bookpower Chapter 46
Chapter 46
[Translator - Helga]
[Proofreader - Starfall ]
Chapter 46
I opened my eyes to the same, old, tiresome sight.
Metal walls enclosing me on all sides, a summoning circle, iron bars, chains, shelves of potions, and the stench of blood and decay...
And then, the messages began.
Beep-
[Your soul has been possessed by the villainous 'Blood Demon' body.]
[Due to the Blood Demon's characteristics, you have awakened the 'Bloodsucking' spell.]
[The 'Bloodsucking' spell allows you to absorb life force and essence from your target's blood.]
[Due to the Blood Demon's characteristics, you have awakened the 'Polymorph' spell.]
[The wild instincts latent in your blood react to the 'Polymorph' spell.]
[‘Bat’ has been added to your Polymorph spell list.]
[A main quest has arrived.]
[Main Quest: Survive until the end of the story.]
The place, the time, the situation.
Everything was exactly the same.
Except for one thing.
[Due to data preserved from the previous playthrough, skills have been inherited.]
[Skill "Dragonkin Affinity 1" acquired.]
[Skill "Genius 1" acquired.]
[Skill "Speed Reading 1" acquired.]
‘Skill inheritance...?’
This was new. In my 138 restarts, I'd never encountered this pattern.
‘Why is this happening suddenly?’
I stared blankly at the message, reading it over and over.
Dragonkin Affinity, Genius, Speed Reading.
These were all skills I'd acquired in the previous playthrough. Except for one thing: the Indomitable Will I'd obtained from Shin A-sol was missing.
[Skill Indomitable Will activates.]
The final message of the previous playthrough had clearly stated that. So this current phenomenon was most likely related to it.
‘Indomitable Will activated right before the restart... so that's why I was able to retain my abilities from the previous playthrough?’
In this game, there are several penalties when a player dies. Loss of experience, loss of money, loss of important items...
Indomitable Will reduces these penalties. Since Shin A-sol was such a popular character, there was a lot of information about this skill.
‘But I’ve never heard of this effect before.’
That was only natural. Who else besides me would experience this cursed infinite restart?
‘But... why wasn’t Indomitable Will inherited?’
That was puzzling. Perhaps it was because the level of Indomitable Will was too low?
‘I don’t know yet... but one thing is certain.’
The higher the level of a skill, the stronger its effect.
If I had raised Indomitable Will to level 2 or 3...
‘Maybe more things would have been inherited.’
My heart pounded.
My breath quickened with this new discovery.
After 138 deaths, I'd finally found a clue.
A clue to escape this damned curse!
Thud-!
As if on cue, the wall moved and the door began to open. The guy who walked in, Do Jin-hak, looked at me with a familiar expression.
"Finally, you're here. What a troublesome soul you are,” Do Jin-hak muttered with a mixture of relief and mockery. I stared intently at his face for the first time in a long time.
Seeing the original Do Jin-hak in front of me after living in his form for so long... it was strange.
“You have no idea how much time I wasted trying to put you in that body. You should have been summoned obediently. Why were you so difficult, just a wandering soul?”
Do Jin-hak, who always spat out these lines like a scripted speech, suddenly stopped. He seemed to be bothered by my gaze.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“...I was just thinking for a moment.”
“Thinking?”
“I was wondering how in the world the guy standing in front of me made so many enemies.”
It was my honest feeling. I had never been more curious about a person named Do Jin-hak than in the previous playthrough.
Messages appeared one after another as I finished reading a thick textbook in less than two hours.
However, I didn't have time to pay attention to the messages. I immediately took the next book off the shelf.
[Deconstructionist Department knowledge score increased.]
[As your knowledge of the Deconstructionist Department increases, Do Jin-hak's essence strengthens.]
[Do Jin-hak's essence has reached 9%...]
One hour, two hours.
The completed books quickly piled up next to me, and my knowledge of the Deconstructionist Department increased even faster.
"Okamoto... you had a pretty useful skill."
