Chapter 7: Training / Clubs (1)

After the anti-monster training finished, Chae Nayun headed straight to the training hall while inwardly complaining about how she still couldn't beat Kim Suho or Shin Jonghak. Instead of looking at the drone footage to see what she could improve, Nayun decided to just train.

[Chae Nayun Rank: 4]

'Why is he training after getting first??'

Kim Suho, who was training against some dummies, noticed her and asked.

"How was your group? I heard you got third, pretty good"

"Oh don't say that, you got first. My group was pretty average. Most of them were weirdos though"

"Oh don't say that, you guys got top 3" 

"No, I'm serious, one of them could barely talk"

*[Yoo Yeonha Rank: 9]

"Oh hey Suho and Nayun, you guys talking about the anti-monster training"

"Yeah, you had the gunner on your team, how was he?" Suho asked.

"He was alright. Did what a rank 934 would do. Oh yeah, Nayun, I watched your training footage, that guy screaming while under the body was funny."

Confused, Nayun looked at the drone footage on her smartwatch and saw the scene. The guy who couldn't talk was under the Tyrant dodging its legs while screaming for help from the support.

"PFFFFT, I missed it during the fight, but what the hell was he doing? Anyways, Suho, down to spar?"

That day, Chae Nayun stormed out of the gym angrily after losing 5 times in a row.

* (POV Change to Ren)

*BEEP~beep*

Exhausted, I woke up and showered, dreading my next class, Anti-Personell Training. For this class, you must group up in pairs of two. In my previous life, I have experienced this type of class before.

"Come on guys, someone partner up with Ren" the teacher would say sympathetically.

"It's fine, I can work alone"

"Yeah, see let him work alone" the rest of the class would respond.

For a loner like me, pairing up into groups was like hell. I had no one to pair up with, so I would just stand there awkwardly, waiting for someone else who was left out like me to pair up with. Most of the time, I would just ask the teacher if I could work alone, but how the hell am I supposed to spar with myself?

Exhausted, I checked my smartphone and saw that I had some unread from the group chat.

'I don't care what they're talking about. Yeah, I just wanna get rid of the red icon on the chat. That's it.'

[Team GC]

--- Chae Nayun: HELP!!.mp4

--- Bam: LMFAO, i remember seeing him flailing around on the ground.

'The hell?? He should have stunned the tyrant earlier instead of laughing at me in the middle of the fight'

I sent a message

--- Ren Jin: tf bro, if you didn't break out laughing in the middle of the fight, I would've been fine

*Bzzzzz*

--- Bam: Here you go shifting the blame. Only see this behavior from people below rank 932 ngl

'Who the hell does this guy think he is'

--- Ren Jin: You're delusional

*Bzzzz*

--- Chae Nayun: Get a room

'This fucking girl'

Exhausted and pissed off, I headed to Coliseum for Anti-personnel training. The entire Veritas class was already gathered in the center of the coliseum, so I stayed towards the back of them.

"Ok, everyone, pair up in groups of two and spar till the end of class. I'll pair up with Kim Hajin as he uses live rounds" the teacher announced.

Sighing, I stood still, waiting to see if anyone was like and left out during the training. Though I was used to it, standing around and waiting for a partner was still embarrassing, so I tried to make my presence minimal. Then, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the girl who called me ugly.

"Hey as another thanks, let's spar," she said confidently

'Ah, she must be pissed I made fun of her. Hmm, I could probably beat her without attempting to use the Kekei style, but I'll just lose to satisfy her revenge.'

"Yeah, sure," I said while grabbing two wooden swords and handing one to her.

*hehe*

'Oh did this bitch just laugh at me? Yeah, I don't care anymore'

Prepared to go all out, I held my sword and got into a ready stance while she stood confidently with two dulled daggers in each of her hands. Ready to wipe that smirk off her face, I rushed towards her with the sword attempted a quick jab, and stepped away. However, I overestimated the reach of the wooden sword as I had only used a katana thus far, so my attack barely missed her.

"Ha, is that your best"

She rushed at me with the two daggers in her hands, however, due to my gift, I was able to process her movements easily and evade them. Irrated by my constant avoiding, she threw a dagger at me and rushed at me with the other. I dodged the first dagger by throwing my body to the left, and to avoid her, I stabbed my sword in her direction. Realizing, she would be hit if she continued her charge, she backed away with only one dagger in her hands.

