002. Sorry, Alice, but Let Me Use Your Stuff
002. Sorry, Alice, but Let Me Use Your Stuff
The devs behind Velvet School Life are complete bastards.
This is an eternal, unchanging truth.
But right now, honestly, I want to praise them.
At the very moment I was stuck with no gacha for my Jin Yu-ha start,
these resources the devs tossed my way were worth more than an oasis in the desert.
I forced myself to calm my pounding heart and scanned the list.
These items laid out before me.
These were all things I had prepared for Alice.
Me, a casual Player who never spent money except for the monthly subscription.
I lost my mind over her illustration and opened my wallet wide for the first and last time to pull these expensive items.
"All swordsmanship specialization items, huh."
Since the pre-released Alice was shown as a sword-wielding character, all the materials I stockpiled were for swordsmanship specialization.
And Jin Yu-ha.
This guy I'd transmigrated into also has a swordsmanship rank of E, but at least he's a character tagged as 'Swordsmanship Specialization.'
So, in other words.
This means even if Jin Yu-ha eats the resources I prepared for Alice, the overall direction won't be skewed!
"...The efficiency's gonna be dogshit, though."
A base 5-star and a base 1-star.
Their starting lines were worlds apart—a king and a peasant.
Honestly, if I only think about clearing the final chapter, Alice should be the one to use all of this.
But if I don't use these, forget clearing the game, I'm fucking dead.
My internal conflict was brief.
This isn't a 'mobile game' I control by tapping away behind a screen; it's 'reality' where I have to jump in and roll around with my own body.
Among the enemies I'll have to face while attending Velvet Academy, there are bastards like Demonized Humans and Demons who treat human lives like trash.
On top of that, I've only got one life. No continues.
"So, sorry, Alice, but I'm gonna borrow your stuff."
I offered a half-hearted apology to Alice as I rummaged through the box.
"First, the swordsmanship manuals and enhancement scrolls, the Trait Recommendation Letter, the Skill Recommendation Letter, the All Stats Auto-Increase Coupons. I'm taking all of these. And I'll use Moonlight too—as for the equipment... Ah, damn, all of this is for women. Fine, I'll save these for you, Alice."
Even if I wanted to use everything, quite a few items were unusable because of the gender difference.
Since I originally planned to give this to Alice, I'll give it to her when I meet her later.
It's absolutely not hand-me-downs.
"Hmm, this Moonlight Earring... Is it okay for a guy to wear an earring?"
Back in my original world, I had seen guys who liked dressing up and celebrities wear them,
but I don't know how it'll be perceived in this gender-role-reversed world.
"Well, I should wear it. It's an item that gives a decent swordsmanship skill."
I took out the earring and kept it with me.
And, an hour later.
I was reborn.
* * *
In the bathroom mirror, there was a distinctly changed man.
I seemed a bit taller, and my originally skinny body had filled out,
now giving off a distinctly sturdy vibe.
If I only had a sickly, decadent feel before, now a wildness was added, giving me a bit of a bad-boy aura, I guess.
Since my face is handsome, the feminine earring actually suits me.
I idly drew Moonlight from where it hung at my waist.
Shing─
"The luster is insane."
A blade with a subtle blue glow and a white hilt.
The vivid blue blade looked razor-sharp at a glance.
It was originally a Unique-grade sword, but with all the weapon enhancements slapped on, it had been raised to Legendary-grade.
Clack!
I sheathed the sword back at my waist and shouted.
Exactly that word.
"Status Window."
───────────
Name ─ Jin Yu-ha (☆)
Gender ─ Male (20)
Stats
Strength ─ 53 Spirit ─ 53
Mana ─ 56 Endurance ─ 56
Speed ─ 59 Charm ─ 69
Specialization ─ Swordsmanship [ Rank S ]
Title ─ Flower on the Cliff [Cliff Flower (崖花)]
─ Sword Genius [Sword Demon (劍鬼)]
Skills ─ [ One Slash, Two Halves ], [ Quick Draw ], [ Sword Dance ], [ New Moon (Moonlight Earring equipped) ]
Traits ─ [ Detection ], [ Eye Opening ], [ Intuition ]
Exclusive Weapon ─ Moonlight (月光) (Legendary)
───────────
A sense of elation wrapped around my whole body.
