**Day 24 – Evening – Cave**
Endless exchanges of sword clashes. Relentless repetition of combo attacks that never end.
There are geniuses in this world. Personality and character don't matter—just pure ability geniuses. Effort and experience are irrelevant. Just talent.
This Yamada-kun is that kind of mathematical genius—not computation power, but calculation ability. He hid it and pretended to be normal, but it was obvious.
He's probably panicking right now. His calculations aren't working out. He recalculates, stacks probabilities—yet keeps getting dodged.
Pointless. My Luck is Max with Limit Break.
Even if the survival chance is below 1%, repeat it a million times and I still survive below that 1%. It's fine to stay below 1% forever—it never reaches zero. I've broken probability theory itself. Probability alone can't kill me.
We're already in combat—or from his perspective, the fight's still ongoing. He's probably killed me dozens of times already in his head, yet it doesn't end. I have zero intention of letting it end.
And I keep knocking down his endless, omnidirectional slashing lines with reckless abandon.
Yeah—he must be seriously confused. No way he can accept this. He probably ran perfect calculations. Yet I don't die. Not until he spits out every skill he's hoarded.
"You sure have a lot of skills, huh~? Killed and stole a ton, didn't you~?"
Just close-range and mid-range combat. No magic on my side—wouldn't work anyway. All I need is to force him to use them. Survive until he runs out.
"Haruka-kun? Why won't you die?"
"Well, I don't have a death wish? And I hate getting killed? Something like that?"
He looks seriously displeased. Seriously grumpy. Maybe calcium deficiency—eat some fish.
He's probably killed me hundreds of times by now, mathematically speaking.
"What did you do? Seriously?"
Infinite combo exchanges. Every block, every dodge—his emotions leak out more.
"What do you want to know about, Yamada-kun?"
"No matter how strong you are, Lv 11 shouldn't be able to resist!"
I see. He was calculating probabilistically. He's killed me multiple times. Dozens of times.
Mathematically, probabilistically impossible. But literarily—as long as it's not zero, something can happen?
"As expected of a mathematical genius. Reading probabilities mid-fight?"
Whoops—sweep magic away with the tree staff?, dodge sword clashes. If I hold back I won't kill him. Why isn't he closing in?
"More importantly—why can you move? Why can you attack? Why can you see?"
He acted so normal for so long—now he's really showing his true colors.
"Ahh—you mean 'Meddling' and 'Copycat'?"
"How do you know!? Appraisal shouldn't work! How…?"
Of course I didn't appraise. Can't see it. I just assumed he had them. From that moment in the white room staring at the black board.
"Copycat's version of Steal seems pretty degraded, huh~"
"Even degraded, instant death should work on Lv 11! Why not?!"
Yeah—the level wall issue is status ailments being irresistible. But probability never reaches 100%. Why?
"Oh—I'm 'Healthy' so they don't work."
Even the idiots couldn't handle it. Paralysis, blindness, poison, stolen hallucinations used as bait for "Meddling" on mind and nerves. That's why attacks miss.
Body interfered with at an unnoticeable level. Forced movement. Thought he swung straight—actually dodged while swinging. That's why it misses.
Of course my body's being "Meddled" too. I'm just ignoring it. Firmly.
Man—thought body-control skills would be easy to steal and level fast.
"Ever heard the meaning of 'Wooden Puppet'?"
"Useless, right! Suits you!"
Too bad. Mathematical genius, but literary failure.
"There's also 'Puppet Master,' Yamada-kun. If nerves get 'Meddled,' just ignore it and forcibly control your own body."
That's why attacks land but can't finish. I can still fight. Practiced walking while controlled. Running while controlled. One step = one swing. Illusion-Reality. Built for exactly this.
Thanks to "Mistletoe Vine – Wooden Rod, Staff Enhancement – Magic Technique Absorption ????" absorbing area magic, I'm not in attrition. Should last to the end.
He stayed alone in the forest killing nonstop. I was forcibly dragged to town and held back by everyone. That's the difference.
To finish me off, he has to use every hoarded skill. He had no choice.
All I have to do is stall. Just watch the magic. Hallucinations don't work. Thank you Divine Eye. Huge thanks to the contacts.
I can endure. To the very end… to the bitter end.
"Is that okay, Yamada-kun? Copycat Steal has restrictions, right? Usage limit. Is it fine to burn them all here?"
"Kh! Then I'll just steal them!"
Oh—bingo. Limit is usage count. Eventually runs out. And there's nothing worth stealing from me. Useless or unusable stuff.
If he dumps everything on me here—he wins. Game over. Decisive blow. After that, Class Rep and the others can't be beaten.
From the very beginning—in the white room—he must have calculated everything with mathematical probability theory. Every scenario, every sequence to become strongest, every probability, every possibility.
If he'd started with Steal—best case sealed, worst case killed. Either way, everyone would be on guard.
So he calculated. Mathematical genius—stacking probability on probability. Highest-success sequence. Highest-probability method.
The more he split the classmates, the higher precision, fewer variables.
Then used Copycat to mimic Steal. After that—kill scattered classmates one by one, steal. What he wanted: magic nullification, status ailments, hallucinations.
With Meddling added—absolute safety.
No risk of trading blows.
One-sided.
Cheat killer.
Preparation complete.
Finally—use Copycat Steal to steal the real Steal. In short—kill Class Rep. Then he'd have near-original Steal.
Then kill everyone in order, steal cheats—strongest, invincible, peerless, perfect.
That's why the idiots luckily didn't die. Only their combat ability was crushed. He couldn't perfectly steal yet—so postponed. Skills were too valuable.
He probably wanted to revive Charm and Puppetry—that's why he kept the fake-delinquents alive. But the muscleheads were too strong. So he killed the fakes too, strengthened himself, neutralized the muscleheads.
He controlled the fakes and normal boys pretending to be allies—when skills ran low, kill and steal. That's why only one left.
But the abilities he wanted solidified and escaped. Killing wastefully won't make him stronger. Now is the last chance to chase—but I'm in the way.
Logically—I'm the weakest. Just force through.
But he can't be certain.
Can't confirm.
Because it's not guaranteed.
Because he can't calculate.
Because my skills make no sense.
So he isolated the uncertain element (me), observed, killed the last two companions and stole Instant Death. Now with level wall he can finish for sure.
Yet I don't die.
Worse—Meddling, hallucinations, status ailments don't work.
He's stronger in level and raw stats—yet he's only ever fought one-sidedly. So he's shaken.
This guy… really has misunderstood something?
**End of day 24**