"Hah, you're like a cat with those reflexes. Stop dodging and fight me, you even have the advantage with a sword."

"What bullshit are spitting. You're like a bull, charging at me with no plan."

Irritated by my words, Olivia charged towards me with her dagger in one hand and her other hand clenched into a fist.

'Ha, proving my words'

I dodged her charge easily and got ready for a counterattack when she suddenly put some sand in her hands and threw it at me. At that moment, I had no way to dodge the sand, so I held my sword horizontally to not get sand in my eyes. It didn't work and my eyes turned bloodshot red and burned like hell.

'I'm not waiting anymore. This girl is dead.'

"HAH," she laughed.

I put the wooden sword in its sheath and placed my hand on top of it. I glared at her.

'This bitch is dead'

I felt the wind elementals gathering around my hand, and I began to unsheath the sword when suddenly I heard the teacher scream.

"AH! What are you doing?! 934... Ak! Let go! Let go! Let go!"

Interrupting my quick flash, I turned around and started at the scene in the distance. You could see a boy with black hair and a gun holding onto the teacher like the floor was lava and a clump of the teacher's hair was in the boy's mouth. The girl, who I was sparring with, also turned around to watch the comedy skit.

"T-This is a warning! Let go! I said, LET GO!"

The boy continued chomping on the teacher's hair until the teacher finally had enough and punched him with all his strength. The boy went flying and fell on the floor about 5 meters away, completely unconscious. The entire coliseum, including me, burst into laughs at the scene

"Can anyone take him to the infirmary?" the teacher asked.

Realizing that if I continued sparring with the girl, I would probably lose my cool and kill her, I quickly vowed I would get my revenge on that girl later and said.

"Yes, I can"

The teacher nodded, but I could feel the girl glaring at my back. I ignored the chills on my neck, picked up the boy, and headed to the infirmary. After placing him on the bed, I stood outside the infirmary trying to pass the time on my smartwatch.

[Mom: Honey, you haven't texted me since the graduation. How are you doing? I swear when I get back, I'll hug you so much, you can't let go]

[Mom: Honey, respond ASAP if you see]

[Mom: Hello??]

Sighing, I looked at the boy's previous responses to gauge what he was like before I took his body. He seemed to be the same as me, pessimistic and a loner, so I just responded how I would normally do so to my mom.

[Ren Jin: Mother, I'm sorry. I was busy with training. I'm ok. School is fine]

After responding to my only contact. Yeah, I know. I checked my email. Surprisingly, I actually received an email.

[School]

'Yeah get my hopes up and destroy it all man'

[Tomorrow, you will be able to join clubs around the Cube. Make sure to not join too many clubs that you don't have time to study, and also explore your interests. Clubs are a great place to make connections. Remember to turn your club forms by the end of the week]

Clubs are places where the Cube encourages students to enjoy their hobbies and take care of their mental health. The Cube wasn't as strict as it seems. Though things like dating were disallowed, most of the faculty turned a blind eye and allowed students to mostly enjoy their time. Although at a place like the Cube, you would expect all clubs to be academic-related, most clubs were simply normal high schoolers hobbies like video game club and pool club.

I planned to join three clubs. This was not because I wanted to stay close to the main events, but just because I wanted to genuinely enjoy high school this time around. With that, I decided to join the traveling club, hunting club, and video game club.

*Ring*

The bell rang, so I grabbed my stuff and headed to the forest to repeat the same actions for 6 hours straight.

'I'm starting to think the Kekei style isn't all that great'

However, my disappointment quickly faded after I finally reached 25 thousand repeats. At that point, I could perform a quick flash strong enough to cut a tree in half, however; I could only perform it once every ten hours if I didn't want to collapse from exhaustion. After the six hours of pure boredom, I headed to the gym, improved my stamina for an hour, and headed back to the dorms. Curious, I decided to use the "log" app for the first time.

'No, I'm not a stalker. I just want to see if anything has changed from the original plot. I'm a good person. I'm pure'

I opened the log app.

