Chapter 381
Chapter 381
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 381
Chapter Title: The Meaning of Survival (3)
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After Collie left the Virtual Zone, the thirty students stood divided into Red and Blue teams.
Shirone took a deep breath, trying to relax.
The survival evaluation was neither a person-to-person combat test nor a strategic battle against monsters.
There was no way to win against Mother Nature.
Pain was an unavoidable fate, and now, only ten seconds remained before that pain would begin.
Perhaps that was why some of the students who had experienced it last year were already looking pale.
‘Damn it. If it weren't for this, I'd stay a senior for ten years.’
The number one event that graduating students wanted to avoid.
That was the survival test.
-Transmitting information to the Virtual Zone. Standby for 5 seconds. 4 seconds. 3 seconds…
As the female announcer's voice echoed, the students reacted in their own ways: some squeezed their eyes shut, others stretched their shoulders and necks, and a few calmed their minds with composed expressions.
Shirone, too, was staring straight ahead, calming his heart. Just then, someone tapped his arm. It was Iruki.
“See you on the other side, Shirone.”
-Data transmission complete. Activating Virtual Zone’s arctic simulation program.
Beyond Iruki's bittersweet smile, the scenery began to waver.
The Virtual Zone's landscape vanished in an instant, like turning the page of a picture book, and the peak of a snow-covered mountain appeared.
Shirone looked around with a startled expression.
A cold wind filled his nostrils, and the snow covering everything around him glittered, reflecting the sunlight.
The sky felt close enough to touch.
The snow-capped mountains encircling them like a barrier displayed vivid colors, as if condensed milk had been poured over rock.
“This is… Stage 1 of the survival test?”
Even for students in Class Two or higher, the survival program was reset for each evaluation, so the situation itself was new to them.
Iruki turned and raised a finger.
“It's starting from over there.”
Shirone's eyes widened as he looked where he was pointing.
A colossal plume of snow, the likes of which he had never seen before and likely never would again, was slowly descending.
It was an avalanche.
“Holy hell!”
Boyle, Pandora, and several other students cast teleportation spells and flew in the opposite direction.
But a few, including Shirone, simply stood their ground.
The avalanche was approaching much slower than expected. It was cascading from an incredible height. The fact that it still looked so massive meant an unimaginably vast amount of snow was surging toward them.
“This isn't a situation they designed for us to escape…”
RUUUUUMBLE!
An astronomical mass of snow crashed onto the summit, pushing the air outward.
A ferocious gale, strong enough to tear the skin from his cheeks, whipped past, and then a snowstorm over 300 meters high engulfed the summit in a tenth of a second.
“Kugh!”
Shirone gritted his teeth and braced himself.
The avalanche, flowing faster than a torrent, mercilessly swept him off the peak.
‘No! Stay conscious!’
Swallowing the snow that forced its way into his mouth, Shirone pushed through the mass of white.
“Puah!”
The mass of snow was larger than an iceberg, and it was plummeting toward the unseen ground below.
Shirone burst through the top of that snowy mass, his face emerging.
“Puah! Puah!”
After spitting out everything in his mouth, he opened his eyes to see the round sun fixed in a clear sky.
Shirone flew into the air, maintaining his Fly spell as he surveyed his surroundings.
Students who had made the same call as Shirone began to emerge one by one from the falling snow.
“Shirone!”
He turned at the sound of Iruki's voice to see him covered head to toe in snow, pointing downward and shouting.
“Let's slowly descend—!”
Before he could finish, a waterfall of snow swallowed Iruki.
Startled, Shirone's gaze shot upward. The once-clear sky was now completely blocked by a curtain of white snow.
“This is insane—!”
A white torrent swept through the spot where Shirone had been.
“Ugh, ahhhhh…”
“It hurts… Somebody help…”
Collie watched the students writhing in the Virtual Zone with a look of pity.
From the moment they were swept up by the avalanche, all thirty students without exception had fallen into a semi-conscious state.
‘It must be so hard for them. They were all raised with such care.’
