chapter2 · 014-ep14

While the World Goes Wild Over Levels and Dungeons, This Hardcore Gamer's Just Gonna Keep Hunting Achievements Nobody Told Me Unlocking Achievements Came With World-First Rewards

Kogaryu

Chapter Two: The Awakener Development Program

Episode 14: The Daily Life That Came Back, and the Things That Changed

Two weeks had passed since the Sakagami Yūdai XP-farming incident.

Had school gone completely back to normal since that day? No, definitely not.

It was settling down, little by little.

No — "settled down" isn't quite the right word, either.

Everyone was simply getting used to it.

Gates appearing all over the world, dungeons forming, and now even things called Awakeners — to a situation like that, people were adapting, for better or worse.

Flip on the news and it's still nothing but Gate-related stories.

A new monster confirmed at some Gate or other. How militaries overseas were moving. How local governments, the police, and the Self-Defense Forces were coordinating back home.

That, on repeat.

The government, for its part, apparently had no intention of just leaving the initial great chaos to run wild.

Areas around Gates: off-limits.

Unauthorized entry into dungeons: banned.

I'd seen the news more than once about some guy who dove in without permission and what came of it.

Thanks to all that, yours truly hasn't set foot in a dungeon once since then.

Seriously, cut me some slack here.

I want to unlock some achievements already.

So that's how it was — the world was changing, little by little.

School was carrying on, at least.

Classes, still.

Quizzes, still.

Homework, assigned like normal.

I did have feelings along the lines of "why do I have to study classical literature and English at a time like this," but well, nothing to be done about that now.

Still, the air at school itself was, unmistakably, a little different from before.

The guys who'd Awakened.

The guys who hadn't.

That invisible line-drawing, something like it, still lingered even now, two weeks on.

Sōsuke had been out of the hospital for ages already, coming to school as normal in Class 1.

Awakeners heal way too fast, I thought — but he himself was saying stuff like "it still hurts a bit," so I guess it wasn't exactly a no-damage situation.

Sakagami and his whole entourage hadn't shown up at school since.

To be precise: suspended, apparently.

Well, fair enough.

He beat up a non-Awakener, tried to make him steal papers with Awakener info written on them, and then topped it all off with an Awakener-vs-Awakener scuffle on the roof.

And Mibu Iroha had been there for it. There's even a chance word made it to the government side.

If he'd strolled back into Class 3 the next week wearing an innocent face, the school would've been the scary one.

In that sense, school had gotten quieter than before.

So — some things changed over these two weeks, and some things didn't.

The world was supposed to have changed in a big way, and yet: mornings I go to school, sit through classes, come lunch break I eat my bento, and after school I head home.

In that sense, everyday life was still there, intact.

Still there, sure.

But this one part of my mornings I still haven't gotten used to.

"Morning, Himura-kun."

Passing me in the hallway, Mibu Iroha said it, totally casual.

"Yo. Morning."

I answered just as casually. Returning the greeting itself — I'd gotten used to that much.

No longer reacting like at the start, the whole "wait, did she just talk to me?" thing.

The problem is what comes after.

The guys walking nearby look over at me with here-we-go-again faces.

Not that anyone actually said anything.

But I can tell.

The stares.

The air.

Mibu Iroha greets somebody and somehow it gets treated like a whole event. Why?

Seriously, she's too conspicuous. I want it to stop.

Though the fact that she means nothing by it is its own kind of hassle.

Mibu is, in all likelihood, honestly just saying hi.

She's not teasing me or anything, and she's not playing to the crowd, either.

Which is exactly why it's hard to say "please stop, you're drawing attention."

If I did, I'd probably just get a deadpan "why?"

And then having to explain it from there sounds like a pain too.

So in the end: I answer normally, everyone around us stirs, and I get quietly tired.

That on loop for about two weeks now.

What even is this.

My new morning routine?

Mibu just faced forward again and walked off like nothing happened.

Meanwhile, I'm left stranded at the center of a minor commotion.

I seriously want no part of this.

And so another same-as-ever day ended, and it was finally after school.

I opened our front door and let out one big breath.

"Ahh... yep. Normally tired again today."

Nothing happened, for the record.

Still tired.

"Ohh, look who's back. The Awakener Aniki."

The moment I stepped into the living room, my little sister Rin hit me with that.

"What's with that obviously staged opening verse? Cut it out."

"Whatever do you mean? Aniki feat. Awakener."

"That's not something you can just fix by tacking on a closing verse, you know?"

Rin cackled away.

Lately she's been playing with me a little too much, hasn't she.

"So? How's the Awakener life?"

"What's with that game-title way of putting it?"

"I mean, you seem like you'd be into that stuff."

"...I'm not gonna deny it."

"Right?"

Kinda annoying.

But hard to deny, that's for sure.

Rin fiddled with the remote and turned on the TV.

The news was on, same as ever.

Gate countermeasures.

Overseas developments.

Expert commentary on Awakeners.

It really is nothing but this stuff lately.

"Every channel's the same."

Rin said it while hugging a cushion.

"Well, it's the biggest story in the world right now."

"Aniki, you're the type to watch this kind of news suuuper seriously, aren't you."

"Well, yeah. I'm basically a party involved at this point."

"And meanwhile you're thinking, 'when do I get to go back into a dungeon,' aren't you?"

"Whoa, good read."

That's my sister for you.

She knows her big brother's personality inside and out.

That's when it happened.

The TV screen cut over.

The program got interrupted mid-broadcast, and something like a warning tone beeped shortly.

"Hm?"

Rin froze, remote still in hand.

On the screen, in big text:

【Nationwide Emergency Broadcast】

"Ugh, something's starting again."

Rin murmured it.

I'd naturally been watching the TV too.

A man in a suit appeared on the other side of the screen and began to speak, face rigid.

Every channel I flipped to showed the same footage.

The content was, at first, a recap.

That domestic response had been gradually stabilizing since the Gates appeared.

That agencies were coordinating, and management of danger zones and the sorting-out of information were moving along.

And that from here on, it was necessary to move into a new stage.

And then, out of nowhere, a word I recognized popped up.

"...The Awakener Development Program?"

It slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

Beside me, Rin went, "Ooh, that's a very official-sounding name."

On the TV, the explanation continued.

A new system — aimed at education, training, and aptitude assessment for Awakeners — would be introduced nationwide in stages.

Helping with instruction: those who had Awakened within combat-related agencies, the Self-Defense Forces included, plus Awakeners currently handling Gates in the field.

It would also tie in with schools, inviting students who met certain conditions to participate in order.

"Wait, what is this?"

Rin said it with her eyes glued to the screen.

"Aniki, this is SO your thing."

"...I mean. Maybe."

Hold on a second.

That thing Mibu brought up before — it's actually happening?

And the instructors are actual, current, diving-into-Gates-right-now Awakeners.

It's starting to feel like some kind of new-story-arc event is about to begin.

I mean, obviously, I get that to society at large this isn't that light a topic.

I get that. But still.

This kind of thing just gets me hyped. Plain and simple.

"Aniki, your face is doing something scary right now."

Rin leaned in to peer at my face.

"Shut up."

"No, you are visibly hyped."

"I am not."

"You so are."

...Well.

Can't fully deny that one.

On screen, they said the details would be announced later through local governments, schools, and the relevant agencies.

Which probably meant something was happening at school tomorrow.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

Can't wait for tomorrow, man.