episode_0002

When you create your original character and start the game, you’ll see a cool VR version of the game trailer play once, and then a tutorial will start to guide you through the game, so I felt a little dizzy.

‘Is it a bug?’

While rubbing my throbbing temples, I hear a voice I’ve never heard before…

“Ain Frostgarm, is that right?”

The voice was husky, but it was a pleasant woman’s voice. Ain Frostgarm? Who… No, it’s my character’s name.

“Oh, yes, that’s right.”

After answering the questioning voice in a hurry, I unconsciously covered my mouth with both hands. My original voice was low and mid-low, but the sound that came out of my throat was the high and cute voice of a boy in his early teens.

“Frostgarm Baron’s new student… Hoo, your specialties are medicine and recovery magic. It’s been a long time since I’ve enrolled as a recovery magic specialist.”

I stopped rubbing my temples and looked at the woman in front of me.

The appearance of a female panther, in a neat professor’s uniform. She was someone I knew well. Not just a familiarity, but I guess it’s safe to say I’ve seen her enough to be sick of it.

“I am Professor Salgu. I am a professor of basic combat science and also an instructor for this entrance ceremony. Your identity has been confirmed, so you may come in.”

Academy Story 2 begins with the player character identifying Professor Apricot at the entrance to the Academy. The VR remake version appears to be the same.

However, Professor Salgu, who has been transformed into a perfect reality unique to VR that cannot even be compared to the computer version from 30 years ago, has become a beauty with a tall, slender body and well-groomed, smooth hair.

Honestly, I don’t know where to look…

“Thank you very much.”

I awkwardly bowed my head and tried to cross the large bridge leading to the main gate of the academy, passing Professor Salgu, but then I heard Professor Salgu calling me.

“Ain-kun?”

“…Huh?”

When I awkwardly turned around to look at Professor Apricot, she smiled and gestured to the large trunk on her chin.

“You left your bag behind. It looks like you’re nervous about the entrance ceremony.”

“Oh, yeah…”

Was I carrying a trunk? My voice was so awkward that I didn’t have time to pay attention to anything else. I looked down at the floor, quickly picked up the trunk, and walked across the bridge with long strides (of course, to Professor Apricot it would look like a child’s gait).

The main gate of the Academy is rather large than large, but the main gate beyond it is just as enormous as the bridge. How on earth does it open and close?

I decided to gather my thoughts, as I noticed that my pace was slow and that it would take a while to cross the bridge. I could feel a faint gaze, but I didn’t have time to worry about that right now.

As a player, I will be guided to the entrance ceremony hall after passing through the main gate of the academy. After I take my seat, I will have about an hour to spare before the entrance ceremony, so I will be able to meet many new students, and I will be able to meet many ‘friends’ there.

“Should I go for safe assets?”

Friends can be seen as a companion system, and when you make friends, you can engage in various activities and battles with them.

For example, Ion Moratium, the eldest daughter of Marquis Moratium, has solid close combat skills and outstanding looks thanks to her knightly training.

Or Lulu Anastasia, the third daughter of the Duchess of Anastasia, is a magical genius with high potential and an absurdly large spell reserve. Of course, her outstanding appearance is also a given.

Or there is the 4th Princess Erpeion Le Peion, a collateral royal of the Perion Empire, the country where the Academy is located. Whether it’s swords, magic, or administration, there is nothing she cannot do.

They are all friends who were put forward by the production company as heroines.

“But it’s not a safe asset.”

Ironically, a character lineup that sounds good just by hearing it is not called a ‘safe asset’ among users. What is the reason?

It’s because of the ‘schedule system’. Just because you increase your affection with a friend, it doesn’t create a party like in old games where you can join them anywhere.

When a player wants to do something, he or she will find a friend to go with and ask them to accompany him or her. Then, depending on the schedule system, the character will either have free time or, even if they don’t, will put aside their own schedule and go along due to the increased intimacy.

But if not, he declines, saying he has other things to do.

The friends introduced above are children of a marquis, children of a duke, and members of the royal family. Naturally, their schedules are rarely free.

Beginners tend to build up intimacy with characters who are vaguely approachable, with performance, or with looks, but then they often reject them, saying, “I have work to do.” Then they realize that they are not recommended companions, but just face madams. I was treated like that in the beginning, too.

There is a real ‘safe asset’ that is popular among those who play games, and that is because, contrary to the creator’s intention, character performance is generated procedurally using AI, so even though the stats and trait combinations are useful, good, or amazing, no special settings are given, so students who are simply assigned the role of classmate A are everywhere.

So, if you are new to the game, you can play around with Madames with faces like that, and once you have some time, you can look through the strategies and build up affection with the safe assets that suit your taste or companions that fit your character build.

