Chapter 746: Reality is Inseparable From It
Author's Preface
Such a difficult birth...! Plus I keep falling asleep...!!
End-of-term exams! Rakuro fled! Too bad! End-of-term exams are conceptual entities, so you cannot escape them!!
Damn it.
And so, it's the end-of-term exams. Strictly speaking, right now, with the first day of the end-of-term exams just two days away,
"Breaking news is here! It's the new drug!!"
"As expected... Makiko-sensei certainly must have been heartbroken over the tunnel accident, but as of the day of the exam, the ongoing issue will definitely be the new drug, after all..."
"Sasaki... Heh, I guess the Gambler's intuition hasn't rusted yet..."
"Help me, Humanities-bro! I'll give you 500 yen, so think of an essay for me!"
"Did someone call for me!"
"Are you Humanities-man!?"
"The one who, despite being a high school student, smugly messed up the seven times table!?"
"And yet had his Short Thesis praised so highly by the modern literature teacher that it was off-putting—that Humanities-man!?"
"So you were still alive, 7×8=53..." [*1]
"Don't kill me off on your own, and I'm gonna kill you."
In a classroom buzzing with an excitement where I couldn't tell if everyone was smart or just stupid, as for me, I was packing up to go home while handing over 300 yen to my classmate Yokota in exchange for the data of the Hidden Dead-Stock Documents (a code name for the poems Zappy had scrapped)... ah, that's right.
"Hey, Humanities-man, haven't you heard the scope for the modern literature test from Shima-sensei?"
"I'm not favored to that extent, obviously... Wait, didn't you just layer malice on top of malice just now? By the feeling of it."
"It's a great deal getting it done in one go."
"At least deny it!"
"Life is smeared with all sorts of lies, from trivial ones to those brimming with malice. Putting aside whether that's good or bad, if that's the case, I want to live as honest with myself as possible... wouldn't you agree?"
"Why do you know that—!!"
To think I'd be using the Public Dead-Stock Documents (referring to a line from a poem Zappy scrapped but vaguely hinted at on SNS) this early on... Kuh, as expected of a guy whose entire body is a walking punchline. Are the rumors true that the English version is starting to gather a decent amount of attention? He's a global poet now.
"Well, whatever, do your best memorizing the seven times table."
"How long are you gonna drag that out, jeez!!"
"9×7-1=?"
"63... ah, 64!"
Looks like it's no good... huh.
...
.........
"Hm, ah, Rei-san."
"Ayuh, R-Rakuro-kun............ R-Right! Did you hear?"
"Hm?"
The information brought to me by Rei-san, who was in front of the school gates on the way home, was of astonishing content even to me.
"30 points' worth of the biology test has been raised to university entrance exam level...!?"
"......Yes, there's information that it was... overheard in the faculty room."
Ooishi...! You fool, those high scores are mine!!
The biology teacher, Ooishi-sensei, is an incredibly kind and wonderful teacher who properly answers questions, but when it comes specifically to creating exam questions, he turns into the incarnation of the Animal Realm.
If it's stupidly vague True/False questions like the ones on a driver's license test, he's still being gentle; when things get bad, he does stuff like making us search for answers from an English research paper... Wait, wasn't this supposed to be an English test?
But even such an Animal Realm Ooishi has a tiny shred of mercy. And that is, when he includes Center Exam questions in the test, they are strictly limited to things he explicitly mentioned in class...!
Tests are, in a way, a battle between students and teachers; the scope of the assumed entrance-exam-level questions has already been unraveled by the anti-exam network...! However, the concern is the rise in the average score; the fact that information regarding 30 points' worth of material hasn't flowed into the network means someone is intentionally restricting the flow. I see, people can truly become ruthless for the sake of scores... The fact that they're leaking information to Rei-san shows transparent ulterior motives to farm affection rating with her.
"Should I seriously aim for the 70 points' worth instead...?"
"Well... yes... since it's the final exam of the year, it seems the other teachers are also... pretty fired up, too."
Please make the test like lukewarm water. Even if I pray for that, if everyone is fired up, physics and math/English are going to be disastrous, since the teachers there casually toss in incredibly difficult problems. I feel bad for the science track students...
"Hmm... I guess I should probably review to some extent after all."
Cramming overnight is like a wakizashi; it's meant to be used as a backup to the knowledge you've accumulated regularly, so relying on it as your main weapon is far too unreliable. Plus, the fact that an all-nighter right before the test can end up being nothing but a debuff depending on your constitution is a rough point, too...
"How about you, Rei-san? Think you'll be okay for the finals?"
"Y-Yes... Um... Yes."
"I'm jealous you can say that so definitively..."
"Ra-eh, um, no, it's not that I'm saying it definitively..."
Around this season, you often see guys who look strangely enlightened, but those are just specimens who have reached a state of moksha-like detachment on the verge of death, so you just have to press your hands together and chant Namu Amida Butsu for them. Someone who genuinely has leeway will always have a face that says, "Well, I'll be fine, but I'm still a little anxious, you know?", just like Rei-san in front of me.
Me? I'm that guy, the type who challenges a gamble with a decent chance of winning.
"Well, I guess I'll spend today and tomorrow doing prep and review to get my condition in order; maybe it'd be fine for midterms, but pulling an all-nighter playing games right before finals comes with a bit of guilt."
"I suppose so..."
Alright then, guess I'll do my best to fulfill my duties as a student!!
...
.........
............
No, it's not like that, please listen to me, detective.
There's a deep reason why I'm playing games the day before the test—a reason deeper than the sea, higher than the mountains, and more profound than a trashy scenario, detective.
You see? Full-Dive games are basically like being half-asleep anyway, and either way, I was planning to chug an energy drink to boost myself before taking the test on the day of, and besides, there was definitely some research paper saying that playing Full-Dive VR stimulates the brain, so this is a kind of... stretching! That's right, it's like a stretch.
I'll just quickly loosen up my brain by morning and tackle the test in peak condition... Perfect, yes, a perfect strategy.
"Alright."
As long as an excuse convinces myself, that's all that matters.
So with that in mind, let's take a breather and play Shangri-La Frontier!!
Author's Afterword
I'll be starting to wrap up this chapter soon, this one is probably going to be a shorter long-arc.
On the upcoming Friday, October 16, 2020, Volume 1 of the materialized comic adaptation "Shangri-La Frontier ~Kusoge Hunter, Kamige ni Idoman to su~" by Ryosuke Fuji-sensei will finally go on sale!
There will also be a "Special Edition" released simultaneously featuring a newly written novel, so please be sure to pick it up!!
Translator's Notes
- [1] 53 -> Gomi which means garbage
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