episode_0010

“Kkiyaak!”

Hoyo jumps up and screams at my sudden appearance. It’s kind of funny, but I feel my face getting hot because Hoyo’s large chest is shaking violently. I have no tolerance for this kind of thing, so it’s incredibly embarrassing…

“Excuse me. Did I startle you?”

“Uh, Ain, uh, junior? Uh, Ain Baron Youngsik? What brings you here?”

Hoyo stutters and speaks while stepping on the fallen magic candle. Hoyo, sitting on the bench, just stares blankly with his eyes wide open like a surprised rabbit.

“It’s okay, Hoyo-senpai.”

“This is the club’s graveyard…”

I was a little surprised by Bandi’s words. The expression “club graveyard” itself is not something that appears in the game, but is a word used only in the gaming community.

So what is the club graveyard? As I said before, I explained that the club buildings are gathered to the east of the Hall of Knowledge.

Among the numerous club buildings, the innermost one is the most difficult to access and gather club members, which is closer to a magical area. Many players even don’t bother to go inside and don’t even approach it.

Even clubs have a lot of strange things. I know the names of the clubs all the way to the bottom of the club graveyard, but most of them don’t know exactly what they do.

However, I do know the miscellaneous book study group that these two belong to. In reality, it is a club that reads and studies novels that are fun for the general public, such as fantasy novels, martial arts novels, and light novels.

“I was just curious so I was looking around.”

This is true. It was fun to walk around the Academy, which I had only seen with crude 3D graphics from 30 years ago, except for the difficulty of lacking stamina.

“What were you two doing here?”

“Well, if I had to say, nothing?”

Since it was their second meeting, Bandi didn’t panic like yesterday and answered with his ears slightly prickled.

“I see. Is that magic herb?”

I was interested in the magic herb that Hoyo was smoking. Magic herb is a food item, but it is only described as having the effect of ‘clearing the mind’ and is not something that players can actually use.

But I was interested because I thought that if it was a VR version, wouldn’t it be possible for players to use the magic grass that they can touch normally?

“Ahaha, yeah… You don’t like males that much?”

“I don’t really think it’s a bad thing.”

I answered while watching Hoyo awkwardly smile and lightly kick the magic candle that fell on the floor. What can I say? I am also a light smoker who smokes about a pack every three days, so I am interested. Besides, it is a cigarette, so it is not harmful and it clears the mind, so isn’t it much better than cigarettes?

“Oh? That’s the first time I’ve heard a male say that.”

“Can I have one too?”

At my request, Hoyo and Bandi look at each other.

“Uh… Should I give it to you?”

“I can’t find a reason why it won’t work.”

It’s not that there aren’t any males smoking magic weed, just that they’re hard to see, so Hoyo carefully hands me one of the magic weeds.

“This is the first time I’ve seen a male smoking magic pot.”

“Oh, me too.”

“Your father doesn’t smoke?”

“I heard it’s been a really long time since you smoked?”

Anyway, since magic grass is something that has absolutely no addictive symptoms, I know that whether I smoke it or not is my personal choice. I light a fire with the vision flint Hoyo gave me, and I bite down on the magic grass and carefully inhale it.

“Hmm, mint?”

“Ah, I smoked some mint-scented magic candles.”

Let’s take a puff of the magic herb. You can feel the refreshing mint scent filling your lungs without much stimulation. Let’s take a deep puff and exhale the smoke. It really feels like a coolness is spreading through your lungs and all over your body.

“Wow, I wondered why there were so many males smoking magic potions in the books, and I think I know why.”

“They say that males who smoke magic weed are sexy, and I learned something valuable today.”

The two of them are muttering something, but I can’t hear what they’re saying, so I quietly concentrate on smoking the magic herb.

As my head clears, the gloomy feeling almost disappears. In my head where the gloomy feeling has disappeared, one assumption that I had previously ignored raises its head.

‘…What if this is reality?’

I haven’t read many fantasy novels in my life. Most of the time, I’ve read them by borrowing them from my friends when I had free time, or when I got older, I’d read them with my son when he was in school.

There’s something I remember from what I saw there.

The protagonist travels into the game world. The protagonist dies, starts the game, or is dropped into the game in some other way and travels.

“Hey, what are you thinking like that?”

“I don’t know. If we knew what the males were thinking, wouldn’t we have become proper females in the group?”

“You’re suddenly fanning me with facts?”

It’s absurd, but if you compare those things to my current situation, it’s incredibly fitting. Feeling hungry in a VR game, and the vivid sensation of reality? No matter how advanced VR is, I know it’s not to this extent.

And characters that act like they’re alive? Even though the game is advanced, it’s still just a game. Just by talking to the characters, you can get the feel of it right away. I’ve never heard of a game of this level in my life. If such a game had come out in the first place, people I know would have been all excited and pushed it on me.

“Oh, here…”

As I quickly finished lighting one magic candle, stepped on it to put it out and looked at Hoyo, he seemed to have noticed and handed me another magic candle.

A character who acts after observing the player’s reaction, a literal NPC? It can’t exist. He gives a quick glance and starts burning the second magic candle.

“Wow, the male is scary.”

