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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: bchen3
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“Haah…”
He let out a sigh, covering his face with hands caked in dirt from his recent tumble.
“Kuh… Kuhm!”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Aa- My nail broke! So annoying-! Hey~ Kid-kun, can’t you heal this? Won’t you do it for me?”
As I let out a sigh of discomfort, four members cowered, while another, seemingly unaffected by the recent disastrous scene, nonchalantly filed her nails, without a speck of dirt on her.
‘…Perhaps I underestimated the abyss.’ Having never in my life experienced team play with this level of user, I felt utterly devastated.
How could people…? Why did this happen?
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“Kid-hyungnim~! How are you doing~?”
Nogi rushed over, having apparently seen me checking the bulletin board. He surveyed the three party members and made a disgusted face.
“Ugh- this is going to be tough.”
“Don’t you know these people?”
“Well… honestly, I don’t know the lower ranks, but that Kinoshita woman at the top is pretty famous, and Sakaki is someone Kid-hyungnim knows well, right?”
“…? Me?”
“Yes, you know, the one who said ‘Isekai development hit!’ when he first came here and got scolded by hyungnim.”
Ah. That chubby guy from the Doraemon trio. I’d completely forgotten him since then. It wasn’t like I’d ever need to remember his name anyway.
“But our side is pretty balanced with the leader and Saginoya, but your side seems a bit rough, hyungnim.”
“…What? Saginoya’s on your team?”
“Yes, the leader, A-rank ninja Iwatasan, me who’s B-rank, and Saginoya. The rest are three C-ranks.”
“…Is this balance really adjusted?”
“Looking around, not only hyungnim, but also Kudo-kun, Shoenji-yang, and Saito-ssi seem a bit… that way. I think it’s a balanced match, though.”
…Am I considered highly rated?
“And our team doesn’t have a priest.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
Currently, including me… how many priests are there? Ten? Eleven? Anyway, with sixteen parties, there weren’t enough priests to assign one to each party.
“Then the balance might be right.”
“Fuhu… But that means it’s an ultra-aggressive composition focused on offense. We’ll instantly kill them so much recovery won’t be needed!?”
So the leader is a ninja, and they grouped high-value users into one party. I feel a certain trust in this.
I don’t know about the other five users, excluding me…
‘…Should I not have shown off so much in the beginning?’
Judging by Nogi’s party and the parties of the other S-ranks, they clearly put effort into balancing. That means the higher my evaluation, the higher the probability that my party members are landmines, an ironic situation.
‘…Well, I’ll know when I see them.’
My party members might be unsatisfactory, but other parties are likely in similar situations. And who knows? I wasn’t interested in the lower ranks, but maybe there are some hidden gems?
“Those who have confirmed their parties, please head to the training ground with your respective party members. We will explain the rules and schedule for the competition.”
“Ah! I’ll go first.”
“Hmm… alright.”
The guy who was gloomy until lunchtime, now that he knows his situation is better than other parties, is bouncing around…
‘…A bit irritating?’
Nogi’s moral education… I might need to start it early.
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“Y-yo-! Long time no see-! Kid-kun. You’ve really grown since then!”
Chubby guy greeted me with an awkward expression, his face stiff.
‘…Did he choose Defender?’
I thought, seeing the large shield strapped to his back. Looking at his physique, which didn’t seem very familiar with dieting, he did look like a tanker, in a bad way.
“It’s not been that long, but nice to meet you, Sakaki-san.”
“O-oh! Nice to meet you too!”
He seemed pleased that I properly addressed him by his surname. However, suddenly getting so close is a bit overwhelming. Even if we become friends… that… could you please consider the pace of the relationship a bit? We haven’t even talked much, it feels strange to act like close friends.
Chubby guy didn’t seem to understand my subtly uncomfortable gestures. His hesitant attitude from moments before was gone, and he started speaking loudly. I chuckled lightly, nodding my head as if listening intently, mostly ignoring him.
But thanks to Chubby guy’s excessively friendly approach, the three other party members who had been watching me gathered around.
C-rank Defender Sakaki Takeshi
D-rank Kunoichi Amakasu Riho
D-rank Samurai Masunaka Toka
E-rank Vanguard Yori Yorisaida
‘…Not a single B-rank?’
There’s only one C-rank. The rest are D-ranks and E-ranks. Moreover, judging from their gestures and behavior, they are all incredibly introverted. Some of them probably haven’t even killed a goblin yet.
‘Should I view this positively or negatively?’
It means my evaluation is good, which isn’t bad, but the thought of having to do the party competition with these people makes me a bit gloomy.
‘…It’s fortunate it’s a temporary party.’
Yes, let’s think positively; it’s not a party I’ll be with until the end. I didn’t have high expectations to begin with.
“But we seem to be one person short, right? Kinoshita-san.”
“Ah…”
My words seemed to dampen the spirits of my party members, who had been cheerful while greeting each other, thinking it wasn’t bad being on my party.
“…? Why is that? Is anyone here acquainted with Kinoshita-san? Judging from the fact that her name is the highest besides mine, she seems to be a B-rank.”
Honestly, from B-rank upwards, I didn’t properly remember anyone unless they had shown something impressive. However, looking around, many parties were moving towards the training ground to hear the rules of the competition. And the person presumed to be Kinoshita… I don’t know. Unlike my party members who were eyeing me after joining my party, the others were already greeting each other lightly and heading to the training ground.
