episode_0008

“How about this?”

“Well, it suits you well.”

“That’s right.”

Because a wizard who knows ten or twenty attack spells will be needed in more places than a wizard who only knows one or two attack spells. That’s why Lulu is so great. Among the spells she can use, there are almost no spells she can’t use.

“I think this is enough.”

After adding the school supplies and options to the cart, I decided that this was enough because the academic achievement increase option was over 100%. Unless you have advanced options in the latter half of the game, it is impossible to exceed 200% in the beginning, so you only need to exceed 100%. Even if you only get 100%, you will be overflowing with enough to see the game’s ending.

“That, that, that’s great?”

“But Hoyo, is it that great that you bought all the school supplies?”

“I don’t know, I can’t think of anything to say…”

Although they were mumbling something unintelligible, I shook their hands and greeted them, feeling grateful that they had waited for me to finish buying everything, whether I liked it or not.

“Thank you, Countess Hoyo, Marquis Bandi, for joining us. Were you both in your second year?”

“Yes, yes!”

“…”

Hoyo responded to my words with a completely different voice, and Bandi responded like a broken robot. Still, I was able to start the game and laugh out loud for the first time because I felt good that each of my favorite characters had their own unique personalities.

“Then you are my senior. I will take good care of you in the future.”

I felt ashamed to waste more of their time, so I bowed and said goodbye, thinking that we could meet again later. I decided to go back to the dormitory to think about whether I should expand my magic pool with these, increase my spell slots first, and how much I should increase my strength, endurance, and stamina.

“This is definitely it. This is love!”

“Another weird nonsense… I have to agree with this…”

(Although he thought he was walking briskly) Hoyo and Bandi were staring blankly at Ain’s back as he disappeared towards the male dormitory with a cute gait. They had no choice but to stand blankly at the entrance of the store for a while to wash away the aftereffects of being with him.

“But why did such a handsome male greet us first and act friendly?”

“That’s the mystery. Oh, is that your mom?”

“The Marquis? Is this an arrangement you prepared because you feel sorry for us living our lives without any contact with men at this age?!”

“Of course that won’t happen.”

As Bandi muttered with a weak smile, Hoyo answered with a serious face.

“But that’s the only reasonable reason we can come up with. Have you ever had a pretty boy come to you first?”

“Not at all. If it was a dream, wouldn’t you know?”

“Me too… What on earth could it have been?”

The two people, who belong to the Otaku Study Group (a general term for novels written for the general public rather than by famous celebrities or literary writers) and can be called this world’s version of ‘otaku’, no matter how hard they try, it seems like there’s no way they can figure out why Ain showed interest in them first.

“By the way, didn’t I clearly say ‘Please take care of me in the future’?!”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

When Hoyo shouted as if he remembered something, Bandi also recalled Ain’s last words and stammered in agreement.

“Then it’s okay if I pretend to know you when we meet again?”

“Is this true?”

Hoyo, who said that, raised his right hand to the sky with tears in his eyes as if he had won some kind of competition and shouted.

“Hoyo Iron Foxtrot, finally a ray of sunshine in my life!”

“Oh, oh!”

People entering and leaving the store didn’t even pay attention to Bandi, who raised his hand along with Hoyo.

“The game won’t end.”

He stared blankly at his watch and muttered.

As far as I remember, the entrance ceremony started at around 9:30 AM yesterday. And after waking up, skipping breakfast, and waiting for the VR to end due to the 24-hour limit, it was already noon.

Even though it is VR, there is no technology that can manipulate time, so if one hour passes in the game, one hour passes in real time as well.

It’s common sense that VR devices are forced to shut down for the sake of the user’s health when running for 24 hours, even though I’ve never used VR before. But it’s already been 3 hours since 24 hours. And there’s still no response.

Even I’m starting to feel hungry again. I ignored it yesterday because I was too busy, but feeling hungry in VR is a ridiculous phenomenon.

My anxiety was growing, but I couldn’t stop myself from wandering around the uselessly spacious private room, unable to stop all sorts of thoughts from running through my head.

‘My son came last week and won’t be back until next month. The water purifier inspection will be in two weeks at the earliest… How can I get out of the game? What will happen to me?’

Thoughts are constantly running through my head. If I don’t get out of the game, my body outside will just die in a state of sleep, unable to do anything. Some say that they have a function that sends an alarm to the insurance company along with related insurance in case something goes wrong while playing a VR game… My device doesn’t have that function.

Besides, I’ve been living alone for a very long time since my wife passed away shortly after my son was born. I don’t have any hobbies other than gaming, so I don’t really have any friends to visit…

Then my thoughts stopped at one point.

‘I haven’t written a will yet.’

As soon as I thought about it, I felt my mood sink. I sat down on the bed helplessly… All sorts of thoughts were running through my head and sweeping through my entire body.

After some time had passed, I came to my senses at the sound of a ‘gurgling’.

When I looked at my watch, it was 2 o’clock. I laughed in vain, thinking, “How did time pass so quickly?”

