“Thank you all for your hard work during the exam.”
Cheers erupted from all around.
Some let out breaths of relief, while others sighed in despair as the tumultuous major course finally came to an end.
“Even though it’s a makeup class, please give our teaching assistants a round of applause for their efforts over the past ten weeks.”
Professor Cheon Kyujin, after sending the students’ final evaluation exam papers to his office, pondered how to wrap things up.
“You’ve worked hard too, Professor. Do you have any classes next year?”
“Unfortunately, no. Moreover, starting next year, I’ll be on sabbatical, so I’ll probably only return once you all graduate, if you graduate safely, that is.”
The students began to relax a bit at his light-hearted joke.
“The lecture started with 50 people, but now only 28 of you elite students remain. Don’t worry too much. I’ll award grades based on your average, including the dropouts, so as long as you achieve the average, you won’t be let down by your grades. Thank you for all your hard work during the winter makeup semester. I was Professor Cheon Kyujin, specializing in Micro-Nano Soft Materials Analysis. Thank you.”
With a resounding applause, students began to log out one by one.
Though it was a short time, he felt a moment of nostalgia as he sent off students whose names he had memorized by calling the roll.
There was the student who always sat in the back and dozed off, yet somehow performed tremendously well on the midterms.
That student was so curious he would bombard him with questions every class, even after lessons, which sometimes left the professor in a bind. Naturally, the gratification followed suit.
The first grading of the exam papers was the responsibility of the teaching assistants.
With little time left until the grade input period, considering possible claims, he needed to start grading right away.
The assistant took his leave after getting Professor Cheon Kyujin’s understanding.
Eventually, the only one left was an unidentified little child whom he had met in his summer semester class.
At first, he thought a retired professor friend of his had come to tease him, but as the lectures continued, it became clear that she genuinely sat in on his lessons.
“Did you manage to take the exam?”
“Well, sort of…”
“Haha. I’m looking forward to the grades. Our students are all exceptional, but now I worry they may fall behind Namhee.”
“Not Namhee, it’s name.”
“Name?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. As you can see, these days kids live almost entirely in virtual reality. This is only my second time teaching in a virtual setting, and it feels quite strange. If it’s not too rude, I would like to meet you in person outside of virtual reality. Would that be okay?”
The girl was not a student from his university. Still, he was curious about the identity of a child who attended class every day and consistently showed outstanding performance.
“I don’t have much time. If you really want to meet, let’s do it during the claims period. You mentioned you’d meet in person then.”
But still, he was curious about her exam results.
Professor Cheon Kyujin smiled brightly at her response.
“Well then, take care.”
“Do you know how to get to my place?”
“…”
“If you don’t know, I can tell you now.”
*
After Arin was adopted, I left Merlin Orphanage without looking back.
For several months, I slept daily at ‘Gung PC Bang.’
The shutdown law had been abolished two years ago; otherwise, I would have ended up living off the homeless at Seoul Station.
The nun didn’t seem to mind too much; perhaps there were many cases like mine. She sent me off with 150,000 won, which I had originally earned.
Now was not the time to play. I needed to earn 30,000 won a day to secure my living needs.
However, my stubbornness to not play games lasted quite a while, and I began a somewhat peculiar broadcast where I solved young children’s homework for money, all while setting the category to ‘Just Chatting.’ This was my only talent.
With a minimum rate of 1,000 won, considering the fees, I quickly accumulated money after a few questions.
[‘HoyaMuyaHo’ donated 1,000 won!]
– I still can’t finish my vacation homework due tomorrow! Please help!
“Thank you for the donation.”
I opened the photo attached to the donation.
Fundamentally, due to my personality, I didn’t say much, so the melody of Berceuse quietly echoed as background music.
I set up a digital blackboard next to the donation box and began explaining.
“The problem is based on soft materials, but this is ultimately about mathematics. So, we don’t need to analyze the soft material itself. We just need to find the angles asked in the problem. Here, this line is unnaturally bent, right?”
I drew a horizontal auxiliary line from the bent part of the line.
“Then this and this are parallel, and this is 30 degrees. Also, this and this are parallel, so this is 45 degrees. So if we sum them, it gives 75 degrees.”
