Chapter 9: What a Coincidence (1)
The atmosphere of a classroom at the start of a new semester.
What does everyone imagine it to be like?
Naturally, you'd picture something lively and brimming with youthful energy.
But……
My class was nothing of the sort.
Everyone looked absolutely miserable.
Their eyes held nothing but negativity—gloom, resentment, and self-loathing.
And understandably so.
1-10.
That's the nameplate you see first upon entering the classroom.
Because this class is where those who scored the lowest on the Class Placement Test have been gathered.
Commonly known as the Failing Class.
It was the moment they were forced, for the first time, to face reality.
Up until the moment they'd enrolled in the Academy.
Every student sitting in this room must have been considered a genius.
They were the most outstanding among those around them, and their rate of growth must have surpassed everyone else's.
On top of that, they had gained admission to Arion Academy—the notoriously difficult institution with a competition ratio of a hundred thousand to one.
They must have believed, without a shadow of a doubt, that they possessed a greater talent than the other geniuses out there.
And yet.
When it came time to actually measure their abilities.
In reality, they were at the very bottom within the Academy.
Through the Class Placement Test, they had glimpsed just what true geniuses were made of.
So how could they not be miserable?
Ah, well—I'm not included in that, of course.
It was simply that I hadn't slept much the night before.
That's why I looked so miserable.
"Haaaaaawn!"
My yawn made heads snap in my direction for a brief moment.
Everyone glared at me with cold, sharp eyes.
"To think I ended up in the same class as an E-Rank…"
"Still, at least we're better than that guy."
"True. Even so, I'm still better than that worm."
I can hear you perfectly well, you know.
Well, even so.
If sacrificing myself could restore their shattered self-esteem.
It wasn't such a bad thing.
I decided to think of it that way and was staring blankly out the window when.
Someone sat down beside me.
Odd.
Normally, no one sits next to me.
"Good morning, Han Tae-won."
Ah, right.
There was now one person who would sit beside me.
Wavy hair of a reddish-brown hue, somewhere between curly and straight.
A distinctive person—with a knot tied around her wrist and the scent of the sea lingering on her.
"Ishmael. Good morning."
"Yes. Han Tae-won."
And that was the end of our exchange.
Ishmael simply watched me quietly.
And I averted my gaze from hers, staring blankly back out at the view through the window.
Dong~! Dong~!
The sound of bells rang out across the entire Academy.
At that very moment, the front door swung wide open.
And someone drifted in, floating through the air.
I mean that literally—their feet were not touching the ground.
That's right. They hadn't walked in with steady footsteps.
They had drifted in, floating through the air.
You might ask if it was a ghost.
Don't get the wrong idea.
Perhaps because they were short to begin with, or perhaps because it was the only way their eyes could be level with ours.
An elderly person who appeared to be about 140 cm tall.
Hair almost entirely gone, with only a bit of beard remaining.
A thoroughly stereotypical old man.
And yet.
My Perception told me.
This was no ordinary old man.
The energy emanating from them was different. The perspective with which they viewed things was different. The very world they perceived was different.
That was what it was screaming at me.
I already knew.
Generation after generation, the Failing Class had always been assigned to this person.
Arion Academy's faculty was, without question, the best in the world.
And what being the best in the world meant.
Was that every single one of them was an S-Rank Superhuman.
Most were Superhumans still active on the front lines.
And a select few—like the elderly person before my eyes—had retired.
But did that make them weaker than those still in active service?
That may not be the case.
After all, we are currently at war.
At any given moment, without warning.
Invaders from another dimension have their sights set on this world.
When you see an old man on the battlefield, you'd best be cautious.
The reason is simple.
It's not that the strong survive—it's that those who survive are the strong.
The old man floated along like that and drifted to the front of the Podium.
"Ho ho ho! Pleased to meet you all."
The moment those words ended, a hologram chalkboard suddenly flickered on.
And a black pen rose smoothly into the air.
