Ch.6969 – Hot Pursuit

by fnovelpia

<69 – Hot Pursuit>

Course 1, Swamp Breakthrough.

If you look carefully at the ground, you can distinguish between swampy areas and solid ground.

[You’ve cleared the swamp course without falling into the swamp once thanks to your excellent observation skills.]

[Observation Experience +5]

[Terrain Analysis Experience +2]

[Rapid Reconnaissance Experience +1]

[You hit all targets while passing through Course 1.]

[Moving Shot Experience +3]

[Concentration Experience +3]

[You passed through the swamp course together with a classmate who was falling behind.]

[Good Child Experience +3]

[Charisma Experience +1]

Passing the course easily was expected, but one of the skill increases was unexpected.

Why did Good Child increase more than Charisma when I should have gained more Charisma for my performance?

“There are strange poles set up in a row ahead! W-what should we do, Oknodie?!”

“Don’t panic and run calmly.”

Dozens of hurdles set up in succession.

Skola in lane 1 and Layve in lane 2 were already far ahead, tackling what seemed like an overwhelming number of hurdles.

“They’ve already covered half the distance?!”

“You’ll trip if you get impatient, you know?”

A warning sign stood prominently.

Morb wavered between anxiety about falling behind and fear of losing points.

“If you run with rhythm and shoot with a ‘tat tat pot’ feeling when targets appear, it’s easy!”

As if that would work, you talented freak.

Though Morb made a tearful face as if crying out, he still managed to draw his bowstring.

Though his aiming time was short and he couldn’t even hit the target, standing still and continuously shooting at targets would result in greater point deductions due to time penalties.

He ran, deliberately ignoring the targets that caught his eye.

More hurdles appeared ahead.

Stepping on the footboard in front, he compressed the spring.

‘I don’t know the timing!!’

Boing!

As the spring extended, he gained momentum and leaped high over the hurdle.

He barely managed to clear the hurdle without knocking it down, flailing in mid-air, but it took considerable time to regain his posture.

“Damn it, give us a test appropriate for first-years!”

“Should we run a bit slower?”

Morb’s complaints seemed endless.

His expression changed only after saying those words and looking back at my extremely relaxed appearance.

“Why are you still running beside me?!”

“What’s wrong with that! I just want to run side by side with someone from the same group.”

I was even considering pretending to sprain my ankle to let him go ahead.

That’s when I was contemplating such match-fixing.

“Whoa! The guy in lane 4 suddenly started running like crazy!”

“Is that guy really insane?!”

“The gap with the leading group is closing!!”

The tactical studies seniors shouted in astonishment.

The unexpected turn of events was happening right beside me.

Morb had suddenly awakened.

* *

‘Ugh. What am I doing?’

The top student of our year—a child—is having her grades dragged down in real-time for my sake.

Is it humiliating to receive help from a child?

Is it shameful to be worse than a child?

That’s not the issue.

I’m becoming an obstacle, causing someone who could run faster than anyone to fall behind.

“The A group’s top student isn’t all that great.”

“Tch, how annoying. I thought she’d at least come in second.”

“Is the 981st class frontier full of nothing but bugs? How could someone like that be the top student?”

She’s even being insulted by seniors she’s never met.

‘Don’t be ridiculous. This child isn’t someone you can casually disrespect!’

I already owe Oknodie a great debt for the club membership issue.

Instead of repaying her kindness, I’m repaying her with enmity.

My pride as a man is being questioned.

Are you even a man?

‘This isn’t what a real man does!’

What makes a true man?

Someone who knows how to repay kindness.

Unlike those privileged nobles.

Growing up in an ordinary commoner family, Morb wasn’t taught any remarkable skills or mysterious knowledge.

Instead, he inherited one teaching from his father that was more valuable than all of those combined.

-Morb. Be a man who knows how to repay kindness.

Oknodie, who gave up even the record competition for his sake.

She must feel regretful too.

Yet she smiles, saying rankings don’t matter.

How upset must she be beneath that calm face?

How much must she resent him for not running better?

‘I know. With my skills, even jumping over these unfamiliar hurdles and shooting arrows at targets while moving are all too much for me.’

At this rate, both his grades and Oknodie’s grades, who was matching his pace, would be ruined.

He couldn’t have everything.

So he made a decision.

To be a man who knows how to repay kindness.

Just as Oknodie had saved him when he had considered giving up, even catching up from behind.

Now it was his turn to save Oknodie.

“Oknodie. From now on, I’m going to run with all my might!”

“What? That’s impossible with your skills, Morb.”

“That’s right. Running the course, jumping over tracks, finding targets, shooting while moving. None of it is easy for an ordinary person like me.”

Morb’s feet began to pick up speed.

He no longer hesitates as the track approaches.

Because he’s not afraid of falling or getting hurt anymore.

What he fears now isn’t such trivial things.

It’s making Oknodie upset because of him.

It’s everyone dismissing Oknodie’s potential.

“Whoa!! The guy in lane 4 has gotten incredibly fast!”

