Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Lab (1)

Florian Rhapsody was a single-player game, but it was a strange one where party play was recommended over going solo.

Party members were all NPCs, naturally.

Recruitment generally revolved around NPCs who could also be used as playable characters.

The reason was their overwhelmingly superior potential compared to other NPCs.

In the early game, there were plenty of NPCs with better stats than the playable characters, but from the mid-game onward, the playable characters became crushingly dominant.

I'd considered using other NPCs early and swapping mid-game, but if you hadn't built up affinity and loyalty beforehand, the party would fall apart too easily, making that impossible.

Among them, Lee Yeeun was one of the rare exceptions.

Befitting a graduate, she had early-game stats that were incomparable to academy students, potential that didn't fall short of the playable characters at all, and achievements in the late game that spoke for themselves.

Lee Yeeun was an NPC you absolutely had to recruit if you could.

"Yeeun just graduated from the academy. She's aiming for a doctoral degree."

When the senior professor introduced her, Lee Yeeun shyly nodded.

Her green twin-tails swayed along with the motion.

"That's not a common path."

"Indeed not. Aren't you a similar case yourself, Professor Cha?"

"Well, I......"

How would I know what process Cha Eunwoo went through to become a professor? So I dodged the question.

The senior professor didn't seem particularly interested either, since he didn't press further. Maybe he was already convinced of the answer, whether I gave one or not.

"So, Miss Yeeun, are you aiming to become a professor?"

Miss Yeeun—even I cringed at myself after saying it.

It was an awkward expression that didn't sit right on my tongue, but I was a professor, after all. So I deliberately adopted a high-handed tone.

"No. I just want to earn my degree."

"No particular reason?"

"N-no, not really......"

A slightly awkward answer. Lee Yeeun was lying right now.

I'd seen her entire storyline inside the game.

To join most guilds, you needed a diploma from the academy.

Some of the top guilds went as far as requiring a bachelor's degree, but that was where it ended.

Up through a bachelor's was still the domain of ultra-elite Awakened, but from the doctoral level onward, it became the territory of geniuses devoted to theoretical research. The degrees held by retired heroes were mostly honorary professorships, not earned through academic work.

Only two places required a doctoral degree as a condition.

One was obviously a professorship. The other was a place the general public knew little about: the National Intelligence Service.

The NIS was an agency that handled a fairly diverse range of work and wanted well-rounded talent with both brains and brawn.

Because of this, the National Assembly had even passed a bill to conceal the personal information of doctoral holders, out of concern that agents could be tracked. I suspected the reason my own identity wasn't being questioned was thanks to that same bill.

To get to the point: Lee Yeeun's goal was to become an NIS agent.

And I had a rough idea of why she'd come to see me.

"Would you like some advice? On what you should do, Miss Yeeun."

If Lee Yeeun said yes here, I'd be in serious trouble.

Again—I didn't even know how I'd become a professor myself. What would I know about the process of earning a doctoral degree?

Fortunately, Lee Yeeun hadn't come to hear something that trivial.

"I'd like that too, but there's something I'd like to ask of you, Professor."

"What is it?"

Lee Yeeun hesitated, reluctant to speak.

It was the senior professor who broke the silence.

"Yeeun was originally supposed to join my lab. But you know how things go—life just doesn't work out the way you plan. You know how lab life can be sometimes, right? Ha ha."

To put it bluntly, that could be interpreted as "I dumped her."

In the game, if you recruited Lee Yeeun as a companion, you could hear many stories from her.

Lee Yeeun's former advisor had been an extremely vile person. He was a fairly well-known professor at Florian, so competition to get into his lab was fierce—and he exploited that by demanding bribes from students.

With Lee Yeeun, he'd gone a step further and demanded sexual favors. Lee Yeeun refused, got on her former advisor's blacklist, and was kicked out.

She had no choice but to look for another advisor. The person she eventually connected with was this senior professor.

Unfortunately, he was also one of the former advisor's lackeys.

So with deliberate malice, he'd strung Lee Yeeun along until all the other labs had finished recruiting, then kicked her out—leaving her completely isolated. The man was scum beyond words.