As I was thinking about this, I suddenly noticed that there were a lot more eyes looking at me than before.

‘…Oh my, did you make the character too believable?’

As I glanced around, I saw numerous female students either glancing at me or staring at me openly as they crossed the bridge to enroll or return to the academy after going out.

To explain the reason, I need to explain the background setting of Academy Story 2, ‘Gender Reversal’.

In the past, the gender reversal genre, where the roles or personalities of men and women were reversed, became a bit popular in various creative works.

For example, historically, the gender that became famous by becoming a knight or wizard, acquired a title, went on adventures, did dirty work, and in any other way became the main axis of society was originally male.

But in a reversal of power, women play that role. They become the head of the household, woo men, work hard to achieve fame and fortune, and become the backbone of society.

On the other hand, men are the ones who women have to protect, and they support women. They do housework, serve as servants in the mansion, and take care of children.

The fun that comes from such a reversal of common sense was very popular, and Academy Story 2 followed that trend by adding a gender reversal setting that was not present in the first one. Of course, since Academy Story 1 was an unfortunate work that did not gain much popularity, no one thought badly of the addition of a gender reversal setting in the second one.

Now that I’ve explained this far, I guess I should also explain why the females around me are busy looking at me.

The men of Academy Story 2, who are depicted as males in the game, are generally small and cute in appearance and do not grow very large.

Even if there are males and females of the same young age, the females tend to grow into the adult form that we are familiar with, while the males tend to maintain the form of a child with a slightly larger body. (The term “type maturity” is used in technical terms.)

In my case, I used to enjoy the gap between creating a muscular male character as a joke and naming him something old-fashioned like “Kkotnim”, “Okbun”, or “Mija”, but here, I’m expecting that attention will be drawn because I’ve created a normal(?) small and cute pretty boy. That’s because the original Academy Story 2 is such an old game that even if you made your character a muscular male, the reactions from those around you would be exactly the same.

I smiled awkwardly and hurried my steps through the Academy’s entrance.

“Wow, the graphics are no joke…”

As you enter the academy, the sight of a huge, white, gold and blue building takes up your entire view.

This is the central building of the academy and the ‘Hall of Knowledge’ where most of the lectures are held. Even 30 years ago, it was an overwhelming building in terms of graphics, but when you see it in real life, it is so splendid that you have to turn your head here and there to see it.

I head to the entrance ceremony venue while looking around the Hall of Knowledge. Even though the graphics have become more realistic, since this is Academy Story 2, most of the Academy locations are engraved in my head to the point where I can go there with my eyes closed. Unlike the freshmen who are looking around to find the entrance ceremony venue, I was able to arrive at the entrance ceremony venue without any trouble.

The entrance ceremony hall we arrived at uses the largest lecture room, which is structured in the style of the ancient Greek agora, with a podium and blackboard for the professor in the center and tiered seating in a semicircle.

I looked around after moving the heavy trunk to a corner that was as inconspicuous as possible.

I still feel the interested gazes of the female students and the jealous gazes of some male students. And I also see a few of the ‘face madams’ I mentioned earlier. I should ignore them as much as possible and meet the safe assets I used to enjoy and build a relationship with them.

“Nice to meet you. Are you a freshman too?”

But everyone says they have a plan before they get hit. I had to ignore it as much as possible… and that was actually the case in the game, but when it approached me so openly, I couldn’t ignore it. When I raised my head slightly, the expression “big” was not enough, but I could see its enormous chest.

“…It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness, Princess Erpeion Le Perion, 4th Princess.”

The character with the highest rank among the previously introduced Madame Faces. Princess Erpeion Le Perion, the 4th Princess, was looking down at me with her arms crossed so that her chest stood out.

Large, yet fierce-looking, golden eyes with long eyelashes. A voluptuous body with an overwhelming bust and a tall height of nearly 180cm. And, unusually for a female, long, dark brown hair that reaches down to her waist, which is expressed as a mane.

Usually, female lions have short hair, as if to express the absence of manes in real life, but Princess Erpeion has unusually long hair that reaches down to her waist. I know why, but I will explain it later.

“We are both freshmen. There is no need for such courtesy, so please refrain from doing so.”

Unlike males, females reach full physical maturity at the age of 12, which is close to the age of 20 in real life, so it is safe to say that the academy’s freshmen are actually college students. If the concept of age in reality and Academy Story 2 were the same, all the freshmen would be little kids. However, it is just a numbers game here. The numbers game of 12 years old = 20 years old.

“…But Your Majesty.”

“I like Elfin.”

The tone of voice was soft, but the expression was intimidating. I was at a loss as to what to do, and finally opened my mouth.