After teaching a few times, I memorized that this was about a first-year middle school level problem.
Once I finished solving the problem, I would close my eyes and take a break.
The viewers didn’t disturb me, and they played amongst themselves, so I was quite satisfied with the situation. However, I was still struggling to make ends meet.
– Why are you asking for money for this?
– We could solve this if we just commented, lol.
– There are only the angles 30 and 45 degrees, so of course the sum is 75 degrees, kid, lol.
– This isn’t even math; it’s just basic operations.
– Seriously, what are you getting from this? Why are you watching?
– The avatar is really cute, though.
– Totally agree.
[‘GraduateStudentSaveMe’ donated 1,000 won!]
– Would you take questions on complex analysis?
Ah, just when I was about to fall asleep, another donation sound rang out.
“… Yes.”
I was slow to respond as I confirmed the question, still dazed.
– You should adjust your pricing, lol.
– What’s the host’s real identity? Seems to know everything.
There wasn’t a fixed pricing, but I would raise it if it seemed like the question would take long to answer.
If I raised those questions to 1,000 won, it would undoubtedly incite a riot in the comment section.
[‘GraduateStudentSaveMe’ donated 10,000 won!]
– Is this amount sufficient?
Is it sufficient? I carefully examined the content sent by another precious viewer.
– But why is your nickname ‘GraduateStudentSaveMe’?
– Because when I fall into a lake in front of the school and shout for a person to save me, I want to get used to it.
“Just a moment.”
I needed help from the internet. I understood the concept, but I didn’t know the terminology in this world.
Feeling lost on how to search for it, I just typed what came to mind.
– Internet chance!
– I just saw the content of the question and it’s quite intense, lol.
– This person is something else.
– Does the host really understand? Is the truth finally coming out?
“Ah, here it is. To derive the conclusion, you need to understand something called a perfectoid space. I’m too lazy to explain, so just roughly refer to Treewiki…”
– Seriously, there’s nothing not on Treewiki.
I agreed with that opinion. Even during my days working at the Mage Tower, I hardly knew anyone.
“Then we can define the open set like this. If you fix a prime number p and there’s such a field, we can also extend the field as follows.”
It wasn’t that difficult. It just felt strange due to the unfamiliarity of the concepts.
“Anyway, the formula the viewer wanted can be derived as follows. If you have any questions, I can elaborate further.”
Seeing the lack of a response for a while, it seemed like they were racking their brains trying to understand the formulas I had previously written.
There was no rush because I wasn’t going to delete anything.
– Why on earth do you learn this? Is it really necessary for living?
– This is just a child’s play, yet they grumble about where they would use it, lol.
– What the heck is a perfectoid? How would you even use that, lol?
– But finding the angle of the soft material makes sense?
The comment section transformed into a battleground once again. But this time, I had no intention of being a bystander.
I mostly sided with one opinion.
“It’s a fundamental theory that allows us to move freely between fields and rings, and it’s also incredibly important from a magical perspective. You can cast 3-circle magic with just the qualifications of a 1-circle.”
It was immensely important. The 9-circle magic that only the legendary dragons could use could never be wielded due to biological limitations, but if one were to qualify for the 7-circle, it would be possible to activate it conditionally.
[‘Leviathan’ donated 1,000 won!]
– Make some sense here. Are you saying anyone in a magic game can launch missiles right from the tutorial?
“Why wouldn’t that make sense?”
[‘Leviathan’ donated 1,000 won!]
– Then show us. Get into World of Arseria and launch a tutorial.
“What is World of Arseria?”
[‘Leviathan’ donated 1,000 won!]
– You don’t even know World of Arseria? Anyway, if you get that, you can use mana almost exactly like in reality without needing permissions.
Listening to the explanation, it seemed like a program that implemented mana in virtual reality.
I thought it would be challenging to replicate mana, but the technology of the future was indeed amazing.
“Let’s give it a try.”
After all, in a PC room, most programs should be installed.
Indeed, World of Arseria ranked second in popularity.
One step above the game I had grown tired of, LOL.
If a world with mana was the same as the real world, then I didn’t quite understand why people went through the effort to connect to virtual reality.
