A Disaster of Her Own Making
In the original story, the raid event is a certainty.
Like Oedipus, who fulfilled the prophecy by trying to flee it, no amount of preparation can stop the outcome from arriving.
If they were the sort to fold just because someone put up a little defense, they never would have planned to raid the Academy in the first place.
"Emily, is there any chance we could bring in the Secret Society for this raid?"
"The Secret Society…?"
"If we can just get a line through somehow—through Chris, or through Siwoo and Sia."
That was why I asked whether we could use the Secret Society in advance. Of everything I knew, it was the easiest, fastest way to put this to bed.
In the game, if you somehow pulled the Secret Society—a neutral faction—inside the Academy, you could let their strength handle the villains without a single student casualty.
"That's a hard sell from where I'm standing. Unless it's an actual monster invasion, it would be difficult."
"That's a shame."
No helping it, then?
If they heard Siwoo and Sia might be in danger, they would bring their best and come running.
"The Secret Society is one of the major factions the Watchers keep under surveillance. If they try to enter the Academy the moment something suspicious is flagged, it could escalate into an all-out war."
From Emily's position as a hunter and a Watcher—not a parasite—it was an idea she couldn't champion even knowing it was a good one. She shut it down.
So I changed direction. Toward the best way to resolve this without any outside help at all.
Yes. This was it.
Things had unfolded exactly as I'd pictured.
The method I'd come up with was for us to hit the exam grounds first. That way, even if the real villain group stormed in, the examinees wouldn't be caught stupidly off guard—they'd already be in a posture to answer an attack.
A true vaccination, in other words.
Yes. It had gone the way I wanted.
But.
"Tiss, they're all gone. Looks like it really worked?"
Shan marveled at the examinees, now little more than distant specks, as if she genuinely hadn't expected it to land.
"Tiss…?"
Seeing me staring blankly into empty air without a word, Shan asked with a worried look.
Ah.
Meanwhile my head was going colder and colder, as if the blood were draining out of it.
What have I done?
"Tiss, your face is red."
Regardless of Shan's reaction, I was one breath away from dying of sheer mortification.
"I want to die."
"T-Tiss?!"
I crumpled. A delayed crash of brutal self-awareness hit me all at once, and I curled up and lay down on the floor.
My fingertips were shaking. My heart was pounding like it would burst, but it was painfully obvious the pounding wasn't adrenaline anymore.
"Tiss, are you okay…? W-why are you suddenly like this."
"…rassed."
"What? I-I can't hear you. I-is it a mental attack? Is it because you overdid it yesterday?"
"No… it's not that."
If I said it out loud, I felt like everything would collapse.
"I-I'll try asking Emily for help."
In the end, I confessed.
"I just… I'm so embarrassed."
"Huh? Embarrassed?"
What the hell did I just do?
I had gone completely wild, having the time of my life.
"I wish the world would just end right now."
"W-wow… that bad? W-weren't you having a blast just a second ago?"
Shut up.
Uwaaah. I wasn't some puppy tearing around in the snow. I always act like I'm so cool-headed, so clever, and the moment they set the stage for me I just… went all out…
The more I replayed what I'd done, the hotter my face got. When I first jumped in, my heart had been pounding and I'd been having fun—that much was true. But as it went on, I got way too into character without realizing it.
"And what even was that nihihihit supposed to be?"
Making a laugh that belonged in a manga.
"Wow… I've never seen your face get this red, Tiss."
The moment the method acting ended, the shame came crashing in.
"Little miss, that was some acting. You really startled me."
"Right? I honestly thought it was real."
Once the examinees had put some distance between us, one of the masked heroes let out a sigh of relief.
"Tiss, was it? That was incredible acting."
"To think Lady Baba Yaga raised your acting this far in such a short time."
"N-no, that's not—!"
They'd rushed after me to stop an outburst that hadn't been in the plan, but luckily the atmosphere had lined up perfectly, and they were praising it as excellent acting.
To me, of course, it wasn't praise. It was an attack. True damage that punched straight through mental resistance. My head was spinning.
Right. This is all Baba Yaga's fault.
"Still, blaming other people is a little…"
Shut up!
I could still hear that cackling laughter in my head.
The hunters and heroes who'd witnessed me rolling around for Baba Yaga all chuckled, saying I'd had it rough.
No. That's not it. But trying to explain would be so pathetic I couldn't bring myself to say a word.
I was crazy. I lost it.
"Hehe. N-no, it was really cool. No, it was actually terrifying! Pffft!"
Shan… please stop…
That kind of consolation, soaked in laughter, hurt even more. Shan's kindness only fanned the flames of my embarrassment.
I'd come to another world and voluntarily written myself a dark history.
Never again. I am never doing this kind of acting again.
Emily, still lying on the floor in the pose I'd knocked her into, was looking this way and smiling like she was having the time of her life.
Just Emily watching me without saying a word was enough to send my mental fortitude to rock bottom.
Ah. Stop… please stop.
"Huh…? T-Tiss is rolling around like a dog!"
"Oh my, oh my?"
As a last resort to forget the shame, I rolled back and forth on the ground.
"Tiss, you look like a powdered rice cake right now. Hehe, looks tasty."
Only after my snow-white hair had been coated in dirt like a scruffy country mutt did my head finally start to cool.
I knew they were all laughing because of me… but what could I do. I had asked for this. I had started this. I was simply being crushed by a disaster of my own making.
Looking at Emily and Shan smiling so brightly, this was probably going to be a dark history I would never erase—but there was no helping it.
