Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Special Discount and Midterm Exam
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“Well, you’re right. Traits only assist the user’s abilities—they don’t do things for you like that.”
Jeong Yun-seul sucked down the last of the coffee in her cup.
“Anyway, I have to meet this kid.”
Late evening. After finishing all my training, I lay on my dorm bed, pondering what to do with the remaining time.
That was when a message popped up in front of me.
［Someone you haven’t met yet feels strong interest in you.］
［As a reward, you acquire 500 points.］
“……What’s this?”
Someone I haven’t met yet?
Who the hell could it be?
As I sat there thinking to myself, an alert chimed from my smart student notebook.
[Sunbae, is the rumor true?]
It was Choi Seo-yoon.
Out of nowhere, she was asking if the rumor about me was real.
“What’s that about?”
There had to be a reason for her to send a message like that.
As I stared at it with puzzled eyes, it suddenly hit me.
“……Shin Young-jun.”
Shin Young-jun. That guy must be the one blabbing everywhere about how Jang Ye got wrecked by me.
“Ha……”
Spreading someone’s pain(?) to everyone like this.
He didn’t have even a shred of empathy or loyalty.
I pondered briefly how to respond, then quickly shook it off.
What did it matter what people thought of me?
My image had already tanked on the first day of school. Trying to fix it now would just be ridiculous.
‘Yeah, what’s the point?’
If anything, drawing people’s attention would just earn me points. All profit for me.
“Whew.”
Maybe I’d kill time on the internet.
I grabbed my smart student notebook to browse, but suddenly felt inconvenienced.
The screen was small, hurting my eyes and fingers.
“Wish I had a laptop or something right now.”
Oh, right.
When something’s inconvenient, nothing solves it as easily as this.
I immediately opened the point shop.
[Activating unique trait ‘Outsider’s Benefit.’]
[Entering the point shop.]
[Would you like to check this week’s special discount?]
“Huh?”
Special discount?
Right, there was something like that.
“Hmm……”
But I wasn’t too excited. I’d experienced it a few times before regressing, so I knew what got discounted.
Stuff like traits that let you dream whatever you want. Or ones that let you read books super fast…… Useless junk like that.
‘I’ll check the special discount later.’
First, search.
[Using search function.]
[Search results for ‘internet.’]
►[Special] Outsider’s Benefit Smart Device Link (???)
Huh? The result was a bit different from what I expected.
Let’s see what it is.
[Outsider’s Benefit Smart Device Link (???)]
Category: Special
Description: Links Outsider’s Benefit with a smart device for unified use. Upon activation, the screen of the linked smart device appears before your eyes. Connects to the outside world even in areas without signal.
Price: 8,000
“Oho.”
A surprisingly convenient feature.
Not just accessing the internet—it synced with whatever smart device I used.
And it worked even without signal.
Normally, you couldn’t contact the outside in towers or dungeons, but buying this would let me do so inside them.
“This is way better than I thought.”
No reason not to buy such a handy function.
[Purchased ‘Outsider’s Benefit Smart Device Link (???)’.]
[Smart function activated.]
“Nice.”
Let’s test it right away.
[Activating unique trait ‘Outsider’s Benefit.’]
[Using linked smart device.]
As soon as I activated it, a huge window popped up in front of me.
It looked about the size of a 21-inch monitor.
[Linking smart device.]
[Searching for devices……]
[Search complete.]
[Can link with Smart Student Notebook and smartphone. Would you like to link?]
‘Link it.’
Ding!
[Linked successfully.]
“Ooh.”
An alert sounded, and an empty screen appeared.
It seemed to combine the backgrounds from my smart student notebook and smartphone. Size-wise, about 21 inches.
I tapped the internet icon on the background.
An internet window popped up instantly.
Unlike using the student notebook, there was zero lag.
“Love how spacious and crisp the screen is.”
I grinned and accessed a portal site.
［Real-time trends:
1. US Artifact Museum Terror Attack
2. Sacred Relic Stolen
3. Terrorists
The hot searches were in chaos.
A terror attack at a US museum.
A sacred relic with mysterious powers had been stolen.
Sacred relics were rare worldwide—special tools that couldn’t be explained by magic or science.
[This marks the fourth terror incident this year. With recent attacks surging, public anxiety is growing. Some voices worry that ‘Jaun,’ the terror group disbanded 13 years ago, has resurfaced.]
Jaun.
In this world, a terror group that appeared out of nowhere 23 years ago and terrorized the globe for about 10 years until 13 years ago.
Per the original setting, Jaun consisted entirely of S-Rank and A-Rank members, making it too powerful for the World Wizards’ Association to crush easily.
But after a long war with the Association, Jaun lost its leader, most of its wizards died, and it disbanded—that’s the canon.
“It’s starting already, huh.”
To get to the point: the group behind that US museum attack was indeed Jaun, active 23 years ago.
After hiding for 13 years, they were resuming activities to reclaim past glory.
Of course, full-scale terror wouldn’t start for another two years.
Right now, they were rebuilding their shrunken ranks.
By stealing relics like this or, in the near future, recruiting champions from underground fight rings.
