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The auditorium, where the admissions briefing and the test that would rank the incoming students were both in full swing, lay steeped in nothing but silence.
"......"
"......"
The professors fixed razor-sharp stares on the empty places where the prospective cadets had vanished, ready to move the instant anything went wrong. The subway anomaly. The Academy has it subjugated, yes... but we still can't afford to let our guard down. And so they drew even their breath shallow, lest the sound of it break a colleague's concentration and invite disaster.
Three minutes in. At least six hours still to go.
One professor had just flicked a glance at the second hand of his watch.
Crack—
A sound like space itself splitting. At the same instant, a single set of footsteps rang clear through the silent hall.
Hm?
The man who had appeared at the center of the auditorium, Bihyung, tilted his head and looked around. Did everyone else already come out? He stood alone in the wide hall. Not entirely—the faculty were there as well—but among the prospective cadets, he was the only one.
Oh, great... dead last?
Bihyung was under the impression he had come in last. And why wouldn't he be? He hadn't cleared the subway anomaly. A perfectly reasonable mistake, if there ever was one.
This is annoying.
His brow furrowed. I already know the clear method inside and out. I've played the Academy entrance test until I was sick of it. Follow what he knew, and a top ranking was a given. So how was he supposed to not be irritated, knowing the method and still unable to use it?
...Why did that have to happen during the test, of all times?
A sigh was just about to slip out of him when he felt eyes on him. Flat, downward stares. The faculty. He was fairly confident they hadn't realized he was a half-yokai, but that did nothing to make it less oppressive to have the full attention of dozens of 6th Rank exorcists bearing down on him at once. His neck shrank into his shoulders.
Yeesh. Every single one of those faces is terrifying.
They were all strikingly handsome, and yet they stared without so much as a flicker of expression. Fine features or not, it was frightening. Did being a half-yokai give me a persecution complex or something? He couldn't stand to stay here any longer.
Maybe I should head out.
Those who finished the test were free to go home at once. Waiting around for someone else's test, with no idea when it might end, was unbearably dull. Watching the professors' faces, Bihyung edged his way out of the auditorium.
"......"
Even then, the faculty said nothing. They only watched his back. The moment he vanished completely from sight, they kept one sense trained on the subway anomaly and started talking among themselves about him.
"This is... historic, isn't it?"
Barely three minutes had passed since he went in.
"And just like that, Korea's record for the shortest clear gets rewritten."
"Who set the last record, again?"
"Tuseonnyeo, the Fighting Celestial Maiden. That monstrous exorcist who once reached 9th Rank. The record was... twelve minutes and thirty-two seconds, set ten years ago, wasn't it?"
"...Whoa. So he cut that down to a quarter?"
"Insane, plain and simple. Tuseonnyeo's record alone was enough to draw gasps worldwide."
Not every nation's Academy test was the same, and Korea's was notorious even among them for its difficulty. He had cleared that test in a mere three minutes. The faculty had no choice but to reach a single, unanimous verdict on Bihyung.
"Ha. A genius... no. A monster just walked in."
"Word was this year's freshmen were exceptional... and even among them, he'll be in a class of his own. First place."
Then the professors' eyes began to gleam. Beneath the shine lay a single desire: possession.
"He has a natural gift for understanding anomalies and exploring them. One look, and I can tell that kid and I would be a perfect match."
"You're in charge of the third-years. Why are you licking your chops?"
"And why would that be a problem? I'll just have him skip grades."
"...Has this witch lost her mind?"
"I'm perfectly sane. Don't like it? You know what to do."
"Fine. Now you've pissed me off. Meet me at the sparring grounds later."
A fight among the faculty over Shin Bihyung was just about to break out. And then—
"Would you all keep it down? The test isn't over yet."
The most shabbily dressed, utterly unadorned man in the room rebuked them all with a sharp look.
"I understand the interest in a newly risen star. But there are sprouts in there that haven't even bloomed yet, still fighting for all they're worth."
"......"
The professors shut their mouths, one after another, and nodded. Having witnessed a talent for the ages with their own eyes, they had gotten carried away without realizing it. They meant to return to the work at hand. But the voice of a female professor who had been observing the subway anomaly trembled thin.
"...Huh? This... this isn't supposed to happen..."
"Why? What's going on!"
The professors who rushed to her side were each struck dumb by the state of the subway anomaly as they sensed it.
"What in the..."
"No response? Then that means... it was exorcised?"
"The subway anomaly? By a cadet who hasn't even enrolled!?"
Shock rang through the auditorium once more.
Clack.
Kreeeak...
He forced a key into the old lock and turned it. The hinges, just as old, screamed as the door swung open. An aging villa—the cramped low-rise where he had opened his eyes. The wallpaper was mottled with mold, and half the bathroom tiles had peeled away, and yet the moment he thought of it as home, a strange calm settled over him.
"Yeah. Nothing beats home."
