Chapter 4: The Alternate World

After I won the fight against Shion, I was called to the headmaster's office for some reason. Since no one is coming to guide me, I guess I'll just go on my own.

'Supercomputer.'

[Activating [V. Analysis]. Room located. Drawing a path with [VII. Augmentation]]

'That's quite a long distance to walk, isn't it?'

In the corner of my field of vision, I saw a number value representing the distance. Just another feature of Augmentation.

'That reminds me. I've been meaning to ask, why is this program called 'Augmentation'?'

[Rather than the actual meaning of the word, it's a play on words from the phrase 'Augmented Reality'. I'm sure you know what that is.]

'Yeah.'

[To respond to your earlier comment, this school is literally the size of a city. The part of the school you saw before was only a small fraction of the actual size. Therefore, this distance was probably meant to be taken by car or some other means of transportation, like teleportation magic. The current building has already been scanned and a teleportation circle that leads close to the main office has already been identified. Would you like to go there instead?]

'Take me there, but don't activate the circle. I have a better idea. They'll probably be waiting to escort me after I take the circle. I want to give them a little surprise.'

[Noted. Adjusting [VII. Augmentation].]

This time, a much shorter number appeared in the corner, along with a shorter line. I followed the line to the room with the circle in it and entered. I walked up to the circle.

However, instead of injecting magic in the circle, I just stood there, about 2 meters away from it.

'Instead of taking the circle, I'll just teleport on my own.'

After that, I disappeared and reappeared in the room on the other side of the teleport circle. I saw a guy sitting down on a chair right in front of the teleport circle. I just happened to teleport directly behind him. The guy started complaining.

"Why do I have to be the one to pick up this brat? If the headmaster believes he's so important, she should have just brought him herself. I don't want to wait here for 2 hours just to guide him a few meters. Headmaster said that he would be able to find out what to do on his own, but what if he doesn't find the teleportation room? Even though it's a big room, he might not even know that that one leads here. He may have taken the wrong portal. And this whole time, I have to just sit here and wait."

I found myself sympathizing with him. I couldn't hold back my desire to comfort him.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure he's a smart kid. You won't have to wait for long."

"Yeah, thanks. I hope so.

"WAIT!

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?

"Where did you even come from?!?"

"Oh, I'm Kirihara Ayato. I received a message asking me to go to the headmaster's office, but no one came to tell me the way, so I found it myself."

"So you're saying

"you walked the whole way here?"

"No, of course not. I teleported."

'But the circle didn't… wait. Did you read the circle and teleport on your own?"

"Basically."

The guy facepalmed.

"How long were you standing there?"

"The whole time you were complaining."

"Wow. And I didn't notice you that whole time… you know what, let's just go."

So, he took me the rest of the way.

Finally, we reached the headmaster's office.

"Quite the big office."

"Yep, the headmaster never liked cramped spaces.

"Alright then. We're here."

He showed me a door leading to another large room. Through the window, I could see a woman sitting at her desk calmly looking at the door.

The guy opened it.

"Headmaster, we've arrived."

"Good work. You may leave."

The guy spoke to me before leaving.

"Good luck, kid. I don't know what you did to make the headmaster angry, but as long as you didn't kill anyone, you might make it out alive. Barely."

"..really? I don't think I did anything wrong, though."

He had walked out before hearing that.

I walked to the headmaster.

"So, headmaster, why did you call me here?"

"I have a two things to say:

"First: it has been decided that you will no longer continue in the tournament."

"Huh? Did I do something wrong?"

"Actually, the purpose of the tournament is to grant ranks to the students who are entering the academy. You, having already defeated the student council president Shion Satou, have already proved yourself more than worthy for the highest role we can offer: student council president. Or, you can choose to deny this role and pick any other role you would like, and we will gladly give."

"Can I refuse all of the roles? I only wish to be a normal student."

"Really? Why?"

"Having a role sounds like more work, which I don't like."

"Boy, I'm not sure you understand how this school works. This school is not just a school, but a portal to a whole different world, where the academy training really ` begins. There, the student council president is in a position similar to "the king of the world". Do you really want to reject such a role?"

"Yes."

I shuddered imagining the amount of work someone managing a whole world has to do.

"...okay. In that case, why don't you select a different reward?"

"What are the limits?"

"Anything within the powers of the roles you are eligible to receive."

"And if I want more than that?"

"In your specific case, I don't see how there would be something outside the limit, but you can have it if I allow it."

After some careful thinking, I spoke my thoughts.

"In that academy world, are there separate factions? Like different countries."

"It's a self-managed world. Of course there are."

"If I enter that world, will I get to choose my affiliation or will I be assigned to a faction?"

