Conceptual Class, Something Fell from the Sky

The scene before Ian had long since become familiar to him.

This nightmare... no, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he fell into this strange state every night. It had begun some time before he awakened his cheat-like system panel.

"Where exactly was this place?"

Crystalline frost quickly formed on Ian's eyelashes. He raised a hand to catch the snow cascading down from the sky, while the vast white curtain of snow swallowed the ruined city's skyline.

The snow was too heavy.

Only things directly in front of him were visible. Strangely, Ian did not feel cold in this environment. It was as though he was here, yet detached from the entire world at the same time.

The howling wind was mixed with the sharp crack of splitting ice. The silent city possessed the deathly stillness of an apocalyptic painting. Perhaps this world had already become one after the apocalypse arrived.

"Tap tap tap~"

"Tap tap tap~"

Ian walked across the frozen ground. He did not know what he could do in this world, but all his previous attempts had proven that he could not bring anything back from here.

Perhaps the only benefit this city could offer Ian was inspiration for becoming a famous artist of the decadent style. A broken overpass jutted diagonally into the snow like a dissected steel skeleton.

Rusting car wrecks lay half-buried in the ice. The bus stop had collapsed, its glass canopy shattered long ago, and many of the buildings shrouded in deep snow had already caved in.

Broken power lines swayed in the wind everywhere. This place was like ruins abandoned by the gods. Even hearing a single insect chirp was an utterly impossible luxury.

"Hey! Come out!"

Ian shouted boredly at the sky, but no trash came pouring down from above. His nine years of compulsory education had still failed to become the secret guide to clearing this strange world.

"Looks like I can only follow the old rules." Ian held himself to strict standards even in this world. Part of the reason he had raised his [Student] class to LV7 so quickly was thanks to Nightmare World. Here, Ian had an additional seven hours for time management.

He had to study even in his dreams.

Of course he deserved his excellent grades and absurdly rapid leveling.

And sure enough.

Ian had already begun searching the ruin-like world of ice and snow for bookstores that had not yet been buried. Most of them contained quite a few adult magazines and periodicals.

His two older brothers had to hide such books in the neighbor's doghouse, while Ian never had to worry about his parents finding out. He could even gain experience from appreciating them. How could studying the adult world not count as studying? His [Student] class was extremely flexible when it came to judging how experience was earned.

"There can't be weaknesses in any field. That's what a true academic god of the new era should be!" Ian was very satisfied with his plans as he passed one snow-covered street after another.

As he repeatedly stepped on the ice, his boot soles made a teeth-grating scraping sound. Naturally, he slipped in such an environment, but after dusting off his backside and getting back up, he felt no pain.

It was like a lucid dream.

Only more coherent, and much more unusual. Before long, Ian found his destination: a bookstore buried beneath the snow. With his diligent hands, all he needed was half an hour of digging to crawl inside.

There was no one in the bookstore, not even any dead customers. Fortunately, although the books on the shelves were rather fragile, those inside the glass display cases could still be flipped through gently.

[You read attentively and gained some insight into aesthetic techniques. [Student] class experience +1]

[You read attentively and gained some insight into aesthetic techniques. [Student] class experience +1]

Time passed second by second in fulfilling study.

By chance, Ian found a usable revolver beside a collector's-edition magazine. He immediately aimed it at his temple and pulled the trigger hard.

"Bang bang bang~"

The bullets touched his flesh and sent ripples through it, but they could not harm him in the slightest. Ian had long since figured out the peculiarities of this dream, and this act also brought him additional experience.

[You attempted to learn how to catch bullets with your bare hands. Although this practical learning attempt was declared a failure, you gained some insight into suicidal stunts. [Student] class experience +3]

[You attempted to learn how to catch bullets with your bare hands. Although this practical learning attempt was declared a failure, you gained some insight into suicidal stunts. [Student] class experience +3]

The six system notifications were not Ian's limit, but the revolver cylinder's limit. Unfortunately, he could not find any more bullets nearby. Otherwise, Ian would definitely have properly thanked nature for its gift—eighteen whole experience points, which would have taken a long time to earn through reading. Facts proved that only by being ruthless could one rise above the rest.

"Still not satisfied."

Ian provided his own narration.

As mentioned before.

The way his [Student] class judged experience gains was extremely flexible. This was also why he felt that his system panel resembled some unfinished game.

It was not that it had a lot of bugs, exactly. It just did not have many restrictions.

"See you tomorrow night, Miss Who Doesn't Like Wearing Underwear." Ian put down the personal photo book in his hand, estimated the time until his return, and moved a table to the bookstore entrance.

There was no coffee or little cake, but the bookstore naturally had pictures of both. Ian cut out several pictures and placed them in front of the small table.

When people became bored enough, they got a little abstract. But Ian felt this was a sense of ceremony. Without something to pass the time, he would suffocate from boredom every night.

What a deathly silent world.

Was it not also a dull little black room?

Outside the doghole Ian had dug out, snowflakes drifted and drifted in utter silence. Only when an icicle occasionally snapped off a signboard and pierced the snowbank did a crisp sound ring out.

"Rumble!"

Uh, the sudden noise was not crisp, but loud. The ground even trembled faintly like muffled thunder. It truly gave Ian, who had grown accustomed to silence, a huge fright.

The sudden sound was violent and deep. It was definitely not the sound of an icicle hitting the ground, but rather like an enormous mountain collapsing and smashing heavily into the earth!

"Holy crap, did something really fall from the sky?" Ian came to his senses and hurriedly stood up, skillfully crawling out through the doghole he had dug at the entrance.

On the street.

The fierce wind carrying ice chips was still howling.

Then—

Reflected in Ian's eyes, widened in disbelief, was a figure like a small mountain. It was the culprit that had fallen from the sky with that muffled crash.

A... green giant, completely frozen in ice and snow just like this world!