"Second Self"

"Generally speaking, sailors are basically just errand boys—endless scrubbing of the deck, endless odd jobs to handle. Pretty much like slaves, really."

Annie said casually.

"But what we're learning and teaching today is the sailor profession. Before this lesson ends, I'll do my best to get you to a professional level. So, are you ready?"

You En recalled Teacher Ed's teaching style—seemingly outrageous but still with limits. No matter what, it couldn't be more dangerous than being coiled by a python, right? So he nodded.

"Mm."

Teacher Annie continued, "Let me be clear first—I don't know how to hold back or leave any leeway. The class hours are already too few, so you'd better be prepared to suffer."

Hearing this, You En kind of understood. When someone warns you over and over again, it means there really is danger.

But he'd already signed up for the class, and it was full. There was no way he could just skip it, right? That would mean wasting all those points.

"I'll give it a try."

"Alright then."

Annie kicked You En straight into the sea without giving him any time to react.

"If you want to be a sailor, get familiar with the sea first."

You En floated up, spat out the seawater in his mouth, and wanted to say something.

He wasn't completely clueless. Even when swimming in the wild, he only went to shallow areas, places already explored. Who just runs out to the open sea and kicks someone in as practice? How was that any different from murder?

But judging by her attitude, if he tried to get back on the ship, she'd probably kick him in again. After two or three rounds, his stamina would be gone.

So he had no choice but to go along with Annie... He'd already stopped wanting to call her "teacher." She had no idea how to teach people.

"Splash—"

Annie jumped into the water too. She looked at You En and nodded.

"A sailor has one very important rule: you have to obey the captain's orders. Even if you get kicked off the ship, if you're not told to come up, you stay in the sea."

"I'm not going to teach you about hull maintenance or anything like that. What I'm going to teach you is the sailor's core skill—the sea itself."

Annie dove completely underwater. About three minutes later, she resurfaced. You En almost thought she'd died.

"Your turn. Stay down for two minutes."

You En stared at her and said with absolute certainty, "I'll die."

"So what?"

Annie's tone was cold and ruthless. The aura around her was unsettling, making it clear she wasn't just talking.

"Don't make me push you down."

You En had no choice but to try diving on his own. He knew that without professional training, most people could hold their breath for at most a minute and thirty seconds. But for him, without any practice, whether he could even last a minute was the question.

The main issue now was to avoid overthinking as much as possible and just survive those two minutes to resurface.

At about thirty seconds, an invisible force pushed against him.

You En's right hand slipped downward. It felt like the water around his hand had been drained away, like his hand had grabbed nothing... But he suppressed his panic and fear and didn't struggle much.

Still, forget half a minute—

Every second after that was torture. His heart started to race restlessly, his diaphragm began to twitch. The feeling was genuinely painful, and the pain kept intensifying.

Endure, endure...

You En felt like even if he wanted to surface on his own, it might not be possible. Was there any other power he could borrow?

In this dark, lonely stretch of sea, he could only rely on himself. No one would save him...

Just rely on "himself."

Under the "influence" left by Teacher Hoshinomiya, You En's "Second Self" had gradually changed. Its help to him was no longer just mental—it had begun to interfere with his true self!

The twitching in his diaphragm weakened slightly. The restlessness in his heart slowly calmed. Time ticked by, bit by bit.

You En felt like he must be reaching his limit. Holding his breath to this point, he couldn't even count the seconds anymore. He prepared to surface. As he neared the water's surface, he couldn't help but open his mouth. A huge gulp of seawater rushed in, entering his windpipe.

"Cough, cough..."

He couldn't breathe. The last bit of strength in his body was gone. You En began to sink, drifting away from the surface.

Two hands reached out from behind. Annie grabbed him under his armpits and dragged him upward. Finally, they broke through the surface, seeing the blue sky again.

Annie brought the half-conscious You En onto the deck. She tilted his head to one side, stuck her fingers into his mouth, checked for and cleared any possible obstructions, and drained the water from his airway.

