Ch.171171 – The Curse of the Upper Grades

<171 – The Curse of the Upper Years>

“That Zaku guy, always saying unnecessary righteous things. What mental illness is he talking about? He doesn’t even know the Foundation’s situation.”

Late at night, Primer, who had infiltrated the senior student area, grumbled to himself as he recalled Zaku who had hurled insults at him.

He knew that talking to himself made him look foolish, but he simply couldn’t get over his anger.

‘The Foundation’s support isn’t fair.’

Just as the Academy regularly provides living allowance points, the Foundation also periodically provides scholarships and supplies to scholarship students.

Support funds and supplies distributed through the Foundation’s hidden collaborators and support forces.

He had never thought it was tacky. At least not until he heard certain news recently.

-You know Oknodie, right? I heard he has an amazing butler.

-They say he’s a representative from the Foundation who leaves the kid alone until late at night and only meets him briefly at dawn before leaving.

-Why don’t his parents come directly? Isn’t that too much?

-He’s an abused child.

-He’s always smiling, but somehow it’s scary. Like he might suddenly commit a terrible crime. If he’s in a bad mood, don’t you think he might extract people’s souls?

-Let’s not get involved with him.

The usual malicious rumors about Oknodie. But among them was a story that couldn’t be ignored.

‘He met directly with a Foundation butler?’

Unlike the group trainees at the training grounds who receive collective instruction from instructors and seniors, these were dedicated teachers assigned only to select children with outstanding talents.

That was the identity of those called “butlers” within the Wiheomhae Foundation.

‘Filthy silver spoon brat.’

Those who receive special treatment and preferential treatment just because they were born with slightly better innate talents!

Young masters and ladies with butlers were objects of envy and simultaneously objects of hatred for the apprentice scholarship students who lived in groups of dozens or hundreds.

-What makes us any different?

-I’m sure I have other talents that the higher-ups haven’t noticed.

-Right. The instructor must have done a sloppy examination.

The hopeful circuit of thinking that maybe I’m a silver spoon too.

The resentment that my inadequacy is somehow the instructor’s fault.

Unable to vent their frustration on the instructors, they instead focused on the children with butlers who were surrounded by rumors.

The identity of one of those talented young masters and ladies had been revealed.

The only publicly acknowledged scholarship student from the Foundation.

An enviable guy who doesn’t hide his identity and receives generous support through already exposed channels.

‘I’m not the only one who hates you.’

Primer isn’t aiming to be the top scholarship student despite being a lower-class student without any backing.

「Use this item to make an example of the top scholarship student. If you can’t hold back those who are ahead, you’ll only hasten your own disposal.」

The secret coded message given to him during the last visit contained an order to target Oknodie, along with an item to help with this task.

It was a portable curse storage device that could store and transfer the Academy’s curses!

[First-year students prohibited]

[If entry is absolutely necessary, it must be with an instructor’s permission and accompaniment.]

Entering the upper-year area with such an ominous warning sign made him feel nervous.

‘I sense someone.’

Recalling his Foundation training, Primer quickly found a hiding place and concealed his presence.

He heard several second-year students coming out of a nearby research lab, talking among themselves.

“Did you hear about the human model room? This week it’s missing the right hand.”

“So we have to pretend we don’t have a right hand by hiding our arm in our clothes? That’s such a hassle. If it were internal organs, there’d be nothing to hide since no one can see them anyway.”

“I know, right?”

‘…Internal organs? Human models?? Right hand???’

What on earth is happening in the second-year human model room?

It sounds like an extremely dangerous curse.

Maybe he could steal the human model from the room and place it in front of Oknodie to curse him to lose his right hand.

Primer was secretly intrigued, but unfortunately had to give up the idea when he heard that a professor had taken it for a lecture.

“My head hurts. Midterm prep is too intense. Let’s go rest in the garden.”

“Ah, Bigstone. We shouldn’t go there. I heard from a senior in necromancy that the dimensional seal has weakened because of Curse Week, and it might be connected to the Forest of the Dead in the undead realm.”

“Ugh, that’s a real turn-off. What kind of academy has more places we can’t go than places we can, even in second year? Makes me want to drop out.”

“You have to hang in there until third year to get recognition. Haven’t you heard that if you tell people you dropped out in second year, you won’t get any respect?”

The other second-years’ conversations didn’t contain much information about curses.

Even when they did, they were either too large, massive, or vague to be contained.

Giving up on getting information here, Primer decided to venture into more dangerous territory.

[No entry for students below third year]

[First and second-year students may die if they do not follow the escorting instructor’s directions when entering.]

Instead of strict security measures, there was just a single rope strung across the stairs leading to the third-year area, as if daring those with a death wish to cross it.

The sight of the ominous black straw rope with bells attached, resembling something you’d see at a shrine, filled him with anxiety.

‘What if I end up dying myself while trying to get back at Oknodie?’

No, that’s not right.

He needed to think in reverse here.

If even half the rumors were true, how could mere second-year area curses affect Oknodie?

He was already using first-year area curses for training purposes.

‘I’ll show him. I’ll show him the curses that exist in the third-year area. The true terror of curses!’

