Chapter 15: Accident

[The Host is advised to move away!]

Rewen freaked out hearing the alerts from the system. Without sparing another time to think, he ducked on the ground with his hands above his head expecting an explosion. 

*Swoosh

A wind brushed past his body. Raising his head, he saw a strange man staring at him weirdly. Looking around, he found everyone looking at him the same way. Not caring about their stares, he got up and started brushing the dirt off his uniform. '[Missions to Doom], deactivate.'

The strange man stared at Rewen deeply. "How?"

Rewen shrugged. "I'm not called the Future Strongest Man on Earth for nothing. Rather, who the f*ck sent you to assassinate me? I want an explanation." He was furious now. He had been a good boy but ever since coming to Earth, people are continuously trying to test his limits. 

Secret chuckles filled the room but Rewen didn't care. The strange man didn't get angry and showed an apologetic expression. "Sorry, young man. My flying skate powered by mana went out of control." He pointed to a broken skateboard but Rewen was unrelenting. 

"A clever accidental death, I see."

The strange man laughed and patted his shoulder. "Good sense of humour. Okay, my bad. What can I do to compensate you?"

Rewen wanted to say money but decided against it. If he asked for money in public, let alone his cousins, he presumed every single relative living overseas would come and beat him up for disgracing the name of the family. 

"Who are you?" Rewen asked. 

"He is Assistant Instructor of 1st Grade Class, Xovin." The middle-aged Instructor of the 3rd Grade Class reached out his hand for a handshake. 

Xovin smiled. "My pleasure." He then turned to Rewen. "Now that you know my identity, you should know that I can help you in almost every way. Think about what you want and don't waste this opportunity." He sat down on a nearby chair roughly and looked at everyone. 

Rewen didn't say anything and turned to the box in front of him. He lifted his head to find Instructor Venitt pointing her chin towards the box. Rewen understood her meaning and picked up a piece of paper from the box. '43.' He flipped the paper around for Instructor Venitt to see, then gave her the paper and walked towards Instructor Peter. 

[Ding! The Host has gained 10x Luck for 5 seconds. Would you like to use it now?]

[Yes] [No]

'No.' Rewen smiled inwardly. This is what he needed. 

"Lucky kid, tell me, which weapon have you ever used?"

"Is there a spear longer than two meters?"

"There is, but are you sure you can handle it?"

"I'm confident."

"Alright, wait here." Instructor Peter ran and entered a room. Twenty seconds later, he returned with a long brown spear in his hand and threw it towards Rewen. Rewen caught it with ease despite the heaviness. He was stronger than his peers not without reasons. It all attributed to having trained since he was three. Being a hunter's son, he was most proficient in spears and knives. 

Rewen was judging the quality of the spear when he felt his hand patted. "Hm? What is it, Zel?"

"When did you learn to use a spear?"

"Heh, I have been a hunter all my life… are you saying I shouldn't use it… urgh, sorry. What did you say?"

"..."

"Puhahahaha! Quite the look you have got on your face- owowowow. F*ck, stop biting my arm!"

At some distance, students of 3rd Grade Class who had finished picking their opponents were talking among themselves. They were very serious about this trial Combat Program. Having a higher mana resonance percentile is what set 4th and 3rd Grade Class apart. Although they didn't have the 'talent' benefit, in case they don't perform well, some kind of criticism is unavoidable. 

Sweeping his eyes over the tensed students, Svety let out a sigh. "We have to do well."

"Goes with saying." Zach laughed and patted her back. 

Svety rolled her eyes in response. "Easy for you to say."

Zach awkwardly scratched his head. He had been training in martial arts since eight. Of course, he isn't a martial freak. He is just better than most of his peers in terms of martial arts. He looked around and caught the sight of a noteworthy figure. "The one who pulled off quite the stunt just now should be your boyfriend, right?" 

Looking at the direction of Rewen, Svety acknowledged. "Yes. Quite a handful."

"I can see that." Zach chuckled. 

***

Instructor Peter clapped his hands. "No. 1 and No. 2, come out."

Two girls came out of the crowd, both of them holding swords. More than 80% of the students were holding swords. Do they know how to use swords? No. Why are they using it? Because it's easy. To use a spear or sabre, you need to train. Daggers are also an unpopular choice because it needs you to get close. That's not to say that swords are easy to use. Rather, they like to believe it is easy to use. Some people know this but are still forced to use swords because they would be at a massive disadvantage if they don't pick a weapon. 

Both the girls were from 3rd Grade Class. They stepped into a platform and wore their respective helmets. A large black screen was fixed on a wall. For a few seconds, it went blank white, then slowly revealed colours. The screen showed two girls standing on a clean ground facing off against each other. 

"They look kinda cool like that." Rewen voiced out his thoughts. 

Zaplin agreed. "Don't worry, within a few minutes, you'll be looking cool as well."

"I'm feeling strangely excited. Is this what battle spirit is?" Vin said from the side. 

"Speaking of battle spirit, haha, I remember an incident from childhood. I was watching 'Academy City Rangers' back then. Do you remember that show? Right, the main characters get a special kind of power-up from the 'power of spirits'. Yeah, so I was trying to do that and loaded a huge load of junk off my ass." Zaplin narrated the story. 

"Were you wearing something or…?" Rewen asked. 

"I was wearing my pants," Zaplin admitted. 

"That must have felt awful, right?" Zelic, who felt left out, asked enthusiastically.

Zaplin nodded. "Of course, only scat-fetishists would like that."

"Speaking of pooping in pants, I also-" Zelic was about to narrate her own story, a loud voice interrupted her. 

"Match ended with a draw!"

"It was dry, wasn't it?"

"Seriously, what did you expect? Flying swords? Beams? That simply isn't how the fights work."

Rewen watched the whole fight. It was boring for the most part except for the last part where one of the girl's heart was pierced against the rough sword and the other's skull ripped apart. The girls took off their helmet, looked at each other and shook their hands. A normal person when introduced to this kind of raw life-or-death fight would have a traumatic experience but the standards of a 'normal person' changed after the apocalypse period. 

Before coming to the academy, from middle school to high school, every student was made to get used to the V-Space and the fragile human body. Of course, they directly weren't introduced to the killing but were made to slowly pave their way to get used to it. In case some still find the situation traumatising, proper medical advice and therapy were given to them and then try again. Over the course of six years, even the most weak-minded person has to get used to it.