Chapter 384
Chapter 384
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 384
Chapter Title: The Seventh Stage
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Tension was plain to see in the students' eyes. The seventh stage, something they had never even heard of in rumors, was unfolding before them.
“What’s going on? He’s just getting crushed. Surely he’s not going to die by being flattened against a wall like that?”
“I doubt it. That would be no different from being crushed to death.”
Colly’s face turned serious.
Gonggeop wasn't something as simple as being crushed. It was a terrifying state that could, with one misstep, end a person's life as a mage.
*‘Since this is an official evaluation, I must respect the student's decision. But Shirone, you've already won. You don't need to go that far to become a mage. You'll lose everything if you do.’*
Unable to ignore the voice of his conscience, Colly, despite being the evaluating instructor, made an unusual request for reconsideration.
“Headmaster, are we proceeding? If we miss the window, he might not be able to get out even if we deactivate the Virtual Zone.”
Colly's words sent a murmur through the students. Was it really possible to be unable to escape even if the device was turned off?
Amy asked again, her eyes wide with shock.
“What do you mean, he can’t get out? No, even if that’s a possibility, shouldn’t you have told us beforehand?”
“I didn't say he *can't* get out. I said he *might not* be able to. And information about the survival program is top secret. Our academy isn't the only one using this program.”
At this very moment, based on the universal standard time, the survival evaluation was being conducted with the same program in all participating nations.
Even if they had known in advance, it was something that couldn't be revealed. But to be honest, he never thought anyone would actually make it this far.
*‘It’s been nineteen years. Since I’ve seen this…’*
In any case, he had exercised the rights granted to him as an evaluating instructor. The rest was up to Alpheas’s judgment.
“What is there to decide? The student wishes to proceed. You've already instructed them on how to exit the Virtual Zone, have you not?”
“Yes, sir. However, Gonggeop is…”
“On a different level. But isn't that why there are stages? If we were to throw any random student into the seventh stage, it would be murder. But Shirone reached this point after clearing every other difficulty. Doesn't that mean he is more than qualified to be evaluated? How can one become a mage if they cannot even make a judgment about their own life?”
Though it seemed a harsh educational philosophy, the students, who had already overcome numerous dangers to reach this point, silently agreed.
“Grrrgh!”
In the vision, Shirone was pushing back the darkness with all his might. But in the end, he couldn't hold on, and his body was flattened.
Colly let out a sigh of resignation.
*‘So he’s really doing it.’*
This was the beginning of Gonggeop.
* * *
*‘What? What’s happened to me?’*
Shirone was pinned, a specimen in a two-dimensional square. Having lost time and height, he couldn't so much as lift a finger.
*‘What am I supposed to do here…?’*
The bottom edge of the square folded upward like a piece of paper.
Then it folded from left to right, top to bottom, and right to left in an endlessly repeating pattern.
He was shrinking.
He was shrinking infinitely, becoming a one-dimensional point.
While it's impossible to infinitely fold actual matter, the Magic Association had managed to implement the concept of Gonggeop through a virtual program.
*‘No, no, no, no…'*
A colossal shock struck his mind. Even for the great Shirone, his Spirit Zone was pushed to the very brink of collapse.
Was he getting smaller, or was the world getting larger?
As the gap in scale widened to a transcendental degree, pressure built inside his head, and his eyes rolled back.
With each cycle, he shrank to one-sixteenth of his size. Endlessly smaller. Smaller than a molecule, smaller than an atom.
*‘No. I can’t take this.’*
The students stared with blank expressions. They had no idea what kind of pain this entailed.
Since the vision’s focus was tracking Shirone, all they could see was the same folding pattern repeating over and over.
But even if they had understood the mechanics of Gonggeop, the feeling it evoked would have been no different.
A state one could never comprehend until they experienced it. That was the profound truth hidden within Gonggeop.
“Shirone!”
Amy cried out, her face pale. Lying in the Virtual Zone, Shirone's back was arching and spasming violently.
Colly’s fists clenched tightly.
*‘Shirone, give up! If you give up now, you can live! Deactivate your Spirit Zone!’*
The Gonggeop program hammers the mind with the maximum possible disparity, a gap expressed on a cosmic scale.
Humans, who exist on a single planet, don't even possess the sensory organs to perceive this kind of terror.
If this continued, his mind would keep getting sucked toward the first dimension even after the device was turned off, and he would eventually become a vegetable, never to awaken.
Shirone’s back slammed against the floor before arching up like a bow.
The fact that his body, which had remained fine even in the extreme heat, was convulsing so severely meant he was in a dangerous state.
“Move! I have to save Shirone!”
As Amy rushed toward the Virtual Zone, Nade quickly grabbed her arm.
“Wait! If you interfere, you and Shirone will both fail!”
“I don't care! I can take the test again next year! If something happens to Shirone here, I'll never forgive myself!”
Nade saw the fire in Amy's eyes. She was serious.
His pupils wavered for a moment before he turned.
“You're right. Let's save him together.”
This time, however, Iruki stopped them both.
“Don't be rash. It's Shirone we're talking about.”
“What are you talking about! What if Shirone…!”
“It's not that there's no change at all.”
Amy immediately fell silent. She turned her head toward the vision.
The same pattern was still repeating.
“A change? What change?”
“The folding phenomenon is slowing down. It's subtle, but it is.”
Amy checked with her Red Eyes.
The progression was indeed slower than before. And… it was getting even slower.
*‘Grrrgh!’*
Shirone had entered the Immortal Function.
He was attempting to escape the eternally deepening pit of Gonggeop by expanding his mind into the realm of infinity.