[Ending smart device use.]
But I couldn’t stop them right now.
Against monsters made of A-Ranks and S-Ranks, there was nothing I could do.
The silver lining: they wouldn’t rampage in Korea anytime soon.
Because Kim Jin-cheol, the world’s strongest wizard and Jaun’s greatest fear, protected the country.
“That’s not the point.”
Starting tomorrow, midterms would begin, along with some major incidents.
Especially two weeks from now—a terror attack in central Seoul would cause massive chaos.
Would it follow the original plot? I was a bit worried, but I needed to stay vigilant.
As an early-game villain group, they were relatively weak—a prime chance to rack up causality.
“Damn it!”
I cursed as I finally checked the point shop’s special discount I’d missed yesterday.
[Special Discount!]
[Selling Intermediate Subspace Pocket (A) at 50% off.]
［Remaining discount period: 5 days］
［Intermediate Subspace Pocket (A)］
Category: Special
Description: Stores items in subspace. Holds up to 30kg.］
Price: 20,000 (50% off)
“Hah.”
They were selling a subspace pocket at 50% off.
For a whopping 20,000 points.
Subspace pockets had insane utility—this price was basically highway robbery.
“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have bought the device link yesterday!”
Regret hit hard.
I had exactly 8,500 points left.
Short a massive 11,500.
“Three days……”
Could I scrape it together?
If I pushed really hard, maybe.
A few shameless attention-grabs……
“Hah.”
No, that wouldn’t work.
Even attention-whoring has a limit(?).
If I overdo it, it loses effect when I really need it later. Gotta save it for then.
Good thing: midterms started today for five days—prime time for point farming.
If I played it right, I might pull it off.
Midterms were just for interim evaluation.
Scores didn’t weigh heavily, so rankings didn’t fluctuate much compared to finals.
Even if I aced them, top 60 was impossible.
Yet students fought tooth and nail for these midterms.
Simple reason.
Starting today, guilds would observe the exams.
Scores didn’t matter much, but bombing in front of guild scouts hurt future job prospects after graduation.
[Alright, we now begin the 2nd Year Basic Magic Aptitude Exam.]
The grand auditorium after so long.
First time back since the public ranking test on day one.
Being here again brought back memories of my mana discharge humiliating me in front of the whole school.
Back then, I wanted to crawl into a hole. Now, it was just a fond memory.
“Hmm.”
I scanned the surroundings.
The stands were packed with guild scouts.
Some familiar faces among them.
Execs from major guilds, and villains disguised as regular scouts.
Then, they called Lee Seo-jun from the platform.
[2nd Year Class A, Lee Seo-jun.]
The stands erupted in murmurs.
Probably over half were here to see the once-in-a-generation genius.
“That’s Lee Seo-jun, huh.”
“Wow, he’s even more handsome in person.”
“They say he’s Chairman Kim Jin-cheol’s disciple. Wonder how good he is.”
“Hey, don’t even bother recording Lee Seo-jun. He’s not joining our guild anyway.”
Despite all the heavy attention, Lee Seo-jun climbed to the test platform without a hint of tension.
The midterm basic magic aptitude test differed from the prior public ranking.
That one was just hitting targets and ranking scores.
From midterms on, it was about how fast you could kill summoned monster dummies.
[2nd Year Class A, Lee Seo-jun. Begin.]
A bipedal monster ‘Green Giant’ was summoned before Lee Seo-jun on the platform.
He drew his sword from his waist.
It gleamed with brilliant light.
“……Light attribute?”
“What? Is that synergy? A high schooler using synergy?”
Synergy—the pinnacle technique combining reinforcement and manifestation magic.
As Lee Seo-jun’s sword unleashed light attribute manifestation magic, gasps exploded in the stands.
“They called him a once-in-a-generation genius for real.”
“Insane. That’s not student level.”
Lee Seo-jun gripped his sword, took stance.
Then charged the monster at blinding speed.
As expected of the protagonist, his skill was overwhelming.
One clean slash felled the monster, earning a standing ovation for its sheer dominance.
Yoo Ah-ra’s turn afterward was the same.
Guild reps shouted in awe at the massive fireball she hurled.
Time flew, until the last of the 2nd years.
My turn.
[2nd Year Class A, Kim Sun-woo.]
Murmurs started again as I stepped up. But unlike Lee Seo-jun and Yoo Ah-ra’s awed buzz, this was mockery and sneers.
“That’s the guy from the public ranking test, right?”
“Yeah, probably. The one they trashed for admission scandal.”
“Heh heh. Gonna discharge mana again?”
[254 people feel expectations toward you.]
[Acquired 1,000 points as reward.]
So many already expecting something from me.
They probably hoped for another laugh like in my public test video.
But with special class, reputation, achievements on the line, I had no intention of clowning again.
[2nd Year Class A, Kim Sun-woo. Begin.]
Like the others, a Green Giant was summoned before me.
I gathered mana in my hand.
A brilliantly shining magic orb formed above it.
No separate mana compression.
I could drop it easily with Heart of Great Nature, but with exams ongoing, who knew what crises might pop up? Couldn’t risk it lightly.