Hanguk University Central Library, Reading Room 1.
Forgetting even the rise and fall of the sun beyond the window, I was buried in a mountain of books.
“……Sulfur (S) and phosphorus (P) were the problem. In a fantasy world, the process for removing impurities from molten iron is a mess, so hot shortness occurs at high temperatures, causing the iron to tear apart.”
My eyes were bloodshot, crimson veins standing out, but my lips kept muttering without pause as I devoured knowledge with ferocious intensity.
The first thing I did after returning to Gang Ujin’s body wasn’t to eat or sleep.
I ran straight to the library and began digging like a madman through books on metallurgical engineering, mechanics of materials, and metallurgy.
“To bind these impurities, I need to throw limestone into the blast furnace and create a basic slag. And to neutralize the sulfur, add manganese (Mn). Yes, this is it!”
Bang!
In my excitement, I slammed my fist down on the desk, and the students studying nearby jumped and stared at me.
But I had no room to care about other people’s gazes.
In the world beyond, the boiler I had made might at this very moment be reaching a perilous critical point, on the verge of exploding.
I didn’t know how time flowed there, but if every minute and second were passing at the same rate, Aila and the factory would already have been reduced to ashes.
‘But judging by the sensation when the pendant activated, time over there must either be nearly stopped or flowing extremely slowly while I’m here. Otherwise, this miracle of traveling between two worlds couldn’t possibly work.’
Even so, I couldn’t afford to relax.
To stop the explosion and cast a perfect boiler capable of withstanding that absurd steam pressure, I had to completely break through the “limits of the material.”
“The carbon content of steel plate for pressure vessels must be low-carbon steel at 0.2 percent or less for toughness to be maintained. If I alloy it with trace amounts of chromium (Cr) and molybdenum (Mo), I can make heat-resistant steel that withstands high-temperature pressure.”
Whether rare metals like chromium and molybdenum could be refined immediately in the fantasy world remained unknown, but I crammed even the characteristics and smelting methods of substitute minerals into my head.
“Next is the joint where the steam leaked out. Leather and grease won’t even come close.”
In the modern world, you could simply use Teflon or high-performance synthetic rubber O-rings, but in the fantasy world, the petrochemical industry did not exist.
“Then it’s graphite. I’ll layer graphite powder with thin copper sheets and assemble a metal graphite gasket that can withstand high temperature and high pressure. With this much, it can completely seal steam at 400 degrees Celsius!”
Scratch, scratch!
I filled my notebook until the mechanical pencil lead nearly snapped.
A perfect master plan was taking shape—one that would transform the fantasy world’s crude lumps of iron into an immortal steamship capable of sailing the seas.
Grrrrrrowl.
At that moment, a thunderous sound rang out from my stomach.
After surviving for days and nights on nothing but canned coffee and triangle kimbap, my stomach was screaming.
“Haa, I should stay alive first.”
I was turning my stiff neck and rising from my seat when the smartphone in my pocket gave a short buzz.
[Hanguk University Academic Affairs Office]
Student Gang Ujin, the deadline for submitting documents for the 2026 Spring Semester National Scholarship and tuition reduction is tomorrow at 17:00. Failure to submit them by the deadline may result in cancellation of scholarship benefits, so please visit the department office and sign the documents.
“Ah.”
I let out a short sigh.
Money.
Whether in this world or that world, the thing that ultimately shackled a person’s ankles was money.
The university tuition here in South Korea was murderous enough to rival the yearly budget of a decent trading company in Fellua.
Of course, in Fellua, I was Carnoble’s chief factor, someone who had seized a measure of wealth, but right now, Gang Ujin’s bank balance was in such a miserable state that it amounted to enough for only a few cups of instant noodles.
‘Fortunately, the studying I risked my life on last semester really paid off.’
Immediately after possessing this body, I had studied like a madman to absorb mechanical engineering knowledge. As a result, Gang Ujin’s transcript, which had once belonged to a perpetual academic probation candidate, had been plastered with monstrous numbers: straight A+ grades and a 4.5 GPA.
Thanks to that, I had been selected for a full national scholarship, completely removing the worry of tuition.
“The problem is that I have to split off precious time to go sign those damned documents in person.”
Administrative procedures were a nuisance anywhere.
But it was only natural that when in Rome, you followed Roman law, and when at university, you followed university administration.
Clutching my notebook carefully to my chest, I roughly swept back my greasy hair and left the library.
Department Office of Mechanical Engineering.
When I opened the door and stepped inside, the smell of printer toner and stale coffee struck my nose.
“Hello. I’m here to sign the scholarship documents.”
At my greeting, the teaching assistant, who had been sorting documents in front of the copier with a soulless expression, turned his head.
He was a graduate student TA steeped in chronic fatigue, with dark circles under his eyes so deep they seemed to reach his jaw.
“Ah…… name and student number?”
“I’m a third-year student, Gang Ujin.”
“Gang Ujin…… Ah.”
For an instant, life returned to the TA’s hollow eyes.
As if he had discovered some legendary fortunate encounter, he opened his eyes wide and looked back and forth between my face and the list on the monitor.
