Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After safely clearing the test, we were given a short break.

The third stage was nothing more than an explanation of consumables and equipment, so there was no need to speedrun it.

That also meant there was no real reward to speak of, but if we wanted, we could rest as long as we liked.

So I found myself lost in thought for a moment.

Because of the second test.

‘Did Herman not say there were other possessors here besides me?’

If what Herman said was true, then there should have been others who had possessed bodies before me.

They would have passed through the Selection Grounds as well, but even if the first test could be explained away, the fact that the record for the second was three hours felt strange.

‘If it was them, they should have known all the strategies already.’

Of course, I was the only one with a record in the three-minute range, but I distinctly remembered that there had been quite a few people in the four-minute range.

It was difficult to imagine why seasoned veterans who had even ended up possessing bodies would have taken three whole hours.

“Is it really okay for us not to move? Would it not be better to rest in the next testing area?”

[We are taking the third test here too.]

The second and third tests took place in the same location.

The intent behind it was obvious.

After just finishing a fight, an ordinary beginner would usually have lost some stamina and some durability on their equipment. They would probably be thirsty too, even if the damage they took was tiny.

Things like using consumables and enhancing gear were naturally taught throughout the flow of the tutorial as they became necessary.

The difficulty was wretched, but the route design was actually quite solid.

[There is still some time before the others arrive, so get a little rest.]

“Mmm~ It is not like I am that tired, though.”

Well, to be fair, the test itself had taken only five or six minutes at most.

We could have pushed forward just as we were, but I still recommended resting.

Sitting across from me, she spoke.

“Hey, can I ask just one thing?”

[What is it?]

“Why did you choose me back then?”

She seemed curious why, out of all the weapons, I had been the only one to shine for her.

[Because there was no one else.]

From the moment I realized through Persica that this era matched the game’s timeline, my choice had already been made.

Back then and now, she had always been my number one pick.

[Whether you came here against your will. Whatever it is you wish for. Whatever illness you may be suffering from.]

“......”

[I would have chosen you without hesitation.]

Her face went blank.

She had never told me, but I already knew everything about her circumstances.

The girl blinked a few times, her eyes round with surprise, then smiled brightly and gripped my hilt tightly.

“I knew it...... I think I was right to come here.”

She looked genuinely pleased as she said it with a soft smile, but I did not answer.

No matter how she phrased it, coming here had been undeniably terrible luck for her.

‘She was an orphan with no family and no relatives.’

Before coming to the Selection Grounds, she had been a drifter with no permanent home.

Then one day, while barely scraping by from one day to the next, she discovered far too late that she possessed talent.

The potential to master anything she learned.

A dazzling gift that would have earned her love no matter whose personal disciple she became.

And yet, as if the world itself did not wish for her happiness, it burdened her with an incurable disease.

I did not know whether she had fallen into despair after learning that.

But at the very least, she must have understood that the Selection Grounds were the only option she had left.

‘An unavoidable fate.’

The Selection Grounds were a dangerous trial where countless casualties occurred every single time they were held.

To enter a place like this with neither information nor support was, in truth, no different from suicide.

“Hey, were you perhaps pitying me?”

[No.]

“Then?”

[I just wanted to.]

We were similar, and yet different.

Unlike me, who could never fully recover, she would overcome her illness and begin anew the moment she graduated from the Selection Grounds.

She could see many things, feel many things, and freely enjoy the wide world.

She could live the life I never could.

“Wow, I almost fell for you. Thanks to you, I even got to hear something that made my heart flutter before I die.”

[You are not going to die.]

“Hm?”

[I am going to make sure you leave this place alive.]

From the moment she drew me, she was destined to finish the tutorial no matter what.

There would be no quitting halfway. No failure.

I would not allow it.

“Really? Then once I get out of here-”

[Stop.]

“Hm?”

[Do not even start saying things like once I get out of here~ or if I make it back alive~]

Were you trying to set a death flag without even realizing it?

I stopped the girl before she could unwittingly doom herself.

[Stop talking nonsense and get some rest. Chances like this do not come often.]

“You are so mean~”

Thanks to the cold-weather gear, there was no need to worry about hypothermia.

We quietly rested for a day, then began the next test early the following morning.

***

[Let us check the reward first.]

Just like the first test, the second one also had a first-place reward.

The rewards were usually designed to help with the next stage, and this time it was two somewhat high-performance potions and a fairly decent enhancement stone.

[Keep the potions. We will need them later.]

If this were the game, a tooltip would probably pop up saying something like, ‘Drinking a potion restores lost health and mana!’

An ordinary player would have used them all here, but since the girl had not taken a single hit thanks to my guidance, there was no need.

She immediately tucked both consumables into her pocket just as I told her.

“What about this little rock?”

[That is the highlight of this test.]

The enhancement stone’s purpose was as simple as its name suggested. It enhanced weapons.

Using it was not difficult either. You just pressed it against a piece of equipment.

“Hmm...... Can this enhancement fail?”

[Of course it can.]

“And what happens if it fails?”

[The weapon breaks.]

“Gasp! Then would that not mean you die?”

Probably, yes.

Of course, the enhancement rate in the tutorial was fixed at one hundred percent, so it was a pointless concern.

“What? Now I worried for nothing!”

