05. You, Become My Comrade
05. You, Become My Comrade
On the first day, during the sparring with Mars,
I had clearly blocked Mars with the worst conditions possible—a scrawny body and a dagger, utterly incapable of stopping a muscle-bound greatsword woman.
On top of that, before Mars could even regain her stance, I rushed into her guard and struck her. Certainly, since I had a dagger, my movements could be quicker compared to a greatsword.
But even taking that into account...
"This is a bit, really strange."
To begin with, blocking Mars's attack at all made no sense.
No, could I even call that blocking?
In the footage, I, as a last resort, brought my dagger to Mars's greatsword—and as if it had struck something solid, the greatsword bounced off.
Rather than being stopped by the dagger, it looked as if it had been knocked back by its own force.
As if a sword had been swung against a solid wall and rebounded.
The strike that followed afterward was also so fast that I couldn't even imagine I had done it.
"Even at 0.5x speed, it barely looks normal..."
A speed that defied all reason.
Could explosive muscle power and instantaneous reflexes like that exist in this scrawny body?
No, they couldn't.
There was no way they existed.
If that were the case, it was correct to consider it as 'Cronus's power' rather than my own innate ability.
"Time... time, huh..."
I stopped time.
I stopped the time of the dagger, fixing it so it wouldn't move.
Therefore, no matter how hard the fixed dagger was struck by the greatsword, the dagger, already bound within space, didn't break but instead repelled the greatsword—that was the most logical interpretation.
"The correlation between time and space."
It felt like something was coming unraveled.
Furthermore, the fact that my figure on the screen looked normal when played at 2x speed could be expressed in another way.
"One second for others felt like two seconds for me?"
If I could cram another second into one second,
I could move more than twice as fast as others.
"...Hmm."
There was only one thing to conclude after calmly laying it all out.
Why did that bastard in the original work use such a great ability only to bang heroines?
'Of course that bastard would, so that's why he was given the blessing. Jeez.'
Come to think of it, he was an eroge villain, so of course he'd use it to bang them. If he were stronger than necessary, the story couldn't progress.
Anyway, having realized a new way to develop my ability, I practiced it in my dorm room whenever I had spare time.
...
..
.
"It's been several days since I passed out, and now both of my hands are broken."
"Ahaha..."
And this was the result.
Enhancing the power of a pistol.
There wasn't much to call an enhancement.
It was just that I reduced the time it took for the bullet to fly from one second to infinitely close to zero seconds.
'Acceleration is ultimately a variable of time change, so...'
Let's think about it simply.
Suppose it takes over 12 hours by car and ferry to go from Incheon Airport to Jeju Island.
If you take a plane from Incheon Airport, you can finish it within one hour.
By simple calculation, the time is more than 12 times faster.
Put another way, the acceleration increases.
The increased acceleration combines with mass to turn into force.
"Still, it seems your effort paid off. You're the first among cadets with an S-rank in power and a total score of 16 points, an A-rank."
"...There was an S-rank too?"
"Firearm categories generally have high average values for power, but even taking that into account, you're off the charts."
The school nurse pulled up an on-site photo on her phone and showed it to me.
"The test scarecrow was completely shattered. At this level, that says it all."
"...Huh."
So my effort did pay off after all.
As I felt a little proud at that fact, the school nurse continued her question.
"But Chrono Cadet, why did you do something like this?"
"Huh?"
"Your ability. Surely you were controlling it perfectly during the clay shooting?"
"Ah..."
Indeed, at that moment, I had suddenly felt as if the world had slowed down.
I must have unconsciously used my ability then, but since I had accelerated my body along with the gun, controlling it wasn't impossible.
However—during the power test, I couldn't do that because...
"Well... my power was barely holding on, so if I strengthened my body as well, I thought the power would drop."
"...I see."
If I accelerated time along with the gun, no matter how strong it became, it was only a 2x enhancement at most.
Only 2x. Could I really win with that?
No. Absolutely impossible.
So I gave up on my body's safety and thought only of the bullet.
'Because Cronus said so.'
That perspective is relative.
If I doubled time along with the gun, adding one second to one second for 2x was the limit, but
if I objectified myself and observed only the bullet, I could achieve infinite power as one second approached zero seconds.
...Of course, infinite was just a figure of speech; it probably wasn't that extreme.
"But Chrono Cadet, going out to the battlefield and injuring your body is something you must be extremely careful about. Especially for people like you who need to operate from the rear, even more so."
"Yeeees..."
The school nurse lightly scolded me and then turned away.
"I've set all your bones, so you'll be able to attend class as early as tomorrow. Still, you may have some lingering pain or aches, so be careful for a few days."
"Understood."
The school nurse drew the curtain that served as a wall and returned to her original place.
I lay blankly on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
[Time Limit: 0s]
"...Ha."
I used it all up thoroughly.
I adjusted my bracelet and opened the stats window.
Name: Chrono (Class B)
Rank: ---
Strength: 9( 2)
Stamina: 14
Agility: 14( 1)
Intelligence: 32( 1)
Divinity: 20
"It's gone up a bit."
