The Gift She Meant to Give

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Combat Sense flooded through me — a sensation I hadn't felt in far too long. It filled every inch of my body, sharpening everything it touched. The tension ran even sharper than usual, maybe because I hadn't faced a real opponent the entire survival exam.

This was an uninhabited island with no safety measures of any kind. Unlike the last one-on-one duel, there was nothing here to stop a killing blow, which meant I couldn't go all out. If I slipped, Nam Da-eun could get seriously hurt.

A low hum cut through the air.

Nam Da-eun didn't seem to care about any of that.

Brilliant violet mana wrapped around her blade.

"Hey... you're not trying to kill me, right?"

"It's fine. I can control it."

The way she settled into her stance and locked her eyes on me — as if telling me not to worry — was terrifying.

Shit...

They say you go easy on the person you like. Does that apply to the person you're supposed to conquer, too?

Fortunately, she didn't seem interested in using the artifacts hanging from her waist. That meant I still had a chance. I didn't need to take Nam Da-eun down. I just needed to go after her smartwatch. Steal it, or burn off the sticker attached to it, and the win was mine.

She kicked off the ground and came at me first, looking completely sure of herself.

Thump.

My senses sharpened even further. Every one of her movements became readable, as if the world had slowed just enough for me to see through it.

I activated Insight and deployed a Rune Barrier on top of it, hoping to shake off her Spatial Dominion. If the barrier could stop her Spatial Slash, that sword of hers was nothing more than a very sharp piece of steel.

A grinding crack of concentrated mana. I caught it gathering in her legs, and in the same breath I triggered Acceleration and braced for the hit.

Steel screamed against magic. Nam Da-eun closed the distance in a blink of spatial acceleration; I caught the blow on Cotton Guard and shoved myself back, opening the gap again.

"...That's intense."

"I've improved a little since last time, haven't I?"

"Yeah. Looks like you've been training hard."

I scraped my foot across the dirt as I talked, dragging a lazy line through the soil. Growth you could actually feel after a single week of training. What an absurd talent freak.

"I'm going again."

Nam Da-eun lifted her sword with a faint curl at the corner of her mouth. Here I was dying of exhaustion, and she looked like she was having the time of her life. I swallowed a sigh and put more distance between us.

The eighty cadets ringing Lee Ho-yeon and Nam Da-eun couldn't get a word out. Whatever comfortable assumption they'd been carrying — that everyone here was more or less the same level of academy cadet — the two of them were taking turns smashing it to pieces.

"Captain. If those two team up, I don't think all of us piled on would be enough."

"It's not that bad."

Everyone else was staring, stunned by movement that shouldn't have been possible. Kim Young-han stayed calm and did the math. About fifteen cadets per person could pin them down. He didn't bother saying out loud how insane that kind of combat power actually was.

"They're actual monsters..."

"I'm never hitting dislike on them again. If they find out, I might die."

"It's a little different from the last one-on-one, though, right? Nam Da-eun got faster, and Lee Ho-yeon looks like he's struggling."

The cadets watched with vacant, wide eyes and made no move to step in. Nobody was obligated to give Nam Da-eun a clean one-on-one. They were just too scared of what would happen if they jumped into that fight first.

Kim Young-han agreed with the last comment — up to a point. Lee Ho-yeon didn't look like he was struggling. If you had to put a name to it, Nam Da-eun was pouring everything she had into the fight, and Ho-yeon was holding something back.

"I can't tell what he's thinking. Our Ho-yeon."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Come on, tell me too. You always act like you know something and then say it's nothing."

Kim Young-han ignored the cadet chattering beside him and kept analyzing the spar.

Steel rang. Impacts cracked through the clearing. Nam Da-eun and I traded blows and shifted ground, circling, resetting, circling again. Most of the exchanges went the same way — I deflected or blocked, then opened the distance.

"Hah... hah..."

I dragged my foot through the dirt and let out a ragged breath. I'd burned through too much mana. It was starting to get dangerous.

"Why do you keep running away?"

Nam Da-eun lowered her sword beneath her arm and looked at me. She'd noticed the barrier. She'd stopped using Spatial Dominion, and the light had gone out of her blade. A drawn-out fight favored her, not me.

"...I run because I can't take you head-on."

"You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did last time."

"No. You're the weird one for charging in like that in a place with no safety measures."

"I can cut without killing you."

She pushed her lip out in a pout. She actually looked hurt. I had no idea what kind of spar she'd been hoping for, but I was preparing for a win in my own way, thank you very much.

I'd bought enough time to read the room. The other cadets had no intention of joining the fight. Even Kim Young-han, the one real wild card, was just standing there quietly watching us go at it.

The truth was, the prep work was already done. While we'd been moving back and forth across this clearing — a ring stamped out by a wall of cadet bodies — I'd been secretly laying magic circles. Drawing arrays with my feet was a first, and I'd fumbled the early ones, but after a few passes I'd gotten the hang of it.

The target was Nam Da-eun's smartwatch. If I wanted to put her down without hurting her, that was the only way. The risk of anyone else jumping in was gone. Time to throw the deciding card.

I drew my mana up and set myself to meet her.

She came at me in a rush. I watched her close in, stepped off the line of her sword, and slipped inside her guard. Then I spun Spiral into my palm.

