TRPM 237

chapter 237

Time passed, and the third- and second-year students finished their fall-technique training.

As I had expected, among the second-years, several students made mistakes and ended up spinning midair.

‘Those who couldn’t maintain proper posture while rotating or failed to execute the fall technique correctly at the end will have to retry after all the first-years finish.’

Of course, the same rule applied to the first-years.

Those who succeeded on their first try would move on, but those who failed would stay suspended on the wires until they got it right.

“First-year Class 1, come out and line up.”

As the second-years finished and removed their equipment, the teachers called us over. Knowing it was almost our turn, we headed down to the center of the gym, following the teachers’ directions.

“You saw how the upperclassmen did it, right? Just follow the posture instructions while in midair.”
“Even if you mess up, you can try again later, so don’t get nervous.”
“It’s harder than it looks, so be serious about it.”

The teachers encouraged us while preparing the cameras… though it was clear their hands were ready to capture any embarrassing moments.

‘Haha…’

I chuckled quietly to myself and put on my equipment. The others did the same, assisted by what appeared to be staff from the education office.

‘…Of course, but the feeling is really different from actually flying in the air.’

I, too, had spent a lot of time being thrown into the air during fights with monsters when I was inexperienced. Not just back then, even right before my regression… just before death at the hands of a doppelganger, I had been knocked into the air.

Awakened individuals spend a surprisingly large amount of time midair. And the sensation of being suspended on wires now was similar in some ways to flying, but also very different.

‘Sure, even if the wire equipment is expensive, that’s just by school or education office standards… it can’t fully replicate the feeling of flying.’

A large guild or academy could throw in huge budgets and magical techniques to perfectly recreate the sensation of flying. Of course, they probably wouldn’t bother. For a top-tier guild or academy, it’s cheaper and easier to just let trainees fly “for real” rather than simulate it with equipment.

‘High school doesn’t do that… they’re probably worried the kids might get hurt.’

Experienced awakened individuals or academy students wouldn’t get hurt even if they flew high. But high schoolers were different. Kids like me and Lee Ha-eun, who had awakened before elementary school, were more experienced. But for students like Kang Garam or Jin Chunha, who awakened just before high school, injuries could happen even during relatively safe wire exercises. They couldn’t just throw them around like elite awakened veterans.

Beep!

Lost in thought, I heard the whistle. It seemed the others had finished equipping their gear as well. At the sound, the operator controlled the wire equipment, and our classmates rose into the air all at once.

“Ugh… ahhh?!”
“Ahhh?!”
“Kyaaah?!”

Students who couldn’t stabilize their posture began spinning midair. Kim Eun-yeon, the least athletic among the non-combatants, ended up completely upside down.

‘…Everyone’s spinning except me.’

I started filming them with the camera I had prepped. Of course…

“Everyone, relax your body, don’t panic, move slowly!”

The teachers gave advice while sneakily filming as well.

“Phew…! Phew…! Alright…!”
“Ugh… why is this so hard?!”
“What, Elliott, you can’t even do that?”
“You were spinning just a moment ago too…”

Meanwhile, Elliott and Lee Dumin, the two most athletic students in our class, were the first to stabilize their posture. Dumin had stabilized slightly before Elliott and teased his rival playfully.

“…Hoo.”

Next was Elena. As an elementalist, she had briefly considered using wind elemental magic to stabilize herself, but she managed to hold her posture using only her body strength. Though it looked precarious, it was acceptable.

Then Kang Garam and Ryu A-young found stability in sequence, but the remaining four…

“Dizzy…”
“…Ugh…”
“Ughhh…”
“Huhu… huhu…”

They seemed to have gotten motion sickness from spinning, their bodies weakened. Ryu Amin and Jin Chunha struggled to suppress nausea, while Lee Ha-eun held her forehead, perhaps from a headache. Kim Eun-yeon, embarrassed by being upside down, covered her face with her hands.

At least, thanks to their weakened bodies, the spinning stopped.

‘I didn’t expect Lee Ha-eun to be like that.’

Well, she was a Grand Mage, but her athletic ability was poor. Before regression, even as an Aura user called Serenity, she mostly relied on magic rather than physical skill. Using magic could help maintain balance, but…

‘Looks like she’s trying to keep balance using only her own body strength.’

As I thought that, the announcer spoke into the microphone.

“Focus! When you hear the whistle, follow the movements on the screen!”

Those who had stabilized looked at the screen in front.

Beep…!

The screen changed as the whistle blew.

‘Spread-eagle… a good posture to slow down while flying fast in midair.’

I lightly moved and adopted the posture shown. But…

“Ahhh?!”
“Kyaaah?!”

The others moved to follow the posture and started spinning again.

‘They could go slowly…’

Going slowly would allow them to adjust safely even the first time. But our classmates were impatient. Still, having experience stabilizing after spinning once, they quickly stopped and assumed the correct posture, except for the four who had failed earlier—they were still dangling on the wires.

Beep…!

The screen changed again, and we had to adopt another posture. This time, everyone adapted, and no one spun.

“Phew…! That was fun. Right?”
“Yeah. I want to do it again…”

Elliott and Lee Dumin said this after getting off the wires. Initially clumsy, spinning recklessly, they had now adapted perfectly and started joking around—not dangerous pranks, just imitating poses from a popular manga. I had finished reading that manga before regression.

‘The ending… I want to spoil it so badly…’

Anyway. Hearing Elliott and Dumin wanting to hang on the wires again, the others nodded in agreement.

“Though it was hard at first, once you got the feel, it was easy.”
“Exactly. Looking back, I don’t even understand why we were spinning so much at first…”

Meanwhile, four students couldn’t join the conversation.

“……”
“……”
“……”

They would stay on the wires until they succeeded after the others finished. But it wouldn’t take too long—they were now more familiar with the equipment. Especially Ryu Amin and Jin Chunha, who had stabilized even if they couldn’t switch postures; with two or three more tries, they’d pass. Kim Eun-yeon and Lee Ha-eun…

‘…Those two might need at least five tries.’

Still, as the passing students left, leaving only the failures, it wouldn’t take long.

‘And this experience might one day save our lives.’

Thinking that, I headed to the stands. First-year Class 2 had already gone down to the gym center, equipping gear and waiting for their turn, full of energy.

“Let’s not spin like Class 1, focus on the center first, okay?”
“Got it!”
“Class 2, fighting!”

Class 2 cheering… I watched as they went up.

“Gyaaah?!”
“Waaah?!”

As soon as the Class 2 students rose, they began spinning. They had been confident it would be easy, but after strapping in, they realized something was off.

“Ooh…”
“Did we spin like that too?”
“Yeah. We filmed all of it.”
“…Filmed it?! What do you mean?!”
“All of you spinning got recorded on this digital camera.”

I raised the camera, and the students panicked, trying to grab it—but they couldn’t take it from me.

‘Even if the camera got taken and erased, it wasn’t the only one that recorded that scene.’

I slipped the camera into the extra-dimensional space and said,

“Wouldn’t it be more productive to film other classes rather than taking this camera?”

My classmates’ eyes lit up. They turned toward the other class.

‘They’re giggling while filming each other too.’

Seeing that, our class took out their smartphones and started filming the embarrassing moments of the other students. I did the same with my digital camera.

I was closest to the kids in my class, but I also knew some from elementary and middle school.

‘Other kids probably feel the same.’

So we spent time filming our friends’ embarrassing moments until all first-years finished training. Of course…

‘There would still be additional training for those who failed afterward.’

No need to film that. Thinking so, the students who passed and I left the gym.