Hero Academy (3-2)
"All right! Everyone, run a physical check and make sure nothing's wrong!"
Silence.
No one answered Cho Seo-hyun right away.
She stared at the cadets with a puzzled look, and Song Ara raised her hand.
"Uh… Teach?"
"What?"
"You look… how do I put this… really young."
"…What!?"
Song Ara flinched at the shout and scrambled backward.
Cho Seo-hyun ignored her and started inspecting her own body from every angle.
Flowing long hair, different from her current style, and a neat cadet uniform.
Anyone looking would have sworn she was a classmate or underclassman of the students standing around her.
Once she'd confirmed the state of things, Cho Seo-hyun stomped the ground and let the rage boil over.
"Son of a—! Everyone wait right there!"
She logged out and vanished.
The moment she was gone, the cadets started murmuring among themselves.
"Instructor Cho doesn't sync well with the machine, does she? Feels like this happens every time."
"Right? Didn't they say they fixed it last time?"
I couldn't make sense of what they were talking about, so I walked over and asked.
"What do you mean, doesn't sync with the machine?"
"Ah… it was the same when she had the second-years. They say her old data loads every single time."
I'd roughly guessed as much from looking at her, but apparently this wasn't a one-off.
Cho Seo-hyun had been working at the Hero Academy for three years now, and every time, an error pulled up her cadet-era data.
The real problem was that no matter how many times they fixed it, it came back.
'Weird… Seong Sua had issues too, and now Cho Seo-hyun. Is there something wrong with these capsules?'
[I don't believe that's the case. Judging by the cadets' conversation, Cho Seo-hyun seems to be the only one who consistently triggers the problem.]
Armonia was right. Almost everything the students were saying circled back to Cho Seo-hyun alone.
"It's strange, though. Why only Instructor Cho?"
"Maybe she just doesn't age? The machine gets confused because her physical age barely moves."
"That tracks… looking at her, she honestly could be my little sister."
"…Watch it. If she hears that, you're dead on the spot."
For a while the class rolled on without Cho Seo-hyun, carried by the cadets' chatter. Then she logged back in—still looking exactly like a student.
"Haa… We'll just proceed like this for today."
I'd been looking forward to VR virtual training. What made good on that expectation was the sheer realism.
'Whoa… this is on a completely different level from the VR headgear.'
[The hardware is different, and the software appears to be in an entirely different league as well.]
If I had to describe the gap between the Animal Village sessions I'd shared with Seong Sua and the simulation I was experiencing inside this capsule, it was the difference between a game from the 2000s and one from the 2020s.
Even well-made games of the past get left behind once the era moves on—and the most obvious yardstick is always the graphics.
You can compare them at a glance and judge them on the spot.
The same held true for the VR headgear versus the capsule I was standing in right now.
'Damn… this isn't just realistic. This is real, isn't it?'
Sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste. Not a single sense felt lacking. If anything, every one of them was being stimulated so hard I almost wondered whether it was more vivid than reality itself.
The problem was that in a place this breathtaking, the work the cadets had to do was the kind of dull grind that drained the wonder right out of you.
"All right! Today's training is sparring!"
"Ah…"
The cadets let out sighs they didn't bother to hide. I felt the same way.
'Seriously, why come all the way into a place like this just to spar?'
[Because of the nature of VR equipment, data is required.]
'Doesn't it just record everything automatically once you log in?'
[This VR capsule builds a person's data based on their activity once they're inside.]
The capsule itself was clearly a piece of extraordinary technology, but simply scanning a human body wasn't enough to perfectly measure that person's stamina or talent.
At best, it could offer vague recommendations about which fields they might excel in.
[Students who rested over the break will have fluctuations in their physical data. On the first day, they almost certainly run sparring sessions inside the VR specifically to record that information.]
'Eh… well, at least I'm lucky. I don't have to do anything.'
How badly could kids even get hurt in VR?
Cho Seo-hyun and Seong Sua had both told me before that unless you took a fatal wound, damage sustained inside the VR wasn't anything to lose sleep over.
The one real caution was trauma—since the system linked to the mind, injuries that left deep psychological scars had to be avoided.
'Surely no one's going to start stabbing people mid-spar.'
[Su-ho.]
What?
[Cho Seo-hyun is approaching.]
Cho Seo-hyun was walking toward me with a scowl, her hair swaying with every step.
Compared to the short cut she usually wore, the long hair made her look twice as out of place.
She already felt awkward on a normal day…
But looking at her now, the Cho Seo-hyun from that dream rose up in my mind with perfect clarity.
The confident stride.
The focused eyes that never wandered.
A cadet who looked only straight ahead, pushing toward her goal.
One thing was different, though.
'Seeing her like this, I finally get why I didn't recognize her back then. Her expression is completely frozen.'
