I got into school for nothing - 335
I got into school for nothing (335)
Lesson 66. Irregular - 1
As Aire wished, the party, who had enjoyed a leisurely eating session in Room 560 after a long time, reached Room 561 at the end of their shift, discovering it to be an incredibly vast world.
In truth, Team Rebellion's explorations had felt this way almost from the start, but after traversing Rooms 300, 400, and 500, the increasingly expansive rooms had become so vast that it would take days just to search them, even without multiple shifts occurring.
It was no wonder that their seniors, despite being granted five years, had often failed to overcome even Room 400, let alone Room 500, and had given up in frustration.
Of course, that became largely irrelevant once Ban Yuwon's Giwon Sword's range of influence was amplified without limit.
“Room 561... We're now at the forefront of the Tower exploration records.”
“We'll reach the summit anyway. The records of other losers mean nothing.”
“Aire, your words are too sharp.”
If Asha had undergone a super-evolution over two years, her personality becoming gentler and more charming, Aire had undergone evolution in a different sense.
To put it plainly, her obsession with Ban Yuwon and Team Rebellion had grown stronger, as had her tendency to disregard others.
Even Yumina, whom she originally respected, would sometimes be coldly dismissed, to a terrifying degree.
“I didn't intend to disparage the Professor. We just... wanted to say we're going higher.”
“Right.”
“Because Yuwon is here.”
“Thanks for the burdensome support.”
Ban Yuwon replied succinctly, pointing at the giant trees that had grown all around them.
“But we might actually meet people connected to the Professor here.”
“Connected to the Professor...?”
Only then did the party realize.
The trees towering around them were too enormous, and even the wildflowers were no exception.
Rucell's homeworld, Jeda, was also a world lush with greenery and dense with trees, but there, only the trees grew to immense heights while everything else remained a normal size.
Here, everything in nature, from the trees to the grass, was so colossal that it made them feel as if they had shrunk into dwarfs.
“No way... really?”
“It seems so. I've heard a little bit about Professor Yumina's original world, and... I can feel traces of concepts similar to what I found in Professor Yumina from everything in this world.”
There are two types of concepts in the Tower.
The former are creations that have copied or modified something already existing.
The latter are worlds that the Tower has ‘absorbed’ and reproduced exactly as they were.
Through numerous creations during his Solo Explorations, Ban Yuwon had learned how to distinguish between these two, and what they were facing now was certainly—.
A part of a ‘real’ world.
“Professor Yumina said that her world was destroyed when she was young, and she was rescued by the Chancellor and brought to Union Academy. The Spring Shrine in the outer city of Ronica is maintained by the people who were rescued with the Professor at that time. The world she lived in was a dimension where the power of nature was particularly mighty—.”
“Master, that... I'm hearing this for the first time?”
Rucell, uncharacteristically, interrupted Ban Yuwon, speaking with a wry expression.
Seeing Asha and Aire also shaking their heads with similar expressions, Ban Yuwon realized that Yumina had once again indulged in ‘favoritism’.
“Well, anyway, it's like that. She'll tell you too later, so don't be too disappointed...”
“She probably told you in bed.”
“Or perhaps she told you to seduce you into bed.”
“Okay, okay, I was wrong, just stop!”
—Death's Pupil laments that she finally pounced on a student she teaches.
It was Ban Yuwon who wanted to lament.
These women are unbelievably quick on the uptake, aren't they...!
“Getting back to the topic, at this point, it's no different from conducting a special activity in a high-ranking dimension, one that's even destined for destruction, so let's not let our guard down.”
“Is that the omen of destruction?”
Aire lifted her head, gazing at the sky, and muttered.
A large black dot was visible in the sky, growing steadily in size.
The concepts contained within it were on a level that even Ban Yuwon, who had undergone ceaseless growth, could barely discern; concepts like ‘Annihilation,’ ‘Blockade,’ ‘Absorption,’ ‘Severance,’ and ‘Destruction,’ which he had only recently acquired, were intricately intertwined, transforming into a single, ultimate concept.
