<231 - Shh>
‘If I have to deal with such a harsh schedule for five consecutive days, even Arcadia would have to be exhausted…!’
It was inevitable. No matter how competent Arcadia was, she couldn’t avoid this.
She needed help.
She had to either persuade Arcadia to tone it down, or at least protect her if that was impossible.
But she wouldn’t easily give up.
Arcadia had already steeled herself to put herself in danger just to gain the trust of Foundation Scholarship Student Jaku, so there was no way she would agree to reduce her competition categories.
“Prill, Kanilian. I might sound shameless, but I have a request… I want to participate in the same categories as Arcadia so she doesn’t get hurt from overexerting herself. But it’s too much for me to handle alone. Could you help me…?”
“What kind of foolish talk is that? Silly Hat.”
“I know that without saying. You haven’t forgotten, right? That we are also followers of Arcadia.”
Prill and Kanilian shared the same feelings as Titosso.
“Wherever the lady goes is where we should follow. If she has made her resolve this strong, then regardless of her intentions, it is our duty as followers to do our best to assist her, don’t you think?”
“Besides, being with the lady might earn us the second place as her followers.”
Titosso felt it.
The lady truly had introduced him to some really, really good friends.
*
In Jezel’s personal room.
Surrounded by mountains of paperwork piled high, Oknodie lay on a relaxation bed, flicking through the information sheets.
“Hmm. There are some strange rounds here.”
“Is there something bothering you?”
“Arcadia is participating in too many events!”
Oknodie, uninvited and showing up after hearing rumors about the information sheets, was flipping through them as if they were her own without paying a single point fee.
Jezel didn’t chastise her for it either, since she had also asked if she could sell the information about the events Oknodie was considering participating in.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that more than 20% of the sales were due to the people wanting to know about the events Oknodie was entering, so rather than demanding 50 points from Oknodie, she should actually be giving her points.
“If you’re really worried, why not enter the same categories?”
It was indeed a valid concern.
The Sports Festival had strange gimmicks that increased the injury level each time an event was added.
If players, and even their comrades, recklessly sign up for any entry that looks appealing without careful consideration, they’ll often find themselves bedridden with injuries.
Getting injured in an individual event meant they couldn’t perform well in the team competitions, leading to even larger losses overall.
If they hit a 0.1% unlucky trigger, they might suffer severe injuries and face medium to long-term penalties affecting their activities in the academy.
The prevention method was simple.
Max out the stats and requirement functions and click [Auto-Result View], and you’d automatically get first place.
That would significantly drop health and mental power, but that could be covered with prepared potions.
But this was reality.
In reality, there was no [Life Auto-Result View] button.
In such cases, a slightly more troublesome method was needed.
“I just thought of something more fun.”
“Fun…?”
“I’ll go first!”
Jezel’s expression turned somewhat serious, but that guy was someone who always took life seriously, so she didn’t care much.
*
Jezel was in for a big shock.
“I just thought of something more fun.”
“Fun…?”
“I’ll go first!”
It was about Arcadia.
Someone she liked just as much as Isabel.
Just hearing about a scrape on her knee would send this child running to blow on it with a “Hoo Hoo” was treating Arcadia’s schedule as ‘that kind of thing.’
She even disregarded having to come up with countermeasures in favor of more fun ideas and vanished.
Things had changed.
The way they treated Arcadia.
Their dependence on her.
“Oknodie… You must not lose the Human Heart. If you walk the wrong path and lose your purity, you’ll lose the reason for coming to the academy.”
Jezel muttered words she hadn’t been able to say to her, feeling a bitter mood envelop her.
*
The day of the Sports Festival was approaching.
Now, we will begin the Sports Festival.
Little snacks, chase after the points!
With the Dragon Principal Omoshiroi’s shout, colorful magic fireworks exploded high into the sky.
Students started rushing toward their pre-selected events.
Meanwhile, I was moving in the opposite direction, heading toward the empty Instructor’s Building.
“Hat. There’s really no one here?”
“…Checked. There are no instructors left here. The cleaning maid is pretty much all that’s left.”
“Good. Then let’s infiltrate according to the map I prepared in advance!”