As a faint smile appeared on my face, thoughts different from those that had been wandering through my head until then began to appear.

I don’t know why you’re hungry in the game, but there must be a reason. If you spread your hand and squeeze the pink flesh ball, which is different from the black fur color, the feeling is vivid.

No matter how much I worry about it, the fact that I can’t leave the game doesn’t change, and once I get past the problem that’s out of my hands, the only thing that remains is the simple result of being hungry. Even if you’re disappointed, time passes. So just do what you can.

As I put on my academy uniform, I remember the day my wife left me. I had never felt more hopeless or miserable in my life, but it was similar to when I sat on the dark living room sofa, my mind wandering to my son, who was babbling.

I thought the same thing back then. My wife is dead, and my son and I are alive. There was a time when I thought that if my wife doesn’t come back to life, I should do what I can.

And then I remember the face of my son whom I met last week. Did he really say that he would get married next year? His girlfriend of two years was glaring at him as he kept saying that.

As I was leaving my private room and going down the stairs of the dormitory, I saw three familiar faces. Damyeon, Na-ri, and Bada were coming up the stairs.

“Huh, Ain?”

The three of them looked at me with puzzled expressions. Of course, they came out of the room only after lunch was over.

“Hello.”

“Have you not had lunch, Ain? (“Oh, is Ain okay?” “Yes, I’m okay.”) Come to think of it, I don’t remember meeting you in the morning either. It’s not good to starve, so I think it’d be better to go to a restaurant or something.”

“Yeah, we left just before the restaurant closed~”

Damyeon was worried that I skipped a meal, and Nari told me that the restaurant was closed again. Bada nodded silently.

“Are you okay? Your expression is so bad.”

“It’s okay. Thank you for your concern.”

“If you have any difficulties, please tell me. We are in the same class, right?”

Damyeon, who showed the same pretty smile as yesterday, said hello and went back up the stairs. I also bowed to the three and went down the stairs at a brisk pace.

When I come to my senses, I find myself standing in front of the main gate of the Hall of Knowledge.

“…”

What did you eat for dinner? Did you eat something like pasta? I don’t remember meeting anyone in particular. After the entrance ceremony, it’s the weekend, and after you register for classes over the weekend, the real games start on Monday.

I can’t help but laugh for a moment. Even though I was lost in all sorts of thoughts, my body came to the Hall of Knowledge on its own to sign up for classes, so I guess I’ve been playing this game for a long time.

“I’ve never played a game with such a sinking feeling.”

I managed to overcome the feeling of being in a state of despair, but that didn’t mean my anxiety had gone away. I tried to organize what I needed to do to prevent my mind from sinking.

Once inside the temple of knowledge, there are plenty of empty lecture rooms where you can organize your thoughts on your own, provided you know the internal structure.

As I went further into the building, the number of people passing by began to decrease. As I entered the empty lecture room I had imagined, it became quiet all around. It seemed like the outside noise was automatically blocked out by magic so that I could concentrate on the lecture.

“Let’s see…”

Open the schedule window from the game menu. Normally, you would just rearrange the subjects you want to take in the schedule window and click the confirm button to complete the course registration, but here, a message is displayed that says, “Once you have completed the course registration, please confirm it at the Academic Affairs Office.”

First, the required course, ‘Basic Lecture’, must be taken 4 times a week, so it is arranged from Monday to Thursday. After that, the non-required course, but due to credit issues and the fact that you must take the healer build, therapies, medicine, and vision studies are arranged after lunch.

And between the basic lectures and lunch, we squeeze in basic physical education into the vague empty time.

This way, from Monday to Thursday, you can roughly complete the course registration, starting with basic lectures and ending with therapeutics, medicine, and vision studies. Since Academy Story 2 often involves solving the game through other activities in addition to lectures, the lectures are relatively short.

“But in the lower grades, it’s good to listen to a lot of lectures to build up your status…”

If you finish registering for classes like this, you will have completely free time after about 2~3 PM. You can do some outside activities or other things during this time, but that is only if you have a special purpose or have a special build.

So, I filled about 2-3 hours every day with ‘free classes’ before dinner time.

Free classes are a system where only students in their third year or lower can take the subject, and you can choose any subject you want from the lectures offered during that time.

The schedule that is usually recommended for beginners is to include basic lectures and subjects that directly affect the build, and use the remaining time for these free classes to supplement helpful statuses at that time. This is a method that I, who have been playing the game for a long time, faithfully follow.

Since there are items that increase academic achievement and a study set, attending lectures will be a great benefit both in terms of numbers and in terms of intimacy with characters.

Instead, I cleared my schedule on Friday. This way, I can do whatever I want from Friday to the weekend, but it’s good to have 3 consecutive days of the week free to accomplish various goals or quests.

“Let’s go to the academic affairs office and make sure.”

As I stood up from my seat muttering to myself and turned around, I saw something big and jumped up without realizing it!

“Mom, surprise!”