“Indeed—Father was trying to stop that, when...”
—Death's Pupil requests that he elaborate on that story later.
Ban Yuwon, lightly lifting his body with the concept of buoyancy, wielded his Giwon Sword and swiftly approached the black dot.
And then, he hurriedly retreated.
Because the moment he neared the dot, he felt every component of his being struggling to break free from him, unable to resist a powerful gravitational pull.
It was but a moment, yet an utterly horrifying experience.
Ban Yuwon knew instinctively.
‘If I get caught by this, I'll just die, won't I?’
Irregular.
The word flashed through his mind.
Yes, now that he thought about it, today was a day when many new students were registering at the Tower, naturally creating many vulnerabilities within it.
It was also the day when invaders were most likely to appear throughout the year, and when Irregular phenomena were most prone to occurring in the Tower.
Come to think of it, though he had experienced many things in the Tower, this was the first time he was confronting a world that was actively collapsing in real-time, neither a world before destruction nor one left with only its ravaged remains.
At first, he had struck a pose, thinking, ‘Is this the weight of being at the vanguard...!’, but then the thought occurred to him that it might not be the case.
“Yuwon, it's clearly dangerous, why did you charge in?!”
Aire, having grasped the danger of the black dot, had hurriedly flown up, following Ban Yuwon, and now cried out in alarm.
To reiterate, her obsession with Ban Yuwon had grown astonishingly over the past two years.
After confirming that Rucell and Asha were also flying up behind her, Ban Yuwon spoke, trying to calm the party.
“This might be the ultimate ability of the enemy I have to face. Wait, I'll try to deal with at least one of these first.”
If this world's destruction process were depicted, this single black dot wouldn't be the end of it.
So, removing one dot might not change anything, but...
“Huuu, huh.”
He felt certain he could cut it with Requiem.
But Requiem was rechargeable, similar to Asha's True Dragon Sword, and would therefore expend a lot of its inherent energy, meaning it couldn't be a complete solution.
So this time—it was Myeol-yeom's turn, the (former) Executioner's Longsword, forged alongside Cheonma.
Myeol-yeom [Flame Demon Sword 3,500, Severance 1,000, Death 1,000, Annihilation 1,000, Burning Annihilation 500]
Myeol-yeom was a divine artifact, containing the core of Cheonma's and Dokgo Yeon's martial arts, and even a part of Zenon's power and Ban Yuwon's Authority.
Unlike when it was the Executioner's Longsword, the word ‘resonance’ had fallen away, but that didn't mean it no longer resonated with Ban Yuwon.
The red flames residing in Myeol-yeom, the concept of Annihilation—through these, Myeol-yeom functioned as a natural extension of Ban Yuwon.
“......That's a magnificent sword.”
“I had it made in Murim.”
He firmly stepped onto the empty air and took his stance.
Straightening his slightly bent knee, he thrust the sword out, slashing horizontally. Myeol-yeom, as if striking something massive and unyielding, erupted with a terrible screech of friction and spat out splendidly blooming flames.
Ban Yuwon could see the concepts forming the black dot burning away—.
Soon, all concepts he couldn't control underwent ‘Annihilation,’ and the remaining concepts flowed into the sword and merged with it.
What remained after that was a faint degree of ‘Absorption,’ which was then absorbed by the Giwon Sword among Ban Yuwon's internal concepts, swelling its magnitude.
It was the moment a new possibility arose within the Giwon Sword.
“Didn't even need to bring out Death.”
—Death's Pupil beams, declaring it a splendid sword strike.
“I wanted to show off your Authority too... just wait a bit.”
Whether it was because it had been two years since she last ‘graded’ him, or simply her satisfaction, Ban Yuwon, feeling inwardly proud, replied to her, then turned around to find that Aire was not the only one there.
“So it's you—! Those who harbor the wicked intent of merging countless dimensions into one!”
“You won't have your way! We will protect the Garden of the Four Seasons!”
Riding gigantic grass stalks that had sprung from the ground, aliens, floating in the air at Ban Yuwon's eye level, were glaring at him in unison.
