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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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“Uwaaaaaagh…uwaaa…”
A dark past.
This was definitely a dark past.
Enya realized this clearly in the carriage on her way home.
She had created a dark past that would haunt her for the next month, causing her to repeatedly bury her face in her pillow in shame.
‘-N-no! There’s no ‘then’!’
‘-Excuse me?’
‘-I-I mean… Ah! Look at the time! The carriage will be arriving soon…!’
‘-We still have 30 minutes.’
‘-30 minutes!’
‘-Yes.’
“Uwaaaagh…”
Not only had she blurted out something nonsensical in her excitement, but her subsequent attempts to recover had only made things worse.
Why had she said, “30 minutes!” She could have just said the carriage was arriving early.
But no, she had to sit down after declaring, “30 minutes left!”
‘-Um… Ed.’
‘-Yes?’
‘-Was I… a bit strange just now?’
‘-…’
‘-I feel like… the entropy between us… has increased.’
“Uwaaagh!”
The more she thought about it, the more mortifying her choice of words became.
‘I want to decrease the entropy between us.’
‘I want to put our chaotic relationship into the framework of friendship.’
‘30 minutes!’
‘I feel like the entropy between us has increased.’
What had she been thinking?
What kind of logic was that?
She could have just said, “Why don’t we start as friends?”
It wasn’t supposed to go this way.
She was going to give Ed a limited edition Quickdraw bromide as a gift, chat for a bit, and casually suggest they become friends.
“N-no. But it was alright in the end, wasn’t it?”
Come to think of it, it wasn’t all bad.
The conversation afterward had flowed naturally.
Enya recalled the rest of their conversation.
‘-Applying entropy to human relationships, that’s a fresh perspective, Enya.’
‘-…Excuse me?’
‘-It’s interesting. Come to think of it, entropy does seem to apply to human relationships.’
‘-I-is that so…?’
‘-Yes. This universe is designed to always increase entropy. So perhaps we’re being tested by the universe. If we don’t put in effort with our own will, any relationship is bound to drift apart.’
‘…’
‘-So, I want to do that too. Let’s create a closed system between us.’
‘-A-a closed system?’
‘-Haha. I mean I want to invest heat and energy into our relationship. Into the closed system of friendship. So, let’s be friends.’
‘-O-okay!’
Enya smiled contentedly.
While she had gotten carried away with Ed’s scientific approach, the conversation afterward wasn’t bad.
A friendly, lively conversation.
She recalled their discussion: Quickdraw, the challenges Ed faced when inventing things, her own training in quickdraw.
She smiled, remembering all of those.
She wished they had more time. She wished the carriage would take another 300 minutes to arrive.
“Yes, it wasn’t all bad.”
She had made a fool of herself, but the ending was alright.
Enya nodded, rationalizing her behavior.
She smiled faintly, looking at the scenery passing by outside the window.
The scattering cherry blossoms were beautiful.
“…Enya.”
Claire, who was sitting across from her, called out.
Enya looked at her with a faint smile.
“Are you crazy?”
“…”
Claire frowned at Enya.
Something was off.
As soon as they got into the carriage, Enya had clutched her head and groaned, and now she was humming happily with a dreamy smile.
Had she developed bipolar disorder?
She had never seen Enya’s emotions fluctuate so wildly in such a short time.
Her friend was usually cool and composed.
“Yeah. I think I’m going crazy.”
And her reply was even more concerning.
‘I think I’m going crazy?’
She had been like this ever since meeting Ed.
What had happened between them to make Enya so strange?
As a concerned friend, she needed to investigate.
‘Edgar Fix, I need to meet you soon.’
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There was a big difference between playing the game and actually being in it.
Like the conversation he just had with Enya.
Conversations inside the game were vivid, going beyond the framework set by the game.
While this increased the uncertainty of his relationships with NPCs, finding a single possibility among countless uncertainties was more meaningful than simply following the predictable golden path.
He could forge a better path with his own will.
‘Perhaps… I can completely overcome the Destruction scenario and prepare for the scenarios that follow.’
“El Pandor Runterra” was notoriously difficult.
Even he, the top-ranked player, hadn’t fully cleared the game yet.
Like Enya’s favorite manga, “Quickdraw,” the real game began after the side stories, after the academy arc, when the true trials began.
To overcome those trials, he needed to abandon the most common and reasonable path presented in the game.
He needed to form relationships with as many people as possible and find his own answers, guiding them towards the good.
