29. Item Presentation (7)
The Crescent Moon Tower.
Though their goal—‘world peace’—was somewhat childish and vague, they did at least possess a clear one, and they operated from the shadows.
Their unique magical technology was said to be ahead by at least ten years.
The Crescent Moon Tower had created countless spells and objects, and the ‘Transformation Mask’ was one such invention.
A mask that could alter the shape of one’s face, albeit for only about three hours.
Magic that transformed faces was actually fairly common, but it had the drawback of being easily detected by magic sensors and completely useless against mages of a certain level.
This Transformation Mask, however, altered the skin of the face itself, so unless someone was truly exceptional, there was almost no risk of being found out.
As a magical tool for disguising one’s identity, it was practically perfect.
Today, too, when infiltrating the Golden Platform, Kaen had used the Transformation Mask.
Janitor Kim Clean.
That was Kaen’s cover identity.
The identity of a janitor was one he often made use of because it was truly convenient—one could easily grasp the structure inside a building, and there was nothing strange about being anywhere at all.
“Hey, you! Why is a janitor loafing around here?!”
Kaen slowly turned his eyes and looked at the man striding toward him and shouting.
With his belly sticking out, the man appeared to be a staff member who managed Alchemic Hall.
The staff member flinched at Kaen’s ferocious glare for an instant, but then, as if that only made him angrier, he shouted even louder.
“The way you’re rolling your eyes at me, you little bastard! Get over to the corner and start cleaning! I told you not to stand out today, didn’t I? There are a lot of important people here!”
“Oh? Look at this little—really just ignoring me, aren’t you? You’re dead. I ought to—”
Just as the staff member was about to take his anger out on Kaen, who had been standing there silently, someone stepped in between them and stopped him.
“That’s enough.”
“What, and who the hell are you now?!”
Being ignored by a janitor had already pissed him off, and then some random boy cut in, so the staffer erupted—
only to regret it a moment later.
“…B-Baek Yuseol?”
“Yes, you know me. So how about you stop here and leave.”
“Uh? W-well, that is…”
There was no way a staff member working in Alchemic Hall wouldn’t recognize Baek Yuseol, Alterisha’s partner, and the man’s pupils shook wildly.
“It’s just that the janitor was… hanging around right in front of us and making the place look dirty…”
“Since when has there been high or low in professions? From where I’m standing, you’re the one who looks more pathetic. I’m getting annoyed, so if you say another word, I think I’m going to get pissed. Get lost.”
“Ah, o-of course.”
The staff member hurriedly bobbed his head up and down, then ran off somewhere without even looking back.
‘Sheesh…’
Baek Yuseol glanced at Kaen.
He hadn’t stepped in to help him.
He’d just saved that staff member because it looked like Kaen might beat him to death.
“Uh, well… hang in there.”
Saving the staff member was one thing, but Baek Yuseol didn’t want to act familiar, so he quickly turned his back.
But before he could leave, Kaen spoke first.
“Baek Yuseol. Let’s talk for a moment.”
For an instant, Baek Yuseol jolted inside, but he forced himself to sound composed.
“Did you forget your cleaning zone or something?”
“Don’t joke around. I already know you saw through my appearance.”
“…Yes. So what?”
The Transformation Mask was not perfect.
A mage with truly high-level insight could see through it.
Kaen had assumed that if it was Baek Yuseol, who had effortlessly ignored Hyeijin’s illusion before, then naturally he would have seen through the Transformation Mask as well.
Baek Yuseol.
To Kaen, that secretive boy felt very special.
Was it because, at the mere age of seventeen, he possessed enough power to defeat a dark mage of Risk Level 6?
No.
That wasn’t the problem.
It was because he had made Rudelik, that rigid Crescent Moon Tower Lord, easily lay down his own will,
and had even caused Kaen himself to deny his own beliefs.
“As you know, there are quite a lot of dark mages infiltrating this place. I don’t know what they’re after, but they aren’t taking any action. That doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous.”
Baek Yuseol merely looked at him with an expression that said, So?
So Kaen continued.
“What do you intend to do? This appears to be a rather important place to you.”
What do I intend to do?
Nothing, obviously.
That was what Baek Yuseol thought inwardly, but there was no way Kaen would accept an answer like that.
Because once Kaen’s mind was made up, never bending it was one of his defining traits.
Still, Baek Yuseol did not want him staying here.
‘Nothing good’s going to come from getting tangled up with that thug from the Crescent Moon Tower.’
In the original game, the Crescent Moon Tower’s technological power had been number one in the world.
…At least until Alterisha appeared.
Hamajin, the chief developer and inventor of the Crescent Moon Tower, had originally been introduced as the greatest magitech engineer of the age, but later appeared as a character who envied and resented Alterisha’s ability.
He repeatedly committed evil acts such as deliberately obstructing Alterisha’s research, threatening her life, and trying to steal her technology, but in the end Rudelik, the Crescent Moon Tower Lord, found out and drove him away.
Even that was not the end of it.