As someone who was at the top of the theory and knowledge in the military game, the Speed Reading 1 skill was proving to be very powerful in reading.
An overwhelming speed of knowledge accumulation that I had never experienced before!
At this rate, I could not only reach 1-star in the Deconstructionist Department before the new semester began, but I could also aim for 2-stars.
"This playthrough is looking very promising."
I had experienced countless joys and sorrows in my 138 restarts, but I had never been as excited as I was now.
I continued to take books off the shelf and read, and read again. After 4 hours, after 7 hours, hunger and fatigue quickly overwhelmed me, but I did not stop.
It seemed nothing could stop me now.
* * *
"It's an honor to meet the master of the Deconstructionist Department."
Time flew by quickly, and the place was now the famous Cafe Untni in the main building of the Masterclass.
Vice Principal Oh Jisung, who had appeared in person on the interview day, repeated the same story he had told in the previous playthrough.
"The coffee beans in this cafe are a specialty produced in a very special region. It's a coffee with a very special secret. Why don't you try it?"
Oh Jisung was watching me with narrowed eyes, clearly intending to test me again.
I stared at the coffee cup in front of me and said, "I'll pass."
"Eh?"
"Isn't this just a test coffee? I'll just tell you. It's a single-origin Ethiopian, branded with chocolate, citrus, and cherry. It was produced earlier this year. That's all it is. There's no secret at all."
Oh Jisung's eyes widened and his mouth gaped open.
I said casually, "Ingredient analysis is a basic skill of the Deconstructionist Department. When you reach a certain level, you can analyze it just by looking and smelling."
"Oh, wow...! I've heard of your reputation, but this is beyond my imagination!"
Oh Jisung was genuinely impressed. This was the first time I'd seen this guy look so surprised.
He must have been so impressed that even this message popped up.
[You have shown abilities that exceed the Vice Principal's expectations.]
[Oh Jisung's favorability towards Do Jin-hak slightly increases.]
'Does favorability even increase in this situation?'
In the previous playthrough, he was just surprised... I guess he liked me quite a bit.
Of course, considering that the increase in favorability was as small as an ant's tear, he was still the stingy Oh Jisung, both in terms of money and relationships.
"Anyway, with these abilities, I feel at ease. I was a bit uncomfortable about how to tell you this."
"Are you talking about the issue of abolishing the Deconstructionist Department?"
"How did you know that?" Oh Jisung, asked again with a surprised expression.
I answered lightly, "Let's raise the reputation of the Deconstructionist Department before this semester ends. Won't that solve the problem?"
"Y-yes... If you do that, I'll fully support Professor Do."
Beep-
[A new main quest has arrived.]
[Main Quest 2: The Vice Principal's Worry.]
[Content: Oh Ji-sung is troubled by the low popularity of the Deconstructionist Department. Increase the status of the Deconstructionist Department and solve Oh Ji-sung’s problem.]
[Reward: Increase in Oh Ji-sung’s favorability, maintenance of the Deconstructionist Department, increase in special attribute experience.]
The same main quest as last time.
This time, I'm confident I can find a solution more easily. I know how to bring Arche and Seo Su-kyung to the Deconstructionist Department.
If I bring those two, my reputation will rise greatly again...
"It's going to be difficult, but it's a good thing, isn't it? At least there's one professor in the academy who can help Professor Do."
...I was about to think that, but Oh Jisung said something out of the blue.
'A professor to help? What does that mean?'
Oh Jisung had never said anything like that in the previous playthrough. In fact, there was no such thing as a professor who would help Do Jin-hak at this academy.
I suddenly had a feeling that something was wrong.
A feeling that this playthrough, too, might go in a different direction than I thought...
As if to confirm that intuition, Oh Jisung soon said, "Why are you looking at me like you don't understand? Professor Alfred. Isn't she a classmate of Professor Do? She was so happy to hear that Professor Do was coming to our academy."
[Translator - Helga]
[Proofreader - Starfall ]