And wrote a single name.
—Lewis Newton.
"Ho ho ho. I am Lewis Newton, and I will be your homeroom professor for the first semester. I look forward to working with you."
The students bowed their heads in turn, exchanging pleasantries.
"Ho ho ho! Very well, then—I'll take attendance."
And so the roll call went on for a while.
"Last—Han Tae-won."
I quietly raised my hand.
The professor nodded slowly.
"Ho ho ho! Good. Now, let me go over some announcements first."
Professor Newton finished speaking and gave his fingers a light snap.
With that, his name was erased, and a single new word appeared.
—Expulsion.
For a moment, Class 10 was enveloped in a chilling silence.
But that silence didn't last long.
"Ex-, expulsion?!"
"Do you have any idea how I got here?!"
"What is going on, Professor?!"
Right. Panic and fear.
That was the natural reaction.
I played along and pretended to be startled, as a matter of courtesy.
But I already knew all of this.
Ishmael beside me didn't seem particularly surprised either.
Well, she'd already know, wouldn't she.
She had enrolled under a special exemption, unlike the rest of us.
If that weren't the case, a B-Rank wouldn't have ended up in Class 10—what many called the Failing Class.
For one thing, falsifying a Superhuman's grade is a clear-cut violation of the law.
And Arion Academy is not sloppy enough to fail to identify a true grade that a mere seventeen-year-old student tried to hide.
"Ho ho ho!"
Professor Newton's voice brought the uproar inside the classroom to silence.
"First of all—if you fail to escape Class 10 by the end of the first semester. Ho ho! You will be expelled."
The students tried to say something at his words.
But the professor's lips moved faster.
"Ho ho. To be more precise—if you fail to meet the standard. You will be expelled."
"W-, what are the conditions?!"
"Ho ho! Simple. You just need to clear a certain score cutoff on the midterms and finals."
Right, simple in words only.
But try it for yourself, and you'll realize it is anything but simple.
I too, the first time—and a few times after that.
Got expelled.
Because whenever a Cadet was expelled from the Academy.
The playable character always died under suspicious circumstances.
After that, Professor Newton gave a brief overview of the Academy's academic schedule.
But most of the Cadets probably weren't taking any of it in.
Naturally.
When you might be expelled in the very first semester.
What meaning could any of the schedule beyond that hold?
"That concludes all the announcements. Ho ho ho! Now then—please change into your training uniforms and gather at Training Hall No. 4 in ten minutes."
And with that, the professor finished speaking and slowly made his way out the door.
"T-, ten minutes! Let's go!"
"R-, right."
The students, who had been sitting in a daze, snapped back to their senses and began rushing toward the Training Hall.
Of course, I got up too.
Every muscle in my body screamed.
I'd pushed myself a bit too hard yesterday.
Was that why?
Or was it because I already knew what hell was about to unfold?
Rather than the bewildered expressions and frantic words like everyone else.
My face was filled with nothing but despair, and only sighs escaped my lips.
"Hah……"
To be perfectly honest.
The first week of classes at Arion Academy was hell itself.
When it was still a game, at least it was passed off as a mini-game format, so it was a breeze.
Stats went up a bit, and if you did well, you could pick up at least one Sub Trait.
But the problem was……
Now that it had become reality, I was the one who had to do it myself.
Me, Han Tae-won!
A man whose creed is that the world beyond the blanket is a dangerous place!
I had never once gone outside to do something called exercise!
Keuaaaargh! Just kill me already……
While I was heaving what must have been my hundredth sigh.
Ishmael's voice reached me.
"Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"
"Yeah. Every part of my body is unwell."
"I see."
Ishmael gave a nod and said.
"Then, why not skip the training?"
I stared at Ishmael, who had said those words, with a steady gaze.
That perfectly innocent expression, as if she knew absolutely nothing.
But I knew.
This was an assassination attempt.
There was exactly one time.
