Chapter 25 – Put to the Test (11)

‘Writing the answer sheet to slightly touch the intermediate level. That is what they want.’

Imitating an immature beginner magic engineer who had completely mastered the beginner level but had not yet crossed over to the intermediate level. That was the level of the answer I chose.

Making such a choice was not based on some vague feeling. Having looked through all the sections from multiple-choice to descriptive, the setter’s intention was too transparent in my eyes.

‘This exam is not for screening beginners. It is to pick out talents who are capable of reaching intermediate level early, before they grow old.’

Inferring the purpose based on my impressions of the exam, the answers to write were as good as decided… Should I call them killer questions? The few multiple-choice questions whose intentions were hidden almost unpleasantly, and the descriptive questions that induced answers according to different realms, were saying just that.

In short, the optimal answer to satisfy the setter was to show even a slight potential of reaching the intermediate level.

Therefore, it did not matter if the answer was incomplete. Since the official difficulty of the exam was announced as beginner. If the logic at the beginner level was developed perfectly, even if the subsequent intermediate logic was incorrect, it would not be a reason for deduction.

Rather, just for writing it, they would likely grade generously, claiming they had discovered a talent perfectly matching their intentions.

‘Good. The answer level will be about that much.’

The level of the answer to be written was decided. However, there was one more problem to consider.

‘If I adjust the level of the answer, there is a possibility that I might lose to the boy…’

To write a higher-level answer would expose my true skill, but writing it to match the limit leaves me without confidence that I will beat the boy.

Looking only at the realm, I, who am intermediate-advanced, am naturally higher, but this is a dilemma arising from the situation where the limit of the answer is set below the intermediate level for various reasons.

Because I had to win and make the boy on my side, I could not stake a match on something I lacked confidence in.

It was at the moment when my contemplation grew long.

‘…The theme. Yes, the theme.’

I came up with a brilliant idea.

Why was I obsessed with the prejudice that I had to write a model answer based on public texts? I could keep the textbook answer while writing it with a theme from a new perspective.

Even knowledge that had been accepted as truth for a long time is not always correct. Sometimes a new technology that breaks free from the existing framework wins.

Efficiency is equivalent to innovation, and that is precisely what is called a game-changer.

‘Though I don’t know well, the Core Battery developed by Bexel must be something like that.’

The magic engineers grading the answers would also want to see a new answer with potential, even if incomplete, rather than something that would be in public texts.

Needless to say, if that answer even had feasibility.

‘The position registration technique of the compass, should I write based on that?’

Thus, I began to unfold a new theme.

By the time I finished writing the answers.

‘The beginner logic is perfect. The parts where intermediate logic enters are well-left with gaps here and there.’

I could guarantee victory.

That new theme was an innovative technique that even I, an intermediate-advanced person, would consider too wasteful to write as an answer just to win a bet.

* * *

“Examinees, thank you for your hard work. With this, we announce the end of the Beginner Magic Engineer Qualification Exam. There will be guidance regarding the release of grades and the issuance of licenses afterward, so please remain seated and wait.”

The exam ended not long after I finished writing the answer sheet. Because my contemplation was long, time had been tight.

Perhaps having seen me writing the answer sheet until the end, the boy spoke.

“The same for you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why pretend we don’t know between ourselves? Did you control your power? Your power.”

Should I call it an outstanding brain, or the tact and caution that come from experience?

I was surprised by the boy who instantly saw through the reason why I was writing the answer sheet until the end, but I thought it was perhaps only natural.

‘Actually, during the second checkpoint as well, I only recognized it because my realm was high; this guy was cleverly hiding his realm back then too.’

Although I hadn’t heard it directly, he was a boy who must have had a past of being exploited due to his already outstanding talent and skills. To such a person, caution and thoroughness would be basic virtues.

In a world where one is an idiot to fall for the same trick twice, there was no way a genius like the boy would repeat the same mistake.

“Well… I did it moderately. Though it was hard to adjust it just enough to beat you for sure.”

This was a clear fact. Keeping it from crossing the intermediate level while still beating the boy was equivalent to capturing a tiger barehanded.

At that, the boy spoke.

“I’m glad you didn’t forget the bet. I also strove to verify you properly.”

Should the last sentence be seen as the boy’s intention?

Saying he strove to verify me rather than saying he strove to win the bet could be viewed, in other words, as the boy’s wish for me to please create a justification for him to join me.

If that was the case, he probably made up his mind firmly from the conversation about magic engineering we shared throughout the night.

‘He has a sense of loyalty.’

In fact, despite extreme fatigue, I had lost sleep to answer all the boy’s questions. That returns now as a reward like this.

The boy had merely put it in that single phrase, in that nuance, but I was not ignorant of him expressing his gratitude toward me so shyly and clumsily.

Smiling at his commendableness, I spoke.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not the only one who has to prove himself. You must also prove yourself to me. With the result of second place.”

“Seriously… You don’t look like it, but the more I look at you, the more narrow-minded side you have. You subtly get back at me, don’t you?”

When I replied in kind to the boy’s clumsy expression of feelings, he chuckled and brushed it off. He had also read the goodwill contained between the lines of my words.

It became clear through this conversation.

‘The boy wants to follow me.’

