Chapter 125

The Groundskeeper once said this.

When a player entered a hunting ground, there was a designated starting point for each one.

The moment I heard that, one idea had immediately come to mind.

-What if I entered first, planted landmines, and then when other Transmigrators entered later, they would step on them and get rid of themselves for me?

Since it all happened in another world, there was no risk of getting caught. And being able to target only Transmigrators precisely—well, I judged that to be an excellent idea.

But there were several reasons why I didn’t do it.

The first was that I simply didn’t have the time.

At that point, before Aaron’s personality could swallow me whole, I had to act quickly. I had no leisure to run all the way to the hunting ground just to plant mines and all that.

Besides, Miyu was already busy creating duplicates of me and new modules and all sorts of things. It was impossible to burden her further, and I didn’t want to draw suspicion by trying to obtain explosives elsewhere.

The second reason was that I didn’t feel the need.

Even I, who had earned the most Contribution Points throughout the entirety of Part 1’s main story, only managed to get four tickets as scenario-clear rewards.

That meant the hunting ground entry tickets had an extremely high difficulty of acquisition. I judged that other Transmigrators wouldn’t easily be able to come here.

And even if they did obtain such a ticket, by that time I would already be done farming here and moving on to higher-level hunting grounds.

The third reason was because of the possibility of recruiting them as allies, like I had done with Ciel.

In this world, there were Transmigrators like ‘Araya’, but on the other hand, there were also ones like ‘Ciel’… or even like ‘me’.

Back when I had lost all my modules curing a terminal illness, my nerves were strung tight and I thought, ‘Every Transmigrator is a rival, an enemy. They must all die.’

But looking at Ciel’s case now, I wondered if there really was a need to go that far.

‘By now, they must also have been influenced by their bodies, changing their personalities.’

Depending on when they had appeared in the original work, there would be differences. But in the end, they weren’t just ‘readers who possessed characters’, they had become ‘characters with the knowledge of readers’.

If that was the case, then they could also be seen as residents of this world. And unless they made me their enemy first, I didn’t need to treat them as enemies either.

So rather than planting mines at the hunting ground’s starting point and crushing those who came after me—in the middle of all this chaos—I had decided it was better to just watch and see.

‘But it seems someone else thought of the same idea as me.’

Seeing the mines laid out at the start point, I could tell that unlike me, they judged it better to cut down competitors in advance.

“Hmm……”

I fell into thought.

What should I do about this?

The first question that came to mind was: just how had this person gotten a Violet Hunting Ground Ticket?

Sure, the Violet Ticket could be bought from the shop. But the Navy Ticket was extremely difficult to obtain.

‘Even Ciel, who had the second-highest Contribution Points after me, never once saw a hunting ground ticket. That means it couldn’t have been a scenario-clear reward.’

The fact that ‘Violet Hunting Ground Ticket’ wasn’t on my shop list made it highly unlikely that they bought it either. I had already confirmed through Ciel that the shop sales list was the same for all Transmigrators.

‘That leaves only two possibilities…….’

Two hypotheses.

Either they obtained it in the Violet Hunting Ground.

Or they cleared a scenario.

The first hypothesis: they scraped together points to buy a Violet Hunting Ground Ticket, went there, and by chance obtained the Navy Ticket.

‘This one’s more likely.’

It wasn’t like I had fully identified all the drop items from the Violet Hunting Ground. Another Transmigrator could have just stumbled upon something that I hadn’t managed to get.

No—it had to be that way.

‘Otherwise, things get troublesome.’

The second hypothesis: without me knowing, the culprit had already cleared a scenario in Act 2 and obtained it as a reward.

It wasn’t impossible that the objective of Part 2 wasn’t tied to the main characters, the Academy, or the Student Council, but had instead started and ended somewhere completely unrelated.

Not a thought I enjoyed entertaining.

‘Maybe that’s why there hasn’t been the slightest sign of Part 2’s main story beginning…….’

And if they obtained some ridiculously powerful reward from Part 2 that gave them overwhelming strength, enough to surpass even me……

“No.”

I shook my head.

I couldn’t deny the possibility. But it was pointless to let my mind spiral in the worst direction endlessly.

If that was the case, then what if a Transmigrator had possessed a Dragon and suddenly swooped down to destroy the city?

What if one possessed a God and freely bent the physical laws of this world?

Or if suddenly the author decided to kill me off for daring to defy my fate as Aaron?

Pointless worries.

It was like fretting endlessly that the sky would fall someday. Planting one more apple tree was more productive than that.

‘Do what I can right now.’

Perhaps while roaming this hunting ground, I could find traces left behind by the culprit and deduce their identity.

Even if not, my original purpose here was to gather materials to craft a Lv.5 Arcane Module.

‘As long as I finish farming properly and return…….’

Soon, in my hands would be a new ‘Game Changer’.

No—an unprecedented Lv.6 Arcane Module.

‘Game Destroyer.’

“Module Online, [Cloud Spider].”

I deployed the module that was practically my identity itself and shot threads toward the ground in every direction.

Boom! Crack! KWAANG!

I blew up or destroyed all the mines detected by my ocular scanner and, after slinging my pack once more, started walking again.

Hoping that I could find some usable essences here.

Lexus Bane’s first training session was over.

In conclusion, Iri had lost.

It was certain that she possessed monstrous talent, but she was still just a first-year fledgling.

