Second Draft - Reincarnated Into a Game in Impossible Mode

The weight of the Spiral Academy principal's words was so heavy that no one dared to utter a word. Some students even held their breath.

After pausing just long enough to ensure all students had heard clearly, he continued:

"Today is not the opening ceremony, so I don't have much to say. I only hope you will find a class worthy of your skills and talents."

He began looking from the back row to those in the front. At one point, Ryoshu seemed to feel the teacher's gaze lingering on him.

"We have quite a few promising students here... perhaps this year will be very interesting." The principal looked at the people around him, mainly focusing on some special individuals.

'He must be looking at the protagonist, right?'

But then Ryoshu thought it was probably just an illusion, with five hundred people sitting there. There was no reason the principal would look at someone as unremarkable as him. Unless it was his "distinctive" appearance...

"I'm very much looking forward to your performances today. Shine your brightest... my rough gems." After observing all the students, he continued. Suddenly, the principal raised his left hand to check something that looked like a watch and said:

"The class placement test will begin..." He paused again, perhaps he was someone who liked to make things more suspenseful. And the longer they waited, the denser the Mana around this space became.

His right hand slowly raised toward the sky under everyone's observation. Then, his middle and index fingers touched and held there for a moment.

"Right now."

As soon as the principal finished speaking, once again the sound of a finger snap echoed loudly. Not only Ryoshu but all the students there felt an enormous amount of Mana like Mount Everest appearing around them. And when they blinked, they were already at a completely different location.

It was an abandoned apartment building, looking like a square letter O from above. The middle of the building was empty. And now they were all in the middle of a forest. The forest stretched to the horizon. No matter how much he squinted, he couldn't see what lay beyond.

And perhaps he wasn't the only one wondering about that.

They were on the rooftop of that high-rise building. It must have been thirty stories high, with the wind blowing through eerily cold.

'That high? If someone slips and falls, they'll die instantly?' Ryoshu tried to look down before quickly abandoning that crazy idea.

But in doing so, he inadvertently noticed a white rectangular badge on his shirt with the number 500 written in black ink.

'When did I start wearing this...? I think I saw Esther and Haruki wearing something like this earlier, right? Who put this on me? Or is this automatic?'

At first, his memory betrayed him, so Ryoshu couldn't immediately remember, but when he looked around and especially at the girl with smoky white hair standing with her group of friends, Esther White.

Unlike him, she had the number 001 on her chest. And when he looked at her other friends, there was 002 on the protagonist Haruki's uniform, 003 on Charlotte's. And finally, Volkov Katia with the number 004.

Katia suddenly turned her eyes toward him unintentionally. Ryoshu was lucky to have turned away before their eyes met.

'That was close...'

Ryoshu now realized the meaning of this damn thing.

'I knew this body was weak before... I just didn't expect the theoretical knowledge of this body's original owner to be equally terrible...' He let out a heavy sigh.

Ryoshu could feel a strong current of air powerful enough to kill someone. A figure appearing in the middle of the crowd suddenly caught his eye.

And some random boy standing right there was startled when he saw that powerful appearance before his eyes. The background character fell to the ground and seemed quite terrified.

But contrary to the suspicious appearance of the newcomer, he extended his hand and helped the boy sitting on the ground.

"I'm sorry for giving you such a scare. Haha. I'll be more careful next time."

The self-proclaimed teacher had a rather common scholarly appearance with a square pair of glasses. His hair was black with a slight blue tint.

'Looks bookish... but familiar...' Ryoshu felt this action was somewhat familiar. Usually, teachers weren't very friendly with new students, except for the gems.

But among those teachers, there was one who was different. Only now did he realize who that person was.

'Ah... this is the homeroom teacher of Class A-1 from my batch?'

That supervisor was Takagi Kenzo, a hero from Japan. He is currently teaching at Spiral Academy to learn more about English heroes.

"Alright, hello everyone. Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Takagi Kenzo, one of the only ten SS-rank Awakened in the world. Sounds a bit boastful, huh? Haha."

The students nearby were terrified when they heard that name. Before them now was one of the absurdly powerful existences in the entire world. It's not every day you can meet an A-rank Awakened, let alone S-rank or higher...

Moreover, Takagi Kenzo, an SS+ rank Awakened to be precise, is widely known for his overwhelming power against monsters of varying strengths through his lightning sword technique, Kaminari. Each of his strikes has a wide range and is lethally dangerous.

But the most special thing was his age. He was only in his early thirties.

Usually, it takes people decades and they still might not reach rank A. Yet he effortlessly reached SS+ rank, making Takagi Kenzo the youngest person in the world to achieve this feat.

"Seems like some of you know my name already? Hello everyone, I'm here today as your examiner and evaluator. That's right, today's test is a Combat test."

The teacher's cheerful expression suddenly became much more serious. This made the atmosphere around them fall silent. Seeing that no one asked anything, the supervisor continued:

"Some of you students here must have won against an E-rank monster or higher. Because of that, you've become quite arrogant about your combat abilities. But in reality, you've only fought against weak monster species like Slimes or at most Goblins. You've never encountered higher-grade monster species. For example, like Trolls or Hobgoblins."

Suddenly, images of a Troll and a Hobgoblin appeared towering before Ryoshu's eyes. Each of these species was three to four times taller than humans.

'Is this an illusion?' He stood closer to look more carefully. Meanwhile, the more timid students had unconsciously taken several steps back.

