<117 - Senior's Dormitory>
“Oknodie. What have you done to catch those seniors’ attention?”
“Oknodie. Did you do something wrong to the seniors?”
“Oknodie. Be careful when you walk alone!”
Maybe it was thanks to building up favor with many students in various events, but the passing NPCs warned me at every turn.
“Thank you!”
As I smiled, showing my pearly whites, they patted my head with faces that screamed “too cute to handle!” and then happily looked down at their hands before wandering off.
I don’t feel the rush of controlling someone with the terror of my muscular strength, but this feeling of being treated like a pet isn’t too bad.
‘Not sure if I’m supposed to be thankful for this…’
I have no clue what my childhood friend Sia was thinking when she sent me into this game world.
I have a lot of questions, but perhaps because I’ve entered a bright and cheerful body, feelings of gloom and worry quickly dissipated.
If a problem arises, just tackle it one at a time!
Since the seniors went digging into my past first, it’s only fair for me to dig into theirs, right?
Thanks to the students’ advice and some light information gathering, I quickly figured out who was digging into me.
“Heh. So it’s the [Paper Company] and [Box Chowder] folks.”
Both names were new to me.
Extras.
Second years from the Magic Department and Knight Department.
They have enough skill to get into the Gift Academy, but lack the talent to stand out, and their mana capacity is subpar.
They barely scraped by the entrance exam in their first year; they’re basically at a level where they can’t even keep up with the average skill of their class.
They work hard, but with low absolute talent, they face obstacles and slowly become common inferior students.
‘They remind me of newbies!’
That’s exactly what beginner players are like.
At first, they can barely survive in the academy.
Then they get tempted by all the bad stuff others are doing and hope for some lucky breaks.
If they accidentally hit the jackpot, they get to enjoy the sweetness for a while, but most of the time, it’s another lucky NPC who ends up relishing it.
The Red Fanged Mushroom’s illegal cultivation is no different.
Weren’t the ones who actually consumed the magical Spore Sac me and the principal?
The ones who already have more just end up taking what’s cultivated hard by inferior students.
That’s why illegal activities are a no-go.
Even if you get robbed, it’s hard to demand compensation or complain about the unfairness.
‘It feels a bit cruel to give them a serious scare, so maybe I’ll just mess with them a little?’
Before Monday.
Late on a weekend night.
I quietly shifted my feet towards the second-year male dormitory.
‘Huh. No matter when I look, the security here is pathetic.’
A net made from magic.
If a creature of a certain temperature and size touches it, it immediately sends a signal to the dorm manager’s office.
It’s not as stringent as the New Student Dormitory, which pays special attention to student safety, but it still scans for potential crime!
But as long as I don’t get caught, that’s good enough!
With my 133 cm small stature and petite frame, slipping past the magic detection pattern and climbing up the window was a piece of cake.
Swish, swish, swish.
Like a lizard, I climbed the outer wall effortlessly and peeked inside the window.
No one was in the bedroom; they must have gone out.
Perfect!
I gently pushed the window, and it clinked, indicating it was locked.
Well, I anticipated this, so I brought a wire.
Clink, clink…
Click.
Having opened the window and entered, I stepped on what felt like crumbs of snacks on the floor.
This senior seems rather messy.
Just like Westerners who say they sleep with shoes on in their bedrooms, this dorm feels really lacking in Asian sensibilities.
“Seriously, senior? Tsk tsk, leaving a mess like this. Aren’t you afraid of a rat infestation with how dirty you keep things?”
In a room that exuded no signs of life, I originally just came to deliver a warning about digging into others’ affairs but ended up so irritated by the messy state that I rummaged through the dorm room.
Normally, this would be a shared common area, but luckily, this senior has a 4-person room all to themselves.
Thanks to that, I could roam freely and even found a broom and dustpan.
Swish, swish.
While diligently cleaning up, I stumbled upon something caught under the bed.
Pulling it out with my fingers, it was a textbook.
But who keeps a textbook under the bed?
As I flipped through the pages, sure enough…
There were magazines featuring scantily clad women enticing men and the rather risqué.
‘Heh.’
This senior has quite the taste.
Even when I was a guy, I encountered all sorts of adult material, but I’ve never encountered a preference like this before.
“If this gets found out, he’ll be done for! Hehehe.”
I should be understanding with the sensibilities of the man I used to be.
After all, threatening someone with this kind of stuff is classified as sexual assault these days.
I, being a guardian of gender equality, am way too responsible!
Placing the textbook back under the bed, I waited a little longer, rummaging through the room, and then I spotted an assignment on the desk.