[Go ahead and try it. I will show you something interesting.]

“Hm? Something interesting?”

When the girl pressed the enhancement stone against my blade, a clear light began to shine.

If she simply pushed it in like this, the enhancement would be completed, but I had no intention of wasting the stone so simply.

There was a bug I could use here.

‘This one had been an absurd bug too.’

The so-called ‘Swap’ bug.

Ethrana Exodus was miraculously coded in such a way that every object capable of growth was lumped together under the same category, and the Swap bug exploited that very weakness.

The way to trigger it was simple.

You dropped the target weapon on the ground at the exact moment just before enhancement completed.

‘If it was merely unequipped, the system would just call it back, but something that had been thrown away was different.’

Once enhancement began, it could not be canceled, so in a normal case like that, the rule was that the enhancement would fail and only the resources would be lost...... but the problem was that this did not work inside the Selection Grounds.

Here, the enhancement chance was fixed at one hundred percent, so the system had to force it to succeed somehow, which meant it would automatically search for another valid target it could enhance.

‘But there are no other weapons here.’

The only equipment affected by enhancement was weapons, and inside the Selection Grounds, you only had one.

Since the enhancement could not fail and there was no other target, the system would resort to one final measure and search for something else whose stats could be increased.

And there was exactly one such thing.

An object classified the same as a weapon, and one that was capable of growth.

‘My character.’

If the bug triggered, the utterly ridiculous sight of the character portrait from the status window being equipped in place of the weapon would appear.

And if you just left it like that, the enhancement would succeed, and the character’s stats would be inflated in the most absurd way imaginable.

The character would be enhanced in place of the weapon.

“You are saying I get enhanced instead of the weapon......?”

[I know it sounds strange, but there is no problem with it, so do not worry.]

I had already tested it countless times, so she could trust me.

And naturally so. For the protagonist character, who could not change weapons, the Swap bug that massively inflated raw stats had been like rain after a drought.

In Ethrana Exodus, this bug had practically been a mandatory part of the route.

Hummmm-

Just as I had described, the enhancement was activated.

I was so used to it I did not even need to time it consciously.

[Now. Drop me.]

Just before the enhancement completed, she let me fall to the ground.

Then the light from the enhancement stone, which should have settled into the weapon, lost its destination and drifted for a moment before sinking directly into her body.

[How do you feel?]

“Wow......? My body feels incredibly light!”

Of course it did. Every part of her physical ability had just increased by one and a half times.

Enhancement scaled proportionally with stats, so when applied directly to a character, the efficiency became absolutely insane.

“Ahaha, this is amazing! I guess the Golden Rule breaking does not mean only bad things happen?”

[That is true enough.]

It was almost a shame this could only be used inside the Selection Grounds, because in terms of raw effect, it was outstanding.

Once I posted a guide on the community boards, it had practically become required strategy knowledge.

[There will be a few more chances to enhance later, so look forward to it.]

“Mhm, mhm. But hey, is it not funny?”

[What is?]

“If I was enhanced instead of the weapon just now, then that means the person and the weapon got switched around, right? It is funny how the master and servant got reversed~”

[Well, I suppose you could look at it tha-]

In that instant, seeing her reach down to pick me up again, I shouted quickly.

[Stop!]

“Hm? Why?”

She asked in confusion, but I could not answer right away.

That was not the full extent of the Swap bug’s effect.

As she had just said, this bug reversed master and servant.

If the portrait were unequipped now, everything would return to normal, but what if she picked the weapon up first?

[...You cannot pick me up right now.]

Astonishingly enough, the weapon would not go into the inventory, but into the empty portrait slot in the status window.

A weapon in the status window. The character in the equipment slot.

An unprecedented situation where the weapon equipped the character.

And once that state occurred, it could not be undone unless you died and restarted.

‘Back then...... was health treated as durability?’

Since the character was now treated as a weapon, potions no longer worked, and healing skills no longer applied either.

Repairs might have been a different matter, but regrettably, there was no repair function in the tutorial.

So health would simply continue to decrease over time, and when the character finally died, the game classified it as a ‘weapon break’ state.

‘The game did not end.’

The portrait merely turned red and was unequipped, but the game itself did not end.

There was only one small problem: in that state, the game could no longer load the character model.

So in order to correct the error, the system searched for another model it could load instead......

‘And that...... was the Tutorial Fairy.’

For some reason, the fairy, which possessed an actual model, became the substitute.

The original character disappeared, and the fairy took their place instead.

I had never actually played it that far through, but if I truly wanted to, I probably could have continued the game that way.

[......]

“What is wrong?”

[Nothing....]

A dreadful thought came over me, and without realizing it, I looked at the girl.

Herman’s words, that before long I would gain a proper body.

The voice telling me that I would naturally come to understand echoed in my ears.

Only now did I feel as though I understood what he had meant.

‘Was this what he was talking about?’

The bugs from the game occurred here in reality as well.

If I wanted to, I could surely trigger the rest of the Swap bug’s effect too.

────Possession.

Like a parasite tearing its way out through its host.

Like another soul taking the place that originally belonged to someone else.

Herman had been telling me to erase the girl’s existence and obtain the fairy’s body for myself.

[......]

For a long while, I could not bring myself to speak.