Ch.1919 – The First Hurdle of the Entrance Exam

<19 – First Entrance Exam Gate>

Following the monks’ guidance, the advanced entrance exam venue was the entrance to a rocky mountain covered with gravel and boulders.

A total of 500 people.

The advanced exam participants, sitting scattered and far apart from each other, were few in number.

“Little mouse. You seem quite relaxed for someone who needs a caretaker.”

“Hmph. That’s rich coming from someone who should be looking for the ‘Baby Deer’.”

“Ugh… you, you saw that?”

“Why don’t you go find your ‘Baby Deer’ suffering among those losers?”

The basic exam venue we passed on our way here would probably be swarming with tens of thousands of participants filling the open space when the exam starts.

Compared to that, the 500 chosen advanced participants were truly few.

I would have preferred if the monkey beastkin had gone to the other venue since he looked strong, but it seems even a buffalo isn’t stupid enough to throw away his opportunity.

“Baby Deer is just shy. She probably felt intimidated by her lack of skill to accept a man like me… It’s not that she dislikes me.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever.”

What she probably lacked was the patience needed to endure your murderous pickup lines.

“Miss Oknodie. Being relaxed is good, but you should start getting tense. It seems our competitors don’t approve of us.”

The man with the always-impressive beard, merchant Giselle.

I don’t know how either this monkey beastkin or this human passed the age restriction at the entrance, but they sat beside me and spoke.

I didn’t particularly mind.

Most of the others, except these two, were glaring intensely at me, a child.

They seemed determined to target me if the exam gate involved any kind of confrontation.

“That little brat?”

“Yes, that’s her.”

When I prick up my ears, the voices I hear are quite concerning.

Isn’t this ace-targeting happening too quickly?

“Hanging out with a lowly beastkin.”

“Shows her level.”

“No magic gauntlet armor.”

“No impressive magic sword either.”

“Having a servant doesn’t change the fact she’s probably just a minor rural noble.”

The participants who grew up with elite education from childhood, establishing connections within noble social circles, had already divided into factions.

Their number was roughly thirty.

Even if I started as a noble, it seems impossible for me to join their alliance.

“She’s dressed like an adventurer. Do you know her?”

“Never seen her before.”

“More importantly, she’s just a kid.”

“Doesn’t seem to be a famous mercenary.”

“Then we have no obligation to look after her.”

Adventurers who had achieved remarkable feats across different regions before challenging the entrance exam had also formed groups of twenty or thirty to counter the nobles, occasionally glancing in my direction.

It seems they won’t accept anyone who might be troublesome or burdensome, as no one approached to talk to me.

When I was a muscular male character, these guys would approach first and become annoying, which irritated me, but being completely ignored feels bad in its own way.

“Little mouse. You’ll wear yourself out if you worry about every little thing.”

“Thanks for the advice.”

Caring too much only hurts me.

What’s the point of being on edge alone while everyone else is relaxing and just glaring?

“AAAAARGH!!”

“You should have chosen your opponent more carefully.”

That person causing trouble clearly doesn’t agree with my thinking.

“That bastard cut off another participant’s arm!!”

Under a tree providing good shade from the sun.

A dangerous-looking swordsman cleanly sliced off the wrist of someone who crossed the circle he had drawn on the ground with his scabbard.

From the original game “Graduating from Academy by Luck.”

He’s Xing, a swordsman from the Eastern Empire, one of the playable characters who acts as a supporting character if not chosen by the player.

Playable characters are high-performance academy characters that can be unlocked by accumulating massive achievement points or purchased with real money.

When they become NPCs, their personalities are, as you can see, frightening.

He’s difficult to befriend but undeniably exceptional in performance—a terrifying character.

If I keep watching, another troublesome event will start.

So I tightly closed my eyes and covered my ears.

[You have completed the boarding event.]

[You arrived at the exam venue 15 hours 20 minutes 0 seconds early.]

[You acquire 55200 points as an early arrival bonus.]

In the game, this would be when the feature that converts early arrival time to points (1 point per second) would appear.

By collecting points, you could visit the point merchant who appears once every few months to purchase various functions or unique items necessary for game progression.

Of course, now that the game has become reality, I have no idea where the points are, so I’ll just forget about them.

<Bloodthirsty Swordsman Event>

A swordsman from the distant Eastern Empire has caused a disturbance.

A henchman from a gang seeking his shaded spot…

Like the straw hat girl’s event, these likability events are full of landmines.

Even if you struggle to complete them, you only gain likability with female characters who only qualify for the regular exam venue, and in the game, it just wastes precious time and points.