This wasn't the Cho Seo-hyun who smiled brightly, squared her shoulders, and looked toward a hopeful future.
This one felt like a wounded cat, baring her thorns at the world.
Thinking about the dream brought something else to mind.
'Armonia, anything on Hong Mi-seon?'
[I have information that has come in, but… I will report it once class is over. For now, you should focus on Cho Seo-hyun.]
While I was still on the line, Cho Seo-hyun arrived in front of me.
"This is your first time connecting here, right?"
"Yes."
"Then we need to build your data."
Still in her cadet uniform, she launched into a stream of explanation.
I had already heard all of it from Armonia, but I played along and nodded as if it were news to me.
"Understood. I'll start by training alone with the bow I usually—"
"No."
"Pardon?"
She cut me off, folding her arms.
"We should spar once ourselves."
It went without saying: if Cho Seo-hyun sparred with me without any handicap, I would be dead in one second.
One stroke of her dagger and my skull would split as cleanly as a pre-sliced watermelon.
'If my head gets cleaved like that, I am not conquering Cho Seo-hyun…'
Virtual training or not, I had no desire to stub my little toe on the threshold of death.
She explained the handicaps she would place on herself for the spar.
"I'll blindfold my eyes first and I'll only use the secondary dagger in my left hand. For reference, the left-hand weapon is for defense."
In other words, she would fight blind and focus on guarding. Her only offense would come from the right hand.
"I'll go easy. Don't tense up too much."
"…Yes."
Little toe… little toe…
While the cadets sparred hard in the distance, Cho Seo-hyun and I did our warm-ups well away from them.
The swaying hair, Cho Seo-hyun in a cadet uniform.
Now that I actually had the cadet-era Cho Seo-hyun in front of me, there was something very awkward about attacking her.
'How do I put this… it feels like fighting a kid.'
[If you say that to Cho Seo-hyun's face, that thought will vanish immediately.]
'…Along with my existence, probably.'
Say that to her and my mind inside the virtual channel would evaporate on the spot, leaving my body a vegetable sucking glucose through a tube.
Cho Seo-hyun pulled out a clean blindfold and wrapped it over her eyes.
"I'll give you the first move. Once I've checked your skill a bit, we can increase or reduce the handicap from there."
"Yes."
I raised my bow and thought quietly.
'No Sleep… they said mana use is impossible in here, right?'
[Stealth as well… you should be careful. Your Stealth level and Cho Seo-hyun's Stealth Detection level are the same.]
My Stealth was level 10.
Her Stealth Detection was also level 10.
The one silver lining was that her vision was completely sealed.
I slipped into Stealth and quietly hid behind a rock.
"…?"
I could see it—the bewildered look on Cho Seo-hyun's face.
When a presence vanished without warning, of course she would be thrown off.
'Let's put one shot into her first.'
This spar wasn't a game of hide-and-seek. I needed to fire once and send a signal. Still stealthed, I loosed an arrow at Cho Seo-hyun.
Fwoosh!
The arrow flew true, aimed to graze neatly past her waist.
Yes, it was supposed to skim right by her side.
Clang!
"There!"
"!"
Insane.
Without seeing the incoming arrow, she cut it cleanly in half lengthwise using nothing but sound and sensation.
'Holy shit! Is that even human!?'
[Your position has been exposed. You need to move.]
The moment I allowed close combat, this spar was over. No matter what, I had to keep Cho Seo-hyun from getting near me.
I fired two more arrows as suppression fire.
The one mercy was that her movements had slowed—she was so focused on blocking the arrows that she couldn't simply charge.
"Kh!"
'No matter how good she is, she can't memorize every single rock rolling around underfoot.'
That was the normal assumption.
So what was I supposed to do when she did something that blew past normal?
Whoosh!
"Hah!"
"!"
Cho Seo-hyun leapt high into the air.
Obstacles on the ground? Then she could just fly through air where there were no obstacles.
'Son of a—!'
I nearly dropped the act and swore out loud.
I loosed an arrow at Cho Seo-hyun as she came down on the jump.
Fwoosh! Clang!
"Kh!"
That one actually worked.
My arrow caught her blade cleanly and bounced off.
The instant it did, I reapplied Stealth and used the surrounding terrain to slip away from the spot.
Cho Seo-hyun stilled her mind and poured every sense into her ears.
She had planned to go easy on him.
Even with her eyes covered, she still had the instincts she'd honed over the years.
The terrain around them was a nuisance for movement, but she hadn't thought that level of handicap would matter much.
The only slightly annoying part was Seong Su-ho's archery skills.
However, while Cho Seo-hyun trusted Seong Su-ho's archery, she also knew his weakness.
That his penetration and destructive power were weak.
And the moment he loosed an arrow, the sound alone would pin his location in an instant.