Nothing here could threaten him. That certainty loosened his tense body in an instant.
"Well. Not my home, but still."
So what? He'd been summoned here anyway. Thinking as much, Bihyung threw himself onto the bed tucked in a corner of the room. Even on a mattress with not a trace of softness to it, he rolled around just fine. Then the earlier events came back to him, and another sigh escaped.
"Haa... so a top ranking's out the window, huh?"
The reason he had wanted a high rank was his position as a half-yokai. The early days after enrollment might be fine, but sooner or later he would have to operate out in the world. Having been a top-ranked cadet would grant him no small number of advantages along the way. Top-ranked cadets are allowed to move on their own when they take assignments and missions. Through that, he had meant to pick and choose his way around ever crossing paths with the Audit Office. That had been the plan...
"Argh! The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off!"
Why did the subway anomaly have to freak out the moment their eyes met?
"Freaking out would've been fine! Why'd it have to speed up from there!?"
He swallowed the sigh trying to leak out. Still, he had learned one thing. Anomalies fear me. He didn't know why. Probably because he was a half-yokai. Or because of that yokai nature of his. No telling how far it'll hold, either. The subway anomaly was one the Academy had subjugated, an individual whose threat level wasn't particularly high. Whether that yokai nature would inspire fear in higher specimens was something he would have to test. But of one thing he was certain.
If I use this to grow fast? If he piled up merits and achievements? If things went well, aiming for first place even once next semester wouldn't be a mere dream. Entering as top of the class was never something you were actually meant to pull off. Even the character the veteran Bihyung had raised with everything he had had never met the condition of entering in first place. Not even when he used the reincarnation system to squeeze out an edge over an ordinary character. The reason was nothing special. It was just hard.
Usually, until you hit the late game, the NPCs are stronger than the player more often than not.Dokja Jeongi was no different on that point. It did, however, differ from other games in one respect. The NPCs' talent. The setting was an academy prestigious enough to draw students from abroad, not merely from across the country. True to that, the NPC cadets who enrolled in the same era were absurdly gifted. From the bloodline holders called Traits, to the heroines and the supporting cast. The late game of Dokja Jeongi forced you to fight in teams. It was a solo-play game, so those teammates were NPCs, of course. Characters who have to walk with the player from the very start all the way to the end. Naturally, their talent and potential stood at a towering level. Holding on to a hard-won first place against people like that was already brutal enough. So how was he supposed to aim for first at enrollment, when he hadn't achieved a shred of growth?
Even so, next semester's top spot is within reach. Before the rest of them grow, I'll take first for at least one semester. Through that, he would clear one hidden piece, and from there claim another. It was the moment the hardened veteran of Dokja Jeongi steeled his resolve.
Ding!
"What?"
A familiar notification chime snapped him back to himself. His phone. The moment he pulled it from his waistband and read what was on the screen, his expression darkened and set.
You have slain the anomaly, The Death Line With No Final Stop.
Your yokai nature is strengthened.
The achievement Perfect Neutrality is beginning to warp.
"Huh?"
Bihyung stared in shock at the messages that rose after it.
If Perfect Neutrality warps, your yokai nature will be strengthened.
The more your human nature diminishes, the closer your species draws to yokai.
"...Perfect Neutrality was what was keeping me from becoming a yokai?"
The color drained from his face.
"They never told me about this!?"
In the game, achievements had been nothing but trophies. You did a thing, so here, have this. That kind of feeling.
"There weren't any effects or anything!"
Had things changed because this was reality now? The thought flashed through him, but there was something more urgent to worry about. ...If I become a yokai completely, can I hide it? For a moment, Bihyung recalled the yokai that had appeared in the game. And then—
Impossible.
He could say it without a shred of doubt. He could never hide it. To begin with, yokai are enormous compared to ordinary humans. Even a yokai whelp looks down on a grown man like he's nothing. If he became something like that, who would ever look at him and see the same kind of human? ...Calm down and think. What can fix this? The information he had piled up playing the game flashed past like a reel. The conclusion converged on a single point.
The library's hidden piece.
As far as Bihyung could see, that alone could resolve this. If I'd secured a top ranking, getting in would've been easy... To obtain that hidden piece, simply walking into the library the ordinary way would not do. He needed a fairly high rank, and he had to meet a specific person, before the event would even trigger.
"Seriously! Not a single thing is going right!"
He was clutching his head as if to tear his hair out, howling, when—
Ding!
The phone announced another text. This time he was afraid even to check it, and he squinted down at the screen. An unknown number.
"......"
Bihyung stared blankly at the message, then spat out a single line.
"Argh! Now I've even got a spam-text anomaly coming after me!?"
Okay. You're dead.
He dialed the number at once, intent on exorcising the spam-text anomaly. A brief ring tone passed, and then the sound of someone picking up.
"Honey..."
Before the voice beyond the receiver could even finish—
"Honey can drop dead! I'm not buying!"