"Think of it as being born into a faction. You will automatically be assigned one, but you can change it if you don't like it, and, of course, you have the power to do so."

"The power to do so?"

"Boy, you are really not understanding here. Just imagine the other world as its own world. Everything and everyone acts like they would in a normal world."

"Ohh, I get it. So that's literally a separate world with its own laws that some of our people occupy. Going by that, I think I have a good question. Do I have to have an affiliation?"

"I just told you to think of it as-"

"No, that's not what I mean. Assuming that is a completely independent world, it should have its own races, species, and factions, while we as otherworlders have our own. What I mean by affiliation is being part of any race, species, or faction."

"I get what you mean now. It is necessary for you to have such an affiliation."

"Then, what I want as my reward, is the ability to be unassociated with any group in the other world."

"You want to be a lone wolf, eh?"

"Not exactly, but something close."

"You do know that what you are asking for goes far beyond the powers of any faculty role, not to mention student role, right?"

"But you can do it, can't you?"

"I can; however, why should I do this for you?"

"Let's make a bet. We will fight. If I win, you let me have this. If I lose, I will do any one thing requiring equal or less power than my request."

"Do you have the power to back up your bet?"

"Fight me and find out."

She stood up from her chair and walked towards me, stopping in front of me.

"Fine. I…

"Will not fight you!"

"Huh?!"

"You actually want me to fight you? Hell no! I saw you fight Shion! I have no idea what kind of monster you are, but I am not going to risk my life to find out!"

"...are you afraid of me?"

"Yes!"

I've never seen a more proud expression than the one on her face as she said that.

"Well since you're so afraid of me, why are you refusing my request?"

"It's my job to protect the academy, its rules, and its traditions. There has never been a single unaffiliated student before. If you want to be unaffiliated, do it with your own power."

"I don't want to."

"Why?!"

"I just don't."

"This kid…"

"Why would me not being affiliated with any party affect anything?"

"You don't understand."

"Then make me."

"*sigh*There are different restrictions on areas in the alternate world. Each affiliation has its own different skills and perks. If someone with no affiliation was introduced into that world, there's no telling what might happen. For example, someone born in the other world as a demon will be able to use demon skills. They will have all of the inherent abilities and aptitudes of a demon, like having extremely high aptitude for magic, specifically dark magic. However, someone born as a beastfolk will not have that aptitude for magic. Instead, they will have extremely high aptitude for physical arts and enhancement skills. If I were to grant you your wish and make you not part of any group, you may not receive any skills or aptitudes at all."

"What about the skills I have right now?"

"You will go into the other world with a new body, while your body here will be kept stable with time magic. All of your current abilities will not follow you. The only thing that will is your experiences."

"Really? What if I just transport my body to the other world?"

"That is not possible. There is a barrier between the 2 worlds that only the soul can cross. Even I have an alternate body there. When I go there and strengthen my alternate body, my real body is also strengthened."

"How do I get to the other world in the first place?"

"Follow me."

After saying that, she led me to the teleportation room again.

"Let's go."

This was my first actual time using the teleport circle. It had a bad design and was quite slow. It took almost 5 minutes to teleport, but we got there.

"Here we are.

"Are you still trying to find a way to transport yourself unaffiliated?"

"Of course."

"Why are you so hell-bent on doing that anyway?"

"I want to create my own faction. To do that, I want to be unrestricted by affiliation."

"Although that sounds interesting, there's no way-"

"Found it"

"What?"

"I found the way to transport myself to the other world."

"How?"

"You said there was a barrier right?"

"Yes."

"All I have to do is overcome the barrier with sheer power."

"There's no way for you to have that much power."

"You think so? Then let me show you."

I put my hand in front of me and a red vortex started forming around my palm. The vortex was getting bigger and more powerful every second. Soon, it reached the point where the principal was having a hard time staying standing.

"What the hell is this energy?!"

The energy was stil getting stronger.

"There you go. I told you I could break the barrier."

A large crack in space had formed in front of my palm.

"Whoa. It really is…the other world.

"Wait. How are you going to fix it? Actually, you probably can. So, I guess this is goodbye for now?"

"Yeah. For now. I was hoping to do this the right way but asking but I guess this works too."

"Oh yeah, if you ever want to see me in the alternate world, I'm the queen of the Kingdom of Altun.

"One more thing. Since you're breaking in like this, you probably won't get to experience the tutorial. The only major piece of information you need to know is that you can open your status window by simply imagining it. From there, you can check your stats and leave the world if you want to.

"That's all. Hope we see each other in the future,"

"Yeah. See you."

I entered the crack.