That I had asked Professor Newton whether I could skip this training.
Of course, this was when it was still a game.
Muscle ache, headache.
I was afflicted with those two status conditions and asked to be excused—do you know what he said?
"Ho ho ho! In that case, all the more reason to train. A Superhuman cannot only fight when in peak condition. Therefore, Han Tae-won will do twice as much as everyone else——"
Let's stop there.
Just recalling it gives me chills.
"Ha ha…… I'm fine."
"Then. I'll see you at the Training Hall."
And with that, Ishmael headed toward the women's locker room.
I went to the men's locker room and took out the training uniform I'd received the night before from my Inventory.
After changing, I headed to the Training Hall.
An absolutely staggering Training Hall in scale.
What sort of Training Hall is the size of a football field?
Professor Newton was standing—no, floating—at the edge of the track in the Training Hall.
After confirming that all of us had arrived, the professor lifted his arm and pointed at the track.
"Ho ho! Twenty laps."
The other students apparently couldn't grasp what those words meant.
They just tilted their heads in confusion.
But the moment I heard it, I started running.
And I came to understand how all the muscles in my body were connected.
Ah. So this is training meant to make better use of one's body.
If that's what you're thinking—you're dead wrong.
It was simply that, because of the muscle aches, I was learning which muscles I was using each time I ran.
From thighs to calves. Shoulders and arms.
And so on.
There isn't a single muscle I'm not using.
"Kkeureup! Kkeuk! Kkeok!"
The other students overtake me in the blink of an eye.
Though the gap between us isn't enough to call it a significant difference.
There was something I'd felt while taking that mountain path yesterday.
Still, this Han Tae-won kid.
Being a Superhuman, as expected of one.
His stamina was better than that of the average adult male.
After a four-hour round-trip mountain hike, I hadn't so much as gasped for breath.
Still though…… surely running wouldn't be too much?
That thought.
Was proven completely wrong when I reached the fifth lap.
"Heoeoock! Heueheck! Hak! Hak!"
My lungs—my lungs hurt!
Even so, I gritted my teeth and ran.
If I couldn't finish this.
I'd fall that much further behind in growth.
New World: Chronicle of Superhumans' Status Window has no stats.
That said, it doesn't mean stats don't exist.
The harder I suffer here.
The faster my stats rise.
The numbers don't appear on screen.
But there's a difference you can feel in the experience as you play.
Think of it as an invisible Easter egg.
This training gives approximately twice the efficiency of the usual method of raising stats through everyday exercise.
If I failed to get all of it.
Nothing could be more dreadful than that.
My instincts were screaming at me to stop this very instant.
But my reason.
My ice-cold reason suppressed those instincts.
Not just suppressed—it was grinding them into the earth, crushing them flat to the ground.
Because if I failed to do this, death was guaranteed.
I don't want to die.
I was reminded once again.
Of the fact that this godforsaken world was destined for destruction.
"Heoeoock! Heoeoock!"
Perhaps it was the adrenaline flooding my system in excess.
At some point, the muscle aches and the pain in my lungs had eased—just a little.
Ding!
Along with a bright notification chime.
—You have acquired a new Sub Trait.
[Pain Resistance (D)] You develop a faint resistance to pain.
Huh?
Suddenly, strength began welling up from within my body.
Sweet~.
So sweet I felt like my teeth would rot.
"Heok! Heuhe. Heok!"
I kept breaking into a smile.
"That's fascinating."
Someone muttered beside me at that moment.
I glanced sideways and saw Ishmael running alongside me.
All while breathing steadily, without breaking a single drop of sweat.
For some reason a sudden pang of unfairness surged within me.
"Huh? Heok! Heok! What did you say?"
I snapped at her sharply like that.
But she shook her head slowly.
"I didn't say anything."
You did though? You just said something? Out with it!
Is what I wanted to say.
But I didn't even have the strength to open my mouth.
So I just kept my eyes forward and ran.