Hunter Education for Gate Practice (1)
The next day, at Jeil Academy.
"Aww… time is crawling by so damn slow. Still, if I can just endure one more hour, I can head home."
Why did I have to transmigrate right on the day of the high school academy entrance ceremony? It would've been so much better if it had been the day before graduation…
I've gotten used to sitting in the front row, but that doesn't mean it's comfortable. Far from it. The stares still feel way too blatant. During breaks, I just pretend to sleep with my head down, only sitting up when the teacher walks in. That's become my daily routine.
It's even worse because I'm the only guy here. Classes are divided by trait grade, and since men tend to have lower physical stats and rarely awaken high-grade traits, it's understandable that I'm the only guy in A Class. Our class has fifteen students total. That means fourteen of them are A-grade trait holders besides me.
I heard this year's batch had an unusually high number of A-grades. Normally, out of 150 students, only about five to eight would have A-grade traits. Because the numbers are so small, A and B classes are often combined, but this time there were fourteen A-grades out of 150, so the academy made a huge fuss about it being the best cohort in Jeil Academy's history.
Originally, A and B classes would've been merged due to low numbers, but because of the symbolic importance of having an S-A class—now just called A Class—as the academy's top group, we ended up as our own separate class despite the small size. B Class has twenty-five students, D Class has forty, and F Class is mostly guys, apparently.
Ding-dong— Ding-dong-ding-dong—
While I was lost in thought, break time ended and sixth period began. Still, classes start at nine and finish at three after sixth period, minus lunch. The day goes by pretty fast. If it were eight periods like in my previous life, it would've been unbearable.
Creak. Thud. Thud-thud-thud—
The sixth-period homeroom teacher opened the front door and stepped up to the podium.
"Hello, everyone! I'm Ha Yoo-jung, the physical education teacher in charge of your fitness training and hunter education!"
She was a refreshingly attractive woman with healthy tanned skin and long hair tied back in a ponytail. Ha Yoo-jung wore a pink jersey and white leggings. The sleeves of her jersey were rolled up, revealing toned forearms, while the white leggings hugged her wide hips and thighs, showing off the clean lines of her quadriceps.
Damn, a gym teacher in leggings…! My eyes were in for another treat today.
"Good morning!"
While Jin-woo was still admiring her, the students' greeting rang out. Ah, I missed it because I was too busy staring. He belatedly gave a small nod. Ha Yoo-jung responded with a bright smile, radiating healthy energy.
"Now then, you're all aware that we'll be doing gate practice next week, right?"
Sighs erupted from many students, while Jin-woo and a few others looked confused, having heard nothing about it. They'd only just enrolled—why were first-years already going on gate practice?
"No! We didn't know!!"
"At Jeil Academy, first-years go on gate practice once every two weeks. Right now, the teachers are busy selecting which gates we'll enter next week."
At her words, shocked cries burst from the students who hadn't known.
"What?! Every two weeks?! Don't other academies only do practice once a month?!"
Ha Yoo-jung nodded understandingly.
"Most academies do practice once a month. However! Jeil Academy isn't called a prestigious school for nothing. The more practice, the better. Nothing beats real experience. Other academies only manage once a month because of the difficulty in selecting gates and finding parties willing to take students along. It's hard to get parties to bring along dead weight on dangerous gates, so even once a month is tight for them."
She smiled and continued.
"Here at Jeil Academy, we have very active connections with hunters who graduated from our school. They themselves received care from senior hunters during their student days, gained plenty of safe experience, and graduated to become the hunters they are now."
"If any of you have no intention of becoming hunters after graduation, please raise your hands."
No one raised a hand. Jin-woo had been ready to follow if one or two did, but the timing slipped away. In the early days, people cleared gates to survive. Now that the world had stabilized, there was no better way to make money. Being a hunter also reinforced female supremacy, and it was only natural for students in elementary, middle, and high school academies to dream of becoming hunters. Even with the risks, if you managed to obtain even one decent artifact, your life could change overnight.
"Artifacts that occasionally drop from gate bosses. Skill orbs containing skills. And countless material items obtainable from non-human species. If you're lucky enough to get a good artifact or skill orb, who needs the lottery? You could join the ranks of the wealthy in an instant. It's dangerous, but hunters can earn in a single day what ordinary office workers make in a year. And you A Class students are guaranteed success with your high-grade traits."
"Yes!!"
The classroom grew lively with answers and chatter among friends. Yeah. Everyone except me.
"Ah, I want to get a good artifact too and turn my life around."
"I want a skill orb! Money's nice, but nothing beats getting stronger with a good skill myself."
"Unless you're in D~F Class, working anywhere but as a hunter would be a waste of talent. One good hunt and you can make hundreds of millions, while working a regular job all year to earn even a hundred million is tough. Ugh… I don't even want to think about it."
As someone in the back said, gate hunting meant forming a party with compatible hunters and entering gates. While the term supposedly came from searching for suitable people or places, it was also said to originate from hitting on attractive members of the opposite sex on the street. Low-level hunters often said things like "Let's go hunting!" when referring to gates the same way one might suggest going to a bar, because every party needed at least one porter. It wasn't that porters were strictly necessary for clearing gates—most men had no other job options, so they were forced into porter work. To create employment for men, every party was required to include one porter, making five members total: four hunters and one porter.
