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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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I felt someone staring at me.
I turned my gaze towards it.
Something that looked like a human…
Its mouth-like opening moved, as if speaking.
I wanted to know what it was saying.
As I focused, I started to hear things I shouldn’t be hearing.
“We apologize for the inconvenience during the weekend. We accidentally crashed the system. When will you be back?”
A sudden wave of anger surged within me.
They were talking to me, when they should be talking to the author.
And then, without thinking, I blurted out,
“You bastards broke something that’s past its warranty, and now you’re asking me?! Fuck off!!!”
As soon as I finished speaking, the world around me started to crumble.
My consciousness faded and then it started to rise.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“You called me in on Christmas and now you’re calling me in again on a weekend?! Shameless bastards!”
A familiar ceiling.
This time, it was real.
I had seen this ceiling before.
“You’re awake?”
[Have you awakened?]
Two voices greeted me as I opened my eyes.
The first thing I checked was my left shoulder.
“…What the fuck.”
Attached to my left shoulder, which had been severed earlier, was a…a writhing, viscous blue blob.
I instinctively reached out to touch the foreign object.
“I’m not into tentacles or slime. What is this?”
“Hey, don’t touch it!”
A frantic voice stopped me.
I turned my gaze towards it.
Sister Ye-rim stood there, looking the same as usual.
“Your shoulder hasn’t fully healed yet. Just wait.”
“…Who are you?”
No it wasn’t Sister Ye-rim. There was an unfamiliar person there.
A woman in a white coat.
“I’m Professor Yoon Hwa-ran.”
“How long was I out?”
“About thirty minutes.”
She introduced herself as Professor Yoon Hwa-ran.
She was probably the one who treated me.
“What is this thing?”
“It’s used to heal injuries caused by improper mana usage, like yours.”
“The infirmary is more advanced than I thought.”
“…What did you think it was?”
The only thing that came to mind when I thought of the infirmary was…
“A place where they prepare chrysanthemums?”
“Ah! You’re the infamous Shinwoo! Nice to meet you.”
She suddenly reached out her hand.
I shook it, still feeling a bit dazed.
“That name is a bit strange.”
“They said it’s fine to call you that.”
“…”
I was slightly annoyed, but I held back since she didn’t seem to have any ill intentions.
Then, I became curious.
“Am I already infamous here?”
“You were known as the student most likely to die within the shortest time after enrollment.”
“Damn.”
[You’ve achieved a rare milestone in your life.]
‘Fuck.’
Anyway, I distinctly remember losing consciousness.
I had collapsed in the training grounds.
I could recall that much.
But I had no idea how I got here.
“How did I even get here?”
“A small girl with red twin tails delivered you to the infirmary.”
“I see. I should thank her.”
So Hye-ji was the one who brought me here.
I wanted to thank her, but…
“…Wait a minute. Delivered?”
Something felt off about that word.
Professor Yoon pointed at the window.
And I saw…
“You see that window over there?”
Two shattered window panes.
I was trying to figure out what that had to do with me when she explained.
“She threw you through that window.”
“…Did she throw my arm through the other one?”
“That’s right. That’s why your arm is in such a state.”
“Damn it, couldn’t she at least wrap it up?”
“It got you here faster than carrying you.”
Should I thank Hye-ji?
Or should I scold her?
[It was definitely fast. You’d get a speeding ticket on the highway for going that fast.]
‘I wasn’t expecting rocket delivery.’
But at least she got me here quickly, so I decided it was better to thank her.
Professor Yoon suddenly asked me a question,
“But how come you don’t have any injuries, even though you came through the window headfirst?”
“…I don’t know.”
Since my arm was presumably delivered too, I looked around.
There it was.
My left arm, a short distance away.
It was submerged in a container filled with the same viscous substance attached to my shoulder.
It was in a terrible state.
The cuts from the window shards were worse than the severed part.
[At least it’s still usable.]
*’My… arm… has returned.’ *
A thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
A prosthetic arm.
A left arm, to be precise.
A classic protagonist trope.
