18. Tear-Soaked Choco Bar
18. Tear-Soaked Choco Bar
The title will be
I Became the Academy's Time-Stop Villain.
***************
Beep beep beep beep! Beep beep beep beep!
"Nnngghh... Gyaaah...!"
The alarm rang obnoxiously.
I naturally reached out, turned off the alarm, and threw off the covers—actually, wait, I was here to take an exam, wasn't I?
"...I'd slept so comfortably I'd forgotten."
Fwaaaaah, smack.
Man, I was hungry.
I folded and tied up my sleeping bag and stepped outside, scratching my stomach three times.
No one forced me to do it, but I started warming up little by little, getting ready for my morning exercise.
'Because these things are only good if you keep at them.'
I didn't really tidy up my gear.
If someone stole it, it would give me a bit of a headache, but if that were to happen, I would just immediately throw my hands up and say "I surrender" and be done with it.
The Main God hadn't given any quests for this event.
Which meant I could give up at any time with zero consequences.
"Should I just go fetch some water or something?"
My running course was set.
From my location, northwest.
Run straight until I saw a large tree, then advance upward.
"Krrrrhhhh......"
".....Hm."
Along the way, I saw a sleeping student cadet and lightly aimed at their glabella and pulled the trigger.
Pshhht! Bang!
"Krrrhhhhhhh......"
"...That's incredible, really."
They were drooling in their sleep without even knowing they were already dead.
This is why, see? You've got to develop the habit of sleeping early and waking up early, I tell you!
I moved my steps again and headed to the stream above.
"Pwhoo! Look at how cool the water is!"
I lightly wiped the sleep from my eyes and washed my hair.
I finished off my teeth by lightly swishing water around in my mouth.
Since it was water everyone else used too, I didn't want to carelessly contaminate it with something bad.
"Should I head back now?"
I filled the water bottle I had brought with me.
This water was scheduled to be used in many handy ways.
The return trip was far lighter and quicker to arrive, and my gear was also sitting there looking the same as before, apparently not attacked by anyone.
"Heu-heung... heung... heu-heung♪"
I gathered firewood nearby, then lit a well-dried branch with a lighter.
The flames started crackling up. I placed the frying pan (Cronus's Scythe) on top, poured in the water, and waited about 3 minutes for it to warm up properly.
"I wanted to pack even more beastly gear, honestly...."
I rummaged through my bag and took out breakfast.
One chocolate bar. Half a piece of jerky. And one instant mix coffee with the water I just heated.
It was an utterly meager meal for a student cadet in their growing years, but at least in terms of calories, it would be fairly decent.
"Hoo~~~... slurp."
I lightly cooled the surface of the coffee and held it in my mouth.
A single cup of coffee that warmly melted my entire body in the slightly chilly dawn.
The selling point was the cheap-as-hell sweetness that stung the tongue.
After that, I took a bite of the salty jerky to neutralize the taste, then crunched into the chocolate bar that stuck cloyingly to my mouth—
"Ugh, what a gross feeling."
—And then I ruthlessly needed water.
I shouldn't eat like this next time.
I'd only packed for the romanticism and ended up making my real self suffer.
I threw away the half-eaten chocolate bar just like that and returned to my own personal time.
"Phew... So, where to now, I wonder?"
After finishing my meal, I neatly organized all my gear.
Done after folding up the tent, sleeping bag, and hiking mat.
Other traces of my stay still remained, but I didn't bother cleaning them up.
At worst, what were they gonna do with a few piled-up pieces of wood?
"Hmmmm—Shall I head toward the sea today?"
My prediction was that the mountain side would likely be crawling with student cadets.
Drinking water, things to eat, and so on were easier to obtain on the mountain than the beach, after all.
Plus, since you couldn't ignore human instinct, they would probably all dig inward, and if that happened, my leisurely vacance would turn to foam.
"Alright. Let's head to the sea!"
I shouted valiantly and advanced toward the beach.
...
..
.
I continued advancing for about 5 hours.
Finally reaching the beach, I looked around and searched for a spot to unpack.
"Seeing how the trees are rotted up to here... the water must come in quite a lot, huh?"
If you carelessly unpacked on the sandbar, you'd be in for a world of hurt come evening.
So, you had to pull back as much as possible and make camp somewhere the water never reached.
Unexpectedly, this was an incredibly important part.
"Is about here good enough? Once I roughly bring some wood and pile it up, it'll be livable."
I set up a house in the exact same style as the one I built in the forest last time.
Just like that, another hour later, before I knew it, the evening sunset began to fall.
"I've done absolutely nothing and yet the sun is already setting..."
The biggest problem right now would definitely be the issue of 'food.'
No matter how many chocolate bars and jerky I packed, how could a person live off only that?
"Going into the sea is.... a bit eh."
It was late, and it would just be exhausting if I went in for nothing and came back empty-handed anyway.
I'm kind of that type, you know. When I go to the beach, rather than getting in and splashing around, I value the atmosphere itself—that's bullshit, I just didn't want to sleep covered in salt.
'If only there were a shower nearby or something.'
Right now, thanks to the sea breeze, my skin was sticky and I was getting really annoyed.
Even if I had no choice but to sleep today for the romanticism, tomorrow I definitely had to go back into the forest.
"So there's a reason people don't do this stuff."
Thankfully, I'd picked up a few things on the way here.
I opened my bag and took out the wild berries and vegetables I had gathered during my journey.
"What should I make and eat today, I wonder...?"