Men weren't even considered hunters. With low physical stats and no magic ability, they were just baggage… so porter, huh? Wait, was that really it? The more he thought about it, the more plausible it sounded…
Anyway, porters carried the hunters' luggage and hauled materials obtained inside the gate. In a modern world with extremely few men, many hunters formed parties specifically to bring a man along when entering gates. Helping out inside the gate supposedly increased the chances of seducing him. Low-level hunters who went gate hunting with such intentions were called "casual hunters." Even high-level hunters complained about having to bring useless male baggage, though they admitted that having a male porter helped relieve stress. Why? Because porters inside gates weren't helped—they were ignored and often sexually harassed by the hunters. Women, already high in libido, accumulated massive stress from fighting non-human species. They vented by insulting, ignoring, and sexually harassing the men. Since electronic devices couldn't be used inside gates and men couldn't use magic, there was no evidence even if they were assaulted, so they could only hope for a decent party.
Ha Yoo-jung raised her arm and, as if by habit, rolled up one sleeve of her jersey before speaking.
"Alright! Today, in preparation for next week's gate practice, I'll be teaching you common knowledge and precautions regarding non-human species."
"If there's one red star above a gate, it's a 1-star gate. Two stars means a 2-star gate. That's common knowledge, so you should all know it. Before there was a way to distinguish gates, many hunters died entering gates above their level. Through their sacrifices, gates were categorized by level. In the early days when people knew nothing about gates, some thought a single star meant only one person could enter, went in alone, and died."
Gates from 7 stars onward contained disaster-class non-human species that were nearly impossible to face alone, requiring raid-style entries with multiple combined parties. If a gate wasn't cleared within a year of its appearance, it would collapse and release the non-human species inside, so the boss had to be defeated and the gate cleared. In the current stabilized world, for gates that produced expensive materials, it was common sense to deliberately leave the boss alive, farm regular non-human species that respawned, stockpile materials, and only clear the gate right before the one-year mark.
"The one thing you must never forget is the non-human species' sage time."
Ha Yoo-jung nodded as if this was something everyone already knew.
"You know how the term 'sage time'—that post-masturbation or post-sex lethargy people feel—comes from non-human species' sage time, right? When a non-human species reaches climax, it enters sage time. Their killing intent toward humans drops dramatically through satisfaction, and their physical abilities decrease. If non-human species didn't have sage time, weak men wouldn't even have a chance to run away."
Huh? Sage time?! Their killing intent drops and physical abilities decrease…? It was surprising to hear the term here, but that was how parallel dimensions worked. If the term existed in that world, a similar or identical one would exist here too. The only difference was the inspiration: there it came from human post-orgasm lethargy, while here it came from non-human species' post-climax lethargy. Because this was a gender-reversed world, even the same term often carried the opposite meaning.
"Non-human species inside gates are classified as safe, dangerous, abhorrent, and disaster class. Can anyone tell me a representative example of a safe-class species?"
At Ha Yoo-jung's question, a female student in the back answered.
"Rabbit-type non-human species!"
"That's right. The most famous among safe-class species. Generally, the stronger a non-human species' libido, the more violent and dangerous they are, but rabbit-types are very easy to satisfy even with strong libido. Even if they capture a male and rape him, they reach climax in three minutes and enter sage time, so they're classified as safe."
For some reason, she looked at Jin-woo as she spoke.
"You can escape if you endure for three minutes. Men who finish quickly are called 'rabbits,' after the rabbit-type non-human species. Even if captured, men only need to last three minutes. Their combat power is weak for non-human species, but you have to watch out for their teeth—they're strong enough to bite through stone."
So… getting caught didn't necessarily mean death? Sage time was amazing. Hearing Ha Yoo-jung's words, Jin-woo raised his hand with a question.
"Um… Teacher? What if I get caught and can't even last three minutes?"
Pfft. Ha Yoo-jung let out a small laugh, then her gaze toward him shifted from mild favor to open mockery. Huh? I can read that expression… clearly? Her mocking look seemed to say: You're worried about that? Makes sense.
No? That's not it, it's not about me?! I was just genuinely curious…
Seeing his awkward expression, Ha Yoo-jung narrowed her eyes and spoke firmly.
"Anyone who can't last under three minutes deserves to die."
The female students nodded in agreement.
"Right, right, under three minutes and you deserve to die!"
"Ugh, it's a matter of survival and you can't even last three minutes? Is that even human? You'd be better off dead."
How could people speak so heartlessly? Those damn women…
In his previous life, he could barely last three minutes even masturbating. He really hadn't been human. The thought stung a little. For thirty-six years he'd lived as a three-minute man. Even if he'd escaped that instant stamina now, he couldn't forget those days. The joy and sorrow of those seconds gained when setting a timer with pants down the night before… Would they understand that struggle? If they did, they wouldn't speak so carelessly. Someday, on behalf of all the ignored comrades, he would bring down the hammer of justice on those rotten women.