[This one finds automail quite appealing.]
‘Screw prosthetics.’
“Can I get a prosthetic arm?”
“Just attach your own arm back. You can enhance your body now, why bother with a prosthetic?”
Judging by her response, it seemed like prosthetic arms weren’t compatible with physical enhancement.
I quickly gave up on the prosthetic.
Instead, I asked about Sister Ye-rim, who was nowhere to be seen.
“Okay. But where’s Sister Ye-rim?”
“Oh, you know her too? She’s on vacation.”
I heard her mumble, “Why is she taking such a long vacation?”
It seemed she wasn’t aware of the details.
“Of course I know her. I even introduced her to a guy. They’re probably getting married soon.”
“…What?”
“You didn’t know? Sister Ye-rim has a boyfriend?”
Her eyes turned lifeless.
She muttered “She said she was never getting married…” under her breath, sounding like a broken doll.
The problem was…
“It’s a good thing she’s getting married before she turns 30.”
“Ahahaha.”
…I didn’t notice her reaction and kept talking.
“If she had been older, I’m sure she would have been nagged about it.”
“Shinwoo, shall we reattach your arm now?”
Professor Yoon tried to change the subject.
She seemed uncomfortable.
“Marriage is nothing. Finding a boyfriend was already hard enough, so she’s lucky.”
“…Can you please stop talking?”
Her voice was low and quiet.
But I kept talking, oblivious to her discomfort.
“I’m sure they’ll have a wedding soon. But the baby might come first.”
“…”
“I even thought of a good name for the baby.”
The number above her head increased.
And a shard of glass appeared.
As I focused on it, a bright light engulfed me.
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I heard the voice in my head as my vision returned.
[This one finally understands how your ability works.]
‘What do you mean?’
She continued before my vision fully recovered.
She sounded excited.
[Do you remember that shard of glass that appeared earlier?]
*‘Yeah, it appeared when the number above her head went up.’ *
[When you focus your will on it, your consciousness is transported to that person’s future, right before they regress.]
So, my ability activated based on my will.
Thankfully, it wasn’t automatic.
*‘Now that I think about it, it’s an ability, so it must consume a lot of mana, right?’ *
[It probably consumes a fixed amount of mana. And as you experienced before, any excess is paid with your stamina.]
‘Damn it, I need to see this quickly. Fast forward, fast forward, fast forward.’
As if responding to my desire to fast forward, the scene before me vanished.
It was replaced with a different scene.
This time, it was Professor Yoon Hwa-ran, drinking alone at home.
Her appearance was the same as before.
But the date on her phone was December 24th, three years in the future.
As I was wondering what happened on that day, the scene started to play.
“Damn it! You’re all married now even though you said you were never getting married! You traitors!!!”
So, in this future, she was having drinks alone on Christmas Eve, the only one who wasn’t married.
Then, I remembered how unhappy she looked when I was talking about marriage earlier.
[You messed up, didn’t you?]
‘I’m so screwed.’
At that moment, everything started flashing red.
[It’s time to go back.]
‘Damn, even a music preview is longer than this.’
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As I thought about returning, I was back in the present.
The first thing I saw was Professor Yoon Hwa-ran staring at me with lifeless eyes.
I felt a bit drained. I must have stayed in her future for a while.
A shiver ran down my spine.
“…Professor?”
“Shinwoo.”
Her voice sent chills down my spine, and I couldn’t answer.
She continued speaking.
My response wasn’t important to her.
“You said you wanted a prosthetic arm, right?”
“No, I’d rather have my own arm back. It’s the best.”
She smiled sweetly and offered,
“No, you should try one at least once. It’s a good opportunity.”
“It’s fine, really. I’ll just get my own arm back, like you said.”
I was scared.
Her sudden use of formal speech.
And the way she was looking at me. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes.
“I’m a bit hard of hearing because I’m a spinster.”
“Professor, I think you should hear what I have to say.”
“Go ahead.”
She called herself a spinster.
But she was wrong.
“You’re not a spinster.”
“Really? Well, I did get hit on recently.”
