Ch.239239 – Dangerous Person

<239 – Dangerous Person>

“Yee-haw! This is awesome!”

Paper Company rejoiced at earning points.

He was one of the few students who had gone all-in on Oknodie.

Watching him, Miini had a realization.

‘Paper’ airplane.

‘Paper’ Company.

Was it a coincidence?

Wasn’t his name suspiciously related to paper from the start?

He was definitely the president of the <Paper Dungeon Exploration> club too.

So that’s what this guy was up to!

Once suspicion arose, everything became suspicious.

“Excuse me, could you also look into someone called Paper Company?”

“Of course. The Dark Association doesn’t only handle information about freshmen. We have quite a few sophomores working for our association as well. However, since this is a busy season for information gathering, if you want prompt information, you’ll need to pay extra.”

“I can afford that much.”

Giselle sold her the information she wanted.

After receiving it, Miini’s suspicion turned into certainty.

━━━

Paper Company

A sophomore in the lower class who was an unremarkable magic department student until the middle of the first semester, but suddenly began to stand out after perfectly passing a professor’s talent assessment test in the <Increasing Mana Capacity Through Mana Exhaustion> lecture.

Recently, he was offered a teaching assistant position starting from his sophomore year and has been frequenting the lab.

The professor’s name is <Pinkberry>.

The lab’s research topic is <Research on the Use of Mana Exhaustion Agents in Cursed Foods that Increase Mana Consumption>.

━━━

He was definitely not an ordinary character.

Mana exhaustion.

A simple but difficult method to increase mana capacity.

Normally, when living beings squeeze out mana to their limits, they experience an agonizing sensation as if their lungs are being crushed.

That sensation becomes increasingly intense as the mana container grows.

Unless one repeatedly uses mana with the determination to die, it’s virtually impossible to increase absolute mana capacity through mana exhaustion!

To be involved in such an ominous experiment.

This Paper Company guy was truly suspicious.

‘Could he be… someone from the Foundation?’

That was surprisingly possible.

Didn’t the Foundation have the image of liking such suspicious and dangerous research?

He might be the hidden mastermind from the Foundation helping Oknodie.

Sensing the danger of this man called Paper Company, Miini decided to drop the matter.

However, the student council staff member secretly spied on Miini’s investigation and took an interesting note of Paper Company.

“Hmm~ The vice president with his talent-collecting obsession would be pleased to know about this.”

“…What’s that? Did some graduation-failing ghost haunting the academy put a curse on me?”

Paper Company shuddered, feeling an inexplicable chill.

* *

Dark Princess Oknodie deceived an innocent sophomore and extorted points with evil dark magic!

Hearing the rumor that was causing a commotion throughout the academy, the hero Ishtar nodded as if it was expected.

“That’s exactly what that evil child would do.”

“Ishtar. Are you going to find that child’s individual event and fight her this time too?”

“No.”

Oknodie was dangerous.

But right now, she was surrounded by numerous protectors.

Above all, even the students who were being taken down by the strange mosquitoes containing trace amounts of dark mana that Oknodie used also had minute traces of dark mana.

“There’s no need to deal with Oknodie right now, having to worry about professors’ interference, when she’s taking care of the small fry I can’t defeat directly with my own hands.”

From the beginning, there were many students targeting Oknodie even without her involvement.

Especially, the presence approaching this time was by far the most exceptional among the sophomores she had seen.

“A sophomore from the upper class is targeting Oknodie.”

* *

After hitting the jackpot with the paper airplane, she used the points to devour a cup of tteokbokki from the seniors’ food stalls set up for the sports festival, together with Isabelle.

“I wish we could have bets like this every day!”

“I know. If points increased like this daily, we could use premium ingredients without holding back.”

“What? You’re buying ingredients with points?”

“I need to save time to do assignments.”

“You shouldn’t do that! You can’t become a sophomore without points!”

“I learned that from the instructor’s explanation too. That a freshman needs a hundred thousand points to advance to sophomore year.”

The points needed to advance to sophomore year: a hundred thousand.

The points needed to advance to junior year: a million.

The points needed to advance to senior year: ten million.

That’s truly no small fortune.

“I wonder if everyone finds ways to earn points as they advance in years? I don’t know where they earn such enormous points to advance.”

“Want me to tell you?”

“Oknodie sure knows a lot of things that even professors don’t tell us. Normally I’d be wary, but this is something I’d like to know.”

Isabelle is such a scaredy-cat.

This kind of information is basic for a player.

It’s not like some secret organization will come after you to silence you for knowing this, or professors will try to kill you. I don’t understand why she’s so afraid of such information.

