Professor Raeb decided to enroll in a battle competition to bury Oknodie in the midterm exams.
The reason you guys are facing unreasonable strong opponents is because of Oknodie! They tried to isolate Oknodie by saying, “Stay away from that kid!” but ended up going against their plan.
As the final champion of the Victory Tournament with 70 consecutive wins, Oknodie became the hero of the class by pulling overwhelming popularity in the [Fundamentals and Understanding of Mana Usage] lecture.
– “Oknodie is a Salty Dark Princess that feeds on people’s tears, so stay away, okay? It’s not like we’re the ones shedding tears!”
– “As long as we can suck the tears out of our competitors, we’re good with it! We must absolutely protect the Goo Salty Dark Princess!”
Students who have become fervent devotees of Oknodie after her scores skyrocketed in the midterm exams!
‘There are quite a few enthusiastic people who benefit from being around Oknodie and engage fervently.’
It was so bad that even the professors, including Raeb himself, found it hard to catch Oknodie alone.
Finally finding a rare quiet beach they managed to come to, they built sandcastles and played, but a friend that popped up out of nowhere gave a cheerful greeting.
– “Oknodie, why are you building a sandcastle?”
– “Well-built ‘castles’ spawn treasure chests with random stat stones, you know!”
– “Hee~ So it’s a game with that kind of setting? I wanna join!”
Ppyoi, who briefly stopped teaching students about Bikini Armor, started building sandcastles together!
– “Oknodie, it’s dangerous! That tree has a curse from fourth years and is actually a 1000-meter-tall giant tree according to the teaching assistant!”
– “But if you climb that tree, you can eat the eggs from the monster’s nest! It’s a rare cooking ingredient!”
– “That’s so cheap! Trying to eat such a good dish all by yourself? Good things should be shared!”
Watching Oknodie climb the tree with anxious eyes, before long, Xenia was also looting the monster’s nest!
Wherever they went, they attracted the curiosity and protective instincts of nearby people, which made Professor Raeb determined.
He decided that until the final exams were over and summer vacation came, he would absolutely endure and hold on tight.
At the academy, it’s hard to be alone with so many connections, but during vacation, the path back to the foundation would likely not be crowded.
Those returning with the Chief Scholarship Student of the Foundation could be tagged as potential foundation scholarship students.
Actual scholarship students wouldn’t take such risks.
Even those who aren’t scholarship students would probably not follow Oknodie on her way back due to the subtle but notorious reputation of the foundation.
It was a very reasonable inference.
‘Just in case, let’s put a wedge in there.’
He secretly approached someone he suspected to be a spy from the foundation.
“I will provide information about the academy. In exchange, I want information on Oknodie’s whereabouts during the vacation.”
The foundation’s spy confirmed that the deal was successful.
Oknodie boarded the ship returning to the foundation.
As long as he could accompany Oknodie on that ship, opportunities to target her would come in abundance.
“Wow, it seems Oknodie’s papa is really wealthy.”
“Geeek! There are so many lights brighter than mine!”
“…”
Little did he know that this logic would shatter before the march of 128 people.
[Ice Field]
Having frozen the lower part of the ship to delay the departure, Professor Raeb lured nearby pirates onto the ship and swapped out one of the containers.
Once inside, he used the mediocre pirates to gather food in the warehouse and gathered information while avoiding the crew members.
And now he learned of the Uninhabited Island Auction’s existence, bringing his plan to perfect completion.
Timing his attack just before Oknodie’s allies were thinned out the most on the uninhabited island, targeting her right before she was eliminated.
‘The remaining participants who haven’t returned from the uninhabited island include the Warrior, the Saintess, Oknodie, and Jiang. The foundation’s personnel, Jonnas the Butler, and two maids for some chores. That’s it.’
The advantage was already decided.
There were no directors or professors from the border region to interfere.
In fact, there was a warrior who harbored quite a bit of resentment against Oknodie.
The very reason he set today as the execution day was that he was worried the warrior would eliminate Oknodie first, making the Warrior and Saintess practically allies.
It was clearly calculated.
“Professor, what are you doing right now?”
Before a warrior could block his path as he generated a freezing sniper magic targeting Oknodie.
“Do you feel any pangs of conscience? If so, just turn a blind eye. You wouldn’t mind not seeing Oknodie from the second semester onward, right?”
“Oknodie is an evil that I must eliminate with my own hands. I have no intention of handing that over to someone else.”
The stubbornness of the warrior was simply unbelievable!
The sun-kissed orange hair of the warrior, reminiscent of the light of dusk, had never looked so detestable.
“Oknodie is a cruel child. If you were entranced by her outer appearance, it would be a truly grave mistake.”
“It’s unjust for a professor to kill a student.”
“It’s just and right for a warrior to kill a child?”
When it came to logic, Ishtar’s persistence was as flimsy as could be.
But the warrior was not a warrior for no reason.
Swish.
Unable to win with words and logic, the warrior drew his Holy Sword instead!
“The essence of righteousness ultimately stems from power. As a child, I didn’t understand that, and hence I relied on the paltry conscience of bureaucrats expecting fair judgments. I might be a warrior of the empire, but I am not the empire’s warrior. Do you understand? ‘Empire’s Professor’.”
