The Extra's Rise

After the Island Survival, I settled back into my routine.

Training. Pushing my limits. Repeating the cycle until exhaustion became familiar, until progress was the only thing keeping me going.

And every night, without fail, I would return to the Ophelia dorms and see Rachel sitting in the lounge.

She was always there.

And it was different.

Subtle. Small.

But different.

Before, she had always been kind—the kind of warmth that felt effortless, natural, almost reflexive. But now…

Now, it felt deliberate.

There was more to her than kindness.

I could see it in the way she watched me from the corner of her eye, in the way she never started conversations outright, but always left an opening for me to take.

Rachel Creighton had layers.

I turned away before she could notice me staring, dropping onto the couch across from her. She said nothing, just continued reading a book on her tablet, her fingers scrolling idly.

Then the elevator dinged.

The doors slid open, and Seraphina stepped into the dorms.

Her white-silver hair was damp with sweat, her toned arms glistening under the artificial dorm lights. She wore a sports bra and leggings, a towel wrapped loosely around her neck, casually wiping her face as she stepped forward.

She didn't say a word.

She just… looked at us.

Rachel glanced up. "You were training too, Seraphina?"

Seraphina nodded once.

Then she walked past me, her movements as quiet and composed as ever.

Except.

For the fraction of a second, just before she disappeared down the hall—

Her eyes darted toward me.

Barely noticeable. Gone in an instant.

And yet, I caught it.

"Anyway, Arthur," Rachel's voice pulled me back. "Are you going to sleep again?"

"Yeah, probably," I said, stretching slightly. "I'm tired, after all."

Rachel hummed, still watching me. "Hmm, alright. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I echoed, standing up and heading to my room.

I showered quickly, steam curling around me as I let the water wash away the aches of another day spent pushing myself further and further.

Then, I sat on my bed, towel draped over my shoulders, staring at my reflection in the darkened screen of my phone.

The growth I gained on the island…

It was incomparable to what I had managed through regular training.

Desperation x Desire.

That was the equation.

The sheer, raw desperation to grow stronger. The unrelenting hunger to improve.

I had been thrown into real danger, had fought not just to win, but to survive. And because of that, I had forced myself out of my comfort zone, over and over again.

That had to be the reason.

That had to be why my mana rank had risen so fast.

When I hit mid Silver-rank, the rapid growth slowed. Not just for me, but for Cecilia too.

Which meant…

Was the reason for that the lack of danger?

I frowned slightly, tilting my head, trying to follow the thought to its conclusion.

It made sense. But at the same time, it didn't.

There was something I was missing.

Something I couldn't quite grasp.

I sighed, running a hand through my damp hair.

I didn't have a definite answer. Not yet.

But I would figure something out during the fall break.

A month from now.

One week. Seven days.

And in that time, I was going to get much, much stronger.

The next day, we were given an announcement.

"We are going to be having a mock war between the first years and the second years next week," Nero told us, standing at the front of the lecture hall with his usual calm, unreadable expression. "Of course, you Class 1-A students are also participating."

A ripple of interest went through the room.

Ian raised an eyebrow. "Against the second years?" He leaned back in his chair, arms folded. "I mean, we can handle ourselves, but isn't that a bit unbalanced for the other sections?"

"It is," Nero admitted with a brief nod. "Which is why the second years will have restrictions. First, they will have a higher realistic setting in the VR battlefield. Second, both sides will have to deal with Dark Beasts, but the second years will have more to handle. We implemented these changes to keep the battle fair."

He paused for a moment, letting that sink in. Then, his sharp gaze swept across the room.

"However, I will give you an additional hint. There is a certain theme that you must comply with in order to secure victory." His lips curled slightly, something close to amusement flickering in his expression. "This will be a battle of tactics."

The inter-year VR battle is here.

I had known this was coming.

It was one of the major early events in the novel—a tactical battle meant to force students to think beyond raw strength.

Because if this were a simple head-to-head battle, the first years would win.

Not the second years.

And the reason was simple.

We had Lucifer Windward.

An anomaly. A monster. A force of nature that defied all logic.

It didn't matter that the second years were stronger on average. It didn't matter that they had a year of extra experience, extra training, extra refinement.

Lucifer alone tipped the scales.

And that was exactly what happened in the novel.

The first years failed horribly from a strategic standpoint—Lucifer and Ren's rivalry split the leadership, preventing any unified command. The second years were far more organized, their chain of command clear and structured. They wiped the floor with us in terms of coordination, pushing the first years into a losing position.

And then—Lucifer went all out.

And single-handedly took out a quarter of them.

It was the kind of overwhelming force that made battles meaningless.

But this event wasn't just important because of Lucifer's rampage.

For me, it was important for another reason.

Kali Maelkith.

The ace of the second years.

One of the few people close to Lucifer's full power right now.

A White-ranker.

And in the future, the Zombie Princess.

She wasn't just strong—she was dangerous. A key figure, a threat, a potential ally.

I needed her on my side.

Even if I had to use a little coercion to make it happen.