[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-became-the-academy-s-war-hero":3,"chapter-i-became-the-academy-s-war-hero-i-became-the-academy-s-war-hero-chapter-1":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","I Became the Academy’s War Hero",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":18,"prevChapterSlug":19,"totalChapters":20,"novelImage":21},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":12,"translator":16,"content_hash":17},1531708,1990,"Chapter 1 : Eugene Carter (1)","i-became-the-academy-s-war-hero-chapter-1",1,"\u003Cp>Chapter 1: Eugene Carter (1)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This goddamn trash of a game!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I almost slammed my keyboard out of habit but stopped short.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’d already wrecked over thirty keyboards playing this cursed game. I had to hold it in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instead, I grabbed the stress ball beside me and squeezed it with both hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, fuck! I’m done with this crap!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I spammed ALT + F4, closing every window, and leaned back in my chair as if collapsing into it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When I double-clicked the small icon at the bottom of the monitor to open the homepage, a single line of text greeted me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>― You have completed 999 out of 1,000 achievements. (99.9%)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment I saw it, all my past efforts flashed before my eyes again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Is there really no way around this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Probably not.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It had already been ten years since I started chasing this one goal out of sheer stubbornness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But I already knew the truth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No strategy, no stroke of luck could ever clear this mission.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>, or MAGA for short.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At first glance, it looked like your typical academy-raising simulation game, but depending on the modes and conditions, its goals and difficulty would swing wildly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The game, whose acronym shared the same as the President’s campaign slogan, had one simple premise: to restore a failing academy to its former glory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the mode I was currently obsessed with was the most brutal of them all—Apocalypse Mode.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In [Apocalypse Mode], the objective was to raise the [Imperial Royal Academy ‘Carbena’] and its [five main characters] to an [S-Rank] comprehensive evaluation within [two years] and maintain it for [at least five years].\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was the only achievement I had never managed to clear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyone who had ever tried to finish this game would know exactly how impossible that sounded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through four years of madness, I’d managed to fulfill five of the required conditions—but the final one always held me back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And it was no mystery why.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the third year, one of the five was guaranteed to die.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Edel Ribenia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Michelle Bernhardt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Karen Rosefield.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Francia Brida.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luvia Magnus.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the next six years, I’d tried saving them—over and over again—but one of them would always die, no matter what I did.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was impossible to save them all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how clever, desperate, or lucky I was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…Maybe that was what the developers had been trying to say all along.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That the world couldn’t be saved without sacrifice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bullshit. You just gave up, didn’t you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the last bug fix had been three years ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a dead game now, abandoned even by its veteran players.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was MAGA’s fate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I guess it was time for me to quit too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>EugeneC | 2022.04.18 02:22:29\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Been playing this shitty game for way too long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wish I could go back to when I didn’t even know MAGA existed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The last post besides mine on the message board was from thirteen months ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, no one was going to comment, and no one would ever read it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, I wanted to leave one last record.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was how I really felt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So this was how I said goodbye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After spending most of my twenties with this game, seeing it end like this… there was nothing funny about it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While I was lost in those thoughts, the screen flickered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I must’ve pressed F5 without realizing, or maybe it refreshed on its own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My eyes instinctively moved to the comment section.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Total comments: 1\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anonymous (???.??) | So I sent you off^^\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Huh?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was the last thing I remembered from my previous life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>---\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eugene Carter. Born in Parsel, Livenia Empire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A 16th graduate of the Imperial Royal Academy ‘Carbena’, youngest officer in the Imperial Special Task Force, youngest battalion commander, and youngest recipient of the Imperial Medal of Honor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once hailed as the future of the Empire, he lost everything because of one reckless act.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During the Beast Eradication Operation in the borderlands, he was ambushed by an S-Rank beast—“Incurable Sabnac.” His mana heart was destroyed by ninety percent, leaving him in a coma.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though the already-wounded Sabnac perished in the following battle, the beast’s “Incurable Curse” never released him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ll be able to live an ordinary life, but… your days as a soldier are over.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After that, he spent his days drowned in drugs and alcohol.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The brilliant man he once was disappeared within a single year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His once-solid, muscular frame had withered to skin and bones.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His eyes had lost their focus, staring at nothing in particular.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His cracked lips trembled faintly, a symptom of withdrawal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even his comrades, who had watched over him for years, all said the same thing—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He would never return to the field again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And so, after many long years, six years later—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the tail end of a late February, he suddenly reappeared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the Empire’s most elite organization.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Imperial Special Task Force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>---\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shit. Shit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The curses clung to my tongue and refused to let go.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Now I’ve gone and gotten possessed by a typo, huh.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I kept grumbling under my breath as I stood rigidly before the front gate of the Task Force Headquarters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I could barely keep myself upright, leaning on a cane that looked like it would snap at any moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A farewell post marking the end of my ten-year journey, and that single strange comment that followed it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My consciousness had drowned as if submerged underwater—and when I opened my eyes, I was here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn’t take me long to grasp the situation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The familiar surroundings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The familiar names.