Chapter 23: Prelude [2]
I then started to make my preparations. As of now, staying here would be the best choice. But it'll be for the best if I were to stay away from Red.
Anyways, they already went out of the classroom to deal with something, presumably with the monsters that started attacking the building.
Boom!
"Kyaaa!"
Along with an explosion, we heard a loud scream. Right now, we are at the second floor. The explosion seems to have occured on the first floor.
"Monsters! Monsters!"
"Goblins, Kobolds! The ones in the games!"
"Who the fuck did say that they were just cannon fodders!"
Boom! Boom!
I saw through the window that outside, there are countless fireballs that are targeting the school building.
"Everyone grab a weapon to defend yourself!"
As the homeroom teacher had seen that, he said it immediately.
Many students scrambled to search for a weapon. Some broke a leg of chair, some grabbed their scissors, and someone even brought out a.. M9?
"A gun?!"
"Don't be mistaken! This is only for my self defense purposes!"
Fear spread throughout the room. The one who said that is the Silent Kid in the class who's always alone.
Bro, a gun?! We all know you're gonna play a certain catchy song in your earphones before pulling out that gun!
Thank goodness there's no bullies in my class.
Anyways, the students resumed scrambling for weapons.
Boom! Boom!
More and more explosions occured in the building. I don't know if they got a foundation, but the classroom shook.
"Everyone, get out!"
Our homeroom teacher said hurriedly. As he opened the door, we all saw that many students are also rushing to go down, fearing that the building would go down.
We got out and rushed to the staircase.
Boom!
The building shook as well. This time, its stronger.
"Argh!"
"Don't kill me!"
"Stop!"
We now reached the first floor, but what we saw is a horrible mess. Bloody sight was what greeted me. Some corpses of the students are mangled, some are burnt, some has many darts, and so on.
My guilty conscience kicked in. What would've happened if I just saved them? The enemies are just F+ and E+ Rank mobs.
I don't know, but for the first time, I felt an inner conflict boiling in me.
"Students, go back up!"
Seeing that there are so many projectiles coming at them, our homeroom teacher told us to go back. Even the other teachers who had led the other students are also telling them to go back, so that they can have a cover.
Many are rushing back to the staircase, but it got flooded so bad that some were already hit by the projectiles. That's why some just opted to go inside the first floor classrooms.
When many thought that this is the end of them, a resounding boom sounded.
Boom!
It was an explosion. As the dust cleared up, many saw who was behind it. It was Red. He had killed the one with the strongest rank out here, 4 D+ Rank Orcs and 1 D+ Rank Orc Shaman, after 5 minutes and went back here.
Not only that, there's also frost that covered many Goblin shamans and Kobold mages, freezing them to death. There's also the 4-element spells being casted, killing yet another huge amount of monsters.
A shadow blinked unto every monsters at full speed, beheading them.
Silence is all that could be heard from the students and teachers. They focused on the sight so much that they forgot their current predicament.
As for me, I went back upstairs; not to the second floor, but to the rooftop floor.
Looking at the mess below, I felt guilt. Should've I helped? If I did help, I will definitely affect the MC's plan from the start. Since there's no butterfly effect on the beginning, it will be easier to do things into his favor.
I can also see that he's a man of justice. That's why I'm confident that the things that he would do would be helpful against the calamity.
....
In the end, I didn't intervene. I let the students die for the sake of a favorable future.
[Decisiveness].
I activated my [Decisiveness] that was cancelled during the time we went downstairs so that my panic would look realistic as well.
Since I didn't want to do anything astray of the MC's plans, I put in effort to myself too so that I won't cause any butterfly effects.
Thanks to my [Decisiveness], I couldn't feel negative emotions such as remorse, depression, sadness, guilt, and so on. But then, I also couldn't feel any positive feelings as of right now.
This should be a state of emotionlessness.
As I sat down on the rooftop with blank eyes, I saw a message in my sight.
{It's all right, master. Don't blame yourself too hard.}
"Xiao Song?"
{You are a person who had passed the former master's Personality test. You are definitely a good person.}
"Me, a good person? I only wanted the survival of myself and my loved ones in the calamity."
{You might not notice it now, but you will later. You've done this for the sake of a bigger plan, right?}
"Yes."
In the end, I admitted it. I didn't want to affect the foundation of our Protagonist's strength. He will gather talented people here, gain strength, and fight the calamity in the future.
{Then, that's it. Even my former master can't save everyone, so don't be too hard in yourself.}
"Thanks, Xiao Song."
****
After exactly 10 minutes, every single mob was cleaned up. Many students sighed out of relief, as they had just experienced a life and death situation.
