The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1256

Super Ribbon, split into two, overslept in her dorm room. Considering she usually woke up early, it was a rare and surprising sight to see her sleep in.

Of course...

“Mmm...”

“It’s Red Ribbon’s...”

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t Super Ribbon herself, but Blue Ribbon and Red Ribbon. The two girls were sleeping, tightly embracing one another, as if each was the most precious thing in the world.

Their classmates, who had woken up first, quietly watched them sleep adorably for a bit before carefully leaving the room so as not to wake them.

When Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon finally woke up and merged back into Super Ribbon, it had been nearly an hour since everyone else had left.

One of her upperclassmen saw her leave her room, saying with surprise, “Super Ribbon, you're up?”

“Ugh. Yes, sunbae.”

“That’s a relief. You were pretty drunk last night, so we were all a little worried.”

“I’m sorry, sunbae.”

“It’s fine. It was your first time drinking, right? You didn’t cause any trouble, so don’t worry. More importantly, what do you want to do about food? Everyone’s already done eating in the cafeteria, so you’ll have to grab something on your own.”

She supported the still-woozy and bed-headed Super Ribbon and asked gently, “If you’re okay with it, want to head over to our club room? We’ve got some food there you could have. Nothing fancy, but it should fill you up.”

“Club room? What’s that?”

“Well, it’s literally just a club’s room. Orientation officially ended earlier this morning, but you were sleeping so soundly that the upperclassmen decided to let you be. That secretary came to pick you up, then said he’d come back after you woke up.”

“Ah, I see...” Suddenly, Super Ribbon realized her memory of the prior night was pretty hazy.

“Ummmm. Did I... do anything weird?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.”

Her face turned bright red.

“It’s alright. You just split into Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon again. Yoo-Seok told us he’d seen a video of you splitting before, but seeing it in person? Ridiculously cute.”

“Ah...”

It seemed she must’ve lost control of her energy when she got drunk, causing her physical form to destabilize and split.

To make matters worse, that wasn’t the only thing that had happened to her. There was a blank space in her memory, as if she had gone through a blackout.

“I don’t think alcohol suits you. Better avoid it if you can.”

“I think you’re right...”

“Here. Drink this.” Her sunbae handed her a hangover remedy and led her out of the dorm toward the student union building.

They walked down a quiet hallway until the sunbae casually opened an old door. “Come on in. Don’t worry, no one else is here today.”

“Oh! What is this place?”

“Like I said, it’s our club room. We’re the Travel Club.”

Her eyes sparkled. It just so happened to be the club she was most interested in!

“To be honest, things are still a little messy in our club. I mean, we are all back on campus and clubs are starting up again, but it wasn’t that long ago the whole world was in chaos. Most of the old members are gone now, too.”

In fact, a large portion of Korea University’s student body had left for good after that. Even though the number of students would slowly climb again, there were still huge portions of the country which had been overrun by monsters.

“How about some King Lid?”[1]

“Kimchi King Lid for me, please.”

“Ooooh!! You know what’s up!” In a better mood now, the sunbae set water to boil in an electric kettle. “Don’t worry, all this stuff is new, so you don't have to worry about contamination or expired food. We’re actually lucky that the campus was able to bounce back so fast. Despite all those monsters, our campus wasn’t directly hit by monsters.”

In truth, the government had invested heavily in reviving the universities.

“You know who I am, right?” she finally asked.

“You’re Ah-Rin, right?” She recognized him from the night before.

“Yep! Kim Ah-Rin, sophomore. I took time off because of the chaos, so I’m a bit older than the usual sophomore.

Ah-Rin was twenty-six. Not a typical age for a college student, though not exactly uncommon in their modern day.

“To be honest, a lot of current students are older like me.” Though there were exceptions, Kim Ah-Rin had lived through quite a bit.

Ah-Rin’s noodles finished first, so she slurped her ramen and cooled it with gentle blows.

Super Ribbon waited a few moments before deftly lifting the lid on her own cup. Soon, she slurped the noodles with a joyful smile.

“Didn’t think a girl from one of the world’s richest families would be used to eating cup noodles.” It sounded like teasing, but her eyes showed nothing but honest curiosity.

“My father has always told us to live modestly. Even Eva, my younger sister, doesn’t get much for her weekly allowance.”

