Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I recognized them at a glance.

They were the ones I often saw in the game.

“Ah, hello……”

A short-haired girl with golden hair slightly nodded her head and greeted me.

Her hair and voice trembled a little, and her emerald-colored eyes were clouded with worry.

She was doing her best to avoid my gaze.

‘I didn’t think I’d meet her here.’

She was ‘Arowell’, who could be definitively recruited after clearing a later chapter.

Next to her was someone with long black hair and strikingly aggressive red eyes.

This one was ‘Nixie’, who could be recruited through the mercenary draw, glaring at me with all sorts of unpleasant expressions.

‘Well, they’re both good people.’

I felt almost sorry that someone like me would be paired with them.

Nixie was an S-rank damage dealer, and Arowell was an A-rank supporter.

Especially in terms of performance, they were as good as any SS-rank character.

‘Should I just hitch a ride with them?’

It seemed certain that I was the weakest in F4 Group.

‘Still… this is intense.’

Arowell, with her anxious eyes, eventually lowered her gaze.

But Nixie’s case was different. She was glaring this way with eyes sharp as a blade.

If someone could kill with their eyes alone, it would probably look like that.

Suddenly!

Before I could say anything—

Nixie grabbed Arowell’s hand and stood up from her seat.

Then she quickly ran toward the auditorium.

‘What’s with her?’

I was a little dumbfounded by the unexpected action.

But I soon found out the reason.

“Professor.”

Nixie gave a brief greeting to the professor and then spoke.

“I cannot work with Villed. Please replace him with another team member.”

The professor silently looked at Nixie.

Nixie pleaded even more earnestly.

“You must have heard the rumors about Villed, Professor!”

“Of course I have.”

The professor nodded subtly, then continued.

“Of course, that’s a separate matter from the group exam.”

“Even so!”

“That’s enough. Don’t be unreasonable. Wouldn’t it be unfair if only F4 Group were given the chance to replace members?”

“Ah, uh, grr…”

Realizing her request wasn’t going to work, Nixie bit her lip and glared at me.

Her eyes looked as though she were facing her mortal enemy.

‘Just how much karma has Villed accumulated?’

Am I going to get stabbed later or something?

I was even considering finding some sort of protective gear when—

Nixie and Arowell, having achieved nothing, returned and sat down in front of me.

No one spoke first.

Arowell looked restless, like she was sitting on a bed of thorns.

Nixie was busy glaring at me with her arms crossed.

“Look over there, of all people, they’re in the same group as Villed.”

“Nixie and Arowell, how unlucky.”

“Don’t even need to see it to know—he’s a useless noble who will just give orders.”

“They can kiss a good score goodbye. Who knows what kind of sabotage he’ll pull.”

The murmuring voices naturally drifted into my ears.

If it were the old Villed, he would’ve exploded in anger, but I didn’t bother.

Pretending I couldn’t hear a thing, I just leaned back in my chair and yawned.

‘So the protagonist is over there.’

It was a table some distance away.

The Astrid Empire’s princess, Arlhardt, was sitting together with the protagonist, Duke Ren.

By now, the story of Chapter 2 must have already started for him.

Neither the princess nor Ren spared me a glance.

In the story, Villed was already a discarded character.

I had no desire for their attention either.

What was far more important was the upcoming exam right in front of me.

I looked back at Arowell and Nixie.

‘At least they’re skilled. That’s a relief.’

The dungeon attack exam was a kind of time attack, where rankings were determined by how fast each team cleared it.

Skill was, of course, important, but so was teamwork.

It was a type of challenge that required a proper strategy.

‘Honestly, teamwork already seems out the window.’

Other teams were sitting together, discussing how to clear the dungeon.

Only our F4 Group sat in silence.

‘I still need to do well in the exam, though.’

‘Exams’ were an important system in this game.

Depending on how much you achieved in each exam, you could receive a set amount of ‘bonus stats’.

The game’s core mechanic was that competition and results directly translated into power.

‘The more stats, the better.’

It was obvious that being capable was better than being useless.

If I stacked stats early on, my activities would be less restricted, and I’d be able to handle the countless upcoming incidents better.

‘The problem is…’

I glanced at my teammates.

Setting aside Nixie’s displeased expression, Arowell had been restless and frightened from earlier.

Was she really that scared of me?

‘Wait, is she just nervous?’

Then I remembered one thing I’d forgotten.

‘Villed is infamous for having an intimidating face.’

A disposable villain with a naturally vicious look—

That was Villed.

‘I’m not angry at all, so smile.’

With the intention of showing there was nothing to be wary of, I forced a big smile.

Bang! Nixie slammed her fist on the table.

She had clearly taken my smile as provocation.

