<25 - Breaking Common Sense>
What a little lady with no tension at all!
Amidst the relentless score farming and human hunting, she has to manage food supply and track the Examiner too.
Facing the ridiculously high difficulty of multitasking is one thing, but worrying about bugs? Sigh
“Are you not frightened? Aside from the bugs, that is.”
“Me? Why would I be?”
A devilish smirk crept across Oknodie’s face as she looked puzzled.
“Ah~ Uncle Jezel is scared! Are you afraid of running in the forest? Or that you might not be able to farm? Cough Coward~ Chicken~ So weak… Hehe!”
“When you throw the whip, you get a smack in return.”
Before she even realized it, her hand shot out, but her resentment wasn’t that strong.
After all, she realized her tension had eased.
What a grown-up child.
To consider an adult first and help ease their tension.
Maybe she just wanted to tease, but either way, she shows no fear.
It’s not for nothing that she topped the First Gate!
‘I don’t know if I should like it…’
The basis of her confidence lies in her ability.
This child’s skills come from the noble family’s “early education,” which verges on child abuse.
Feeding her hundreds of poisons, teaching her how to dodge attacks, and emptying her understanding of a child’s, humane, and noble life.
Yet her innocence remains, making it all the more painful for the onlooker.
Having her as a teammate for the exam gives a strange sense of strength.
‘Unless I’m the one selling the tickets, I’ve never taken the exam myself… but I get it.’
The advanced exam is a deadly gate where even Gold Ticket holders are weeded out left and right. The other examinees will struggle far more than Oknodie.
“Ugh, the injuries from the First Gate…”
“The visibility is poor. I missed the vanguard!”
Groups of lagging behind examinees began to form, while the lead group synced perfectly with the Examiner.
‘The problem is over there.’
The lagging group comprises around 30 people, while the leading group has about 30 as well.
In between them is a middle group of 100.
Out of 185 examinees, only 25 remain.
A breakaway group has emerged, aiming for food supply or bonus task points.
“Aren’t they worried about becoming prey?”
“They’re confident, I guess. Maybe they’ve got strong allies.”
“Or they’re sure of their own abilities.”
As Isabel and Son Ohchun said.
For food supply, maybe, but they wouldn’t dare aim for victory points without any faith in something.
“Well then, let’s go too!”
“…Did you hear what we were just saying?”
Were they not actually worried about becoming prey?
“Not scared?”
To be fair, she’s been trained as an assassin.
Would she be afraid of such a trivial test?
It makes no sense for someone to hesitate when following someone that capable.
“I was just worried about the little lady.”
“Well, that’s good. I hate mosquitoes, but if we finish quickly, maybe we’ll get bitten less. Let’s go clear that bonus task!”
As the daring lady moved forward, Isabel laughed awkwardly, while Son Ohchun cheered behind, as expected.
There wasn’t a shadow on Jezel’s face as he followed them. Despite all else, he was confident in himself.
*
Characters, whether primary or supporting, have their own personalities.
Seems obvious, right? But this is about the game “Graduating from Academy by Luck.”
Cautious characters look for a stick to poke a stone bridge.
Impulsive characters just run across the stone bridge without a thought.
Ruthless characters cross and then break the stone bridge.
‘The problem is those ruthless characters.’
In this exam, at a glance, everyone might think they can attempt the bonus task, but those who head to tackle it quickly learn.
Evil-aligned characters can cause chaos any way they want.
[First Come, First Served]
[Catch a White-Tailed Mongoose and submit it to the Base Camp.]
If you come late, there’s no soup left.
One person disguised a white-tailed mongoose into a 10-point score or collected their share, killing the rest.
Fortunately, it seems no chaos has erupted just yet.
“Did everyone see the sign?”
“We are the instructors staying at this Base Camp. The first 10 to catch a white-tailed mongoose will each receive 10 points.”
“The accounting method is simple. The moment our instructors receive the white-tailed mongoose, we will grant points to the submitter’s ticket watch.”
As soon as the instructors finished explaining, the breakaway group’s examinees sprang into action.
“What’s a white-tailed mongoose?”
“If you’re a monkey humanoid, you should know animals well, right?”
“No way, right? They don’t live in the forest I grew up in.”
Isabel explained with a dull expression to Son Ohchun’s words.
“They look like a mix between a weasel and a rat. Supposedly fierce enough to catch venomous snakes, but they usually live in groups to avoid being eaten by monsters.”
