Academy's Drunk Fighter-Chapter 30: First Crisis (2)

“Ughhh...”

I put way too much faith in my own digestive abilities.

Even if it tasted sour, it should’ve been fine if it was in the fridge, right?

I had no idea where in the process it went wrong, but apparently, the porridge had already gone bad from the inside.

“Dear god, why on earth would you eat something like this?”

“Eh? That’s, uh...”

The doctor took one look at my porridge and recoiled in horror, looking like he wanted to chuck it straight into the food waste bin.

“It’s not that bad, is it...?”

Still, it was technically the first food I made in this world—wait, no, that would’ve been the liquor chocolates.

“And what exactly... did you put in this?”

When I honestly answered his question, his expression rotted further with every single word.

“Why the hell would you put that in food...”

“I-it’s kinda... not... terrible...”

His face looked downright grim, and I had no choice but to give up on the porridge.

“I hate to say this, but you should throw out whatever else you’ve got at home too. I’m sure that stuff’s gone bad as well.”

“A-all of it? But it feels like such a waste...”

“Waste... huff...”

The doctor rubbed his forehead, visibly swaying for a second, then let out a sigh and continued.

“Just remember this: if it’s gone bad, toss it out. It’s not food anymore. And if you keep eating like this, you’re gonna be expelling more than you take in.”

“Ah...”

That’s the kind of thing rich people say with a full stomach, but... well, guess I didn’t have a choice.

If food doesn’t serve its purpose as food anymore, then it’s not food. Yeah. Sometimes you have to make bold decisions.

“I’ll prescribe you some medicine. Try eating soft food, like porridge or—”

He trailed off, probably remembering that the reason I was here was because I already ate porridge and got food poisoning.

“...Please tell me you’re not planning to eat that stuff again.”

“I’m not that far gone, you know.”

“Well, thank god for that.”

He still looked super unconvinced, but honestly, even I couldn’t argue with him there.

Rustle.

I ripped the prescription slip from the form the doctor handed me, picked up the medicine at the pharmacy, and laid down for a bit.

This content is taken from fгeewebnovёl.com.

Then I remembered I had to go pick up the leftover food at Noah’s place, so I headed over to her house.

****

Today, I was out of class due to being sick, so I figured Noah wouldn’t be home—but turns out, she was.

“Noah, senpai.”

“Huh? Didn’t you just come get food not too long ago?”

“That stuff was spoiled.”

“Ah...”

“Did you happen to eat any? If you did, I should probably repay you or something...”

“I didn’t really eat any.”

Whew. That was a relief.

If she had eaten it, I might’ve had to seriously compensate her somehow.

“Wait, did it really taste off? When I ate it, aside from a bit of sourness, it seemed fine...”

“Hmm... maybe?”

She made a strange face as I pulled the pot out of the fridge completely.

The cool metal touched my forehead, and a chilly sensation spread through my body.

“Ughh!”

“Are you really gonna carry that by yourself?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Didn’t you struggle with it last time too?”

“This time’s... a little different.”

I’ve built up some strength wearing that cultist mask now and then, and my stat boosts from resisting that brainwashing last time really helped.

The difference between me now and back then is big enough that I could probably take on two of my old selves at once.

So a steel pot like this? Not a big deal anymore.

...Probably.

“You sure you don’t need help?”

“N-no, I’m good. Really.”

But I had overlooked one important detail—my current physical condition.

I was barely holding myself together with alcohol and sheer willpower. I couldn’t really feel it, but my body was in a pretty bad state.

The heat radiating from my face wasn’t even showing up on the outside.

So it felt just as heavy as it did the first time I carried this damn pot from Noah’s place.

“...Really?”

Of course, Noah had no way of knowing that, so even though she looked worried, she didn’t say anything more.

“By the way, what are you working on right now? And weren’t there classes today?”

Her computer screen was filled with rows of numbers and spreadsheets—some kind of analysis I definitely couldn’t understand.

“Oh, the Academy Festival’s coming up. I won’t have time later, so I skipped today.”

“The Academy Festival, huh...”

Right. I’d forgotten all about that.

It was coming up in about a month.

That meant it would happen a few weeks after the upcoming terror attack in the story.

In a typical novel or comic, hosting a school festival less than a month after a terror attack would be absolutely insane.

It’s risky, and no one knows when the next attack could happen—so running a big public event is a huge gamble.

But this was Central Academy.

Here, if something like that does happen, the security gets ramped up to extreme levels, so it’s actually doable.