While victory or defeat depended on the final winner, no student would give up on the evaluation so easily.
Since individual achievements, not just team results, would be disclosed to the Association and scouts, they would all try to endure with everything they had.
‘Perhaps this is a situation they might never need to experience in their entire lives. But the world you will live in is far harsher than this. Simply by virtue of being reality, life can become a living hell.’
“It seems to have begun.”
Collie quickly unclasped his hands from behind his back and turned.
“Headmaster.”
Alpheas was watching the Virtual Zone, accompanied by Vice Headmistress Olivia.
“They've all entered the semi-conscious state. Well, that's to be expected.”
“Even professionals detest it, don't they? It's an event that less prestigious schools with fewer graduate slots don't even adopt.”
The survival evaluation was a controversial event even within the Association.
While assessing practical skills was good, there was a risk of breaking the students before they could even sprout.
Even students who didn't graduate were valuable talents who would eventually become members of society. Without mages to open magic shops, become teachers, join the security forces, take on requests from guilds, or handle civil affairs in administrative agencies, the magical society couldn't function.
Therefore, the Association had issued a directive allowing only the top five prestigious academies, which were granted ten or more graduation tickets, to conduct the survival evaluation.
As it was an ordeal only the chosen could face, the survival test was a staple topic of conversation over drinks at alumni reunions.
They would shudder at the thought of going back to their school days and doing it again, but that feeling was also a source of pride for attending a prestigious academy.
Olivia asked.
“This is the program provided by the Association this year, correct? Is this the current Stage 1, ‘Arctic Hell’?”
“Yes. There are two minutes left now. Though it will feel like two hours to the students.”
Olivia's brow furrowed in displeasure.
“And yet, not a single person has been eliminated. At this rate, it will be difficult to differentiate between the low-scorers. I'll have to suggest they increase the difficulty in the future.”
Alpheas shook his head with a wry smile.
It seemed the inspector of the faculty council was eager to bestow even more splendid medals upon her students.
“Kuaaargh!”
Spotting a rock hurtling toward him, Shirone covered his face with both arms as he fell.
A sharp pain shot through his arm bones, and his nose stung. A clump of snow slammed down on his head.
He was now quite a distance down from the summit, so the amount of snow wasn't enough to crush a person. Still, the impact was enough to rattle his skull.
‘My arm… my arm is broken.’
Even though he had wrapped himself in an Air Shield, he was falling too fast for it to fully absorb the shock.
Lying prone on the rock, he lifted his head and saw the sharp, broken end of his arm bone piercing through the skin.
Since it was a virtual world, it would reconstruct itself soon enough, but the pain traveling up his nerves was more infuriating than reality.
“Huu! Huu! Huu!”
The place he had landed was a rocky outcrop protruding from the middle of a cliff.
This was better, in a way. He hoped time would just pass until Stage 1 was over.
Crack. Craaaack.
As if mocking that thought, cracks began to form on the rock face, showing signs of collapse.
Shirone clutched his broken arm, his shoulders shaking.
“Heh, hehehe.”
A laugh escaped him at the sheer absurdity of it all.
‘This is an official event? Are they trying to kill someone?’
He could just imagine the looks on the students' faces if the survival event were chosen for the graduation exam.
He suddenly felt a newfound respect for every graduate in the world.
“Alright, let's see this through to the end.”
Shirone lifted his head, his eyes filled with venomous resolve.
The moment the rock face broke away, his body plummeted toward the ground.
* * *
Splash!
‘What?’
Hearing the sound of falling into water, Shirone opened his eyes.
A mind-shattering cold enveloped him. Then he saw students, friend and foe alike, sinking into the churning water.
‘Is this Stage 2?’
A transition process between Stage 1 and Stage 2 did exist, but those in a semi-conscious state couldn't perceive it.
This was done to leave them no room to recover their senses.
‘Why can't I use magic?’
He couldn't enter the Spirit Zone. Of course, since this world was virtual, his magic wasn't actually blocked.
