Surviving Every Worldview

Chapter 47: Their story (3)

I felt out of place from the beginning.

I’m not saying this because the episode unfolded in a way I didn’t recognize.

The students are not invading the real world, they’re just meekly going through the motions of the academy.

The more we talk about it, the more I realize that they don’t know anything and are just ‘victims’ trapped with us.

Until now, I thought that the students would eventually show their true colors, even if it was awkward…….

Maybe, just maybe, I was wrong.

“I found some other documents on the computer, you two need to look at them.”

“What’s it about, why are you shouting it so loud?”

“It’s about the practical training. I think that’s the most important part.”

The Academy’s practical training is scheduled for two weeks from now, straight out of the mouth of a witch professor.

The first time I heard it, I passed it by.

It seemed like a perfectly reasonable setting for an academy that taught fighting.

The document I found was an announcement with the location and rules of the field.

Based on the content and the context of the sentence, it was meant to be delivered to the students on the day of the exercise or the day before.

An announcement…or maybe a script.

—

We are the ones who use the educational facility as a safe house to protect ourselves from the outside world and build our future.

Here are the details of our first hands-on practical training, starting at 10:00 am.

When: February 3, 10:00 am to TBD

Content: First aid and securing a stronghold

※ In case of an emergency, such as the death of a professor, we will return.

—

There was more, but I didn’t need to read more.

It was enough to know the substance of the training.

“External…They mean us, right? Because for the Academy, reality is outside?”

“It doesn’t even feel like an academy, and now they’re calling it a practical training that isn’t even a practical training……”

“It’s not uncommon to put dangerous things in everyday terms in the original story.”

In addition to the latest announcements, the computer had years of Academy announcements.

Ten years of history. 4,610 documents.

I browsed through them and learned more about this space.

Without the search function, this would have been impossible.

“I guess the idea is that this is the last bastion of humanity…the world has fallen apart, and the Academy is hidden away as a concealment, training people to save the world.”

“That sounds bleak, but I thought the students were all cheerful.”

“They don’t know much about the outside world, it’s their first practice, and the academy is large enough that there shouldn’t be any shortage.”

I stood up from my chair in front of the computer.

“In this episode, the Academy’s nemesis, the Outside, has been replaced by us. The students will recognize us as the enemy regardless of their personalities.”

“Ugh-”

“What’s wrong, sis?”

“Isn’t that something that can be solved with a real conversation-? We’re both human, we can talk…….”

I shook my head.

“That’s why cognitive filters are used.”

The M-87 device that distorts the wearer’s senses so that they perceive something completely different, something we, the real people, also wear.

It’s probably the school uniform, since it’s something that comes naturally to them and something that the students wouldn’t suspect.

It’s a product of over-technology that even protects the body and it’s clear why professors have prepared something like this…….

“Once they’re outside, they’ll see a distortion of real people, something they can attack without suspicion.”

“They use kids who don’t know anything like that……?”

“Yeah. Anything I read leads to that conclusion.”

They’re forced to wear school uniforms and the light sources in windows prevent them from thinking about the outside world. This is a learning center that traps students who are not real people.

It was all part of a plan to see if the cognitive filters would work on students and real people.

And the equipment worked.

Once the students were out in the field, the average citizen would recognize them.

There are tens of thousands of combatants.

Even if one student is not that strong, reality is not ready to handle such a quantity.

‘We were being experimented on, along with the students, without anyone knowing.’

Seorin’s discomfort yesterday must have been triggered by the cognitive filter.

It’s a staple of the “cruelty fairy tale” that ordinary objects or people are perceived as different and behave strangely.

“Well, then we should get out of these uniforms right now! Otherwise, we might get in trouble too!”

Seol Do-yeon tried to unbutton her coat.

But after wrestling with the buttons for a while, she finally failed.

“What’s wrong? Is this weird?”

“Well, shouldn’t we take the students’ uniforms away from them by force?”

“No. You can’t.”

“……?”

Seorin looked back at the source of the sound.

It was neither I nor Seol Do-yeon who answered her.

From the door of the control room, a woman in a familiar hat walked in.

It was Professor Witch.

“We’ve been caught…….”

“How could you not get caught after smashing everything?”

“Oh… right. Right.”

It was only a matter of time before someone came looking.

It’s a good thing they didn’t show up until we had enough information.

“So you finally found out everything by coming here, Yoo Seon-woo. It seems like the public search for a real person didn’t have much meaning.”

“How shameless. You’re tricking children into killing people.”

“…It was the only way to get the students to invade reality in the name of the Academy. There was no other way.”

The professor pushed down her hat, shading her eyes.

“The students are good, unlike me.”

“…….”

