The Life Cube (2)

"Please be sure to review today's lesson. It will serve you well in next week's conquest battle."

Madam Jo Oksoon wrapped up the class right on the stroke of break time.

On most days she would stay behind through the break to field a few students' questions, but today she left the classroom so quickly it felt almost like she was fleeing.

After all, instructors were barred from involving themselves in anything that happened from this point on.

- ♪♬♩♪

The moment Madam Jo Oksoon vanished from view, the Class 3 students—who had been slumped over their desks like wilted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cabbage—shot upright in unison.

"We're free!"

The exhaustion caked onto their faces washed away in an instant, and vitality came flooding back into every limb.

One boy, more restless than the rest, flung open the classroom door and hurled himself into the hallway—only to bounce straight back.

- Thud!

"Oof!"

He had slammed into something invisible and rebounded backward. Feeling along the open doorway, his fingers found a transparent film stretched across it like a wall.

- Thud!

"Mmph!"

A girl who had thrown open a window hoping for a breath of fresh air fared no better; the moment she tried to poke her face outside, she found herself rubbing it against the invisible barrier entirely against her will.

Cradling her smarting cheek, she murmured:

"...A barrier?"

What now enveloped the classroom and everything around it was a wide-area barrier deployed on a massive scale by Dragon Slayer Academy itself—on an entirely different plane of solidity from anything one or two mages could cast. To a single student's strength, punching through it was all but impossible.

Naturally, the freshmen had no way of knowing that. And as they stood there debating whether to try smashing the transparent wall or simply wait it out a little longer—

the second large-scale spell went off.

- Bzzzzzzzt—

From one end of the classroom, a thin membrane woven of magnetic field sprang into being. Before anyone could so much as react, it swept across the students and reached the far wall in the blink of an eye.

"Whoa!"

"Eek!"

The field had whooshed past in the blink of an eye, and only afterward did the students respond—covering their faces, hunching down, stumbling backward on pure conditioned reflex.

But they soon realized their bodies were perfectly fine, and bewildered expressions spread across the room.

It had never been designed to hurt anyone, after all.

The field's purpose was to find people.

Or rather, to sort them out.

"Wh-what is this?"

"What on earth—?"

Parts of several students' bodies were glowing red. Mostly their uniform pockets, or their foreheads.

One girl reached into her pocket and fished something out. What looked like a cursed doll was radiating a crimson light. She flung it away in a panic, as if to prove it wasn't hers—only to discover the next instant that a red thread of light connected the doll right back to her.

A few other students, whose pockets stayed dark, instead wore a large red letter I stamped across their foreheads.

Meaning: a problematic item was sitting in their inventory.

A possessions inspection. The Ban Wave.

Items unsuitable for Dragon Slayer Academy students to carry or use were entered into the List of Prohibited Student Possessions—or, to borrow the players' term, the Ban List. And then, just as now, a Ban Wave was triggered to weed out the offenders and bring sanctions down on them.

The first Ban Wave of a new semester came, with very high probability, on the Friday of Week 1.

The day most freshmen began pouring into the Arena for their PvP assessments.

For several days they would have been watching their classmates' replays, gauging the skill level of their own score bracket—and somewhere in that process, more than a few must have sensed that their own ability fell short.

Most would accept that truth, step into the ring anyway, crash, break, and grow from the wreckage. That, too, was part of what Dragon Slayer Academy expected of its students.

But a few reached for a shortcut instead—banned items.

Because they couldn't stomach losing points.

Even though such items did nothing but prop up a short-term score and offered not a shred of real gain, the points dangling before their eyes blinded them and shut their brains down entirely.

To such students, Dragon Slayer Academy answered with a merciless hammer.

- BOOM!

A heavy impact echoed from somewhere far off.

That would be Jo Byeok, most likely. Judging by the distance, they were starting with Class 1. They would work their way over one classroom at a time, and Class 3 was on the route.

"Hmm. A most intriguing spectacle."

Go Hyeon-woo watched the unfolding scene with bright, curious eyes, as if enjoying some rare show, while Seo Ye-in, betraying no interest whatsoever, remained sprawled across her desk. Neither of them carried banned items, so there wasn't a trace of red to be found on either.

Shin Byung-cheol, on the other hand...

His pocket glowed red. His forehead glowed red.

The I on his forehead was so thick and vivid it looked ready to fire off a laser beam at any moment. Just how many banned items had the man stuffed himself with?

Most regrettably, the Disciplinary Committee would be along shortly to confiscate every last one—with a very hefty dose of penalty points and a very hefty dose of disciplinary action thrown in for free. There was nowhere to run, and no way to ditch the items. A dead end; besieged on all sides.

I gave Shin Byung-cheol a look of profound pity.

"Aigoo, quite the radiant aura you're sporting today?"

"Hey... don't mess with me right now. I'm dead serious."

The usual easygoing grin had vanished from Shin Byung-cheol's face. His pupils shook without restraint, and his buzz cut glistened with cold sweat.

"Honestly. I told you back at the dorm, and it went in one ear and out the other. What was it you said again? 'I'm not that kind of person'?"

"Come on~ how was I supposed to know it'd be today? Just walk me through it, will you?"

"Your club president should have told you. That there might be a possessions inspection this Friday, or Monday of next week."

"Well, yeah, she did say that, but she never said it'd be like this..."

"You stopped listening halfway through, didn't you?"

"..."

Hit squarely on the mark, Shin Byung-cheol clamped his mouth shut.

The second- and third-years had data piled up across multiple semesters, so they had a fair idea of when the crackdowns tended to roll around. He'd surely been warned to keep his head down—and this was the price of letting even that slip out the other ear. He had brought every bit of it on himself.

