I Became the Academy’s Heroine Stalker – Chapter 70

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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“Ugh!”

‘Damn, he’s strong.’

That was my conclusion after a few exchanges.

He was ridiculously strong.

It made me understand why people talked about Dark Mana so much.

His overwhelming speed made it difficult to even dodge, and his destructive power dealt critical damage with the slightest graze.

No, I had already taken a critical hit.

My ribs felt crushed, making it hard to breathe.

“Damn it…!”

“Serves you right. Hammer Doom!”

-BOOM!

Choi Do-han leaped high and slammed down.

I hurriedly backstepped, and a large crater formed where I had been standing.

As if a meteorite had struck.

‘Holy crap, I almost got crushed.’

I gulped, staring at him.

He was grinning, enjoying himself, looking every bit the villain.

“You pathetic fool. You tried to interfere with me with that level of skill?”

“You’re nothing without Dark Mana, you cocky bastard.”

“Let’s see how long you can keep running your mouth.”

“As long as I want.”

He swung his mace again.

Its length changed freely, making it difficult to gauge the distance.

I couldn’t even find an opening to fire an arrow.

Just dodging was difficult enough.

Despite my brave provocation, I honestly saw no chance of winning in my current state.

“Divine Swing!”

-Whoosh!

-WHAM!

“Gah!”

I took another hit to my side.

A massive impact, like being hit by a train, slammed into my ribs. I coughed up blood and went flying, crashing into the wall.

Dust and debris rained down on me.

I staggered to my feet.

His relentless attacks were pushing me to my limit.

My vision blurred, my ribs felt fractured, and I could barely straighten my back. My breathing grew ragged.

Nothing was in my favor.

At this rate, he would break my neck, just as he had threatened.

There was only one solution.

I had to use the skill I had been saving.

He walked towards me slowly, twirling his mace.

“If you had just stayed out of my way, you could have saved your life. You seem to be either a transmigrator or a regressor. Just tell me why you interfered. Then I’ll give you a quick death.”

He just wouldn’t shut up.

‘Did he take some kind of “How to Be Annoying” course?’

I chuckled at the absurd thought and slung my bow onto my back.

“Oh, finally figured out your place, have you? You’re pretty slow.”

Instead, I drew the dagger from my waist.

With my broken ribs, even drawing my bowstring to its limit was too painful.

“A dagger? You think you can match me just because you learned a little from Park Na-yeon?”

“You should have kept quiet after getting your ass kicked in our duel. Why are you acting so tough?”

“You wouldn’t understand the protagonist’s mission.”

“Don’t talk to me about missions. Want to know something?”

“It seems you want a painless death.”

“….”

I was starting to understand.

He was much better suited to being an ‘interrogator’ than a protagonist.

Even I, who had vowed not to engage in childish arguments, was provoked by his irritating remarks.

But I would lose my reason soon.

Before that happened, I wanted to vent my frustration.

When I regained my senses, one of us wouldn’t be able to speak anymore.

Therefore,

“That salvation you’re so obsessed with? You’ve already failed 51 times.”

I decided to tell him.

To make him realize how pathetic he was.

“What…?”

His smug expression crumbled.

Seeing his arrogant face contort gave me a strange sense of catharsis.

‘Oh, this is satisfying.’

“You better stop with the nonsense.”

“Want to know something else?”

“If you’re just going to spout more nonse…”

“Shut up and listen. I don’t want to play word games with you. ‘I’m the Only One Having a Honey-Dripping Time at the Academy,’ you were transmigrated into that novel, right?”

“I already told you that before…”

“But guess what?”

“What?”

“That novel, where you’re the transmigrated protagonist, ‘Hidden Piece Academy,’ is the world I transmigrated into. You’re just a character in it.”

“…What?”

His expression hardened.

But his widened eyes and gaping mouth betrayed his shock.

Choi Do-han was frozen, as if in disbelief.

He must feel like his entire life, lived believing he was ‘real,’ was being denied.

It must be hard to accept that he wasn’t real, but just a character in someone else’s story.

That’s why I hadn’t told Su-ah yet.

