Chapter 9
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 9
Boom.
The Flame Bullet detonated.
Crash.
A section of the iron wall collapsed in an instant, and thick dust blanketed the area.
Park Ha-yul paid it no mind and kept sprinting.
Beep.
The moment he reached the target point, the stopwatch on the scoreboard stopped.
[Lap time: 2:21.04]
It was an unexpected result.
Fifth place, following Baek Sa-young, Cheon Seo-yoon, Joo A-rin, and Lee Dae-ho.
"Wh-what? Wasn't he supposed to be ranked 700th?"
"Guess it's because he uses sorcery, but it sure hits hard. That's a two-star Fire-Style Sorcery, right?"
"But is it okay to just ignore the scarecrows and run past?"
The waiting room, which had been watching Park Ha-yul's result, erupted into commotion.
The control room was no different.
"That bastard......"
Lee Taek-jin's eyes flew open.
His pupils trembled in his wide-open eyes.
Something impossible—no, something that should never have happened—had become reality.
"......Assistant Kim Mi-young. Who are the remaining applicants?"
His insides were boiling, but he put off resolving his doubts for later.
Excluding Joo A-rin, who had not applied for the special scholarship, the bastard's result was fourth place.
Fourth place.......
There was Seol Yoon-gi as a sure card, but he, too, had not applied.
Under Taehak's internal regulations, at least four special scholarship students had to be selected.
Bang!
That damn brat from a sorcerer family was now guaranteed to pass.
* * *
Buzz.
Buzz.
The vibration urged me on.
Get up. Snap out of it.
I hauled up my leaden body and found my phone.
"Ha, it's already two."
By my rough calculation, I'd slept for two straight hours after the diagnostic assessment ended.
It had been a rare stretch of uninterrupted deep sleep, but I sprang up and checked my remaining time first.
[Remaining Time: 11 hours 14 minutes 32 seconds]
As expected, nothing beat this for chasing away lingering drowsiness.
According to the original story, the scholarship selection results should have been announced around now, so I checked my phone.
There was a new message, but unfortunately, it was not the selection message.
-Introducing an article related to Class A. Please refer to the link below.
Did something like this exist?
It felt like the various gaps created as the novel became reality were being filled in with minor details.
Partly to kill time while waiting for the results, I clicked the link.
The title was,
Class A's Average Record. First Place in the Diagnostic Assessment Achieved!
Given the nature of an academy story where the lead-role characters were all in one class, it was an obvious result.
But the author was Min Young-ji?
It was the girl with the blunt bangs—the one who'd sat beside me muttering commentary throughout the assessment.
She sure wrote it fast.
I still had some time, so I scrolled down and read through the article.
The opening was devoted to Cheon Seo-yoon.
Pummeling the scarecrows with monstrous mana.......
It went roughly like that, and the wording was as aggressive as her combat style.
After that came the exploits of Lee Dae-ho and Joo A-rin.
Showing the strength of a giant.
Lee Dae-ho got exactly one line.
Joo A-rin......,
With skill as outstanding as her dazzling appearance, she is Yuhwa, daughter of the water god Habaek.......
It was long. Quite long.
As if the author personally adored her, a string of extravagant modifiers followed.
But even she was not the main focus.
"This is basically a Baek Sa-young feature article."
It was.
With impactful epithets like "the face of Taehak" and "the undisputed number one," half the article was devoted to Baek Sa-young.
Compared to that, Seol Yoon-gi, who had taken second place, got only a tiny amount, less than Joo A-rin, so.......
I could already picture the delinquent thugs who followed Seol Yoon-gi kicking up a fuss.
"Well, not my problem."
Still, up to that point, it was a tolerably readable piece.
Within the bounds of not losing credibility.......
The problem was what came next.
Park Ha-yul, revealing the skill he had kept hidden, has emerged as the dark horse of the diagnostic assessment.
......What was this?
With the opening already setting off alarm bells, I scrolled down uneasily.
