Chapter 038 – To the Hall Plain! #2

After Hyun-Woo had the Voice Amplification Spell casted again, he raised his head and looked at the new users. When they had disabled the spell earlier, no one could hear Hyun-Woo other than those that were next to him.

Compared to when he was dealing with Park Dong-Gul, he seemed more calm and spoke more quietly.

“I understand that you’ve all heard it from the Angels and I know that you have a lot of questions. But, answering all of your questions here would take weeks, even we spent all day answering them.”

Obviously. Since I wanted to enter the User Academy, I quickly agreed with him in my head. Then, as if he had read my mind, he said just what I wanted to hear.

“Also, I’m sure that those who recently passed the Rite of Passage are all very tired. Since all of you agreed to train with us, I’ll only briefly go over our future plans.”

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He cleared his throat, then continued.

“In our large city of Barbara there is an User Academy building. Among the new users, is there anyone who have already heard a brief introduction from the assistant Angels?”

He emphasized on the word assistant. The Users looked around, as one by one, they started to raise their hands. As they talked amongst themselves, the number of hands in the air steadily increased.

Just from a quick glance, more than half of the group had raised their hand. In fact, excluding some sections of the group, others had all raised their hands. This meant they rated the Angels, as well as the User Academy, very highly. Seeing that a good amount of people had raised their hands, Hyun-Woo signaled for them to lower their hands.

“Great. This may sound repetitive to many of you, but this is very important, and there are still those that haven’t heard it yet. I will explain one more time. The User Academy is a training institute that helps new users adapt and survive. Since they are an institute that’s widely recognized for their efficiency, they are obligated to receive compensation.”

I’m not sure who decided that the Academy required compensation, but it’s something I can agree with. It’s usually very rare for users to voluntarily acknowledge and support such an organization.

Hyun-Woo began by talking about academy’s history and its foundation. He then explained in detail in regards to the training as well as the benefits they’ll receive once they graduate. To sum up the important details:

The training period at the User Academy is three months. In the beginning, a user’s skills tend to improve at a fast rate. The Academy provide efficient ways of training for each user according to their skills and their class. As a result, one can expect a faster increase there than training with their bare hands by themselves. Those that receive training at the Academy receive a 20 silver stipend every week. Users that finish the three months training program will receive four attribute points as a reward. This is the general outline.

I honestly just wanted the four points, but as for others, there were many benefits that probably interested them. Although the description of the Academy was exaggerated, they at least provide food, shelter, training and money. These were already a lot of benefits.

Finally, Hyun-Woo explained about how each of the user’s skills had a limit. It meant that, although raising skill points can be done by every user, there is a limit that differed between each user. He ended by explaining that the four points that’s offered as reward should be used carefully since increasing one’s skill point was difficult.

“With that, I have finished explaining your general outline for the next three months. We were originally going to have you all go to your dorms after this, but it seemed like there are some that still have questions. I’ll answer three or four before we head to the A cademy.”

As soon as he said this, a female user that was part of the Long Range fighters quickly raised her hand. I was curious as to what kind of question this impatient girl had to ask. After Hyun-Woo nodded in acknowledgment, the female stood up from her seat and spoke.

“Um…will we…be able…t-to survive and…r-return in…one piece?”

Personally, I was really disappointed by her question. To think she would ask such a ridiculous question… I clicked my tongue at the girl’s idiotic question and observed Hyun-Woo expression. His expression looked really uncomfortable as he looked over at the girl.

Her question made it sound like she hadn’t listened to a word he had said so far. Everyone could tell that he let out a heavy sigh before he answered the question.

“I specifically explained in the beginning that we’re not here to send you home. If I knew how to send people home, would I be standing up here doing this? This is something you new users have to figure out together while spending time at Hall Plain.”

Her cheeks turned red after seeing the pitiful look he gave her. Silence filled the plaza for a brief moment, until a male user from the Spell Caster group raised his hand. He had a clean haircut and looked fairly smart. After Hyun-Woo nodded his head, he stood up and delivered his question.

“I understand that this world we are in now is called Hall Plain. Ordinary people like us are called users. And Barbara is the largest city in the Northern Country. Are there other users like us that live in this city?”

Hyun-Woo nodded his head at the question, then answered.

“No. I’m sure you’ve heard it from the Angels already, but Hall Plain is split up into four countries. Barbara is only the largest city in the Northern Country. Other than this city, there are four mid-sized cities and eight small cities within this country. Users like us have been dispersed throughout those cities. I can’t say that the Northern Country is completely safe, but Korean users do have some degree of control around the cities, so it will be fine.”

“You just said Korean users. Does that mean there are users of other nationalities?”

“Yes. Korean users aren’t the only ones in the Hall Plain. The Eastern Country is controlled by the Japanese users. The Western Country is controlled by the American users. The Southern Country is controlled by the UK users. Of course there are many users of various other nationalities within each country. However, this ethnic divide is how they’re currently separated as a whole.”

The second question wasn’t as useless as I had expected. As soon as the male user bowed and sat back down, Hyun-Woo started observing the new users. Since he said he would only take three or four questions, it’s quite likely that this will be the last question.

Seeing as how no one took the initiative, it seemed like everyone knew it too. Then, Hyun-Woo pointed to someone, and as I turned my head I saw a female user with a hand raised.

I was able to see her face after she stood up; I silently cheered inside my head. That last person to stand up was Kim Han-Byul. With her calm and cold face, she silently observed Hyun-Woo. Since I knew of her keen thinking ability, I was really interested in what she was going to ask. I think the boredom that I felt this whole time finally disappeared.

Her soft lips slightly opened and her beautiful voice escaped through them.

“I heard that all the people here are planning on training at this so-called academy. But, what’s your goal for having us train there?”

As soon as she finished, everyone started whispering amongst themselves. Seeing as most of them scrunched up their face, it seemed like they believed that it was a dumb question. Those people were the ones that didn’t understand the true intention behind her question. The small group of people that actually understood the true meaning of her question quietly awaited for Hyun-Woo’s answer.

I was also surprised by Han-Byul’s keen question. Compared to the expression he had when he was answering the first girl, he looked like he was actually contemplating the question. Seeing as he wet his lips, he must’ve been taken aback.

Han-Byul’s question was deeply calculated. Reason and goal wasn’t as important and reason and true goal. She wasn’t simply asking why they had to get training; she was asking for the real reason behind having the users train there and their purpose for utilizing the academy.

Hyun-Woo hesitated, and kept on opening and closing his mouth. He was very different from when he answered the other questions without a delay. The users started to catch on to his odd behavior since they stopped talking amongst themselves. Slightly uncomfortable, he answered.

“…I have already explained in detail regarding our purpose in utilizing the Academy. The user that asked the question, do you have an issue with the training?”

“It’s not as if I have an issue to talk about. I agree to enter the academy. What I want to hear isn’t how the academy is a necessity; it’s why it is so. Is it truly a training institute that helps new users train and adapt?”

I saw that Hyun-Woo kept his mouth shut. I suddenly recalled her words to me at the hut earlier.

“You’re doing it again. It might work on An Hyun and Yoo-Jung, but it won’t work on me. Don’t try to change the subject.”

Hyun-Woo, too, tried to change the subject. It was like he didn’t know how to answer Han-Byul’s blunt question.

A bitter smile appeared on his face after he bit his lips and kept silent. It was the first time I’ve seen such an interesting expression since entering Hall Plain. Was Han-Byul’s question such a big of a deal that it caused him such internal strife?

Hyun-Woo wet his dry lips with his tongue and answered in a low voice.

“You’ll… naturally find out in time- whether you’ll like it or not.”