Cube’s classes and exams were always carried out in Korean. Even the small number of Cube’s foreign professors held their classes in Korean, though their pronunciation and linguistic ability were no different than native speakers’. With Korean becoming the shared language of many countries, learning Korean became an important part of many countries’ culture.
But a foreign language was still a foreign language. Just because Korean became a shared language, it didn’t mean that learning it was any easier. To foreigners, Korean was still a difficult language to master.
But even with the disadvantage of being a foreigner, Rachel could understand what the professors were saying and could write mostly correct answers on exams. It was easy to see how much effort she put into studying.
As a country’s royalty, she put in the effort to maintain a certain level of elegance and dignity. She wanted to become the perfect Hero in both theory and combat, and write a textbook for the English Royal Hero Academy.
Naturally, the citizens of England were fanatical when it came to Rachel. They were proud, saying that it was finally time for a Master rank Hero to come out of England.
‘Master’ rank Hero referred to top 70 of the world’s most brilliant Heroes. Currently, 33 of these 70 Heroes were Korean, while 18 were American and 9 were Chinese. Only 2 were from England, but even that was arguable, as they obtained Korean citizenship 15 years ago.
As such, the citizens of England kept their eyes out on any news regarding Rachel, who they hoped would become the symbol of their nation.
To respond to their expectations, Rachel did not sleep more than two hours a day. But the ‘record’ she maintained through all this effort was broken today.
Rachel wasn’t sad, only apprehensive and apologetic. Of course, the result of a single written exam was unlikely to spread to England, but ‘Phenomenon Realm Analysis’ was a difficult topic even for her. The gap between her and first place would likely not change for a while.
“…”
At that moment, Rachel felt a gaze looking at her. It was from an average-looking man. She didn’t know his name, but she felt the gazes of other cadets falling on the man. Immediately, Rachel realized that this man was Kim Hajin. The man turned back to face the front of the class, but Rachel remembered his face.
Rachel began to covet the notebook he had in front of him.
**
There was a slight uproar at the fact that I got first place on the ‘Phenomenon Realm Analysis’ written exam, a topic widely known to be one of the most difficult at Cube. Rachel didn’t say much, but the professor personally praised me despite Monday’s professor being different than Friday’s professor.
“I also looked at Kim Hajin cadet’s answer sheet. His knowledge and vision were impressive to say the least. I hope other cadets can learn his passion for studying. Once again, theory is very important.”
That was what the professor said. From my perspective, it couldn’t have been more uncomforting.
In any case, I quickly left the moment classes ended. I had a lot to do today. No, I had a lot of SP to spend.
I couldn’t hoard SP anymore if I wanted to protect myself from upcoming events. Now that the second arc had begun, Cube was no longer a safe place. Several Djinns should have already laid traps within the academy.
To briefly explain about Djinns, a Djinn was a human who formed a contract with a devil. In exchange for a human’s soul, a devil gave him power. Naturally, higher ranked devils gave stronger powers.
But if an ordinary human formed this contract, he would only become a demi-Djinn, a puppet without intelligence. The ‘Dog of Lucius’ from the museum was an example of this type.
Thanks to Lucius’ magic power, the man had gained enough power to combat Kim Suho, but losing his sanity to rage, he couldn’t even accomplish the mission his master gave him. If he ignored Kim Suho and killed his intended target, Lucius would have been satisfied.
Thus, even if it was more difficult to achieve, devils favored people whose bodies had ample magic power and vigor, yet underdeveloped mental power. Naturally, cadets were the perfect targets.
As such, I felt the need to prepare another weapon. If I encountered a Djinn in my current state, I had no hope of surviving.
“Hm…”
I sat on my desk and stared at my laptop.
For now, I planned to add a setting to the Desert Eagle. I had a lot of SP thanks to Chae Nayun’s or Shin Jonghak’s effort.
[Transformation function added to Desert Eagle. Handgun to 12-gauge shotgun]
—Condition: Requires Stigma’s magic power.
Handgun and shotgun. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that a shotgun was much more powerful. Furthermore, the power of a shotgun increased the closer one was to a target.
There was no mechanism that magically transformed a handgun into a shotgun, but could such a miraculous technology be achieved with my Setting Intervention?
