35. Inter-School Competition (2)
Through Anella some time ago, I learned that the trauma inside my mental-image world was the trauma of the real “me.”
I felt the need to think a little more deeply about this part.
Who am I.
It was a truly philosophical question.
Ever since human beings became aware of and began to think about the existence called “I,” it was a question that had continued to be asked without cease.
But no one knows the answer to that.
Naturally, I do not know either.
Still, I had to examine the issue a little more closely.
The Baek Yuseol of reality, and the Baek Yuseol of Aither.
I, Baek Yuseol, who had lived on twenty-first-century Earth, played “Character Baek Yuseol” in the game Aither World Online.
A peculiar character with the exact same name, and even a similar appearance.
Maybe, rather than being drawn in by the peculiarity of him being a “Blink one-trick,” I had felt a sense of kinship because he resembled me, and that was why I fell so deeply into that character.
I played games through the night.
On days when I had no work, I even cut down on sleep to practice Blink, and I threw myself into PvP while researching how to fight mages.
The story? Of course I pushed it all the way to the end.
I skipped most of it and never read it properly, so it did not remain in my memory, but…
Anyway, at the moment Character Baek Yuseol reached the end of the ending,
the Baek Yuseol of reality—in other words, me—fell into the game.
Was this place a game, or not?
If it was not a game, then on what basis could I say that with confidence?
I did not know.
Everything I saw, heard, and felt was so overwhelmingly real that no matter how much I thought about it, it felt like reality…
…Then why are the things that happened inside the game being manifested as my past?
On the chalkboard hanging on my dorm wall, I organized the chain of cause and effect concerning the existence known as “me.”
[The Baek Yuseol of reality possessed Character Baek Yuseol.]
[But for some reason… when I peek into the past of Real Baek Yuseol, Character Baek Yuseol’s past appears.]
[Am I the Baek Yuseol of reality?]
[Or am I Character Baek Yuseol?]
My memories of reality were intact.
But, every once in a while…
old memories of Character Baek Yuseol would creep up.
For example, when the current me met again a connection whom the Baek Yuseol of the past had encountered before, like Eltman Eltwin…
Whenever the experiences of Character Baek Yuseol and me overlapped in similar ways, memories from that time surfaced, and that was also proof that those past memories remained somewhere in my unconscious.
[Did the two Baek Yuseols merge?]
For now, this hypothesis was the most solid one.
Character Baek Yuseol’s consciousness had fallen asleep somewhere, and on top of that, the consciousness of Real Baek Yuseol had been overlaid.
That was why my memories of reality were whole, but my memories from the character’s time were incomplete.
And from there, I returned to the beginning once more.
[Was this place really a game?]
If this world were truly a game…
then it would be only natural for Character Baek Yuseol to have no “memories” whatsoever.
As nothing more than data made of 0s and 1s, a character that moved only through the keyboard and mouse I controlled could not possibly possess memories.
But Character Baek Yuseol’s memories were definitely sleeping somewhere in my head.
That meant that even before I possessed him, and even before I played the game…
“Character Baek Yuseol” had lived and moved on his own.
At that point,
I made a firm decision.
[This place is not a game.]
This place was not a game, and yet the me from reality had enjoyed it like one.
An existence capable of turning one reality into something like a game and running simulations on it.
The Constellatio Project.
It was also the developer of Aither World Online, and in this place as well, it was that very existence that handed me rewards every time I completed an “episode.”
It was the one that had sent me here.
The Constellatio Project had said that the reason it made me possess Character Baek Yuseol was because I was the one closest to the true ending.
In the future, the world would be destroyed.
I had known that fact from the beginning, and it was also true that I had moved until now in order to stop it.
Then…
was the “Character Baek Yuseol” I had played in Aither World Online really just data made of 0s and 1s?
Or…
had even that character I played actually been a living, breathing person?
“Haa…”
It was a question that had remained unresolved for days.
I had thought that the things that happened inside the game were merely things that happened in a game.
And yet the past I experienced in the game had appeared as my past in reality.
Those countless failures, challenges, and deaths.
And even the black dragon I faced at the end of the world.
If all of that had been real…
Just how many times did I kill Baek Yuseol… no, myself?
When I happened to look at the mirror hanging on the dorm wall, deep dark circles had settled beneath my eyes.
This worry kept circling back again and again without ever reaching an answer.
And there was no one I could ask.
“Hey. If you’re listening, answer me. You talk to me just fine when I finish an episode.”
Silence.
Was it really just a system,
or was it simply refusing to converse with me whenever I wanted…?
It gave me no answer, and all it did was leave me frustrated.
In the end, I set down my pen.
There was no point in worrying like this.
Even though I knew I could not think my way to an answer on my own, continuing to cling to it was nothing but a waste of time.
Someday.
In the distant future.
The day would come when I learned the truth about this world.
“At that time… you’ll tell me, right?”
[…….]
There was no answer this time either.
And yet, somehow…
even without a response, I had the feeling it had still given me an affirmative answer.
Well…
that might just have been my imagination.
Anella was quite a useful and capable bread shuttle…
no, subordinate.
“You said recently that the Moon Shadow Sect seems to be paying attention to Ma Yuseong, right?”
“Yessir.”
Lunchtime, cafeteria.
Ordinarily, exchange students and Stella’s enrolled students were supposed to eat in separate cafeterias, but I had deliberately come all the way to the exchange students’ dining hall.
That was because this was the only place where I could talk to Anella alone.
Meeting her privately felt a bit awkward.
“But… how long are you going to keep eating like that?”
