121. The Hunt (1)
121. The Hunt (1)
The first-year Midterm Evaluation at Velvet Academy was an exam that Chairwoman Rina presided over entirely by herself from start to finish.
Because of that, no one knew which nation's territory this place belonged to, or where in which ocean it was located.
Even now, returning to deal with a gate that had broken out in Korea, the instructors still didn't know the island's location or name.
But in the deepest part of that island.
Inside a dark, gloomy burrow, a group of women panted and spat curses.
"Fuck! What the hell is this. How long do we have to keep this up!"
A woman who resembled a weasel with long, slitted eyes spat the profanity.
At that, a bald woman covered in burn scars slowly opened her eyes.
"Shut it."
"Ha, Boss! Fuck! I'm seriously losing my mind! It's already been a week and we're holed up in this burrow without seeing the light, eating nothing but grass roots!"
The weasel-like woman burst out with her complaints.
At that, the other women around her started cursing as well.
"Fuck, I'm hungry! Thirsty! I can't take it anymore! Boss!"
"Haah, every time I hear the voices of those tender young male cadets outside, I lose my mind—can't we just snatch one on the sly...!?"
"...Gulp. I got a peek last time, and there's this one guy with black hair who's so fucking hot."
The bald woman swept her heavy gaze across them one by one.
"Then go out. But you'll have to leave your tongue behind."
At those words, they all shut their mouths as if their complaints had never happened.
What she was saying right now was absolutely no joke.
Because their boss, Rebecca, was a person who always kept her word once she'd spoken it.
"...But, Boss. Just how long do we have to keep hiding like this? We've really hit our limit."
The weasel-like woman spoke to her in a cowed voice.
"Mm..."
Rebecca swallowed a groan at that.
Things had gone seriously, thoroughly wrong.
It had already been a week since they'd dug this burrow and hidden inside.
All of them were Demonized Humans.
They'd slipped onto an Uninhabited Island without a soul around to hide from the world's eyes,
but barely two days after they'd settled in, Velvet Academy cadets had suddenly stormed the place en masse.
Fortunately, Rebecca was a mid-level officer in the Demonized Human Society, so she possessed an artifact that concealed Mana.
Thanks to that, they'd succeeded in digging a burrow and hiding from the Magic Emperor's notice, but she didn't know how long that would last.
Because the moment the Magic Emperor set foot on this land, they would be discovered.
"Boss, still no contact from above?"
"...No. They just told us to wait for now."
"Fuck, wait?! We're just gonna die while we wait...! Have they cut us loose?"
Rebecca bit down hard on her lip.
"..."
It wasn't as if she was enjoying any of this.
Once, she'd strutted around with her chest puffed out as a mid-level officer of the Demonized Human Society, in her own way.
But a month ago, when the monster arena she ran was spotted by a certain woman's eyes, everything went completely off the rails.
A woman with short black hair who wielded a sword like a ghost.
A cold appearance that suited the word Murder Fiend.
She, along with those bitches wearing strange animal masks, had turned her gambling den into absolute ruin.
And as if that wasn't enough, they'd also picked clean the Demonized Human Society branch she'd secretly built beneath it, leaving not a speck of dust behind.
The boss she served had already lost his life to that woman's sword,
and all Rebecca had managed was to grab a handful of subordinates under her and escape.
Goosebumps prickled down Rebecca's spine as she recalled those emotionless eyes.
'I fled from that bitch and hid in a place no one knows, and that place becomes the exam site for Velvet Academy first-year cadets?'
Could someone really have luck this unbelievably rotten?
Brrrrrrr—
That was when it happened.
Something inside her clothes began to vibrate.
"...Huh?"
This vibration?
An artifact she always kept on her like a lifeline, but had never once responded since the branch was smashed to pieces.
It was the Demonized Human Society's Communication Stone.
Gulp.
Rebecca swallowed dryly and, worried the Magic Emperor might notice, carefully, cautiously infused Mana into the artifact.
【 ...It has been a while. Rebecca. 】
Hah!
Rebecca sucked in a sharp breath as an unpleasant voice, like scraping metal, flowed from the artifact.
It was real.
A communication from the Demonized Human Society main corps!
"...For destruction."
Rebecca straightened her posture and answered, even though she couldn't see the person before her.
The women around her also held their breath and strained their ears toward the artifact.
【 You shall be given a chance to redeem your past failure. 】
The main point came without any preamble, but a surge of elation rose inside Rebecca as she received the directive.
"Yes, thank you."
【 Kill the academy cadets. 】
But the directive that came down was far beyond anything she had expected.
"Th-the academy cadets, you say...?"
Beads of cold sweat bubbled up on Rebecca's peeling forehead. Wasn't this as good as telling them to just go die?!
【 Yes. 】
"B-but...!"
【 You fool. You still haven't cast aside your doubt in the Incarnation. 】
"...I'm sorry!"
【 The Magic Emperor is not here right now. No—she's drawn away the attention of every single high-ranking official of Velvet Academy. The ones left behind on the Flying Ship are nothing but trash. 】
"!"
Rebecca's body trembled with a shiver of exultation.
What had been the reason they'd been hiding all this time?
It was precisely because no matter how much power she had, she couldn't face the monster that was the Magic Emperor Rina.
If that was the case, what was here now were nothing but whelps.
"...Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh."
Rebecca's mouth split wide upward at the corners.
And her subordinates around her also wore smiles brimming with elation.
【 Well then, I expect results. 】
"For destruction."