Still unaware of any of this, Lee Yeeun's eyes held visible trust toward the senior professor.

"That's a shame."

"So I was wondering—could our Professor Cha take her in? It would definitely benefit you too. Yeeun here, she's a genius. A genius."

Oh, I knew that well. Not just anyone could serve as the player's support.

Lee Yeeun had graduated second in her class.

A major rookie that every guild would covet. And yet, driven by the single-minded goal of joining the NIS, she'd chosen the thorny path of a doctorate.

In other words, the former advisor's objective was this:

Take a talent who'd be welcomed with open arms at any guild or lab, and bury her in the lab of a brand-new professor with nothing to his name—blocking her future.

Let her rot there for a few years, and Lee Yeeun's value would sink into the mud right along with her.

Childish, yes—but an effective way to ruin someone's life.

Lee Yeeun looked up at me with bright, clear eyes. She looked like a puppy begging to be taken in.

"Miss Yeeun, do you want to join my lab?"

"Yes! I really want to join! I need to get my doctorate. I had good grades at the academy, I got lots of praise from professors, and... um, I can make great coffee too!"

Oblivious to everything, Lee Yeeun desperately sold herself.

Objectively speaking, this wasn't an opportunity. It was a trap to be avoided.

But there was a variable the senior professor had overlooked—the new professor in question was me.

"Then make me a cup. I once made a bucket list, and 'drink coffee made by a research assistant' was on it."

"Huh? R-really? Hold on! I'll go make one right now!"

"Take your time. Don't hurt yourself."

Lee Yeeun's expression lit up instantly. She hurried out to grab the coffee pot.

The senior professor, who'd been watching, let out a hearty laugh.

"Professor Cha, you'll never make it as an upstanding man."

It was a jab mocking me for deceiving a girl with a bright future and luring her into my lab.

The fact that the man who'd engineered this whole situation was the one saying it was laughable.

"Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?"

"You must be misunderstanding me. Relax. I've taken a liking to you, Professor Cha. I prefer people who are easy to read over hypocrites who pretend to be righteous. What's wrong with pursuing your own interests?"

Did I come across as the same type as him?

I could've hidden my true feelings and pretended to be friendly, but this man didn't seem to have any value worth exploiting.

"If you're done with your business, please leave. I have a lot to do."

"Greedier than I expected. Taking the meal and pulling the tail. You'll regret it."

"Watch your phrasing. Someone might get the wrong idea."

When I drew a firm line, the senior professor's face twisted.

"...We'll see each other again."

The senior professor exited with a parting line befitting a third-rate villain. As if on cue, Lee Yeeun returned.

"I'm back. You might not be able to drink anyone else's coffee after today."

Lee Yeeun puffed out her chest and set the cup down with brimming confidence. Let's see just how good this coffee was to warrant that kind of talk.

One sip, and my brow furrowed on its own.

The coffee aroma was nowhere to be found—my mouth was flooded with nothing but sweetness.

"Make it again."

"Ehhh! Why?"

Was she seriously asking? How was anyone supposed to drink this?

"What kind of coffee is this? It's sugar water."

"Sweet things taste good, though."

"How much sugar did you put in?"

"Five spoonfuls! That's the perfect amount."

What the hell.

No wonder I'd been chewing on granules. It wasn't that she'd failed to stir—she'd put in more than could physically dissolve.

This liquid could no longer be called coffee. If I had to name it, "sugar water" seemed apt.

"Miss Yeeun, you need to start by learning how to make coffee."

"Hnngh, that's mean. You didn't have to say it like that."

Lee Yeeun whined, but this was non-negotiable. If she kept drinking it like that, she'd die of diabetes before saving the world.

It took a full hour to instill proper coffee ideology in Lee Yeeun.

***

The academy's labs weren't much different from a university's graduate research rooms.

Students gathered to conduct research on specific topics. The only notable difference was that my lab had exactly one student.

"So, Professor, what should I research?"

"What do you want to work on, Miss Yeeun?"

"Answering a question with a question is so cheap. Hmm, what's your specialty, Professor? I'd like to start with something along those lines."