Watching Anella nibble at a portion of food that was about three times what a normal adult would eat made me even more uncomfortable.
“I-I’ll eat properly, sir!”
At a single word from me, Anella began stuffing rice into her mouth with the serving scoop itself.
For a second I wondered whether she’d choke, but then again, she was a Dark Mage, so that probably would not happen.
“Well, let’s set aside the Moon Shadow Sect keeping an eye on Ma Yuseong… Why did Blackkingdom order my elimination?”
Thanks to the “Mute” item I had received from Alterisha, there was no need to worry about our conversation leaking out, so I asked at ease. Anella fidgeted and answered.
“Well… even if I wanted to tell you, I don’t know anything either. There are more matters that are kept secret precisely because they’re afraid people like me will get captured in the middle of a mission and reveal internal information…”
“Fair enough. If I were them, I probably wouldn’t tell someone like you either.”
“That’s too mean…”
After sneaking a few glances at me, she asked cautiously,
“But… Yuseol-nim seems to be just an ordinary student, so how do you know so much about our internal situation…?”
For a moment I wondered if she was subtly trying to fish for information, but Anella did not seem smart enough for that.
Of course, I had no intention of telling her.
“Do I have to explain that too?”
“N-no, sir! I’m sorry!”
“Just eat.”
Sadly, Anella did not know anything about their internal situation.
That did not mean I could send her off to gather more information.
Right now here, she cowered in front of me, but if she left Stella and returned to Blackkingdom’s side, there was a high chance she would betray me.
I need something that’ll keep Anella tied down…
In the original game, I heard there had been a development where Flame struck a chord in Anella’s heart with a single line, stirred her, and completely turned her over to their side.
I did not know the details either.
To begin with, this was the first time I had ever met Anella.
I was not particularly eloquent, so I had no confidence in moving her heart.
That meant the only method left was a “deal.”
A deal that would leave her with no choice but to look to me.
“Anella. You said your dark power is completely sealed right now, didn’t you?”
“Yes…”
Probably,
if she returned without successfully completing her mission, there was a chance the seal on her dark power would never be undone.
But that was only a possibility.
I could not gamble on something uncertain.
Anella’s past.
I slowly looked through the Jikbakguri Glasses.
There were not many records about her.
To begin with, I had never been diligent enough to record even the extra NPCs in detail.
However…
[Wants to become human again]
I might not have been diligent, but I did have a habit of recording at least the most important key point with certainty.
“Anella. Want me to make you a good offer?”
“…Pardon?”
This would become a very good bait—
something that could hold her tightly in place.
— Read only on MugenCodex —
Scarlven Club room.
Beneath the glittering chandelier, Jeremy slowly read down the report with glittering golden eyes.
[Scarlven Club Participant Roster]
[Second Year…]
[Third Year…]
Since most of the Scarlven Empire’s nobles belonged to this club, the number of participants in the inter-school competition from it was also rather high.
It was such a big deal that if even a single participant came out of one club, they would hold a celebration party that very day, but for the Scarlven Club, that was already too small a thing to get excited over.
Jeremy merely scanned the list of participants with dry eyes.
The club members wondered why he had suddenly taken an interest in something like this again.
“The participants.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Yes!”
From the smiling face he wore, it almost seemed as though golden light itself was spilling out.
He was beautiful enough that one could truly call it a heaven-sent appearance.
“In this year’s Magic Survival… there’s one rather unusual participant. You know who I mean, right?”
“…Yes. We know.”
First-year, Class S, Baek Yuseol.
An insolent junior who had recorded a remarkably high win rate even against upperclassmen and proudly placed his name on the roster as an inter-school competition participant.
Considering that the inter-school competition was attended by elite students from prestigious schools all over the world, and that most of them were at least eighteen years old, Baek Yuseol was a highly unusual case.
From Stella Academy’s perspective, it might have been a very proud thing.
But from the perspective of older students, it was not especially pleasing.
“May I ask for just one favor?”
“Just say the word, Your Imperial Highness.”
“Eliminate Baek Yuseol.”
The favor they had expected had come out.
There was probably no one in the academy who did not know that Jeremy disliked Baek Yuseol.
After all…
he was the commoner who had snatched away Flame, Jeremy’s unrequited love.
They had broken up now, but there were still stories going around that Flame still had Baek Yuseol in her heart, and that made Jeremy deeply uncomfortable.
“Would it be difficult?”
There was a reason Jeremy was making such a petty request.
For the past several days, Flame had kept paying attention to the fact that Baek Yuseol would be participating in Magic Survival.
She had been peeking at the class bulletin board, asking the friends around her whether Baek Yuseol would participate in the survival event and how he had done in the evaluation.
He did not like that in the slightest.
“Not at all. It’ll be very easy!”
The club members, who understood Jeremy’s feelings well, answered energetically.
Magic Survival.
A game of survival in which one hundred mages were dropped at random locations.
“Teaming,” in which people cooperated with one another, was strictly forbidden.
But…
to eliminate Baek Yuseol perfectly with these numbers, teaming was absolutely indispensable.
“…This year’s inter-school competition is ruined.”
The students who had held grand ambitions of spreading their names far and wide through victory could do nothing but swallow tears of blood.
But what could they do?
Being marked by the Scarlven Empire’s Crown Prince was even more frightening.
“Well then… please do your best, everyone.”
Jeremy made the request with a warm smile, and the club members answered by nodding vigorously.
“Yes!”
It seemed this year’s Magic Survival was destined not to proceed smoothly.
