Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The First Lecture (2)

Being a professor was unexpectedly leisurely.

In the real world, I'd heard professors were too busy with research and papers to focus on teaching, but in the game, academy professors placed far more emphasis on training Heroes.

Still, Theory-type professors like me had their performance evaluated annually through papers, so compared to the honorary professors, we were busier.

But research in this world wasn't particularly grueling. The overall standard of academia was so low that most professors rushed to produce papers around year-end, and the quality barely exceeded academy graduate level at best.

There was even a joke among professors that the paper you wrote for your doctorate was the best paper you'd ever write in your life.

While other professors spent their free time inviting promising students to their training rooms or labs to nurture them, my lab had no one but Lee Yeeun.

My educational approach was also one of total laissez-faire. More accurately, I had nothing to teach Lee Yeeun.

So I had plenty of time to spend alone.

"Whew."

As I exhaled, acrid toxins left my body. The result of circulating the mana within me through meditation.

A daily training regimen I'd repeated for several hours since forming my Mana Heart. It had felt stifling at first, but I was starting to see results.

Raising talented Playable Characters was important, but building my own combat strength was equally so.

"About time."

Among the otherwise idle professor life, the only busy part was lectures. The second week after the semester began─the first proper lecture started in earnest.

I checked the attendance roster to see if anyone had dropped. Surprisingly, nothing had changed, Song Seokhwan included.

He'd probably be uncomfortable looking at my face. I was uncomfortable looking at his, too.

I prayed today would end without incident and headed for the lecture hall.

***

Murmur, murmur───

Osung Building, 9th floor, Lecture Hall 2.

It was an excessively large venue for just twenty-odd students.

Song Seokhwan entered before the lecture started, right on time. The friendly gazes that had followed him during the first week had all turned hostile.

When Song Seokhwan glared savagely at the whispering students, the stares quickly retreated.

But not everyone backed down.

"Oh my, he didn't drop. Too shameless to even be embarrassed, I guess."

It was An Seri's voice─she'd arrived at the lecture hall before Song Seokhwan. Not loud, but every person in the room could hear the jab clearly.

"Was that aimed at me?"

"Hmm? I have no idea what you mean."

That bitch, how dare she.

He hadn't noticed at the time, but looking back, An Seri had been in the lecture hall too. Song Seokhwan felt like he'd been blindsided.

She was the one who'd used Seo Dayun to provoke him in the first place.

Those two had been in on it together.

Then could she be the one who'd moved the Chancellor too? The pieces fit, but even for the daughter of Geumok's Guild Master, the idea that she'd moved that witch was hard to swallow.

But nothing else could explain it.

"Pathetic bitch."

Song Seokhwan turned his blade toward An Seri.

It was infuriating─she'd been the one who'd played him first, and now she was taking petty shots as if she had some right to revenge.

He'd taken pity on her for being the same age and played nice, and this was how she repaid him?

"Hey, do I look like a joke to you? A girl who isn't even her guild's heir dares to make a fool of me? You'll never surpass Sehyeon in your life."

He'd tried to poke at a weak spot, but An Seri merely scoffed. She counterattacked instead.

"Oh my, a rootless fake who doesn't know the meaning of shame, bringing up succession? With your lowborn blood?"

Bloodline.

That was Song Seokhwan's reverse scale.

Originally, Bisang's Guild Master Song Jihyeok had two outstanding sons.

Both had inherited their father's exceptional talent, but they'd lost their lives in a dungeon. The grieving couple had then adopted.

The sound of teeth clenching was audible. Just as the enraged Song Seokhwan was about to explode, the lecture hall door opened.

"That's enough."

A frigid voice instantly chilled the heat in the room.

Professor Cha Eunwoo.

Simultaneously, Song Seokhwan unconsciously took a step back.

"Return to your seats. Let's begin the lecture."

The students watched the undercurrent between Cha Eunwoo and Song Seokhwan with tense eyes.

Everyone knew the two had clashed during last week's class.

It looked like a second round might break out at any moment.

"Tch!"

Unexpectedly, Song Seokhwan backed down quickly.

It seemed to speak volumes about what had happened in the lecture hall the week before.

That Cha Eunwoo had tamed the unruly colt.

"Did you see? Song Seokhwan looked scared."

"That guy's one of those, you know. Thinks he's hot shit......"

Hushed whispers reached Song Seokhwan's ears.

Now even these nobodies......

"Don't talk during my lecture."

When Cha Eunwoo issued another warning, the commotion in the lecture hall was snuffed out completely.

There was something bewitching about that voice. It lodged itself in the brain, making you feel compelled to obey.

Cha Eunwoo flicked his hand carelessly, and the screen at the front of the lecture hall turned on.

On it were five Go stones.

"Today, I'll teach you about formations."

A formation referred to the arrangement of party members within a party.

Most dungeon clears were conducted as a party. Heroes extensively researched formations for more efficient coordination. Some said the success or failure of a clear hinged on the formation─that was how important it was.

"Let's start with the basics. In a party, roles are typically divided into tank, DPS, and support. The tank is a warrior who holds the front line; DPS is subdivided into melee and ranged, then further into physical and magical. Finally, supports serve as healers or buffers. You've all heard this at least once."

With slight exaggeration, this was common knowledge to everyone except civilians with zero interest in Heroes.

The content was so obvious that the only person taking notes was Seo Dayun.