I chewed the wild berries as they were.
Suddenly, along with a 'crunch' sound in my mouth, I felt something jui—cy, but I just ignored it.
Because people who pay attention to stuff like that are the ones who lose.
"Hmmm... Should I use the gochujang today?"
Actually, the plan I had laid out was to go into the sea, catch fish, and make spicy fish stew, but spicy stew or not, I couldn't do it because of the salt.
So this plan was essentially a failure. But still, I couldn't not use what I'd brought...
"...Let's hold back for now."
It was only the second day of my vacation.
There was no reason to be wilting already.
On top of that, I had even set up a second plan in preparation for any unforeseen situation.
....Honestly, calling it a second plan was a stretch, I just brought things haphazardly.
"First, let's eat."
What I made was simple.
A thick soup with chopped jerky and vegetables.
The seasoning was only salt and pepper again, so it was a taste that needed water in many ways, but it was way better than eating it raw.
"So, now that I've filled my stomach...!"
Time to gradually put the 'Second Plan' into action.
I took 'that item' out of my bag and lit its end on fire.
Chhhhhht... chik!
"Now!"
Launch skyward!
Pshu────woong....
...
..
.
Paaaang!
"Ah......!"
Colorful flames scattering across the sky.
The item I had packed was none other than firecrackers!
Pop-pop-pop! Bang! Pop-pop-pop-pop-bang!
"It's fucking awesooooome!!!"
The sparks fired relentlessly from the end of the firecracker.
After refreshingly embroidering the sky, I stared blankly up and said,
"Sex."
This was sex.
"Ah....."
But, how should I put it.
Maybe it was because I just said sex.
"I wanna have seeeex....."
Suddenly, I missed Ur desperately.
Sniffle.
**************
Around that time, Minerva's party's case.
"Captain Minae!"
"...Merk. Once again, I am Minerva. I am not Minae."
"Captain Minae!"
"....Haaaaah..."
Merk joined.
And in addition to that.
"Captain... There was an attack."
"An attack, you say?"
They had been attacked once.
Who was the culprit of the attack?
"I didn't see well... but it looked like a woman with red hair tied back, wielding a greatsword."
"....Mars..!"
Minerva knew it instinctively.
Mars.
She had attacked their encampment.
"Captain... give us your orders!"
"""Give us your orders!"""
".............."
Those who bowed their heads and raised their voices.
In this moment, Minerva had to make a decision.
Not as a single student cadet, but as the 'Captain' leading this group.
"I will 'subjugate' the enemy of Mars—our enemy."
"""""Waaaaaahhh!!"""""
A Subjugation Order.
Minerva's party roared, bolstering their morale.
...
..
.
Yuno and Ter's party's case.
"Is it really... okay for me to just keep receiving like this?"
"It's okay. If anything, I'm sorry I feel like I can't do enough for you."
"But still..."
The Survival test proceeded smoothly thanks to Ter's carry.
Yuno spent her days basically half-playing around, and she began to feel a little anxious.
Even if they were lovers, was it really okay for her to stay so still?
Shouldn't she, too, be doing something as a lover?
Just as that quiet anxiety began to creep in.
"To me, just being together with Yuno like this gives me strength."
"Ah......"
In that moment, Ter's fingernails touched Yuno's fingertips.
Then slowly, they crept into her hand until.
"What does Yuno think?"
"......Ter..."
Tightly, Ter intertwined their fingers.
Through Ter's rare affectionate gesture, Yuno slowly forgot the wall in her heart, the past time she had been ignored, and leaned her body toward Ter.
"I... feel the same as Ter...."
Finally.
With the sense that they were drawing closer as lovers.
Yuno was able to fall into a pleasant deep sleep for the first time in a long while.
...
..
.
Meanwhile, Mars's case.
"Fucking bastards. Don't have shit and yet they're so goddamn chirpy."
Unable to endure her hunger, she attacked a student cadet.
Anyway, as long as it was Survival, attacking someone was a given.
But the problem was that even though the attack itself succeeded, the harvest she obtained was close to zero.
"Dogs. Cockroaches, really."
In the first place, they too were greenhorns experiencing Survival for the first time.
It was only natural they had nothing.
Ultimately, after exhausting all her strength and becoming a half-walking corpse, the place she finally arrived at was—a spot where the traces of someone who had stayed were felt.
"Sniff sniff.... What's this? I smell something kind of familiar."
Mars cautiously approached the spot.
A place where a fire had been lit. A place where a site had been settled.
Even the appearance of a table made of wood to avoid bugs.
"Kind of, a pro son of a bitch, huh?"
Mars lightly marveled and at the same time rejoiced at having found a good site.
Even though she had no strength and no time to light a fire, at least she could avoid the bugs, so she had to be grateful for just that.
"....Huh? What's this?"
No, it wasn't just that.
"Oh.... Oh, ohhhh!!"
Something discarded on the ground.
Something that looked familiar to her eyes, upon looking closer—wasn't this a chocolate bar?
"Someone took a bite out of it, but... fuck, does that matter right now!"
From the moment she picked it up off the ground where it had fallen for a while, the fact that someone had bitten it was no issue.
Crunch.
"───Krgh....!"
The sweet flavor spread fully through her mouth.
Energy. Carbohydrates. Calories. Happiness.
Though it did feel like she was chewing a bit of dirt and a few ants together with it...
"Fucking delicious... fuck...!"
She would probably never forget the taste of the tear-soaked chocolate bar.