Professor Strict’s Strategy Class (2)

‘…Damn it.’

Ju Na-young thought she was really unlucky.

She glanced around subtly.

She wasn’t the only one who couldn’t concentrate.

This meant she was the scapegoat to tighten the slack atmosphere of the class.

She scratched her head, thinking she had no luck at all.

Well, of course, she could just walk up and solve it confidently, but…

‘…I-I don’t know this…’

Ju Na-young sighed inwardly and tightly shut her eyes.

Embarrassing as it was to admit…
Ju Na-young was bad at studying.

From the start, she wasn’t cut out for intellectual work.

If it involved physical movement, she was confident she’d get a perfect score.

But these letters.
There was no way they would enter her head.

Especially since this class was her weakest, the ‘strategy class’.

She always charges into the front lines, focusing only on the enemy in front of her.

A strategy class requiring broad vision and cold judgment was never her forte.

Thus, she couldn’t properly answer Professor Strict’s question.

In the end, Ju Na-young lowered her head and apologized.

“I-I’m sorry.”
“…Hmm. For now, I will conclude with a demerit–”
“Excuse me, Professor. Just a moment.”

Just as Professor Strict was about to check the grade sheet.

Yu Seha, who had been silently observing the situation, suddenly raised his hand.

He stood up and interrupted the Professor as Ju Na-young was about to receive demerits.

“…You must be Cadet Yu Seha. Is there something you need?”
“The question you asked Ju Na-young. I’ll solve it instead, so could you forgive her?”

The unexpected statement caused a stir among those nearby.

Of course, the most flustered was Ju Na-young.
She fumbled around.
Mouthing, ‘Hey, hey, Yu Seha! What are you doing?!’
Regardless, Yu Seha just smiled warmly.

For him, it was only natural to step in, as he couldn’t tolerate his precious ‘character’ receiving a demerit.

Strict, who had been watching, adjusted her glasses with a ‘hmm…’

“…Should I take this as a knightly gesture?”
“Yes. If I’m wrong, I’ll take the demerit instead.”
“…Technically, it’s against the rules, but I have a bit of a romantic side. Indeed, it seems Yu Seha saw through it from the beginning.”

Hmm?
That’s not it.
It was just that Ju Na-young looked troubled, and his meddlesome syndrome kicked in.

“Understood. Please step forward.”

After speaking, Strict infused the blackboard with a subtle magic.

Then, surprisingly, the numbers, enemy composition, consumables, and terrain written on the blackboard were arranged as if in a strategy simulation.

“Wow…”

Yu Seha exclaimed in amazement.
The Professor nodded slightly towards him.

“Then, try to solve it.”

Cadet Yu Seha.

“Hmm…”

One minute.
It was a minute of silence where Yu Seha just stared at the blackboard without doing anything.

As he took no action…
Voices began to leak from the onlookers.

―…What? He’s not doing anything?
―Don’t tell me he doesn’t know the answer to the problem?
―Wow, did he come out to get points instead of Ju Na-young? Really trying to be a knight? Is he an idiot?
―…But it’s kinda cool.
―He’s handsome and has a good personality… Should I just confess to him?

At the murmuring, Professor Strict slightly nodded.

At first, she thought he knew the answer.

‘But it seems that’s not the case.’

It seemed he stepped up because it looked like Ju Na-young would get a demerit.

Objectively speaking, it was a foolish action.

‘How romantic.’

Professor Strict, usually strict and serious, admired the hot friendship between men.
She had a longing for the so-called ‘romance’ of chivalry, stepping up to protect a woman.

Professor Strict admired his courage.

‘I shouldn’t give him a demerit.’

A knight who sacrifices himself to protect a lady deserves a reward.

Moved, Professor Strict was about to say he could leave.

At that moment, Yu Seha raised his hand suddenly.

“Um, Professor, how does this work?”

Yu Seha pointed to an artifact that simulated ‘strategy’.

By injecting mana, it virtually implemented the problems inscribed in the spell.
This artifact showed the process and the result.

Although it had a complex structure, it was very popular, so most cadets were familiar with its usage.

“Um, Cadet Yu Seha? This is a magical tool taught in middle school… Do you not know how to use it?”
“Ah, I’ve never attended a school before…”

At those words, Professor Strict flinched.

Various thoughts swirled in her head, and she realized she had made a mistake.

“…I’m sorry. As a professor, I should have anticipated that.”
“…What?”
“Nothing. Just… hold the orb and infuse it with mana. Then it will activate…”

I nodded while listening to the Professor’s instructions.

Indeed…
I had a suspicion…
The explanation just now confirmed it.

‘Isn’t this a strategy mode stage?’

‘GAL’ was fundamentally a game that progressed in control mode.

You control one character designated as the ‘Leader.’

You face enemies and use skills, coordinating with the rest of the party in an action RPG genre.

However, not all stages were purely physical.

Commonly, there was also a mode to clear stages as a ‘real-time strategy game.’

‘…Let’s see.’

The core of such strategy games was examining the composition of the enemies.

