I turned on my smartwatch.
[Beginner Class, Nuri Class: We are looking for the cadet who last saw Miss “Jin Hajeong.”]
[Beginner Class, Nuri Class: We are looking for the cadet who last saw Miss “Jin Hajeong.”]
The moment I saw it, I knew.
The next episode had finally begun. Its subtitle was “The Cube Serial Disappearance Case.” As the term “serial disappearance” suggested, a total of six victims would appear over the month in which the episode unfolded.
This episode could be called quite important.
The reason was simple: the final victim was none other than “Yoo Yeonha.” This would become the decisive opportunity for Kim Suho and Yoo Yeonha to grow closer.
[Excuse me.]
Speak of the tiger and it comes. A message from Yoo Yeonha suddenly arrived.
[What.]
[That message just now. It wasn’t your doing, was it?]
Has she lost her mind?
[No. Why.]
[If it wasn’t, never mind.]
[Yeah.]
[By the way, I heard you fought a djinn last week.]
[..So what. What are you trying to say.]
When it came to matters her pride could not tolerate, Yoo Yeonha had a talent that wasn’t quite a talent: she would circle around the subject again and again until the other person brought it up, or until she died.
[Do you perhaps know about the Giant Soldier of the Swamp?]
A hollow laugh escaped me. So she wanted me to tell her something again this time.
The Giant Soldier of the Swamp was a mid-to-high rank monster famous for its massive body, measuring thirty meters in total length. As one could guess from its name, it was an extremely rare specimen in Korea, where large swamps were scarce. She must have obtained information from somewhere and planned to go on an expedition to raid it.
[Even if I do, I’m not telling you anymore.]
There probably weren’t many domestic guilds that knew the Giant Soldier of the Swamp’s weak point.
[I’ll buy it.]
[No.]
I cut her off firmly.
The Mountain Tyrant alone was enough expensive information to count as an “achievement” for her.
[Why? I can pay a lot.]
It was certain that Yoo Yeonha would achieve tremendous success in the future, but her personality had not been fixed yet. Her ruthlessness in crushing her enemies by any means necessary would not be lacking even if one called her a villain. Therefore, until her nature was influenced and changed, I couldn’t give her wings.
[The truth is, I don’t know. How would I know the weak point of a monster that doesn’t exist in Korea?]
And that was true. No matter how much I was the original author, there were bound to be things I didn’t know. The Giant Soldier of the Swamp was just a setting I had sketched out. Since it was probably a golem-type monster, all I had was a vague feeling that attacking it with an attribute opposite to swamp would make it easy.
After that, Yoo Yeonha didn’t reply for quite a while.
[Don’t speak casually to me from now on.]
With that message as the last, she cut off contact.
“Pfft.”
A chuckle slipped out.
As expected, no matter how much Yoo Yeonha seemed more mature than adults—
“······She’s still a high schooler.”
Right now, she was only seventeen.
────────────────────────────────────
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The Second Incident (2)
===
「Information Office “Truth”」
Welcome.
If you have come in search of truthful information, please find the room of questions below.
¿Room of Questions?
[ ]
If you write your question in the blank space above, we will answer anything so long as it does not violate the conditions below.
─Condition 1. Naturally, all answers will be provided within the scope of this office’s knowledge. If there is something the office does not know, we will honestly tell you that we do not know, so please do not worry.
─Condition 2. It is impossible to answer the whereabouts of a person whose name alone is known. General personal information such as name, photograph, physique, identity, and so on is required.
─Condition 3. We cannot answer questions that are too trivial. Example) I lost my cat. Where is that cat?
However, if the scope of the question is narrowed through detailed conditions and accompanying information, an answer is possible.
*Note 1. The minimum fee is 100,000 won, but depending on the content of the question, the price may rise exponentially.
*Note 2. Please keep in mind that polite tone and expression may result in a faster response.
*Note 3. All information we provide is “truth,” and refunds are absolutely impossible.
*Usage prices and conditions may change at any time.
===
“This should do.”
I was typing on my laptop keyboard. This was the format I wanted, filled out on Violet Banquet’s information seller application. I had gained a rather good talent called the “Book of Truth,” so leaving it alone somehow felt like a waste.
