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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: bchen3
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“Hold on! Time out! I think I broke a bone!”
“Huu… Huuwaaaah.”
“This is tough. Can’t we rest for a bit?”
“…Just a little bit.”
“I’m a bit worried, so I’m saying this, but wouldn’t it be better to change your job, even now?”
“Right now, I just haven’t awakened yet. If only time passes, you’ll all see that ‘this’, what I chose, is actually the strongest. You ignorant, foolish, worm-like monkeys, you look down on me and disregard my grand ambition? Even if you beg for forgiveness later, I will absolutely not forgive you.”
“You’re so weak. You don’t seem to have any talent either. Why don’t you just pray here that I, or someone else, clears this for you?”
“…Kgh.”
Crash!
“Kyaak! The wall exploded!”
“Hold on! I said, try not to use large-scale magic in sparring if possible! The power is strong, so accidents are prone to happen!”
“That bastard looked down on me first!”
“No, there’s bound to be some provocation during a match. But what’s the point of unleashing something like that in response? Don’t you know how sensitive this place is? You could die. I’m controlling my power just in case, but if you come at me like that, I won’t go easy on you either.”
“Ooh! Try it! You idiot!”
“Hero Saito! Winner!”
“Saito-ssi is so cool…”
What a mess.
Watching the sparring matches unfolding everywhere made my head spin.
The one-on-one sparring training, which began two days ago, was being conducted alongside basic training.
The S-ranks and the high-ranking users like the Japanese kid were fine, but the lower ranks were closer to the abyss.
They’ve gathered gamers who’ve probably never stepped foot in a gym in their lives into a reality game, so they can’t hold up.
According to the sage’s words, even if only one out of five is a washout, that means around 22 out of 108 are washouts.
‘Gregory’s pissed.’
Two hours after the training started.
Gregory, the nice, healthy, gym gorilla with impressive teeth, was smiling, showing off his pearly whites, but his eyes weren’t smiling at all.
Moreover, probably because he works out, his veins bulge menacingly when he’s angry.
Honestly, it’s not the fault of the users who were abducted, but I guess Gregory and the NPCs here would be angry if a significant portion of their future looked like that.
“Calm down, Gregory. Have some water.”
“…Thank you. Hero Yoon Si-hu.”
Uh… please relax your face. It’s scary.
As if his insides were burning, Gregory poured the entire water bottle I handed him down his throat.
Actually, it wasn’t just Gregory. The faces of the instructors giving advice in each position were generally dark.
Less than 10-20% were what you’d call diamonds in the rough, and a significant percentage lacked common sense, weren’t cooperative, or were whiny.
‘There aren’t many people to pick up right away.’
Honestly, since my specs and senses were already on par with the Knight Order priests and NPCs, there was no need to train with other users, so I mainly sat comfortably, scouting for potential dealers to invite to my party.
S… there was one, the Japanese kid presumed to be S-rank.
For A-rank, there were three who weren’t part of a group yet, but two of them, even though they looked like adults, gave off a strong “Japanese kid clique” vibe and were warding off anyone who tried to approach them, and one was already in contact with another group.
‘Even including the Japanese kid, I’ll practically have to recruit from the B-ranks. If I can’t even get the kid, I might actually have to form a party entirely of B-ranks.’
I looked at the people who were next up for sparring.
The A-rank manga-ripped delinquent with the Samurai class, who had picked a fight with me when we were choosing our jobs.
And the guy with glasses, who looked like an ordinary, diligent college student, with the Knight class.
‘…Even though I don’t remember the details, since I have it in my head, he must be B-rank.’
The information on users below C-rank had already been incinerated from my mind.
I didn’t remember clearly, but the fact that it remained in my head probably meant Glasses was at least B-rank.
‘But he’s screwed.’
He was too nervous.
Glasses kept licking his lips as if they were dry while he prepared, and he kept gripping and releasing the hilt of his sword, as if his hands were sweating or he was anxious.
On the other hand, Manga-Ripped Delinquent, as if his bragging about real combat and all that to me wasn’t a lie at all, looked completely at ease.
He even had the leisure to look around before the start.
Even in sparring, your grip hurts when blades clash, and it hurts when you get cut.
Despite that, adapting and remaining relaxed in just two short days was definitely worthy of high praise.
‘Being A-rank wasn’t just for show, huh.’
As Manga-Ripped Delinquent was leisurely enjoying the reactions around him, his eyes met mine.
His smug, grinning face turned to the side with a look of disgust as he spat.
“How rude.”
After a short while, when both were ready, the knight acting as referee had them bow to each other before the fight.
“Ahh~ I almost fell asleep waiting. Wouldn’t it be better to just forfeit and rest if you’re scared? Honestly, I’m not good at going easy.”
Manga-Ripped Delinquent didn’t even make eye contact with his opponent, flicking away some earwax and acting nonchalant.
“…You’ll regret looking down on me like that.”