She seemed pleased that I didn’t consider her a spinster.
And I was right. She wasn’t a spinster.
“You’re a gold miss.”
“First, the automail.”
[You’re going to regret this.]
A gold miss, indeed.
It was two hours before I could finally escape the infirmary.
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Professor Pil-yong looked at me with concern.
“What happened to your arm? Who did this to you?”
“Me.”
“…”
“…”
An awkward silence fell between us.
Professor Pil-yong spoke again, trying to break the tension.
“Why are you so pale?”
“…Just went through a tragedy.”
“Ha… Sit down.”
I had just come from the infirmary.
Two hours.
That’s how long I spent there.
And I had tried on almost every prosthetic arm they had.
Some were even said to be possessed by evil spirits, but the spirits were more sane than me, so it wasn’t very effective.
The most dangerous one was a silver arm with a red star on it.
[You almost became the Winter Soldier.]
‘Damn, I didn’t know it came with a pre-installed brainwashing code.’
I was currently at Professor Pil-yong’s research building.
I dropped by as I promised earlier.
He listened to my explanation and sighed, rubbing his head.
“Your head’s bald, stop rubbing it. It’s not going to sprout any hair.”
“Want me to break your other arm too?”
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault for expecting anything from a wasteland.”
[Even deserts have oases, but he’s a lost cause.]
‘He has a better chance of being reborn.’
A vein popped out on his forehead as he gritted his teeth.
But he managed to control his anger and explained why he had called me.
“I’d like to re-evaluate your abilities with all the readers we have here before the professors’ meeting.”
“How many are there?”
“About fifty.”
“Damn, you don’t even revise your doctoral dissertations that many times.”
He beamed as soon as I mentioned the word “dissertation.”
“Thanks to you, I’ve written a ton of dissertations.”
“You’re making sure your students get enough rest though, right?”
“…”
An awkward silence.
“Professor?”
“Shut up.”
He was happy, but I wondered how many of his students had suffered to fuel that happiness.
Suddenly, I heard a commotion.
A group of people entered the research building.
It was his research students.
They were carrying boxes full of Ability Readers.
They looked just as pale and exhausted as me.
Seeing them made the last shred of humanity within me stir.
“Do we really have to test them all?”
“We have to compare the results with the previous recordings and document everything.”
“It feels like I’m making a porn video. It’s so annoying.”
“You’re making this even weirder for me.”
[Shouldn’t we start with an interview?]
‘Just shut up. Where did you even learn about that?’
Two hours until the professors’ meeting.
I had gone through 60 Ability Readers.
It was originally 53, but the research students had created seven more while we were testing.
But effort doesn’t always yield results.
Every single result was the same: “Unable to identify ability.”
As soon as the last reader finished analyzing me, the research students shuffled back to their lab.
We were still at a dead end.
Professor Pil-yong hurriedly copied all the recordings onto a USB drive.
After confirming that everything was copied, we left for the professors’ meeting.
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A large table.
Surrounded by countless professors.
Seeing this scene made me realize that this was indeed the professors’ meeting.
“Today’s meeting has an additional agenda item, as previously announced.”
The elderly female professor sitting at the head of the table spoke, silencing the room.
I took the opportunity to look around.
There were a lot of professors.
Some were even standing because there weren’t enough seats.
[Are all of them truly professors?]
‘There are a lot of them, right?’
“Professor, are there really this many professors in the academy?”
“No, almost all the staff members are here too.”
“Do we get snacks for attending? What kind of snacks are they serving?”
“You’re the reason we’re all here! You!”
The elderly female professor spoke again,
“Today’s additional agenda item is the discussion of disciplinary action for Kim Shinwoo, a first-year Iron-tier student.”
“Death penalty! Death penalty! Death penalty!”
A sudden demand for the death penalty.
I looked for the source of the voice.
It was Professor Yoon Hwa-ran, her eyes bloodshot, shouting at the top of her lungs.
Anyone would have thought she was facing her parents’ murderer.
[…Pathetic.]
‘That goddamn gold miss.’
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