A shocking declaration from Ishtar, the academic top of her year who had divided the imperial faction led by the princess!
The warrior’s reckless spirit that had made even Oknodie ponder faced Professor Raeb, who suddenly felt his heart constrict in frustration.
Loosening his tie, he let out a deep sigh as his gaze settled calmly, like the stillness before a storm.
“Then allow me to impart a new lesson today.”
From beneath Professor Raeb’s feet, the ground began to freeze.
The plants froze, the Blue Metal Mice froze, and someone’s dream of taking flight fell flat as the birds suddenly plummeted to the ground, shattering into pieces.
Realizing the urgency, Ishtar quickly used Domain Expansion to create a space for herself and Yufi, only to widen her eyes at the sight of an ice wall enveloping the entire uninhabited island.
“If a powerful being moves, it is because they are prepared for backlash. Powerful beings never act recklessly and disappear regretting the missed opportunities. Depart, foolish warrior.”
*
Blue Metal Mice are menacing.
Thanks to their ability to reproduce on their own through division, if one is sighted on the surface, there could be a hundred hiding underground.
Due to their malicious habit of ravaging the land after consuming all resources underground, it’s uncertain when the ground may collapse.
– If you encounter the Blue Metal Mice, give up that area.
– If you don’t exterminate the area, the damage will rapidly expand to the nearby regions.
Defeat: Top 90%. Neighborhood scapegoat.
Normal Failure: Top 50%. Monster.
Iron Failure: Top 10%. Dangerous target.
Silver Failure: Top 1%. Regional evacuation warning issued.
Gold Failure: Top 0.1%. National disaster.
Platinum Failure: Top 0.01%. World crisis.
The Blue Metal Mice proudly exhibit a silver-level danger rating in the monster danger classification system!
They are on an entirely different level compared to mere normal-grade Neuaeans or the iron-grade Neuaean Queen.
However, the Blue Metal Mice have an unexpected advantage.
‘When more than a thousand mice feel a life-threatening crisis and pressure of extinction, they combine into one!’
The Blue Metal King Rat, born when all the divided Blue Metal Mice unite to sustain their species, becomes a fierce foe.
Unlike the Neuaean Queen, who is only as strong as a level 5 monster habitat, the Blue Metal King Rat can be witnessed even on the maximum level 7.
Just as coal becomes diamond under immense pressure and heat, so too can the Blue Metal King Rat ascend after overcoming strong stress and survival instincts.
What he had been secretly targeting on the island was precisely that!
‘If I gather a thousand of them and merge them, I’ll raise them as pets and succeed in level-up!’
The spoils obtainable only by ascending to the seventh level of Shinjung Mountain are practically unattainable until you become an upperclassman in the academy.
He had been so happy to finally get the chance to obtain a super-rare material in his first year, only to have that opportunity snatched away right before his eyes.
The mice were freezing to death in real-time.
Being made of rare metal, they naturally wouldn’t die easily, but the extreme freezing mana had frozen all of their biomanas.
Just like how no one can survive without blood, monsters cannot live without mana either.
“Cee! Who did it! Who killed our cute mice!?”
“…Miss. The Blue Metal Mice eat people too.”
“I was fine because I’m strong!”
“Regardless, there’s an invader on the way. Would you like to go greet them together?”
Jonnas’s reaction left me somewhat taken aback.
“Can I go with you?”
“Why would I be against that?”
“Aren’t the event directors supposed to be impartial during the auction?”
A rare summer vacation event, the [Uninhabited Island Auction].
An auction event with an appearance rate of 9.9% randomly appearing in sea-related events.
You can only access this event from a ship you can board if you hold a special ‘rumor’ and ‘qualification.’ Although you can return to the cruise ship voluntarily during the auction, no assistance will be provided by the organizers against attacks from others.
Unlike in the original game, where this was just a lucky occurrence, the fact that this event was instigated by the Wahyhiemhai Foundation came as a newfound realization.
Still, just learning this new fact doesn’t change the principles if the organizers in-game and in reality are the same.
So why is Jonnas trying to help me, even at the expense of those principles?
“Because I am your butler.”
“Even if you’re a butler designated by the foundation?”
Favorability 100.
A symbol of unwavering trust.
No matter how solid trust is, it can change in the real world. But can that heart truly remain unshaken?
The butler knelt to meet my gaze.
“A butler is born from an employment relationship. The foundation is the one paying my salary and has created this debt for me. However—”
Jonnas Wahyhiemhai, this man, openly confessed his intentions.
“I believe there will come a day when you can inherit my employment. I think that day is not too far off. So I will protect you.”
“What if the foundation doesn’t allow it?”
“There are ways around it. This opportunity, crafted by the clever lady, yourself.”
Jonnas pulled something from my pocket.
A useless item purchased for 90,000 boarding points.
It was labeled as [Disposable Assassin Detection Service].
“I anticipated that assassins would attack the uninhabited island auction. I bought this service before the foundation could detect any assassins, signaling that their service wasn’t fast enough for your capabilities.”
“What happens then?”
“Usually, if the products offered by the foundation fail to fulfill their intended value, they upgrade the product one level before returning it. In this case…”
The eye of the foundation glimmered sharply.
“…It will be upgraded to a disposable assassin repelling service.”
