CH 3

After the boring school event, the students who were dozing off began to wake up one by one. 

“Huh-?” 

“I was so bored that I thought I was going to die.” 

The event in itself was definitely boring, what with all the teachers’ lectures. 

“Um!” I stretched. I want to get out of this suffocating auditorium right away, but I stayed behind still because I knew there would be a preliminary class call. 

“Second-year class A! Gather here!” 

From there, a thick man’s voice was heard somewhere. Class A in the second year. It was the name of my class. Turning to the direction of the voice, a muscular man who resembled much like a rock stood. ‘Class A, gather.’ 

‘Let’s go!’ 

And with that, 50 students gathered in front of the men. Among them, I saw some familiar faces. Lee Seo-joon, Shin Young-joon, Lee Hyun-joo, Yoo A-ra, etc. They were the main characters of this world. 

The man looked around us and opened his mouth. “Nice to meet you. I’m Jang Won-cheol, a teacher who will be in charge of Class A for a year.” 

Wow! A small cheer broke out among the students. Jang Won-cheol raised his hand to stop it, looking as if he was embarrassed. “I’m going to introduce myself, but does anyone know about me?” 

“You’re Iron Blood!” Some students shouted loudly as if they were waiting. As an A-level wizard, he was a star wizard who was already famous in Korea. 

Jang Won-cheol smiled once again as if his answer was satisfactory. “Yes, as you know, I have the tinnitus of iron blood. It’s a nickname given to me because I’m good at making my body hard like steel.” 

Some students responded with their eyes shining and amazed. The image appeared to be pure and cute to watch. “There’s nothing long to say, but I’ll end it with a simple notice.” 

“Oh? An announcement?” 

“First of all, everyone knows that the full-fledged class starts next Monday.” 

At this, the students nodded at his words. “And next Monday, there’s a ranking test for all grades, a tradition of the Magic Academy.” 

“Oh…….” 

There then came a collective sigh among some students.

A ranking test for all grades. It referred to an open test conducted by all students from Years 1 to 3 in the auditorium. Competent students would be admired and respected among 450 students, but on the contrary, unskilled students will be booed and ridiculed, which could be said to be a cruel test in some ways. 

“The event starts at 10 a.m. on Monday. Let’s all gather again here in the auditorium so that it’s not too late.” 

“Yes,” the students answered sullenly. Our teacher, once more, spoke vigorously with a smile. 

“Now! That’s it for the announcement. Rest in peace on the weekend and see you here again next Monday!” 

*** 

Free time had come after all school schedules. While thinking about what to do for the rest of the time, I suddenly felt hungry and decided to stop by the convenience store on campus. 

“Seo-jun, please take care of me this year!” 

“You looked cool taking an oath.” 

At this, I turned my head to the voice calling Lee Seo-joon. In front of a nearby school park, Lee Seo-joon and a large group of people who wanted to get close to him gathered. On the right side, Lee Seo-joon’s childhood friend, Lee Hyun-joo, stood with a dissatisfied expression, and his best friend Shin Young-joon was chatting with someone next to him. I was looking at it with such interest, and I heard a voice of dissatisfaction somewhere. 

“Lee Seo-joon. Lee Seo-joon. It’s noisy.’ 

‘I know. What’s good about him? Oh, that’s annoying.” 

“Oh, my. Why are you in the same class with him again?” 

Who was it? When I turned my head, I could see a group of male students sitting on a bench from afar with disapproving faces. 

“In-hwan, just ignore it.” 

“Oh, it’s Park In-hwan’s gang.” 

I laughed inwardly at the name I hadn’t heard in a long time. Park In-hwan’s gang. It was a group that was severely broken by Lee Seo-joon while bullying other students in the first grade. Of course, I didn’t experience first-year life myself, but I knew it because it had been described in the novel. They were treated with considerable weight later on. He blackened it out with a villain and caused an incident. 

“Seo-jun. You’re going to do your main specialty, right?” 

“You should. Because it’s the field you’re most confident in.” 

“What’s your minor specialty?” 

“Expressing.” 

“As expected.”

I overheard the conversation and it seemed that he was talking about his main specialty. There were four systems in the magic of this worldview. There were a total of four types: the strengthening system, the expression system, the auxiliary system, and the summon system. Ganghwa system referred to proximity magic that strengthened weapons or bodies, and the expression system referred to a more traditional feeling of magic that embodied and shot magic. 

For example, by firing a spear of fire. Summoners and assistants would be able to feel it even if they didn’t explain the detail. It was literally a field that deals with summoning magic and auxiliary magic. In the first grade, you would learn these four system magic evenly, but in the second grade, you would have to choose one main specialty and one secondary specialty and learn it centrally. This was because it was most efficient to select one of the main specialties and sell only them rather than learning various systems evenly. And, in next week’s ranking evaluation test, unlike first graders who took all systems, second and third graders only tested their main specialties. 

For your information, I dealt with the expression system magic as my main specialty. There was no particular reason, but when I read the original novel, it looked great. 

