[Title: Newbie Akbung Has a Question]
Content: Why does an academy raising game suddenly change genres into a strategy game?
No, sir, I said I wanted to raise Hellobot at the academy?
I still have three souls I haven’t collected yet, so why are you doing this to me?
ㄴ: (split in half and die emote)
ㄴ: (play your first run without a guide emote)
ㄴ: You see, that’s because…
ㄴ [OP]: Hey, answer me, you bastards
ㄴ: How dare a mere question-beggar raise his voice at an elder!
ㄴ [OP]: I seriously want to dump you in a nursing home
ㄴ: That’s why the reviews for this game were all over the place. The raising game part was well made, and the strategy game part was well made too, but they mashed them together, so everyone lost their minds
ㄴ: More importantly, this is already famous, so it’s not even a landmine anymore. How do you not know?
ㄴ [OP]: Obviously I thought the strategy part was the sequel!
───────────────────
‘O Ji-o (32) laughed his head off when he saw that popular post, though.’
Even thinking back on it now, it was funny.
If only it hadn’t been my story, I would have laughed even harder.
“You mean the war? Yes, it’s already a foregone conclusion.”
Apparently, among the high-ranking nobles, the story had already spread far and wide.
The imperial family’s unique ability was foresight.
They were tight-lipped about minor details, but when it came to great disasters or major events, they would leak bits of information little by little.
The County of Helisbot was, in its own right, a prestigious house worthy of being called high nobility.
It wasn’t strange for Father to have heard of the imperial family’s foresight.
“A war that’s become a foregone conclusion…”
The lower the level of civilization, the more widespread a culture that honored combat and war tended to become.
It was an extremely rational method of diluting the instinctive fear of death and sending more able-bodied men into battle without hesitation.
In a world where the idea of earning money through honest work, and even succeeding through it, was a joke reserved for a privileged few, it was an inevitable result.
In that sense, this world could be said to stand on the boundary.
An era where violence was affirmed, while at the same time other values were slowly beginning to rise into the mainstream.
An era where chivalry and the honor of war were gradually becoming outdated values.
“I don’t want to go to the army…”
In that sense, wasn’t my desire to dodge military service perfectly reasonable?
To me, who possessed the memories of O Ji-o (32), a battlefield was not a place of glory and honor, but a dirty, dangerous, and troublesome place.
‘But I probably won’t be able to get out of it.’
This was something that came even before talking about a noble’s honor.
A family with a unique ability was, in itself, a powerful military asset.
The reason the imperial family had allowed unique ability users other than themselves to live was partly because they couldn’t uproot unique abilities that awakened unexpectedly, but also because they intended to make use of them in situations like this.
“Would it have been better if it were that world instead?”
If it were that world, the one so interested in children’s rights, I might have been able to put it off for a while with the issue of child soldiers.
Unfortunately, however, the fact that this world was only just beginning to move away from the honor of war meant that such ideas were still active.
In other words, when it came to protecting the family’s honor and the peace of the empire, there was no such thing as too young.
Seven years later, on the day of the Great War.
I would be a perfectly eligible conscript.
“Still, this is an incredibly strange feeling.”
There were still seven years left before the war broke out anyway.
Thinking about it any more would only burn me up inside.
As if half fleeing from it, I turned my thoughts toward my ability.
I had described checking O Ji-o’s (32) memories as something similar to searching through data, but that didn’t mean it was the same as reading a book or browsing an internet page.
Just like how I had recalled a page from a community forum a moment ago, O Ji-o’s (32) memories came to mind vividly, as if they were my own.
‘No, in a sense, it might be fair to say they’re even more than that.’
The information obtained through Divine Descent didn’t deteriorate, and I could check it instantly.
On top of that, his memories spanned nearly three times as much time as mine, since I was nothing more than an eight-year-old child.
Considering that the formation of a personality comes from the accumulation of memories, by common sense, it would have been normal for me to be closer to O Ji-o (32) than to Helio.
“But I’m perfectly fine.”
And yet, I had no particular instability.
Even if the difference was nearly threefold, and even if this world had existed on Earth in the form of a game, O Ji-o’s personality did not erode mine.
‘Isn’t that obvious?’
Divine Descent was Helio’s unique ability, and Helio was the one who had put on O Ji-o.
No matter how intricately made a tiger skin might be, it was still only a skin, and the one wearing it was human. It was the same principle.
At the same time, however, I couldn’t say there was no influence at all.
“If this isn’t a possession story… then what genre am I supposed to call this?”