Summoning his courage, Primer crossed the black rope and entered the third-year area.

Unlike the second-year area where he frequently had to hide from students who were studying or researching during lecture hours, the third-year area was eerily quiet.

Though he had only climbed up one more floor, it felt like he had entered a place where no one lived.

‘Are there really people here?’

When he peeked through the window of a lit classroom, surprisingly, there was no one inside.

‘What the hell? What is this?’

As he backed away in confusion, suddenly a door opened right in front of him with a sliding sound.

“Aaaaah!”

A g-ghost!!

As he fled in panic, a human figure slowly appeared behind him.

“What’s with that guy? Peeking into our classroom during invisibility lecture and then running away. Could he be one of those perverted stalkers I’ve heard about who try to catch partial invisibility failures where underwear or bare skin becomes visible?”

Unaware of the third-year student’s grumbling, Primer ran frantically until he hit a dead end.

According to the campus guide, each floor should have had the same structure, and there should have been stairs on the opposite side of the corridor, but the path was blocked in the middle.

‘Why? A dead end? Why?’

Suddenly, handprints began to emerge from the wall.

Like a demon crawling out of a hellpit, the handprints stretched out, and eventually a human face began to form, paralyzing his reason.

He had to escape.

Primer opened the nearest classroom door, entered, and closed it behind him to hide.

“What the hell? I was coming through the wall to tell him not to go in there, and he goes in by himself?”

The senior who had come through the wall stood awkwardly, debating whether to open the door, then decided to just leave.

Of course, unaware of this fact, Primer paced around inside the classroom he should never have entered.

‘What is this place… Ah, forget it. I don’t need to know. Let’s just open the window and jump out.’

His legs might get a bit injured, but it was a sacrifice he was willing to make if it meant escaping the third-year area.

As he was about to pull back the curtain and open the window in this creepy room full of mannequins, the mannequin next to him suddenly closed the curtain again.

“!?”

Primer was too shocked to even make a sound.

A statue spoke to him.

“Don’t create light. This is an art room with a petrification curse, so if you expose yourself to light or go outside, you’ll become a real statue for a while.”

“A-are you human…? I want to get out of here… Please let me out…”

“If you want to leave, pretend to be a statue for an hour to be recognized as one of them by the murderous statues, then quietly exit through the door. Otherwise, you’ll be caught.”

The statue’s head popped open, revealing a real human head inside.

Looking around at the third-year’s words, he saw that the mannequins that had filled the art room had somehow gathered around him, holding weapons.

In that brief moment when he had pulled back the curtain and light had entered through the window, he had drawn their attention and nearly been killed.

‘This is completely different from the lowest-level curses where you just suffer alone by stepping into suspicious places!’

A terrifying curse where the curse itself has physical form and will harm people if they don’t follow the rules.

This couldn’t and shouldn’t be contained in a portable curse storage device.

If those statues that go berserk at the sight of light were released outside, they might kill not just Oknodie but all the first-year students.

“How do you get inside a statue…?”

“With decomposition and recomposition magic.”

“I haven’t learned that yet…”

“Then die.”

“Please help me. Please…”

“Press the rescue button on your magic watch. You’ll get fined, but the instructors will save you.”

Following the senior’s advice, he pressed the rescue button, and thankfully, instructors wearing blackout covers arrived at the scene, covered him with a blackout sheet as well, and dragged him outside.

“1000 points deducted. This is the penalty for entering a dangerous area without permission, so consider it the price of your life and accept it gracefully.”

“I’m grateful enough just to be rescued…”

After surviving the art room’s curse through great hardship, Primer trudged back to the safe zone alone.

“Oh no, the curse storage device…”

He must have lost it in the commotion.

He had no choice but to consider that part of the price for his life too.

Primer’s shoulders slumped even more as he walked away.

* *

“Oknodie. Why are you breaking the ceiling tiles?”

“If you make a straight hole here at this time, an item that can store curses will appear!”

“Why would something like that be there…?”

The trio of Oknodie, Titosoga, and Hestia had secretly infiltrated the second floor during curse resistance training.

When they made a hole, laser pointer-like objects, sharp carving knives, and long fingernails came pouring down from above.

In addition to the Curse Week event items, they also obtained plenty of sharp objects for memorization and material items – as expected, the high-level player spot had good cost-effectiveness.

“That’s a bit scary. I hear something trying to break through the hole to harm us.”

“That’s because it’s the third-year area!”

“Eek. Do third-years live with things like that…?”

Unlike Titosoga who was terrified, Hestia, a mercenary with thick nerves, calmly pointed to the looted items first.

“Oknodie. I followed you because I was worried, but what are you planning to do with that item?”

“It’s a shame not to do resistance training during sleeping hours. If I store curses in here and release them in my room, I can do resistance training even while sleeping!”

“Ah… I see…”

“Do you want to try too, Hestia?”

“I’ll pass.”

Even though Hestia felt the need for curse resistance training, she wasn’t ready to go this far yet.

“Will you refuse if I ask to borrow it later?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You really won’t give it to me? It’s only for one person!”

“…Could you please stop talking about the curse storage item like it’s a bowl of noodles you boil at night?”