Seeing that he was still semi-conscious, Annie leaned down to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Just then, You En opened his half-closed eyes and said clearly, "Teacher, I'm awake."

"I knew you little brat were awake."

Annie laughed. "Just wanted to take a little advantage. It's not like I'm losing anything, so why keep pretending to sleep?"

You En didn't want to talk about that and only asked, "How long was I under?"

"Less than two minutes, just a few seconds short."

Annie was genuinely surprised. She'd set that time precisely because she'd judged he couldn't last two minutes, yet he'd actually done it—though she didn't want to say that.

After he went into the water, she'd been following right behind him the whole time, already prepared to rescue him.

But how had he... seemed to take an extra breath of oxygen in the sea? Could he breathe through water like a sea creature?

Club building, Kyudo Club's home ground.

Qiao Heng, wearing her kyudo uniform, sat in a perfectly standard posture before the shooting range. Across from her was Yui from the Kendo Club.

Yui pulled her gaze back from the direction of the pier. "You're not going to use one of your 'arrows' already, are you?"

Qiao Heng lifted her teacup and took a light sip.

"The 'arrows' I left behind are meant to be used."

Yui said, "That's such a waste. I'll trade you one 'arrow'—let me go help him instead."

Qiao Heng didn't answer.

Yui knew her personality well and kept talking to herself.

"Fine, if you don't agree, forget it.

But your eye is really something. This is the first time I've seen such a pure Second Self, able to function like this even during the ordinary human period."

Qiao Heng said softly, "It's a bit remarkable, but that's not what I care about."

"Then what is?"

Yui was puzzled.

"Is there some trait on him with even more potential than this?"

Qiao Heng didn't want to explain.

Yui narrowed her eyes, trying to see more, then laughed again, turning back into that innocent, carefree look.

"Hard to say. His luck is incredible, and his natural aptitude is in the upper-middle range among humans.

If the absolute limit of human talent is 500, his talent is probably in the 200–300 range—already a genius by normal standards.

The key is that his 'Second Self' is pure, and so is he, which means the two don't just add together—they multiply.

With the Succubus Blessing, the maximum could reach 90,000... though limited by his current physical condition, it only barely breaks human limits. Still, it's probably around 500 or so."

The more Yui spoke, the more astonished she became.

For other students, this school only got harder the further they went, with higher chances of death and failure. But for You En, it was different.

For him, the hardest part was the beginning. As long as he survived this first year without dying, growing stronger would only get easier. The further he went, the more obvious the feedback from his "Second Self" would become.

"Little Hoshinomiya really came through. Getting this kind of blessing in the first month—at least his first semester is secure."

Yui seemed to think of something. "I remember you had that dream too. Who did you have it with?"

Qiao Heng's face was expressionless. She didn't want to talk at all. Back then, the object of that wet dream wasn't anyone—it was just herself...

"You're all weirdos too. No wonder you saw eye to eye. A perfectly good succubus dream, and you both used it like this. Indulging in pleasure could have removed mental abnormalities, including some stubborn mental curses, but you both resisted it and gave yourselves a permanent buff with no side effects."

"..."

Qiao Heng actually wanted to say that she hadn't fully resisted it—she'd at most gotten past others, but had fallen at her own hurdle.

The one who truly made it through was only You En.

"Ah, I can't take it anymore. Seriously, let me rest a bit."

You En spat out seawater. This was the third time he'd been fished out, and this time he'd briefly lost consciousness.

If his physical condition weren't absurdly good and his recovery ability at a personal peak, he felt like he'd be close to death by now.

Annie looked at You En like he was some rare treasure.

"If you were in my... past era, you'd be worth a lot."

"Cough, cough."

You En could already climb out of the water on his own—huge progress. But did that have anything to do with Annie? This was pure abuse, with no teaching method at all. For anyone else, it would be tantamount to murder.

"Teacher Annie, I have a question."