‘First, I need to get to the surface.’
Shirone flailed like a frog, heading for the surface. The way things were going, he felt like he would freeze to death.
The moment he reached out his hand near the surface, Shirone's pupils trembled in shock.
He couldn't get out.
What he touched was a cold, hard wall of ice.
‘What? Then how do I get out?’
He saw a faint shadow on the ice above. Swimming a little closer, he pressed his eyes against it and saw a young boy crouching there.
‘I have to get out. I'm starting to suffocate.’
He pounded on the ice with his fist, as if signaling for help.
After watching for a moment, the boy nodded as if he understood and pointed somewhere.
‘There? I can get out that way?’
Shirone jabbed his index finger in that direction to confirm.
The boy nodded again and headed that way, as if to show him personally.
Shirone pushed off the ice, following the boy from below. All the while, the frigid water was tightening its grip on his lungs.
‘This is bad. I can't hold on much longer.’
He wanted to get there right now and take a deep breath of air. But the boy's pace was agonizingly slow.
‘Hurry! Hurry! Any longer…’
The time he could hold his breath by willpower was over. Now, he simply couldn't breathe because there was no air.
His body shuddered with cold and the fear of death.
Finally, the boy stopped. He looked down at Shirone and pointed to a spot a couple of steps away.
‘There it is!’
Shirone swam with all his might. The distance was only three meters, but it felt incredibly far.
‘I made it! Finally…!’
Feeling a burst of elation, Shirone reached for the exit.
Thud.
A solid wall of ice blocked him once again.
‘What…?’
His mind went blank. Shirone demanded an explanation from the boy on the ice with his eyes.
The boy clutched his stomach and cackled, then pressed his face against the ice and stuck his tongue out at Shirone.
Gurgle!
A large bubble of air escaped Shirone's mouth.
‘No. Stay calm.’
He hastily suppressed the rage that threatened to consume his mind.
The boy, taunting him from a world full of fresh air, was utterly detestable. But getting angry wouldn't change his situation.
‘Show me again. Where's the exit?’
Shirone tapped the ice, his eyes pleading.
Despite the man below him being desperate for every second, the boy stroked his chin as if pondering.
Shirone's head began to heat up again.
‘No, no. If I lose my cool, it's over.’
The boy came to a decision after some thought. He looked back at Shirone and shook his head, as if to say he couldn't show him.
‘Control your anger. I am a mage.’
The light of life began to fade from Shirone's pupils. With oxygen no longer reaching his brain, his bodily functions began to shut down.
‘Anger changes nothing. Until the moment I die… I can't lose my reason…’
Gurgle!
An air bubble from his organs escaped his mouth. As the air left, frigid water flowed into his stomach.
It felt as if his very cells were freezing.
His swimming ceased, and his palm, pressed against the ice, stiffened and slowly peeled away.
As he sank, his eyes caught sight of the smiling boy.
The boy watched intently as Shirone's face was swallowed by the darkness of the abyss.
Then, as if making a decision, he nodded and raised a trident that had appeared from nowhere.
CRASH!
The ice shattered in a single blow.
The sight was reflected in Shirone's dead eyes.
As his frozen nerves slowly relayed this fact to his brain, his legs began to stir again, and his body slowly started to float upward.
“Puah-aaaaah! Gack! Gaaaaack!”
Breaking the surface, Shirone desperately sucked in air. At that moment, he could think of nothing else.
“Gasp! Gasp!”
After about a minute, his senses finally returned.
The sheet of ice was peaceful, and the boy was nowhere to be seen.
“Puah! Puah!”
Students were breaking the surface one by one. Not far off, he could see Amy.
‘We passed.’
Amy was gulping down air with the look of someone who had just stared death in the face. Then, she noticed Shirone and their eyes met.
She greeted him with a smile, then blew a puff of air to lift her wet hair.
“Haha!”
Shirone laughed. Surviving was truly tough.
And that was his last memory of Stage 2, ‘Ice Prison.’