The funniest part is that the straw hat girl sometimes fails the exam anyway.

What’s the point of an extra likability event?

Play the sweet fantasy guy role, lose points, the girl fails, and all that’s left is inefficiently spent time.

It’s a landmine event designed to break beginners’ spirits.

The Eastern swordsman Xing’s event is no different.

A great noble and his henchmen coveting his spot.

If left alone, they’ll growl at each other and eventually quiet down.

What if the player intervenes?

It unnecessarily leads to provocation and fighting.

‘I should just sleep.’

Yawning, I picked a reasonably tall tree that no one was eyeing, climbed up the trunk, and leaned against a branch.

I could feel the monkey beastkin and Giselle looking up at me in bewilderment from below, but I won’t give up this perfect spot where I’ll never be ambushed while sleeping.

“Huh. That one’s quite nimble. Is that a monkey too?”

“Let’s rest down here.”

This tree trunk is too hard.

I miss my bed.

I already miss living with Jona and Leaf.

As I was about to close my eyes while watching the setting sun, something flew up from below and landed on the branch.

“Cover yourself with this. You’ll catch a cold.”

A cold? Me?

I was about to snicker, but the incoming breeze made my skin feel slightly chilly.

Ah, that’s right…

I’m not a muscular hunk right now.

I took out the blanket, covered myself, and threw a piece of jerky from my backpack to Giselle.

Thud

“Ouch.”

That foolish old man.

He couldn’t catch it and dropped it.

* *

Dong─!

The day broke with the sound of a bell.

<Entrance Exam Event>

The entrance exam finally begins!

If you fail to enter the academy and get cut at the entrance, your adventure is as good as over.

Pass all the difficult gates and succeed in the exam.

While I climbed down from the tree and loosened up with some stretching, other participants around were also warming up and preparing themselves.

“Thanks for the blanket.”

“You don’t need to return it. My backpack has an inventory function—it’s a magic backpack.”

“That’s not it. I have nowhere to put this.”

“Ah.”

Giselle sheepishly put the blanket into his backpack.

This old man is too careless.

Does he not realize that several nearby participants’ eyes gleamed at the mention of “inventory”?

I guarantee more than a dozen participants are excited at the thought of stealing his magic backpack.

Dong─!

The bell sound continued about five more times.

When all the bell sounds stopped, a bald monk climbed onto the platform.

“As of now, entry to the advanced exam venue is closed.”

After hearing such loud bell sounds several times, no one would be lazy enough to sleep through it.

Snore─.

Wheeze─.

No ‘human’ would be lazy enough.

Following the monk’s gaze, all participants’ eyes turned toward me and Giselle.

More precisely, toward the large monkey beastkin sleeping loudly behind us.

“Mr. Son Ocheon. Please wake up now.”

“Oh. Is it starting?”

The man who didn’t budge at the loud bell sounds and participants’ conversations suddenly got up at Giselle’s word.

Only then did the monk smile kindly and speak again.

“I am Monk Myungho, in charge of this first gate. Of course, I am no ordinary monk. I am a warrior monk who serves the academy, specializing in securing, storing, exorcising, and guiding ghost-realm monsters and cursed objects to nirvana.”

It is never easy to gain recognition and collaboration from Gift Academy, the world’s premier educational institution acknowledged by every nation.

To maintain its world-class reputation, Gift Academy employs only the most outstanding talents in each field.

The warrior monks of the Eastern Empire were no exception.

“In the Western Kingdom, the 12 guardian deities protect all people, but in the Eastern Empire, there are no powerful divine entities. Instead, enlightened individuals claim a town or a mountain as their domain and protect it.”

“In the East, those who guard mountains are called mountain gods, and stone pagodas are built as symbols of the folk religion that calls upon these gods.”

“A stone pagoda is simply stones stacked high. The mountain gods pay more attention depending on the number of layers and height of the pagoda, so it’s important to build pagodas numerous and tall.”

As expected, my prediction from the entrance was correct.

“The sincerity that you, who wish to be accepted into the world’s premier academy, must show to me, your examiner, is no different.”

“In this rocky mountain exam venue, I, humble as I am, will act as the mountain god, evaluating your stone pagodas and determining whether you pass.”

“Until the exam ends, you must build the tallest stone pagoda using as many stones as possible.”

This exam is about building stone towers.

And this exam is…

“Of course, if your pagoda collapses or if you become unable to continue the exam when it ends, you will automatically fail.”

A gate where it’s easier to destroy others’ carefully built towers than to build your own.

The perfect exam for trolls to run wild.