And so, those who had been holding their breath in the darkness all this time began to stir with anticipation.
* * *
WAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
Kill them! Kill!!!
Don't leave a single one alive!!!
Ooga ooga!
Aaargh! You crazy bastards!!!
"Um, Y-Yu-ha? Wh-what on earth is this...?"
Sofia's eyes trembled as she looked out over the battlefield.
Right now, a grand-scale battle was unfolding in the middle of the Uninhabited Island.
"Th-this is Velvet Hunter Academy's test...?"
Primitives with brown liquid smeared all over their bodies were locked in combat with cadets in refined attire.
Sofia couldn't grasp how to process the current situation.
Her gaze naturally drifted toward Jin Yu-ha.
And Jin Yu-ha, taking in that sight, was...
I don't know.
What is this.
Terrifying.
I was staring at the battlefield with a blank expression.
'No, wait, for real... What the hell has to happen for things to end up like this?'
This Midterm Evaluation was a two-week exam.
The first week was a process of testing each student's individual survival skills, forming parties, and gathering Coins from monsters.
And the remaining week was supposed to be about using those stacked Coins and experience to hunt each other in competition.
Attacks between cadets didn't kill.
The system was that if you sustained a fatal wound in a cadet-vs-cadet fight, you'd be immediately summoned away to the flying ship.
But there were uninvited guests crashing the party,
and if you got hit by their attacks, cadets couldn't be summoned.
'...It's probably too brutal to show in the game, but they're all dead. That's why the Chairwoman ends up issuing a public apology over this incident.'
Of course, it was an emergency situation with an S-Rank Gate breaking out on top of everything, so mitigating circumstances applied.
But the cadets falling to a Demonized Human ambush was still a painfully glaring blunder.
So you had to heal the cadets under attack by the Demonized Humans with healing, or finish them off first to send them up one by one.
And then eliminate the Demonized Humans quickly before the damage grew.
That was the core of this main story.
'...But how the hell did things turn out like this?'
I was supposed to rescue one of our Utopia Party members and ambush the Demonized Human bastards from behind.
People who should've been playing a three-person squad survival game by now were currently playing a war simulation game.
And our Utopia Party members were right in the thick of that war, locked in a bloody fight.
BOOOOM—!!!
Kang Do-hee and Lee Yu-ri's shields collided, generating a massive roar.
"Wow—!!! Fighting Dog! And Gukbap!"
Beside me, Sofia exclaimed in admiration, her eyes sparkling.
Among the general public, only Fighting Dog, Kang Do-hee, and Cheonhwa, Shin Se-hee, were widely known,
but the fan club that worshipped Jin Yu-ha was naturally also well-versed in the members of the Utopia Party he led.
Of course, the size of their fandoms was nothing compared to Fighting Dog and Cheonhwa.
But the Tank, Gukbap, and the Support, Squinting Mastermind, each had their own minor popularity.
"Hmm... They're pretty evenly matched, huh?"
I'd given up on grasping the situation for now.
There was no time to call people over one by one and hear what was going on.
In the center, Kang Do-hee and Lee Yu-ri were fighting, and in the meantime Shin Se-hee was leading other cadets to slowly chip away at the primitives from the periphery.
But—a matter of numbers, I guess.
Even though Shin Se-hee and Kang Do-hee had teamed up, somehow things were holding at a roughly even balance.
"Still, Kang Do-hee hasn't used Berserk yet. Once she uses Berserk, Lee Yu-ri will get pushed back."
No matter how blessed a Tank Lee Yu-ri might be, she couldn't do anything against a disgustingly broken skill that ignored all matchups.
"So right now..."
Hmm. Actually, isn't this better?
We have to send as many cadets up to the Flying Ship as possible anyway, before the Demonized Human bastards show up.
And if we're in the middle of chaos like this—
'I could even snipe the Last Hit, couldn't I? And since everyone's gathered here, there's no need to go looking for them one by one either.'
And with the overwhelming majority of cadets gathered here, the Demonized Human bastards were sure to come this way as well.
Having sorted out my thoughts, I pulled up the corner of my mouth in a grin and turned my head toward Sofia.
"Sofia."
"...Yes?"
"Let's earn some Coins. Aim for third place."
"...Th-third place? M-me?"
Maybe the ranking of third place seemed too high; Sofia answered in a voice without confidence.
'...A genuine genius, and the girl doesn't know she's a genius.'
Honestly, if anyone else were watching, they'd say it was obnoxious.
"Sofia, could you... help me out? Please. I really want to make it into the top three..."
I clasped Sofia's hands and spoke in a wheedling tone.
Don't know why, but this approach works the best on her.
'Wasn't like this in the game though. Maybe it's because she had scars on her body back then.'
It was a reasonable guess, in its own way.
Ever since she'd gotten scars on her body from the fight with the bear, Sofia had kept the cadets at a certain distance—not blatantly visible, but a line had been drawn.
But now, with no scars, her original personality must be coming through.
Sofia, who would pretty much grant any request if you just asked—even things that might be a bit much.
At this rate, even if we didn't make top three, she seemed ready to retake the academy transfer exam and re-enroll if I just asked her to.
'The girl's too nice, that's the problem. A real problem. What's she going to do, being this nice and coming to the academy.'
Well, I'm the one taking advantage of it, so I'm one to talk.
"Sofia, please. Just this once, help me out."
When I pressed her once more,
Sofia gave a tiny nod, her face flushed bright red.
"Y-yesh. I-I'll twy..."