“If you ask them to kill innocent people to survive and build a place to live, they won’t take it.”

Professor Witch slowly approached.

“We either invade reality, or we go back to being lifeless letters and pictures. Anything is better than waiting to die.”

“You masterminded this whole plan?”

“To be exact, it was the professors. We, who may be the masterminds but cannot be the main characters, made the plan.”

As she spoke, I glanced around the control room.

There was no one but us.

I thought she’d brought more people when she said faculty, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone hiding.

No need for a long conversation then.

“Abandon the plan. That’s the end of your story.”

“I can’t abandon the plan I’ve been working on, even fooling….. right here.”

“The Academy will be in shambles if we tell the Awakened in the real world what we’ve discovered here. Can you handle that?”

“I’m not saying I can handle it.”

The professor’s hand was suddenly holding a broom.

The room was decorated more modern than medieval, but the multidimensional worldview embraced the witch-like woman.

“You’ll have to deal with it.”

After the professor’s determined words, my body stopped moving.

I wasn’t immobilized.

Instead of feeling the need to move and quickly subdue the witch professor, I stood still, listening to her words.

I know what this phenomenon is.

The unwritten rules in standoff situations where you cannot interfere with someone who is trying to do something important.

Professor Witch not only knows it exists, but she’s using it, just like I am now.

She uses her situation as a reactionary character in a story to her advantage.

“In a single day, we were given life, nameless supporting roles were given names, and children with only a few words to describe them were given appearances.”

“…….”

“I can’t…watch them go back to what they were.”

Professor Witch raised her upside-down broom.

I charged forward, shooting at the professor, but in the back of my mind, I had a hunch.

At this point, it was impossible to stop her.

“From now on, for the students.”

The students would never have agreed to the plan but it’s for their sake, so it must be done.

With that, she slammed her broom down hard on the floor, conveying her intentions to me.

“I will take over the full authority of the worldview.”

The broom clattered to the floor but the other professor was nowhere to be seen.

The witch professor’s words felt less like a promise and more like a declaration or request to someone.

Soon, the request was granted.

[Their story begins.]

Numerous devices in the control room resonated, and the bullets flying toward the professor stopped in midair.

Seorin briefly turned into a swarm of butterflies and made a short dash, but she too was stopped with a wave of her hand.

……Clearly, she hadn’t been an opponent capable of that just a moment ago.

“If this control room becomes known, the plan will fail, but you are the only ones who know.”

“…So, we’re done here?”

“I’d love to, but we’re running out of time.”

The professor raised her gloved right hand and pointed at us, wiggling her fingers.

“Uh……?”

At the same time, my body plummeted downward.

I wasn’t the only one.

As the floor of the control room disappeared, so did us, plummeting to nowhere in sight.

With my consciousness fading at the same time, I couldn’t even attempt to fire a grappling hook.

The ground falls away endlessly and my consciousness scatters.

“You’re stuck here, until our story ends.”

But I hear those last words clearly.

* * *

“I hope I never have to see…..again.”

With another flick of her finger, Professor Witch sealed the hole the three had fallen through.

She didn’t know exactly where they had fallen, but she didn’t care.

Wherever they landed, it was inside the Academy.

Sealing off all the passageways in the dormitories would keep them from returning to reality this time.

When all was said and done, a few people strolled in leisurely.

They were professors who came to sort out the situation after hearing the declaration of full authority.

Most notably, it was the white wizard from earlier in the day who came running up to ask Professor Witch how she was doing.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I’m not hurt.”

“So you’re in charge of our world after all. I suppose I should have known it would happen.”

Professor Witch nodded.

To take over the power of the worldview she made a vow to bring her world to a happy ending, and to take responsibility for all the consequences.

From now on, everything in the Academy will be bent to her will, and when she dies, the episode will end.

From this point on, the final “plot” of Episode 2 was fixed.

“Should I have said yes in the first place? If I knew it would turn out like this.”

“……No, because who would want to be targeted by real people?”

It was a forced choice that occurred because Yoo Seon-woo and his group drove the academy into a corner.

Knowing this, the white wizard consoled the witch without words.

But instead, the recipient looked off into the distance, thinking

“Bring the training forward as much as possible.”

“What? When you say as soon as possible, what date do you specifically want-”

“I want it to start immediately, tomorrow, but that won’t be possible, so I said as soon as possible.”

“……Okay.”

After confirming a few more things, the faculty member left the control room with Professor Witch.

All the while, the witch could only think of Yoo Seon-woo and his group.

She wondered why.

She’d sent them to the outskirts of the Academy, where no one was around, and she had a feeling they’d come back to haunt her.

So, even though she sent them to a place they didn’t know about she couldn’t help but feel something ominous.