[Transformation function added to Desert Eagle. Handgun to 12-gauge shotgun]
—Condition: Requires Stigma’s magic power.
—Amplifies attack power by a maximum of 100% depending on your distance to the target
[250SP will be used. Would you like to save?]
Indeed, a miraculous technique had appeared here and now.
The laptop modified what I wrote to be more detailed and told me the cost. 250SP was a reasonable price. Without hesitation, I hit [save].
In an instant, a metal colored current of air shot out of the laptop and enveloped the Desert Eagle. The gun shined in a grey hue before subsiding. I picked it up and looked around to see whether anything had changed, but the design was the same as before.
I poured Stigma’s magic power into the handgun. Immediately, the handgun began to dismantle itself.
Kiriik— With a robotic sound, the magazine split, and the gunstock and gun barrel began to elongate. Soon, the Desert Eagle took on a new form that was no longer that of a handgun.
Two platinum colored barrels the size of my arm lied in parallel, looking clean and elegant.
“…It’ll surprise them for sure.”
I didn’t know much about shotguns, but the Desert Eagle’s destructive power had surely gone up with this modification.
Click— I opened the magazine, which was empty. To fully load it, I needed .12 inch bullets. I would have to buy the appropriate size bullets or modify the ones I had. This could wait until later.
With that, I was done with modifying my weapon, but there were still things to do.
Creating an Art.
The dictionary meaning of Art was a skill at doing a specific thing, typically acquired through practice. For example, a painter had an Art for drawing and a singer had an Art for singing.
The difference between an Art and a Gift was that an Art did not produce supernatural effects in response to magic power.
▷Arts (0/3)
X
I could create three arts. For now, I had one in mind.
===
[Parkour]
—Can ride walls with rapid movement and can freely move through obstacles through running, jumping, and climbing.
—Speed and application of the Art is proportional to the speed stat.
===
Parkour. ‘Positioning’ was the most important factor determining the life or death of a sharpshooter. Naturally, parkour was the perfect skill for any sharpshooter.
My laptop kindly modified my vague sentences.
===
「Art」
[Parkour] [Proficiency 0%] [Low rank]
—Grants flexible and shrewd movement.
—Is not affected by terrain features and can use terrain features like walls and obstacles to freely run, jump, and climb.
—Speed and application of the Art depends on the strength and speed stat.
===
[350SP will be used. Would you like to save?]
I would have shuddered at the cost if it wasn’t for recent events. Now, my SP was going up by 2 every hour even without doing anything. I pressed [save] without hesitation and got up.
Now that I made new changes, it was time to test them.
**
Tiriring— Tiriring—
I opened my eyes at the sound of the alarm. My entire body ached. I more or less expected it after I rode walls and trees until 4 A.M, but I was having too much fun to stop.
“Argh, my joints…”
I climbed walls using the tiniest cracks and leaped up trees using the smallest protrusions. Every time I landed, excitement coursed through my veins and my body experienced a runner’s high. Furthermore, looking down from a lofty height gave me a refreshing sense of ecstasy.
“…God damn it.”
I had to go to class now. Combat training would begin again starting from today. Since midterms were coming up and Djinns would start to get active, the combat training was likely to be hell.
[This message is for all cadets ㅜㅜ. Has anyone seen Seungyeon from World class? I haven’t been able to contact her since yesterday ㅜㅜ]
Looking at my smartwatch, I could tell that a second victim had appeared.
There wasn’t anything I could do about the Djinn.
Of course, I knew the identity of the Djinn and his next victim. But if I exposed him (though how I would do that was another question), I was afraid the story would become too distorted.
“…Huu.”
I sighed. Just because his victims were fated to die, it didn’t make me feel any less guilty when I was leaving them be. I didn’t see what was happening in this world as just another page in a novel.
“…Why can’t Yoo Yeonha just be kidnapped first?”
Through this arc, Kim Suho and Yoo Yeonha would come to form a meaningful relationship. Yoo Yeonha would be influenced by Kim Suho, becoming less temperamental, and Kim Suho would obtain the connection known as Yoo Yeonha.
But there would be four more victims until Yoo Yeonha is kidnapped.