"Heh-heh-heh..."
A villain-like laugh leaked from my lips.
Who would dare call this a 1-star character's Status Window?
The specialization that determines a character's performance.
My swordsmanship rank, which was E-rank, hit S-rank!
There were only 3 more steps left now.
SS, SSS, and EX.
Usually, unless you're grinding training like crazy, raising lower ranks is fast.
Just using one highest-grade swordsmanship manual jumps you two stages from E-rank to C-rank.
Of course, if Alice had used them, she would have hit EX and then some,
but since Jin Yu-ha used them, it stopped at S.
Still, this was something.
The gap between E-rank and S-rank was truly massive.
A whole 6-stage difference.
Thanks to that, my titles now included a plausible modifier like 'Sword Demon' instead of just that stupid title like 'Flower on the Cliff'.
On top of that, my stats went from single-digit baby numbers to solid 50s in an instant.
The results from the random Skill Recommendation Letter and Trait Recommendation Letter were average, but not bad.
"Thinking about my specs excluding the S-rank specialization... I'm roughly a freshly pulled, pure 4-star, right?"
I scanned my Status Window and gave a self-evaluation.
Considering this went into Jin Yu-ha's mouth, I'd say it's a pretty good result.
Even in the game, a 4-Star at enrollment was the kind of spec everyone wanted but could rarely get.
With some luck, I could even aim for first place in class.
"First, I need time to adjust to this body."
Upgrading my body with the resources was good.
Same for the swordsmanship manuals and enhancement scrolls; I was worried I'd have to read them one by one, but thankfully that wasn't the case.
It was like, when I held them and channeled Mana, the item disappeared and knowledge just automatically etched into my head?
That part felt like a game again.
But why is there no gacha? Fucking hell.
Anyway, my body had changed so drastically that I wasn't confident I could smoothly execute what was in my head yet.
"There was still about a month left until the academy entrance ceremony..."
I would go to a gate and hunt some monsters to get used to it by then.
* * *
Gate clearing.
Something Velvet Hunter Academy students did as a part-time job to gain experience and earn money.
Unlike the game where a single button solved it, in reality, there was a separate website for finding parties.
You had to pay to use it, and it required verified real-name registration, so while it wasn't completely risk-free, serious trouble was rare.
So I went to the site.
This Jin Yu-ha bastard finally did something useful.
Auto-login!
This guy barely had any money, judging by his account.
To think he was a full member of a hunter site.
However.
Here was where the bullshit of this gender-role-reversed world showed up.
I found a recruitment post looking for a Damage Dealer and sent in my resume, but probably because of my gender, they accepted it and never contacted me.
So I called the safe number on the post to try anything I could.
─ Ah, you're male...? A man is a bit...
Bitches who won't let me join the party because I'm a man.
─ Hmm, if we carry you through, what will you do for us in return?
Bitches saying they'll carry me in exchange for a price.
─ That sounds good, but our gate is a bit far... We'd have to sleep at my place the night before leaving; is that okay? ❤
Bitches pulling shit about sleeping over.
Honestly, the last one was a little tempting.
But like hell those chicks were normal.
If I trusted them and went along, I'd just get stabbed in the back or shorted on the payout.
I now had S-rank Swordsmanship and decent stats.
But since I had no experience killing monsters yet, I might not be able to perform properly when it counted.
So I needed a reliable party that would be somewhat patient with a newbie like me.
"Ha, shit. Isn't there one decent party out there...?"
Scratch, scratch─
As I sat in front of my computer with my chin resting on my hand, scrolling the mouse wheel for a while,
A strangely familiar name caught my eye.
"Huh?"
[ (Urgent!) Recruiting one Damage Dealer!!! Location is E-Rank Gate, Camela Forest! Departure is tomorrow, so recruiting urgently! - Lee Yu-ri (20) ]
"Is this... Lee Yu-ri? 20 years old? No way... Is it her?"