A virtual world that could disappear at any moment.

The fact that this world was just a story, and that she had regressed 51 times to save it…

It would bring her a sense of emptiness far greater than the loss, shock, and exhaustion Choi Do-han was feeling.

I couldn’t tell her, for her sake.

He lowered his stance, ready to attack at any moment.

And he growled.

A desperate attempt to deny the truth.

“S-shut up! You think I’ll be fooled by your nonsense…!? There’s no such setting!”

“Of course, you wouldn’t know. ‘I’m the Only One Having a Honey-Dripping Time at the Academy’ is just background information for ‘Hidden Piece Academy,’ the world I transmigrated into.”

“Shut up—!! I’m the protagonist of this world—!!”

“You still haven’t grown out of that chuunibyou phase, even when you’re about to die.”

“I said shut up—!! Before I rip your mouth apart—!!”

I shrugged.

Since things had come to this, I decided to provoke him as much as possible.

One of us would meet their end here today.

So, I decided to use shock therapy as a catalyst to determine our fates.

“Nonsense? The reason you were so desperate to capture De Roque alive… wasn’t it for the ‘Level Up as a Harem’ hidden information?”

“…!!”

He straightened up, his eyes widening again.

His eyes were filled with shock and emptiness.

A perfect expression, finally realizing he couldn’t deny the truth.

Like the eyes of a rotten fish.

Well, they were completely black, so it was hard to tell.

“H-how did you…?”

“Do you understand now that it’s not nonsense? That you’re the protagonist who failed to save the world for 51 regressions?”

“But… then why did you interfere with me?”

“I wasn’t trying to interfere. I just wanted to live comfortably as an extra.”

“But… but why?! You damn bastard—!”

His desperate cry echoed through the vast gymnasium.

With his arrogance broken, his childish delusions were laid bare.

“I simply did my best as the chosen agent for the 52nd regression.”

“Agent…? Chosen…?”

He lowered his mace-wielding hand.

Then, he muttered in a hollow voice,

“So… you’re saying… you’re the protagonist of this regression…?”

It felt too embarrassing to admit it, so I responded with silence.

I was just an extra.

An extra with a bit of luck and a belly full of Hidden Pieces.

“Then… then what was I…?”

As he lamented, I widened my stance, lowered my center of gravity, and gripped my dagger tightly.

This much backstory should be enough.

If our conversation went on any longer, someone might hear us. It was time to use the trait I had been saving.

“Don’t feel wronged. You’re the one who brought this upon yourself.”

“….”

Choi Do-han stood frozen like a broken robot with his mouth agape.

The price of hidden truths was always cruel. He must be trapped in a deep, inescapable swamp of despair.

This meant,

The turning point of the battle had arrived.

So, I stared at his neck and decided to activate it. The trait I didn’t want to use at the academy, the trait I hadn’t activated even once since acquiring it.

The [Overheat Max] trait.

A trait that put me in an ‘Overheat’ state for a certain duration, granting me transcendental power.

But it also made me lose my reason, leaving only destructive instincts, and came with severe penalties after its activation ended.

I hadn’t wanted to use it at the academy because I didn’t know the extent of its risks, but I had to eliminate him here and now.

It was an unavoidable choice.

‘Overheat Max, activate.’

This was the end of this tiresome feud.

‘I’ll fight fire with fire, you bastard.’

Something overwhelming filled my body, something uncontrollable took over my mind.

Reality faded, replaced by a dreamlike haze.

My vision turned crimson and the edges blurred.

And within that blurred vision, only Choi Do-han remained in sharp focus.

A moment later,

Black veins exploded like fireworks in my reddened vision, blooming like beautiful, dark flowers.

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At first, I was annoyed.

Annoyed by Han Tae-jin’s deviation from the original story. I couldn’t help but be wary of him.

Han Tae-jin was just a common villain.

No, he was too insignificant to even be called a villain.

A pathetic villain who stalked the main heroines.

So, I hadn’t paid him much attention.

I didn’t know what would happen to him later, but he hadn’t been mentioned much, and his abilities were on par with a stray dog, so he wasn’t worth my time.

