I don’t want to get up.
As I bury my face in the pillow and squirm around, those thoughts filled my head.
I had been sleeping on the dirt floor covered with leaves throughout the trials. It was a bit uncomfortable, but not really a big deal.
I’ve slept on stone floors more times than I can count, so I had made do with worse.
But still, sleeping in a bed is the absolute best. There’s nothing in this world that can compare to the special fluffiness of a bed… well… um…
Now that I think about it, it might be the second best.
I quickly shook my head to dismiss the repulsive thought that suddenly came to mind. The red image that had popped up faded away.
These days, my head has been acting strangely. Should I get a mental check-up? It could be a side effect of Gop-hwa.
Thinking that if I stayed like this, I might roll around all day long, I forced myself to sit up.
The soft sensation faded away. With tears in my eyes from the heartbreaking farewell to the bed, I stood up.
Saturday morning felt quite leisurely, probably because I didn’t have a tight schedule.
Gurgle…
I loosened my stiff body with some simple stretches. A refreshing sensation surged through me.
After enjoying the thrill, I stepped into the shower and splashed cold water on myself.
Thanks to that, my drowsiness was mostly gone. But since I didn’t like the cold water too much, I compromised with lukewarm water halfway through.
“Is this okay now?”
My hand, which was about to scrub my face with a full scoop of water, stopped abruptly. Yesterday’s events flashed back to me. I cautiously patted around my eyes.
Both of my eyes were not shedding tears, but rather oozing blood.
I pretended it was nothing, but I seriously thought I might faint. I almost went crazy wondering if my eyes were ruined.
Just because I couldn’t see doesn’t mean I’m useless. I’ll get my eyesight back someday. I need to treat it like a sacred treasure.
The role of sight has been replaced by spatial perception. Thanks to that, I can see even better than people walking around with their eyes open, without hindering my daily life.
Being treated like a person with a disability and being overly cared for was pricking my conscience like crazy.
Even when I told the people around me, the way they looked at me didn’t really change.
I want to regain my eyesight.
Understanding spatial perception has increased my comprehension, and I’ve grasped the basic mechanism.
I read space in its entirety. I read other things laid on top of that space at the same time. That’s why I can perceive the world in a way similar to sight.
But it’s still different from real eyes. Having seen the world through sight, I know this.
The world seen with my eyes differs from the world felt with spatial perception.
While the eyes view the world from ‘my’ perspective, spatial perception merely makes me feel like I’m just another background.
I want to see the world through my eyes.
“Still, for now, spatial perception is more useful.”
When I’m holding on to my weapons and jumping into battle, spatial perception is overwhelmingly superior to sight.
Blind spot? Spatial perception doesn’t have such a thing. It simply knows the space around me; it doesn’t care about that.
In the process of seeing the world with my eyes, there are times I have to squint. Spatial perception doesn’t have that…
“Wait, it did, didn’t it?”
A memory of spatial perception being completely blocked in the tower suddenly jumped to mind.
My expression crumpled.
The ability that almost killed its owner on the first day. The ability that caused trouble after being cost-cut at one point.
It had been mostly fixed since the freshmen welcome party, and I had been using it well, but… it sabotaged and let me down at such a crucial point, once again, again and again!
It was an ability with some loose screws somewhere.
“…Fault?”
While chewing on the word “fault,” I felt an unsettling vibe.
The first day. A day I didn’t even want to think about, like a nightmare.
I nearly died due to the rampage of spatial perception. Excessive information was slamming into my brain, nearly making it overload.
Whose fault was that?
Setting aside the cause, the incident on the first day occurred because the performance of spatial perception was too good. It was not because of subpar performance.
If I had been able to withstand the burden of spatial perception, I would have been able to fully utilize that godly ability.
By that logic, the faulty one was me, not spatial perception. The only fault of spatial perception was being too good.
It might be unfair to blame spatial perception.
But.
“Isn’t that… strange?”
If I only had the ability of spatial perception, I could just chalk it up to my incompetence, but I also have two other unique abilities besides that.
Jack of All Trades and Magic Affinity.
These are definitely unique abilities I acquired alongside spatial perception. Yet, I haven’t had any trouble handling these.
Both have good performance. If I hadn’t had one of them, I could never have achieved the growth I have now.
However, neither of them has ever caused me harm due to being too good.
Why is spatial perception the only one like this? It’s supposed to be an ability I received equally. Why is spatial perception so peculiar?
Sigh.
What am I supposed to figure out? I shook my head again, feeling the repeated despair. I shook off the water from my hair with a towel.
.
.
.
Shio-ram encourages camaraderie among students. If you look for school benefits, there’s plenty of support for social activities.
That’s why living in Shio-ram means numerous social events happen frequently.
In short, countless minor side quests flood in.
While they can’t compare at all to the main quest rewards, during the first round, I searched for various side quests.
