The next morning.
The moment I opened my eyes, I felt a heavy weight pressing down on my chest.
“Mmm….”
Rubbing my eyes, I sat up. Memories of last night came flooding in like waves.
Surviving Hypnosis Academy, Seo Eunha, and an absurdly short school uniform skirt.
“So it wasn’t a dream….”
Haah, a sigh escaped me automatically.
I didn’t have the courage to wash every nook and cranny of this body, so I decided to just quickly wash my hair for now.
The shower—tonight, after I had sufficiently prepared myself mentally, I would take on that challenge.
Right now was impossible.
“Drying this is a chore too.”
After diligently drying my hair, which reached nearly to my waist, I pulled out the school uniform I had taken off yesterday.
Looking at it again, it was a truly mind-boggling design.
“Is this what an eroge design looks like….”
Not that I could choose not to wear it. The moment I stepped foot outside the Academy, all my plans would go up in smoke.
I squeezed my eyes shut and put on the short skirt and tight school uniform blouse.
But, huh?
It was clothing that had been utterly humiliating yesterday, but putting it on again, it was surprisingly not bad.
‘It’s better than I thought?’
I was even starting to think it was an efficient outfit.
According to the lore, Awakened absorbed mana through their skin.
The less fabric there was, the more advantageous it was for mana manipulation.
…Of course, it was obviously a flimsy excuse to force lewd situations, but for the current me, it served as a plausible self-justification.
When I glanced out the window, the outside was an even more spectacular sight.
The Academy uniform’s exposure was already severe.
Skirts that barely covered the butt were the norm. Despite the chilly weather, outfits exposing navels or cleavage were everywhere.
Even the black suits that should have symbolized propriety felt modified for sex appeal, so that said it all.
I stared hard at my reflection in the mirror.
“Sigh, at this level, I’m practically a nun.”
I was scared of how I was adapting to this situation. Whether I should like this or not.
I let out another deep sigh and left the house.
The road to the Academy was truly a sight to behold.
The men on their morning commutes scanned the women on the street without hiding their lecherous gazes.
The women strode down the roads proudly, as if such attention was only natural.
‘Ugh. Are they looking at me with those eyes too?’
Afraid my underwear might show, I pulled the short skirt down as far as it would go.
It did nothing to stop my thighs from being fully exposed, but if I didn’t do at least this much, I felt like my mental fortitude would give out.
Walking carefully, I barely managed to get on the subway. It was a packed train.
Ironically, the train being full was a blessing.
With this many people, no groper or anyone else would get any ideas.
I squeezed myself in among the crowd.
Every time someone else’s warmth touched my waist, shoulder, or calf, I flinched in surprise. But this level of contact was unavoidable on a packed subway.
It was the kind of touch that wouldn’t have bothered me in the slightest when I was a man. For some reason, I found myself reacting sensitively.
I had to bite my lip to hold back any sound.
Only after a long while was I finally freed from the packed train.
“Haah… I haven’t even gotten to school yet and I’m already drained.”
Unnecessarily conscious of my posture and movements, the mental fatigue was considerable.
It was even worse because everyone was dressed so lightly that I had nowhere to rest my eyes.
Still, I should be grateful I arrived without any major incidents, somehow.
‘I need to beat the crap out of that Student Council President as soon as possible.’
If I couldn’t remove the hypnosis controlling the city, this place would soon become a nightmarish world where anything happening on the streets wouldn’t seem strange.
Clearing the game was one thing, but as a human being, I couldn’t just stand by and watch.
Inside, the Academy looked ordinary enough.
The male students still lacked the guts to be as blatant as the older men outside.
I slipped in among the crowd of new students and headed to the auditorium.
The auditorium was already packed to the brim.
Under the bright lights, female students who had shortened their already-short skirts even further, or were outright baring their navels, were everywhere.
‘…Is it really okay to modify your uniform however you want like that?’
I should have been used to it by now, but in this Academy, modifying your uniform in any way to increase exposure wasn’t a problem at all.
On the contrary, if you went around fully covered up, you’d become a target for correction.
The female students around me seemed to enjoy the eyes fixed on them, boldly displaying their pale skin.
“Wow, look over there. How big are those? D? E?”
“Hey, that girl’s skirt is basically….”
The vulgar conversation of the male students next to me grated on my ears.
My brows furrowed involuntarily, but I didn’t show it. It was all you heard wherever you went.
Trying not to stand out as much as possible, I took a seat in a corner.
Then. The noisy auditorium lights gradually went out.
And a harsh spotlight shone down on the center of the stage.
A man stood on the podium.
“Freshmen. Congratulations on your admission.”
His voice flowing through the speakers carried a strange sense of pressure.