“That’s... kinda harsh? Oh wait, was that too much for me to say?”

“Not at all! I really respect my father.” Super Ribbon giggled softly. “He always said that no matter how much money we have, if we live too indulgently, we’ll miss the things that matter and end up poisoning ourselves.”

Ah-Rin immediately understood what ‘poison’ her father was referring to. It was a corrupt sense of superiority, the toxic elitism so often portrayed in shows featuring the ultra-rich.

“Aaaah. Your father’s really something. I heard I’m older than him, but his thinking still runs way deeper than my own.”

It finally clicked for Super Ribbon why Davey had raised her the way he did.

“Got any questions for me?” Ah-Rin asked.

“Hmm? No, not really.”

“Then can I ask you something? Why did you apply to our department? I mean, as you know, the Awakening Department... Yeah, it’s got a future, but it’s still kind of new. You get what I’m saying?”

After all, monsters had only been appearing on Earth for less than a decade. Studies about mana, rifts, and the Awakened were still very new. Furthermore, not many Awakened individuals even bothered with college. Thanks to those factors, the department didn’t really teach practical applications.

“In fact, this department used to go by an entirely different name. It’s only since there was a lot of overlap, and thanks to government backing, that the name was changed.”

Most of her upperclassmen had either transferred in from other majors or chosen to stay after the department’s name was changed, giving up the chance to switch out.

Rather than a polished academic program, it was a major still being pioneered. That meant the students learning about Awakened phenomena like current mana trends were, in a way, gaining real-world experience.

“Even if I’m technically your sunbae, everyone here’s kind of on the same page. Heck, some of our seniors are pushing thirty.”

There wasn’t anything strange about that. There were plenty of cases where people were just lucky to have survived and made it back to school at all.

Slurp!

“Still, it’s kind of amazing how fast everything’s being rebuilt. Just a few years ago, we thought society was over,” Ah-Rin muttered with awe.

“Is this the blessing of that god named Neltarid or whatever?” Super Ribbon innocently asked.

Kim Ah-Rin let out a chuckle, clearly treating it like a joke.

‘Probably.’

Publicly, the changes were due to the Valkyries Kain and Frelia, who were known publicly. However, Super Ribbon knew that Neltarid was the god who loved the living beings of Earth, so it had likely worked behind the scenes to naturally blend the changes into the flow of Earth.

“So many people died. All those universities in Korea took the brunt of it. Half of them disappeared as entire cities were obliterated, and it’s taken forever to rebuild everything. Most students were lost in those events, too. Our club used to have over twenty members, and now we’ve only got four left.”

Of course, since the total student population had dropped dramatically, club minimums for membership were no longer enforced.

“Our generation’s just... that kind of generation. But I guess it’s probably a different story for you, eh?” Ah-Rin softly chuckled with a smile.

Super Ribbon gave a faint smile in return. “Ummm. Sunbae?”

“Yeah?”

“Are freshmen allowed to join clubs?”

“Of course! Freshmen are especially welcome. Why, are you thinking of joining?”

“I’m interested. In the travel club.”

Ah-Rin’s expression immediately brightened. “No takesies backsies!!”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you're in for good!” She flashed her a wide grin. “We’re going on a trip at the end of the month. Let’s go together then.”

“Where to?”

“An abandoned hospital. It’s a haunted house experience.”

For a moment, all Super Ribbon could do was blink.

‘Is this... a horror club disguised as a travel club?’

However, Ah-Rin shook her head. “Well, it’s not really a haunted house trip. There’s a beautiful valley nearby with clear spring water, and the mountains have great scenery. The abandoned hospital just happens to be in the area, so we’ll probably just take a look from a distance.”

There was no reason for them to actually go inside. They weren’t that kind of club.

“But wait. Can you see ghosts?” Super Ribbon wondered.

Ah-Min curiously asked, “Do you believe in ghosts?”

“I mean. There's mana, there are monsters, and even spectral essences in the world. Why wouldn’t ghosts exist? Though, I suppose they’re fundamentally different.”

Perhaps if one considered spectral essences as living beings, but it was rather tricky to view ghosts the same. Yet for someone like Super Ribbon, who already understood the truth and flow of the world to a degree, ghosts weren’t all that surprising.

Ah-Min bragged, “One of my relatives is a shaman. She said that ever since your father visited an infamous haunted site, every ghost there has disappeared.”