“To laugh without shame…”

She muttered to herself, then spoke in a calm but barely restrained tone.

“Let me say this first. We have no expectations of you.”

I know.

I never intended to give them any expectations in the first place.

I didn’t even have the ability to do so.

“I’d rather you not participate in group practice or meetings.”

If I had any sense, I’d take the hint.

“Let’s go, Arowell.”

With those words, Nixie stood up.

“Ah, um… goodbye…”

Flustered, Arowell gave me a small eye-greeting before following Nixie.

As I sat there blankly, Nixie turned her head one last time.

“You don’t have to do anything. Nothing at all.”

At that moment, only one thought crossed my mind.

‘Is she saying they’ll carry me in the group project?’

I quietly thought, ‘That’s actually better for me,’ as I watched her figure grow distant.

After class ended, the students were training at the free training grounds.

Of course, I alone headed toward the stables instead.

‘Come to think of it, I should check on Hwayo.’

It would take a few more minutes to reach the stables.

Since I had nothing better to do while walking, I logged into Animal Farm.

✿Animal✿Farm✿

Ddan-ddan ddara-ran!

Let’s open the door to Animal Farm!

A vast green plain appeared, but there were no animals in sight.

‘Where did it go this time?’

Looking around the screen, I finally spotted it in the far corner.

* Popong!

A blue lizard, staring at me with sleepy eyes as if it had just woken up.

I looked at it closely with hopeful eyes.

“Hwayo, did your experience go up even a little?”

With a pounding heart, I tapped on Hwayo to check.

‘What?’

My expectations shattered.

Spirit Flame “Hwayo”

Level: 2 EXP: 0%

Traits: None

It hadn’t moved a bit from zero.

‘I thought it would’ve gone up at least a little!’

It hurt my heart to realize all my effort had been for nothing.

It wasn’t like I’d left it alone entirely.

When Hwayo was awake, I gave it eggs and even petted it across the screen.

‘And yet there’s no effect?’

It seemed that simply raising it wouldn’t give it experience.

I crossed my arms with a groan.

‘There has to be some way…’

Just as I was tapping around the screen in thought—

‘Huh?’

The words “Shop” appeared in front of me.

‘What’s this?’

I blinked, rubbing my chin.

‘Has this always been here? This is the first time I’ve seen it.’

Curious, I clicked the “Shop” tab.

Then—ddara-ran! ddan-ddan!—a gaudy tune played, and a new message appeared.

Welcome to the General Store!

This place is stocked with goods for your animal friends!

‘General Store, huh. Let’s see how impressive your stock is.’

I scrolled down the list of items for sale, and my brows furrowed.

‘There’s nothing for sale.’

Contrary to its name, the General Store had absolutely nothing in stock.

Every item slot was marked with an X, so I couldn’t even tell what kind of items it carried.

“You call yourself a general store? There’s nothing here.”

As if responding to my words—whirr! pop!—the shop suddenly lit up.

Happy Nest

It was just an ordinary brown nest. Nothing more.

‘And what am I supposed to do with this?’

Instinctively, I clicked on the nest, and a new description window appeared.

Your animal friend can sleep here warmly and have happy dreams!

Gain experience while sleeping!

‘Experience… experience!’

My eyes lit up.

Wasn’t that exactly what I needed most?

The nest was the means to bring Hwayo to level 3.

‘So I can get experience from this! How much is it?!’

I rapidly clicked to buy the nest.

Money was no object. Wasn’t I the son of a noble family?

If I contacted my family, I could get the funds.

The price was…

50 points

I blinked.

‘…What kind of currency is “points”?’

Looking carefully, I saw my current points displayed at the top of the screen.

Of course, my points were 0.

Just when I thought I’d found a way to get experience, I’d been tripped up again.

“How do I even get points…”

I muttered to myself just as I arrived at the stables.

At that moment, a new pink hologram appeared before my eyes.

A daily quest has arrived!

‘…Daily quest?’

This wasn’t something that existed in .

‘Let’s check it out first.’

When I placed my hand on the hologram, the details appeared.

Feed the horses

Feed the goats and sheep

Feed the chickens and rabbits

Give special feed to cows and lambs

Total points obtainable: 10pt

‘This is… huh?’

It looked like the sort of quest you’d see in an animal-raising game.

The strange thing was that the quest targets were the animals in the stables.

‘It’s not Hwayo… it’s talking about the real animals in the stables?’

Tilting my head in confusion, my eyes were drawn to one particular detail.

‘Wait, points?’

If I completed the listed tasks, I could get up to 10 points per day.

Even if I did one day’s worth, it was only a fifth of the nest’s price—

‘But this is huge!’

That alone was a major breakthrough for me.