[Kim Hajin dies]

"WHAT THE FUCK"

[Just kidding, click here to use the log]

"Fucking hell, do they get a kick out of torturing me like this"

'Oh, he's just in his dorm room thinking about what clubs to join. Speaking of that, I should probably go claim Aether before he does. Eh, I have time'

Chae Nayun and Kim Hajin would join the traveling and hunting club, so I need to avoid them during those times. None of the main cast joined the gaming club, so I should be fine with that.

After deciding on those three clubs, I used my smartwatch to register for three clubs. After, I closed my eyes and reluctantly checked my bank account. Peering through my hands, I saw that the money my mother had sent was basically gone. The orientation for the traveling club should be on Sunday and it's currently Friday, so I have tomorrow off. I decided I would go hunting, though I should probably do so alone as my speed would most likely gather attention

-*-

After waking up, I did my morning routine of showering and getting ready. 

'What the fuck is the point of me having mana if I can't do shit with it'

After complaining about the useless thing freeloading inside my body, mana, I grabbed my training katana and headed to the portal. While usually traveling would cost a significant amount of money, being a cube cadet lets you have 6 free tips, so I would be fine for the time being.

[Cadet Ren Jin Confirmed]

I arrived in Gangwondo Wonju with my sheath on my back like a true main character. 

'I lowkey look like the black swordsman. this look is tough'

After ignoring the countless agencies attempting to recruit me, I made my way toward the hunting forest. Once outside city, I sped up and for the first time, I ran as fast as I could. Once, the spaces between trees got too tight for me to squeeze through, I activated the burst step 2 times, using 40% of my mana, and appeared on top of a tree. Feeling like the protagonist, I stood atop the highest tree in the forest and began humbly looking over "my" kingdom.

After waiting for five minutes, I finally saw a boar and used a burst step, unsheathed my katana, and stabbed it into the boar. Since I wasn't used to burst step, I missed the boar's vital point and stabbed one of its legs.

*SHRIEK*

The boar, in pain, tried to limp away from me, however, I didn't miss a second time. After killing the boar, I realized next time I would have to kill it in one shot as the more damaged the body was, the less it was worth. Opening my smartwatch, I checked the monster encyclopedia to see how much it was worth. 

[Mountain Boar]

Price: 200,000

'nice'

After killing another boar, I realized the flaw in my hunting plan. My lack of mana power. After using the burst step only four times, I would have to wait at least three hours to gather enough mana to use it again. For now, I decided to ignore the issue and used my raw speed to maneuver through the forest to find monsters. It was exhilarating. It felt just like a video game, I could feel the wind rushing into my face as I ran, making my body smaller, to fit through tight spaces and going over 100 km/hr. I felt like the Porsche 918 Spyder.

After about three hours, I was completely out of stamina and had six boars to my name.

'not bad that's 1 million after taxes'

I put the animals in my dimensial storage, which was given to cadets for free, and headed back to city to find an agent willing to sell my loot. After looking around, an agent approached me.

"E-Excuse me, are you going hunting"

"Nah, I just went hunting. I'm trying to find someone to sell my stuff. Can you?"

"Y-You went hunting without an agent? I can help you but I would take a 15% cut"

"Thats alright"

I handed him the bodies of the boars in my ring.

"Y-you got this many animals w-without a agent?" he questioned.

"Yea, I am looking for one for next time if you're up. Heres my number"

"S-sure, here's my card. C-contact me next time if you n-need one. I'll tr-transfer the amount into your account"

The agent handed me his card and walked away.

[SH Agent Head Manager, Park Soohyuk]

'Ah fuck'

Park Soohyuk is the main agent for Kim Hajin, the protagonist. Getting involved with him right now could cause unforeseen issues such as Hajin finding another agent. 

"Ah hey" 

I tried to get the attention of agent, however, he was already too far away for me. Well I guess nothing goes as you plan.

After arriving back at the cube, I headed to my dorm and received the text that my money had been deposited.

[Balance: 1.1 million yen]

In a few months, a guild know as Pack Horse Masters would go public. I would have to buy as much as their stock as possible as in the future, it would rise drastically. To do this, I would have to compete with Hajin, so I needed to obtain as much money as possible.

'I should go hunting more. Maybe having that agent won't be so bad'