That was his destiny.
“…Let’s prepare for tomorrow’s match.”
First, he had to perform well in tomorrow’s match.
His research was also progressing smoothly.
If he worked hard today, he might be able to finish the propulsion unit.
*Whirrrrrr…!*
He looked at the running engine, the propulsion unit he had put the most effort into recently.
He wouldn’t have been able to create it if his Dexterous Hands skill hadn’t reached level 3.
Just as he gained the ability to design holograms when his Engineering Mind skill reached level 3, his Dexterous Hands skill had also gained a sub-skill upon leveling up.
Thanks to that sub-skill, he was able to create the propulsion unit prototype in such a short time.
“Hey Fix.”
He had activated the sub-skill.
Its name was Fix.
It activated when he said, “Hey Fix.”
Like this.
“Whirrrrrr~”
The robotic arm, disguised as a piece of lab equipment, instantly transformed.
This robotic arm is my assistant, which I acquired upon reaching Dexterous Hands Skill Level 3.
It perfectly replicates the performance of my own hands, able to carry out tasks on my behalf.
What he liked most was that it worked even when he was sleeping or doing other things.
The efficiency and speed of my work have skyrocketed.
I could now dedicate myself to research and development 24/7.
Fix had already made considerable progress on the propulsion unit while he was away.
“Fix, you worked hard. Good job.”
“Whirrrrrr~♥”
The robotic arm whirred happily while headbanging.
It was completely obedient, and he could use it anytime.
‘Was this why professors liked graduate students?’
He examined the propulsion unit Fix had been working on.
Its stability had improved.
Checking the logs, Fix had decreased the ratio of orichalcum mixed with the mana stones and added more titanium alloy.
“Hmm. Shall we test it?”
It was still a prototype, but with this level of stability, it should be usable.
He put the propulsion unit in his inventory and went outside.
It was 9 PM.
The dormitories weren’t open yet, so the academy was quiet.
He went to an empty field, took out the propulsion unit from his inventory, and attached the harness, which was simply reinforced fibers to secure the propulsion unit to his body.
“Huu…”
He secured the propulsion unit and adjusted it.
He contemplated the output level, deciding on 10%.
‘Since Fix improved the stability, it should be able to handle 20% output—’
-Fwwooooosh!!!!
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!”
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He almost died last night.
The moment he activated the propulsion unit, he was launched into the sky.
It was a disaster caused by his failure to check how much Fix had improved the unit’s performance.
-Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!!
He hurriedly pressed the emergency stop button, but by then, he was already 300 meters in the air, well past the height of a 63-story building.
-Uwaaa! Uwaaaa! Uwaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
He went into freefall.
His mind went blank with terror and the immense wind pressure.
As he plummeted towards the ground in a state of panic, a sliver of rationality left in him saved his life.
He instinctively recalled his innate ability, “Engineering Mind.”
‘A human, ‘Edgar Fix,’ with a mass of 73 kg is in freefall from a height of 300 meters above the ground. Calculate the amount of work done by gravity in joules (J), and determine the course of action for ‘Edgar Fix’ to make J approach zero.’
Amazingly, the primal fear of death began to recede.
Like a supercomputer, his thought process moved beyond the human survival instinct, focusing solely on calculating the solution to the problem he had posed.
And he acted upon the calculated result.
-Hup!
He adjusted his posture, feet pointing towards the ground, and activated the propulsion unit slightly.
-Fwoosh!
His descent slowed.
The energy from the propulsion unit countered the force of gravity.
He repeated this process, circulating mana throughout his body to activate the Strengthening Formula in preparation for impact, continuously counteracting the acceleration due to gravity.
-Thud.
He landed softly on the ground, light as a feather.
“Huu…”
He sighed, recalling last night’s events.
There was no way he could have survived a 300-meter fall with his current abilities.
But he had learned a lot from the failure.
He now had a clear direction for improving the propulsion unit and had discovered a crucial application of Engineering Mind.
While he should avoid relying on Engineering Mind to develop his own thinking skills, it could be used as a cheat code in dire situations like yesterday.
“Father, I’m going to the academy.”
“Hahahaha! Alright! Go and do your best!”
He finished breakfast, thinking about yesterday’s events, put on his coat, and headed out.
Today was the second test, the tournament round, the decisive day for securing an S-rank class placement.
And surprisingly, his opponent in the tournament was the woman known as the Witch, Isabella.
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Time to meet the crazies