Two months have passed by in the blink of an eye. In the original anime, three major events, which were being used to bring the story forward, have happened in these two months. However, I have not even experienced one of them. Maybe it’s because Sakuma Kenzan, the main character of Season 2, was absent. I mean, if the all-important main character isn’t here to add excitement to the story, you might as well be watching a slice-of-life anime that has no decent plot.

   As for me, I would like to think that I’ve progressed fairly in my quest to toughen up. I’ve spent my school hours at the old training facility every single day, even during weekends. I took things slow and steady, and made sure to never do things that are clearly beyond me. While sparring with weak virtual Destroyers, I did lots of workout like jogging and push-ups. Over time, the duration that I could fight got longer and longer.

   Even with my stamina getting better and better, I still have a fundamental problem: I don’t know how to use a sword properly. Supposedly, I could use this opportunity to ask Ichika to teach me, since she’s the president of the school’s kendo club. The thing is, I’ve seen how she taught others in the original anime. She’s an absolute demon sergeant whenever she’s instructing. With my weak and feeble body, I doubt I could last even three minutes of her hellish lesson. Besides, with Yurihara the annoying lesbian around, there’s no way I could be taught properly.

   After thinking hard for almost an hour, I came up with a barely passable solution. The school has an online archive where it stores loads of digital data. Some of them include video footage of students being engaged in combat. I chose a few of them at one time and watched them on repeat again and again until I could imitate at least some of the moves used. To further cover up my shortcomings, I also watched lots of videos involving students who have low Ranks. The reason is that most, if not all of them are only slightly better than I am. As a result, a lot of them tend to use their brains rather than their muscles during fights. By watching these videos, I could do the same too. I won’t get hurt while I’m sparring virtual enemies, so I can make as many mistakes as I want.

   One major problem that I have is the lack of money. Even though two months have passed, I’m hardly earning any money. Students of the Academy are only allowed to take on quests that are the same Ranked or one Ranks above then their own Ranks. Since my Rank is E, I could only accept quests that are Ranked E, D, and the occasional open-for-all quests.

   Rank E quests are mostly odd-jobs like going on a shopping trip. I saw one where the client needs someone to find his or her lost cat. Overall, Rank E quests are “missions” that can even be done by a regular person.

   Rank D quests are only slightly better than Rank E ones. Some of the quests involve hunting Destroyers, but those don’t really pay well since the targets are weak and thus can be easily defeated. I can get real-life experience in fighting real enemies too, which is why I would always go for this kind of quest.

   As for open-for-all quests, well, it’s complete baloney. I found a hilarious one just the other day. It was so funny I actually laughed scornfully. It involves looking for personnels to clean up a street near the school. There are two things I couldn’t help but notice when I was reading through the entire post. One, the client is the Academy itself. Two, that those who can apply for this quest are “every single student of the Academy including those of Rank E”. May I bring your attention to the last few words.

   If you’re a socially awkward introvert like me, you would learn to read between the lines so that you won’t end up embarrassing yourself in front of others. I could tell what the school is trying to pull here. They couldn’t care less about us, but they don’t want us or our parents giving them headaches in the form of complaints either. This is one of their solutions. By organizing events like this, they can claim that they’re taking care of low-Ranked students too and are not at all excluding them. It’s the same thing as the local government trying to tackle thefts and robberies by introducing harsher punishments instead of coming up with methods on improving the public’s lives.

   And my main quest of conquering Ichika isn’t going anywhere. In these two months, I had zero interaction with her. I know I’m supposed to at least talk to her, but Yurihana sure is making things difficult for me. She has never, and I mean never, not right beside Ichika whenever I found the latter. There were even a few instances where I had to think fast and act innocent, or Yurihana would have branded me a stalker. I seriously think that the only times Ichika is free from Yurihana are when she’s in her classroom and her own room at the dormitory.

   Seriously, why do I have to do this? Why me? Why do I care whether the male main characters from animes and whatnot disappear? I was always jealous of some of them, so good riddance I say. The more time that passes, the more depressed I get. At one point, I began to think that I might as well be staying in this world forever. No one would miss me in the world I came from anyway. Not my parents, not my snobbish younger sister, and certainly not my delightful classmates who made me become a shut-in in the first place. And then, it just happened. An event that somehow moved things forward.

   It was just another ordinary morning. I have just arrived at school and was about to head to the old training facility as usual when a really loud alarm started sounding from my phone. I recognize this alarm from the original anime. It’s blared whenever there’s an emergency. I take out my phone from my pocket to verify. Sure enough, there’s a message appearing at the screen.

