<920 - Titosso's Exam (1)>
Papa, who has given up being human and become a god.
In the last letter he left behind on his final day as an ordinary person, there was one fact even Papa had not anticipated.
“Hmph. Even without Papa meddling, I’ve already tested my friends.”
━━━
Steal the shadow from Jiang, the sword from Sing, and the light stand from Titosso.
Only those who can live unchanged after having what they value most taken away can truly be trusted.
━━━
In truth, all three had already lost something precious.
Jiang lost the shadow of an emotionless assassin.
Having had that crucial shadow of his heart taken away, Jiang lost his chance to hide in his own shadow anywhere, anytime.
Though his peak may have lowered, his character remained untarnished, searching for light.
Conversely, one could say her life has become happier.
Sing lost the sword that only males possessed.
Disguise hides physical traits, but transformation distorts them.
As long as Sing consistently supplies the mana required for transformation, he can exist as her.
Thus, Sing can no longer push himself to the front lines, hurting himself.
While his peak may have dropped, the care of not throwing his life away helped him keep living.
Titosso frequently lost his light stand.
Sometimes the light was taken by a monster, and sometimes it became monochromatic due to being wrapped in cellophane.
Reliant solely on the performance of magical tools, Titosso began to devise methods for when those tools were unavailable.
He laid down a foundation where he wouldn’t fall for the vile whisper of the light stand kidnapper telling him to kill his friends to get the light back.
It remains uncertain if he realized this fact fully.
“Titosso is such an inferior student that I guess I should help him with the exam separately!”
Yet there were more urgent fires to put out than his friends’ testing worries.
Professor Mahabharata, who had long remained silent after ascending to divinity, finally began to stir.
[The God of Points, Mahabharata, is calculating the points after the Weekly Event ends.]
“Wow! The professor has taken over our work!”
“Hooray for Mahabharata!”
“Mahabharata is a benevolent deity!”
While the instructors in charge of point calculations cheered with arms wide open, bowing towards the sky, students excited about receiving points didn’t blame the instructors for openly worshipping a specific god.
-Where do you spend 50,000 won these days?
-Then give it back.
-Wahh!
After saying something that might get them on the bad side of a god who tosses points like a generous relative giving allowances, they certainly couldn’t afford to lose their allowances.
“Wow, I got 720,000 points as a reward for stopping the Death Zone wave!”
“300 million points for saving lives…? I’m so glad I joined the Jigoku Pirate Group!!”
Mahabharata is throwing points around like confetti from the sky!
Oknodie worried about what would be left for Mahabharata after distributing all those points instead of just you guys.
At this rate, he might lose his godhood due to failing to cover the cost of point distribution and fall back down.
But surprisingly, Professor Mahabharata held on well.
It didn’t take long to realize the secret behind Mahabharata’s seemingly endless points.
[Reward settlement begins.]
[Stopping the Death Zone Wave: 103,033,000,000 points]
[Closing the Death Zone: 1,472,000,000 points]
[Life Saving: 107,060,000 points]
[Noah’s Ark Bonus: Absolute Enhancement Rights, 25,853,322,000 points]
An astronomical amount of points poured in.
This was due to the immense number of strong individuals in the Academy and the numerous formidable real-world foes they faced.
However, Mahabharata’s status as a benevolent deity wasn’t merely based on distributing points.
[Mass Murder: -15,933,250,000 points]
[Property Damage: -202,230,930,000 points]
“Kyaaaah!!”
Mahabharata’s inexhaustible points.
The secret lay in the fines collected.
According to Academy regulations, if illegal activities were detected, points could be forcibly taken from anyone, anywhere in the world, even non-believers.
There’s no malevolent god worse than villains, nor a being who strikes down the unjust with a righteous hammer for the good.
The genius who drives Kawa and Pah to madness is none other than Professor Mahabharata.
[The deducted points exceed the points given as rewards. Would you like to exchange the Absolute Enhancement Rights for points? You can earn a considerable amount of points by selling the Absolute Enhancement Rights.]
“Absolutely not!!”
[You did not sell the Absolute Enhancement Rights. There are still bonus feature settlements remaining. Would you like to convert the features into points?]
“Yee…”
About 9 million points in the red.