It wasn't entirely without upsides, though. Thanks to going wild while acting, my abilities had been accepted as natural, and the goodwill people felt toward me had visibly shot up. Most of them had the faces of adults watching a niece's talent show, but still.
I felt like I'd lost something precious in my chest.
From now on, I was absolutely never doing this kind of acting again.
"Here."
I held out a hand and pulled Emily to her feet.
"Thanks. Miss Acting Target Candidate."
"Oh, come on!"
"I suppose I should thank Lady Baba Yaga later."
The villain special training hadn't been useless. When I spat out all the feelings I'd piled up toward Baba Yaga in the middle of acting, it really had felt like I'd become the villain.
Even Siwoo and Sia hadn't recognized me, so they must have bought the bold, dangerous act completely. Add Ichor tentacles to that vicious performance, and anyone would think I was an evil, impulsive, out-of-control villain.
Pat, pat.
"Eh…?"
"You did well."
Emily tapped my shoulder with that sly look of hers, then suddenly pulled me into a hug. She never touched me normally—and now this?
"Emily?"
"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. But Miss Tiss is just too cute right now. I couldn't hold back."
Yeah. I knew that face. It was the face of a parent filming their baby's dance routine at a kindergarten recital.
"Aaaah! Don't look at me with those eyes!"
"Heheh. I can't see anything to begin with, you know?"
"That's not about your eyes…! Ugh, seriously!"
Uwaaah. I felt like steam was about to come out of my head again.
The other hunters laughed, saying they really hadn't thought this kid would get that into it.
"Hey. Tiss, right?"
A hunter came over and pulled a piece of candy from his pocket.
"Want some candy?"
"I don't…"
"Yes please!"
"…I'll take it."
Haa. I didn't want any at all, but if Shan wanted it.
"Here you go. Have another."
I tore open the round candy wrapper and popped one in each cheek. Maybe some sugar would make me feel better.
"Thank you."
"Hehe, it's so good."
What is this?
Muffled laughter rose from all around as they watched me eat the candy.
Ah? I'd only taken it because Shan wanted candy… but thinking about it, I looked exactly like a little kid who'd stopped crying over a single piece of candy…
My thoughts froze right there.
Hahaha.
"Ah, what is this! Don't laugh!"
Ah. The post-clarity was coming back.
The examinees had taken positions inside the abandoned buildings, so it was time to move. The active-duty hunters who'd been resting finished preparing to face them.
"Just as Miss Tiss predicted."
CCTV inside the ruins and drones hovering overhead showed the examinees. Some had slipped into the buildings alone to set up, but most had gathered into teams with people they got along with. Most were either people they already knew, or connections made during the 1st Exam.
"That's a relief."
Emily had been dropping hints about this the whole time. This wasn't a test where they had to compete against each other—telling them to take on the villains by any means necessary was basically telling them to form teams. True to people who'd made it to the 2nd Exam, they'd clued in and bunched up.
"Proceed with the 2nd Exam as we discussed in the strategy meeting."
"Understood."
Oversight from the monitor room was handled by Baba Yaga, the chief examiner. Lionel was on standby, ready to teleport at her command at any moment.
Including me, there were only six active-duty personnel playing villains in total. That was half of the originally planned numbers. Calling it hide-and-seek was also a way to cut down the number of fights after the personnel reduction.
Originally there had even been a plan to run a real penal unit so the examinees could experience actual combat. Watchers had the authority to operate penal units, after all.
"Absolutely not."
"Hmm. Even though it's a way to fill the manpower gap?"
"Emily, we have to prepare for the worst. What if someone on the other side has an ability or an artifact that can unlock the collars the moment they find out Watchers and a penal unit have shown up?"
That was an event I'd actually gone through in the original game. The penal unit went berserk and slaughtered the examinees, and the Academy turned into a funeral parlor overnight. Half the characters who could join the protagonist's party were gone—the worst possible start. I remembered just resetting the game.
"The odds are low, but if the little miss who played such an excellent villain says so, I suppose we have no choice."
"Hey!"
Heheh.
I didn't know who would blow things up how during this raid, but we'd done everything we reasonably could. Now it all came down to how well the active-duty team, myself included, performed in the field.
I moved my feet fast and entered the abandoned-building zone.
Scan, then scan again. I swept through quickly, searching for key figures.
That one's an extra. That one's not a threat… That one I can leave alone. That one I'll eliminate in advance.
"Wh-who's there!"
Whack!
"It's that monster from before!"
"Run!"
The extras wandering around alone with no sense of fear—the ones I could knock out without any problem—I dropped the moment I saw them.
KWAANG!
It wasn't just me. The heroes and hunters playing villains were putting on a show all over—I could hear combat breaking out.
The taste of power is so sweet.
"Tiss… it's good that you're working hard, but you shouldn't take out your embarrassment through violence, right?"
Shan!!!
She's been at it this whole time…! I leave her alone for a second and the teasing never ends.
"Eek…! S-sorry."
Ah, my head was heating up again. Calm down.
Anyway, the game Neo Sion has all kinds of random variable elements. I planned to use this exam as an excuse to tweak those variables as much as I could to my liking.
"Found you."
On the rooftop of an abandoned building, a girl with secret two-tone hair and street fashion was glaring this way. The hand clenched into a fist was trembling slightly.
"Huh, isn't that the kid who was with Siwoo and Sia?"
That's right. Yi Rumi.
I'd wanted to see Siwoo and Sia first, but she was also someone I wanted to encounter as soon as the exam started.
"What's it mean, standing there all alone like that, so openly?"
Either she's confident in her skills, or she's already seen through the nature of the exam.
Or, at a low probability, she was just being reckless without knowing her place.
Personally, I was hoping it was the last one.