Though we spoke like this, the result, whether first place or second place, no longer seemed important.

However, the boy’s subsequent words were without concealment.

“But I guess a genius is indeed a genius. Seeing how we understand each other without having to say it. Although it might be the same for you, it is my first time meeting someone whose level matches mine too.”

“…Is that so?”

I felt self-conscious at those words. Unlike what the boy thought, I was not a genius as a magic engineer, but could be extraordinary thanks to the game .

Above all, although I, whose true identity was a leader, was confident that no one could match me, a ‘made genius’ through hundreds of playthroughs at least in , I could not bring myself to think that way now that it had become reality.

‘Demian Vail, Jeremy Scott, Herman Melville, the Arcadius family…’

They were individuals I had no choice but to keep mentioning. I did not have the slightest thought that I would lag behind them, but neither did I think they were absolutely inferior to me.

Of course, if we go to the end, I will stand above them, but they are undoubtedly great people as well. The same goes for the boy.

Furthermore, Jan Casselos, an unknown figure for now.

‘Just what kind of person is that guy?’

Jan Casselos, the leader of our Ember. It was hard to make a judgment rashly since I had never experienced the man directly, but he would likely be a formidable figure. The very fact that he was in an adversarial relationship with Demian Vail could serve as a yardstick to measure his level.

However, it did not make sense in common sense that our Ember could not escape a population of a thousand despite having two such capable individuals.

‘There is something I don’t know, definitely…’

There is a mountain of work to do upon returning. I must grasp Jan Casselos, and also find a justification to drag him down and a justification for me to become the leader.

If there is none, I will have to make one.

But there is no worry. No matter how great Jan is, I am the guy who used those great guys as my hands and feet. The political power that made everyone in the city bow down had not lost its touch even though it became reality. No, it actually felt even sharper as it became reality.

Saying so was not merely due to my mood.

‘I can feel everything minor around me. Should I call this kind of thing sensory awareness…?’

The other person’s rough breathing, the trembling of their pupils, the accelerating heartbeat, the subtle changes in the pitch of their voice… All those biological signals according to emotional changes seemed to be collected by me.

I don’t even know how many times I have already gained advantage in psychological warfare through that.

However, this could not be called an ability I completely possessed originally.

‘For whatever reason, my senses feel sharpened… no, they have definitely become sensitive.’

It transcended simply ‘capturing’ the other person’s change. Noticing such minor changes was not in the realm of ‘talent,’ but rather in the realm of ‘omnipotence.’

It was certainly strange. It meant my body was exceeding the human limit. But I myself could not know how that was possible. I could only think of it as a gift the game developer Snowstorm gave me, or a possession privilege.

‘Anyway, it’s a good thing that there are more things to use. No need to think deeply.’

Whatever the reason, I will naturally find out as time passes.

Seeking ways to utilize it is a hundred or a thousand times more beneficial than spending time contemplating. In that sense, since this situation where the boy misunderstood me as a peer would only benefit me and had no reason to be a loss,

“How great of a person could there be next to yellow-hairs like us? The same goes for me.”

I replied, acting like a great genius once again.

There was no sense of disparity in that voice and expression. Since was played with voice recognition, I was someone who had mastered all kinds of roleplays. The absurd speed of adaptation and manner of speech shown after possession could also be seen as part of that.

Soon, as if the answer sheets and exam papers were all gathered, Bexel, who had entered the testing room at some point, tapped the podium to draw attention.

“The report card release date will be announced via bulletin board exactly one week from today, and the license issuance will be distributed in order of grades starting the day after.”

I ruminated on Bexel’s words that the report cards would be on the bulletin board in front of the Department of Magic Engineering building, and the issuance would be at the Administrative Processing Department building located at No. 1, 2nd Street.

When told to look at the back of the numbered exam slip, I peeled it off to check, and all the guidelines were listed. I folded the exam slip neatly and put it in my inner pocket. Because the exam slip must be brought along to receive the license.

I listened carefully to Bexel’s subsequent words.

“Even if you miss the report card release date, please make absolutely sure not to be late on the license issuance day. For crime prevention, receipt by proxy other than the person themselves is absolutely impossible, and since it can only be issued on that single day, the successful candidates must not separate from the escorts we send the day before.”

Why is there so much to do and not to do? I simply cannot understand the administrative processing style of the first Ember.

Moreover, why do they make a one-day difference between the report card release date and the issuance day, and what do they send the escorts for? I could only think of it as a waste of administrative power.

However, whether the Immortal Ember wastes manpower or not is none of my business.

It is not my city.

‘The important thing is what I do during the one-week gap…’

What I need to care about now is how to utilize the remaining eight days until the issuance day.

Whether establishing relations with figures who will be helpful later like merchants or businessmen, or co-opting talented wanderers who roam the Ember without affiliation like the boy.

As the time I spent away from our Ember grows longer, I must return with achievements beyond that. Only then will there be no problem in my plan to become the leader.

However, becoming the leader is not even a problem. That is something I must naturally do. The real problem is that I must bring forward the day of ascending to leadership even by a single day.

However, now that the exam has ended, marking the end of the scheduled events, the first thing to be handled was already decided.

‘Should I go meet the leadership… Heimdall?’

Returning the compass was exactly that.