“You’re that legendary Gang Ujin? The crazy grade-improvement guy who drank every day in his first and second years and kept getting academic probation, then swept first place in all five required major courses last semester?”
“Ah, yes. Well…… I got lucky. Where should I sign?”
All I wanted was to quickly sign the documents and return to the library to calculate the compression ratio of the graphite gasket.
“Here, sign in this section. Haa, I’m seriously jealous. With grades like this, employment later on will be a free pass for you.”
The TA handed me the documents with a sigh tinged with envy.
I picked up the pen and finished the signature in a quick scrawl.
“Thank you.”
I bowed and, without any lingering attachment, was about to grab the department office doorknob.
Click.
The door to the department chair’s office inside opened, and a dignified voice flowed out.
“Assistant Kim. Did you just say Student Gang Ujin?”
At that moment, I clearly saw the TA’s spine go rigid.
The man who walked out from the inner room was a middle-aged man wearing silver-rimmed glasses, with a sharp gaze.
Gang Ujin’s memories in my head immediately sounded an alarm.
‘Professor Bak Taejun. In charge of thermodynamics and solid mechanics. And the department chair, famous for being the pickiest and most exacting person in the Mechanical Engineering Department.’
Professor Bak approached me with his hands clasped behind his back.
His gaze flashed as if he were appraising a finely cut jewel—no, like a predator sizing up a plump sacrifice.
“So you’re Gang Ujin. It’s been hard to see your face, but you came at just the right time.”
“Ah, hello, Professor.”
Feeling an instinctive sense of foreboding, I lowered my head.
“Yes. That report on thermal stress analysis of pressure vessels you submitted last semester. It wasn’t at the level of an undergraduate. You didn’t simply solve equations; you perfectly calculated the practical limits of materials and safety margins, enough to be put to use in the field right away.”
“You flatter me. I merely applied what was in the books. Then, I’m busy, so I’ll be going……”
“Busy? I heard rumors you were researching something in the library again. What’s that notebook you’re holding?”
Professor Bak’s sharp eye turned toward the notebook I held against my chest.
There was no reason to hide it, and it wasn’t something he could take from me, so I answered calmly.
“Ah, out of personal interest, I was designing the composition ratios of low-carbon alloy steel capable of withstanding high temperature and pressure, as well as the sealing structure of a graphite gasket.”
The moment he heard those words.
Beyond Professor Bak’s silver-rimmed glasses, a light flashed—more dangerous and fierce than an exploding boiler.
“High temperature and pressure…… alloy steel and a sealing structure?”
Professor Bak swallowed.
His field of specialization was none other than thermofluid dynamics in extreme environments and the application of new materials.
It was absolutely not a topic an undergraduate would dabble in for fun.
“Student Ujin.”
Professor Bak’s voice suddenly became endlessly gentle and sticky.
I saw Assistant Kim, standing beside him, squeeze his eyes shut like a man listening to a death sentence.
“Do you, by any chance, have plans after graduation?”
“Pardon? I haven’t thought about it yet.”
“Don’t be like that.”
Professor Bak took another step closer and placed a heavy hand on my shoulder.
It was a far more suffocating pressure than what I had felt in Fellua when Valerius had blocked the trade routes.
“Why don’t you come under me?”
“……Pardon?”
“I mean graduate school. If you enter through the combined bachelor’s-master’s program, I’ll provide a full scholarship, your own research space, and even ample project funding so you can research that alloy steel and pressure vessel work you want as much as you like. What do you think?”
An offer of graduate school.
To South Korean science and engineering students, it was like a demonic contract that mortgaged one’s soul.
Experiments day and night, endless paper revisions, and the terrifying path of becoming a professor’s slave.
“It would be far too much of a waste to let that shining talent of yours rot. Why don’t you advance South Korea’s mechanical engineering by one step together with me?”
Professor Bak was casting out sweet bait like a seasoned merchant driving me into a position where I had no choice but to stamp the contract.
If I had been the real Gang Ujin, I might have been overwhelmed by this exceptional treatment and the professor’s authority and blurted out, “Yes.”
However.
My soul was Elpanso Carnoble, the magnate who had devoured Fellua’s cotton market and built a castle atop rules.
‘How dare you try to play contract tricks in front of a merchant?’
I snorted inwardly.
Research funding? A scholarship?
He thought he could buy the soul and time of the continent’s richest man with those paltry few coins?
I gently but firmly removed Professor Bak’s hand and showed him an extremely polite, perfectly businesslike smile.
“I am truly honored by your extraordinary offer, Professor.”
“Right? Then starting next week, come to the lab……”
“But I’m sorry.”
I drove the nail in as I put my notebook into my bag.
“I am already preparing a ‘personal business,’ you see. The scale of what I have to handle is far too large for me to be tied down to a small research lab called graduate school.”
“P-personal business? What kind of business is a third-year undergraduate majoring in mechanical engineering going to……!”
“Well, something that changes the map of a continent.”
Leaving behind the dumbfounded Professor Bak and TA, I leisurely opened the door of the department office and walked out.
Behind me, I heard the professor’s desperate cry—“Student Gang Ujin! Think it over once more! I can make the conditions even better!”—but I merely waved lightly without looking back.