A clean hit would put even Nam Da-eun in real danger — but if I telegraphed it this hard, she'd be able to dodge. She dropped back exactly the way I expected, and I triggered every circle I'd prepared.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

The arrays buried in the dirt detonated all at once. Pillars of fire punched up through the earth. I snapped fireballs after her in the same breath, pinning her movement, and watched her clothes as she twisted between the columns and the incoming flame. A single ember caught on her body.

Got it.

The tiny spark crawled carefully over her, so light she never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠felt it. A trick I'd picked up while giving Elise her massages. Before Nam Da-eun noticed a thing, the ember reached her smartwatch — and I cranked the heat and incinerated it in a blink.

Flame roared to life around her wrist. She flinched at the sudden fire in her hand, but the smartwatch was already ash.

"Hah..."

The ambush had landed. I'd poured a lot of mana into that trap. If it hadn't worked, things would have gotten messy. Now I just had to punch through this wall of cadets with whatever I had left, and it would be over. Nam Da-eun was eliminated.

"Huh?"

Why wasn't the forced teleport kicking in? She should have been warped out the instant she dropped.

"...I lost again."

A brand-new smartwatch was already fastened around her wrist.

"What. Why are you still here?"

"I have a one-life save ticket. They gave it to me after I killed about thirty boss monsters."

"..."

Those academy bastards... why the hell would they make something like that?

The original game was built on an eroge chassis, so the number of boss monsters you could hunt in a day was capped. There was never a chance to kill thirty of them. I hadn't known a hidden piece like this was sitting in the exam.

"Hah... fine. You win."

Some things you just have to let go. The survival exam would roll into its seventh day in a few hours. As long as Elise, Lucy, and Rumi were still standing by then, they'd all land in the rankings. Kim Young-han's team ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠would be wiped except for him and Nam Da-eun. I could at least push the heroines' ranks up. Missing the hidden piece from the final boss stung — but I'd have to make do with something else.

Click. Click.

Nam Da-eun fiddled with the smartwatch on her wrist, peeled it off, and tossed it at me.

"Huh?"

I caught it on reflex and stared at her. What was this? What was going on?

"...?"

Nam Da-eun looked at me with that same unreadable face. I glanced down at the smartwatch, trying to make the situation make sense, and a hollow laugh slipped out of me.

"If that was the plan, you should've just given it to me earlier."

"I wanted to spar once."

"If you want to spar, just call me. I'll take you on anytime."

I would have fought her without all of this. Maybe it was because she'd never had to deal with people like a normal person. Talking to cadets was genuinely exhausting.

"Hey! Nam Da-eun! What are you doing?!"

Kim Young-han, who'd been watching the whole thing, shouted at her the moment the watch left her hand.

"I lost, so I'm done."

"You can't just do that!"

"Did I ever make a promise with you?"

"..."

He shut his mouth. That told me everything. He'd taken her onto the team after she'd tested the waters, and she'd been reading the room ever since. If he'd just tried talking to her honestly, it never would have gone this way.

"I'll put it to good use."

I scanned Nam Da-eun's smartwatch with my own.

"Mm."

That was all she said. Then the teleport magic took her, and she was gone.

I hadn't expected to be handed something like this. So that was why she hadn't given up on the survival exam and gone home. I should buy her a gift later.

"Well then... time to run."

The cadets were still looking at me, but the hostility from the start of the fight was already gone. Aside from Kim Young-han, most of them hadn't even processed what had just happened. Fire pillars had erupted out of nowhere, Nam Da-eun had tossed me her smartwatch, and then she'd vanished. Even the ones who had put it together wouldn't be eager to rush someone after watching that display. Those dozens of fire pillars at the end had looked impressive even to me. The ground around us was torn up like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an earthquake had rolled through. Hard to keep your fighting spirit after that.

This was the window.

Get out before they notice how little mana I have left.

What I had left was hanging by a thread. If a few cadets snapped out of it and came at me right now, I could be eliminated on the spot. Roughly three hours until day seven. This was the only chance I was going to get.

I wrung out every drop of mana I had left and charged the thinnest part of the ring — the spot I'd marked during the spar, where the fewest people were standing.

"Move or you'll get hurt!"

The last magic circle I'd prepared for the escape went off. A fire pillar twice the size of the earlier ones punched into the sky. Cadets staggered and collided with each other in the sudden panic, and I drove through the gap and tore myself free.

"Hey, you bastards! Don't fall for that!"

The circle was all noise and spectacle. It didn't deal any real damage. Kim Young-han was the first to see through it — but he was already too late. I ignored the shouting at my back and ran for where the heroines were waiting.

"Hah... what a pain."

Five minutes left until day seven. Kim Young-han had bullied his team back into shape and driven them after me, and now I was boxed in. I didn't have enough mana left to break this encirclement.

"But you're too late, man."

In five minutes, the survival exam's final boss would take the stage. Elise and the twins, Lucy and Rumi, had gathered together about an hour ago. They were staying back after seeing the cadets piled around me, which was the right call. They were following the instructions I'd given them.

The ring kept tightening. I didn't look at it. I watched my smartwatch.

Fifty-eight seconds. Fifty-nine. Midnight on the dot.

The instant the seventh day began, a single thread of light dropped through the dark night sky. From that point, the heavens themselves started to brighten.

"Whoa... I never got this from the game. That's insane."

Seeing it in person, I could only imagine how many magic professors had been ground down to make it happen. A grand working with Lim Sol at the center, no doubt. Something stepped out of the beam that had driven itself into the great tree at the island's heart.

My smartwatch chimed. An alert bloomed across the screen.

The final boss had finally arrived.