It was only after quite a few days had passed, after my family’s visits and consolations, that I finally spent a night alone.
‘I can use my unique ability.’
For someone who possessed a unique ability, using that ability was no different from lifting an arm or raising one’s voice—something they could simply do.
Mana merely let you lift that arm with more strength, or make that voice louder. Mixing in mana made the ability more powerful, so people naturally supplemented it with mana.
In that sense, O Jio’s Descent had been fortunate.
What were the odds of being able to draw in another version of yourself from a parallel world without using mana?
“Hah……”
Still, good fortune always came with a price.
‘They said the synchronization was strong.’
The reason O Jio’s soul had been able to settle in without any issue was largely because he was the same person as me from a parallel world.
The problem came from that.
Because the synchronization rate was too high, the power of my unique ability alone couldn’t separate him.
Mana was the power of reinforcement and correction.
If I could add just a tiny bit—truly, only the slightest bit of mana—to bolster the power of my unique ability, I should be able to separate him.
But I couldn’t use even that tiny amount of mana.
Originally, Hellisbot’s Descent operated on the principle of calling forth the power needed, when it was needed.
As long as I couldn’t separate O Jio’s soul, even that was impossible.
In other words, I had effectively been declared crippled not only in mana, but even in my unique ability.
“Haa………”
Yesterday, I had spent the entire day crying over those two facts.
The human body was made better than one might think, so after crying once, it was possible to vent one’s emotions to some extent.
And once the emotions had been released, thoughts began to turn.
“The academy.”
The game began with Helio entering the academy at the age of fifteen.
First, I would do my best to treat my mana-incapable constitution before then.
But even if I failed, it would be fine.
Because inside the academy, there was a tool that could find out anything.
At the very least, I could grasp the cause of my problem.
‘What if I just went now?’
I knew the location.
You had to pull out the book corresponding to 304.11ㄴ in the library and recite a specific spell.
The small pebble that appeared then was an essential item for a first playthrough: Pebblewiki.
Its official name was the Answering Stone.
Its cooldown was long, but it answered everything in precise detail, from the locations of items to the route strategies for bond characters, so it was a great help to first-time players.
Once you got used to the game, you no longer used it, so it really was an item for newbies, but…
‘Now that this is reality, there shouldn’t be any restrictions on questions.’
In the game, you could only ask predetermined questions, but now, I should be able to ask about my symptoms too.
My sister wasn’t old enough yet, so she wasn’t at the academy, but my brother was different.
Since I knew both the location and the method, I should be able to ask him to bring it.
“………No.”
After thinking for a moment, I shook my head.
Since he was from our family, I could explain the source of the information.
Sudden information obtained through Descent was something that happened in our family from time to time.
‘There are two problems.’
The biggest problem was that the academy was a closed-off space.
Of all things, only this followed genre conventions.
‘From the time of its founding until the Great War, the academy was practically a parade of attacks.’
Even in the game, attacks occurred irregularly, and some were explicit events.
Amazingly, the academy, which had been established under imperial authority, existed outside the protection of future foresight.
Surely, allowing the attacks to happen must have been beneficial to them.
‘In fact, attack events were honey events that gave all sorts of rewards.’
The nuance was that they were deliberately ignoring them, or even encouraging them, in order to raise overall combat strength.
However, even if the academy was being subjected to the imperial family’s intentional negligence, it wasn’t as if the academy did nothing.
First, they started with the easiest measure: restricting personnel.
At first, there were only simple inspections, but as time passed, things began to change.
Disguised as distributors (238 times)
Disguised as parents (127 times)
Disguised as nearby residents (88 times)
…And so on.
Due to incidents like the ones above, the current academy heavily restricted entry for anyone other than students and faculty.
‘Honestly, I can understand why they’re so neurotic about it.’
At any rate, because of that, it was already clear that I couldn’t borrow my parents’ influence.
But relying on my sister or brother was also a problem.
Agent enrollment (1,778 times)
Faculty recruitment (54 times)
Student intimidation (3,243 times)
Student recruitment (5,222 times)
Other acts of terror through faculty and students (248 times)
…Because of things like that, even students and faculty were severely restricted from bringing in or taking out unauthorized magic items.
Moreover, if it was a magic tool on the level of Pebblewiki, it would definitely be caught during inspection, and considering its ability to answer anything, it wouldn’t be strange if it were confiscated.
That alone was a problem, but the imperial family was an issue too.
‘The unique ability passed down through the imperial family is future foresight.’
Because of that, they greatly disliked prophets other than themselves.