"There are many ways to configure a formation. The most basic uses two fixed DPS slots in a 2-2-1 or 1-2-2 arrangement. Most guilds adopt these."

When Cha Eunwoo clapped his hands, the Go stones on the screen rearranged themselves.

"Depending on the dungeon, DPS and support placement is adjusted fluidly. Countless studies have been conducted on how to optimize this for various situations."

Song Seokhwan sneered internally.

As Bisang's heir, he'd observed countless clears from a position close to real combat. Content this basic went without saying.

It felt like there was nothing to gain from this course.

For a similar reason, An Seri was also disappointed.

She'd expected something more special, but this was just a rehash of the most elementary theory.

Given the students' level, it was only natural─but what about me? I didn't even sign up for this; I was dragged in.

As if sensing her thoughts, Cha Eunwoo smirked.

"That's the basics. Shall we approach this from a more interesting angle?"

Clap!

One clap, and the Go stones rearranged dramatically.

What appeared was utterly unlike anything that had come before. A formation neither An Seri nor Song Seokhwan had ever seen.

Three in the front, two in the back, standing in two staggered rows. It resembled the letter W.

"This is the formation you'll be using in my course."

Murmur, murmur─

The appearance of a formation no one had ever seen set the lecture hall buzzing.

Whispers of "What is that?" and "Is it a newly researched formation?" floated around. Song Seokhwan muttered to himself. If it were newly researched, I'd have seen it.

"First, a question. Do any of you know why Hero roles are divided into tank, DPS, and support?"

A bespectacled girl in the front row answered.

"Because it's more efficient?"

"Correct."

Rather than five mediocre jack-of-all-trades Heroes, having specialists who'd pushed one discipline to the extreme divide roles among themselves was highly efficient.

What I can't do, my companions do for me. What they can't do, I handle.

A truly ideal form of role distribution.

"The theory is sound. The results are good too. But it's not the best."

Yet Cha Eunwoo rejected it.

He claimed that the formation every guild universally treated as the baseline wasn't the best.

"Running formations through a strategy simulator will tell you 2-2-1 or 1-2-2 is optimal. But in the field, there are countless variables simulators can't account for. That's why advance parties exist, and after several rounds of revisions, the formation is finally completed. Correct?"

From here on, it was content the students wouldn't know.

Things you couldn't possibly learn without exposure to the field. An Seri and Song Seokhwan gave small nods of agreement.

"If you're lucky, the original form mostly survives─but that's rare. In severe cases, the tactics have changed so much the original is unrecognizable. Yet no one raises objections. Heroes never conduct research after retiring. It's the result of a communication gap between researchers and the field─the whole thing's gotten tangled."

Some students looked puzzled. Some even scoffed internally.

Isn't he a Theory-type too?

What's he doing, acting like he's mastered the field?

But for some, the message cut painfully deep.

Cha Eunwoo's lecture was neither armchair theorizing from someone who'd never left their desk, nor the bluster of clueless Heroes who talked big with nothing to back it up. This was a conclusion only possible from someone who'd mastered both theory and practice.

"My course has no need for tanks. There are only two lines: a front line that doubles as melee DPS and tank, and a rear line for ranged DPS or supports."

In the end, only two formations remained on the screen.

The W-formation with three front-liners and two rear, and the M-formation with two front-liners and three rear.

"In a static setup, efficiency drops. But for responding to variables, no configuration is better. Formations with too many lines create wide gaps between front and back, making crisis response difficult."

Cha Eunwoo's explanation continued, but even so, it wasn't something students could easily accept.

Abandoning the conventional approach backed by mountains of real-combat data and adopting a brand-new theory wasn't something you could just agree to and move on.

An Seri and Song Seokhwan were the most conflicted of all.

They'd never heard of or seen anything like this.

They'd learned from humanity's accumulated victory data from closer than anyone. Normally, a theory proposed by a no-name professor shouldn't even be worth a second glance.

And yet, it strangely pulled at them.

It was so systematic that if a major guild from some developed nation had published the same theory, one could be certain─without further explanation─that it had emerged from countless experiments with ranker parties in high-difficulty dungeons.

There was just one catch: the person who'd devised it was a Theory-type professor.

"Time's up. We'll resume in ten minutes."

When Cha Eunwoo declared the break and left the lecture hall, students gathered in small clusters.

"Is that guy insane? Who does he think he is, telling us what everyone uses is wrong?"

"Exactly. I think I signed up for the wrong course."

"So this is why the upperclassmen said never take a Theory-type professor's course."

The screech of a chair being roughly pushed back rang out.

Song Seokhwan, crown prince of the Bisang Guild.

His behavior had spawned plenty of negative impressions, but his skill, at least, was the real deal.

"Hey─ what do you think?"

Naturally, the question was directed at An Seri.

Every student in the hall held their breath and focused on the exchange. Even Baek Seolhwa─famous for her disinterest in others─the third-ranked entrance exam scorer.

After deliberating, An Seri spoke.

"It's persuasive. But...... mm, forget it. I don't know. You?"

"Answering a question with a question? Annoying bitch. Figure it out yourself."

Song Seokhwan whipped his head away, and An Seri clicked her tongue briefly.

It was a short exchange, but it sent a massive ripple through the lecture hall.

"Did you hear that?"

"I had a feeling."

"Quit lying. You didn't even take notes, you bastard."

"Holy shit. No way, right?"

In the midst of everyone's doubt, the brief break ended, and the lecture continued.