“She probably… skipped out.”
“She mostly skipped training.”
…What’s this nonsense?
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Apparently, Kinoshita-san never came to the training ground after the first day. Because it’s hard and annoying.
‘…Well, that’s understandable.’
This training is realistic, so it’s naturally grueling. And if you’re suddenly dragged into this ordeal, you’d naturally not want to do it.
Most users skipped a day or two over these two weeks. I didn’t know because my favorability with the knight NPCs was sky-high, but for ordinary users, even a day off, let alone two, would get the NPCs to give them dirty looks. If you feign illness, your meals are all congee. You still feel the hunger, and most of them being in their teens and twenties, it’s impossible for them to survive on just congee.
Whether it’s because the AI is dense, or it’s a sophisticated form of bullying, but eating only congee three times a day eventually forces them out of their rooms. Moreover, there are knights, who are like armored gorillas, maids, attendants, and nobles walking around the castle. Their scornful or cold expressions are scary, right? Waiting for an indefinite rescue team in such a dangerous place, when even the friendly NPCs start to subtly change their attitude… unless they have incredibly thick skins or they’re just plain dense. Anyway, it wasn’t strange that I didn’t remember her.
‘Was this what Nogi meant when he said Kinoshita was famous?’
Honestly, a bad feeling is creeping up on me. Even the B-rank in our party is starting to smell like a landmine.
“Does anyone know where Kinoshita-san is?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Then let’s find Kinoshita-san later and head to the training ground for now. Just a moment.” I gestured to my attendant.
“Did you call for me, Yun Sihu-yongsanin?”
“Pamela. Could you find someone named Kinoshita among the warriors?”
“Are you referring to Warrior Kinoshita?”
“She’s in my party, but she didn’t participate today. I need to inform her that she’s in my party and that she missed the briefing on the competition rules.”
“Understood.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure. I am Yun Sihu-yongsanin’s maid. Please feel free to ask for anything you need.”
Watching Pamela gracefully disappear after hearing my request, I turned to my party members.
“Shall we go?”
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“Hmm. A little late, but it seems all parties have gathered, so I will explain the party competition.”
An instructor nodded after seeing us arrive at the training ground.
“The training period is a total of 10 days, including today. During that time, you can do individual training or party-based combat practice by mutual agreement.”
“There are a total of 16 parties: 10 six-person parties and 6 eight-person parties. You might think that the six-person parties are at a disadvantage compared to the eight-person parties, but don’t worry. We have distributed power as fairly as possible, observing the growth process of the warriors. From here, the results will depend on how intensely you spend the 10 days.”
“And on the 11th day, the Round of 16 and the Quarterfinals will be held. And on the last day, the Semi-finals and the Finals will be held.”
“Essences, artifacts, skill books. Many things will be provided as rewards.” Everyone’s eyes lit up at the mention of rewards. Whether light or heavy users, everyone here is a gamer who loves games enough to come to a gameshow. Even if there are some who dislike competitive content, there are no users who dislike rewards for their play.
“Now, I will explain the rules of the competition. Bring out the Flower Turtles.”
At the instructor’s words, two knights dragged something out.
“Wow.” “…Cute.” “…That? It’s creepy.”
They were giant turtles, larger than adult tigers. They walked in slowly with a dull expression. The unusual thing was that a huge flower bud bloomed on their backs, with a large fruit-like thing inside.
“In Elysium, there’s a sport called Chaeser. It’s a team battle where you fight over objects you can break or steal. In fact, the combat training we do every morning is a kind of Chaeser.”
The sport Chaeser, as explained by the instructor, felt like a modified capture-the-flag game. The objects in Chaeser vary, he said. In the knights’ training, the objects are usually priests. In this case, neutralizing the priests ends it. There were also cases where plates were attached to people’s bodies, or stones were placed at both ends, to be broken. This competition’s object is the fruit of the Flower Turtle. It seemed that all we had to do was destroy the opponent’s Flower Turtle fruit.
‘It’s a bit troublesome, but I understand.’
There are few priests, so training like the knights is difficult. More importantly, the current skill level of the users is problematic. There are users who are reluctant to even kill goblins, and only those with the personality of a manhwa villain would readily use weapons against others. This includes our little one. At this point, most users lack the ‘decisiveness’ to subdue their opponents.
The inability to find a way to end the game is a common occurrence in games between beginners. The Flower Turtle is a moving target, but not particularly fast. About the walking speed of a kindergartner? The fruit object has moderate durability and is just fruit, so there’s less psychological resistance to destroying it. It can be approached more like a slightly rough capture-the-flag game than a martial arts competition, which would be more emotionally comfortable. It seemed well-suited to the current users’ situation. And I also felt the vicious intention of somehow forcing even the lower-ranked users into action.
“By the way, the turtle’s fruit can be healed with recovery magic. If the opponent can’t destroy the fruit instantly, it can be restored to its original state by healing. I look forward to the priests’ performance.”
The instructor winked at the priests.
“A broken turtle fruit will regrow in an hour, but we only have four, and the Flower Turtles also need to rest, so practice matches involving the turtles are limited to one per party. A 12-day competition, I wish you all good luck.”
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Ahh, I suppose that does explain why the team comp is so unbalanced, considering he’s the best priest by a wide margin.