There was no way such an imperial family wouldn’t know about the movement of a magic tool on the level of Pebblewiki.
Even if my brother and sister somehow avoided the academy’s inspection, could they slip through the gaps between those prophets?
‘It’d be difficult…’
Of course, just as the academy could be dealt with somehow, the imperial family could also be dealt with somehow.
They only disliked foresight other than their own; they hadn’t forbidden it, and considering my situation, it should fall within an understandable range.
But when I thought of the Great War to come, lowering my favorability with the imperial family wasn’t a good move.
So I would enroll, go find it myself, and use it.
That was the best option.
‘I wasn’t supposed to use mana until I was fifteen anyway.’
I decided to think positively.
Hadn’t I been planning to avoid contact with mana as much as possible anyway?
It had merely become a little more compulsory.
‘After I find out what the problem is through the Answering Stone, if it’s an illness, I can go to the Saintess; if it’s a curse, a holy relic; if it’s a constitution, an elixir.’
In the game, Helio had no issues, but some of the bond characters did.
The community had compiled treatments for those characters, and O Jio (32) had once read through a strategy guide from beginning to end.
If I couldn’t learn the cause of my mana-incapable constitution through the Answering Stone, if I couldn’t learn how to treat it—
Then there would be no real difference whether I found out late or early.
Because I didn’t know of any information-type power more certain than Pebblewiki.
So all I had to do was wait and endure.
“…Should I sleep?”
I blew out the candle and pulled up the blanket.
I had found a method, and hope had appeared.
‘Even so. Even despite that.’
The weight of the thick blanket felt suffocating today.
* * *
“That’s enough being depressed!”
If I had been the pure Helio (8 years old), I would probably have grown increasingly pessimistic about my environment.
Then it would only have been a matter of time before I became twisted.
But the memories of O Jio (32), a modern man, told me that things weren’t as hopeless as I thought.
[If you have a lot of money, things work out somehow.]
Of course, given the vast differences in civilization and culture, I couldn’t say that was 100% correct, but it wasn’t wrong either.
The Hellisbot family was a high-ranking noble house, one it was faster to count from the top, and my parents weren’t the kind of people who would frown because their child had become disabled.
Instead of lacking infrastructure, they were dozens of times richer than O Jio had been, so wouldn’t it ultimately be similar?
‘And unlike O Jio, whose nerves had been crushed, it’s not as if I have no possibility of recovery.’
So I selected the things I needed to be careful of.
“First, what I need to be careful of is mana.”
Magic went without saying, and I had to avoid contact with mana as much as possible.
If the mana in my body synchronized even a little, I would die on the spot.
“Next is how outsiders see me… more precisely, bastards with contempt for the disabled carved into their bones.”
For now, I was somehow protecting my mind, but in the end, I was human too.
Whether it was insults or looks of disdain, there were plenty of things that could wear down my heart.
I had to avoid contact as much as possible and find something that would fill my self-esteem.
‘Tsk… Then it’ll be hard to make early contact with the bond characters.’
As befitting a raising sim, Academy Great War had plenty of bond characters who became comrades and friends.
Since I knew everything they liked and the incidents they had experienced in the past, if I wanted, I could contact them in advance and befriend them. That was one method, but…
‘The disabled risk is too big.’
Could children who hadn’t even properly formed their own egos interact normally with a disabled person?
Even if they themselves were kind, wouldn’t the people around them say all sorts of things?
“Yeah, let’s not do this.”
I crossed out befriending them in advance from my to-do list.
That left one thing.
“I have to do something.”
Shutting myself inside the house just because I didn’t want to come into contact with outsiders was a bad move.
If I sat alone and chewed on loneliness, it would be easy to become pessimistic about my situation.
‘Even if this hadn’t happened, I would have had to spend nearly ten years without training anyway.’
Then I needed to do some meaningful activity that didn’t involve meeting people, yet still satisfied my self-esteem. But what could I do when I couldn’t even use mana?
“Naturally, the modern-man genius theory!”
Earth’s culture—and above all else, fried chicken—came to mind first.
The combination of sizzling oil and crispy batter!
And the finishing touch, the one phrase that completed it all!
Ahh, this is what it means to be delicious.
“You primitive bastards are all finished!”
* * *
“Why…?”
As I sat there in despair, I somehow felt as if I could hear a voice.
Ahh, this is what magic is, you barbarian.
An imaginary mage mocked me.
‘Was I… too complacent?’
But if I thought about it for even a moment, it was obvious.
This world only had a medieval feel; it wasn’t the Middle Ages.
Cooking? They were even doing sous-vide with magic.
