The Protagonist Already Knows

Glancing through the windows in the empty first-year building, I spotted multiple familiar faces gathered around a flag in a huddle.

Carissa, Lily, and Liam were drawing on the ground with their weapons, attempting to come up with a strategy, while Ren was giving a speech to Evangel and the rest of his team in the distance.

The Inter-Academy tournament.

In the novel, a group of drins had infiltrated the Sunken Pearl, acting as teachers from other academies.

During the Tournament grand finale, these drins had swapped the flags in "Capture the Flag," making it so anyone who touched a flag would be transported to the Dreg Demon’s base in the human realm.

Once again, Lily was the Dreg’s main target.

Shaking my head, I headed to the training hall and entered the AI dummy room as per usual.

Refine my sword slashes...I had to make them perfect if I wanted to cut through a mana sphere.

...

...

...

"..."

Leaning against the room’s metal wall, I ignored the holographic screen before me and gazed at the ground, sweat dripping down my forehead and my hair drenched.

No matter how many times I fought the higher-level bots, nothing changed with the quality of my sword jabs and slashes.

Of course, I still won a majority of the time, but my attacks weren’t getting any faster or more accurate, as if hitting a cap.

At this point, all I was doing was learning the AI dummy’s decision-making algorithm.

These fights simply couldn’t compare to the feeling of fighting a real opponent.

There was no difficulty or stakes in it: I had no real reason to make my slashes faster or more precise.

So, then what?

What was I supposed to do?

Throw myself into another life-or-death battle? Enter another dungeon?

"..."

There were only so many 50/50s I could win.

All it took was one mistake in those situations, and my death would be nearly instant.

Clicking my tongue, I placed a towel on my hair to prevent any more sweat from dripping down and exited the room.

Under the pitch-black sky, I exited the training hall and paused for a moment.

I was pretty hungry, but none of the dining halls were open.

Sighing, I headed back to my dorm room and changed into some clean clothes before heading back down.

Emotions...they were the heart of martial arts.

And I knew there was something wrong in my mind for...a while.

It was so dumb.

I really just wished everyone could just shut the fuck up with those stupid rumors and let me live.

Alas, though, like always, all I could do was persevere.

At that moment, the image of a familiar card appeared in my head.

"If you ever get tired of frolicking around in that Academy while doing jackshit. Contact me."

Should I just...leave after the tournament?

I could potentially stop Spare from joining the Dreg Demons in the future, and with his organization backing me with resources and cash, I could do a whole lot more than if I were to just stay at the academy.

"..."

As I neared the exit, the building’s doors suddenly swung open, a familiar face entering just a moment later.

Lily’s hair was ruffled, probably from the try-outs, and her glasses had dust all over their lenses, partially covering her eyes.

As her ice-blue eyes met mine, I paused for a moment before looking away and continuing to walk toward the door.

When I passed by her and placed my hand on the doorknob, her sarcastic voice sounded as always.

"Going out to drink, again?"

My grip tightened on the doorknob, but I just remained silent.

Talking to her would just create more problems for her and me.

As I pulled the door open, I suddenly felt a stabbing pain in my back: in the reflection of the glass door, I could see Lily grabbing my back, her nails stabbing through my shirt and into my skin.

Before I knew it, my body was yanked backward, my back hitting the opposite wall and the glass door shutting in front of me.

Pinning me against the wall, her two arms on my right and left to prevent me from moving, Lily gazed up at me, her dusty lenses hiding her pupils.

"Say something."

Her cold voice echoed throughout the hallway as she gazed up at me.

"..."

"What? Now, you’re scared to talk to me? What happened to confidently walking into my lab and interrupting me, telling me my invention is wrong?"

"..."

Her furious yell burst through the air.

"What happened to favors!?"

For some reason, as I continued gazing at her, all I could see was the image of her standing next to Leon while playing capture the flag.

Keeping my calm, I simply answered.

"Stop. Just stop. I should have never been in that lab in the first pl-"

She interrupted me, a tinge of annoyance in her voice.

"Is this about the rumors? What the hell? If you don’t like them, then say something. Obviously, they’re not true."

My tone condescending, I looked down and responded.

"You think you know the answer to everything, don’t you? You don’t, so just leave me alone."

For the next scenario, there needed to be a person at the Sunken Pearl with terrible rumors surrounding them.

If there wasn’t, the whole plotline of the tournament could change, and the drins could change their plan entirely.

Enduring these rumors was a small price to pay to potentially know the future.

Of course, that didn’t mean I wasn’t affected by them. Walking around while people constantly stared at me was demoralizing and irritating.

Before Lily could respond, I activated Anubis’s Ferry and phased through the glass doors, walking to the train station and grabbing a bite at a familiar Korean Barbecue place.

Saturday and Sunday passed quite easily with me still spending most of the time in the AI dummy rooms.

Even if my swordsmanship as a whole wasn’t changing, my strength, speed, and stamina stats were increasing.