**Day 24 – Morning – Cave**
In the end, no customers showed up. Well—fine by me if they never come. I didn't invite them.
Just a roadblock.
Like a scarecrow.
All I have to do is stand here.
Do what needs doing.
I hate it, but they probably hate it more.
They're the worst kind of scum just by existing. I'm the greatest harassment specialist—certified by Class Rep and everyone else. I have confidence.
They're just naturally the worst. I'm doing it on purpose. A professional at making things maximally unpleasant. Also certified by Class Rep and company. Who's the real villain here? It's debatable.
Time is on my side. The longer it drags, the worse it gets for them.
Still—they haven't come yet. Probably watching from somewhere. Gathering intel. Calculations not finished. Fine. While they're busy, I get stronger. Might be meaningless. Might become meaningful. Better than doing nothing. Even if it's probably meaningless, nine times out of ten meaningless—no downside. Even a tiny increase is worthwhile. We don't mesh at all anyway.
Morning fish for breakfast—grilled with soy sauce, bread on the side feels wrong but no rice. How do foreigners survive?
If the general store big sis finds rice, everyone will lose their minds with joy.
Today's the usual: mushroom hunting. Goblins, kobolds—hunt all you want.
Well—Lv 20 is impossible. Probably won't let me reach Lv 15 either. They'll show up before then. So I can only be seen up to Lv 14. Once I hit that, they'll appear.
But I just reached Lv 11. No time to get there.
They can wait out my slow leveling, but meanwhile Class Rep and the others are skyrocketing. The otakus are probably power-leveling like crazy. What if they otaku-level too hard? The musclehead idiots will join Class Rep and get scolded daily in my place. Go ahead—wait around and get checkmated.
The otakus have probably reached a safe level range by now. Since we don't know the enemy's level, all we can do is widen the gap. But even without interference they'll ignore social cues and become the strongest anyway.
As long as I keep interfering. As long as I prevent interference. Interfering with their interference—like right now. While we're busy obstructing each other, everyone else leaves us behind.
Take the pawn → slow yourself down. Don't take it → get stabbed. Annoying, right? After going through all the trouble to split them.
Set up a formation → get hit if you pass. Don't pass → miss the timing. What a nuisance, right? After isolating them so carefully.
Bad luck on their part—that I settled in this cave. Luck-san wasn't enough.
Good luck on my part—reaching this cave, settling here. Luck-san is the strongest. Mega luck.
Good luck or bad luck—for both of us, meeting here was inevitable. Worst probability, strongest luck.
Probably continues to the end exactly as planned from the start.
As expected, as scheduled—the worst goes both ways.
I'm existentially doomed. They're fated-doomed.
After all the trouble of mentally manipulating them into splitting.
Class Rep and the others are already starting to reunite.
Loner can't split, after all?
So they're watching. Probably don't even need levels to kill me anymore?
But the other classmates are pulling ahead in levels. They're panicking, but lack the decisive move.
Man—they must be so frustrated. So irritated. So annoyed. This is fun. Feels great.
Today I wander. Just walk. Hunt anything I encounter, otherwise just walk.
Running starts after lunch. For now—walk. Confirm while walking. Test while walking.
Upstream side still full of trash mobs. Perfect for leveling. They might have reached Lv 30 or 40 already. Well—worrying won't change anything now. Walk. Hunt. Walk again.
Eat while walking. Dried meat after so long—tastes bad.
Alright—maybe enough walking? Time to run?
Sprint freely through the forest, hunting as I go. Always end up back here. Can't win a fight, so I hunt.
Not enough power—so I use speed to collide. Long distance? Charge. Medium distance? Ambush. No distance? Now I can use Illusion-Reality. Honestly, it's all the same thing I've been doing from the start to the end.
Almost a month with these goblins now—no friendship budding. Normally the very first enemy you fight becomes a rival/ally who shows up to help, right? But I've been slaughtering them nonstop, so if one appeared I'd need an exorcism.
Yeah—story-wise this should be "tame goblins and kobolds while battling through the forest" arc. Normal progression. But nope. Because monster genocide!? At this rate it's on the same level as "Kobo, I'll bite your head off." And somehow instead of becoming Fluffy Master I'm about to become Bitch Master? How did it come to this?
Anyway—just keep hunting. They can't level anymore. I might luck into more levels.
They get information. I get exp. They can level all they want—it won't matter. I don't care if they watch.
・ ・ ・
Exhaustion. Forward collapse. Drop to knees. While limp, extend half a step. By the time the step finishes—the swing is complete. Gravity, acceleration, magic, breathing—all bundled, all loaded into one swing. If I can't do it—head gets bitten. Absolutely not!
Yep—works on Kobold Kings too. Insanely fast, but doable. Because they always go for the head bite. Absolutely not letting them bite my head! Never!
Now I'm seeing afterimages from the speed? Full up/down/left/right combos… but always ends with head bite…
Body unscathed. Psyche took massive damage.
Yeah—if there's a Kobold Emperor, I'm done. Can't go any deeper from the cave. Better loop around and head back.
Still not coming? Don't know, don't care. Even if it's too late? They're underestimating the otakus' no-social-awareness leveling, the muscleheads' true brain-dead stubbornness, and the girls' terrifying lecturing power. By now—despite all the effort to split them—they're probably starting to reunite. The would-be heroes and chosen ones of this world… while us side characters get left behind…
Maybe… they've misunderstood something?
**End of Day 24**