I Became a Stalker in a Yandere Dating Sim

8. Interest and Doubt

Classes at Awakener Academy primarily consisted of theory and practice.

Usually, theory was covered in the morning and practice in the afternoon.

The reason was simple.

“…Really, what is this? As time passes, it gets faster and faster?”

“Has he been running for hours already? Is he building endurance for stalking?”

“But he does look somewhat good, running with a grin.”

“But he didn’t use to spare a glance at ladies, did he?”

He started running from 1:30 in the afternoon when the practical lesson began.

Until 5 in the afternoon, an hour after the academy ended.

Running faster and faster, like Rockser.

The flow of the trainees engrossed in training never stopped, the practical lessons were conducted in the afternoon.

‘Enlightenment’ is best achieved regardless of the class, when immersed in training or combat to the brink of madness.

Because without food breaks to interrupt in the middle, there can be no such cognition.

To ensure the trainees never miss an unexpected enlightenment, they gave time for them to immerse themselves without distractions and with a full stomach.

Of course, today was Monday, a day for intensive fitness training to shake off stiffness from the weekend.

“…Run faster-!”

Rockser, driven by a heart rate addiction, could run all day.

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Usually, personal training time is given after the practical lessons related to combat.

But Rockser, not caring about that, was excitedly running.

Seeing him, Erin, a cute girl akin to a brown puppy said with a skeptical expression,

“…Did he achieve some enlightenment from running?”

She looked down at Rockser taking a full lap around the academy from the academy’s travel club’s classroom.

Already notorious, full of vigor enough to be called a stalker.

It was pitiful how he caused inconvenience besides trying to cover up his lack of skills through teleporting abilities and a good face, not even seeming like an average awakeners academy student.

As if he was hiding his proficiency.

He continued running perfectly, startling the homeroom professor ‘Cliang’ too.

This was the guy who always said running was primitive and never participated in training.

Thus, those who were usually stalked by Rockser, like Erin, and those who knew Rockser, were madly curious.

For sure, he was a trash, an ugly freak, a crazy bastard who stalked multiple girls at once, treating them like his girlfriends, and claiming it’s okay because of his overflowing energy, no matter how many harem he had.

One day, when he suddenly fell into the academy, I thought he finally met justice.

But rumor spread that this fellow, with no previous interest in combat, took down a jewel golem alone.

A situation even more unbelievable than a newborn-face sun rising in the sky.

Awakeners academy students filled with questions as the fact was confirmed by the professor and the guild association.

The only explanation could only come from Rockser.

But Rockser, brushing off the glances and words of the students, just continued to run.

As time passed, the students’ curiosity grew like a snowball.

Meanwhile, seemingly indifferent,

“…Don’t know, don’t ask me.”

Rica, sat next to Erin, with an icy yet proud face, made a shadowy arrow in her hand and curtly answered.

Rica, like Erin, belonged to the travel club, and waited in the club room since the classes weren’t over.

A month or so ago, they attended a martial arts exhibition, where weapons couldn’t be carried. So the weapons they left in the lobby were stolen by villains.

To recover those, they had placed an ‘investigation’ request with the guild union.

Today, the club president had an update on that.

So, in a classroom-like hall, Erin was waiting for the club president with Rica.

Rica was unaffected because she didn’t enter the ancient artifacts exhibition hall with her weapon that time.

“What really happened between those two?”

She came along because of Erin, who was poking her like a sulking puppy.

When she lost her weapon, she acted like a puppy who had lost its food bowl.

Ever since the club president mentioned some news, she was excited and imagined things.

Rica followed her, worrying that Erin would be disappointed if it turns out to be trivial news, as before.

“How many times do I have to tell you, I don’t know?”

She sighed at Erin, who was staring at her with twinkling green eyes.

The one most curious about Roxer’s change was her.

From Erin to the other students and professors.

She, who usually handled Roxer well, kept asking about him.

‘No, I really don’t know why that guy is acting like that.’

It was as if her cold expression revealed her thoughts.

“Hmm… Then did he take medicine he shouldn’t have?!”

Erin exclaimed as if she had realized something, her eyes and mouth wide open.

She raised her index finger, seeking affirmation from Rica with her gaze.

However, Rica kept silent, her eyes filled with distaste.

“Or did he finally take the medicine he needs to??”

Erin moved close to Rica, who was sitting by the window, as if to propose another theory.

“Or is he simply trying to attract attention?”

Still, Rica’s reaction was as bleak as if she’d encountered a pestering stranger in the streets.

Erin fell into her own thoughts.

She had become infamous for her stalking and annoying behavior, overflowing with drama.

During lunchtime, she would partake in various gossip, earning a reputation as a major mood killer amongst the student body.

She was a spectacle, not a treasure, in the entire freshman year.

She was a distasteful centerpiece, but the kind you couldn’t help but chew on.

Now, she had become a rather intriguing mystery dish.

“There’s a reason, isn’t there? She’s an attention-seeker who likes showing off to girls! Maybe she’s trying to change her image and get more attention at the same time?!”

Erin seemed to embody the spirit of a young detective with the mind of a killer, her non-existent glasses gleaming as she tapped finger to forehead in contemplation.

“Your conjecture is wrong, Alchemist.”

Taken aback by Rica’s words, Erin stuck out her tongue.

“Wrong? So, Rica, are you saying you know the answer??”

But for the alchemist, a wrong guess was just a reference.

Erin clung to Rica like an eager puppy, staring at her with eyes full of hope.

“How many times do I have to tell you, I don’t know. And back off.”

“Those eyes, they’re the eyes of a liar!”

