Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Let's Live Together
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The Hero Academy grounds felt more like a university campus than a high school.
I staggered around the area.
A breath of fresh air was supposed to help, but my body showed no signs of improvement.
Dizziness.
Pain stabbing through my entire body like a knife.
Mana rampaging freely inside me.
Everything was a mess.
Something started rising in my throat.
I hurried to the bathroom in the academy's main building.
“Ughhh. Fuck… urk.”
I vomited into the toilet.
I heaved up everything inside me for a good while.
My head was spinning.
‘How the hell did Yong Cheon-hwa endure this?’
Maybe it was the difference in stats.
I'd always downplayed it when talking about Yong Cheon-hwa, but she was solidly C-rank.
There was bound to be a gap compared to me, a D-rank.
I stepped out of the stall and checked the mirror. My face was a wreck.
It was covered in bloodstains.
Blood from my eyes, nose, and mouth had dried up, leaving me looking like a zombie.
It was as if I'd just come from a brutal fight.
Which, technically, I had.
My appearance had changed too.
My eyes, once dark like any other Korean's, now gleamed with golden irises.
Looking closer, the pupils were slit vertically like a reptile's.
They almost resembled a cat's eyes at a glance.
“Status Window.”
------------[Status Window]------------
◈ Name
[Null]
◈ Stats
[Strength 558 B]
[Agility 345 C]
[Intelligence 877 D]
[Luck 147 F]
[Overall C]
◈ Skills
[Inheritance 366 A]
[Dragon Heart --- A]
[Telekinesis --- SSS]
[Engrave --- B]
-----------------------------------
“What the hell is this?”
My stats had changed dramatically.
Strength C → B.
Agility D → C.
Intelligence E → D.
Luck E → F.
Most stats had risen by a rank.
No, Luck had actually dropped.
My name and skills looked weird too.
My name had clearly been 'Shin Noda' just yesterday.
Now it was some bizarre script.
Setting aside the alien-looking skill name, my perfectly fine Telekinesis had somehow jumped to SSS-rank.
“Telekinesis skill.”
A translucent window appeared before my eyes.
-------------<Skill>-------------
◈ Name
Telekinesis
◈ Rank
--- SSS
◈ Description
[Enter the details]
-----------------------------------
Just in case, I opened the skill window to check, but it had changed strangely too.
“Um… Lady Laura… what… is this…?”
I squeezed out the words, my voice barely cooperating.
[Ah. Looks like it's a bit messed up. You won't be able to use Telekinesis in that state at your level, so I'll restore it soon.]
“My… stats…”
[Seems like your body transformed to match my soul. It's fundamentally trash, so it didn't improve much.]
Hearing that, I thought to myself.
‘If having Laura's soul in me improves my body… what if I let her in again? I could hit B-rank, even A-rank in no time, right?’
My thought was cut short by Laura's next words.
[But I can't do it again. Any more changes, and your flesh will reject your own soul.]
I left the bathroom for now, heading back to the auditorium.
Staying away too long might get me disqualified.
But Yang Min-seo was pacing in front of the bathroom.
The moment I emerged, she spoke as if she'd been waiting.
“You're out. Shin Noda. I saw you fighting that troll in the exam hall earlier. Sorry for brushing you off this morning. You're more impressive than I thought.”
“…”
A nuisance had latched on.
I headed to the auditorium without responding.
“Hey, wait. Don't ignore me! You look rough, which makes sense. Using a skill like that. Others might not get it, but I can tell. My skill lets me see right through anything.”
Not anything, probably.
Even if 'Eyes of Truth' meant gaining info on what you see, at her current low rank, it wouldn't be very useful.
If it were that impressive, she'd have fainted seeing Laura stuck to me.
Yang Min-seo pulled a glass vial from her pocket.
A blue liquid potion.
“An apology for my rude words this morning. You look like you're hurting bad. Use it.”
I took the potion from her.
Pride?
Pain like this trumped that.
I uncapped it and downed it in one gulp.
My body gradually improved.
The dizziness and pain faded away.
‘Finally, I can breathe.’