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The way the world reacted when I absentmindedly muttered “Status.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The people around me who didn’t even flinch at the sight of a floating window before their eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn’t take long to realize—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was that so-called “possession loop.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that this world was the world of MAGA.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Remaining Challenge: Clear the game while fulfilling the following conditions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Mode: Apocalypse] [Affiliation: Imperial Royal Academy]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Condition 1: Ensure survival of all main characters]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Condition 2: Achieve S-Rank or higher in the comprehensive evaluations of the Academy and all main characters] [Condition 2–1: Within 2 years]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Condition 3: Maintain rank] [Condition 3–1: For at least 5 years]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Of course the damn challenge is still here. Figures.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My anger flared for a moment—but then I reconsidered, slowly nodding to myself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No, this wasn’t bad at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the mission I couldn’t clear even after six years of hell in reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And now, they were giving me one last chance. How could I possibly refuse?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The problem was that this world was already doomed—the Apocalypse Mode.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In MAGA, the total playtime lasted exactly six in-game years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Normally, all evaluations would conclude in March of the sixth year, followed by “GAME CLEAR,” but that was back when I was in reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At least for me now, this wasn’t a game anymore—and there was no “restart” button.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn’t have any loop or regression ability either.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So this run was, for all intents and purposes, my first and final attempt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For some people, that might have been enough to crush their will before they even began.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But for me, MAGA’s most seasoned veteran, there could be no greater motivation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ll make sure to survive until the very end.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If there had at least been some kind of notice saying, Don’t worry if you die! You’ll just wake up back in the real world!—then maybe I could take it easy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But if I made a careless mistake and that actually was my real death?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shit, I’d be lucky not to come back as a vengeful ghost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Even if I die, I’ll clear that final challenge before I go.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If I was going to clear it anyway, I might as well figure out a way to survive in the process.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And maybe, just maybe, save the world along the way. But that wasn’t the priority right now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ones I had to save weren’t the world—they were the girls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As those thoughts crossed my mind, I looked ahead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A group of uniformed soldiers in ceremonial dress was approaching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Vena Livenia!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The soldier at the front saluted as he shouted the phrase.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a salute meaning “Honor to the Empire.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Almost every nation used a variation of this greeting, attaching “Vena” before their country’s name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We’ll escort you to Command, Colonel.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let’s go.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gripping my cane tightly, I started to move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>---\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Imperial Special Task Force, 3rd Floor Command Headquarters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a moment, the soldiers present wondered if they were seeing a ghost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once hailed as the greatest talent in the Empire, he had squandered that gift on arrogance and pride, ultimately meeting a disgraceful downfall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was the cautionary tale every Imperial soldier knew by heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eugene Carter had returned to the field.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had he run out of money?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or maybe he was here to sneak off with the alcohol and drugs confiscated by the Task Force?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What other reason could he possibly have for showing up here again?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not just the enlisted men—even the officers shared the same thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially those who had served in the same era as him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That included Colonel Eric Belfort, his fellow Academy graduate and Task Force comrade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That piece of trash came back?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon hearing the report, Belfort immediately rushed to the Task Force Commander’s office—where he finally came face-to-face with his old colleague.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment he entered, he saluted the Commander.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Vena Livenia!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, yes. What is it, 3rd Battalion Commander?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I heard that former Colonel Carter has returned, sir.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, his real purpose lay elsewhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His gaze never left Eugene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Still got that shameless face, huh, Carter.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re one to talk, Belfort. Still got those smug eyes and that stupid smirk.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Twitch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a split second, Belfort felt the urge to shove that frail body to the ground and crush his skull beneath his heel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he forced himself to remain composed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man before him was the Empire’s fastest burnout in history. Once, he’d been so far above that no one could touch him—but now, the tables had completely turned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just a glance told the whole story.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His once-broad shoulders were hunched. His eyes had lost their light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His pupils were dull, his lips cracked and scarred.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hadn’t even done the basics of rehabilitation; his legs trembled, and even the hand gripping the cane shook uncontrollably.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to his prime, he was a shadow of a man—heaven and earth apart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a miracle he’d even managed to walk here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Feeling rivalry toward him now would be nothing more than bullying the weak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ahem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Commander’s dry cough cut through the tense air between them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You can catch up later. So, Carter, what brings you to me, Colonel?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I figured it was about time I quit living like a bum and tried getting my life together.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…Hmm?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eugene glanced between the two of them and then smiled faintly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sir, I’d like to be reinstated.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1834,"2026-06-06T06:11:51.613Z","novelbin.me","ba0bb57c8d2ccc3aef55d7326841fc37f10ab7228c6d3e6382732c2e220a50e0","i-became-the-academy-s-war-hero-chapter-2","i-became-the-academy-s-war-hero-chapter-100",163,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-became-the-academy-s-war-hero-cover.jpg"]