For now, I named it grandly: “Truth Office.”
However, in that world, years of experience counted as an important credential, so I didn’t expect many customers from the start. I probably wouldn’t have enough magic power to answer questions either.
It would probably take at least two or three years before members slowly became interested. What is this, and why has it kept hanging around? I’m bored, so should I test it once? That sort of light curiosity.
By that future, I would have at least three or four strokes of Stigma, so I just needed to give good answers from then on and spread by word of mouth.
It was easier to think of it as a risk-free long-term investment for an affluent life. If it worked, fine. If it didn’t, that was fine too.
“Okay.”
After skimming through it once more, I clicked [Apply for Seller Registration] without making any corrections.
Now I had checked everything I needed to check and organized everything I needed to organize.
The only thing left on my schedule was exercise.
I stretched widely and stood up.
* * *
Late Sunday night.
Kim Suho was exercising in the physical training room. To Kim Suho, the “training room” was part of his usual routine, but the scene inside was completely different from the beginning of the semester. Today, the training room was crowded with cadets. The reason was that exams were not far off.
“Guhh.”
After finishing a set, Kim Suho rested and looked over the faces around him. Jin Hanjun, Kim Horak, Shin Jonghak, and even Yoo Yeonha and Rachel, who were truly rare sights in the training room.
“Are you checking out the girls?”
At that moment, something cold touched his right cheek. Kim Suho flinched and pulled his head away. There was only one person who would play such a prank. Kim Suho glared at him. Lee Yeonghan shrugged and held out a drink.
“I asked if you were checking them out.”
“No. I wasn’t checking them out.”
“Then what?”
“······It’s just strange.”
Kim Suho pointed at Rachel with the tip of his chin. Lee Yeonghan looked that way too, then nodded as though he understood.
“Well, yeah, I guess it is. It’s my first time seeing actual royalty in the training room.”
Brilliantly shining blonde hair and eyes that seemed carved from emeralds themselves. Her posture as she devoted herself to physical training was elegant yet alluring, without the slightest excess.
Even the sight of her drenched in sweat was like a painting—Rachel was of the noble bloodline of the British royal family, a descendant of the queen.
“Hey. Who do you think someone like her would marry? She wouldn’t marry one of us, right?”
At Lee Yeonghan’s words, Kim Suho smiled faintly.
“Are you laughing at me? Wow. Are you saying you think you could?”
“No. That’s not what I meant. I’m saying I agree. At the very least, she probably wouldn’t marry one of us.”
“Ugh!”
Just as they were exchanging jokes, a loud groan from somewhere drew both of their gazes.
“Hooah!”
Where that noisy breathing came from, one man was clinging to an exercise machine and struggling as though his life depended on it. However, the weight on the machine he was wrestling with was, in the eyes of his fellow cadets, truly pathetic.
“······Why is he struggling with something like that?”
Lee Yeonghan found it pitiful.
It wasn’t only Lee Yeonghan. Almost every cadet who passed by looked at him and snickered at least once. Even so, Kim Hajin either pretended not to notice or was too focused to hear, and continued exercising steadfastly.
“He’s doing it for a long time, though.”
Kim Suho said briefly.
“Hey, hey. With that much weight, I could keep going for half a day without resting. Sometimes I wonder how he even got into Cube. Even a sharpshooter has minimum physical requirements. Wait, wasn’t he a swordsman before? Why don’t I remember him—huh? It’s Chae Nayun.”
Just then, Chae Nayun came out of the gravity room. Drenched in sweat, Chae Nayun was staggering with an utterly exhausted face.
It seemed she intended to go straight to her dorm and collapse, but all of a sudden, she spotted Kim Hajin and stopped where she was. Then she began glaring at the back of Kim Hajin’s head.
Ziiing—lasers seemed to pour from her two eyes.
“······What’s she doing now?”
“Those two don’t get along.”
Kim Suho smiled bitterly.
“Tsk.”
After glaring at Kim Hajin for a long while, Chae Nayun clicked her tongue and turned around. At the same time, her eyes met Kim Suho’s. As if needlessly embarrassed, she cleared her throat, then walked over to them.
