Midterms (1) - The Island Survival Test
At a typical university, midterms mean one exam per subject, taken for however many classes a student is enrolled in. But from a game design perspective, cramming midterm events into every single subject at the academy would be a nightmare. Especially when finals are right around the corner. Naturally, it was impossible. If every course got its own exam event, you'd end up with nearly a thousand of them. Maybe that's why the developers, unable to remove the exams entirely, struck a dramatic compromise with their own game. Players later dubbed it the Midterm Consolidation.
The Midterm Consolidation meant exactly what it sounded like: all subjects' midterms were merged into a single test. In the process, the liberal arts courses—those with zero fun factor and no cutscenes for players—were naturally skipped. The remaining hero-related subjects were all evaluated through one unified test.
How could a single exam possibly assess that many courses? The method was surprisingly simple. "Let's just drop the students on an uninhabited island for about a week... and release some phantom demons. That way, we can naturally evaluate their mindset, combat ability, and judgment." "Sounds good. Let's do it."
With the professors' capabilities, they could've come up with something better. Why they settled on this particular method remains a mystery. Of course, from a gameplay standpoint, the survival element was quite entertaining and well-received, but—
"I never said I wanted to do survival...!"
Right now, I was flying toward the unnamed uninhabited island that served as the midterm exam site.
*
Three weeks had already passed since I told Aria I'd help her with the midterms. In Combat Studies, we'd learned basic close-quarters combat by swinging our bodies around. Basic Marksmanship was literally just shooting practice. The Hero's Mindset class was ordinary character education. And now the midterm season to evaluate those three things was right around the corner.
"Haa... Morning, Plea..."
"Morning. Siwoo, did you not sleep?"
Siwoo's face on the way to school looked terrible no matter how generously you tried to view it. Dark circles hung heavy under his eyes, and his half-dead expression made his exhaustion painfully obvious.
"Ugh... Is it that obvious?"
Siwoo rubbed his face a few times with a defeated look before smiling awkwardly and admitting the truth. "Honestly, I haven't been sleeping much lately... It's midterm season. If I bomb this exam, my whole semester's screwed."
"Now that you mention it, all the classes you registered for were combat-related, right...? Not a single liberal arts course?"
Siwoo nodded with drooping eyes. "I should've at least taken one liberal arts class even if I skipped the recommended ones."
When I clicked my tongue sympathetically, Siwoo sighed and muttered, "I should've..."
Since liberal arts courses had no midterms, they were the easiest way to rack up credits. Sure, in the game people often neglected them to focus on building specs, but doing that in reality was basically gambling. Just like Siwoo said, one mistake on the midterms and you'd be repeating "this semester's over" like a mantra. The fate of a fool who didn't buy insurance.
Whether he noticed my thoughts or not, Siwoo narrowed his eyes and shot me a look. "...And how many liberal arts courses did you take to be saying that?"
"Me? All of them except the required ones."
"What?"
"Didn't catch that? Everything except the three mandatory combat courses is liberal arts."
This time, Siwoo's face turned pitying. Mine, on the other hand, soured.
"You must've had a hard time..."
"...At least I don't have to stress about midterms."
Taking five liberal arts courses meant almost no midterm pressure. Of course, the trade-off was an avalanche of assignments, but still, I was better off than the gambler betting everything on a single exam. Definitely.
This strange standoff where we pitied each other didn't last long. First, we had to get to class. Second, tomorrow was the actual day of the midterms. Siwoo, who looked ready to die from exhaustion, went straight to sleep after class to maintain his condition. Left alone, I lay on my bed as usual and watched YouTube.
And the next day.
Dragging myself out of bed without any enthusiasm, I boarded the plane waiting in the clearing with Aria. Soon after, we departed for the uninhabited island where the midterms would take place.
Thududududu
Amid the sound of the plane's propellers, Aria poked my side repeatedly from the seat next to me.
"What?"
"You haven't forgotten that you said you'd help me this time, right?"
"Don't worry. I remember."
I mean, if I said I'd help, I was going to follow through properly. The more favors I did for the protagonist party including Siwoo, the better off I'd be. Should I help Siwoo too if I have time?
After thinking it over, I figured Siwoo probably didn't need help. Ever since I fed him that gem, his combat power had been growing at an absurd rate. At this pace, he'd catch up to Camilla with her personal weapon within a month. By finals, he'd probably be able to take on a teacher. Helping him now would only hinder his growth. The phantom demons appearing on the last day of the exam would be perfect training material for him anyway.
Besides, I've got my own things to take care of...
While I was lost in thought, the plane carrying me and Aria arrived at the island.
"Wow... I've never been to a place like this before... It's amazing."
Aria seemed fascinated by the island's white sand beach. She took off her shoes and wandered around barefoot on the pale sand.
"It's fine to be excited, but do you really think it's safe to walk barefoot on a sandy desert?"
"What do you mean... Kyaa!"
The moment I spoke, Aria jumped and frantically brushed at her legs. This beach might look beautiful at first glance, but beneath that pristine white sand lurked a hellscape teeming with all kinds of bugs.
"So yeah, don't even think about taking your shoes off."
When I glanced back and gave her a look, Siwoo—who'd been staring at the beach with an innocent expression—averted his gaze and put his shoes back on.
"P-Plea, those aren't poisonous bugs or anything, right...?"
"Probably just some multi-legged insects? They wouldn't throw us into a forest crawling with venomous bugs for a midterm, would they?"
"R-Right?"
Aria, her face pale from the shock of the bug crawling up her leg earlier, asked almost pleadingly. After hearing my answer, she finally relaxed and let out a sigh of relief.
"More importantly, the exam's about to start. Shouldn't we get moving?"
Siwoo cut in smoothly and pointed at a group of students nearby. "The others already went into the forest to rack up points. Aren't we being too relaxed?"
"Don't worry. With our skills, there's no way we won't get first place."
I chuckled and reassured the worried-looking Siwoo. The midterm wasn't particularly difficult. Defeat the phantom demons scattered throughout the exam site. The professors controlling the phantom demons would send footage of the fallen demons to the supervising faculty, and students would receive scores based on their contribution as recorded in the video.
"Besides, the phantom demons get stronger the further in we go. No need to waste energy on the first day, right?"
Obviously, the powerful phantom demons appearing later would be worth more points than the early ones. No need to state the obvious.
"But even a one-point difference can flip the rankings in the midterms. Isn't it bad to be too relaxed?"
"You're not wrong, but do you really think you can survive in the wild for a week while constantly taking down increasingly stronger phantom demons?"
"That's..."
"Well, I could probably manage it, but you and Siwoo can't, right? I could take them all down myself, but then your contribution scores would get slashed. So let's build a base camp today."
Restless labor doesn't exist. Even in the game, the standard strategy for the first-semester midterm event was to build a base camp first. The phantom demons would start appearing six hours after landing on the island. Before that, searching the forest would be a complete waste of time.
"They gave us basic equipment, so let's build a shelter quickly!"
"A shelter? Plea, do you know how to build one?"
Siwoo gave me a skeptical look, but back when I was at the lab, I'd watched YouTube videos on building shelters in the wild. I didn't remember everything perfectly, but if I just did it roughly as I recalled, it should be good enough.
"Don't worry. Besides, we can't not build one, can we?"
Before entering the island, I tapped the bracelet the professor had given us.
"If phantom demons attack while we're sleeping and we get a death judgment, the midterm ends right there. So a shelter is essential."
The bracelet was currently glowing blue. But if it detected an impact equivalent to death, it would turn red and automatically end the exam.
"Remember this—the priority in this exam isn't defeating phantom demons. It's surviving."