The murmuring students’ gazes fixed on him as if by agreement.
‘That’s him.’
My heart began to thud.
The final boss in the game, the one who had plunged this city into a massive swamp of hypnosis.
Student Council President, Gang Jinhyeok.
He began his speech wearing a white mask that covered his entire face.
The fact that no one batted an eye at such unusual attire was itself proof that the entire Academy was under hypnosis.
“The Academy respects your instincts. Shed the shackles of the façade called reason, and surrender your bodies to the flow of mana. That is the path to true strength.”
At face value, it sounded like advice to handle mana instinctively, but it was all hypnotic suggestion.
The people of this city were already under weak hypnosis. That speech served only to tighten those shackles.
‘Of course, it doesn’t affect me one bit.’
Fortunately, since I wasn’t under hypnosis, it didn’t matter.
I consciously let his words wash over me while keeping my mind sharp.
Perhaps because of that effort, I didn’t feel any abnormal symptoms like my consciousness clouding over or my mind going blank.
“Well, let’s end the boring speech here. Seeing is believing, so I’ll show you with my own body.”
‘…Huh? Show us? What?’
Gang Jinhyeok gestured toward someone.
Then, a female student came up onto the stage with an enraptured smile.
And… the two began to exchange a fierce kiss, as if deliberately showing off.
“……?!”
“Chup, chu-rip, ha-up, uwuu….”
The sticky sound of saliva, amplified through the microphone, filled the auditorium.
In an instant, the air inside the auditorium grew heated.
On a stage watched by thousands of freshmen, the two tangled their tongues together, openly exploring one another.
“Haah, uhn…!”
Whenever the female student’s moan-laced breaths could be heard, rough gasps burst out here and there.
The surprising thing was that no one viewed this scene negatively. Rather, the students watched their act with enthralled eyes.
Some female students were already fondling their own bodies, or grabbing the hand of the opposite sex next to them and pressing close.
‘Are they crazy? They aren’t even trying to hide the hypnosis!’
In the game, this scene had passed by in a single line: ‘The entrance ceremony was completed.’
I never imagined this insane performance would be the main event of the entrance ceremony.
But I couldn’t show my bewilderment.
I was the only one shocked here. If I screamed or stormed out now, I’d be advertising the fact that I wasn’t under hypnosis.
“Chup, puhaa…♡”
After the sticky act continued for quite a while, their lips parted. A silver thread of saliva glinted, reflecting the light.
The female student swayed with completely unfocused eyes. Her legs seemed to have given out, making it hard to stand properly, and she clung to the Student Council President’s chest with an expression soaked in pleasure.
“Did you see? This is the resonance of mana that those who remain faithful to their instincts can obtain.”
Having said that, Gang Jinhyeok erupted with his mana, as if showing it off.
At least for him, instinct was not the wrong word. He possessed a monstrous ability that converted desire into mana.
The students were overwhelmed once again by the overwhelming mana that far surpassed student level.
I was overwhelmed too.
That pressure wasn’t due to hypnosis.
‘Th-that monster… I have to catch him…?’
Seo Eunha’s body’s high mana sensitivity had become a poison.
My body trembled uncontrollably.
“Seize what you desire according to your instinct. That is the Academy’s only rule.”
With those words, his mana was withdrawn. The auditorium lights brightened again.
But even though the pressure was gone, the students remained entangled with one another, unable to shake off the afterglow of hypnosis.
I too sat still with a stiff expression.
“Hey… you’re really pretty.”
A male student sitting right beside me had somehow turned his body toward me.
His eyes, filled with desire, blatantly scanned down my thighs.
“Shall we also try that… resonance the President was talking about?”
Before my answer could come out, his hand reached out.
I finally came to my senses and grabbed the bastard’s wrist like lightning.
‘This bastard, where does he think…!’
I wanted to beat him senseless right then and there, but I held back. Now wasn’t the time to draw attention.
Pretending to be hypnotized, I put on a half-dazed expression and stood up from my seat.
“Ah, I… I’m still a bit shy.”
And then I immediately got up and escaped the auditorium.
Fortunately, it seemed not everyone had been swept away by the hypnosis. Quite a few students were slipping out of the auditorium like me.
Only after leaving the auditorium did the breath I’d been holding burst out.
“Haah… haah… what the hell kind of mess is this, starting from the entrance ceremony.”
To think this kind of thing was reality.
I pressed my trembling hand against my chest. The tight buttons of my blouse felt like they were choking me.
I had thought simply clearing the game would be enough… but the game becoming reality brought far more changes than I’d expected.
It was then.
“Hey… do you think this is a bit much too?”
I flinched at the familiar voice and turned my head.