Chapter 28

〈 Chapter 28 〉 Chapter 28. Plan (2)

"It's been a while, everyone."

Standing at the podium was Dr. Kang Hyorin, known as a genius in dungeon and monster research. This was the first time seeing her since she disappeared due to an urgent matter.

"Something happened in my family... I'm finally back to teaching."

It seemed Dr. Kang Hyorin had really been through a tough time, as dark circles stretched under her eyes.

"Still, let's try to keep up! The pop quiz from last time hasn't been graded yet, so today we'll be doing strategic chess."

"Ah..."

A sigh spread among the students.

Strategic chess was a complex practical exercise that the students particularly disliked.

"Great, I've been waiting for strategic chess!"

"...?"

I had become closer to Lucy and Lumi after joining the same club. They weren't sitting right next to me, but Lucy and Lumi were seated in front of me, and I was sitting alone right behind them. I couldn't see their faces, but the subtle scent of the twins during class made it hard to concentrate.

The reason I was surprised by Lucy's statement was that Lucy wasn't known for being strong in studies. Not all mages are good at studying. While there are parts that need to be memorized like magic arrays, most mages rely on talent.

Lucy's character was always grabbing her head and groaning during theory classes, so why was she so confident now?

Especially in the notoriously difficult strategic chess.

A holographic monitor attached to each student's desk rose, forming a chessboard-like field.

'Wow, it's been a while. Really.'

Strategic chess is one of the practical exercises at Victoria Academy. It's a game-like system where I become the leader of an expedition team and navigate through a dungeon.

'I used to think, "If only this game were the test," but games are more fun when played as games.'

If doing poorly in a game meant not getting into a good university or getting scolded by your mother, you might think, "I'd rather study instead of playing games."

The same goes for this strategic chess.

It's a turn-based game like chess, where you move your team members one by one to capture all the enemy monsters and win.

Strategic chess was notorious even in the original game.

Strategic chess has three elements:

The dungeon setting.

The monsters acting as the enemy.

The expedition team I control.

Each of these has over 50 patterns and changes randomly.

The difficulty ranges from easy to extremely difficult.

It might be an easy problem since it's the first time, but considering Dr. Kang Hyorin's enjoyment of students' suffering from the extremely difficult pop quiz last time, who knows?

"Alright, let's start the practical exercise~."

As Dr. Kang Hyorin spoke, the hologram in front of me began to change.

My dungeon was [Jungle], the enemy was [Two Banana Red Monkeys], and my expedition team was [10 melee warriors, 5 curse mages, 5 support mages].

"What is this?"

It wasn't a synergistic combination, but honestly, it wasn't that difficult.

Banana Red Monkeys are boss-type monsters, strong but not very intelligent.

By putting melee warriors in the front and stacking curses with curse mages, I could suppress them with minimal damage.

"What! It's so easy?"

"Yeah, it seems the professor adjusted the difficulty for the first time."

"Lumi, I'll show you an example first, so watch carefully, okay?"

"Okay, good luck."

'Hmm.'

Thinking about the professor's face during the last pop quiz, it didn't seem like she would do that.

Then another student raised their hand and said,

"Hey! What's wrong! Professor, my team members aren't following my orders!"

Dr. Kang Hyorin smiled as if she had been waiting for this.

"It's okay. The setting for this problem is that the team members are very timid. They won't follow unless the plan seems completely safe and risk-free."

"Really? But there's no such thing as a risk-free plan!"

"You'll have to figure that out on your own."

"......!"

"Anyway, this is to test your creativity and leadership, so don't worry. The process is more important than the result. Just give it a try~."

No matter how she said it, the students solving the problem would still feel the pressure.

"Even if you can't solve it, for motivation. I'll give extra points to those who clear it~."

Is that something someone trying to motivate would say?

'This is extremely difficult, isn't it?'

In the original game, the key was to minimize the damage to the main team.

Only then would the score be high, and only then would you be far from expulsion.

Moreover, to take the Ellis route, I had to beat Ellis in test scores, making it even more challenging.

"Eh? Why aren't they following my orders...?"