Of course, entry from outsiders would be restricted, but still.

It was basically a way of saying: “Come if you dare. Just know we’ll wipe your whole group off the map if we catch you.”

Because of that, actual attacks during the festival were extremely rare.

And even if they did happen, they were never large-scale.

But more than anything else, what I was really curious about was...

“Do they sell alcohol at the festival?”

Like, food and booze.

There were a bunch of shops in the game, but not all of them were interactable, so I didn’t know if there was a liquor stall or not.

I really hoped there was.

Plus, since it was an Academy-hosted event, everything would be sold at prices way cheaper than usual.

Naturally, no outside vendors were allowed.

If I could buy alcohol in bulk for cheap, I could maybe stop my wallet from getting even thinner.

“Hmm... I’m not sure. That’s something the commerce department handles...”

“Wow, that’s... surprisingly complicated.”

Even for a festival run by a single school, they had to coordinate with the entire surrounding marketplace?

“There might be space for one vendor. Why? Are you planning to drink?”

“Ah... that’s...”

I’d gotten a bit too excited and accidentally let my real intentions slip.

“Hmm. Anyway. I’ll check on it later.”

“O-oh, okay...”

Thankfully, she let it go.

Phew. Gotta be more careful.

Then Noah suddenly asked me something.

“Hey, Esha. Do you... not carry a phone?”

“Yeah, I don’t. Why?”

I was a little thrown by the sudden question but answered honestly.

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why...?”

Obviously, I didn’t have the money to buy a phone or pay for a mobile plan. Wasn’t that obvious?

“Mobile... plan?”

But when she heard my answer, Noah tilted her head with a blank look on her face.

“Yeah, a plan... Wait—”

Hold on. Right. This wasn’t Korea.

So there weren’t any of the Big Three telecom companies either?

Honestly, I’d been living such a completely offline, feral life that I had no clue how the world actually worked around here.

I kind of wanted to know if they had forums or anything like that in this world, but even that felt like a waste of money I didn’t have—forget even stepping foot into an internet café.

So my entire source of information was just whatever gossip happened to drift by.

I’d never actually looked anything up myself. Not even once.

Am I... just an idiot?

Noah’s question snapped me out of a state I hadn’t even realized I was in—so used to living like this that the very idea of looking something up never even crossed my mind anymore.

But now? I actually had a little money. I could finally look stuff up. Maybe even do something fun...!

Sure, I wasn’t rolling in cash, but I wasn’t completely broke anymore either.

“No, I mean, you still pay the bill, but if you’re a student here at the Academy, they’ll give you a basic phone for free.”

“Wait—what happens to the data on it later?”

“You can factory reset it, or you can pay to keep it. But people usually don’t try to sneak them out. After all, if you’re graduating from Central Academy, ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) it’s kind of a given that you’re not exactly strapped for cash at that point.”

“Ah...”

“Oh, and I think they give you a student discount on the plan, too. Show your ID and it’s like... 90% off?”

“What the fuck.”

“...What?”

“Ah—nothing.”

I was so shocked I swore without even realizing it.

Seriously? A ninety percent discount just for being an Academy student? What the hell were they even making off that?

No wonder people would do anything to get into this place.

“If they give that kind of discount, how do they even profit?”

“Oh, there was something the Vice Chancellor said once... hold on a sec.”

She scrolled through a few documents in a folder on her desktop and pulled one up.

“Wait, you archive all the official statements?”

“Of course. That way it’s easier to cite them or refute things or handle contracts later on.”

Click.

Then one line appeared on the screen.

[“If we give this much away, what do we have left?”]

[“Isn’t what we have left... all of you?”]

“That’s fucking awesome.”

That same day, I went to one of the Academy shops and got myself a phone.

Total cost? Twenty thousand won.

That included both the device and the first month of service.

Sure, I picked the cheapest model, but still. Being able to access the entire digital world for twenty bucks a month? That was insane.

And next month, it’d just be the plan fee, so it’d be even less.

“You already bought a phone?”

“Better to act fast with this kind of thing.”

“Hmm... then, want to trade numbers?”

“Oh.”

I mean, I had asked girls for their numbers before, but it had to be decades ago at this point.

Was there ever a phrase in this entire life that made my heart race more than that?

A cool, soft-spoken girl with dark blue hair and a brain to match... asking to exchange phone numbers?

“Hell yes!”

Obviously, I had no reason to say no.