When I clicked the post and opened the resume,
a familiar face appeared.
Velvetsra, 3-star character.
[ Dirt Spoon ] Lee Yu-ri.
A girl called more often by her cute nickname [ Gukbap ] than the devs' malice-filled title of Dirt Spoon.
"It was mentioned that Gukbap worked as a hunter since she was young, but I didn't know she was doing it right before the entrance ceremony too."
I fell into thought as I read her profile.
Honestly, it would be really great to party with her...
'The problem is she's a character who puts up a lot of thorns early on.'
As you can tell just from her title being Dirt Spoon, Lee Yu-ri's family was dirt poor.
Her mom failed at a business or something? Anyway, they had a lot of debt.
Amidst all that, her skills were solid, so she got into Velvet Academy with pretty good grades,
but there were often heartbreaking scenes of her filling up on water alone because she couldn't afford meals.
"Because of that inferiority complex, she built walls to avoid showing weakness."
Still, once you befriended her later, there was no one better.
Her role was an evasion Tank, and her health was high enough that she was occasionally used in PVP where base 5-stars dominated.
She was a 3-star, so she was easy to pull; skilled; loyal; and if you bought her a meal, she was so touched she repaid you even more.
Now that was Gukbap!
"...Haa, I'm not in a position to be picky about cold rice or hot rice. If it's Gukbap, of course I should contact her. Where else am I gonna find someone like her? I gotta grab onto her pant leg and not let go."
I immediately called the safe number on her resume.
Ring-ring-ring─
Click─!
─ Haah! Haah! Hello?
A woman's voice came through the phone along with ragged breathing.
─ Haah! Sorry. I was in the middle of training.
I chuckled and answered.
"Yes, hello. I'm calling about the party recruitment post."
─ ....
Instantly, the other end of the line went silent.
Was she going to hang up just from hearing my voice?
"W-wait a moment! Just hear me out before you hang up! I really want to party up!"
─ ...I don't accept men. I'm sor...
"I'm a prospective cadet at Velvet Hunter Academy!"
I cut off Lee Yu-ri's words and shouted desperately.
The first card I played to grab her attention.
It was none other than Velvet Hunter Academy.
Of course, I was a 'male quota' admit. But there was no way Lee Yu-ri knew that, so I could use it.
We were both prospective cadets, so she should be curious.
─ ...Velvet Hunter Academy?
My intention seemed to work, luckily, and Lee Yu-ri didn't hang up.
"Yes, yes! I got admitted this time, and, well, I don't have money for the academy right now... I urgently need money. I heard the meal costs are expensive anyway..."
And then, the second card I played.
Building camaraderie!
In reality, Jin Yu-ha was also a penniless orphan.
But unlike Lee Yu-ri, this guy ate pretty well at the academy.
Why? Because this bastard leeched meals off female students, cycling through them constantly.
When I didn't know about the gender role reversal, I thought he was just a handsome guy getting free meals from girls,
but now that I knew this was a gender-reversed world, he was basically a gold digger.
─ Haah... Even so, it's difficult...
'Prospective academy cadet' and 'poverty'. And the 'urgency' of having to leave tomorrow.
When these three factors combined, Lee Yu-ri's voice became softer than before.
She was probably seeing herself in my situation.
To firmly change her mind, I spoke in a desperate voice.
"...Please, I'm begging you. I'm really in an urgent situation for money. I'm enrolling in a month, and I'm truly penniless. I'll have to fill up on water during lunch! I won't ask for more than my share. I'll only take exactly what I earn!"
As if pondering for a moment, Lee Yu-ri let out a groan.
─ Tch, you're... confident in your skills, right?
"I'm someone who passed Velvet Academy through sheer skill alone!"
shouted the guy who got in by leeching off the Male Quota System.
─ Sigh... Fine. If it wasn't such an urgent request, I wouldn't have. Send your resume. Tomorrow morning, 7 AM. Sindorim Station. Can you make it?
"Yes! Of course! I'll see you tomorrow!"
And so, my first gate was to be tackled with the reliable Gukbap.