After-Party (1)
After-Party (1)
I didn't want to get up.
Burying my face into the pillow and squirming, I found that thought filling my head.
Sleeping on the dirt with leaves spread out during the trial had been a little uncomfortable, but nothing I couldn't handle.
I'd slept on stone floors plenty of times too. That wasn't much worse as a sleeping arrangement.
But still, sleeping in a bed was the most comfortable. There was nothing in the world that could match a bed's unique softness... uh... hmm...
...
...Come to think of it, it was probably the second most comfortable.
I quickly shook my head at the sudden, horrible thought that surfaced. The flickering red afterimage before my eyes scattered.
Lately, my head had been acting strange. Did I need a psychiatric evaluation? Maybe it was a side effect of the Calamity Flame.
Realizing I might laze around all day if I stayed like this, I forced my upper body upright.
The soft sensation receded. With tears welling up over the heartbreaking parting from my bed, I got up.
Saturday morning was quite leisurely. There was no pressing schedule to speak of.
'Urrgh...'
I loosened my stiff body with some simple stretches. A refreshing sensation coursed through me.
After savoring the pleasant feeling, I headed into the shower and splashed cold water on myself.
Thanks to that, the drowsiness faded considerably. But I didn't want to keep getting blasted by cold water, so partway through I switched to lukewarm.
'Is it fine now?'
My hands, which had been about to scoop up water and scrub my face, stopped with a flinch. The events of yesterday came to mind. I carefully touched the corners of my eyes.
Not tears—both eyes had been shedding drops of blood.
I'd pretended otherwise, but I seriously thought I was going to faint. For a moment, I almost lost my mind wondering if my eyes had been ruined.
Just because I can't see doesn't mean they're useless. They're eyes I'll regain someday. I have to take care of them as if they're sacred treasures.
Spatial Perception had taken over the role of sight. Thanks to that, far from hindering my daily life, I actually saw better than people who walked around with their eyes open.
Being treated like a disabled person and given consideration made my conscience sting so badly it bored into me.
Even when I told people around me that, the way they looked at me didn't really change.
I wanted to regain my sight.
My understanding of Spatial Perception had increased, so I'd grasped its fundamental mechanism.
It reads space in its entirety, and along with it, everything resting within that space. That was why I could perceive the world with a field of view similar to eyesight.
But it's different from real eyes. I knew that because I'd seen the world with my eyes once before.
The world perceived with eyes and the world felt through Spatial Perception are different.
Eyes look at the world from my point of view, but Spatial Perception only makes me feel like one part of the background.
I wanted to see the world with my eyes.
'Still, for now, Spatial Perception is more useful.'
From my standpoint, as someone who charges into battle wielding weapons, Spatial Perception was overwhelmingly superior to sight.
Blind spots? Spatial Perception doesn't have that kind of thing. It just perceives the space around me—where would a blind spot even be?
In the process of seeing the world with eyes, there are inevitably times when they close. Spatial Perception doesn't have that...
'It did happen, though.'
The memory of Spatial Perception being completely blocked in the Tower came back to me.
My expression crumpled in an instant.
An ability that had nearly killed its owner on the first day. An ability that then had its performance slashed and put me through hell.
After the Freshman Welcome Party, it had recovered somewhat and I'd been using it fine... but when it really mattered—the Tower entry—it stabbed me in the back, and after coming out of the Tower, it screwed over its owner again, and again! An ungrateful, thankless ability.
It's a defective ability, with a screw clearly loose somewhere.
'...Defective?'
While chewing out Spatial Perception, I felt a sense of incongruity with the word 'defective.'
The first day. A nightmare of a day I don't even want to think about.
Spatial Perception's rampage had nearly killed me. Excessive information had been hammered into my mind, and my brain had nearly burst from overload.
Whose fault was that?
Causes aside, the first-day incident happened because Spatial Perception's performance was excessively good. Not because its performance was inferior.
If I could have endured Spatial Perception's burden, I could have fully wielded that ability that was akin to omniscience.
Thinking about it that way, the defective side wasn't Spatial Perception, but me. Spatial Perception's only fault was that its performance was too good.
Badmouthing Spatial Perception might be unfair.
But.
'That's... isn't that strange?'
If Spatial Perception had been my only ability, I could chalk it up to me being incompetent—but I had two other Unique Abilities besides it.
All-Rounder and Mana Affinity.
They were Unique Abilities clearly acquired together with Spatial Perception. But I hadn't struggled to handle them.
Both had excellent performance. If I'd lacked either one, my current growth would have been absolutely impossible.
But neither of them had ever harmed me by having too good a performance.
Why was it only Spatial Perception that was like this? They should have been abilities granted in the same way, so why was Spatial Perception alone this peculiar?
'Hah...'
What could someone like me possibly figure out? I shook my head at the renewed sense of gloom. I patted my damp hair with the towel.
.
.
.
Siyoram encouraged camaraderie among cadets. A look at the on-campus benefits showed plenty of support for social activities.
Because of that, various social events frequently took place while living at Siyoram.
