Park Ha-jun's research lab.
A woman approached him as he pondered his research topic. Lee Soo-ji, the teaching assistant in the Mathematics Department.
"Professor! I've prepared the materials for next week's class!"
She chirped like a sparrow, holding out a stack of printouts.
Park Ha-jun glanced at her briefly before slowly reviewing the materials.
"Hm..."
It was a well-structured lesson plan.
Before diving into topology proper, it reviewed set theory and blended concepts with examples to aid student comprehension.
But Park Ha-jun handed it back with an expressionless face.
"It's good, but the set theory review is too condensed. Our department students have probably forgotten the basics, and we have students from other majors this time too. You need to explain it more gently."
Lee Soo-ji's shoulders slumped as she replied.
"Yes... I'll prepare it again."
"Let's swap the examples for slightly easier ones too. The kids who only heard about coffee cups and donuts at orientation and thought it sounded fun? They'll all drop if it's at this level. Topology doesn't get called 'Topology' for nothing, you know?"
"Yes..."
Lee Soo-ji left the lab like a sparrow soaked in the rain.
Park Ha-jun didn't feel great watching her go.
But to protect this precarious reality, he had no choice but to push himself and grind those around him.
Plummeting student numbers.
Cooling societal interest.
Administrative pressure. Out-of-pocket expenses.
'Sorry, Soo-ji.'
Park Ha-jun let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes for a moment.
'This approach won't last long either.'
He needed a fundamental solution.
And in this era, that had to be something groundbreaking related to Awakeners.
Suddenly, Geometric Interpretation flashed through Park Ha-jun's mind.
'No. If an F-rank could do it, I wouldn't be stressing like this.'
In truth, the scrolls he'd made himself weren't all that impressive by his own standards.
'Geometrically, they were total messes. Partly the quill's fault, but...'
He set aside any thoughts of using them practically.
Still, Geometric Interpretation was intriguing and profitable, so he'd keep at it as a hobby.
'...Yeah, for an F-rank, this is plenty.'
Having sorted his thoughts, Park Ha-jun picked up his pen again. His mind felt clearer than usual today.
'Is it the Awakening? Or because I enjoyed drawing circuits yesterday and it refreshed me...'
He needed to finish up quickly and head home to draw more.
Park Ha-jun busily worked his pen.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
After wrapping up his schedule and returning home, Park Ha-jun did some minimal research.
He learned terms like [Base Destructive Power] and grasped the basics of magic scrolls.
-A magic formula converted into a circuit. That's a magic scroll.
-System-provided circuit examples have been confirmed equivalent to a 5-circle mage...
-During conversion to a circuit, loss (mana limit accommodation rate) occurs based on parchment grade. Legendary parchment has no loss, but it's too expensive for one-use.
-So if you've Awakened as a creator, prioritize saving gold for a better magic quill. Higher drawing precision lets you accurately replicate system circuits.
-Note: Deviate from the system circuit, and performance drops sharply or it won't activate at all. Don't waste parchment...
It was data accumulated over eight years.
Even a simple search yielded plenty of info.
'Higher drawing precision on the quill lets you draw circuits accurately. A better quill, huh...'
Perfect geometric circuit implementation.
Not a short-term goal.
To gauge the difficulty, he entered the Exclusive Shop.
[Exclusive Shop: Two categories - Parchment and Magic Quills]
Park Ha-jun's interest was in the magic quills.
[Low-grade Magic Quill - Drawing Precision: 3 | 1,000,000G]
The very next tier up, low-grade magic quill, cost 1 million gold. Ten million won in cash.
'Crazy. How much is the best one then?'
[Legendary Magic Quill - Drawing Precision: 10 | Special Effect: Circuit Enhancement, Ancient-grade Circuit Unlock | 100,000,000,000G]
"Huh?"
One trillion won in cash value. Even hobbies cost a fortune, but...
'Insane. Absolutely impossible.'
He gave up on that unrealistic goal immediately. But he wasn't abandoning perfect circuits.
'There has to be a way to draw them perfectly even with compromised precision.'
He had one hypothesis to prove it. Time to test.
His curiosity ignited, Park Ha-jun switched to the parchment category to draw circuits.
[Lowest Parchment - Max Implementable Circles: 0 | Mana Limit Accommodation Rate: 30% | 1,000G]
[Low-grade Parchment - Max Implementable Circles: 2 | Mana Limit Accommodation Rate: 40% | 10,000G]
Park Ha-jun currently had 51,000G.
'Could a relatively cheap parchment grade be the key?'
Of course, he knew it was unlikely. Parchment had no options affecting circuit implementation.
'But better parchment might mean less ink bleeding, right?'
A true mathematician doesn't stop at conjecture.
Proof through calculation and experiment, leading to certainty. That's the mathematician's way, no matter the odds.
[Would you like to purchase Low-grade Parchment?]
He held down the [Purchase] button. A sheet of parchment dropped at his feet.
He picked it up and rubbed it between his fingers. Thinner, smoother texture—clearly superior.
Lowest parchment often had mold or damage; low-grade had far less.
'...Kinda satisfying. Is this why people pour money into hobbies?'
Anyway.
Park Ha-jun took the parchment to his workshop. With better materials, he'd focus fully.
To avoid interruptions, he set out coffee and snacks on the workbench.