My specialty? I didn't even know. Better dodge this one.

"Now, now—you're the only researcher here, aren't you? Don't worry about me. Go with your own specialty."

"...Is that really okay?"

"Of course. Your professor is more capable than you think. I promise you'll receive the best support no matter what the research topic."

"Wow! Really?"

"Indeed. This professor doesn't go back on his word."

Lee Yeeun seemed so pleased by the offer of free rein that she forgot all about asking about my specialty. She started jotting down topics on her own, buzzing with excitement.

"Hmm... it's too hard to pick just one."

Isn't choosing a topic the hardest part of any assignment? Watching her brainstorm ideas left and right made me think geniuses really were different.

She crossed out topics one by one until only a single one remained on the list.

For some reason, she didn't bring it over right away and started gauging my reaction. I gave her a look that said bring it here, and only then did she seem to steel herself and stand up.

"I'll go with this one."

The topic Lee Yeeun proposed was "A Study on Enchanting Attributes onto Non-Elemental Magic."

Her specialty was elemental magic. It didn't seem like a bad topic.

"Isn't the process of enchanting attributes really inefficient? You need three magic circles—the base spell, the elemental spell, and the fusion spell."

"An interesting perspective."

I had no idea what she was talking about, but I played along for the time being. Lee Yeeun's eyes went wide.

"Right?! Listen! To cast a spell, you have to draw a magic circle, right? The existing method of combining spells is to stack multiple circles on top of each other, but the method I'm thinking of is to blend the circles together from the very start when you first draw them......"

Lee Yeeun grabbed both my hands and launched into a rapid-fire explanation.

She was so excited that her hot breath occasionally brushed against my cheek. Too close.

I tried jerking my head a few times to signal her to back off, but Lee Yeeun was so absorbed in her own world she didn't even notice me.

I felt bad thinking this while she was explaining so earnestly, but I couldn't understand a word of it.

At first I could follow along, but eventually the same incomprehensible jargon kept repeating and I gave up trying to understand.

While waiting for her to finish, I decided to count sheep in my head. After who knows how many minutes of that, Lee Yeeun's machine-gun monologue finally stopped.

"...And that's how it works! What do you think?"

Even if she asked what I thought, I didn't know. All I knew was that according to the game's lore, Lee Yeeun was a genius.

Figuring the general direction was probably right, I gave a suitably vague response.

"The hypothesis is interesting, but the proof is too loose. I'll review it, so organize your thoughts further and write me a report."

There was no response from Lee Yeeun. Like someone who'd been hit in the back of the head with a hammer, she'd gone completely blank, staring into space.

Did I give the wrong answer? Hey, what's wrong?

About five seconds passed before Lee Yeeun suddenly burst into tears.

Fuck, what's the problem?

The completely unexpected reaction made me want to cry too. My common sense was about to pack its bags again, but I kept a straight face and calmly tried to soothe her.

"Miss Yeeun, is something the matter?"

Did calling her proof "loose" wound a genius's pride?

I'd tried to look like I was giving careful feedback instead of just nodding and praising her, and it had backfired.

God damn it.

Having my relationship with Lee Yeeun break down here would be a disaster. She had a lot of work to do for me going forward.

While my head spun trying to figure out how to calm her down, Lee Yeeun's lips parted.

"It's just... the other professors only ever told me it couldn't be done... and I really wanted to do this... you're the first person who listened to the end and said something positive, Professor......"

Thankfully, it wasn't anything negative. If anything, she seemed overjoyed that I'd acknowledged her.

She'd been turned away by lab after lab, shot down by every professor because of her former advisor—and the emotions that had been building up without her even realizing had finally erupted.

I patted Lee Yeeun's back with one hand, and her crying gradually subsided.

Eventually the sobs stopped entirely, and I heard the soft sound of steady breathing by my ear. She'd cried herself out and fallen asleep from exhaustion.

Could I take this to mean Lee Yeeun had accepted me as her advisor?

Lee Yeeun as an ally. For something I'd earned just by comforting a crying kid, it was an excessive reward.

Without realizing it, my lips murmured a quiet word.

"Lucky me."