My Roleplay System
Chapter 160: Broken Era

Chapter 160: Chapter 160: Broken Era

"Ah, that sure was fun. Don’t you think so too, Boss?" Allen said.

Bradford was using a towel to dry his hair as he looked at Allen, who had spread out on his bed.

"It was fun," Bradford replied after shaking his head helplessly. "But we still have some more work to do, so don’t get lazy yet."

"Yeah, yeah. I’m just taking a short break." Allen waved his hand dismissively before dropping it back down onto the bed.

"Do you think that’s how Lake’s training sessions usually go?" Allen asked with a hint of reminiscence on his face.

Both Allen and Bradford had taken part in Lake’s late-night hunting event on a whim and had experienced something truly extraordinary as a result. Running through the field in the late night, they watched as students, who only knew how to escape, slowly turned around one by one before eventually fighting back against the predators that had chased them down.

They would fight, fail, recover, and repeat until they eventually succeeded after countless attempts. If they got injured, Lake would appear, and with his strange ability, he would heal all wounds before throwing them into the mouth of the beast again. They would continue this cycle until they eventually climbed out on their own, slaying the beast before them.

Although this training method was extremely brutal and rough, both Bradford and Allen had to admit to its effectiveness in helping everyone out of their current slump.

After all, more than an entire day had passed, yet only a few students managed to hunt one or two beasts during that time, but in one night, Lake had led them all to hunt more than a hundred beasts!

Bradford remained silent at Allen’s comment. He still didn’t know what to think of this mysterious classmate of his. Last time he talked to Lake, he had rejected his invitation to join the training camp.

This wasn’t to say he looked down on Lake’s training methods, but quite the opposite, he appreciated them.

’The problem is the level of difficulty is still too low for me to benefit.’

Bradford had a wry smile when he thought of this. It was true that Lake’s training method was extremely effective for the first year, and would probably benefit even the second and third years, but that wasn’t the case for him.

Lake’s training was designed to efficiently and rapidly grow the experience and strength of the students, turning them into a group of "veteran soldiers."

That’s right, Bradford had picked up on Lake’s scheme long ago but saw no need to interfere. Although he didn’t know why Lake was trying to train the students and take them under his control, he didn’t see any problems with it, at least, none that bothered him.

After all, Lake’s training has proven to be effective, and it wasn’t like he forced anyone to go under any unfair contract under him. The students just have to make sure to show up for training, and they would get stronger.

In return, if they wanted to follow Lake or join the Blackheart Guild after the whole training session event ended, then they were also free to do so, and if they didn’t, Lake wasn’t going to pursue the matter.

However, whether they could leave on their own after getting a taste of Lake’s training was a different matter. Gaining power was like a drug, and under Lake’s training aimed at accelerated growth, it wouldn’t be surprising if every student had already become addicted.

"I’m sure the other guilds and the students’ families would have a "lot" to say to Lake if they ever found out what was going on inside the Academy."

The corner of Bradford’s lips curled up slightly as an amusing scene appeared in his mind.

Whether Lake’s scheme succeeded or not, it didn’t matter to him anyway. His own training method was also equally effective for him—no, it was better, as it was tailor-made to maximize his own growth.

This was the reason why he didn’t join Lake’s training session when he had extended a hand.

For now, Bradford decided to halt his thoughts on the matter and examine the daily report sent by the Academy, containing data from yesterday’s hunting. He planned to reflect on his past battle through the report.

As he placed his towel on a chair and was about to sit down on his bed to go through his report, however, a loud shout sounded out from the hallway, startling both him and Allen to jump up.

"GET THE FUCK OUT!"

Bradford and Allen stared at each other for a moment before jumping up to open the door.

Taking a peek through the cracks, the two of them could see that everyone else who had returned to the inn had also come out to see what was going on.

Bradford’s and Allen’s room was located the furthest down from the staircase; that’s why they had to stretch out to see what was happening.

Looking down the hall, they saw a book with its corners weirdly deformed as if it had been slammed against the wall. The book lay flat on the floor across a wide-open door where they could barely see the familiar back of one of their classmates.

"Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear," Allen whispered out as they had just been talking about this particular classmate mere moments ago.

Watching the "demon" entering what they knew to be their teacher’s room, they couldn’t help but give a silent prayer for Alec.

They could already guess who shouted out earlier after taking everything in.

"Hey, do you think Lake has something against Teach?" Allen asked as he felt his mouth turn dry.

Bradford shook his head in response as he watched Lake enter the room completely, the door closing behind him.

"I don’t know if he has something against Teach or not, but it seems that he must have royally pissed him off this time."

When Allen heard that, he couldn’t help but turn his head to the wall opposite the teacher’s room.

The book had smashed into the stone wall, cracks now covering it like cobwebs as dust trickled down the side.

"Definitely pissed him off," Allen spoke as everyone who had snuck their heads out, Bradford and Allen included, slowly retreated inside and quietly closed their doors.

