Becoming a Shadow in the New World

She spoke very softly in the middle, and she probably thought Sid couldn't hear her, but he actually heard her clearly.

Even though it was a friend he found himself, it was still a rare opportunity for him to show concern for his friend, and he was still hurt by being treated so perfunctorily. Although part of the reason for his concern was that Asagi had been catching up on sleep these past few days, which meant that his campus information had not been updated.

After packing his backpack and grabbing his wooden sword, he headed towards the school's training grounds, ignoring the magic practice area which was now a pit, and went straight into the empty sword practice room next door.

Instead of immediately taking out his wooden sword to practice his swordsmanship, he first went to a blind spot in the surveillance, took out a white crystal from the void, and then walked to the wooden dummy and swung his sword at it.

"Whoosh~ Whoosh~"

Sid Cagano, in his character design, is a minor nobleman with some talent, but whose written test and actual abilities are both below average, making him an unlucky extra who has no chance of inheriting the family fortune.

However, after arriving at this new school, both his academic ability and the passing score for the written test have increased significantly. His original grades are now among the lowest, which no longer meets his criteria for being a minor character.

So what's the way to get his skills back from the bottom to the middle to lower ranks while still being a minor character? The answer is extra training. After all, a hardworking minor character is still a minor character.

But a new problem arose: he couldn't accept spending hours every day practicing in order to maintain his persona, something that was completely pointless and a waste of time for him.

But the problem was actually quite simple for him; he just needed to increase his training volume in a way that others couldn't see (I'm sure of it).

Just like now, what he appears to be holding is a wooden sword, but this sword is now secretly gathering a large amount of magic power, causing the weight of the sword to fluctuate back and forth between a piece of paper and a mountain, training his body, reaction and control.

While not without its drawbacks, such as requiring additional magic power to reinforce the space, and the possibility of accidentally losing control of the power, which could lead to the destruction of the school or even the sinking of the island.

However, compared to his ability to train as a Shadow-level expert while playing minor roles, this minor drawback is completely negligible.

"Boo~hoo~"

Despite the fact that the weight of the sword had already transformed from a mountain to a piece of paper several times in that short second, it was able to repeat the same sword-swing trajectory each time using only the strength of its own body.

The change in weight can be detected instantly, and the force of the sword swing can be adjusted to keep the speed consistent from beginning to end.

No, it slows down when the sword is about to touch the wooden stake at 0.003 centimeters, and then begins to retract the sword when it is 0.001 centimeters away from the stake.

This is why, even though it was just the simplest sword-swinging motion and he didn't use any magic, it seemed like he was putting all his strength into every swing, causing him to be covered in sweat in just half an hour.

If you don't know all of the above, to outsiders, he's just a poorly talented but hardworking extra training on his own. Some cynical characters might even mock him, saying that no matter how hard he tries, it's useless. Then a girl might stand up and say that hard work isn't shameful, and after a series of events, she might fall in love with him—that's impossible.

The reason he specifically comes to the training ground after school is to avoid this kind of thing from happening. He works hard to give himself a reason to improve his skills, not to ruin his supporting role.

If anyone has doubts about him, this video will dispel their doubts. After all, Sid, the extra, is not a genius. Even if someone is a genius, they wouldn't waste hours every day doing this kind of meaningless training unless they are mentally ill.

As Sid swung his sword while thinking these thoughts, his pupils suddenly contracted, and a cold smile appeared on his lips. He did not stop swinging his sword, but the magic that had been used to change the weight of the sword and the magic that had been used to stabilize the space around him were silently withdrawn.

He stayed there, practicing basic swordsmanship for an hour and a half, which was completely meaningless to him.

Be prepared: your face will show visible fatigue, your legs will feel weak and powerless from standing for two hours, and you'll be ready to fall. Okay, turn around, and then…

"Wow... um, um, um, what are you doing here, Teacher Yue Laoshi?"

He fell backward, feigning fright, his body exhausted from two hours of training.

At the same time, he let out a startled scream, then recognized the teacher and subconsciously called out his name. However, due to fatigue and the pressure of the teacher's status, he stuttered at the beginning. The rhetorical question he asked later used a vibrato and a flexible tongue to express his nervousness. It was a perfect performance by a minor character. It would have been even better if there had been a main character who was training with him standing next to him at this moment to contrast with him.

"You just arrived, and this is a question your teacher should be asking you. Why aren't you home so late? Don't you know that non-staff members are prohibited from staying at school after school hours?"

Although it sounds far-fetched, the girl in front of me with waist-length black hair, azure eyes, about 1.4 meters tall, and dressed in black Lolita fashion is indeed a teacher at this school, and a top-tier attack mage from World 2. She is basically the highest combat power on this island under normal circumstances, and has the title of "Witch of the Gap".

"Um... I'm so sorry, Ms. Natsuki, you know I'm not very talented. In order to pass, I have to practice extra on my own, but the practice grounds outside the school are too expensive, so I can only use the school's. So... Ms. Natsuki, please don't tell the school."

"Considering it's your first time, I won't report you to the school, but this is a one-time thing, and it won't happen again. From now on, I'll be the one inspecting the school, so you'd better find another place to train."

"Eh!!! Well, okay."

He put on a dejected look, went to a corner to grab his backpack, and left.

"Also, things haven't been very peaceful lately, so it's best not to go out at night."

Before stepping out the door, Nangong Nayue gave this reminder.

Chapter Five: Shadow Funds and Demons

Walking down the bustling street, I kept thinking about what had just happened.