   “A large group of Destroyers have appeared at the 3rd, 4th and 5th Streets. All students and teachers are required to head there immediately.” the message reads.

   Thankfully, the places are quite near the school, so I don’t have to walk too far. Around ten minutes later, I’ve already arrived at the 4th Street.

   The entire place has become a war zone. There are burning vehicles and buildings, broken properties and most importantly Destroyers. Lots and lots of Destroyers.

   The producers of this anime have never bothered to explain the origin of these creatures. There are theories which claim they’re demons from another world. Some say that they’re aliens. Whatever they are, almost all of them are threats to humanity.

   Right now, I’m face to face with four Destroyers in the shape of wolves. Instead of having four legs, each of them have six which. They have six eyes as well, and their fangs are as sharp as my arms. Instead of fur, all of them have a tough, leathery hide on their body.

   Similar to the students of the Academy, Destroyers are categorized according to Ranks as well. These wolf Destroyers, despite their scary outlooks, are merely Ranked E.

   The wolves snarl and lunge at me. If I had to face them two months ago, I would probably have wet my pants and ran away while shrieking like a little girl. The me right now is totally unhinged. Calmly, I draw one of my two-handed swords from thin-air and wait for them to approach me.

   The fight lasted for a few minutes, and it ended in my victory. I’ve fought so many of the wolf Destroyers in the old training facility I could anticipate their moves in my sleep. As a result, even fighting four at the same time was not a problem for me. After I was done, I left the place and looked for more Destroyers to fight. Along the way, I’ve started to hear sounds of fighting, of steel clashing against something equally hard, talking and sounds made by something that is clearly not human. I also passed by a few skirmishes where students and Destroyers were fighting each other. None of the students I passed by ever looked like they needed help, which is why I never stopped and helped. Heck, I doubted that they want help from someone with a Rank as low as E.

   I encountered five Rank C Destroyers next. These ones look like the classic gargoyles, complete with leathery wings, claws and sharp teeth. Four second-year students were fighting them, but they’re slowly being overwhelmed. For one thing, the gargoyles are fast, and they can even use magic. As for the students, they’re cooperating with each other, but their teamwork isn’t really helping. Their skill in using their weapon is mediocre, and the type of magic, which they rarely use, are either too weak or not effective. I’d say their Rank is D at the most.

   And then, one of the students got hit by a fireball tossed by one of the Destroyer. Her uniform got caught on fire, and she dropped the dagger she was using so that she could slap the flame away with her hands, and she’s shrieking hysterically as she’s doing it. Her teammates are too busy fending off the Destroyers to help her out.

   I concentrate and make a puddle of water appear on the girl’s head. The water landed on her and extinguished the fire in an instant. I don’t know whether her body is burnt from the fire, but at least she has stopped being on fire.

   My stunt caught the attention of the Destroyers. They forgot about the other students and decided to surround me instead. All four of them are busy snarling and gnashing their teeth together. One of them even cackled at me, perhaps sensing that I’m not strong. That’s it. That one is going down first.

   The Destroyer that cackled made a fireball appear on top of its claws. Its buddies follow suit. Without feeling even slightly intimidated, I pull a second sword out of thin air with my right hand. As the fireballs are thrown, I quickly mutter some words and cast a spell that could reflect magic at both my swords. Right before the fireballs reach me, I spin around like a top. At the same time, I hit the fireballs with my swords and send them back to their senders.

   All the fireballs found their mark, and the Destroyers are caught on fire from their own spells. They also stopped flapping their wings. As they’re falling, I cast a spell to strengthen my legs. I then sprinted forward and jumped. Due to the strengthening spell, my legs are now strong enough to bring me to the Destroyer with a single leap. I begin with landing on top of the Destroyer that laughed at me and chopped off its head with the sword on my left hand. Without wasting any time, I jumped to the back of a second Destroyer and chopped it head off. And the third. And the fourth. I managed to get the job done and landed safely before their bodies crashed to the ground. I’m so glad that I got to watch a video on how to deal with flying Destroyers without using too much mana.

   I turn to look at the students. All of them are staring at me with a dumbfounded look on their face. I calmly walk to the female student.

   “Are you okay?” I ask her.

   My question snapped her back into reality.

   “Yes. My skin is slightly burnt, but I will be fine.” she replies.

   “Well, just make sure to go and see a doctor once we’re done here.”

