Chapter 7
Money and her own life were the only two things that mattered to Laura Crown.
She had goals to achieve, and achieving them required money.
Of course, life itself came first, but that was obvious.
That was why Laura Crown could always speak with perfect confidence in front of others.
She always made the most rational choice, she would say.
But her confidence stopped there.
Those eyes that seemed to see through everything locked onto her.
...
Laura’s words froze instantly.
This time she had made the wrong choice.
She should have run the moment she heard the whispers.
Requests to investigate someone were nothing new to Laura Crown.
They still came in by the day at this point, with the world already in ruins.
These people clung to their noble pride and refused to let it go even though everything had collapsed.
Or they just found the whole situation endlessly entertaining.
Thanks to them, Laura was still able to hoard money, but this man was different.
-JING!
Coins clinked loudly from her belt.
Her stigma, Money.
By paying with money from her own purse, she could use minor abilities.
Attack, defense, support—anything she wanted, as long as the price was right.
It wasn’t perfect, but she could manage somehow.
And what she was most confident in was the information business.
She should have been.
I can’t read it.
Someone whispered in her mind.
One of Laura’s stigmas. Purchase.
Simply put, pay money and you can read the target’s abilities.
Can’t read?
Laura felt her hands trembling.
She had read countless people and taken jobs, so she was the best at using her ability.
She knew her limits perfectly.
Anyone whose ability couldn’t be purchased came with conditions.
They had to be high level, or at least have strong mental strength.
High-level examples? A saint from a previous generation or the current knight commander holding back Variants on the front line.
Or the academy principal Gildar, the only person in this school she couldn’t read.
Strong mental strength?
Laura hadn’t even considered that.
She had never failed to read anyone with decent mental strength.
Only one person had resisted her Purchase with high mental strength.
The Guardian of the World Tree, the one facing death.
A mere human couldn’t possibly match the mental strength of the World Tree Guardian after hundreds of years, even a peer of hers.
So the conclusion was simple.
This person is—
“Cover your face.”
The man’s voice rang in her head again.
“Sniffle!”
Laura ran away without even noticing herself, shaking with terror she couldn’t stop.
She couldn’t get involved. Even if her pride was hurt, she absolutely could not tie herself to a monster like that.
Unlike the dramatic entrance, Laura Crown only sniffled a few times in front of me before vanishing at the order to disappear.
Thank god. If not, I would have been the one in trouble.
Laura Crown was a party member after all, and more capable than I thought.
Not really. She was straight-up OP.
She felt like a supporter, but actually she did everything.
Buffs, heals, debuffs, you name it, she had it all.
Users liked her because she was reliable enough to bring along even if you were short on members.
But it wasn’t that simple in Dark Fantasy Saga.
First you spent money to fight.
Meaning my money disappeared.
Laura spent the sweat-and-blood wealth I gathered with reckless abandon.
Difficulty dropped, but financial management became a problem.
But there was an even bigger issue.
In chapter two she would turn into the boss, like Lydia.
Even if the gear was returned, watching your hard-earned character become the boss would make anyone cry tears of blood.
I looked for a way to save her, but there was none at the moment.
If that was the case, why make her character so attractive? Why turn her into an easy kill every single time?
Especially after she became the boss, with the stereotypical complaints and terrifying appearance...
...
I felt bad for her.
Without realizing it, my expression darkened.
At the same time, strange noises started coming from the class.
Uwo...
Guguk...
Stop...
It wasn’t because of me.
Still, it was a relief.
I turned my attention to Professor Albert and fell into thought.
At least I had somehow fixed the biggest problem—my own death.
But from here on it was unknown territory.
One year remained until the protagonist entered the academy, and during that year the only information I had was gathering the hints from the original story.
But looking at it the other way, it was good news.
After Aiden Starfive died, a year of countless events would unfold.
So the original protagonist would focus more on cleaning up the messes than solving them.
If I prevented those events in advance, the situation when the protagonist arrived would be far better.
And since the protagonist was a decent character, I could just retire after handing him the tasks.
Yeah. One year.
Just die once and build the foundation.
I didn’t plan to defeat the final boss. No, I didn’t want to.
What I wanted was simple.
The protagonist kills the boss and finishes the ending, I escape the bad ending and watch the world reach the happy ending, then return to the original world or live happily there.
Good, now the plan was finally forming.