He then joined the side of the dark mages and began developing technology for them, becoming one of those villains who made players absolutely furious…
Anyway, right now, Hamajin’s influence within the Crescent Moon Tower was enormous.
If he ordered the Dark-Extermination Squad that had infiltrated Alchemy City to intentionally slander Alterisha or interfere with her, it would be a serious pain in the ass.
It would be best to get the squad out before that could happen.
“I’ll protect it. It’s important to me. But I’ll handle it myself, so please leave now.”
“The dark mages have concealed their identities thoroughly. I won’t leave until they’ve been exposed.”
Shit.
The thought that this stubborn old man was about to plant himself here again sent a chill down Baek Yuseol’s spine.
Since he couldn’t just leave him like that, Baek Yuseol hurriedly spoke.
“That won’t be necessary. I can filter out dark mages to a certain extent.”
“…Do you have some ability to detect the aura of dark mages?”
“If only I had something that convenient. It’s not like that. It’s a kind of ‘deep learning.’”
“Deep learning…?”
At that unfamiliar term, Kaen’s brow twitched.
That was exactly what Baek Yuseol had been aiming for.
A conversation felt more trustworthy if you mixed in some useless technical terminology once in a while.
“Yes. You can think of it as a kind of deductive ability. I observe objects and people through a multidimensional perspective, throw that data into the ‘sea of consciousness,’ observe the patterns, then analyze, cluster, and classify that information from the perspective of a thoroughly detached third party before predicting the results.”
“…I see. I understand completely.”
Kaen nodded with a stiff face.
In truth, he had understood absolutely nothing, but he did not want to reveal his own ignorance.
‘Understand my ass…’
Baek Yuseol himself also understood absolutely none of what he was saying.
He was currently using the skill known as ‘throwing out plausible words at random and making them sound plausible.’
“As a result, I succeeded in analyzing all the information on everyone gathered here.”
“That… is difficult to believe. It makes no sense that you could have observed everyone here.”
“Well, would you like me to show you proof?”
When Kaen nodded, Baek Yuseol activated [Mentalist].
A trait that allowed him to determine a target’s current feelings and condition by combining information like tone of voice, gestures, and facial expressions.
With the Bulbul Glasses on top of that, the preparation was complete.
The observational and information-analysis power of those glasses was absurdly broken—if he poured in enough mental force, they could analyze even the tiniest speck of dust and tell him what it was.
Using both Mentalist and the Bulbul Glasses at the same time consumed an enormous amount of mental force, but for a brief moment, it allowed him to imitate the protagonist of the mystery novels from Earth that he used to enjoy—Sherlock Holmes.
“You keep pets at home. Two cats and three dogs… no, four. Creamshu cats are illegal, but you’ve managed to raise one in secret all the same.”
Kaen’s expression froze, as though asking how in the world he knew that, and Baek Yuseol hurriedly added,
“Ah, don’t misunderstand. There’s fur on your clothes. I catch every little detail like that.”
“…Impressive.”
“For lunch today, you had Mont Blanc pasta, didn’t you? Regrettably, it seems you didn’t have a partner with you. If you had, they would’ve pointed out the sauce stain on your collar.”
“That wristwatch isn’t expensive, and it’s quite old, but the fact that you still wear it means it must have been given to you by someone important. You don’t seem like the type who checks the time often. The hour hand is off. Or perhaps… it’s set to the standard time of the eastern continent, Rahendel.”
There was almost nothing wrong in what Baek Yuseol said.
His words pierced the core precisely, and because every conclusion rested on valid reasoning, Kaen could not even deny them.
“Did I get it right? It seems there’s someone you miss in Rahendel. The model of that watch was frequently favored by Aragin watchmakers sixty years ago… which means it probably wasn’t given to you by a lover, but inherited from your mother. Women of that era preferred that model. In many ways, that’s unfortunate. It can’t have been easy leaving your homeland and working in the West.”
“…How did you know I worked in the West?”
“You used to have fair skin, but your face is tanned dark, isn’t it? And those scars on your wrist and neck weren’t made by dark mages, but by a mage’s magic. In that case…”
Pretending to think for a moment, Baek Yuseol looked Kaen up and down.
“Judging by your gait and how you stand motionless, you’re military. If it was a unit that fought humans in the West, then Lakshun… no, perhaps Cheongrahong’s unit? And judging from the way you speak, you must’ve at least held the rank of officer.”
“…You got it right.”
“Shall I keep going?”
“That’s enough. Stop.”
Kaen waved his hand as if sick of it.
To be honest, it had made his skin crawl, and even filled him with a degree of fear.
If someone could draw out this much information from a mere moment of observation and a few hints, then the analytical ability called ‘deep learning’ that could distinguish dark mages was something he could believe in as well.
‘…This isn’t observation at an ordinary level.’
He had only thought Baek Yuseol was strong for his young age, but that wasn’t the real issue.
Baek Yuseol’s greatest weapon was that brain.
At seventeen, he had solved the three-hundred-year unsolved problem of the Cross Formula of Alchemic Random Sequences, possessed observational power beyond that of a machine, and on top of that had such extraordinary deductive ability.
