heads.

The dean climbed onto the podium, shook hands with the invited heroes, then picked up the microphone.

“Regarding our restructuring education system, we are grateful to have the experts in the field who have kindly come to lend us their support.”

With formal greetings completed, the dean passed the microphone to one of the invited heroes.

“Hello. I’m an active hero from the Management Bureau. It’s an honor to be lecturing at the most prestigious Academy.”

The woman hero introduced herself merely as a hero, without mentioning her rank or affiliation.

The lecture sequence was as follows: the gravity of the current situation, the necessity of the institutional reform, the concept of cooperative combat, and training methods.

When the footage from the hero bodycams of a recent attack by an organized villain group appeared on the screen, sighs and groans erupted among the attendees.

The scene looked as bad as the time after the emergency mobilization not long ago.

There are signs that villains’ activities are becoming more systematic, and therefore, heroes also need to band together in teams, explained the hero.

Next was a section on how our professors should actually teach the students.

Listening to the hero’s explanation, I strongly believed this woman was from Sikrito.

The contents were identical to those used in Sikrito.

From basic models of three to five members to the assigned tasks and situation-specific response strategies for individuals, all aspects mirrored Sikrito’s methods.

This is exactly what I’ve been teaching to Yu Hye-won and Han Min-ha.

Having seen this repeatedly, I can pretty much predict what will come next.

Still, the format of the teaching materials displayed on the screen seemed uncannily familiar somehow… Could this be…?

The lecture wrapped up with a question-and-answer session.

Indeed, given the sensitive nature of the issues, a good number of professors and staff were eager to ask questions.

The hero calmly took one question at a time, pointing at individuals to answer queries.

“Hello, I’m Professor Jin Se-yeong responsible for flight and guidance studies. I have a question related to evasion maneuvers.”

Professor Jin Se-yeong stood up from behind me, taking the microphone.

Her question concerned the evasive maneuver trajectories that follow area-wide attacks.

While answering, the heroine’s eyes accidentally met mine.

Despite her continued answer, her gaze lingered on me.

After Professor Jin Se-yeong’s final question, the seminar concluded.

Everyone stood up, murmuring among themselves as they exited the seminar room.

As I was about to leave through the door, someone called me from behind.

“Excuse me!”

I turned around and saw the female hero who conducted the seminar rushing toward me.

“Is there something?”

“Sorry, are you not… Gracsteel?”

“Gracsteel” was the call sign I used during my active years.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Ah, it’s great to meet you here.”

The smiling hero left me tilting my head in thought.