The reason I pondered for a minute after stepping out was to find a better answer, not the obvious one.

‘There are a total of 4 enemies.’

Three .
One .

Among them, two villains were melee DPS tank classes, and one was the rare class.

Here, was a typical class responsible for firepower.

‘All the monsters handled by the Summoner are wisps.’

.

As a monster of the lineage, it could only be summoned with [Divine].

The standard approach was probably to place two allied tanks in the front.
Maintain the line while receiving healing from the healer.
And have the dealers, who had consumed the ‘enhancement potion’ provided as a consumable, attack.

In reality, doing this would allow for a safe strategy with minimal damage.

‘…But it takes too long.’

In my view, this wasn’t a good move.

One of the conditions for getting three stars in a stage was a ‘time attack’.

In other words, it was essential to clear it quickly without losing allies.

Having completed all calculations, I first moved one tank to the appropriate position to focus the enemy’s aggro.

As the firepower concentrated, the tank was driven to the brink of death.

However, with precise calculations, the tank narrowly managed to survive.

‘This is where the battle is decided.’

Quickly, the healers recovered.

One remaining tank absorbed the firepower, while two dealers focused their attacks on the .

As the [Magic Shield] protecting them broke and they took damage, the flew into a rage.

As expected, they began to release ‘Dark Energy’ to boost their stats.

The second tank was also in danger from the suddenly increased firepower, but paradoxically, this became a decisive factor in the battle.

The that were attacking allies suddenly swarmed the and started attacking.

This was possible because the wisps instinctively despised ‘Dark Energy’.

Thanks to this, internal divisions occurred, and in the meantime, the second tank was safely healed.

The dealers maintained DPS.

Before long, it concluded in a perfect victory.

‘Very good.’

Excellent.

At this level, it was a tactic worthy of the title ‘Game Expert’ in the community.

And it seemed that the ‘system’ also acknowledged this.

Ah, this is great.

[Insight] was an ability that commonly affected the mind.
It observed and saw through the opponent’s movements.
Additionally, it increased resistance, allowing one to quickly escape when afflicted with a ‘status abnormality.’
This was also a basic trait, so obtaining it was always beneficial.

“All done.”

I looked at Professor Strict with a satisfied smile.

After the problem-solving session ended, a brief silence ensued.

“…Oh.”
“Did the Professor know about this and arrange it in advance?”

I smiled brightly at the amazed Professor Strict and asked.

“No, I didn’t know either.”
“……”

I was slightly stunned.
Because she admitted not knowing so easily.

Noticing my gaze, Professor Strict continued speaking.

“Being a professor doesn’t mean knowing everything. What’s important is not being ashamed of it and not having unnecessary pride. Recognizing one’s shortcomings and striving to improve is the secret to my over ten years of teaching.”

Hmm, this is quite respectable…

Having finished her response, Professor Strict continued nodding as she looked at the solution.

“Indeed, it is truly impressive. It is a strategy as efficient as a machine with no unnecessary parts, devoid of any emotions. If we consider only the minimal resource consumption, there couldn’t be a more perfect answer.”

However…

The meticulous Professor Strict trailed off.

“Uh, is there a problem?”
“…No. It’s just nitpicking. You may enter. Cadet Yu Seha. Good job.”

I bowed my head slightly, receiving applause from those around me, and returned to my seat.

As I sat down, Ju Na-young, who was next to me, mouthed ‘Sorry…’ and looked at me.

Like a puppy drenched in the rain, drooping.
It was so cute that it was hard to hold back my laughter.

―It’s okay.

I mouthed back with a bright smile.

Thus, Professor Strict’s class concluded with Ju Na-young’s face blushing as she lowered her head deeply.

A little later.
The break time ended, and the second morning class began.

“Nice to meet you all. I am Choi Chae-gul, and I will be in charge of this class from now on.”

A fairly large male professor greeted the class.

With a height likely over 190 centimeters and a warm appearance, he suited the nickname ‘Bear Uncle’ perfectly.

His name was Choi Chae-gul.
The subject he was in charge of was .

He was one of the professors who taught common subjects for first to third-year students.

As he finished his greeting, many seated cadets began to chatter.

Most of them were saying things like, ‘It will end early; shall we go out for a bit?’, ‘Wanna go to a PC room?’

Choi Chae-gul.

He was commonly regarded by the cadets as the epitome of a pushover professor.

He was always the type to smile kindly and end classes early with an easy assignment, so he had a reputation among the second and third-year students for being easygoing.

This information had also reached the ears of the new first-year students, so everyone naturally assumed that they would just have an orientation and be dismissed.

However, the atmosphere changed with the next words.

“Today is the first day, but we will proceed with a full class. Please open your textbooks.”

―…? What? This is different from what the seniors told us.
―Right? They said we’d just have an orientation and be done.

Small murmurs could be heard here and there.
Unbothered by this, Choi Chae-gul opened his textbook and started writing down the content.

His eyes, as small as buttons, gleamed sharply.

He looked as if…

He was glaring at the cadets with hatred.