Crack, crack.
He stretched his hands and gripped the magic quill.
'Start with the base circle again.'
Swoosh.
He drew the circle as perfectly straight as possible. Like with a compass. But measured with tools, it deviated from a true circle.
'Limit of drawing precision 1, I guess.'
Still, if 1 could do this much, maybe perfect circuits were possible without legendary quills.
'Alright... Let's try.'
He'd failed today, but he'd draw it somehow. A 100% completion circuit!
Step by step.
Today's goal: differences by parchment grade.
To control variables, he focused on drawing like yesterday.
Confirming the system sequence again, aiming for the circuit in his mind.
Results wouldn't match exactly.
This was his fourth time; naturally more skilled.
The completed circuit bore these stats:
[Circuit Stats: Base Destructive Power Designed: 1 | Mana Consumption Designed: 20 | Attribute Designed: Neutral]
[Due to the parchment's mana limit accommodation rate, the scroll's base efficiency is limited to 40%. Due to the circuit's high completion, final efficiency increases by 60%!]
Parchment grade change: 30% → 40%.
Circuit completion: 50% → 60%.
'40% is expected, but what's behind the circuit completion jump?'
Park Ha-jun stroked his chin in thought.
Parchment grade difference? Texture varied distinctly, so possible.
But.
'Texture alone doesn't explain it—the circuit itself is markedly different from yesterday.'
Different circuit meant different completion inevitably.
'And yesterday's three attempts all varied. So...'
Drawing precision 1 doesn't yield fixed completion.
Park Ha-jun's lips curved up as he concluded.
'...With infinite attempts, even below precision 10, perfect circuits are possible?'
He felt the thrill of discovering elegant structures in geometry, right here and now.
'...Parchment. I need more parchment.'
Thrilled, Park Ha-jun accessed the Auction House.
[Auction House Listing: Magic Scroll—Neutral Magic Bullet | Base Destructive Power: 0.64 | Mana Consumption: 31 | Attribute: Neutral | Circuit Completion: 3.3 circles]
'3.3 circles.'
Overwhelmingly better than yesterday's.
Boldly listed at 25,000G.
Sold in 5 seconds today.
'...What? Didn't I price it above average?'
No idea. Testing his hypothesis mattered more.
He bought five more low-grade parchments and got to work making scrolls.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Meanwhile, around that time, otherworld farmer Kim Ji-hoon was harvesting his crops.
Until a system alert appeared.
Ding.
[A favorited seller has listed an item!]
A pleasant chime with the system message.
Clicking [Go] showed a scroll from asd123.
Neutral Magic Bullet scroll again. But priced higher today.
[25,000G]
"Hm?"
Kim Ji-hoon tilted his head, but his fingers moved lightning-fast, doubts be damned.
[Confirm purchase?]
"Obviously. Yesterday's stats make 25k a steal."
Snag it before other Awakeners noticed asd123.
'Doesn't even give time to favorite.'
[Purchase complete.]
Mission accomplished, Kim Ji-hoon grinned at the scroll on the floor.
"Wait... It should be around yesterday's level, right?"
Sudden worry made him gulp and check.
"Whoa?!"
[Magic Scroll—Neutral Magic Bullet | Base Destructive Power: 0.64 | Mana Consumption: 31 | Attribute: Neutral | Creator: asd123]
The stats were different. Drastically so.
He didn't know the creator's world well. As a non-creator, [Circuit Completion] wasn't visible.
But Kim Ji-hoon obsessively compared scroll stats and prices daily.
"0.64... Insane. Who is this guy?"
He was convinced: This was a veteran among veterans, utterly mad.
The nickname reeked of it, didn't it?
"Some famous person?"
Curiosity and fondness for asd123 swelled.
Weee-ooo-weee-ooo—
Suddenly, sirens blared across the fields.
The meaning was clear: Gate break.
Monsters emerging from the gate, invading Earth.
Mana-over saturated zones often saw gates break immediately upon spawning.
This one likely was too.
No quick Hunter support expected.
Kim Ji-hoon, no stranger to this, calmly headed to the shelter.
'...What rank?'
The shelter's barrier was shattered.
Hunkering down silently wasn't safe.
Plus, mana-infused crops were prime bait for monsters.
They'd swarm his fields soon.
'Gotta buy time until Hunters arrive.'
Unless he wanted to lose tens of millions in minutes.
He pulled scrolls from his subspatial storage and checked CCTV outside.
About three minutes in.
A monster entered his fields.
Orc Warrior.
From C-rank gates.
'...This is trouble.'
Too tough for magic scrolls. And C-rank had named monsters too.
'Orc Chieftain...'
A named that commanded underlings and used magic—facing it with mere scrolls.
Kim Ji-hoon agonized fiercely for a split second.
Abandon and flee? There goes a quarter's profits. Life over money, sure, but...
Bam!
A dull thud. The orc smashed his apple tree with a club.
"You crazy bastard!!!"
His bulging eyes landed on one scroll.
[Magic Scroll—Neutral Magic Bullet | Creator: asd123]
A 0-circle spell, yet it had shattered a 2-circle mage's Barrier.
One even outperformed yesterday's.
'...Should be enough to stall.'
Gulping, Kim Ji-hoon cautiously exited the shelter.
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