26. You... Were Alive?
26. You... Were Alive?
Thank you for the 10 coins, Self-Made-Villain.
*****************
The 'Bracelet' distributed by the Academy.
In-game, it was called 'Battle Shield of Spirit', or 'BSS' for short, but wherever you looked, it was clearly intentional, so let's just let that slide.
Anyway, this 'Bracelet' was itself an artifact, and beyond displaying your status, it also had the role of creating a protective barrier when the user received an impact that would lead to death.
That was why the teachers of NTR Academy threw the student cadets onto the island and made them take the survival exam without any concern──
Kwajik, kwajijijijik!
"Diiieeeeee!!!!"
"Ugh....Aaaaaargh!!!"
─In real-time, the Protagonist's protective barrier cracked and was on the verge of breaking.
I stared blankly at the situation, wondering what on earth was going on, when Yuno, who had been staying beside him, silently approached me.
"Mars seems to be really angry."
"That... looks to be the case from the outside."
Mars swung her greatsword as if she had met her mortal enemy, and swung it again, and then again.
At first, the Protagonist tried to counterattack by mustering all his strength, but due to the aftereffects of already having used his Awakening Skill once on me, he retired without being able to do anything.
Now, beyond that, he couldn't avoid being treated like a volleyball, barrier and all.
'Whoa, how scary.'
She just flings people away, barrier and all, and tosses them.
Perhaps because the taste of the buffs was quite good, Mars excitedly beat the Protagonist until she was eventually half-forcibly restrained by the teachers' intervention.
"Let go! I haven't... I haven't killed that bastard yet!!!"
"Calm down, Cadet Mars. If you go any further, he will truly die."
"Because of Chrono! Chrono died because of that bastard!!!"
"Kkeueut... What kind of strength is this...!"
Even with two teachers clinging to her, her monstrous strength couldn't be covered.
'As I recall, NTR Academy's buff formula is 'additive calculation'....'
Roughly a 100% All Stats buff from me layering and stacking multiple buffs.
A 100% buff from the Encore Kiss.
A 2x multiplier from Berserk, no, seeing her state, she received a bonus effect, making it a 500% All Stats buff (excluding Intelligence).
And to top it off, she even used Descent, so if you add another 500% to that....
"...She really is a monster."
A 1200% buff.
Honestly, this figure was a ridiculous figure.
Even right now, stacking buffs like this required quite a lot of time, not to mention the time needed to work on the Bond Rank.
Furthermore, the Awakening Skill, [Descent], required the bare minimum stats to be met in order to use the skill...
...It seemed my buffs, filled with utmost sincerity, had patched up that part.
'Come to think of it, I cleared almost everything at SS-rank.'
Probably, she wouldn't be able to go this far in a real fight.
Even if she could, it would only be possible in front of the boss room, and even then, certain restrictions would follow, making it impossible to give an endless amount of buffs like now.
The point was, this situation was truly a case of luck upon luck upon luck coming together.
"Thi... Aaaaaargh!!!"
"Kuk.... It's too much!"
"Support! Someone call for support!!"
While several teachers in the vicinity rushed to intervene,
Mars eventually shook off the teachers' restraints and threw herself at the Protagonist.
For just one more hit.
For just one more punch, with that single-minded determination.
Kwadeudeudeuk!
"Diiieeeeee!!!"
"Heu... Hiik.....!!"
A fist that finally stretched out.
It soon shattered the Protagonist's barrier, and further, struck the Protagonist square in the face.
Ppajak, ujikkeun!
"Huuuuu......!"
With a gruesome sound, the Protagonist collapsed backward.
At the spot where the fist landed, there was a deeply sunken mark, and the Protagonist's body slowly fell backward.
Facial fracture. Orbital fracture. Whatever it was, it looked like he'd need to be hospitalized for a few months at least─but even this would probably be treated by the school nurse, right?
'Because the school nurse is an Apostle of Asclepius.'
The respawn location upon a game over was the infirmary.
Even if his face was crushed, the school nurse would surely restore it.
I think that teacher's title was 'Apostle of Asclepius' or something like that.
Being an apostle of the god of medicine, as long as you weren't dead, you could be revived.
"Cadet Mars!"
"If you resist further, you will be disqualified!"
"Still... there's more, left... daaaa....."
Ah, she got caught.
It seemed that last strike was Mars' limit.
Come to think of it, buffs naturally run out after a certain amount of time, so she couldn't be like that all day long.
"Oo.... uuu.....!"
Mars, eventually seized by the teachers.
She hung her head low and let out tears like chicken droppings─no, why was she suddenly crying?
"I'm sorry... sorry... so sooorry....!"
She sobbed.
Tears continued to flow.
"For not protecting you.... For leaving you, to die....!!"
If I knew this would happen.
If I knew it would turn out like this....
"Ah."
I flinched, an ominous feeling washing over me.
That's no good. Those words must not continue.
I took a deep breath and shouted at Mars with all my might.
"Don't say you like─"
"──Mars!!"
"....Chrono?"
Mars slowly raised her head and shifted her eyes toward me.