Cleverly broke through the Section 1 scarecrows with ingenious sorcery.
Even though he could have shortened his time with movement-related sorcery, he instead leisurely.......
The highlight was the sorcery he showed at the end.
True to his sorcerer lineage, he used wind-attribute followed by fire-attribute. Manifesting the two-star sorcery Blazing Flame Bullet, he instantly.......
The article was so smeared with misunderstandings instead of facts that I frowned without realizing it.
"This is driving me insane."
My running to conserve mana had become 'leisurely,' and my one-star Flame Bullet had somehow turned into a two-star Blazing Flame Bullet.
I understood why she had made the mistake—the power ignored its star grade—but if you didn't know sorcery, you might as well not write about it.
Tsk.
Actually, even I hadn't expected that final Flame Bullet.
According to my plan, I should have needed two Flame Bullets to bring down the Section 2 wall.
Maybe it was because I was nervous about going right after Baek Sa-young?
I hadn't expected to inscribe a formula at 86% completion, something I'd never once managed in practice.
It was a difference of only a few percentage points, but the result was enormous.
Even I hadn't imagined that iron wall would collapse in a single hit.
"At least I adjusted the inscription speed to an average level....... Ugh."
My head throbbed.
Of course, I'd never expected from the start that this would pass without attracting attention.
The moment I made the quest my top priority, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep living like an extra.
"But an article, though."
Wasn't this basically an open advertisement? And a massively exaggerated one at that.
"Should I ask her to publish a correction?"
Or should I write a hate comment saying it was just a fluke?
I was considering even those ridiculous options when I opened the article's comment section.
.......
Then I realized there was no need to bother.
-asdf123: Didn't Park Ha-yul totally get a free ride? Why's he just running past the scarecrows?
-Archmage99: If that's how it works, I could make the top five too. Just cast Silas and Haste and you're done.
└Go Gwang-deok: How would you even do that lol? Did you know casting Concealment makes the scarecrows stop working?
-SteelMan: This should be invalid. He just ran away. What about the kids who lost their scholarship because of this bastard?
"They're already piling on, so what's the point?"
Anyone could see the article's real star was Baek Sa-young. Yet most of the comments were taking aim at me.
Apparently they didn't like that I'd simply bypassed Section 1.
[Achievement-56: Center of Controversy]
[As a reward, 10 hours are added.]
[You gain 5 SP for the interesting development.]
[Remaining Time: 20 hours 44 minutes 42 seconds]
[SP held: 15]
It works like this?
"Well, thank you very much."
[As a side effect of the achievement, your reputation is downgraded.]
"Oh, that's even better."
Come to think of it, Min Young-ji was a lifesaver.
Wasn't this like giving charity time to someone living day to day?
Other people's opinions could simply be laughed off.
With a much more relaxed mind, I lay back down on the bed.
* * *
When the time came, the vibration rang out.
Congratulations. You have been selected as a special scholarship student. Please visit the department office by 6 PM tomorrow. -From Assistant Kim Mi-young-
It was the acceptance message I'd been hoping for.
"In that case......."
Unable to wait, I stared into the air first. After a slight delay, the messages I'd been waiting for came pouring down all at once.
[Main Quest #1, special scholarship selection objective achieved]
[7 days are added to your Remaining Time as a reward.]
[Remaining Time: 7 days 20 hours 4 minutes]
[The Time Shop is activated as a reward.]
[You gain 15 SP as a reward.]
[SP held: 30]
This was.......
It felt like a bundle of cash had fallen from the sky.
My remaining time had surpassed a week, and my SP had already piled up to 30.
And I'd also gained a new possibility: the Time Shop.
I was the type who had to check something like this immediately, so I said it aloud.
"Time Shop?"
Then my vision rippled, and a green hologram appeared in front of me.
[The Time Shop (Lv1) is now open.]
[The Time Shop is a special benefit granted only to those with the Limited Lifespan trait.]
