episode_0033

The last vacation of first grade ended and a new semester began. To put it another way, I am now in my second year.

Of course, nothing changes just because you get older. If you were a really ordinary second year middle school student, you would probably have a huge change in your feelings, but since you are in a different position, you don’t feel much.

No. Because I am a second year middle school student like other kids, I feel new in many ways. Well, there will be puberty, hormonal changes, and other things.

For example, I mean, um… … . uh… … . Oh yeah. Do you feel like time is passing in vain? Nothing has been done, but time is passing. I feel strangely bad. Can’t we just live like this, with time standing still? Now that everything in the world is a fantasy, shouldn’t it be possible to spend forever in school? It’s useless for fantasy topics.

Anyway, I have a lot of worries thanks to going up in grade, but there are other things to worry about as well. This is because institutional changes have occurred in the middle school curriculum.

It is the free school year system. According to the official website of the Ministry of Education, it is a system that operates the curriculum for one year by moving away from the focus on knowledge and competition to conducting student participation classes and focusing on various experiential activities that can develop students’ talents and aptitude.

I don’t know what it does specifically because it’s just a list of obvious things, but to sum it up, it means that instead of exams, education is focused on performance evaluations and project activities for a year.

Usually, it is conducted in the first year of middle school, but Doyugun School and our school conduct it starting in the second year, perhaps as a cooperation for educational research.

If I were in my parents’ shoes, I would have been a mess of confusion and fear, not knowing what to do and how to prepare for my first experience with the system. However, since this is strictly from the child’s perspective, even two months after the semester started, I am still in a state of joy. Oh, did I say it was a worry earlier? I guess that’s fine.

Although he himself was delighted, of course Do Yoo-geon was even more delighted. So, by the end of the vacation, I was worried that this would lead to a new dark history. Fortunately, it passed without incident. Of course, small black stories always pile up, but that’s everyday life.

In fact, the reason nothing special happened was because he was in a low mood while attending a free-grade academy. Do Yu-geon’s parents may have seen this period of not taking exams as an opportunity to improve his grades, so they enrolled him in a new academy. It’s an academy that has its own midterm and final exams or something.

As they said, when it was normally time to take the midterm exam, the academy started the exam period. Do Yu-geon showed that he didn’t want to do it, but he studied anyway.

I’m still doing it now. Rolling around on the bed in his room, I glanced to the side and saw his back sitting and solving a worksheet. I told them to wait a moment and said that today’s study would end quickly, but I’m still working on it. If this is going to be the case, why did you call me?

When I stopped watching and turned my attention to the smartphone game I was originally playing, I saw a scene where penguin 567B was mining. I used the money I had accumulated for a while and bought 13B penguins. The amount of money accumulated increases slightly. Wow, have fun.

When I looked to the side again, I was still solving the problem. I quietly got up from the bed, sneaked up to him, and took a closer look. It’s a math problem and I’m torn between options 3 and 4. I wanted to know something, so I looked at the solution he wrote and it said 19. Examples 3 and 4 are 15 and 24, respectively. I looked at other views, but there is no view with 19 people. What.

I don’t think there was anything wrong with the problem, so does that mean he solved it wrong? After skimming through the problem and doing a rough mental calculation, the correct answer is 13/3, number 2. You guessed it wrong.

After much deliberation, Do Yu-geon checked number 3. No. There is no view. It’s a strange solution that the test taker didn’t expect. Then you have to solve it again. Why did you film it?

The guy looked back.

“I’m sorry. It took longer than I thought. I just need to solve two more problems, so please wait a moment.”

I watched him secretly, but I guess he noticed that I was standing behind him due to his presence detection skill.

“okay.”

I hurriedly went to bed and lay down again. Looking back at the game, the penguins are still mining. You guys just work without resting. It’s pitiful. Since I was like this in my past life, I feel like I share the same illness.

As I continued to watch, some of the penguins stopped mining and sat down on the ground. Oh, what a rest. I patted the penguin as it sat and rested, and we went back to mining.

Since it’s an idle game and there are things to control, it’s annoying for no reason. I went to the cash and bought some auto maintenance items. The overseer penguin is a fat penguin. The chubby one is kind of cute. The supervisor penguin approached the resting penguins and crowded them, so the penguins went back to mining.

With the money I had accumulated, I hired more penguins and threw my cell phone on the bed. Let’s just get some sleep. Time passes and there is nothing to do. I took off the blanket I was holding and covered myself. Warm and fluffy. I feel a little uncomfortable because I’m wearing a school uniform, but if I close my eyes, I’ll fall asleep.

I closed my eyes and felt the warmth. My thoughts became blurred, my senses faded away, and I fell asleep. I feel sleepy faster than expected so I can get a good night’s sleep.

“I’m done!”

Surprised. Out of surprise, I trembled for a moment and blinked my eyes. It just felt good. It would have felt better if I had just slept.

The guy came next to the bed.

“I’m done!”

“so?”

“uh?”

“So what.”

I’ve done everything, so what?

“Of course I have to go hunting!”

“Really? Bye. I’m going to sleep so I want you to leave quickly.”

“……This is my room?”

“I know.”