Confident Lucy was giving commands to her team members, who were standing still, dazed.

"Aah! If you just attack from there, you can kill them, so why aren't you attacking!"

The same was true for other students.

Seeing students who screamed and started over from the beginning, Dr. Kang Hyorin, drinking coffee, looked a bit scary.

She seemed to have a slight S personality.

I slowly analyzed my problem.

In the perverted game 'Sex Academy,' you have to clear strategic chess at least five times to progress the scenario.

Every element changes each time, so you can't memorize it.

But I had cleared all the routes and had cleared this strategic chess countless times.

I knew the characteristics of the Banana Red Monkeys.

Banana Red Monkeys always appear in pairs.

Their main food is bananas, so they are very wary of outsiders who touch the bananas.

There are baby monkeys in the nest.

But you can't touch the babies. If the babies die, the Banana Red Monkeys go into a frenzy, making them even harder to defeat.

"Ugh... I can do this."

After analyzing my team and the monsters, I moved my team.

Since they wouldn't follow unsafe orders, I sent five melee warriors to terrorize the banana trees from a distance.

At first, they didn't follow the order, so I told one of them to cut down five trees and run away, and then they finally followed the order and started cutting the trees.

I led the remaining five melee warriors, five support mages, and five curse mages toward the monkeys' nest.

Since one support mage can cast a shield on three people, it was a relatively safe situation.

Observing the nest quietly, I saw the monkeys run out to deal with the outsiders attacking the banana trees.

The melee warriors cutting the trees would have already run away.

While the Banana Red Monkeys were away from the nest, I led the rest of my team into the nest and cast curses on the baby monkeys.

I cast paralyzing and highly contagious curses rather than life-threatening ones and quickly fled the nest.

"Now, just wait three times faster and it's over."

The curse on the baby monkeys would slowly spread to the Banana Red Monkeys.

These overly maternal creatures would take care of the baby monkeys until they couldn't move due to the curse.

Then, I would send in my team to kill them, completing the mission.

The key to this strategy is waiting. After setting the speed to three times faster, I had to keep waiting.

I had to repeat moving to the adjacent square for over 30 minutes while the monkeys remained in the nest, gradually being contaminated by the curse.

The score would be slightly reduced due to the long time, but this was the only way to complete it without any damage.

"Aah!"

Startled by a scream from the front, I looked and saw Lucy grabbing her head with both hands and groaning.

"I practiced strategic chess all last week! How can you do this to me!"

"..."

"Huhu. It's all over."

"U, don't cry. Lucy... It'll be okay."

While she was having a dramatic moment, my team members cut the necks of the monkeys, who were paralyzed by the curse.

Yay-

The words "Victory!" appeared on my hologram, ending the strategic chess.

"Huh? Someone already cleared it?"

Dr. Kang Hyorin said, sounding surprised.

Other students looked at me with amazement.

"Tsk. A promise is a promise. One extra point."

Dr. Kang Hyorin said, looking a bit disappointed.

Feeling embarrassed, I stood still, but Lucy, who was pretending to cry, suddenly turned around.

She opened her eyes wide when she saw the "Victory!" message floating in front of me.

"Eh, how did you do it!"

"It was just luck. It was an easy problem."

If you knew the characteristics of the Banana Red Monkeys, it was an easy problem. Of course, it wasn't easy to know that they would continue to hold the babies even if they were injured.

"Can you give me some tips... Ah, no. This isn't the time. I'll work harder!"

Lucy, who was about to ask for tips, suddenly looked at Dr. Kang Hyorin and then focused on the front, burning with passion.

30 minutes later.

"It's impossible! Impossible! Who made this!"

Huhu-

Seeing Lucy crying again, I thought,

'At least the setting of being bad at studying hasn't changed.'

*

After class, Lucy headed to the club room of the Play Club.

She had told Lee Hyeon to come today to recruit new members.

- Sorry, I have something I have to do today. I'll come after I finish it.

He said this and rushed to the dormitory.

Lumi said she would buy cookies from the bakery because they were all gone.

"Aaa, I'm so bored."

Lucy had always loved moving around and being active.

That's why she created a club, but it was boring because no one came.