“Are they strong?”
“If you’re asking about strength compared to a 2m monkey humanoid, they’d be pretty weak. They’re a small species that doesn’t even reach a meter.”
“That’s disappointing.”
“Is it too early to be disappointed? Those mongooses can be super quick. Especially the white-tailed mongoose, it leads its group and isn’t easy to find.”
Hmm, definitely an adventurer!
Not a single wrong explanation.
“Oh, is that mongoose over there?”
“Right.”
Just then, an examinee caught a mongoose climbing a nearby tree.
“Caaaw!”
“Haha, weak. Pathetic little creature!”
The examinee roughly grabbed the mongoose and smashed it against the tree to knock it out.
He grimaced at the unconscious mongoose’s tail.
“Tch. Useless.”
Whoosh!
I caught the flying mongoose as I dashed over.
“Huh? That was a fruitless effort, little one. That’s a brown-tailed mongoose.”
“I know!”
“What good is catching one that isn’t even a white-tailed? Oh, you… you were a top scorer, right?”
The surrounding examinees looked at those who caught brown-tailed mongooses with suspicious eyes.
Yikes.
Have they already become wary of me?
Just then, Son Ohchun patted my head proudly and said,
“Our little mouse is just in her growth period. She eats anything that’s meat, right?”
“Wow, what a glutton you’re making her out to be!”
“Who was the glutton that devoured all 100 types from the buffet in just ten days?”
“Ugh. Well, I couldn’t help it; it was only ten days!”
The examinees spoke.
“Such a glutton.”
“Big eater.”
“Food fighter, huh?”
“You’re going to gain weight. That’s for sure.”
Wait, did any of you contribute to my cooking handbook collection?
Why all this fuss when you haven’t even helped fill one entry?
“So did you really catch it to eat?”
As the uninterested examinees began to drift away, I cautiously replied while glancing around.
“I didn’t think to eat it, but it wouldn’t hurt to catch a few more for food.”
“Oh? Our little lady seems to have some thoughts.”
“Please catch more. If it’s for meals, let’s aim for eight in total?”
The mongoose might act as a predator among wild small animals, but they’re no match for powered-up humans.
In no time, eight mongooses were caught, dead or unconscious in a row.
“I might be able to cook it, but isn’t eight a bit much?”
“Don’t worry, Isabel. Half of them are for the exam, you know.”
“For the exam? But they aren’t white-tailed?”
“If they aren’t white-tailed, just make them white!”
“Is that allowed?!”
“What’s wrong with it? Son Ohchun, break this tree bark here with a spear.”
When Son Ohchun easily broke the bark, white sap oozed out.
“Wow. Are you a genius?”
“I noticed during the ticket exam, but your cleverness is impressive, Oknodie.”
“Our little mouse here has some incredible cunning.”
After coating the brown tails with sap to make them white and bringing them to the Base Camp, the instructors exchanged bewildered glances.
“Must we accept this as a white-tailed mongoose?”
“It’s not our place to judge. We should ask the Examiner directly.”
The Second Gate Examiner Minerva.
With a ranger class, she highly values quick thinking and adaptability in the wild.
The result is all but certain.
“The examiner said she liked your clever attempt. All four of you pass. Here are 10 victory points each.”
“Hehe.”
“You did it, little mouse!”
“We can finally breathe a sigh of relief.”
“Don’t let your guard down. This is just the beginning.”
Clearing it with a veteran player’s trick is one thing, but the real problem starts now.
How to shake off the other examinees aiming for victory points, especially the evil-aligned main and supporting characters?
“Could you move aside for a moment? I’d like to submit my mongoose.”
“Ah, sure.”
Unlike me, who used a trick, an examinee who caught a white-tailed mongoose submitted it to the instructor for points.
“Well then, excuse me.”
“That’s the one!”
“When did that fool find a white-tailed mongoose? Just grab him!”
The examinees are eagerly targeting someone acting alone, unlike our group of four.
The lone examinee took a quick look back and then dashed up a nearby tree, swiftly weaving through the branches as he distanced himself.
“No, h…”
“What the heck…?”
The examinees looked back at us with disgruntled eyes as if chased by a chicken.
The most attention was drawn towards the monkey humanoid, Son Ohchun.
“What? Just because I’m a monkey humanoid, do you think I should know how to climb?”
“Whoa. Can’t you climb?”
“Of course I can!”
“…”
This guy, I really don’t like him.