His relationship with Nangong Nayue can only be described as that of an ordinary student and teacher, with little interaction. However, if you were to ask him who he trusts the most at school, it would be Nangong Nayue. After all… a puppet cannot go against its own established settings.

Nangong Natsuki is a doll. Although she is usually very friendly to students at school, and will only hit the student on the head with a fan if a student calls her Natsuki-chan, this is just a setting.

He was certain of this because Nangong Nayue's eyes were empty and chaotic deep inside. Although she pretended to be sincere, there was nothing there.

If all of this only suggests that she is good at pretending to be indifferent, then her body, which is entirely made of magic, is the only proof. Although the core of her body is unknown, Nangong Nayue is indeed a puppet.

That's what he thought at first, but can a doll lie?

Although Nangong Nayue said she had just arrived, he sensed she was there an hour and a half ago. Thinking about it carefully, he wondered if a doll was out of her mind to sit there and watch him practice swordsmanship for an hour and a half.

Forget it, why is he thinking so much? It's none of his business anyway.

As he was thinking this, a silver-haired figure hurriedly walked past Sid and disappeared in just a few seconds.

"That's... an ancient city? So fast, what is he hiding from?"

Sid recognized the figure; it was the older brother of the Akatsuki siblings who lived next door after he moved to Itogami Island.

"Bang!!!"

An explosion, mixed with fluctuations of magical energy, came from the direction where Akatsuki had just come from, causing panic among the surrounding crowd.

"What happened? Why was there a sudden explosion?"

"I don't know, but anyway, let's get out of here as soon as possible."

"That's true. If it's a demon, and we get accidentally injured, there's no one to help us seek justice."

Although at this point, as an extra, he should have gone with the flow and left, there were some self-righteous extras who thought they were quite capable and wanted to watch the excitement or do some chivalrous deeds.

Is he really such a stupid extra?

He could be.

He was neither too strong nor too weak, just the right B- level, and he also had a wooden sword. If he was lucky, he might unlock another minor achievement. Plus, he was really curious, so he did it.

Unfortunately, when he arrived at the scene, he only saw two thug-like demons lying on the ground. It seemed that the matter was over, and he had come for nothing, if not for the wallet on the ground.

"Sniff, sniff, I smell it, it's the smell of money."

Sid's eyes sharpened, and his gaze quickly locked onto the wallet lying on the ground.

Although there's a security camera in the upper left corner of the wallet, it doesn't matter. He has over a dozen ways to avoid detection, the simplest of which is…

"the world".

Time has stopped.

This is the magic he learned after the world merged. He named it "the word" because he thought a certain character from an anime in his previous life was cool.

He slowly picked up the wallet and returned it to its original place.

"Release, and leave."

Everything is still the same as before time stopped, except that a wallet is missing from the field.

Back home, I closed the door, turned on the lights, drew the curtains, and took my wallet out of my pocket.

"Now, it's time to check the results. Let me see, one, two, three, four, five... 20 Zeni, and... a student ID! Himeragi Yukina?"

After confirming that his wallet was empty, he casually tossed the empty wallet and student ID into the drawer and then lay down on the bed.

Two years ago, whether or not he would return something he found on the ground to its owner depended on his mood.

To become a Shadow-level powerhouse, one needs wealth to purchase top-tier collectibles as status symbols. In his original world, most of his Shadow-level powerhouse activities were funded by killing thieves and appropriating their stolen goods.

In Sid’s view, finding money on the ground is no different from double-crossing; both come from the wealth that others have lost due to accidents. The only difference is that one is obtained through luck, while the other is obtained through double-crossing.

Sometimes when he's in a good mood, he doesn't mind looking for the owner of the things he finds.

Until a year ago, in order to secure internal stability before dealing with external threats, the three worlds joined forces to launch a large-scale anti-bandit operation. Since then, his stable source of funding for his Shadow Power activities has been cut off.

Although he participated in that operation and raced against time to plunder a large amount of funds from the anti-bandit forces, losing a stable source of income meant he was just sitting around doing nothing, and he couldn't bring himself to borrow from Gamma.

Therefore, for someone who has been struggling to find new sources of funding for the past six months and is now extremely short of money, he has absolutely no intention of returning the money.

Anyway, student IDs can be replaced, and the money found is only 20 Zenis. No matter how you look at it, that woman named Himeragi Yukina can't possibly starve to death. Just consider it money spent to buy her some cunning.

"Gu~gu~"

The rumbling in his stomach brought Sid back to his senses.

"It's time to eat."

First of all, he didn't buy any groceries, and the refrigerator was empty. He got out of bed, walked to his desk, opened another cabinet, and found several flyers with magic circle patterns on them. Without even glancing at them, he randomly picked one up, walked to the living room, and threw it into the air.

The flyer floated up out of thin air, forming a magic circle with a radius of about one meter, and a tall female figure slowly emerged in the center.

"Hello, it's me... It's you, Sid. I was wondering if it was because I had too much desire last time since you didn't summon me for almost a week. Seeing that you are in such good spirits now, I feel much more at ease."

"It's you, Tsubaki. It's the same price, the same thing again. Please."

"What's wrong with you? You look so listless. Do you know any other demons besides me?"

"Never mind, I'll take less this time, for the sake of being a loyal customer."

"No need. As you said yourself, Tsubaki, it's been a while since I summoned you. I'm in good spirits now. Take as much of your desires as you want."

“You… I’m serious. Look at how half-dead you are every day. Constantly trading with desire will affect your health.”

"But all I have left to trade is desire, and if the trade is unequal, you won't be able to explain it to me, will you, Tsubaki?"