Smiling, I thought that.
From somewhere I heard someone choking, but it wasn’t my fault anyway.
Ignoring Professor Albert, I opened my notebook and started writing the story.
Until now I had been too busy just surviving the tutorial to do this.
First, what’s next...
I wrote: Incident of a Variant within the academy.
Yes. A Variant appeared inside the academy.
I recalled the flavor text and dialogue from my memory.
Several days after Aiden died, Variants began appearing inside the academy, and soon afterward mysterious group disappearances made the atmosphere steadily darker.
Several days after. Since that phrase appeared, there might be some breathing room.
Today was the day after the incident, so at least it wasn’t today.
There was still a little time.
Because of this Variant incident, the academy’s system was paralyzed and incidents were popping up one after another.
Blocking just this one incident would make handling the next ones much easier.
But the problem was I didn’t know where it was happening...
...
Was there any other choice besides scouting the entire school?
When in doubt, there was always a way.
As soon as class ended, I spoke up.
“Hey, you.”
“Yes!”
Lydia Straw answered as if she had been waiting for me to call.
She was getting used to my words, so I didn’t even need to say her name—she knew it was her.
“Scout the surroundings and look for anything strange.”
“Surroundings?”
Lydia tilted her head, then her eyes lit up with “Ah!”
“Don’t worry! I’ll do it well on my own!”
“Good.”
As expected, when I said to be bold, she immediately went to find suspicious people because she read my mind.
I expected good results.
Lydia Straw left the classroom with a proud stride.
Since yesterday’s incident, people who used to bully her had decreased.
Probably because she was with me, and more importantly because I killed Benjamin yesterday, no one was bothering her anymore.
This stigma was really useful in situations like this.
It was a bit lonely, but...
Since I had assigned Lydia scouting, I could take a look around too.
Thinking that, I stepped out the door of the class.
As always, everyone’s eyes turned to me, and they moved aside like they had an agreement.
Walking down the corridor, I reached the courtyard of the academy bathed in warm sunlight.
Wow, this felt good.
My health was rising.
Eyes closed, I felt the sunlight and fell into thought.
I had been moving around too much and using my brain too much lately.
People needed to rest sometimes, but I hadn’t had a proper rest since coming here.
No, I could still push a little more.
I decided to move a little more, opened my eyes, and took a step forward.
-BOOM!
Something crashed.
-KYAAAA!
Students screamed.
What?
What was this now?
I quickly drew my sword.
Another accident this time.
“It’s a Variant!”
“A Variant! Why?!”
“Call the professor!”
Students panicked and ran out the door.
A Variant?
In just one day?
Countless students came running out.
They smashed through the narrow academy gate like they had an agreement.
Everyone was in panic, some collapsed and got trampled on the spot.
If I left it like this, people would die while running.
I had to stop it.
I raised my voice.
Everyone line up and run!
What? Why wasn’t anyone listening?
It was like glue was on their mouths—no one said a word.
They just stood there staring at people.
And my aura began to thicken from my body.
Had I ever released this much pressure before?
Then, when the people outside saw me and our eyes met...
-KYAAAAA!
-UAAAAA! Help!
-I don’t want to die!
Screaming, some people turned around and ran toward the Variant, others ran in a zigzag.
No, if those guys ran over there...
They were going crazy wanting to die?
Without realizing it, I panicked and raised my voice.
Everyone be careful! If you don’t run from the Variant you’ll die!
“If you run you die!”
-UAAAAA!
-KYAAAAAAA!!!
People moved in even more panic.
...
I felt like I was going insane with unfairness.
People were trying to avoid me, running behind, or collapsing in place and screaming like madmen.
Either way, the path opened like Moses’ miracle.
The Variant was probably heading straight this way soon.
-KRAAAAA!!!
The sound came from far away.
A Variant appeared inside the school.
Good. I didn’t have to suffer through the trouble of piercing people.
Yeah. This was good. It wasn’t sad at all.
I kept walking with my forehead relaxed.
At the same time, I heard footsteps following me.
No, it wasn’t just one person...
I turned around and saw Lydia, drenched in sweat, breathing heavily.
“Huff, huff... hick...!”
Next to her, Laura was writhing in terror.
“I brought her!”
Lydia looked at me with sparkling eyes after bringing Laura, smiled, and when our eyes met Laura immediately bowed her head.
What did you bring?