Kaen could now understand why Rudelik had taken an interest in him.
‘Perhaps… that boy could fill the vacant seat of No. 12…’
Kaen thought that far, but quickly shook his head.
No. 12 was not a seat that just anyone could occupy.
Baek Yuseol was certainly a perfect mage with both brains and martial skill…
but compared to that ‘No. 12,’ he was still absurdly lacking.
And yet…
he was still only a teenage boy with brilliant room to grow, so perhaps in the future he truly might be able to fill that vacancy.
If Rudelik had taken an interest in Baek Yuseol because he considered him a candidate for No. 12, then the Crescent Moon Tower Lord’s eye really was as discerning as expected.
‘Whew…’
Not knowing a single thing about what Kaen was thinking, Baek Yuseol let out a sigh of relief.
‘Thank god he told me to stop. If he hadn’t, I’d have been screwed. Ugh, shit, my head…’
As the price for activating both Mentalist and the Bulbul Glasses’ observation-analysis abilities at once, he had consumed all of his mental force.
A monstrous headache came crashing down on him, and cold sweat formed on his back, but if he showed that he’d exhausted himself just from analyzing one person, the lie would be exposed.
“Anyway, I’ll handle things here myself, so please withdraw now.”
“…Fine.”
This place was especially important to Baek Yuseol himself, of all people, so he would not respond carelessly.
And because this was Baek Yuseol—the very one Rudelik had seen potential in—it should be safe to trust him and leave him to it.
“We’re withdrawing.”
Kaen’s words rang out like an echo to somewhere unseen, and the members of the Dark-Extermination Squad who had infiltrated various parts of the Golden Platform revealed themselves one by one, then vanished into mist in an instant.
“Whew…”
Thinking that he had safely sent away the Dark-Extermination Squad, perhaps the most dangerous group in the world setting, Baek Yuseol turned around.
Alterisha was still frantically giving interviews, and seeing her smiling brightly despite having no idea what to do under the assault of such a huge crowd made the onlooker feel satisfied as well.
‘I’ll have to make sure she can keep doing her research happily.’
He would thoroughly block every attempt, so that not even a single dark mage would be able to push even a fingertip into the Alterisha School.
It became a weekday again, and the students of Stella came to school as they always did.
Thunk!
As Flame sat down, dropping a thick major-course textbook onto her desk, several female students gathered around her.
“Hey, hey, Flame. Did you see that Item Presentation video that’s gone viral this time?”
“Doesn’t Assistant Alterisha look insanely charismatic?”
“I know, right? She talks all softly, but she somehow looks so impressive, and smart too.”
“It really makes you think geniuses are just built different.”
Whatever they said, Flame let out a huge yawn.
Yesterday she had gone to bed late because she had been studying the third-year curriculum.
Like someone who had gone through high school in South Korea, she was extremely diligent about learning ahead.
“No.”
“What? That thing’s a huge topic right now and you still haven’t seen it?”
“Ahh. You thought your hubby might show up in it, but he didn’t, so you didn’t watch it, huh?”
At the word hubby, spoken in that slyly teasing tone, Flame felt her temper flare slightly, but she endured it.
They were exactly the type of girls who would enjoy it even more if she reacted.
“No. I’ve just been busy, so I couldn’t watch it.”
“Then want to watch it now?”
Honestly, it was a hassle, but it was still a presentation by one of the main characters, and she couldn’t ignore the goodwill of her friends.
“—Since the beginning of magical history, technological revolutions have…”
Alterisha’s presentation began playing on a small magic screen.
The black portfolio. Alterisha walking between the spaces, speaking naturally as though conversing with the audience.
‘…Huh?’
This presentation really looked like something she had seen somewhere before.
Unable to shake off that strange sense of dissonance, Flame found herself unable to focus on the video, her mind constantly trying to remember something.
And then—
she remembered.
‘This is just like the Half-Eaten Apple Yual Phone presentation…?’
A revolution of technology that placed all the information in the world in the tiny palm of Earth’s people.
The smartphone.
Alterisha’s Item presentation was bizarrely, uncannily similar to the famous presentation that first announced that technology to the world.
No, not merely similar.
It was exactly the same.
There was no way Flame, who had been a fan of the CEO of the ‘Half-Eaten Apple’ company, could fail to notice.
In fact, she herself had once planned to use that presentation technique later on.
‘No way… is Assistant Alterisha from Earth too…?’
No, that couldn’t be right.
If she had to be suspicious of anyone, it ought to be Baek Yuseol instead.
But… that was strange too.
Hadn’t she originally suspected that he was a ‘rofan transmigrator’ just like her?
And yet he knew absolutely nothing about the development of the original romance fantasy.
On the contrary, he knew much more about minor bits of future and knowledge that even Flame herself didn’t know.
Baek Yuseol had done things no one but a regressor should be able to do.
Baek Yuseol knew things no one but a regressor should be able to know.
‘What the hell is he…?’
Flame’s mind began to fill with confusion.