Super Ribbon grew a bit wistful. She remembered the last time Davey had dealt with something related to ghosts. She murmured to herself, “Dragging them by the leg after they begged for mercy on all fours, pulling them back in while they screamed...”

“Huh?”

“Ah! N-Nothing! I’d love to go! I really want to!”

Ah-Rin instantly grew even more excited. “Good choice! Honestly, we’re just planning to set up tents near the hospital and hang out. There's a certain charm to having a spooky setting for a trip, don’t you think?”

For some reason, Super Ribbon couldn’t shake the strange feeling in her chest.

* * *

After hearing the news that Super Ribbon had been accepted as a college freshman, many expressed their congratulations for her achieving what she wanted.

However, regardless of how accomplished she had managed to be, there would always be some lunatics who turned their attention in a completely different direction.

“This looks tasty.”

“Rinne presents additional opinions. Rinne suggests investigating the taste of Korea University’s legendary hot wings and soup. Rinne evaluates the student cafeteria highly.” Rinne, draped in a pitch-black robe, stared out from beneath her hood, eyes gleaming with dangerous curiosity.

“Hmmm. The student cafeteria, eh? I agree, it will be worth checking out firsthand given how many students use it,” another black-robed figure murmured beside her. She lightly brushed back her hood to reveal shimmering blue hair and long, pointed ears that clearly identified her as an elf.

“Are you coming too, Marky?”

“If it tastes good, sure,” she casually answered.

“Living beings are naturally inclined toward gourmet experiences,” Yuria calmly informed her. “If the food’s bad, it’s only natural for the place to be empty.”

Without another word, Yuria turned and began stuffing items into a large, black bag.

The eyes of Marky, who had been reading a novel in the corner, instantly narrowed. “Hold it! What did you just put in there?”

Yuria replied with a bright, innocent smile, “Exploding mana stones.”

They were the same kind of magical explosives which had once gotten Mit Chyde accused of blowing up a museum at the Central Academy.

“We’re just going to eat lunch. Why do you need those?”

Still smiling, Yuria casually hid the bag behind her back without a word.

“Nope. I’m out.” Sensing imminent disaster, Marky made a quick move to escape. However, she was instantly restrained by Rinne, who grabbed her from behind.

“This is critical to the Gourmet Research Society’s mission.”

“Let go of me, you psychos! We just secured funding, and now you’re planning another disaster?! Are you kidding me?!”

“Disaster? Please. Our goal is purely clean, scholarly exploration,” Yuria replied in an annoying yet calming tone.

Rinne, grinning eerily, began blaring out grand orchestral music that no human would ever be able to produce. Then, cupping her hands like a beatboxer, she added bizarre techno noises on top. “Pff boom pff boom. Btk chh btk chh zing!!”

On the outside, she looked like a tiny, emotionless girl. In reality, she was a living relic created by a god over ten thousand years in the past. She was a biological golem that transcended perception itself!

Yet, she was also an unpredictable being, so bizarre it was almost grotesque.

Marky screamed as she struggled, “Let go of me, you lunatics!! You already tried pulling stunts next to Evangeline and got wrecked! Now you’re aiming at Super Ribbon?!”

Rinne quickly subdued her with her overwhelming strength, and Yuria spoke up again, “Oh my, that sounds very misleading. We’re merely pursuing culinary breakthroughs, don't you know?”

“Rinne analyzes that the fire of exploding mana bombs yields unique heating effects. Rinne further explains that it’ll heat the dishes in an unconventional way, expanding the...”

“And what if it explodes?!”

Yuria simply gave her a gentle smile. “It’s not a crime as long as we don’t get caught.”

Common sense was not something they cared about.

Marky let out a long, weary sigh as she looked at the psycho elf with the wicked smile and the biological golem playing eerie music. “Fine. Let’s just go. Ugh! Can’t we just eat good food without adding weird seasoning and preparation on top?”

Even though they were all members of the so-called Gourmet Research Society, not everyone was on the same page.

After all, the world had people who love the flavor of mint chocolate chips.

That alone said it all.

1. King Lid is an instant cup noodle with a plastic lid, popular in Korea and made by a company called Paldo. For further reference to its popularity, Faker of League of Legends/T1 eSports fame has his own King Lid collab flavor. ☜