Ch.240240 – Misconception

<240 – Wrong Idea>

“To challenge in an individual match, you need a minimum of 5 participants. Find more people.”

Deadcat and Oknodie, who were about to face off, confronted an inconvenient reality.

They had brought Sing and Hestia, but they couldn’t even start the match without 5 people!

“I’ll participate.”

Isabelle volunteered to fill the numbers, but Oknodie firmly refused.

“Um, no!”

“Why? You’re short on people. Wouldn’t I be better than a stranger?”

“Because Isabelle could get seriously hurt.”

“What about Hestia and Sing?”

“Those two have the physical ability to minimize injuries even in dangerous situations. Not you!”

Though she knew there was a difference in skill, hearing it stated so bluntly to her face left a bitter feeling she couldn’t hide.

I guess I can only help this child with cooking.

“Any of you want to take on the challenge?”

When she casually asked the spectators, they all shook their heads with pale faces and ran away.

It made sense—if even she, an advanced class student, was rejected for being at risk, lower class students wouldn’t accept the request.

“Ah. Paper Company president! Want to play dodgeball?”

“With Deadcat? Me? An individual match?”

“Yep!”

“With one of the TOP 3 most vicious second-years? Absolutely not.”

When even a second-year senior who was a club president drew the line like that, other second-years didn’t even dare to approach.

“Find someone.”

“Don’t you have anyone you can bring, senior?”

Deadcat seemed to recall someone as her tail swished gently.

“Too weak.”

“Hmm. Then we have no choice. Isabelle. Could you bring one more person?”

“I’ll try. I happen to know an idiot with free time.”

* *

“Am I that idiot?”

“You are. You didn’t plan which events to join in advance, so you just stood in lines all day yesterday and today, wasting your time like an idiot.”

“That’s rich coming from someone who’s been running around beating up delinquents all day after rushing out this morning to help Oknodie.”

When Son Ocheon complained, Isabelle retorted:

“So you won’t help?”

“Who said that? I was just talking back because you kept nagging me.”

Son Ocheon gladly accepted the request.

He felt a little nervous.

Isabelle had been rejected.

What about him?

“Mr. Ocheon is too weak, which is problematic!”

If he heard the same words, his monkey beastkin pride would be crushed, and he’d spend days in a daze from the shock.

But anxiety tends to arise from premonitions of what might happen.

Son Ocheon himself already felt his inadequacy.

-Ocheon, you have remarkable innate dragon power. Until now, you’ve actively used your racial characteristics to become stronger more easily and quickly than others. But that’s as far as it goes.

His mana sensitivity isn’t particularly outstanding.

His endurance and strength are enough to prey on those with rudimentary mana awakening, but insufficient to compete with the true elites of the academy’s advanced class.

And since he doesn’t have any exceptional techniques to compensate for this, he can only rely on his instinctive wildness in battle.

The professors have observed his efforts.

And evaluated him coldly.

-You’re a downgraded version of Hestia.

-Battlefield-trained mercenary intuition. Berserker class rage. All superior to the power gained from unleashing wild instincts and ferocity.

-Find a reason why you should remain in the advanced class when Hestia is at the academy.

Otherwise, he would be demoted from the advanced class as early as the second semester, or at the latest by the first semester of his second year.

Son Ocheon felt considerable pressure.

On the surface, he might look like a carefree fellow who just picks banana bunches in the forest, but secretly he’s been training in an environment similar to his homeland.

Yet he still lacked confidence.

Confidence that he could escape the evaluation of being a downgraded Hestia.

While wandering aimlessly, he heard about Oknodie and helped Isabelle, as well as assisted Giselle in subduing and detaining delinquent students.

But it was clear that this approach was merely avoiding his real problem.

Then Isabelle provided another opportunity.

‘Hestia. Sing.’

They are genuine powerhouses in the advanced class who are never considered inferior to anyone in terms of physical ability.

“Hmm. Hmmmm.”

Seeing Son Ocheon, Oknodie put her hand on her chin and fell into contemplation, like a sports coach deciding whether to use a bench player.

This made both Isabelle and Son Ocheon tense up.

“Mr. Ocheon should be fine!”

“That’s the conclusion after all that deliberation?”

As he let out a laugh of relief while teasing her, an unexpected challenge came.

“It won’t work.”

“Hestia?”

“You feel it too, don’t you, Oknodie? That this senior is barely adequate to face that opponent?”

Son Ocheon’s skills are insufficient for participating here.

At Hestia’s blunt assessment, Sing glanced at him and turned away.