   “Yes. Thank you.”

   “No problem.”

   Her teammates thanked me as well. While bowing. Wow, this is the first time I actually got bowed at, and it sure feels weird.

   “We’re going to head to another area now. I know I’m saying something unnecessary, but please be careful.” one of them says to me.

   Hmm, and here I thought they might want me to join them. I guess not.

   “Of course. You guys be careful too.”

   “We most definitely will. Good luck, sir.”

   The student who spoke and his teammates saluted me before leaving the place.

   …Wait, did he call me “sir”?

   Oh, so that’s how it is. All of them mistook me for a high Ranked student. That’s why they were being all respectful to me, even though we’re the same age. Ah well, I’ll just explain the misunderstanding after this is over.

   I continue to walk around aimlessly while looking for Destroyers to eliminate and civilians to rescue. It has to be said, there’s seriously a lot of Destroyers around. Even with the entirety of the Academy hunting them down, I could still spot unattended ones running around. Fortunately, all of them were weaker than me, which is why I could take care of them all by myself.

   It didn’t take long for me to run into a Rank A Destroyer, the type that I would never spar against whenever I was inside the training facility. Of course, I had to encounter it when no other students or teachers were around to back me up.

   This particular one is quite huge. It’s the same size as three jeeps being stacked together. As for its outer appearance, it’s a cross between a gorilla and a lion. It has two thick muscular arms, two legs that end with sharp claws, and a mouth full of sharp wicked-looking teeth. I’ve watched enough videos to know what it's capable of, enough for me to turn around and flee immediately.

   If it were not for the little girl and her mother who’re stuck inside a half-wrecked car. The Destroyer was about to do something to them until I got its attention. Right now, its back is facing them.

   The mother has passed out in the driver’s seat, and the right side of her forehead is bleeding. The little girl, on the other hand, is at least conscious. She’s also smart enough to not do anything to attract the attention of the Destroyer, which is a huge relief for me. I was sick and tired of seeing children making things worse for others.

   So far, the Destroyer is merely observing me. This action itself proves that it’s intelligent. I was going to stall as much time as possible until reinforcement arrives, but I luck out. Maybe it noticed that I’m a pushover. Perhaps it saw through my plan to wait for others. Either way, it begins to attack me.

   For something huge, it sure moves fast. I blinked once, and it has already covered half of its distance to reach me. I could barely dodge to the side before it slams both its fists hard on the ground, forming a huge crater.

   I quickly got up, and bent down just as quickly. Right on time, the Destroyer’s right fist just flew past. If I were still standing upright, I would have been swatted away like a fly. I decided to take this chance and charge forward, the sword I was holding aimed straight at its chest. What a huge idiot I was. I was so focused on trying to kill it that I’ve completely forgotten about its left fist, the fist that flew straight at me.

   While making an incomprehensible sound, I was sent flying backwards. I managed to stop by stabbing my sword at the ground. If I didn’t cast a spell to strengthen my upper body, the punch would have killed me on the spot. Even with the spell protecting me, I still feel like a truck has just run over me. I could tell that several of my rib bones are broken. Blood is coming out of my nose and mouth, and I have difficulty breathing. And still no reinforcement on sight.

   At this point, I’ve given up on waiting for someone to come and save the day. Or rescuing the mother and the daughter. Or running, for that matter. I got sick and tired of everything. I just want this to end. I let go of my sword, took one step backwards and sat down on the floor.

   “Go on. Finish me.” I tell the Destroyer without a single hint of emotion.

   I don’t know whether it understood what I just said. Maybe it took the hint from the tone I used, or the way my shoulders were slumped from resignation. It took a few steps forward until it’s right in front of me. It opens up its arms wide, as if it wants to give me a hug. I could tell what it’s trying to do in an instant. Since my sword is in the way, it decided to crush me with its palms instead of using its fist. Calmly, I wait for my inevitable death.

   Sike.

   I almost lost my hearing as the Destroyer roared loudly in pain. It’s flailing both its arms crazily. Upon closer look, you could see that a sword is being impaled on both the left palm and the right palm.

   That’s right. The moment the Destroyer was about to clap its hands and squish me in the process, I took out two of my spare swords and pointed them towards its palms. The result is as you can see.

   While the Destroyer is still distracted from being impaled at its palms, I took out the last of my spare sword. Wasting no time, I used the sword that was impaled on the ground as a springboard and jumped, the sword I’m holding raised high above my head.