The Otherworld
Yo. Angel.
The angel stares back at me with sparkling eyes.
“Yep! Player-nim!”
Her face is brimming with reverence.
“Does the operator usually watch sex from the side?”
“Idiot! Player-nim too! We don’t have lust or anything like that anyway, so it’s not like we’re thinking about that kind of thing—it’s fine!”
Is that really true? Because she was staring way too intently… Still, after the sex, we washed each other and talked affectionately. Then Alice served dinner, and I ate it with gusto before heading back to my room.
What the hell… Is this real?!
No matter how hard I think, it feels like a dream, but it’s burned too vividly into my memory to be fake.
Even my arm, which had been hanging limply from using too much power, feels completely drained.
“Kyahaha!! I finally did it! Sex!!!”
I unconsciously let out a man’s full-throated, sincere shout.
Ah… so dreams really do come true.
Ding.
At that moment, my phone alarm rings.
I pick it up and check the screen. It’s a text from Alice.
[You can hear it~ ಠ_ಠ]
This. My sincere shout must have reached Alice next door.
Alice’s shy, cute way of using emoticons is adorable.
I reply with a simple message and flop onto the bed.
White ceiling.
It contrasts sharply with the beige one I usually lie under.
Every detail here makes the alienation from the “previous world” feel even stronger.
“Hmmm…”
I sigh and think.
The second scenario that’s about to drop is the Otherworld.
The Otherworld scenario is, as the name suggests, entering the Otherworld.
But the catch is that the place it leads to is the academy.
During class, the entire academy gets sucked into the Otherworld in an instant, and you have to fight countless demons there. Many students lose their lives.
Fortunately, I already know the clear method.
If you destroy every window inside the academy, the Otherworld will collapse and return to reality.
‘However,’ I don’t know how the Otherworld happens or when it starts.
This is another problem, and there’s yet another variable.
The bizarre “Hell” mode I’ve never heard of before.
In Eroigunshuterz, there are originally three difficulties: Easy, Normal, and Hard.
It’s the standard game difficulty curve, but the content inside is completely different.
As the difficulty rises to Hard, the player’s “participation” increases, and the demons also level up.
For example, in Easy mode the Otherworld boss is just a lieutenant colonel, but in Hard mode it could be a count or something even higher.
And what I’m facing this time is the demon of “Hell” mode.
Fortunately, as the demons’ levels rise, the students’ levels have also increased.
All the students in our class using mana is the proof.
But the player’s “participation” being even higher means they’re becoming “extra” with even greater proportion.
So even one extra can’t guarantee survival in this Otherworld.
“Sigh…”
My head throbs from painful thoughts.
If this were just a game, I could’ve cleared it solo somehow… but even though I realize this is reality.
“Angel, when do I get a job change?”
The thought that the fastest way to gather power is through a job change pops into my head, and I ask the angel.
“That? Just gather causality and you can do it anytime! The programming team already analyzed your player data and pre-made about three jobs!”
Oh! They’re fully prepared! Perfect!
“But what exactly is causality?”
The word “causality” is always included in everything the angel says.
I need to understand this concept first.
“Ah, that? Simple! Everything the player does that affects the game is ‘causality’!”
“Hm?”
“Killing the Demon King. Since I saved this world, 100 points! Stuff like that! Even small things count—like becoming class president! And ah, and—”
She smiles wickedly and tells me.
“Having a deep relationship with a heroine also gives you causality, hehe~”
This guy definitely lies about not having lust.
Without it, how does he have such a mature expression?
“Right after I had sex with Alice~ and became class president~ hmm~”
The angel taps her fingers in the air as if watching something.
“Three quarters? You’ve gathered quite a bit?”
“Sigh… guess it doesn’t work.”
Normally players average job changes from the third scenario, so it was unrealistic. Gathering three quarters is actually a miracle.
“Eh?”
At that moment the angel tilts her head curiously.
“Why?”
“Player-nim?! This seems weird?”
The angel shows a panicked expression, waves her hands frantically in the air, then looks at me with a dumbfounded face and says.
“Player-nim’s causality is being copied?”
“What?”
“Really, it’s literally being copied?”
As if to show me, the angel raises a blue window in front of my eyes.
Swoosh—
The number labeled “causality” shoots up instantly.
“Whoa?! What is this?!”
“Probably because the player became famous somewhere?”
“If this speed continues, maybe I can job change before the second scenario starts?”
The angel looks at me with a curious, questioning expression.
I really don’t know either?
What the hell is going on?
*
Thud… thud…
The sound of thumping comes from a luxurious room decorated with white marble.
“Dad… Dad! Calm down!”
“Eek! Eek! Eek!”
A middle-aged man with a stylish beard is sweating profusely while telling off his daughter who’s rampaging in front of him.
“Is this real?”
A girl with purple hair is flinging a large teddy bear around.
“No, daughter, if you keep doing this!”
The middle-aged man’s masculine face twists.
It seemed like he was trying to lecture his daughter’s unruly behavior…
“What?!”
Immediately the sharp reply from the girl makes the middle-aged uncle’s serious expression answer.
“Dad is sad too! Stop it!”
“Eek! Eek! Eek!”
The lifeless answer makes Violet, the girl with purple hair, start beating the large teddy bear again.
