Chapter 8: Rating Test (1)

The goal of getting Teacher Joo Siyoung’s attention was achieved.
I even received a recruitment offer, so it was a more than perfect outcome.
However, I couldn’t enter the Special Abilities Division right away.

Joining the Special Abilities Division is a good thing.
There’s no better place to develop my potential with Joo Siyoung’s power and to imprint my importance upon him.
However, I need to build up a minimum level of strength before going.
Suisei and Baek Soso are among the most ‘well-behaved’ characters in Legend of Academia.
Suisei goes without saying, and while Baek Soso’s speech habits are annoying, her true nature is very kind.
If it weren’t for that, I might have been beaten to a pulp during our first meeting.

In short, among the characters who will join the Special Abilities Division, the ratio of students with good character to those who are a little crazy is about half and half.
That means there are quite a few sociopaths who won’t even pretend to listen unless Ju Siyoung himself is speaking.
At an age when they are already full of hot-blooded energy, my low ability level makes me an easy target for contempt.
I don’t plan on taking it lying down, but Lee Sihyuk’s ability isn’t very good for direct combat.
In other words, I need a little time to get stronger.
Since I can’t do it with my ability, I’ll have to train my body in this case.

And I know one person who is more of an expert in that field than anyone else.
It’s Baek Soso, who is currently emptying bowl after bowl right in front of me.

“Where does all that even go?”
“That’s a very rude thing to say to a girl, Senior.”

Baek Soso glared at me with dagger-like eyes.
But seeing as she was still holding a bowl in one hand and stuffing her face, it wasn’t threatening at all.

“Sigh, you’re lucky it’s me who’s putting up with your rude remarks, Senior.”
“Are you stressed out or something?”
“…”

Baek Soso didn’t answer, instead hiding her face with the bowl and pouring the food into her stomach.
Just like a character with a glutton attribute.
Most professional food fighters probably couldn’t even compare.

“Mister, one more mapo tofu here!”
“One mapo tofu. Got it!”

She’s eaten three bowls so far, so with the mapo tofu, that makes four.
She usually seems to restrain herself to about two bowls, so it seems like something is definitely up.
A short moment of silence before the food arrived.
Soso pushed the bowl to one side, let out a deep sigh, and then stretched her arms out on the desk and laid her head down.

“Aren’t you worried at all, Senior?”
“About what.”
“The rank test! The rank test! It’s next week.”

Ah, right, there was something like that.

“Ah, I forgot.”
“There are things you can forget and things you can’t! In the academy, this is more important than midterms or finals.”

Was… it?
Honestly, I don’t remember it well.
A few characters were concerned about the ability test… I think?
But from a player’s perspective, the ability rank was something that just went up by feeding experience cards and breaking through the limit.
The initial stats and growth limit were important, so it was only natural to not care much about the intermediate process like a test.

“Then again… I guess it makes sense that you wouldn’t be worried, Senior.”

Baek Soso nodded her head up and down as if she suddenly understood.
I felt a strange sense of unease at her sudden reaction.
I could understand if it were Suisei, but have I ever acted in a way that would earn that much trust from this girl?

“It’s easier for dropouts who have given up on their ability rank. Just by looking at you, Senior, you look like you’re about E-rank ouch-ouch-ouch-ouch! Why did you hit me! You said you’d let it slide three times!”

Baek Soso whined, holding her reddening forehead.

“That one made it three times.”
“Then shouldn’t you hit me next time?”
“And I’m not E-rank, I’m D-rank.”
“What’s the difference between that and that? Just like a D-rank, so petty.”
“One.”
“Okay! I get it!”

Baek Soso grumbled while rubbing her forehead.
Despite all this, the two of us have gotten pretty close over the past week.
I think Baek Soso secretly enjoys this kind of back-and-forth.
It’s probably not just my imagination.
That’s how Baek Soso’s character was originally designed.
In the first place, Baek Soso is the successor to a martial art passed down to a single heir, called ‘Biyeon-ryu’.
If she had any intention of dodging or retaliating, she would have done so already.

Anyway, an ability test.
The evaluation criteria were ability output, application, and growth potential, right?
Then why was Lee Sihyuk D-rank?
His output can’t be helped, but his application and growth potential should be more than enough.
If it were known that he could amplify other abilities… no, that’s not it.

At least, as long as the owner of this ability is Lee Sihyuk, that would never happen.
You can tell Lee Sihyuk’s original personality just by looking at his visual-novel-protagonist-like hairstyle.
In other words, he’s the gloomiest of outcasts.
He couldn’t make any friends for a year at school, wasn’t there not a single person who acknowledged him?
For that Lee Sihyuk, finding someone to help him with the test would have been practically impossible.