But one day, he suddenly changed.

Like a bird hatching from its egg, or a reptile shedding its skin.

He underwent a complete transformation.

And after his change, the original story began to unravel.

The main heroines I was trying to recruit abandoned me.

Su-ah switching groups during the group project was particularly shocking.

But I didn’t show it.

If there was a crack in the original story, I thought I could just fix it.

But the crack continued to widen.

I was annoyed, furious, driven to the brink of madness.

I racked my brain, trying to find a way to mend the rift.

And then, I challenged Han Tae-jin to a duel.

I didn’t know the reason for his transformation, but I felt the need to suppress him.

To keep the main heroines, who were increasingly drawn to him, I had to crush him.

To turn him back into the loser he once was.

But I lost.

I couldn’t believe it.

I lost to that clueless idiot.

I replayed the video of our duel countless times, locked in my room.

I was so embarrassed I could barely lift my head.

And then,

Intense rage towards Han Tae-jin, who was hindering me, began to build.

He was a constant thorn in my side, a presence I couldn’t shake off no matter how hard I tried.

Like a cunning mosquito, he flitted around, sucking my blood dry, leaving me unable to focus on anything.

I was the protagonist of this world.

How could I stand by while a mere extra tried to ruin my life?

And after his transformation, nothing went according to plan.

Everything failed, everything went wrong.

It felt like my brain was turning to mush, and all I could hear in my numbed mind was Han Tae-jin’s vile laughter.

I even considered revealing everything and begging him.

Begging him on my knees to stay away from the main heroines.

I had such thoughts.

But the rage that had already crossed the line erupted instinctively every time I saw him.

I couldn’t hold it back, and I didn’t want to.

I was supposed to build a grand saga of saving the world with the main heroines, to enjoy a sweet daily life with them.

But Han Tae-jin’s transformation had ruined everything.

His growth showed no signs of stopping, and in the end, I resorted to Dark Mana.

The easiest and most effective method.

And that choice was solely for the [Level Up as a Harem] hidden information.

I didn’t think it was impossible.

I had a vague hope that if I just obtained the hidden information, everything would work out.

Once I registered the main heroines’ information, maybe their non-existent affection would blossom.

But,

Han Tae-jin blocked me again.

De Roque was dead, and the hidden information didn’t unlock. I wasn’t angry anymore. I was empty. And relieved.

As the protagonist of this world, I had endured.

I had resisted the urge to beat him to death.

But I didn’t have to endure anymore.

The thought of unleashing Dark Mana and snapping Han Tae-jin’s neck with my own two hands, like breaking a chicken’s neck, filled me with joy.

‘That son of a bitch.’

‘That fucking bastard.’

I unleashed all the curses I had been holding back.

It felt so exhilarating.

I laughed.

The laughter that had been stifled for so long finally burst forth.

But it was soon cut short.

The reason for Han Tae-jin’s transformation, the reason the original story had changed, and the reason for the exhilaration and thrill that surged through me as I gave up on salvation.

When I heard it all from him, I understood the reason for everything.

“Shut up! Shut up!”

Perhaps I was talking to myself.

No, he must have been.

Now, having experienced it firsthand, I realized I was just a character, moving along a predetermined storyline.

Not a ‘human’ who thought and acted according to his own will, but a character controlled by someone else’s script.

“Don’t blame me. You brought this upon yourself.”

A massive surge of mana erupted from Han Tae-jin.

Like a magnificent bonfire, burning a witch at the stake.

I watched the flames, feeling a profound sense of emptiness and absurdity.

Was this my fate all along?

It was ridiculous and horrifying.

And I laughed.

“Haha, hahaha.”

And that laughter,

Was cut short by Han Tae-jin, his eyes gleaming red with bloodlust, as a powerful gust of mana erupted.

As if he had never existed, Han Tae-jin vanished.

“Lightning Blade Arts.”

I only realized Han Tae-jin was gone when I felt a deep gash in my neck.

-Spurt!

A dark red liquid, similar to black, erupted from below my line of sight like a waterfall.

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