Culture? The card game that had existed as a minigame was wildly popular.
Inventions? Most things existed as products using mana stones.
“Our son has read this book too, I see.”
Above all, what blocked me was a single book.
「A Distant World」
Author: Earth D. Terra
Amazingly, just as our world existed as a game on Earth, the story of Earth had been written as a book here.
‘To think the Earth Author we used to joke about actually exists…’
Of course, it wasn’t as if Earth’s stories were completely reflected.
Generators had been replaced by machines that produced mana through some unknown method, and various laws had been substituted with magic.
However, even with my shallow scientific knowledge, the principles behind various inventions seemed to match, and the resulting effects and uses were also the same as what I had seen on Earth.
Above all, the historical flow was identical to O Jio’s memories.
It was practically a guidebook that broadened the imagination of the people of this world.
For example… on Earth, strong artificial intelligence or flying cars did not exist at the moment.
But they were seen as subjects of research, and in reality, people were using them as signposts for moving forward step by step.
There were also people who thought they would soon be within reach.
In the same way, the people of this world already had ideas about Earth-made goods.
‘If I were an engineer who could actually design and create products, that would be another matter, but I’m not.’
In other words, for me, whose only weapon was ideas, it had been impossible from the start to puff myself up and say, Ahh, this is called such-and-such.
Because the Earth Author had already spread it all throughout this world.
“Should I think of it as a good thing…?”
I didn’t have to wonder whether this world was a fake world based on a game, or whether Earth came first or this place came first.
And seeing as each side was the other’s creation, it was clear enough what other creations were like too.
To begin with, hadn’t what I summoned through Descent been myself from a parallel world?
Earth wasn’t some higher world above this one, so I decided to think that each world was unconsciously influencing the other.
“Then what should I do?”
I felt like I had lost my way again.
‘It’s true that I know the future, but that’s limited to the academy period.’
Since the game began with entering the academy, the information useful to me also started from that point.
On top of that, the direction of the information was awkward to make use of.
Academy Great War was a raising sim, so it focused on growth and combat.
That meant I knew growth builds, endgame items, and efficient growth routes, but I didn’t know this year’s bumper crops, regions, or trending products.
‘Is there no way I can make more use of this…?’
Even if it was limited, knowing the future was definitely an advantage.
Not only that, didn’t I also possess knowledge from another world?
There was definitely a way to put it to good use.
I just hadn’t thought of it yet.
“…I should go to the bathroom.”
Even when I was troubled, depressed, and exhausted, bodily functions always came calling.
Because humans were creatures who got hungry even when they sat still, and if they ate something, they had to expel it.
Whoosh—
And inspiration always came from unexpected places.
As I was relieving myself in the bathroom without much thought, then washing my hands, something suddenly caught my eye.
“Huh?”
I found usefulness in a very unexpected corner of my knowledge.
* * *
“So you want to try making this?”
“Yes!”
Creative works inevitably had blind spots.
That was because they stayed faithful to their genre.
A grand epic did not explain how food supplies were secured.
A silly comedy routine did not discuss the chromosomal arrangement of organic lifeforms.
And in Academy Great War, a game centered on training and combat, they did not tell you what designs or fabrics were in fashion that year.
Any creative work cut out explanations or descriptions that did not suit its genre.
And the Earth Author was no different.
His writing was a kind of fictional history book.
Or, to put it in a more familiar genre, you could call it alternate history.
And the focus of alternate history was the flow of history, not the tiny details.
Even if someone possessed King Sejong and led the way in science and technology, outhouse talk did not come up!
Even if it did, it would focus on big inventions like bidets, not describe the fine details.
Because what mattered in alternate history was not the details of the outhouse, but the protagonist’s hype from the invention, the social ripple effects, and the benefit to the nation!
The Earth Author was the same.
No descriptions of toilets.
No descriptions of bathrooms.
No descriptions of kitchens.
They were things everyone used every day, but it was hard to clearly show change through them.
Fortunately, not everyone lacked imagination, so things like flush toilets and faucets existed.
But there were definitely things that did not. Such as…
“Toilet paper rolls!”
The shape of the flushing pipe!
And the toilet switch!
One-touch faucets!
Things that, if used often enough, one would inevitably think of someday—but detailed parts that simply did not exist right now!
Small but convenient details I knew only because I had memories of living on Earth!
“Hm… Well, shall we give it a try?”
What began with Dad’s lukewarm voice—
“Hahahaha!! My little talent! My lucky charm! Another sellout! We even received a supply request from the Imperial Palace!”
—became a huge hit.