The Absolute Enhancement Rights were a rare item that couldn’t be bought with points anywhere; hence, they could never give it up.
Instead, countless methods existed to obtain functions.
Moreover, the functions gained were not always necessary ones.
[Evil Child Experience Points +100 are converted.]
The Evil Child is a prime example.
There’s no way I, a good child, would need such a function.
[Some gods are wailing, lamenting how hard we worked for the Genki Dama we sent, only to have it sold off.]
Excessive rewards for minimal work always come from somewhere.
The gods regretted giving out useless functions, slapping the ground in frustration.
Hmph. They should’ve given the receiving party functions they actually liked!
[Water Magic Experience Points +500 are converted.]
[Summon Tsunami Experience Points +500 are converted.]
[Torturing Experience Points +1000 are converted.]
[Tormenting Experience Points +300 are converted.]
What nonsense is this?
To a kind, diligent child like me, talking about torturing or tormenting makes no sense!
Sell all of it!
I’m at a level where I’d hang up a “We’re closing down!” sign after selling all the rewards I just received, and the crying gods’ complaints flooded in, but I completely ignored them.
I don’t need these functions!
I’ll only take the functions I want to eat!
[Settlement is complete.]
[The God of Points sternly advises, “From now on, do not discriminate on means and methods.”]
After the fierce serving fight ended, the distribution of minus points finally wrapped up.
Phew.
I never expected to incur such a colossal fine.
I’ll have to lead a more good life from now on.
[ESDIE resurrects the students who died.]
[The joint resurrection ritual was a success.]
[The high detection function sensed a resurrection cooldown of 720 hours.]
Fortunately, it seems such a terrifying event won’t repeat within thirty days.
-Ah. Ah. An announcement from the student affairs office. Due to the potential instability in the memories of the resurrected individuals, please assist them by providing personal guidance through familiar acquaintances or dormitory dungeon seniors, or the Dorm Supervisor.
Listening to the announcement, Jiang nudged my foot with her shoe.
“Shall we go? To save Titosso.”
“What if he’s crying?”
“Then we must get there faster. Since we’re closest, they’ll call for us anyway.”
“Hehe. Is that so?”
Unfortunately, there were no incidents where around four hundred students collapsed, two hundred blocked their ears and screamed, and about a hundred couldn’t handle the light and screamed as well.
Thanks to Professor Sadako’s special protective sphere, Titosso, whose soul was well-preserved, was blinking just fine, sipping milk tea from a vending machine.
Seeing the warm steam rising from the milk tea, I felt like I lost out as much as I had worried.
“Oknodie? Jiang? What’s going on here?”
“We came to see you.”
“Do you have anyone you want to take with you? Let’s go together!”
Jiang looked back at me with a somewhat mixed expression.
Titosso, who became stronger and wasn’t whining, was both commendable and a bit disappointing.
“Want to drink this?”
“A mix of wrappers? What does that taste like in milk tea?”
“Spicy flavor!”
“…Not interested!”
The resurrection waiting room was filled with newly revived students clutching their aching heads, murmuring, “How many lectures have been postponed? What about my grades?” and protecting acquaintances replying, “It was a free period. They’re holding evening makeup classes using the Special Class system.”
Thanks to Professor Sadako, not realizing they’ve inadvertently gotten quite the sweet deal, Titosso, who was insulting today’s young people as “so weak, just because they died once they suffer from memory loss!” was somewhat irritating, but I let it slide this time.
Watching Sandkooker, who was hugging Rosgini and crying, or Ishtar tearfully apologizing in front of resurrected comrades, I turned with a grin.
“Let’s go! Now’s a perfect time for house robbery.”
“…House robbery?”
“Eh? I have an assignment to do!”
“I’ll write your answers for you!”
“Hmm… Then that’s good!”
Freed from assignment worries, Titosso smiled and threw his empty paper cup into the trash can.
The paper cup missed and rolled across the floor, and Titosso dashed over to put the paper cup in the trash can.
“But where are we going to rob?”
“Professor Sadako ascended this time, right?”
“Eh?!”
“…Oknodie, right?”
Both Titosso, startled, and Jiang, sensing something ominous.
Of course, the destination was obvious.
“The chance to loot the weakened Catacombs from the Weekly Event is right now!”
And along with that, I’ll clear Titosso’s exam too!