“Hey, Kim Suho. Isn’t he kind of weird?”
As soon as she arrived, she tossed out an absurd remark.
“······What is?”
“That bastard. He’s acting.”
“What are you talking about?”
Both Lee Yeonghan and Kim Suho frowned. It was something they could not understand at all, but Chae Nayun glared at Kim Suho as though frustrated by him.
“······Wow. Lee Yeonghan, fine, but Kim Suho, you really have no sense.”
“What? What are you saying after suddenly walking over here?”
“You saw it yourself that day, and you still don’t get it?”
To explain Chae Nayun’s thoughts, it was what one might call a “reasonable suspicion.”
First of all, magic power could be called the most important ability for a Hero. In that sense, the magic power Kim Hajin had shown during last week’s Seoul incident was clearly extraordinary. It had been a burst of magic power so great that the world instantly turned white.
And yet a man with that much magic power was struggling with that little weight?
It was nonsense.
Therefore, Kim Hajin was, for some reason, disguising himself.
······Though the logic was not exactly sturdy, it was Chae Nayun’s own “reasonable suspicion.”
“Uh······.”
Lee Yeonghan looked at Kim Hajin once again.
His face was so red it looked as though it might burst at any moment.
“If that’s acting, it’s Oscar-worthy.”
“Sigh. You dense idiots. Live like that forever. Forever.”
Just as Chae Nayun was shaking her head, three male cadets approached Kim Hajin. Kim Suho instinctively furrowed his brow. Those three were notorious even in Cube as thugs.
“Hey, hey. What are you doing, loser?”
“Wow, what is this? I could lift it with one finger.”
They poked and prodded Kim Hajin. But Kim Hajin showed no reaction at all. He didn’t even spare them a glance, maintaining an attitude of indifference as though a dog were barking or a cow were lowing.
“Hey. Are you mute? Say something.”
“Let’s take a picture of this bastard and upload it. Look at him working hard when he has no business doing it.”
The three heated-up thugs deliberately sat beside him and began full-blown verbal abuse. Why are you even alive? I feel sorry for your parents for paying your tuition. You won’t graduate anyway, so you might as well learn a trade, and so on······
“······Hey. I’m leaving.”
Watching the scene, Chae Nayun left with a somewhat uncomfortable expression.
Kim Suho couldn’t hold back and stood up, but Lee Yeonghan stopped him.
“Why?”
“Just leave it. From the looks of it, they’re Shin Jonghak’s group. If you fight, you’re the only one who’ll lose out.”
“No, but still······.”
“And.”
Lee Yeonghan smiled as though amused.
“Who knows? Maybe he really is acting.”
* * *
When I opened my eyes, it was Monday morning. With a hazy mind, I thought over what I had done yesterday. Violet Banquet seller application. Stock purchases. And exercise······
First, let’s take a shower.
Swaaa—
I washed away my foggy mind with cold water.
In the mirror, I looked at my body as it grew wet under the running water.
My physique had definitely improved a great deal. My shoulders and biceps had come alive, and my lats and abs had taken on a firm shape. My thighs were as solid as stone as well. A healthy, strong body that would have been impossible back on Earth. Then how much had my stats risen?
After roughly finishing my shower, I came out and turned on my laptop.
===
[Strength 1.835]
[Endurance 1.945]
[Agility 2.15]
[Perception 3.055]
[Vitality 1.765]
[Magic Power 1.315]
===
I had indeed grown a lot. Of course, even then I was still only at the level of “a guy who worked out pretty hard,” but with this rate of growth, it seemed I might soon be able to bring back the weapon I wanted from Garisan Dungeon.
After all, the true reward of that dungeon wasn’t in “clearing” it, but in the “hidden stage.”
Wiiing—
Wiiing—
The moment I put on my smartwatch to go to class, it vibrated.
It was an anonymous message.
[You fucking retard, tsk tsk]
[Weak-ass bastard, you’d better be ready to have your back broken during the duel evaluation. We’ll leave you half-crippled······]
“These guys are at it again.”
Lately, this kind of ijime? Bullying? had gotten worse. I had a vague idea who the root cause might be, but I still couldn’t say for certain.