The teacher carefully scanned the reactions of the students. Then, he returned to his task:

"The power gap between weak species and mid-tier ones is almost like comparing grass to the vast sky. And remember... in the future Temples, there will be many completely new monster species. The combat experience with monsters now can be said to be useless if applied there."

Those images quickly changed to strange monster species that no one had ever seen before. Except for Ryoshu, who recognized those monsters.

'Voidwalker...? Are they appearing this early?' He rubbed his chin while pondering something.

But the teacher continued his explanation, interrupting Ryoshu's train of thought:

"And humans are no exception. There are E-rank awakened who are weaker than other E-ranks. In fact, the power gap between them is very large. So from what I've just said... Can you draw any conclusions?"

Some students began to think deeply. Some people guessed answers but they didn't quite match the teacher's expectations. Some discussed with friends to reach a conclusion. But it was too late when Esther, the number 1 student in the entrance exam gave an answer.

"Sir... is it that... Stats are not the decisive factor in determining the strength of a person... or creature?"

Takagi Kenzo listened with a smile. He seemed very pleased with the white-haired girl's answer.

"That's right, stats aren't everything... your combat ability lies in other things as well. Combat experience, strategy, advantages, disadvantages, equipment, and skills. And as for skills, you must already have one or two skills. Potentials, Traits, or even rarer, Innate Abilities."

The teacher summoned floating swords in the air. Then they began to move according to his will.

"This is my Talent, 'Master of Swords'."

Each sword moved smoothly as if dancing. They didn't simply move mindlessly. They were cooperating with each other and creating different sword techniques as if they had souls.

"Talent can be present when we are born... like destiny. Or they will appear from a Potential or Trait that we have honed for decades. But even I don't know the exact conditions under which an Talent will appear. So just keep training your hardest." Kenzo finished speaking and put away all the swords. They disappeared as if they had never existed.

"But I've digressed a bit. Today you will be tested on your combat abilities. First, please take a weapon of your choice."

A series of different weapons appeared for each person to choose from. The weapons were all of identical quality, none better than the others. Because of this, Ryoshu didn't hesitate and immediately chose a bow for himself.

If properly compared, the design of this bow fell far short compared to Fumiya. But that comparison was also somewhat unfair because his weapon was a soul weapon while this weapon was mass-produced for 500 students.

'Thankfully... Fumiya has listened to me and doesn't appear randomly anymore.'

Before getting on the bus, he had carefully instructed Fumiya that it could only reveal itself when he gave permission.

After all the students had chosen their weapons, Kenzo suddenly pointed at everyone present and continued:

"All 500 of you... will fight against me."

"WHAT!!!" All the students exclaimed in unison.

"Don't worry, I'll wear a ring that reduces all my main stats to F-rank, the rank of most of you here."

True to his word, Kenzo immediately put the ring on his finger. His enormous power had now been downgraded to a tolerable level. Before that, Ryoshu would have almost been unable to breathe just because of the teacher's presence.

"You can do whatever you want. You can fight alone or in groups. I don't care. But I also advise fighting in teams with proper strategies. However, remember that this test still doesn't grade by group. It's based on individual performance. Please keep that in mind." The teacher carefully emphasized each word as if afraid someone would overlook them.

And right after that, Kenzo added:

"Your goal is to try to hit me... as many times as possible. Although I rather doubt you can do that. So whoever hits me will immediately enter Class A-1!"

Everyone around him simultaneously gulped. That was almost everyone's goal when coming here.

A-1 was the most special class in the A block. Students in this class were the most talented and received the most privileges in the academy. Rare resources were also poured into Class A-1 more than regular classes. It was also the place where main and supporting characters occupied more than half the class.

"You feel more excited, don't you? The requirement is so easy. Hit me once and you'll enter Class A-1!"

Hearing this, Ryoshu also felt a bit greedy. Initially, he only intended to enter the A block... and that was already a super difficult challenge for an ordinary person like him. From the beginning, he just needed to be close to the main characters, not necessarily in the same class...

Teacher Kenzo was about to begin when he suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, and I forgot, you're probably wondering where we are right now, right? This is a virtual space created by the principal. So feel free to go all out! And also remember this. You will be eliminated immediately if the weapon in your hand is destroyed or if you are knocked out or killed." His words brought him and all 500 students back to the harsh reality.

Ryoshu could clearly see the caution of the students here. They gripped their weapons tightly as if afraid the supervising teacher would destroy them. Because even though he had been reduced to F-rank, his skills were still there.

"Why are you all so scared... alright. I will only use the first two forms of the Kaminari sword technique. I've been reduced to F-rank, so my sword technique isn't as strong as before."

Some people became a little more relaxed. Perhaps even a bit too relaxed. They became contemptuous of this challenge because it seemed too easy.

Ryoshu also didn't know what the challenge would be like because this part belonged to before the game's plot began. So this was his first time taking on a challenge without any specific information about it.

'I'll just do my best... try to score enough points to enter Class A... that's enough.' He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Alright! The challenge begins in 5 seconds. But I'll give you an extra minute to run away and form groups. But if you attack right away, I won't hesitate to retaliate."

The teacher raised his hand to the sky and tried to stabilize the chaotic atmosphere.

"5... 4..."

While he was counting, people began to scatter like a broken market. Some ran down the stairs, others jumped directly down. He didn't have any particularly notable reaction but just continued with his job.

"3... 2..." Kenzo emphasized for a moment and then gave the final command.

"1!"