[You can use time as currency to purchase various Armaments and stats.]
[The time consumption limit (3 days) is lifted while using the shop.]
[Available items vary depending on the shop's level.]
[The shop's level rises automatically when you reach a set number of purchases.]
"As expected......."
I'd more or less expected this, but seeing it for myself was still a little exciting.
There were two main reasons.
First, Armaments.
In this World Setting, relics became Armaments, so Armaments themselves were extremely scarce and valuable.
Supply was almost nonexistent while demand was high, so a single "Rare"-grade Armament went for billions, and anything "Special"-grade or higher was priced at whatever the seller asked.
But I'd opened a shop with a single word.
Whether I could afford anything or not, access alone was an enormous privilege.
"And also, stats."
What were stats?
In the setting, bone-grinding training and endless repetition. Plus the occasional enlightenment.
Weren't they an expensive reward obtained only when all that hardship came together?
To be able to buy them like grabbing something from a convenience store, skipping all those prerequisites entirely.
For Park Ha-yul, whose base stats were poor, there could hardly have been a better alternative.
"Let's check it out."
Unable to hold back any longer, I quickly tapped the stats category.
▷Strength, Stamina, Agility
- 0.1 increase = 2 days
▷Senses, Intelligence
- 0.1 increase = 2 days
▷Mana, Luck
- 0.1 increase = 3 days
[Prices increase each time the total purchase count reaches another multiple of 10.]
......But.
Three days to raise it by 0.1?
"Hold on."
The average Taehak student was around 6, and my current Mana stat was 3.3, so to raise it to average.......
"Ah, damn it."
Of course. As if it would be solved this easily.
Even a rough calculation made the numbers look hopeless.
Because even 0.1 would cost my entire fortune—no, more than 40% of my remaining time.
Tsk.
Still, in the long run, the terms weren't bad.
I couldn't keep doing it indefinitely, but investing 30 days would raise my Mana stat by 1.
That meant instantly catching up on growth most people would struggle for years to achieve.
"It's a shame, but let's hold off."
Anyway, it was impossible in my current situation, so I turned to the General Goods and Armaments categories.
General Goods included things like resistance enhancers and human-skin masks—a collection of items rather than Armaments.
There were plenty of items that might be useful someday, but none I needed right now.
And as for Armaments.......
Maybe because the shop was only Level 1, there weren't many Armaments, and Advanced was the highest grade available.
The third grade out of Low, Common, Advanced, Rare, Special, Hero, and Mythic.
But even those were so expensive I couldn't bring myself to buy one.
"So this is all show and no substance."
In the end, with nothing to show for it, I was half ready to give up as I kept scrolling.
"Oh-ho."
Then a decent Armament caught my eye.
[Nameless Shaman's Bracelet]
[Grade: Common (Mid)]
[Description: An old bracelet once used by someone. Made of paulownia wood, so its durability is low.]
[Effect: Mana recovery +10%.]
[Price: 4 days]
It was cheap for something with a mana-related effect, and a 10% increase in recovery was nothing to scoff at.
So I'd buy one now, then another later.......
"Wait."
That was the moment.
That was when I realized I was a special kind of customer.......
Didn't I have Manifestation?
If I bought one, learned it through Appraisal, and then manifested it.......
"One plus one?"
No.
I could make another one every time I manifested it.
One plus two, one plus three.......
"Heh heh."
At that point it was the deal of a lifetime, so there was nothing to hesitate over.
[You have purchased the Nameless Shaman's Bracelet.]
[Achievement-06: First Time Shop Purchase achieved!]
[You receive an Armament Selection Ticket as a reward.]
But what kind of day was today?
Achievements I hadn't expected were popping off left and right.
When a ticket suddenly dropped out of thin air, I snatched it up.
[Armament Selection Ticket]
[Description: First-purchase bonus. You may choose one of the recommended Armaments. Tear it to use.]
Rip.
As the saying went, strike while the iron was hot. I tore it open without hesitation.