“But at that speed, he can’t aim at the targets!”

“What is that guy thinking?!”

The question the seniors raised was the same one Oknodie had.

Morb was a lower-class extra.

Even in the original game, he was less than a minor character with a name.

Student A, living in the academy without a single line of dialogue.

Just someone existing in the same space.

Material for boosting self-esteem by providing lower grades.

Such a Morb couldn’t possibly cause an upset.

If a student had that much potential, they wouldn’t have remained an extra in the first place.

A name she couldn’t remember even after playing <Graduating from Academy with Luck> hundreds or thousands of times meant someone who always failed.

Someone who provided the bottom grades among the 981st class of Gift Academy, a dropout who could be expelled at any moment without surprise.

‘I can hit the targets, but can Morb?’

As soon as she shot her arrow while running, she knew.

This one would hit.

Taking a moment to look back at Morb, Oknodie was shocked.

“Morb! Did you miss the timing to shoot?!”

Morb hadn’t shot his arrow.

Not shooting a single arrow at the target was clearly grounds for point deduction.

But there was no impatience on his face.

Grin.

With his white teeth showing in a smile, there was something manly about his determination.

“I didn’t miss it. I chose not to shoot.”

“Whaaaat?!”

“For an ordinary person to keep up with a genius’s pace, they need to abandon the idea of following everything.”

Morb said.

“So I gave up. Finding targets and shooting arrows. Instead, I gained the speed to chase the leaders!”

“But your score, Morb!”

“Haha. Even if I shot carefully, I’d be lucky to hit one out of ten shots anyway. So I have no regrets.”

The gap with the leaders had definitely narrowed.

The 45-track difference had been reduced to 33 tracks.

But it was still far.

At this rate, Oknodie would still fall behind.

Morb put all his strength into his legs.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwaaack!

“That guy is really crazy!”

“What kind of running is that? Is the guy in lane 4 not afraid of point deductions?!”

“That bastard, not only did he give up on targets he couldn’t hit anyway, he’s even given up on jumping over the hurdles!!”

[-1 point]

Instead of jumping over the hurdles, he sprinted on the bare ground beside them.

With each hurdle he passed, the accumulating deductions rapidly lowered Morb’s score.

“Stop it! If you don’t run properly on the lane now, you’ll be in last place…”

“That’s fine!”

“Really?!”

“You said we’d run side by side because we’re in the same group? You won’t abandon me because we’re friends? If that’s your stubbornness, then my stubbornness is to be a man who knows how to repay kindness.”

Morb shouted with a serious face, looking only straight ahead.

“If you want to cross the finish line side by side, we need to be at the very front. If my existence is going to be your obstacle, I don’t care if I give up all my points!”

“Morb…!”

“Don’t slow down. Don’t look to the side. Jump over the hurdles properly, find the targets, aim, and hit them. And you can run ‘side by side’ at this speed, can’t you!”

[Lane 4’s obstacle score is currently the lowest.]

[-40 points]

Though last place was already confirmed, there wasn’t a trace of regret or lingering attachment on his face.

“Show everyone. That the A group can do it too. That the friend running side by side with this Morb is this amazing. Put those imperial bastards ahead and the seniors who talk nonsense in their place!!”

When the space beside the lane narrowed, making it impossible to sprint on flat ground anymore, Morb kicked and pushed the hurdles aside, running roughly.

Even though his shins and thighs collided with the hurdles, causing tears to well up from the pain, even as he repeatedly suffered impacts that would leave bruises, he gritted his teeth and ran.

No matter how much he staggered or how much he couldn’t suppress his screams of pain.

He straightened his posture.

Gritting his teeth to swallow his screams.

He ran looking only forward.

So that Oknodie could run even a little faster.

To prove her true worth to everyone.

‘This idiot. You get points just for ‘recognizing’ targets and ‘aiming’ at them, you know?’

He probably doesn’t know, but the deductions he’s receiving are far greater than what’s visible.

But Oknodie realized that even if he knew, his pace wouldn’t slow down.

The passionate run of a man who would give up everything for her sake, the desperate sprint of a nameless extra, made Oknodie’s heart race.

The broadcast announcements appeared on the large mana board.

Morb’s run ultimately failed to catch up with the imperial students.

Instead, there was a two-track difference.

He had succeeded in narrowing the 45-track gap to 33 tracks, and further to just 3 tracks from the leader and 2 tracks from the position right ahead.

“Ugh……”

“Morb!”

“Prove it. That my run wasn’t in vain!!”

Morb’s steps finally halted, unable to endure the pain of his reckless run.

Though his body stopped, his burning fighting spirit was clearly conveyed.

“Yes!!”

Oknodie made a promise.

‘In this race, I’ll finish first, for Morb’s share too!’

The watching seniors thought.

‘Wow. The instructor looks pissed.’

‘That sudden acceleration was insane.’

‘But somehow I don’t dislike it. That passionate guy.’

The passionate run of one extra dramatically began to change the flow of the competition.

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