Coward. Loser. Only good at cooking!

“You can borrow points from the student council or professors!”

“What if you can’t repay the borrowed points?”

“Either your family pays it back, or you become a slave to the student council or professors!”

“…Isn’t that basically the same as what that contract scammer senior was doing?”

“They didn’t collect illegally. If they’re just receiving fair compensation through labor, it’s relatively wholesome!”

“So are there many students who become such slaves from sophomore year? From what I’ve seen of the sophomores walking around the sports festival, they don’t look like it at all.”

“Slaves aren’t usually shown so openly! If they can attend lectures, it means they owe few enough points to lead a normal academy life.”

“Then what about students who end up with an abnormal level of debt?”

“They’d be locked in research labs, become professors’ test subjects, have their studies suspended, and become their master’s concubine or hunting dog, or something like that!”

It’s actually a natural consequence.

Even in reality, people with unmanageable debt end up on deep-sea fishing vessels, construction sites, working three jobs, having organs harvested, or beaten in drums, right?

It’s the fault of students who recklessly shoulder enormous debts they can’t handle because of their desire to advance.

“When you think about it, the Foundation seems kind of nice too!”

“…The Foundation? Why?”

“They say they send dangerous missions to students who lack ability, telling them to give up their dreams early! If they’re in their right mind, they’d realize ‘this is my limit’ and drop out!”

The world will be protected by players anyway, so NPCs can drop out with peace of mind!

“……”

Isabelle became deeply thoughtful.

The expression of Isabelle quietly lost in thought is somewhat cool.

I should make Isabelle ponder like this more often.

“Huh?”

After the paper airplane throwing, there were no challengers wherever we went, so I was just watching Isabelle participate, when I felt an incredible killing intent from a classroom.

Judging by Isabelle’s normal expression beside me, this person is skilled enough to direct killing intent precisely at me alone.

“You came.”

“Who are you?”

†???(???/???/???)

†Isabelle(Human/Apprentice Cook/Prospective Adventure Department)

Even with the observation experience 200 special trait <Auto Analysis>, the name isn’t visible.

It means they’ve activated the stealth experience 200 special trait <Personal Protection> to hide their name.

“Deadcat.”

“Hello!”

“You’re so polite. Makes me feel sorry.”

“Why sorry?”

“Because I want to hurt you.”

“Why?”

“My claws are only satisfied when they tear the flesh of the strong.”

Sharp claws emerged from hands covered in fur.

Unlike April the spy maid with her fake tail, this was a cat beastkin with a real tail.

“That’s too bad! I’m a freshman.”

“That’s why I got scolded by Vell. He said that as a sophomore, it’s time to follow the school rules and wait for an appropriate opportunity. I’ve waited long enough.”

Senior Deadcat provoked by licking the fur on the back of her hand with her thin tongue.

“Individual dodgeball. Participate.”

“Okay!”

“W-wait. Oknodie. Why are you accepting so readily? This senior is clearly giving off a dangerous vibe.”

“But she said she’s been waiting for me for a long time. It would be mean not to accept when she wants to fight so badly.”

“No, don’t accept it, avoid it.”

“Why? I’m going to win anyway.”

Instead of snorting or getting angry, the senior just continued grooming her fur with her tongue.

Maintaining the same staring expression she had from the moment our eyes first met.

* *

Isabelle tried to stop Oknodie.

“No. I can’t let Oknodie fight such a scary senior alone.”

“You want to join too, Isabelle? Hmm, that might be dangerous…?”

Her breath caught.

That Oknodie just mentioned “danger.”

It means this senior is extraordinary beyond what even she can see.

“Then wait a little. I’ll bring other freshmen to help participate instead.”

“Is that so?”

“I don’t care.”

Whether she brought many people or whoever she brought.

Senior Deadcat’s indifference to it all made Isabelle more urgently run around looking for strong freshmen.

“You there. If you can contact Giselle, please tell her to send strong freshmen from the upper class who are friends with Oknodie to the <Individual Dodgeball> match venue right away.”

Not long after making the request to the Dark Association member, two strong freshmen appeared.

Isabelle was startled by who they were.

“Did something happen to Oknodie?”

“Who do I need to kill?”

Hestia and Sing.

Though she had called for them herself, Isabelle wondered if this was okay, gathering such ferocious combat power.

“Well… Oknodie is playing individual dodgeball, but the sophomore opponent is dangerous…”

“…You called us to play dodgeball together?”

“Is dodgeball a sport where you can slash opponents?”

Hestia was one thing, but Sing was truly extreme.

Thinking that she had doubled the dangerous people while seeking help, Isabelle felt slightly dizzy.