But unless he could expand his consciousness faster than he was shrinking, he would never escape the eternal cycle.
*‘This isn’t enough. I need a greater expansion…'*
The cohesion of his mind began to loosen. A typical Unlocker would have already lost their ego, on the verge of dissolving into all of creation.
But Shirone would not lose himself.
Mental Transcendence.
Breaking the illusion of scale, the Immortal Function escaped the domain of Gonggeop, and in the vision, the folding phenomenon came to a halt.
“It… It stopped.”
The students began to stir. Then, in the reverse order of how he had been folded, Shirone began to unfold.
“What? Why… Why is that happening?”
Something even more surprising was happening in the Virtual Zone.
The students slowly backed away. Shirone, who had been lying on the floor, was staggering to his feet.
“How is he moving? He’s in a semi-conscious state, isn't he?”
“Look! The vision!”
The students' gazes returned to the vision. The Shirone on the screen was standing in the exact same posture as the Shirone in the Virtual Zone.
His head bowed, he remained motionless for a moment before raising both arms and beginning to push the walls of darkness apart.
“That… That’s…!”
Colly trembled as if he couldn't believe it.
The real Shirone and the Shirone in the vision were moving in perfect sync, their actions identical.
Slowly raising his head, Shirone’s eyes snapped open. At the same time, the darkness of Gonggeop vanished from the vision, replaced by the real-world scenery.
The same space, the same people.
Two Shirones, one real and one virtual, stood with their arms outstretched, glaring fiercely ahead.
“He… broke out of Gonggeop… on his own…”
-Stage 7, Gonggeop program terminated. Deactivating Virtual Zone’s virtual arctic system.
As the mechanical hum died down, Shirone slowly lowered his arms and stepped out of the Virtual Zone.
The students flinched and parted to make way for him.
Even those who had always looked down on Shirone instinctively knew not to mess with him at this moment.
He was none other than the one who had passed the seventh stage of the survival evaluation.
As everyone’s eyes tracked his movements, Shirone stopped in front of Fermi.
“There was something I couldn't say because you ran away.”
Fermi’s eyebrow rose.
“I will become a mage, no matter what. I don't care what schemes you cook up, but if you dare interfere with my dream, I will drop everything and crush you first.”
The students' faces hardened.
It was a declaration of war against Fermi, but it was also a message to everyone present.
Do not interfere with my dream.
Faced with his do-or-die resolve to take down anyone in his way, everyone's thoughts grew complicated.
*‘Damn it. Fermi was already a headache…’*
Every graduating student knew that Fermi exerted some kind of control.
The reason no one dared to oppose him was that the first person to be targeted would fail the graduation exam.
Of course, Fermi's influence was still considerable, but with Shirone's appearance, the tide had begun to shift subtly.
*‘The second master of the survival evaluation in the academy's history.’*
In other words, if the survival subject was on the graduation exam, he was guaranteed to pass.
*‘Until now, I've just gone after whoever Fermi targeted. What should I do? What if I get instigated into this and step in it myself?’*
Now, all eyes were on Fermi. They would have to reconsider their positions based on how he responded.
Fermi forced a fake, smiling expression. Anything he said would just be the excuses of a loser.
*‘I'll back down for today.’*
As Fermi turned and walked away without a word, the students were hit with a fresh shock.
It was the first time they had ever seen him, a man who always steered situations to his advantage, exercise his right to remain silent.
*‘Damn brat. From now on, I'll consider you my greatest enemy. You'll spend the rest of your life regretting that you made me think this way.’*
On Fermi’s retreating face was an expression of rage that no one in the graduating class had ever seen.
“Final survivor, Shirone Arian. Red Team, twenty additional points. Blue Team, twenty points deducted.”
With Colly’s announcement, the students finally shifted their focus from Shirone and Fermi back to the team competition.
“We did it! We won! That’s twenty points!”
“And we got these points by beating Fermi! This feels so satisfying! I knew my judgment was spot on!”
Amy and Nade hugged and jumped for joy, while Shirone celebrated the victory with a high-five from Iruki.
“Whoa…”
The gasp of admiration escaped Maya's lips as she watched from a distance.
She was a veteran of the graduating class, but this was the first time she had seen someone stand up to Fermi head-on.
But soon, her gaze sank into loneliness.
*‘It must be nice… to be strong.’*
She had never even dreamed of defying Fermi. Not that he would have paid her any mind if she tried.
To her, who was trying to become a mage by any means necessary, even by a fluke, to solve her tribe's poverty, Shirone was someone from another world.
“Shirone! That was amazing! I can't believe you passed the seventh stage!”
“See, my prediction was right! No matter how great Fermi is, he can't beat an Unlocker!”
Shirone, Shirone, Shirone.
Even students who had usually kept their distance praised Shirone's performance today, united as a single team.
Shirone had climbed at least two stages higher than any other participant, leading his team to victory. Thanks to him, fifteen people had each earned a whopping twenty points. Acting cold on a day like this would only hurt one's social standing.
After consoling the Blue Team members as they left the training ground, Alpheas finally turned to look at Shirone. He had mixed feelings.
*‘Is this really the same boy I once knew?’*
The boy who had climbed over the wall at twelve and asked to be taught magic had now become a student who could overcome Gonggeop.
He was happy for his student's growth, but at the same time, he was worried about how fast it was happening.
It was no coincidence that an event from long ago was overlapping in his mind.
Olivia said, looking at Shirone.
“Mental Transcendence, or a level of self-mastery equivalent to it. Without one of those two, it's impossible to escape Gonggeop on your own.”