“Hmm…….” I watched them blankly and walked back toward the convenience store.  

* * 

I had a quick sandwich at the convenience store and came back to the dorm.   

Beep! 

When I handed in my smart student notebook, the dormitory door opened. 

“……Whoa.” As I entered the room, I felt myself getting tired. Perhaps it was because I had been through a lot of unusual things today. 

“By the way, the dormitory here is always gorgeous.” A studio with about 15 pyeong. It was too unnecessarily spacious and luxurious to call it a dormitory. Of course, there were many people who would like this kind of interior, but it was just annoying for me because there were so many things to manage. 

I sat on the bed in the corner of the room and then looked in the mirror opposite. “I’ve gotten younger.” 

I felt a change as much as seven years apart. My skin became firm, and my body became a little smaller. My forearms had also become quite thin. My thighs, too. I needed to gain some weight as I had been working out. 

“……I wondered why there wasn’t much food in it.” 

The wizard of this worldview was not a rigidly magical sphere or flying worldview. There were also many close-range wizards who used magic to strengthen their bodies or weapons, so basic physical strength was essential. 

“Should I go exercise now?” I peeked at the clock and it was 7:58 p.m. it was not bad to digest food and exercise in moderation. However… 

“……Huh?” 

I recalled an important event that I had forgotten for a while. Why did I forget about it until now?

I turned to the clock again.   

7:59. Just in time. If it was the same as in the past, the event would begin soon. I held my breath and fixed my eyes on the clock. The second hand that turned… 

57…… 58…… 59…… 

Click. 8:00! Ring! 

[The main scenario has begun] 

[Obtain unique characteristics, ‘benefits of outsiders’]   

“As expected!” The messages that came to mind. As I expected, the characteristics bloomed at 8 o’clock. I was worried that the message might not appear, but now I felt glad.   

[The unique characteristic ‘Benefits of outsiders’ has been activated] 

[The achievement system has been activated] 

[The fame system is activated] 

“Oh, it works well.” 

It was the benefit of the outsider. It was literally a benefit only for me, the outsider in this world. Right now, it was not very useful, but as time went by, this benefit gave me a lot of strength. There were various types of benefits, but there were three types to be broadly divided. 

The first was the achievement system. It was a benefit of achieving the hidden achievements of this world like a game and gaining special points.   

[“Second Life” achievement] 

[3,000 points as a reward]   

Just like this. But wasn’t this my second time living? What kind of achievement was this? 

The second was the reputation system. Like the name of fame, it was a benefit to gain points whenever I imprinted my existence or made a strong impression on people.   

[The character “Yoo A-ra” remembered your name] 

[You get 500 points as a reward] 

…I didn’t know if I should like this. The third one was a point shop. Literally, it was a benefit to purchase characteristics, skills, and items using the points acquired. The achievement system and the reputation system existed for this very purpose.   

[Enters the point store] 

[Hold points: 3,500] 

[Inherits previous rounds of data…] 

[Synchronization in progress]

…Ring!   

[It inherits all the characteristics and points of the previous episode] 

[You will get 3,200 points] 

[Points: 6,700] 

“Huh? Characteristics have been inherited?” 

I was surprised by the unexpected phrase. Things were going better than I thought. The inheritance of characteristics meant that you could use the characteristics you got as points in your previous life for free.   

[Check the retention characteristics]   

━━  Additional acquisition characteristics 

Life characteristics 

[Cooking Master (A), [Housework (D), [Memory (A)] 

Adaptive characteristics [Mado Meditation (D), [Physical Recovery (D)] 

Practical characteristics [Magic Control (B)] [Ganghwa Basic Body (C)] 

“Amazing.” The characteristics used before were inherited. It didn’t have any fraudulent characteristics, but I was very satisfied in that I could bring it as it was. 

Wait. Perhaps my basic set was inherited too? I immediately checked my ability window.   

[Unique characteristics “Benefits of outsiders” will be activated] 

[Check your ability]   

━━ [Information] Name: Kim Seon-woo 

(Holding Point: 6,700) 

[Capacity]

Physical Strength: 42 

Strength: 34 

Horsepower: 21 

Speed: 30 

Quick Response: 32 

Hand Dexterity: 28 ━━

“What?” Basic ability itself was completely initialized. Even in my previous life, I poured every point I earned into mana, and even that figure was reset. 

“Hmm.”

My appetite was bitter. If I knew this would happen, I should have invested my points elsewhere. 

“Too low on ability.” 

Especially Mana 21. This was too much. There was a setting that Ganghwagye was my specialty in freshman year. Even considering that, my magic power is too low. Of course, a high magic power didn’t necessarily mean a strong worldview. 

Even if the magic level was low, there were many wizards who lived on controlled discipline. But even the control wizard had the least basic magic. That figure did not meet that minimum. 

“Um….” The low basic magic level only meant that the innate mana itself was small. To solve this problem, the answer was to solve it using a “point store” rather than training through standard manners or seniority.   

[Enters the point store] 

However, this life would not be as ignorant as life before.