An attitude suggesting it wasn’t even worth discussing.

Son Ocheon realized it.

Indeed, he was inadequate.

Oknodie would probably defend him out of loyalty.

“Am I just going to be in the way?”

“I hate to say this to someone who came to help, but I’m more worried than concerned about interference.”

Worried that you might get hurt.

Even Son Ocheon, who prided himself on being stronger than most knight department aspirants, couldn’t help but feel wounded in his pride.

“Hey, squirt. Be honest. If you’re saying that out of pity, that’s an even more pitiful thing to do.”

“Honestly, it was a bit ambiguous.”

An immediate answer.

His heart grew cold.

To be rejected by a child with the greatest talent.

It felt like being told “this is your limit.”

“But I think it’ll be fine!”

“What? Are you messing with an adult?”

“Owww, that hurts!”

He tormented her by twisting his knuckles against her temple, making her groan.

Hestia, who had been looking at him with complicated eyes, seemed to accept Oknodie’s judgment and extended her hand first.

“I’m sorry. There was no ill intent, so I hope you won’t take it badly.”

“I know. I’ll be careful not to hold you back, so don’t worry about it.”

Second-year Deadcat.

First-years Oknodie, Hestia, Sing, and Son Ocheon.

Individual dodgeball match with 5 participants registration complete.

“Each of you, get inside a line.”

“What is this…?”

“60 seconds. During that time, you’ll receive points every second according to the value of the white-lined space you’re in. If a ball hits your body and falls to the ground or is caught by someone else, that person is immediately eliminated and teleported outside, ending their point calculation.”

The court was covered in chaotically drawn white lines creating areas of various sizes.

Naturally, smaller areas were worth more points.

“Would you like to choose first, senior?”

“I don’t mind if I do.”

Deadcat walked straight to the center of the court.

The smallest space located right in the middle among numerous areas.

Son Ocheon felt strong anxiety at her action of boldly taking the center while facing 1 against 4.

“Is she confident she can win even when surrounded by everyone from the narrowest spot?”

Hestia also frowned, feeling uncomfortable.

Sing had already placed his hand on his sword hilt for quite some time.

I wonder if that guy even understands what dodgeball is…?

“Don’t underestimate her. If she’s taken the high-scoring position, our goal is to eliminate her as quickly as possible. Agreed?”

“Oh. Sword guy. Surprisingly thinking about strategy properly?”

“I will stand where my sword can reach her.”

“…Are you really thinking about strategy?”

“I told you not to underestimate me.”

Sing glared at Son Ocheon with murderous eyes and asked the instructor:

“Is there a rule against cutting opponents with a sword?”

“No.”

“What if I leave my square?”

“That’s also immediate teleportation and elimination.”

“What about weapons extending outside the line?”

“It’s not elimination as long as there’s no ‘contact’ with the floor of another square. Contact includes abilities, weapons, etc. connected to your body.”

In other words, as long as the sword doesn’t touch the ground, you can swing it at an opponent in a nearby square.

“…This doesn’t feel good.”

Unlike Sing who chose a position close to Deadcat, Hestia took a middle-distance position.

Son Ocheon also read the situation and stood in a position diagonally away, as if surrounding her.

Oknodie, smiling brightly, stepped into the last vertex of the triangle.

━━━

<Individual Dodgeball Match>

◇Points per second

Deadcat 10 points

Sing 9 points

Hestia 5 points

Son Ocheon 5 points

Oknodie 4 points

━━━

“The ball is given to the challenger with the lowest score.”

Until this point, Son Ocheon thought:

That only Deadcat needed to be watched out for.

That there was no reason for him to be wary of Oknodie, whom he had helped.

It was a perfectly reasonable assumption.

And Oknodie was a child who defied common sense.

“Can I choose the type of ball too?”

“You can.”

“Then give me the hardest ball please!”

Everyone assumed she wanted a firm ball with good grip instead of one that gets squished like a rubber ball when pressed.

But when a ball that completely destroyed that common sense appeared, even the second-year senior Deadcat, who had been confidently provocative, looked confused as if wondering if this was right.

“Squirt.”

“Yes?”

“Is that really a dodgeball? It looks more like a steel ball that could match the hardness of a siege weapon for breaking castle gates.”

“Mr. Ocheon, come on. That can’t be true.”

“Right? It just looks shiny, but it’s actually a normal dodgeball, isn’t it?”

“It’s a Blue Metal Ball, much harder than steel and with higher mana conductivity!”

It seems we need to protect the senior from Oknodie rather than protecting Oknodie from Deadcat.