****

(First Person POV:)

I walked into the room, closing the door behind me.

Alec was still fuming at the nose but seemed to have regained some rationality, as he didn’t act up after throwing the book at me.

I couldn’t blame him for acting that way, though. After all, only last night did we have a talk about calling it even between us, yet here I was stumbling into his room with the clear intent to cause more trouble.

"Have you calmed down yet, Teach?"

Alec shot me another glare after hearing my question as he massaged his temples with a frustrated expression on his head.

"Are you really asking that after what you did last night?"

"Last night, what are you talking—" I cut myself off as I suddenly thought of something.

Alec, looking at my still frozen smile, seemed to have figured out that I had only just come to a realization.

Last night, I had hosted the late-night hunting event with the rest of the students in an exam where each student was supposed to hunt monsters to achieve a certain point quota.

They either did this by working in teams of up to five or by themselves. However, my late-night hunting event had encompassed every student taking part in the exam, but since we didn’t officially team up, the points from each student were distributed weirdly. After all, just because each student hunted on their own didn’t mean that the team they had formed previously had suddenly been disbanded.

The teachers who received the point data from the guardians were probably racking their brains trying to separate the points from the teams from those of the individual students.

Looking at the mountain of paperwork and floating holographic text around Alec, I’m pretty sure Alec is handling most of it. Other instructors likely believe it’s his responsibility since the incident involved a student from his class.

’I guess the instructors were just as hard on their own colleagues as they were on their students.’

At this thought, My smile froze and then turned awkward as I let out a dry laugh.

"Haha... Well— you see, about that—" My voice was cutting off as I tried to come up with the best reply in the shortest time but eventually decided on the simplest one.

"...I’m sorry."

I apologized as I bowed towards Alec.

"...Hah. It’s fine."

Alec sighed at my bow and waved his hand, dismissing the whole matter.

"So, what do I owe the pleasure of this time, Lake?"

Knowing that I had messed up, I thought it would be a bit rude to immediately demand what I want right after, so I decided to change the topic for the moment.

"I was wondering what your outlook on everyone’s results was so far."

"...Is that so?" Alec didn’t seem to believe me, but I continued to stick to it.

"Yeah, after all, I thought you might have a more comprehensive opinion on the matter that could help me further refine my training methods."

"...Hm, I guess that makes some sense. So what exactly do you want to know?"

Seeing that Alec had taken the bait, I sighed internally before continuing to ask him some questions on the students’ development.

"In your opinion, what do you think about the current level of my classmates?" I started off by asking a simple question.

"What I think, you say..." Alec seemed to have fallen in thought as he searched for an appropriate answer.

"If I had to describe it in one word, I would say ’broken’."

I raised my eyebrows at Alec’s surprising answer.

"What do you mean?" I couldn’t help but ask.

"Among the students this year, there are a lot of problematic students, yourself included, that can’t help but create problems."

"Then did you call us that because we’re a bunch of troublemakers?"

"No, if that was the case, then I wouldn’t have called you broken; instead, I would’ve just called you troublesome."

"No, I called you broken, not because of the problems you caused, but because of the limits you’ve surpassed."

"Huh?"

Hearing Alec’s words, I couldn’t help but feel surprised.

"Time and time again, your class has broken past the known ceiling and surpassed your predecessors by an increasingly large gap."

"Just when we thought you would finally slow down, you instead speed up, breaking every norm to achieve your goals."

"But your group is also too troublesome for their own good, creating problems wherever they go."

"In just the one month you’ve been attending the Academy, one student had gone through an unprecedented awakening, jumping straight to the realm of High-Rank Martial Warrior. A training group was formed for the first time in the Academy’s history where you thought such advanced Mana Theory that even your Mana Theory Instructor locked himself up in his room for weeks while trying to figure out the profoundness behind it. Finally, you were also caught up in a terrorist attack only a few days ago and sent waves through the internet with your appearance in the aftermath as the ’savior’."

"If all this is what happens in a month, I can’t help but wonder what would happen in a year. How many rules will you break? How many walls will you destroy if they get in your way? How many limits will you surpass until you’re satisfied?"

"...."

Alec’s words left me speechless. I didn’t know how to reply for a while.

Seeing this, Alec sighed again, "And now, in your end-of-term exam, you’ve caused not two, but three messes. Taming a Rank Two Beast before using it to kill another Rank Two Beast and leading your classmates into the dead of night to commit a mass genocide on the resident beast of the Field."

"You and the class you lead, Lake, are truly a chaotic bunch, so I can’t help but call you broken instead of all the other titles that may fit you better."

"If the third years are considered the Golden Era due to hard work and constant training to advance a bit more, then your year would be the Broken Era. The group that would break past any obstacles in their path, including their own limits, in order to achieve some overall purpose under the lead of their demonic leader, you."