She must have trained hard and gained some real experience, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a veteran with over thirty years of combat under his belt.

‘Still, it was fun.’

Lexus looked down at Iri, who lay collapsed on the ground, gasping heavily for breath, and muttered that to himself.

Iri, dodging even bullets purely by instinct without any modules. Her personal talent was astonishing enough to inspire awe, but in truth, the more interesting part was something else.

‘She changed the atmosphere.’

Lexus recalled the strange shift in the air the moment Iri appeared in the training ground.

Before that, the students’ coordination had been, to put it bluntly, pathetic.

Sure, they had trained at the Academy and knew how to form teams and attempt combined attacks. But it was like trying to force mismatched gears to turn together.

Then the moment Iri appeared, their eyes changed. Even the exhausted ones rose to fight again, and their coordination became far more natural.

‘Just what is this girl?’

Iri’s talent was undeniably great, but her current ability wasn’t overwhelming. She wasn’t the strongest here either.

No matter how I looked at it, it was strange that students from first-years to fourth-years all regarded Iri as a leader, or something like a savior.

Of course, not everyone felt that way. Some ignored her, and others felt uncomfortable around her. Still, the fact remained that her presence had succeeded in tying all the students together more tightly.

‘Especially that girl, Raina…….’

Unlike the other students, her motivation for battle itself changed drastically depending on whether Iri was present or not.

It wasn’t just her willpower, either. Her entire fighting style shifted. Lexus couldn’t help but feel a little thrown off as he tried to adapt to it.

And then, a memory flashed through his mind.

‘So that’s what Aaron meant.’

Aaron’s request—that he see if other talents could be applied in combat. Just as he had said, Raina had no talent for battle itself. But when it came to reading someone’s thoughts and keeping pace with them, she seemed to have an outstanding sense.

‘In daily life, she must be constantly reading the room.’

The type who usually stayed timid, but only shone when she found someone she resonated with.

‘With a little adjustment, that girl could become quite a useful card.’

Thus, the analysis of Iri, Silence, and Raina—the ones Aaron had mentioned—was now complete.

There were still a few others among the students who drew some attention, but those could be confirmed gradually later.

With that, Lexus sorted his thoughts and shouted toward the students sprawled across the floor.

“Training ends here for today! Get up and get lost! If you’re in bad shape, head straight to the infirmary! And take the unconscious ones with you!”

But no matter what he said, their bodies refused to move. The students only groaned as they stayed slumped on the ground.

So Lexus shouted once more.

“If you don’t get up and leave right now, I’ll take it as you wanting more cozy training with me!”

Only then did the students barely drag themselves up and flee, and Lexus watched them with satisfaction before turning his back.

Since the training had deviated from the original plan he’d reported, and since the floor, walls, and everything else had been wrecked in places, his next task was to squeeze out some excuse to write into the paperwork.

But then—

“Hm? What’s this?”

As all the students hurried out of the training ground, one instead approached him.

It was Iri.

She could barely walk properly, leaning on her shield like a cane as she staggered closer. Her violet eyes, filled with fierce determination, fixed on Lexus.

Lexus immediately realized what she was thinking and snorted.

“Forget it. You can’t even walk straight. Training’s over. What I said earlier was just to scare you.”

“I…….”

“You want to get stronger, right? I know. I can see it in your eyes, kid.”

Lexus let out a long sigh, then asked her again.

“Why? What do you want to do by getting stronger?”

“Just because……”

“Is there someone you admire?”

“……”

Iri didn’t answer.

But her silence spoke her truth more clearly than any words could. After all, the wish she held in her heart was so outrageous that she felt too embarrassed to ever say it aloud.

“……Aaron Stingray.”

Lexus answered for her.

At that, Iri lowered her head, unable to meet his gaze. Lexus spoke firmly.

“Wake up.”

Some might think he was too harsh. They could argue that it was fine to set high goals, or that admiring someone wasn’t a sin.

But Lexus’s conviction was firm.

“That man, at your age, was already stronger than me at my peak. That’s not just some tree you can’t climb. It’s better to think of him as a monster living in another world.”

“But……”

“You too. In a few years…… no, if I really grind you hard, by next year you’ll be strong enough that other kids will call you a monster. Later on, you’ll probably get much stronger than me. But compared to that man? Forget it. Even monsters have classes.”

“……”

“So don’t break yourself trying to rush it. Just train steadily at your own pace. If you get it, then go rest.”

Iri slowly raised her head again. This time, she gazed into Lexus’s eyes without a word.

And in her amethyst eyes—

Light was flickering.

The light of something called ‘admiration’.

Lexus sighed again.

“Kid.”

“……It’s Iri Elisbell.”

“I see why that man favors you.”

“Huh? W-what?”

“He seems to care about you more than the others. Didn’t you notice?”

“T-that’s, no, I……!”

Iri stammered in embarrassment, her cheeks turning faintly red.

Lexus chuckled at the sight and said,

“Follow me.”

“Huh? W-where?”

“My employer prepared something for you. I thought it was unnecessary, but now I see he was right.”

He really did know her well.

The man who once treated every human besides himself as trash had changed so much.

Thinking that, Lexus added one more line.

“You said you want to get stronger, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then stop talking and follow me. It’ll help you chase after his back—just a little.”

With that, Lexus turned sharply and began walking ahead. After hesitating briefly, Iri carefully followed behind him.

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