“Keh! You sound like such a goody-two-shoes. Well, well~ Thanks for the tear-jerking effort, you little mob!”
“…Please return to your position and prepare to begin the sparring match.”
“Yeah~ Yeah~”
Manga-Ripped Delinquent took his position with a relaxed attitude.
Feet shoulder-width apart, center of gravity low.
His hand rested on the hilt of his sheathed katana.
A typical stance for iaijutsu, the art of drawing and cutting.
In response, Glasses held his longsword in a middle guard stance.
‘Awkward.’
It wouldn’t have been strange if he’d taken a middle guard stance with a katana, or even a shinai, but holding a longsword that way looked awkward.
The Pflug stance that the knights here often used would have looked better.
“Begin!”
Simultaneously with the shout to begin the sparring match, Manga-Ripped Delinquent’s right foot stepped forward slightly.
Then his left foot.
Maintaining a low center of gravity, he moved his feet little by little, gauging the distance for his iaijutsu as he inched forward.
‘…He’s really screwed.’
In contrast, Glasses, who had been nervous from the start, was stiff, stepping backward little by little.
‘If that’s the premise, Glasses isn’t someone he can’t beat, but he’s too scared.’
“Wah!”
“Ugh!”
Manga-Ripped Delinquent, who had been gradually closing the distance, suddenly shouted loudly.
When Glasses flinched in surprise, he chuckled and sneered.
“Aren’t you too scared? You look pathetic. How about you just give up now?”
He playfully drew his katana a little.
Perhaps negative thoughts were sparked by the gleaming blade of the drawn katana.
Glasses’ face turned even paler.
‘He’s good at teabagging.’
Honestly, he was a jerk, but he was skilled at psychological pressure.
If Glasses’ body froze up like that from tension, his reaction time to sudden situations would inevitably worsen.
In a realistic game, iaijutsu wasn’t a suitable technique to use head-on, but because the sword was sheathed, not drawn, it seemed to further fuel the imagination.
‘He probably didn’t use it with that intention, though.’
Judging by Manga-Ripped Delinquent’s expression, it seemed like he just enjoyed humiliating others.
“This is getting boring, though.”
Glasses was probably dying inside, wondering when the katana would swing at him, but for those watching, several minutes had passed without any significant clashes, just distance gauging.
“Uwaaaah!”
Glasses, unable to bear the stress any longer, charged at Manga-Ripped Delinquent.
His sword swing, executed without proper training and after being frozen in tension for so long, was overly exaggerated.
“Hup!”
The delinquent, who seemed to be playing around, was surprisingly focused and reacted instantly to Glasses’ movement.
A silver flash darted from the scabbard.
It flew horizontally towards the exposed area where Glasses’ large movement left him vulnerable, even with his light armor.
Swish-! Thump!
“Kuh-!”
“Kyaak!”
The chilling sound of flesh being sliced.
A spurt of blood, like from a water gun, albeit very briefly, and Glasses collapsed.
Blood quickly seeped from the cut, staining his clothes red.
“Stop! Victory! Oda Ryosuke, Hero, wins! Priest! Over here!”
“You’re so weak. I told you to just surrender comfortably from the beginning. Now you’ve just gotten yourself hurt for nothing.”
“Hero Oda! Even if you won, it’s not good to insult your opponent. Please show respect to your opponent.”
“Yeah. Yeah. He was actually super strong. I almost pissed myself. The end.”
Even after the knight’s words, Manga-Ripped Delinquent looked around smugly.
He smirked at the disapproving glances around him, and when his eyes met mine again, he seemed to have remembered something and suddenly shouted loudly.
“But hey~ isn’t that guy over there not training? Is he resting because he’s a priest? That’s weird. All the other priests are training hard, even the women.”
“No, that person is…”
“He was bragging about being a pro gamer and stuff in front of the girls, but is he actually really bad at the game? Why isn’t he doing anything?”
Oh… Ohh…
Is this that promised development or something?
I was thrilled to see Manga-Ripped Delinquent suddenly targeting me.
Like he’d been ripped right out of a manga, consistently accumulating bad EXP without any real benefit, it was truly admirable.
I was more amused than angry.
“Are you laughing?”
Manga-Ripped Delinquent didn’t like my laughter and growled, striding towards me.
“Hero Oda. That’s enough.”
Gregory, anticipating trouble from the delinquent’s unruly behavior, blocked his path.
“Move, gorilla.”
“I can’t do that. Calm down.”
Could a baby samurai, still in the tutorial stage, even if an A-rank hero, overpower a Royal Guard Knight instructor in a physical confrontation?
Manga-Ripped Delinquent, who tried to push past, was pushed back instead, his face turning bright red with embarrassment.
“Hey.”
I was amusedly watching the scene when Manga-Ripped Delinquent’s words made my face harden.
“You were bragging about being a pro gamer in front of the girls, but you’re actually really bad at games, aren’t you?”
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