She was very happy that a new member was joining at this moment.

Knock knock knock

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Felix."

"Ah! I'll open it now!"

When Lucy opened the door, a platinum-blonde boy with innocent eyes was standing there.

"Not everyone has arrived yet, so let's wait here."

"Okay, okay."

Felix, still unfamiliar with the place, looked around and sat down on the sofa.

The friendly Lucy took good care of the shy Felix and started a conversation.

"Yep, our club has three members: a boy named Lee Hyeon and my sister Lumi."

"Is Lee Hyeon the one from the student council's publicity department?"

"That's right. Our club has a student council member."

Lucy's shoulders, as the first club president, rose slightly, though it wasn't a big deal.

"Ah... That's why no one joins the club... Huh."

"What did you say?"

"Ah, nothing."

"No, I definitely heard it. Can you say it again? Do you know why no one joins our club?"

Lucy looked at Felix with a serious expression, unlike her usual self.

Felix lowered his head, looking like he had made a mistake, and sighed.

"What I'm about to say must be kept secret."

"Okay, don't worry. What is it?"

"In fact... There are many bad rumors about Lee Hyeon."

"Bad rumors?"

"First, there are many rumors about his relationships with women. From the student council president, Professor Im Sol, to Ellis from the publicity department, there are many bad rumors."

"..."

"And there are rumors that he went to a motel with a classmate."

Lucy didn't judge people by rumors. She believed only what she saw. The Lee Hyeon she saw was a kind and diligent student, despite their relationship starting with a misunderstanding.

But what if the incident where he touched her chest wasn't an accident?

"Thinking about it, almost everyone around Lee Hyeon is female."

Lucy had friends of the opposite sex, but she had never seen Lee Hyeon talk to a male student except for one, Kim Young-han.

"Right? I think that's why female students don't join the club."

"Maybe."

After the club was formed, many male students approached Lucy and Lumi, but no female students had ever expressed interest in joining.

"Well, it's not certain. It's just a rumor. Still, I hope it's all false since I'm in the same club as you, Lucy."

"Right, right."

Felix smiled at Lucy, saying something that would make Lee Hyeon explode if he heard it.

Ding-

At that moment, an alarm arrived on Lucy's smartwatch.

"Who would have thought there were such rumors... Anyway, both Lumi and Lee Hyeon are coming, so wait here! I'll go and meet them."

"Okay."

Lucy hurried out of the club room, and Felix, left alone, wiped the smile off his face and frowned.

"Looks like they're not dating... But even if they're not dating, I thought they were at least flirting."

Felix, who thought Lucy and Lee Hyeon were at least flirting, had spread false rumors to separate them and passed them on to Lucy.

But since they were just friends, there was no significant change in Lucy.

Felix sipped the drink on the table, feeling frustrated.

"There's still plenty of time, so I'll have to take it slowly."

Lucy.

She was the woman Felix fell in love with at first sight.

The woman who made him infiltrate the academy, a dangerous act.

Being here now was also a risky move, but if he could have her charming face and full chest, it was worth it.

Thump thump thump

At that moment, footsteps were heard from outside.

Felix returned to his innocent face, put down the drink, and sat on the sofa, looking tense.

"Oh, it's clean?"

Lee Hyeon said, looking at the club room.

"You'd be surprised if you knew how hard Lumi and I worked to clean it. Huhu."

"You worked hard. You should have called me for help."

"Lumi said absolutely not, what could I do~."

"But... If it weren't for Lee Hyeon, our club wouldn't exist..."

"Come on. Now that it's a burden, let's stop talking about it."

As soon as he entered, he naturally had a close conversation.

Despite spreading false rumors, there was no significant change.

Felix felt his stomach churn but held back and turned to him.

"Oh, right! We're recruiting a new member, and I wanted to hear your opinion. How about it? Does he seem nice?"

Lucy introduced Felix to Lee Hyeon.

Lee Hyeon and Felix met for the first time.

They looked at each other, and Lee Hyeon smiled.

Lucy expected a positive response, but what came out of Lee Hyeon's mouth was completely unexpected.

"I don't like it."