His teammates wouldn't simply allow danger to approach Ban Yuwon, but the aliens' appearance made them hesitate to attack.
To be frank, their features were strikingly similar to Yumina's.
“It really was the Professor's world.”
“I thought she was a rare species, but her world has so many of her kind...”
“They seem a bit different from the priests of the Spring Shrine. Should I say they look older?”
“What?!”
As the Team Rebellion members each made a comment, one of the flower-headed aliens let out a shrill shriek at a remark Asha let slip.
“To target infants, how cruel and atrocious! We will never forgive you!”
“Huh? Not infants, but the Spring Shrine...”
“I don't know how you know that place—but we must kill you immediately! We must kill them to protect the children!”
“Even if the world perishes, only the children...!”
“Trees!”
He didn't know exactly what the problem was, but at Asha's single utterance, all the aliens entered slaughter mode and began manifesting their Authorities.
Asha, her eyes brimming with tears, clung to Ban Yuwon, asking what she had done wrong—and only then did he realize.
“Could ‘Spring Shrine’ perhaps be the name for a nursery in this world?”
Spring, the season symbolizing the beginning of life, when new sprouts bloom.
Moreover, the priests of the Spring Shrine tended to be of remarkably similar ages.
Elderly priests were exceedingly rare, and if one were to assume they were all nursery school teachers, it made perfect sense.
If so, then perhaps Professor Yumina also...
“Ah, if a lawless group that suddenly invaded the world mentioned a place where children were, then of course.”
It's only natural they'd charge with blazing eyes—Rucell nodded in understanding.
“Was I wrong?!”
“You didn't know, so it couldn't be helped. It's okay, it's okay.”
Ban Yuwon soothed Asha, then extended his hand, blocking the grass stalks, pollen, branches, and rose vines that flew towards the party.
Befitting NPCs of Room 561, each attack was incomparably powerful, but unfortunately—Ban Yuwon's combat prowess had long surpassed this level.
The slow progress in the Tower was simply because achieving the shift conditions was difficult and time-consuming.
To add a bit more, it was also because he had waited, not advancing alone, in order to help his party members grow.
“What is this?!”
“Not even Constellations, they must be the Tower's retainers after all!”
Just as the aliens, realizing the unique nature of the barrier Ban Yuwon had created, began to gnash their teeth and gather their power.
Ban Yuwon, thinking he might as well try even if he didn't know if it would work, uttered a single word.
“Cellon.”
“Die—Huh?”
It had an effect.
One of the aliens, whose flower atop its head was glowing and about to fire a destruction ray, reacted with wide eyes.
“How do you know that child's nickname?”
“Cellon... as in the next Divine Priestess's?”
“That's right, she's growing up truly beautiful and strong. But how did the world become like this...”
The moment the name Cellon was uttered, the aliens' fighting spirit miraculously faded.
It was probably a nickname imbued with very deep affection, given the reaction that came from Ban Yuwon merely knowing it.
“How do you know the name Cellon?”
“It's complicated to explain.”
Instead of saying, ‘Actually, you are beings forged from lies, and we're either going to wipe you out or find the hidden shift conditions in this room and leave,’ Ban Yuwon chose a gentle lie.
“We have come from the future. To save this world from its impending destruction.”
“Ah, he's started again.”
“Asha, be quiet.”
“The Queen is always like this.”
“Don't call me Queen!”
He had expected his party members to chatter, so he had already blocked them off with a soundproof barrier.
Now, what mattered was how well his lie would be accepted—.
With a rustle, the female alien at the forefront of their group canceled her prepared destruction ray, stepped forward, and spoke.
“So that's why you eliminated that black dot for us! Thank you for coming to save us!”
Ah, what a kind world it was.
Feeling anew the Tower's mercilessness at the fact that such a kind world ultimately wasn't saved and vanished, Ban Yuwon gave a wry smile, hid the bitter taste in his mouth, and extended his hand to grasp the female alien's.
Regardless of his personal feelings, it seemed this Irregular room would prove to be of great help to his party.
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