Annie swung her long legs, treading water in the sea.

"Go ahead. I'll reward you with time for one question."

You En spoke.

"Do you actually have a teaching certificate?"

Annie was stunned, then instinctively prepared to kick someone back into the sea.

Then You En had already jumped down himself, floating on the sea surface, and continued speaking, "Teaching without a license isn't great. How about we make it official before you keep going?"

Annie stood up, not angry, but smiling as she twisted her waist and stretched her body, "It doesn't matter. This school doesn't require that."

"..."

You En found there was no place to report a bad teacher, and felt a vague sense of sorrow.

"Little slick, save your schemes for after class when you deal with the beauty,"

The blonde beauty teacher entered the water with a freestyle stroke.

"Now it's punishment time. If I catch you, get ready for a beating."

You En wasn't afraid anymore. Facing a villain, you couldn't show weakness, so he kept provoking, "I'm in a terrifyingly good state right now. Little Annie, do you think you can catch me?"

Annie laughed, "Hahahaha, fine. I'll let you swim for a minute first."

"You said it."

You En swam outward, but he wasn't foolish enough to exhaust himself wildly in that minute. Instead, he stayed as steady as possible, maintaining his condition while creating distance.

Yet, not even twenty minutes later.

Someone was dragged back onto the deck and resuscitation began.

Annie raised an eyebrow, "Coming to provoke the captain, are you?"

You En felt alive again. The world was so beautiful, but the person who needed to be called out still had to be called out, "But Captain Annie, where's your ship? A little boat like this won't make me recognize you as captain."

Yet as soon as he said this, The always cheerful Teacher Annie actually showed a rare hint of disappointment on her face, "Yeah, how can a little boat like this make someone a captain?"

You En thought he'd get kicked again, but this time he didn't plan to dodge. If she was angry, letting her kick him to vent was better than having her chase him down.

Annie placed her hand on You En's shoulder, her movement light, her tone serious. Her blue eyes were like the sea, "Do you want to become a captain?"

You En asked back, "Is it fun?"

"It's not fun, nor is it interesting. Sailor or captain, it's just life..."

"Life can be fun too,"

You En smiled, "Why say it's just life? Teacher Annie, do you think your time at sea was fun or not?"

"Of course... it was fun."

Annie met the boy's gaze, as if returning to her own era, seeing the figures of those remarkable people, and finally understood that the boy before her was different from ordinary sailors.

It wasn't ignorance, nor recklessness, nor a lack of complaints.

Just like that childish question, "Is it fun?" He needed to confirm whether he loved it before deciding to step in, because only with passion could there be no regrets.

Annie felt that the boy before her was a born captain.

If it were her era, She... would definitely board his ship.

But the sky was turning to dusk, and her era was ultimately like the yellowing clouds on the horizon—already a fading shadow.

Annie snapped back to reality, looking at You En, who was slacking off, "Stop slacking. Let's continue the lesson."

You En sat on the deck, not wanting to go back down, "How about we talk a bit more? I can... tell you a story?"

Annie didn't kick him again. Instead, she grabbed his wrist, "I'll go down and train with you."

She wasn't the type to explain much, but she still said, "A sailor's core skills can't be supported by theory alone. Only practice works. I have to push you hard. Better to bring you to the brink of death today than to see your corpses tomorrow."

The teacher terminal vibrated. The school had issued a warning, and punishment had been handed down, but she didn't care.

You En had finally met a teacher who spoke from the heart. He felt that this school was getting closer to his guesses.

Teacher Annie had probably taken a big risk just to say this to him. Since that was the case, there was no need to press further.

You En looked at the sea, "With a training partner like this, what more can I say?"

He still had some doubts lingering in his mind.

What kind of situation could cause most students to possibly drown in the sea?

What era was she referring to, exactly?

But these doubts were destined to remain unanswered—he would have to experience them himself.

Perhaps one day he really could become the captain of a ship, sailing across this sea without obstacle?