Strength probably increased because I didn't even know my hand was tearing from gripping the gun.
Agility must have increased during clay shooting.
Intelligence... seemed to have risen from playing around with time this way and that.
Well, at least it didn't go down, so that was a relief.
'This game has such a bizarre system in many ways.'
Usually in MMORPGs, stats rarely drop, but in NTR Academy, it happened quite often.
The reasoning was that if you specialized in one direction, naturally you'd become dull in another—didn't that make sense?
The Protagonist could at least be raised as an all-rounder character, but conversely, aside from the Protagonist, specializing in one direction was better for everyone.
And that was probably what I'd do now as well.
"Which direction should I go...?"
Since my base stats were so trash, it seemed I could specialize in any direction.
My intelligence seemed relatively high, so I could switch to a holy mage, but to do that, the god I served (forcibly) wasn't well-suited to holy magic.
'If that's the case, then indeed...'
Taking the agility tree seemed better.
Strength didn't need to be raised if I fought from the rear; I only needed enough to handle the gun's recoil.
Stamina could just be raised to an average level.
Then what remained were intelligence and divinity, but those would naturally rise just from using my ability.
"Usually you raise them by praying or meditating, but..."
Since I was an 'Apostle', skipping that with 'Missions' was far more cost-effi—
[Mission]
[First Prayer as an Apostle]
-One beloved by the gods. You must know how to repay that love.
-Please return the grace you received from Cronus, at least through prayer.
1. Prayer toward Cronus (0/1)
Reward: Cronus's modest joy / Contribution 1
On failure: Slight disappointment
—But when you present it like this, it's a bit troublesome.
I stealthily opened the curtain with my hand and looked around.
'No people in sight... and the teacher seems to have gone out somewhere...'
If so, I'd better hurry and get it over with quickly.
"Hooooo..."
I clasped my hands tightly together.
As if the school nurse's words weren't a lie, I didn't feel much pain in my hands; only a slight numbness remained.
It was bearable enough to ignore and go ahead.
"...Prayer."
A prayer, huh.
"........Uhm."
Come to think of it, the only religion I'd ever had in my life was Christianity, which I tagged along to with a friend.
What should I do? What must I do? Can I just roughly recite the Lord's Prayer?
[First Prayer as an Apostle]
-Prayer is originally communication with a god.
-Speak your true heart without pretense!
".........Fine."
A true heart without pretense, huh.
I clasped my hands and prayed.
"O God. I am a weak being."
So weak, so very weak,
so rottenly weak
that "my strength is such that even holding a gun, I can barely handle its recoil; my stamina always lags behind others, and without your care, I cannot endure. My feet are sluggish as if weighed down by a thousand pounds, and as for whether my head is any good, it is not."
No matter how you look at it, a weak being.
A weak, frail being who can do nothing.
"If such a me has accomplished anything, it is solely your glory, your blessing, and the merit that goes only to you."
Therefore, O God,
I humbly pray with hands clasped,
"Lead me not into trials."
Every time I try to do something, I open my eyes and I'm in the infirmary.
"Let me not be made to collapse under my own weakness."
This time, my hand bones went out in one shot.
"Ever think of me, love me, and have mercy on me."
Please, that thing called thinking,
please do that thing called think-ing.
"I do not possess the steadfast courage to advance without yielding to any oppression."
Just today alone, I wanted to run away like a dog, you know?
I begged to be saved several times,
and I wanted to abandon the academy and everything like a dog.
"Thus, O God. I earnestly beseech you."
Cronus,
you know my stats.
You know how miserable my stats are.
So please, hm?
"When I fall, always support my back."
Instead of flooring it with missions every time, a little moderation,
Please...!
I clasped my hands tightly and prayed that this heart would reach Cronus.
[First Prayer as an Apostle - Success]
-At a prayer more perfect than expected, Cronus unconsciously raised the corner of his mouth.
Reward: Cronus's modest joy / Contribution 1
Additional Reward: Cronus's faint smile / Contribution 2
"...Hoo-ah."
Did that do it?
It must have done it.
Anyway, seeing that he just smiled after hearing my desperate prayer, he probably didn't even listen with one ear.
If he floors it again like last time, I might really burst into tears on the spot.
I unclasped my hands and flopped back onto the bed, my back against the mattress.
"Waaaa..."
"...Mars?"
"You were more sincere than I thought, huh?"
"..........."
Why are you lying in the bed next to me.
"Nah, I fought a round with Utopia or whatever her name was, got a bit tired, and was lying here skipping class."
When I came in, you were already passed out though?
...If she came in while I was passed out, I might not have noticed.
"Anyway, I heard you got an A-rank in ranged combat, right? Hmmmm..."
"...What are you looking at?"
Her gaze was a bit strange.
I warily slipped my hand under the blanket, pulled out Cronus's Scythe (Pistol), and grasped it.
"You, become my comrade."
".......?"
"Of course, I refuse any refusal."
"No,"
why,
how come.