It’s even questionable whether Lee Sihyuk knew about the ‘amplification’ aspect of his Colorless Element in the first place.
Even in the story of LeoA, Lee Sihyuk’s role wasn’t very significant.
His entire appearance was consumed as a gag character, the one with no presence, the gloomy guy.

If that’s the case, it means Lee Sihyuk didn’t accurately grasp what his ability was.

Maybe I won’t need to borrow Baek Soso’s power after all.
If my prediction is correct, then perhaps…

“What are you thinking so hard about?”
“Just thinking. Maybe it’s time to raise my level a bit.”
“Senior, did you eat something bad? Whoo, spicy.”

Baek Soso was already eating the mapo tofu that had been served.
It must have been quite spicy, as the tip of her nose turned red and a tear or two formed in her eyes, but she continued to shove spoonful after spoonful into her mouth.

“In the first place, if ability levels were that easy to raise, you wouldn’t be a D-rank, Senior. Do you have any idea how much blood, sweat, and tears it took for me to go from D to B?”
“That’s amazing. You worked hard.”
“Hehe, thank you… wait, that’s not it. Anyway, ability levels don’t go up that easily. Especially the higher grade you’re in. That’s common sense.”

Is it?
As a gamer, I have a decent grasp of the characters’ personalities and background stories.
But the things Baek Soso occasionally says aren’t filed away as common sense in my head.
Perhaps it’s the difference between me, the player who was a teacher, and the students who actually live in this world.

“It might be different for someone like me who’s aiming for S-rank. But it’s impossible for you, Senior.”

Baek Soso puffed out her meager chest triumphantly.
Considering the way she had lived her life, her achievements, and the future I knew, she was more than qualified to say such things.
She was the one who would achieve the first-ever feat in the academy of raising her ability from D-rank to S-rank.

“You know, Senior. You have a tendency to look down on me too much. If we were in the same grade at the same school, you wouldn’t even be able to talk to me, you know? We’re just in different classes, to begin with.”

…But aside from that, what’s annoying is annoying.
As a former member of the Baek Soso abuse faction, that girl looks better when she’s utterly depressed and shrunken, rather than when she’s chattering away excitedly like that.

“Then shall we make a bet?”
“A bet?”

‘There’s no way.’

Baek Soso muttered to herself as she changed into her gym clothes in the locker room.

‘Raising your ability just by changing your mindset is something that only works when you’re in elementary school, anyway.’

And even then, the limit is one rank.
Once you hit middle school, even that doesn’t happen anymore.
You have to go through months, or even years, of painstaking effort just to climb one step.
That’s how high the wall is between each rank.
When Baek Soso herself rose from D-rank to B-rank as a first-year in middle school, newspapers were requesting to interview her, calling her a genius.

So, Baek Soso didn’t think for a single moment that she would lose the bet.
In the first place, the condition that annoying senior set was completely absurd.

“Two ranks at once.”

That was the condition her senior, Lee Sihyuk, had set.

“Two ranks? Soso, you’re aiming for S-rank this time!”
“Don’t eavesdrop on my muttering, Elena. And there’s no way that’s possible.”
“That’s true too. No matter how much of a genius our Soso is, that’s a bit much.”
“I’m not a genius or anything.”
“Yes, yes, there, there. Our Soso.”

Elena patted Baek Soso’s head as if she were adorable.
Elena, who was from Russia, was a tall classmate, two heads taller than Baek Soso, and her best friend.

“What’s your rank?”
“Yep. C-rank again this time. Aah, what a shame. If only my output was a little higher.”
“You said the exact same thing last year.”
“Did I? I don’t remember it well.”

Our Soso has a bad memory too! Elena said as she ruffled her hair.
Baek Soso made an annoyed face but didn’t push her hand away.

“Don’t be nervous, Soso. You’ve worked hard enough. You’ll see the results of it.”
“…I hope so.”
“Do your best. Soso.”

Elena said that and then slapped Baek Soso’s back with a thud.

“Ouch.”
“Go break everything!”

Elena clenched her fist and threw an uppercut into the air.
Watching her, Baek Soso let out a small laugh and closed her eyes.

Focus the mind and steady the breath.
Do the best you can.
Whatever the result, just accept it.
Even if it stays the same, she just has to try again.

“Next! Attendance number 24.”
“Yes!”

Baek Soso psyched herself up and entered the testing area.

That day.
Baek Soso finally broke through the wall to A-rank.
A girl who had risen three ranks in the span of two years.
It was newsworthy, but Baek Soso’s story wasn’t talked about much.

Because—