I thanked Yang Min-seo.
“Thanks. I feel much better now.”
“This settles any hard feelings toward me.”
“Why not speak casually? We're the same age.”
“I prefer it this way.”
“Potions are crazy expensive, aren't they? Is it okay to give one just as an apology?”
Potions were made by mixing troll blood with additives, capable of healing even bone-deep wounds in seconds.
A spare life, basically.
Demand was high, materials rare—one vial typically cost around 10 million won.
“My dad's got a small business, including potions.”
Not that small.
K Group's top dog in Korea.
“Anyway, thanks.”
I returned to the auditorium feeling refreshed.
The first exam passers were quickly sorted, and I was among them.
The second exam, an interview, was nothing special.
It covered 'basic common knowledge' and 'Heroes for the public good.'
I, tempered in the fires of hellish comments sections, could spout off about things I didn't care about or know for over an hour.
A middle-school level interview was a breeze.
A few days later, at my usual cafe, I checked the academy homepage on my iPad.
Right after logging in, the final acceptance notice.
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Congratulations on your acceptance.
You placed 77th out of 164, earning 'Silver' rank.
'Silver' rank benefits are as follows:
1/2 tuition scholarship.
Free dorm fees.
Free textbooks.
See the homepage for details on rank determination.
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Silver, huh.
Not bad.
The academy divided students into Bronze, Silver, and Gold ranks each semester, offering tiered benefits.
Ranks were set every 33.3 percentile.
Think of it as trisecting the students.
Tuition per semester was 7.2 million won—pretty steep—so scholarships were a big deal.
“Heh.”
After all the ups and downs, I'd finally reached the starting line.
Now it was just picking opportunities at the academy and sucking the honey.
The coffee had gone right through me, so I headed to the bathroom in the back of the shopping area.
But I heard sniffling from somewhere.
From the stairwell.
Curiosity piqued, I detoured past the stairs—opposite the bathroom.
I was startled.
There was Park Ha-yeon, crouched on the stairs, crying.
I couldn't just ignore it.
The protagonist crying? No such scene in the original.
And the timing was suspicious.
Crying on acceptance day.
‘No way she failed, right?!’
“What's wrong?”
Spotting me, Park Ha-yeon wiped her tears and mumbled.
“Oh, it's nothing.”
“Nothing my ass. You're crying.”
I sat beside her and asked.
“Tell me.”
I pressed her persistently, relentlessly.
If she'd failed, I'd grab the academy principal by the collar and force her in.
“I got Bronze rank, so no scholarship. My family's poor—we can't afford tuition, let alone dorm fees… And academy rules ban part-time jobs… Sniff sniff.”
Park Ha-yeon poured out her story between sobs.
“Bronze, huh.”
I acknowledged it with a heavy heart.
In the original, the protagonist barely scraped Silver.
Dead last in Silver, teetering on the edge of scholarships to attend.
Probably to build tension for players.
But now, somehow, it was Bronze.
“This is trouble.”
“Sniff sniff. I don't know what to do…”
‘Park Ha-yeon needs to focus on studies and training.’
After a brief think, I decided.
“Then live at my place.”
“Huh?”
“I'll cover your tuition too.”
I'd clear this world anyway, wish my way out.
Money here was meaningless.
Feeding one Park Ha-yeon? A few gold bars swiped from a villain vault would do.
Park Ha-yeon bowed her head and muttered.
“How could I… Li-living together? We're still students, and between a guy and girl…”
She thought my place was a single room?
Fair enough—sharing tight quarters could feel suffocating.
“Don't worry. I've got an officetel right by the academy entrance. Live there. It has a living room and bedroom, so one of us takes the bedroom, done.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. No issues at all. Plus, I'm out at night anyway with stuff to do.”
“Oh, but tuition on top… I can't burden you like that.”
Yeah, that personality.
Ease her guilt, then.
“If you're grateful, become a Hero later and pay me back double. Tuition, dorm fees—peanuts once you're a Hero. One month covers it.”
Park Ha-yeon looked up at me, touched.
“Thank you…”