Getting bored of waiting, I absentmindedly solved the problems, but something felt off; this person was nowhere to be found.
‘Are they out late?’
I was so curious to meet someone with such an intriguing name, but alas, it seems like it wasn’t my day.
But I shouldn’t be too disappointed.
Even though I wasted time, today is not the only opportunity.
I should come back again!
[You infiltrated the senior’s dorm after investigating their background and escaped easily.]
[Fear Inducing Experience Points +5]
[Cleaning Experience Points +5]
[Climbing Experience Points +5]
[Lock Picking Experience Points +3]
[Detection Experience Points +3]
[Exploration Experience Points +1]
[Naughty Child Experience Points +1]
But why did I get points for fear-inducing?
On the way home, I thought deeply about this.
The house somehow had cleaned itself.
That triggered the fear-inducing feature on its own.
A reasonable deduction flashed in my mind.
“Aha.”
The senior has a phobia of cleanliness!
A senior who fears cleaning? Now, that’s amusing.
I feel like if I cook for them later, they’d get even more scared, and I’m even more excited about that.
I must make sure to bring them a home-cooked meal next time!
*
Late at night.
As I got used to the uncomfortable sleep in the wardrobe.
Clink.
In my half-asleep state, I caught the sound of the window rattling.
Paper Company had a level of hearing considered to be top-tier even among the Lower Class.
Living on a higher floor, the harsh wind often rattled the windows.
I figured it was just another instance of that and tried to drift back to sleep.
Clink, clink.
Then, unusually loud rattling of the window jolted me awake.
What on earth is with this wind?
Is a swarm of mosquitoes fluttering in front of the window or something?
Just as I was going to open the wardrobe to check, I heard a sound that shouldn’t come from the window lock turning.
Do mosquitoes pick locks these days?
Livelihood thoughts like this made me uneasy.
Those pesky mosquitoes were just easy to squash; this wasn’t the end of the world.
Pitter-patter.
But then I heard footsteps.
Perhaps the noise-detecting powder I had spread in front of the window worked against a potential intruder.
It wasn’t a noise made by some light-weight mosquito stepping on that.
It wasn’t a mosquito.
It was a person.
Realizing my identity was discovered, I heard a ridiculous voice criticizing me.
“Seriously, senior? Tsk tsk, leaving a mess like this. Aren’t you afraid of a rat infestation with how dirty you keep things?”
This was a voice that should not be heard here and couldn’t be allowed to be heard.
‘No way. This is the 10th floor!!’
An impossibly high place for anyone to enter.
A first-year wouldn’t have learned flight magic that only starts from the third year!
So how on earth did this kid make it up here?
My fear-riddled brain begged for answers.
Just then, an unwanted memory sprang to mind.
– There are rumors of an active assassin who was trained in an aristocratic family.
Right, if they were an assassin, nothing was impossible.
So it turned out my digging into their past had been discovered.
Box Chowder was right.
Oknodie was both a thief and an assassin.
Surely, there’s little chance this cheeky student didn’t like having someone probe into their business.
“This could get me in trouble! Hehe.”
That innocent giggle even conveyed no malice, but rather excitement.
This kid enjoys killing!!!
Paper Company shut their eyes tight.
Even the thought of their own white sclera being visible through the cracks of the wardrobe was too frightening.
Trembling in fright and silently pleading for forgiveness, they realized they had touched a forbidden child poking into their life.
Fwoosh.
Fwoosh.
As if aware of their sensitive hearing, Oknodie began to prowl around the room, erasing every trace of their presence.
What could this mean?
What on earth are they planning?
Surely they’re not cleaning just for the sake of it.
This is a warning.
Yes, this was undoubtedly a warning.
I already know what you can do.
Erasing signs of life? That’s nothing to you.
‘Please forgive me, please forgive me, please forgive me!’
With closed eyes and desperate prayers, Paper Company trembled.
Once they noticed, the cold wind that had been coming through the doorway was long gone.
Did they leave?
Are they really gone?
Isn’t this where I open the door only to find, “Found you! Hehe.”?
“Huuk…!”
Trembling in fear, Paper Company cautiously stepped out from the wardrobe, clutching their pounding heart as they gasped for air.
The signs of life were completely gone, leaving behind an immaculate room.
On the desk, the assignment of theirs lay, with answers written in an unnaturally neat hand.
Why did they solve this?
There’s no way they would have just done it out of boredom.
Is there some hidden meaning behind this?
Even though this was an assignment given for review before lecture time, it was so tough they’d even let you go early if you completed it?
‘Why on earth are you doing this to me? What do you want to make me do in lecture time after solving all the problems!!’
Paper Company trembled in fear for quite a while.