I looked at her as tears streamed down her face and replied.
"Shut up!"
".........."
"Don't say that! In most situations like this, whatever you say is all cringy middle-schooler syndrome talk, so later on it's horribly embarrassing!"
".....Ha."
A look in her eyes as if all the energy had drained out of her.
Was it the aftermath of the buffs ending, or the aftereffects of her Descent?
Mars staggered toward me and plopped down in front of me.
"You... were you alive?"
"Of course I'm alive. Did you think I was dead?"
"No... I mean, how could you be alive after getting hit by that."
"Well, that's true."
If I had been hit with my bare body, I might have crossed the Jordan River—no, the River Styx.
"But do these bracelets look like decorations to your eyes?"
"......Ah!"
But that was only if I were truly bare-bodied.
Unless you forcibly deactivated the equipment, you wouldn't die even inside a dungeon.
For now, the Protagonist's barrier broke because she received such inflated buffs, but in NTR Academy, no matter what battle you lose, you never truly reach 'death'.
...The catch was that you just didn't die.
For example, there was no helping it if someone willingly deactivated their barrier because they wanted to.
A prime example was the Legion Commander of the Abyss or whatever, which was a term referring to heroines who became corrupted by monsters through NTR.
Well, that had its own stages, so getting captured once didn't mean you immediately fell into the abyss, but instead, there were penalties that gradually made it harder to aim for a pure love ending.
The most extreme example was that a heroine already tamed by an orc could no longer be satisfied by the Protagonist or something.
"What a relief... it is....."
"Huh?"
While I was briefly lost in other thoughts, Mars placed her hand on top of the barrier.
Soon, she slowly stroked the barrier, then pouted her lips.
"You... never do something like this again, from now on."
"Alright."
".........."
"What."
Telling me not to do it,
Mars grumbled again and scratched the back of her head roughly.
"Huuuu.... I don't know anymore. Fuck, I don't get any of this."
Eventually, Mars leaned her forehead against the barrier and let out a sigh.
I knocked politely on the other side of the barrier and spoke to Mars.
"Hey, can you see my stuff over on the other side? You take all of that."
"....That stuff, you're the one who gathered it."
"I'm already in this state, how can I use it? Just take it."
"........You pushover bastard."
This kid just won't speak nicely to the very end.
Mars strode over to where my luggage was and began to take out this and that.
Chocolate bars, jerky. One bag of leftover rice, salt, pepper, and so on.
Since there wasn't even a day left, I didn't know where she'd use it, but let's leave that aside.
"Cadet Chrono, you are disqualified."
"Neeeeep."
I was promptly escorted by a teacher and returned to the Academy.
****************
The relocation exam was over.
It was only now that the tutorial was finally finished, which was no different from the true curtain rising on NTR Academy.
And so, the results of the relocation exam, which would define the upcoming year, were──
"──Why are you in Class B?!!"
"Euh. ah. ah. ah. ah."
Mars, Class A.
Chrono, Class B.
Our classes were precisely split.
Mars shook my shoulders mercilessly and complained at me.
But honestly, it wasn't really a strange thing, was it?
"I started with a 100-point deduction, you know?"
"Even so... Still! You cleared the dungeon!"
"My stats are just so low..."
"Well... well, that's true, but still...!"
Even so, this is just.
This is just not fair...!
Mars grumbled continuously, something clearly bothering her.
But since I had already laid out so many hints several times, she couldn't outright deny the result.
And in that sense, the most unexpected point was...
"Hello Chrono! We're in the same class, huh?"
"....Why are you in Class B?"
Yuno was in Class B.
The fact that the Protagonist went to Class A.
Finding that fact strange, I asked Yuno, and
"During the survival exam, other than the survival score, I didn't really get any additional points, it seems...."
"Aha...."
It seemed she was given Class B because she really just barely survived.
Even so, since there was a dungeon clear bonus, I thought she'd go to Class A...
'Is that Protagonist guy really okay?'
As expected of no less than the Protagonist of NTR Academy, he was steadily setting up NTR flags one after another.
Of course, I had absolutely no intention of doing that myself, though.
Still, any other heroines would have all gone to Class A──
"So you were here, Chrono."
"Minerva?"
─was what I thought, bullshit, then why were you here?
According to my memory, the heroines were all supposed to go to Class A, with Yuno set to follow the Protagonist.
"While sharing points with everyone, I ended up falling to Class B by a few points' difference."
"......Ah!"
Now that I thought about it, there was Mars' special event.
If you defeated Mars this time, things would proceed normally thereafter, but if you were defeated by Mars, even Minerva would end up going to Class B...
...As much as I wanted to blame myself for realizing this only now, I also wanted to retort, asking who could possibly memorize every single one of these trivial details.
'Anyway.... so that's what happened.'
It wasn't exactly the Azure Dragon on the left and the White Tiger on the right,
but as Mars left, Minerva came to find me.
As a bonus, the Protagonist was abandoning his main heroine.
I closed my eyes tight and let out a sigh.
"Really flaunting that you're NTR Academy....."
The Protagonist was living up to his title far too much.