Even a curved shot couldn't hide the twang of the bowstring at the start.
But while every sense funneled into her hearing, a completely different thought started circling through her head.
'What the hell did this guy used to do for a living?'
In raw ability, she was still far above him, but Sung Su-ho kept concealing his presence with uncanny precision and probing her openings at every opportunity.
Irritation rose in her chest even as her evaluation of him climbed higher and higher.
'No matter how I look at it, he's wasted as just an assistant instructor. Once I go back to the guild, I should make him an offer.'
The thought had barely formed when—
Fwoooosh!
Clang!
"Hah! There!"
She leapt in a single bound toward the place the bowstring had twanged.
Mid-jump, several arrows came flying at her.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"Kh!"
Even for Cho Seo-hyun, blocking arrows in midair with zero vision was no easy feat.
The shafts she met in the air scattered her focus, and by the time she landed, Sung Su-ho was already gone.
"Damn it…"
That made six times.
Irritation aside, his performance more than earned a high mark.
Sparring wasn't only about establishing who was stronger. It was also time to inspect each other's weaknesses.
'This blindfold… the handicap is too heavy.'
She had no choice but to admit it.
At this rate, she would just keep getting dragged around by Sung Su-ho.
Even so, she refused to back down.
'I have to catch him… at least once…'
She clenched her teeth and focused.
'Right… no need to rush. I already learned that charging the second I think I know his position is useless.'
She felt the sweat on her palms and understood.
She was slowly sinking into a swamp of tension.
'The longer this drags on, the worse it gets for me.'
Even with the blindfold on, she closed her eyes and concentrated again.
'Don't block one attack and immediately rush out. Keep reading what he's doing the whole time.'
While she held that focus, an arrow came.
Fwoosh!
Clang!
She blocked it and deliberately did not move. Her ears caught it—the slight hesitation in Sung Su-ho's bowstring.
'Damn… but what now? How has that man been moving so far? Before… and before that… wait?'
She thought hard for a moment and realized where she was standing.
'This is… the place we started, isn't it? And the direction that last arrow came from…'
No matter how much Sung Su-ho shot and ran, their sparring ground was limited.
Circling and circling, the two of them had come back to where they began.
Since Cho Seo-Hyun had jumped only once and mostly waited in place after losing him, she could be certain this was the original spot—the last place her eyes had taken in before the blindfold went on.
The problem was memory.
'If I run instead of jump, I can close the gap in an instant while defending. But the obstacles…'
While she fretted over her distrust of her own memory, someone's words flowed into her mind.
(What matters is the feel in your hands. One look with your eyes is enough.)
(Make a habit of trusting everything you've seen.)
(I'm telling you to trust yourself. If you can't trust the eyes that light your vision, the rest of your body won't move properly either. That's how I see it.)
Cho Seo-hyun recalled every line of that advice and made her decision.
'…Just try it!'
She shouted it inwardly and ran toward the place the arrow had come from.
It wasn't a jump. Recalling the words Seong Su-ho had said, she ran toward him.
Arrows flew again.
Fwoosh! Fwooooosh!
Clang! Clang!
She swatted the incoming shafts aside lightly and kept running.
It was an incredible speed befitting the title of a Hero.
Surely, if she encountered an obstacle like this, she would suffer a massive shock. Even catching a protruding rock with her foot and falling would end the spar in pure humiliation.
But she believed.
In her memory.
In Sung Su-ho's words.
In barely three seconds she reached the place he had been standing—and found him.
'Damn it! Don't tell me he already ran!?'
Cho Seo-hun felt a moment of despair, like a hunter who had just wasted their last bullet.
'No! No matter how I think about it, he shoots well but his feet are slow! He's still nearby…'
Treating it as her last chance, she calmly poured every sense into her hearing—and caught the presence of someone hiding right beside her.
"Th—there! Right there!"
"Kh—!"
Cho Seo-Hyun threw her whole body at him, terrified he might escape.
She crashed into Sung Su-ho and felt his body catch in her hands.
Still blindfolded, Cho Seo-Hyun had no idea which part of him she was holding.
"Got you!"
"W-wait—kh!"
A pained groan tore out of him at her shout.
Cho Seo-hyun was so delighted she spun the body part she was gripping round and round, smiling and humming under her breath.
"How does it feel, getting caught? Ah… you really made this such a pain…"
"W-wait… In-Instructor Cho Seo-hyun! Y-your hand—!"
"Hm?"
With the hand that wasn't holding him, she pulled off the blindfold.
"Come on… why are you making such a fuss over—"
Only after the blindfold came off did she see what part of Sung Su-ho she was holding.
"Uh… that… uh…"
It was the first time Cho Seo-hyun, who had known nothing of men her entire life, had ever held a man's genitals.