I closed my eyes. Fortunately, I fell asleep again. I fell asleep without any resistance.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, about 1 hour and 30 minutes had passed. I had a good sleep.

I live a regular life, going to bed at 10 pm as much as possible and waking up at 5 am, but I often feel tired because 7 hours of sleep a night is not enough. So sometimes I need to take a nap like I do now.

If I had to consider it necessary, the fatigue would be negligible, but that’s because I like to nap. Well, you’re happy when you take a nap. In a world where it’s always difficult to get a good night’s sleep, how nice it is to sleep when you’re tired.

When I looked around the room, Do Yu-gun was not there. I felt the magic of the entire house, but there was no one in the house. You said you were hunting alone, but are you really hunting alone?

After waiting for a while, experience points appeared out of thin air and were absorbed. It looks like he’s really hunting alone. I’m sure you’re not upset, right? Then it’s difficult. Umm.

Actually, I don’t have a good personality. I’m trying to live my current life feeling like I’m missing something, so I don’t even try to be a good person. So to speak, I’m just living the way I’m comfortable. Still, it’s really difficult for him to get upset.

I logged in and went out to the forest. A forest is a forest, but it is no longer enough to call it a forest. The forest continued to burn due to the appearance of the flame slime. The bushes turned to ashes, and only the branches and pillars of the trees remained. A forest is a forest, but it is empty to call it a forest because it has no leaves.

-What are you doing?

I looked to the side and saw a white cat tilting its head. It’s Schrödinger.

“long time no see.”

I haven’t been able to see it much lately, but it appeared out of nowhere. But I’m not very happy about it.

“What’s going on?”

-What is happening? Do you need a reason to meet your master?

“huh.”

-Do it too much.

Occasionally, there were cases where he came for no real reason. Usually rolling around in bed. It really bothers me. We’re not even that close, so why not just stop coming?

―After the owner told me not to talk about the system, I was very worried.

“very little?”

-I think I should tell you something really important. So this time-

“for a moment.”

-yes. Please speak.

“Just don’t say it.”

-It’s important.

“If it’s important, don’t say more. It’s just that you’re worrying me for no reason.”

-Still.

Whatever.

“If I don’t listen to that, will it hurt me or my family?”

-Is that possible? Since the master is weak, I am here.

“Then what about Do Yoo-geon, Yumina, and their families?”

-Same goes for that one.

“Then why are you saying this?”

Schrödinger licked his paw without answering. There’s ashes on it, but I’m just licking it. It’s a cat, but it’s not actually a cat. What is the meaning of such cat-like behavior? Isn’t it just a concept?

-Just like that.

This Schrödinger.

“Oh yeah.”

I ignored it and flew in the direction where Do Yoo Geon was. I hope I don’t appear in situations like this in the future. I lied to Do Yoo-geon that Schrödinger disappeared, but if he shows up for no reason, I’ll have no excuse.

When I went to visit Do Yu-geon, I found him running aimlessly. I wanted to know something, so I looked closely and saw that he was running in the direction of the smoke, not aimlessly. Since I don’t know where the fire slime is, I think I’ll go to the place where there’s smoke. But there’s no slime there.

I landed in front of him.

“Did you get any sleep?”

“Yes. Everyone slept.”

I looked at his expression for a moment, but he didn’t seem to be upset at all. I’m glad.

“Okay, then let’s start hunting in earnest. Since I was hunting alone, it took so long to find the slime that I thought I was going to die of frustration.”

“I don’t want to die of frustration. It’s this way. It’s a bit far.”

Instead of pointing in the direction I was originally going, I pointed in the direction where the slime was.

“Ah, I guess I went in the wrong direction this time too. Write.”

Afterwards, the hunt continued. After catching it a few times, I leveled up and reached level 25.

Normally, since I reached level 25, I would have to catch a new mob, but this time the situation is a bit different. This is because there are no level 25 mobs.

“Are there really no new mobs?”

I concentrated and scanned the entire space, but there were no new mobs.

“There is none.”

There was already talk on the Internet that it had not been there for a long time, but Do Yu-geon still looked disappointed, perhaps because he had been expecting it.

“Then let’s open the door to the level 25 room.”

I logged out and logged in and returned to the preparation room. The forest you’ve been hunting in so far is the place you’ll find when you enter the level 1 room. There is a level 25 room door next to the level 1 room door. Actually, I don’t know if it’s really a level 25 room, it just says 25 on the door.

Do Yoo-geon grabbed the door handle and pulled it.

[Update is being prepared.]

“why?”

Another disappointed expression. Everyone on the internet said that, so what did you expect? A situation where only we are an exception?

“I guess they’re getting ready.”

“There are a lot of people who have reached level 25, but there are too many people still preparing.”

It’s going to be too much.

“I guess you’re busy.”

“Could it be that the unidentified entity or group that creates the system is busy? Isn’t it just that they don’t do it?”

“If you have good skills, you will be busier because there are many things you can do.”

The guy looked at the door hesitantly, then grabbed the doorknob again and pulled it with strength. There’s no way it would open like that. I tried harder and changed my posture, but of course it didn’t open.

I should bring a packed lunch.