Just like how I was worrying about war, how my mental age had gone up, and how these useless thoughts were coming to mind, I could no longer return to being a perfectly innocent eight-year-old.
This, too, was the same principle as getting hot when wearing a tiger skin.
“No, that’s not what’s important.”
I smacked my mouth for spouting nonsense and focused on what truly mattered.
It was true that my mind had been murky in the aftermath of Divine Descent.
But there was a reason I had immediately mistaken my situation for being possessed into a game.
It was because the most important information had come to mind first.
“I’m the protagonist…”
After all, Helio Helisbot was the player’s default name.
* * *
In any game, the story was bound to revolve around the protagonist.
Sometimes from the inciting incident.
And at the end, all the way to the conclusion.
The protagonist, the player, intervened and made choices, and the story flowed according to the arrangements prepared by the creators.
Therefore, the protagonist was an important existence on the scale of the world.
Even more so if that game had a bad ending.
“And that’s me, huh…”
In truth, the Great War had such a strong impact that it overshadowed everything else, but this was a story that weighed just as heavily on my shoulders as the war did.
Especially when I considered that Helio defeated the final boss near the ending.
‘As the game entered its latter half, the protagonist’s role did shrink a bit because of the genre shift, but I guess the protagonist is still the protagonist.’
In other words, it meant there was no guarantee someone else would reliably do it in my place if I didn’t.
If the ending had at least come from a simple strategic victory, I wouldn’t have had to feel burdened by the fact that I was the protagonist.
‘The one fortunate thing is that it doesn’t require anything particularly special that only the protagonist has.’
It was something common in single-player games.
A storytelling method where special settings were attached to the protagonist, making it so only the protagonist could resolve everything.
For example, being the reincarnation of some key figure, or requiring a mysterious artifact only they could use.
Helio, the protagonist, had no such hidden setting.
It was simply that, because he was the protagonist of the first half, the story naturally went in the direction of him defeating the final boss in the cutscene.
‘In the first place, even if you don’t personally defeat the final boss with Helio, the ending cutscene still shows Helio doing it.’
It meant there was no guarantee someone else would definitely defeat it, but at the same time, it didn’t mean the world was one hundred percent doomed without me.
“…Still, I should build up at least a certain amount of strength.”
I wasn’t sure whether I would clash with the final boss or not.
However, the war had already been foreseen by the imperial family as a foregone conclusion, and I was just barely on the line for being drafted.
If I didn’t have even the minimum amount of strength, it wouldn’t be strange for me to die an untimely death in the middle of things, let alone reach the final boss.
‘Let’s think positively.’
The fact that I was the protagonist was quite a burden, but looking at it the other way, it was also an incredible advantage.
The first half of Academy Great War was a raising game.
That meant the main content was raising Helio, the protagonist.
In this world where mana existed, training and growth varied greatly from person to person, but in my case, all of the player’s knowledge applied.
‘That means I can find and apply every high-ceiling build from the game!’
My heavy heart lightened a little, and excitement began to rise in my chest.
Even I thought I was being too simple, but weren’t men drawn to strength regardless of age?
Even if I couldn’t bring out all the specs from the game, if I could grow to even half of that, it wouldn’t be difficult to become one of the strongest people in the empire.
Moreover, the Helisbot family’s unique ability was Divine Descent.
This unique ability, which allowed one to switch out one’s talents and abilities depending on the situation, was one of the most blatantly overpowered unique abilities, helping one reach not merely the peak of a single field, but the peak of several.
In other words, becoming a Sword Master, Archmage, Shadow Walker, Nature Keeper, and Grand Archer all at once wasn’t some absurd fantasy.
‘Of course, the stronger I get, the higher the chance I’ll be dragged off to war.’
But I was in a position where I’d be dragged off even if I did nothing.
In that case, wouldn’t it be safer to become the strongest instead?
‘Good. Let’s do that.’
I proudly took my first step toward becoming the strongest.
* * *
“Helio! Stop playing around and study!”
“Ah, you mean the handling of mana? It is still too early for that. Mother, you too will come to understand soon enough. But would it not be better to see it than to have it explained? Therefore, let us end this discussion here.”
“What on earth did this child use Divine Descent on…”
I do nothing.
Even if she looks at me with disbelief, even if she directs a gaze of contempt at me, even if I become a freeloader!
More intensely!
With all my might!
I do nothing!
‘It does hurt my heart that Mother is looking at me with worried eyes, but…’
But this was the path that would let me grow the fastest.