Still, this level of it wasn’t enough to scratch the mentality of a twenty-six-year-old who had even served in the military. Literally, it was nothing more than kids playing around.
I blocked the two guys who had sent the messages and went outside.
But there were words carved into the nameplate of my dorm room.
Pushover, loser, retard······ there was one more, but I couldn’t make it out.
They must have drawn it with magic power so they wouldn’t get caught on CCTV, but for now there was nothing I could do about it. There were ten minutes left before I’d be late, so I had to hurry to the classroom.
*
I opened the classroom door.
“Oh, the pushover’s here.”
The moment I opened it, some guy whose name I didn’t even know lightly smacked my head.
Even so, at this point I was starting to get a little heated. It was just kids playing around, but I’d better remember these bastards’ faces. The more you guys do this to me, the faster my SP goes up anyway, you know?
“What, why? You pissed?”
I didn’t respond. Kim Hyeoksu. I only confirmed that name and ignored him.
Aside from him, I passed by a few other guys who were sneering and sat down. At that moment, my eyes briefly met Chae Nayun’s. However, Chae Nayun did not show me the same hostility as before. She only looked at me with an uneasy expression, then sharply turned her gaze away.
“Hey, guys. The results for the Phenomenal Realm Analysis pop quiz are out.”
Just then, Lee Yeonghan appeared with a large scroll tucked under his arm.
Cube still had some old-fashioned customs. Whether the scale was large or small, if it was a “written test,” they would post a public notice and reveal everyone’s grades to the entire world. That was the bad custom.
The notice was posted amid the cadets’ groans.
Its contents were as follows.
1st place, Kim Hajin.
2nd place, Rachel.
···
Snap.
At that moment, I heard something like a tree branch breaking from behind me. I glanced back.
A ballpoint pen, snapped in two, rolled across the desk. Beyond it, the owner of the pen—a girl, Rachel—was staring blankly at the notice. Her mouth was half-open, as if she had received a great shock.
“······Oh, right.”
Only then did I remember one setting I had forgotten.
“Whether the scale was large or small, if it was a ‘written test,’ Rachel had never once missed 1st place.”
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The Second Incident (3)
All of Cube’s classes and exams were conducted in Korean. Though they were few in number, even the foreign professors working at Cube taught in Korean, and their pronunciation and writing ability were in no way inferior to that of native speakers. As more countries adopted Korean as an official language, the concept of the “Korean-speaking world” had now become a familiar term.
However, even if Korean had become the world’s common language, to foreigners it was still a foreign language, and the difficulty of Korean had not improved in the slightest.
Under such disadvantageous conditions, just how much effort had Rachel put in to understand every class she took in Korea and write answer sheets in Korean? And how had all of them always been correct?
As royalty of a nation, Rachel had accepted that much effort in order not to lose her dignity and refinement. She wanted to become a perfect hero in both theory and practice, and provide a perfect textbook for the “British Royal Hero Academy.”
The people were enthralled by such a Rachel.
They felt a nationwide pride, saying that the time had finally come for Britain to produce a highest-rank hero.
The “highest-rank” heroes referred to the seventy most brilliant heroes in the world. Of them, as many as thirty-three were Korean. Eighteen were American, and nine were Chinese. There were only two British. Even one of those had obtained Korean citizenship fifteen years ago, so calling them British was somewhat misleading.
For that reason, even now the people of Britain were looking forward to a hero who would become the symbol of their nation, and were sending their attention to a faraway country.
To live up to those expectations, Rachel slept less than two hours a day.
However, the “record” she had maintained through painstaking effort was broken today.
Rachel was not sad. She was merely anxious and guilt-ridden. Of course, the results of a mere pop quiz would not be sent all the way to Britain. But “Phenomenal Realm Analysis” was a field that even Rachel found difficult to grasp. The gap that had appeared today would most likely not be narrowed by the time of the formal exam.
“······.”
At that moment, Rachel suddenly felt someone’s gaze on her. It was an ordinary-looking man. She did not know his name. But she felt everyone else in the classroom looking at him. It was then that Rachel realized this man was Kim Hajin. He