In short, a flood of minor sub-quests.
They were nothing compared to Main Quest rewards, but in the 1st Iteration, I'd sought out all sorts of sub-quests.
I'd get entangled with some cadet NPC, a sub-quest would pop up, and while solving it, another sub-quest would appear.
Depending on the quest, characters' Affection would rise and fall, and relationship graphs with various characters would weave and connect all over the place...
That kind of fluidity was really fun. It was so satisfying when a character with a nasty personality underwent a dramatic transformation through my intervention.
After the 1st Iteration—graduating from Siyoram only to run myself ragged circling a world that had gone completely to hell—starting from the 2nd Iteration, I focused on building up my power to prevent that.
Because of that, the 1st Iteration had a distinct kind of fun that set it apart from the other iterations.
I'd momentarily gotten lost in the past.
I shook my head vigorously, cast away the memories, and operated my smartwatch for the first time in a while.
The most recent entry in my logs. The first-year group chat room set up for announcements was blinking.
[Siyoram 121st Cohort Group Chat (613)]
▶Baek A-rin: [Announcement!] As announced previously, there will be a Tower-Entry After-Party today at 6 PM! Location: Third Banquet Hall! No dress code, attendance is free! (◍˃̶ᗜ˂̶◍)ﾉ" (Today 8:03)
▶Baek A-rin: [Emphasis!] Fun events and prizes are also prepared! Please come and join in! ₍⑅›ܫ‹₎っ🎁(Today 8:04)
...
Baek A-rin had taken charge of the after-party. It was because she had the name value of being the Top Seat, and she was also accustomed to arranging social gatherings like this.
'Should I go?'
I pondered for a moment.
Personal connections were crucial in this industry, and since Siyoram itself embraced that, there were many opportunities of all sorts to build networks among cadets.
The free-spirited Freshman Welcome Party and the after-parties held after major events, like this one.
The clubs that would become active from next semester, and the Mentor System that arranged meetings with upperclassmen.
And then there was the festival, held roughly once a year.
There were many systems that, though it didn't quite seem like it, functioned as social bonding.
I don't know about the other iterations, but in the 1st Iteration, I poked around everywhere and managed my Affection quite a bit. More precisely, my Affection rose in the process of enjoying sub-quests.
I'd benefited in various ways thanks to all that built-up Affection.
But that was a game's story. It was nothing more than typing in some text when a situation came up and calling it a day.
The real me had absolutely zero sociability to manage Affection...
'Still, it'd be better to go, right?'
The defects in my personality aside, at gatherings like this, just showing your face inevitably built up subtle Affection.
Although it was at a level embarrassing to call Affection, it was enough if it could trigger a faint memory of having briefly met when we ran into each other later.
My decision was made.
I'd just show my face briefly and come back. The professors had prescribed plenty of rest over the weekend, but they wouldn't say anything about me attending the after-party.
I checked the time.
The after-party was at 6 PM tonight. It was 10 AM now, so plenty of time remained. I could study a bit in the meantime.
Putting my body through its paces right now felt burdensome even to me. There was also the fact that yesterday's blood-from-the-eyes incident had spooked me.
They say patients should quietly listen to their doctors. I didn't want to lose my eyes either.
While I was pulling up study materials on my smartwatch with those thoughts, my awareness drifted to the Origin Egg sitting on the shelf.
'When will that one be ready?'
In the original, the setting was that if you waited quietly, it would open on its own. The time it took varied with each iteration, and the item it produced also differed.
In the 3rd Iteration, a shortcut-type artifact that allowed the additional acquisition of a Unique Ability had come out. In the 11th Iteration, the Heaven's Edge Elixir, which increased stat growth speed and limits, had appeared.
I didn't know the exact mechanism, but I could only guess that it spat out the type of item most suitable at the point of acquiring the Origin Egg.
So what would come out now?
In most iterations by this point, my various directions were already established, but in my current mixed-up state, I had no idea what would emerge.
Would it be a normal elixir type? I'd actually prefer that. At the very least, it'd be decent.
'Ah... elixir?'
While thinking about that, the elixir I'd received from Hong Yeon-hwa suddenly came to mind. The thought that I had to repay the debt. The effects I'd gained from it.
And the memory of vomiting blood the moment I took it, passing out, and even seeing strange hallucinations.
'...If an elixir comes out, is it okay to take it?'
I stared at the Origin Egg with a sour look. If an elixir came out and I just downed it, a disaster like last time might happen.
I'd been fortunate to get back up without any major issues then, but with one wrong move, I could have ended up a cold corpse.
Even an elixir that had clearly been processed for safety did that. If I ate an unprocessed elixir raw, I couldn't guarantee my safety.
Nothing was ever easy. I let out a deep sigh and checked the time on my smartwatch.
[PM 4:50]
While alternating between studying and thinking about the future, it had already become 5 o'clock.
'I'll just show my face and come back.'
I'd just stamp my attendance and return. With my personality, it was impossible to relax there.
I changed into my cadet uniform. After pointlessly fiddling with the Origin Egg once, I left the dormitory.