I also went downstairs with my [Decisiveness] still activated. I felt that I shouldn't deactivate it until I resolve my feelings first.
As I reach the first floor, I found out that most students were gathered on the empty plot of land in front of the school with Red in front of them. I joined them too.
"As you can see, we all got transported into another world. This isn't a dream, it's true. Everyone should wake up and start preparing for our survival."
"Ma-may I ask a question?"
One of my male classmates who loves reading novels raised a hand and asked. Most are shocked by Red's combat prowess, that's why only he took the opportunity to ask a question.
"Yes?"
"Magic and skills. How do we get them?"
"Nice question. I ask everyone to stay quiet for a while, as I will explain how to do so.
Swords and magic, superpowers, and magical beasts. They are all present in our modern society, even before all this. As for how we acquire those, its simple actually.
You all need to perceive your "talents". If you have an elemental control, you're a mage. If you have a weapon mastery, you're a warrior."
Red then explained some things to others. Thanks to it, I got a good grasp of the situation in our world.
"Now, all the names that I would call should gather where Scarlet is."
At his words, Scarlet waved at them from 100m here.
Red took the position of a leader perfectly. With his strong combat prowess, plus him explaining everything patiently, many liked him already.
"Misha from 2-1, Allen from 3-2, Natasha fron 1-1... Lugh from 1-2,.."
Surprisingly, my name got called. I deactivated my [Decisiveness] so that I won't act abnormal. Immediately, I became pale. Thanks to my Mental Aspects growing in the past 7 months of training, I didn't shiver nor felt bad as before.
Since I am in the front already, Dan(Aria), who's my friend, noticed my condition.
"Are you alright?"
"No, It's alright. Just seen so many things today."
"I see.."
Just when I got called, Dan(Aria) stood beside me. Maybe it's also his way of protecting his friend since he went as far as to show everyone that we're friends.
Based on some post-apocalyptic novels that I've seen, there will definitely be unruly people here. That's why I'm thankful for him since I won't need to affect the storyline greatly.
Red then went to the place where the ines that he called are gathered.
"Listen, everyone. The reason why I chose you is that, you are all a good person with enough talent. You will be the temporary officers here that would enforce order before we get out of here. As for my help, here you go."
Red made dozens of light orbs, one for each person that he called. It then got absorbed into our heads one by one.
[Detected chunk of knowledge. 3 techniques detected, with each costing 8,000 exp to comprehend at Initiate-Level Mastery. Continue?]
[Dagger Mirage (Gold)]
-Allows the practitioner to form 12 additional daggers, each having the sensation of a real one. If the opponents think it's real, it will damage them. Otherwise, it will just distract them.
-Damage is limited to A+ Rank.
[Assassin's Foot (Gold)]
-A certain assassin's footwork. Allows the practitioner to move very fast while being in stealth.
[Cold Heart (Gold)]
-Allows the user to enter stealth mode on a "dead state". Even your heart or your pulse won't be discovered, thus making this a good technique.
[Cultivation Basics—Aura (Gold)]
-Contains the basics of Aura cultivation. This is a more stable and faster method than most gold-ranked techniques. If you complete your foundation with this, you will become much stronger in your realm.
Goodness. He not only gave us 3 techniques each, but also a Gold-ranked Cultivation method? With the light ball, he also gave us more important information, such as the more detailed version of the real world situation, the ranks of techniques, and so on. He then proceeded to give us cold metal weapons that he got from somewhere else, probably his space artifact. I guess that it could pierce through F+ Rank monsters at most, wow.
"In case you guys might wonder, but I do have an eye for good people. That's my trait. I hope that everyone will maintain order during the times that we are here. Let's work together."
""Understood!""
All of us shouted. He gained the favor of these guys already due to what he did, plus his intentions also aligns to theirs, causing them to accept Red completely.
Red then let us off, saying that we should try out the things that he gave first so that we'll gain power.
Sigh.. A generous regressor? This is the first time that I'm seeing this, as most would probably be a selfish one..
After this, "The Keeper of Order" was made. It refers to the more than 80 people that he chose who would maintain order for the time being. It turned nighttime, so I got ready to sleep after my guard duty.
Since it's the other world, we were all assigned a certain guard duty schedule. There would be 20 people per cycle. 8 would be on the rooftop, detecting some enemies, and the rest would be scattered on the building hallways. As for Red and the others who are at E+ Rank, they guarded the first floor hallway. Who knows whether a surprise attack would happen.
I then prepared to Return. 8 hours here would be 30 days in the other world plus the fact that master casted another 10 times Time Ratio, I would train for another 150 days in one night since I could only sleep for 4 hours right now.
The day that master would give me a fresh Exp bag would come too.
'Return.'
In an instant, my consciousness faded.