Since the Monday announcement of the Sports Festival until today, I had eagerly awaited this day for a whole week.
If injuries and unfair disadvantages for the player and NPC comrades were the problem, then finding preventing measures would be the solution!
The plan began with the simple conclusion of distinguishing injuries due to ‘mistakes’ from those caused by ‘constraints.’
“Even if mistakes can’t be avoided, we have to block constraints. I’ve already gained points far beyond expectations. Plus, taking it easy early in the sports festival won’t cause significant losses.”
The original owner of [Replying Wall], the 2nd Hat, possessed both [Spirit Form] and [Telepathy] abilities.
The first hat couldn’t say anything because of the absence of telepathy, and the reason the players inhabiting the wall could not easily spy on the facilities connected to the dormitory was also because they lacked the spirit form.
Players being embodied in walls was not simply treated as a game over.
The exit routes were measured by the abilities of the person who had been possessed, so if their abilities were lacking at the time of possession, they would be stuck in a game over.
Of course, if someone had those abilities, they wouldn’t waste a year being possessed by a wall just to lure the next new student into swapping bodies.
‘Well, even if it’s a wall, the 2nd Hat can still spy with Spirit Form!’
The soul of the 2nd Hat, briefly leaving the hat, explored the inside of the Instructor’s Building and returned.
“This is what it looks like.”
Thanks to the hand attached to the hat drawing a map on the floor, I could perfectly understand the internal structure of the building that changed randomly every time.
The location of the destination was fixed every time, so figuring out the infiltration route had significant meaning without getting lost inside.
“I couldn’t peek beyond this point.”
“It’s alright. I already know what’s inside!”
“What are you trying to steal?”
“Items seized from the students by the instructors!”
The Seized Items Storage.
Commonly referred to as the ‘Seized Room’ among players, it was a hidden treasure among them.
During normal times, the high traffic of instructors made infiltration extremely difficult, and even when instructors occasionally left, there were so many security measures that detections were likely.
If they were detected by the intruder detection magic, they could end up tied up or dragged away unconscious by the instructors, then thrown into the Underground Great Prison’s first floor for at least a few days.
‘Hmph. I was the one who successfully conquered the seized room even in my 230 cm days.’
[You successfully dodged the laser trap with nimble movements.]
[Balance Experience Points +1]
[You used the survival sheet to hide your body heat and bypassed the heat detection trap.]
[Analytical Thinking Experience +1]
[You bypassed the noisily dropping boulder trap and ankle binding trap by walking on the ceiling.]
[Mana Control Experience +1]
[You evaded the gaze of the gargoyle statue and made it through the lobby.]
[Concentration Experience +1]
[Stealth Experience +1]
Of course, I hadn’t always entered like this back then.
That time, I had to smash the trap detection device, break the laser trap, and destroy both the heat detection and ankle binding traps, throwing rocks at the gargoyles.
The memory of that time, when the Instructor’s Building turned into a mess and the maids fled, thinking they were under siege by the demon mages of Northland, and how I stuffed seized items into a sack with my giant frame was still vivid.
‘Damn. I’ve shrunk too much now.’
Even if I couldn’t push through forcefully like before, by combining my small size and agile movements, with veteran knowledge and the information of the 2nd Hat, my speed was incredibly unusual.
It’s unlikely that cleaning maids would hear me due to the noise penalty and flee to call the instructors.
I could take my time and gather everything!
“…Oknodie. Look over there.”
However, I hadn’t expected to see a maid tiptoeing around like a cat with her heels lifted.
Just as I was about to step into the seized room, I locked eyes with a maid from the instructor’s room across from me.
“!?”
“!?”
Both of us were startled as we looked at each other.
But upon closer inspection, something was off about that maid.
She was holding a flashlight in her mouth.
And with her hands, she was rummaging through confidential materials belonging to the instructors.
Aha.
She was a rare 0.1% chance spy maid, even rarer than a slacking maid with a 9.9% chance to get caught!
Shh!
Raising a finger to my lips, I signaled to act like I didn’t know, and the maid nodded, sweating profusely.
Thus began the bizarre heist of the instructors’ building, with one side robbing the seized items while the other side went through the instructor’s documents.