“No, is it real, Dad!”
Violet puffs her cheeks and lifts the tablet with telekinesis.
Inside the screen is a man.
A video of an unheard-of foot technique being unleashed with amazing mana application.
When I first saw it, it was too amazing, so I unconsciously let out a sound, but since Violet had shown it dozens of times, now I’m tired of it.
“It’s not real, daughter. Then! How can there be no info on such a friend!”
“Yeah! That’s what I said! How?! I definitely didn’t sense mana when I used telekinesis to ‘search’!”
If you listen to the daughter’s words, that “student” is beyond the category of understanding.
The sudden appearance of the only job “Swordsman” permitted by the board of the subjugation academy.
This means something enormous.
“Job” officially means having the ability to subjugate demons.
And giving a job to “only one person” in a world protected by shooters and abilities until now is saying that the job “Swordsman” for “that one person” has the possibility to break the existing conventions.
Moreover, according to the daughter’s words, at the time when the ranking battle just started, there was no mana.
“No.”
It wasn’t that there was no mana, but it could have been hidden.
If the student had mana control ability enough to hide himself from the time of admission, it’s natural that his daughter couldn’t notice it.
When I thought this far, goosebumps rose on my whole body without me knowing.
What kind of monster entered the academy.
Too excellent skill for a freshman.
And after searching all information agencies, no outstanding information comes out.
This means there is a “huge” backer behind that student.
“Eek! Eek! Eek!”
Violet, who was beating the teddy bear, her dad starts to appease her.
“Daughter~ Don’t do that~ How about getting along well with that friend~?”
“No, Dad! Is that real! I said I’m the ranking! Ranking? Yeah?”
I got it.
My beloved daughter has already lost her appetite for the first defeat she tasted from that student.
“Eek! Eek! Eek!”
Violet’s dad sighs while watching Violet beating the teddy bear again.
“Daughter~ Don’t do that~ Dad will find out more, okay? It might come out soon, so calm down, okay?”
“Eek! Eek! Eek!”
Now he’s trying to dance to calm the daughter’s heart.
Outside, he is the president of a world-class military industrial complex with tremendous charisma, but inside the house, he is endlessly weak to his daughter.
“Daughter! Look at this!”
He really is an enormous daughter lover.
*
Dozing.
The hazy consciousness becomes clear.
It’s morning.
I jump up, stretch comfortably, and tidy up the futon.
“Player-nim woke up?”
“Yeah.”
The guy I haven’t seen in a day, but now I’m used to having him next to me.
The second day in the Eroigunshuterz world.
Yesterday was pretty busy, but today is also busy.
I have to run quickly to prevent the plan I conceived last night from being blocked by the second scenario.
Ding!
Just as I finish making the bed and am about to get out, the phone rings at a good timing.
I pick it up and check the screen. It’s Alice.
[We made rice at home, so eat and come. Come to the academy in uniform in 30 minutes~ (❁´◡`❁)]
Ah, I love you, Eroigunshuterz.
Thank you for giving birth to the heroine Alice.
This is the first happy morning in my life.
I hurriedly shower, dry, and put on the uniform.
“Hmmm~ Cool.”
I stand in front of the full-length mirror and check if there’s any part lacking, but right now I’m 100% cool, no flaws.
“Indeed, Player-nim has a great figure.”
“Yeah.”
I pick up the school bag and leave the house, stand in front of Alice’s door next door, and press the doorbell.
Neighbor next door and childhood friend…
Isn’t this a too lovable setting.
Bam.
Soon the door opens, and bright red twin-tails come into view.
“You’re here?”
Alice in uniform with a white apron.
Ah… this is “happiness”.
For a moment I almost cried from too much happiness.
“Again with that stupid expression.”
Alice looks at me and giggles.
“Hurry up and eat before it gets cold.”
“Yeah!”
I enter Alice’s house in a hurry, and the room plastered with my photos comes in.
“Hmmm, no matter how, that’s a bit alien.”
Did Alice’s setting have obsession with me?
I don’t know. But if I think that loving me more is good.
“Wow!”
Seeing the food arranged on the table, I let out a sound of admiration.
Eel grilled, ribs, and various side dishes.
“Eat a lot. I worked hard.”
“Wow, it really looks delicious?”
From morning, this much feast.
I sit at the table hurriedly and thank Alice again, then taste one piece of eel.
This crazy.
Delicious.
The crispy skin and smooth eel meat hit my brain beyond the olfactory sense.
“Here, drink this tea too. It’s osmanthus tea. This is good for ‘men’.”
“Hm? Eh…”
Alice smiles happily and pours osmanthus tea into my cup.
I gulp down the tea, and Alice picks up a side dish with chopsticks and puts it on my rice.
“Here, eat this too. It’s spring cabbage, and this is also good for ‘men’?”
“Uh… yeah…”
“Here, this is asparagus, and this is also good for ‘men’…”
Alice’s face, as she flashes her eyes and puts each side dish on my rice, is smiling, but the flashing “ambition” inside it is visible.
Honestly, I’m good with it, but it’s a bit creepy.
After eating such a delicious breakfast, Alice and I go to the academy together.
“Good. Let’s go, Precise Aim.”
The long-awaited second day starts.