“But it doesn’t mean that we will reach the level of ape-level intelligence…”

Even if not, there’s no way I could know.

Let me lay out the facts. First of all, I can’t save, load, or exit the game. There’s no sign of VR ending. Time keeps passing, and the world moves against my will.

Then there is only one answer that can be given. I just have to live for now. The purpose of Academy Story 2 is to attend the Academy for 7 years and graduate. In the current situation, the only trigger that can achieve some results is graduation.

‘Or else I’ll die…’

No one wants to die, so you have no choice but to do your best to clear the game. That’s not a problem. Academy Story 2 is not an action RPG game where monsters rush to kill the player.

When I thought about it that far, I discovered belatedly that a system message had popped up.

– The effect of Magic Herb has restored 1 level 1 spell slot.

‘This is amazing.’

The spell slots of wizards are not resources that are easily recovered. You might think that a level 1 spell slot can only cast level 1 spells, but there are many spells that can turn the tide of battle within that level 1 spell.

“Excuse me. I was smoking magic candles in front of my seniors without saying a word.”

Honestly, I had no way of knowing whether it was polite to smoke magic potion or not, but I apologized first. Besides, I don’t think these two would think badly of something like that.

“We’re okay, but…”

“It’s not just us.”

Fortunately, the two of them didn’t seem to care much about that. Now, the gloomy feeling had completely disappeared, and only the goal remained clear.

“Are you two in the same club?”

To my question, both Hoyo and Bandi nodded simultaneously.

“It’s called the Miscellaneous Book Research Group. What is a Miscellaneous Book? ”

In response to my question, Bandi quietly explains about the research group.

“Usually, books written by literary figures or celebrities are called literature. However, instead of those boring and dull books, books filled with interesting content for the enjoyment of readers, with interesting settings or fictional stories, are called miscellaneous books. We are a club that searches for those books, reads them, and studies them.”

“Higher-ups look down on miscellaneous books as kindling, but miscellaneous books are the real deal. They have all sorts of possibilities.”

Hoyo and Bandi, the Count and the Marquis Youngae, you might think they are high-ranking people, but let’s understand that they are like that.

“That’s interesting.”

“Right? But my peers and seniors and juniors don’t seem to be that interested. They’re all talking about swords, magic, politics, and economics.”

Hoyo crosses her arms and snorts as if she doesn’t like it. When she crosses her arms like that, her large chest stands out so much that it’s hard to look anywhere.

“Ain, are you interested in the miscellaneous research department?”

Bandi, who had been sitting still, looks at me with anticipation in his eyes. Looking at his eyes, I feel the thought that ‘this place is reality’ is becoming more and more solid.

“Yes, that’s right. It sounds interesting when you listen to it.”

“Oh, really? ”

At my answer, Hoyo pricks up his ears and makes a diamond-shaped mouth. This is quite, no, very cute. Then he comically rubs his hands together and plays with exaggerated gestures and speech as if he were performing a play.

“Hehehe, Baron Ian Youngsik. Then I suggest you visit our miscellaneous book research group.”

“Good. Could you please guide me?”

When he answered her by extending his hand as if he were an actor in a play, Hoyo looked at Bandi with a blank expression, as if he didn’t know she would extend her hand.

“…”

As Bandi shrugged, Hoyo awkwardly took his outstretched hand away and extended his hand to show them the way to go.

“Then, come here!”

As we climbed up the club building escorted by Hoyo, the people who were wandering around the building (all of whom were female) looked at me, Hoyo, and Bandi in turn with bewildered expressions. Are there really that few males?

We follow the two to the third floor. Hoyo opens the relatively large door right in front of us and guides us.

“Wow.”

It appears that this is the miscellaneous study group that was only mentioned in the two-person setting.

I thought my private room in the male dormitory was incredibly big, but it was nothing compared to the study room in the miscellaneous department. If I were to put my private room together like 2×4, it would be about the same size.

On either side of the antique central seating and table are several bookshelves so high that you can’t get to the top without climbing a ladder, and they are packed full of books. The walls of the room are also made entirely of bookshelves, and they are even double-layered.

When you look straight ahead, the entire large wall is decorated with gorgeous stained glass, allowing sunlight to shine through and pour down in all sorts of beautiful colors.

And someone was sitting with his back turned to the colorful lights.

“Hoyo? Bandi? Who are you?”

“Ah, Chairman. This is Baron Youngsik Ain Frostgarm.”

“Wow, you’re the first male to show interest in the miscellaneous book research group and request a tour.”

As Hoyo and Bandi introduce me, the person called Chairman stands up and approaches me.

The first thing you notice is her bright blonde hair, which falls in dark waves down to her waist. Her eyes, on the other hand, are pure black with no hint of brown.

She is shorter than Hoyo and even shorter than Bandi, who is slightly shorter. She is probably not even 150cm tall. However, her bust is as voluptuous as Bandi’s, and above all, her plump thighs stand out, which cannot be hidden even by the academy uniform.

On top of her blonde hair, she has large, pointed squirrel ears, and a large, fluffy squirrel tail that looks so good.

I didn’t know that the female squirrel, the night knight sustained duke’s daughter, would be the president of the study group.