Shin Byung-cheol began pacing in a tight little circle.

"Aish, what do I do, I'm so screwed, what do I do, if they take all of this I am dead with the president, what do I do, wow, I'm seriously—"

"Want me to save you?"

"I said I'm being serious! Quit poking at—wait, what?"

Shin Byung-cheol, mid-snap, went round-eyed.

Then, in a heartbeat, he was wearing his most obsequious smile and asking again:

"...Boss, what was it you just said?"

"I was thinking I might save you, out of pity. If you'd rather not, forget it."

Shin Byung-cheol snatched my hand in both of his.

"Save me, Boss. I'll do anything you ask, Boss."

"You owe me for this."

"Absolutely, Boss."

"This way."

With the mark already stamped on him, drawing the other students' eyes was unavoidable—but better to be discreet about it than brazen. We slipped into a corner where gazes couldn't easily reach, and I opened the [Life Cube].

"Throw in everything that got flagged. Small and valuable stuff first."

"What happens if I put them in?"

"Put them in and find out. If you don't trust me, forget it."

"No sir, Boss. Putting them in, Boss."

Shin Byung-cheol began transferring his banned items into the cube.

- Krrrumble— CRASH!!

Thunder rolled from the classroom right next door. The Disciplinary Committee would be moving on to Class 3 before long. Shin Byung-cheol's hands sped up accordingly.

"How do you have this much? What are you, planning to emigrate?"

"Aish, I'm sorry for all of it, okay..."

Apologizing even as I raked him over the coals, Shin Byung-cheol crammed the banned items in tight, stuffing the cube until it was packed solid.

Nothing worth taking, huh.

If I'd spotted anything worth keeping, I might have asked for a piece or two. But I couldn't muster much regret over it. Opportunities like this would keep coming, and this haul didn't even qualify as an appetizer.

I stored the [Life Cube] back into my inventory.

Not every banned item had made the transfer, so the I still hovered on Shin Byung-cheol's forehead—but it was markedly fainter than before. That much, he could deal with himself.

"Halt right there."

- Crackle-CRACK!

A bolt of lightning struck down beside me and Shin Byung-cheol, and Song Cheon-hye appeared, having crossed the space in an instant. Current crackled threateningly off her gloved hand as she demanded:

"What exactly are you two doing over there?"

The Ban Wave had gone off not a minute ago, and Shin Byung-cheol wore a brand on his forehead besides. With the two of us huddled in a corner of the classroom, backs turned, anyone would have found it deeply suspicious.

I put on the most innocent expression I could manage.

"I know nothing about anything."

Shin Byung-cheol leapt to my defense as well.

"That's right. This ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠friend here hasn't done a thing wrong."

"...I'm sure he hasn't."

Naturally, Song Cheon-hye was not about to take any of it at face value. She raised a terminal set with a glowing crystal orb and pointed it at me—an item serving much the same function as the Ban Wave, one that turned red if its target carried banned items.

- Vmmm—

No reaction.

Song Cheon-hye ran the orb again. Same result.

"..."

"Can I go now?"

"...Return to your seat."

Committee members kept filing in from Class 2. They moved through the classroom confiscating banned items and registering each owner's student ID into their terminals; additional penalty points and disciplinary measures would be tacked on according to the rank and quantity of what was seized.

- KRA-BOOM!

Students who resisted were subdued without mercy. When a boy who had drawn his sword took a single punch from Jo Byeok and ended up embedded in the wall, the classmate who had been rebelling alongside him quietly stowed his weapon and meekly handed over his items.

"..."

Song Cheon-hye, meanwhile, kept shooting me suspicious glances. She seemed desperate to open my inventory and look inside by any means necessary.

But with only a hunch and no hard evidence, she had no grounds to force the issue.

Never mind that my inventory was, in fact, stuffed to the brim with banned items.

Which is exactly why I pushed to have it finished before Friday.

The pulse the Life Cube gave off was powerful enough to lure Park Nari's cat from clear across the academy. The cube was sheathed in a casing like thick armor that scrambled the Ban Wave's readings, so whatever went inside registered from the outside as a 'life'-attribute ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠item.

It was a hidden piece even I had only stumbled upon by sheer accident.

With the Life Cube, I had wiped out one enormous debt for Shin Byung-cheol and the club he belonged to—and done a bit of advertising on the side.

An item that concealed banned items from the Ban Wave.

Classes with nothing at all in common with the life attribute would go half-mad wanting one.

After class.

I met up with Shin Byung-cheol in one of the lonelier corners of the academy. The moment he laid eyes on me he tried to sweep me into a grateful embrace, so I shoved him off. He teetered there, half-crouched, and offered his thanks all the same.

"Wow, seriously, thank you. Without you, all of that would've been confiscated and I'd have ended up a coroner's case or shipped off as a slave."

"Log it as a debt. I'll be collecting every last bit later."

"Oh, of course, of course. I'd never stiff you on a thing like this."

The debt for pulling Shin Byung-cheol out of a jam could wait until later. The fee for smuggling out items that should have been confiscated, on the other hand, I intended to collect separately.

From his club's president.

"Let's sort out the banned items at your club room."

"Sure, why not. The president's been wanting to meet you anyway. Head over now?"

"Let's go."

Following Shin Byung-cheol's lead, I made for the club room.

The troublemakers of Dragon Slayer Academy—students trailed by every manner of incident and scandal, banned-item trafficking through the [Dragon Slayer Academy Errand Service!] very much included.

To the Thief Club room.

[29] The Support Ate It All