“Oh for the love of…”

“Don’t look at me so pitifully!”

“Sigh…”

“Don’t you dare pity me!!”

And as the two girls squabbled for a while, Roxer, who had been watching a sunset, suddenly realized he shouldn’t be lingering around.

“Oh, shoot! What’s the time?”

Glancing at his smartphone, it was already 5:15 PM.

Just like how time flies when you’re in the game.

The joy of running was so great it was addictive, time flew by.

Just as he was setting off for the guild collation to draw his sword…

“Roxer, that’s you, right?”

A clear female voice called out to him from behind where he was having a drinking energy potion and meal substitute.

Roxer remembered hearing the voice when playing the main character in the game.

‘Th… The protagonist?!’

It was the voice that appeared when the protagonist of the game was a woman.

In other words, it marked the appearance of an enemy who typically defeated Roxer in the storyline.

With the difficulty being upped to a cruel level called ‘Heart Break,’

Even rusty monsters with bones and weapons, who used to be as easy as wrapping and eating a bossam, were establishing a dangerous 5:1 advantage with perfect coordination and threatening equipment.

The Orcs, who were haphazardly causing team kills with their simple, seemingly unintelligent patterns, greeted us as if they were skilled PVP users. What a mad world.

Within this madness, a monster that managed to inflict a whopping 14% of the total damage in the Jewel Golem Raid, famous for its insane difficulty, appeared from behind Rocker.

Just for reference, the average total damage during this raid test was 0.5%.

‘Damn it…’

And such a monster knocked out the stalker, Rocker, in the story.

Unable to hide his anxiety, he tried to act as if he hadn’t heard a thing and went on.

“Hold on!”

The protagonist, Jane, who stopped him by stretching out her arms in front of him as if he couldn’t pass.

Her grey short hair tinged with blue fluttered like a blue butterfly.

Beneath thinly-threaded eyebrows similar to her hair color were her sharp and dynamically-arced black eyelashes.

The fox-like eyes that stared fiercely belied a female warrior’s aura within those blue pupils.

As the main character, her upright blue eyes were both deep and mysterious like the ocean.

But to Rocker, it was as if a natural calamity had personally come to visit.

His heart rate kept dropping, and he felt a bit heavy due to the side effects of his heart rate addiction.

And now with the appearance of the Angel of Death, Rocker felt like he didn’t want to live.

“…You mistook me for someone else.”

Rocker rolled his slightly darkened red eyes, avoiding Jane’s eye contact as he subtly prepared to flee.

She stepped forward to cut off his escape route, looking at him with eyes full of curiosity.

She was very attractive, but because of her sharp eyes, she seemed to be glaring at him.

‘Damn it, is it a duel?!’

Rocker could only think that the only reason the protagonist would come this close and stop him would be just that.

‘Like in the original story, the protagonist saw Rocker stalking the heroine and marked him as the target of a duel, and came to confront me…!’

He couldn’t help but think that the protagonist came to deal with him just like in the original story.

If it came to a fight, he wouldn’t run away, but he resolved not to let his guard down.

“Jewel Golem! How did you do it!?”

Protagonist Jane asked Rocker with a face brimming with curiosity.

Even she couldn’t catch the Golem after doling out such a massive attack.

Alone, he had pierced the powerful Jewel Golem’s body and had only destroyed the core. Jane was dying to know how.

Her blue eyes seemed to plead with retreating Rocker to absolve her curiosity.

“Wa-Wait! You’re too close! We’re touching!”

In the end, the protagonist Jane, who was as busty as Rika, pressed her chest against Rocker.

Regardless of his embarrassment, or her chest pressing against him, she approached him with the intention of continuing to ask until she got an answer.

“How did you beat the Jewel Golem? Is it related to how you run? Does running somehow enable it? How can you only destroy the Jewel Golem’s core?”

Jane, who seemed to be a killer of question marks, pressed him without realizing her chest was pressed against him.

“Tell me! I’ll do anything if you tell me!”

With an innocent yet brazen expression, it felt like she wouldn’t hesitate to do anything as long as he answered her.

To begin with, Jane’s chest, which seemed to be a treasure, touched him slightly below his chest, which could easily prompt a misunderstanding.

Of course, Jane was so focused on the Jewel Golem that she wouldn’t even realize it.

Rocker, whose heart rate soared for an instant, wavered upon hearing the defenseless remark of a protagonist who, in the original story, manifested justice towards him.

“Anything?”

“Yes! So, tell me!”

Due to his addiction to a high heart rate, Rocker was momentarily enticed by an eerie sensation and just about fell into a strange thought.

‘I shouldn’t fall for it…! It must be a trap.’

When he’d seen Rika’s terrifying kill intent before, he suddenly found himself wanting to provoke her even more.

Now, he almost fell for the scheme of a protagonist who was pursuing him for snatching the first place in the Jewel Golem raid.

Of course, Jane was not scheming anything and was just a little too defenseless, and a bit dull due to focusing too much on battles.

She was just a bit clueless when it came to anything other than combat.

Especially, her sense of personal boundary was a bit peculiar, so she got physically close to Rocker. From Rocker’s perspective, it was nothing less than bait.

The bait that enticed him with a chest that he wanted to touch as if inviting him into a trap.

As if afflicted with a chronic case of increased heart rate,

‘I felt the same even with Rica…! No matter how hard I try, I can’t break free!’

Despite his fear of the woman before him, he could not tear Jane away from himself.

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Just as he couldn’t take his eyes off Rica’s dying eyes.

Rokseo was once again stuck in her arms, forced to make another choice.

As if an event had unfolded in their visual novel.