– Leviathan, this is so exciting!
– They’re doing it! They’re doing it! They’re doing it!
– The build-up was insane!
– They weren’t just trolls; they were highly intelligent criminals! lol
[Would you like to connect to World of Arseria?]
[The broadcast has been ongoing for 2:17:53. Do you wish to continue?]
[May the blessings of the World Tree be upon you.]
A tingling sensation engulfed my senses as if I were connecting to League of Legends for the first time.
After skimming over some tedious terms and conditions, a new world unfolded before me.
[No avatar information registered. Would you like to proceed with the main avatar?]
[Welcome, No Name!]
The chirping of birds echoed through the dense forest.
A cold chill and damp humidity enveloped my skin.
As I paused to assess my surroundings, the game help system kindly showed arrows to indicate the direction I should move.
– It’s a tutorial, so get going!
– If you save a girl named Remy near the lake, you can start using magic!
It felt incredibly real. The sound of leaves rustling with every step, the sunlight streaming through the trees to light up the forest—this is virtual reality.
Before I got lost in my thoughts, sounds of wolves echoed from afar.
[Prologue: The Child of the Prophecy]
As instructed in the chat, a small girl lay unconscious near the lake, surrounded by three or four wolves.
– Why is there no tutorial?
– They must have skipped it.
– It would be hard to catch them if they don’t tell you how.
My mana circuits seemed completely closed, as magic was not operational.
My physical body looked no different from my real one. I needed to find a way to deal with the wolves.
I wasn’t a mage or a mercenary.
I had no strength to speak of.
One of the wolves showed interest and approached me.
As I took a step back, the wolf stealthily followed.
The wolf was in no hurry.
It likely saw its prey run away and didn’t want to lose it.
I collapsed on the ground, pretending to be dead.
– ???????
– What’s the host doing???
– lol, what’s this now?
– Wolves tear people apart! Bears tear people apart! So, should I pretend to be dead in front of them?
– The miraculous three-step logic, lol!
First, I acted dead. Then I watched the situation unfold.
The strategy of deceiving predators was a highly sophisticated approach only humans could devise.
‘Awoo!’
True to its pack nature, two more wolves approached, surrounding me.
They slowly circled in a clockwise direction, their spacing narrowing.
As one wolf determined I had no escape route, it lifted its paw to strike my head, at which point I quickly grabbed the other leg of the wolf.
“Cast: Circuit Reconstruction.”
The material I had secretly created utilizing the bare ground activated.
The wolf leaped in shock but soon stumbled and fell.
There are many reasons magical operations might fail.
Due to a lack of understanding of mana, a lack of understanding of the spell formula, or a lack of understanding of magic itself are the most common issues.
Such phenomena could occur due to constraints given to the caster; the mana circuit could be blocked or destroyed, or it could be rendered inoperable due to a curse.
If it wasn’t either of those, it would be due to the environment, but seeing the size and shape of the wolf’s horns, mana must be plentiful in this forest.
To be precise, it can be considered a curse imposed by the system.
The circuit itself was clear, but the mana was unable to pass through a peculiar semi-permeable barrier.
At times like this, the solution is simple. Just borrow the circuit of another organism.
As I felt the wolf’s front leg, I induced a synchronization phenomenon connecting the ground, myself, and the wolf, utilizing its mana to synchronize its circuit with this ground.
Since the wolf likely held little mana, I’d feel dizzy due to mana depletion, but it would only last a moment. I had to act quickly before it succumbed.
Two other wolves staggered for a moment before they suddenly decided to charge at me.
Not wanting to miscalculate my mana and end up with depletion again, I decided to apply the least costly magic first.
“Cast: Coefficient Adjustment.”
A spell that makes the surface of the ground smooth doesn’t require significant adjustments in atomic arrangements.
The mana consumed is naturally low.
It was a rudimentary magic likely done by elementary students at the Academy but perfect against such feral beasts.
The two wolves came rushing at each other but slipped as they misstepped.
And then they collided with each other, not knowing what to do.
Well, my goal wasn’t to eliminate them; if I save that girl, I can use magic anyways, so I bid farewell to the dogs.