Engaging with different NPC students would spark side quests, and solving them leads to more side quests.
Depending on the quests, people’s favorability would go up or down, and relationships with various individuals would intertwine…
Such volatility was quite interesting. It felt wonderful to see characters who were once toughened up transform due to my involvement.
After my first round of suffering through the hellish world where I flunked after graduating from Shio-ram, I focused on leveling up to avoid that from happening again in the second round.
Thus, my first round had its own unique fun different from other rounds.
I momentarily drifted into the past.
I vigorously shook my head to clear my mind and fiddled with my smart watch for the first time in a while.
One of the noteworthy recent notifications flared up. The all-freshmen chatroom set for announcements blinked.
[Shio-ram Class of 121 All-Chatroom (613)]
▶Baek Ahrin : [Announcement!] As previously mentioned, there will be an after party tonight at 6 PM behind the tower! Location: 3rd Banquet Hall! No dress code and attendance is optional! (◍˃̶ᗜ˂̶◍)ﾉ” (Today 8:03)
▶Baek Ahrin : [Emphasis!] Fun events and prizes are also prepared! Looking forward to great participation! ₍⑅›ܫ‹₎っ🎁 (Today 8:04)
…
The organizer of the after party is Baek Ahrin. Being the top student, she is familiar with organizing social gatherings.
“Should I go?”
I paused and considered it for a moment.
Connections are incredibly important in this line of work, and since Shio-ram encourages them, there are plenty of opportunities to build relations among students.
There are various systems that resemble social gatherings, like the welcome party and significant events, which get people mingling.
Then there’s the club activities that will activate in the next semester, and a mentorship system that arranges meetings with students of different years.
And let’s not forget the annual festival that happens once a year or so.
While it seems insignificant, a plethora of systems favoring social connections exist.
In my first round, I did a lot of favorability management by poking around here and there. More precisely, I enjoyed side quests while my favorability naturally increased.
Having amassed favorability benefited me in many ways.
But that was in the game. When situations were given, it was merely a matter of typing in some text or commands.
In real life, I had no social skills to manage favorability…
“Still, it’s probably better to go, right?”
Setting aside the faults in my personality, simply showing my face at such gatherings usually builds at least a modicum of favorability.
It might be embarrassing to call it favorability, but even having a fleeting memory of meeting someone when we cross paths later can help.
“SDVIMVFoanVzY1YwSVhjamMzUkt1WHI2UUFyOVpudXd1UCtIRU1uTU1JaHVEWUhsVlhGK0xnNkduWmJnQXR2bg”
It’s decided then.
I’ll just show my face and leave. According to the professors, I was advised to rest well over the weekend, but they probably won’t mind if I just drop by the after party.
I checked the time.
The after party is at 6 PM tonight. Since it’s now only 10 AM, there’s plenty of time left. I can do some studying in the meantime.
I’m also quite reluctant to engage in physical activity right now. Thanks to bleeding from my eyes yesterday, I’m terrified.
I’ve heard that patients should listen to their doctors. I don’t want to lose my sight.
While I had that thought, my awareness wandered to the egg of destiny placed on the shelf.
“When is that going to hatch?”
In the original story, it has a setting where it hatches on its own if you just wait quietly. Each round requires different time and produces different items.
In the third round, there was a cheating artifact that allowed acquiring additional unique abilities, and the eleventh round yielded a heavenly elixir that increased stat growth rates and limits.
I’m not sure about the mechanics, but I can only speculate that the egg of destiny spits out the most suitable type of item from the moment it’s obtained.
So, I wonder what will come out now.
Most rounds have some direction established around this time, but I don’t know what will come out in this mixed bag of a situation.
Will it normally produce something like an elixir? I’d actually prefer that. At least it’ll hit average at worst.
“Ah… elixir?”
While thinking that, the elixir I had received from Hong Yeon-hwa came to mind. I felt the need to repay that debt and the effect I gained from it.
And I also remembered how I burst out blood and fainted right after taking it, as well as the bizarre hallucinations.
“…If it’s an elixir, is it okay to take it?”
I looked at the egg of destiny, feeling hesitant. If an elixir pops out and I just guzzle it down, it might lead to another disaster like last time.
Back then, I was lucky to wake up without any issues, but if I’m not careful, I could end up as a cold corpse.
Even the elixir that was certainly refined for safety turned out that way. If I took an unrefined elixir raw, there’s no guarantee of safety on my end.
Nothing is easy. I sighed heavily and checked the time on my smart watch.
[PM 4:50]
Switching between thoughts about studying and the future, it was already 5 PM.
“I’ll just show my face and leave.”
Just enough to get my attendance in. There’s no way I could relax in that environment with my personality anyway.
I changed into my student uniform. I hesitated for a moment to fiddle with the egg of destiny again before heading out of the dormitory.
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