Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 54

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (54)

Proposal and Proposal

“Ah, no. What is this all of a sudden….”

Professor Hong Yong-jin’s mouth fell open in shock.

Well, it was understandable that he’d be surprised. After taking a perfectly fine artifact, I had suddenly smashed it to pieces.

But Lee Si-hyeok had a plan for everything, so he waited a moment for Professor Hong Yong-jin to regain his composure.

A moment later, he spoke in a sunken voice.

“…Are you trying to make a fool of me?”

He seemed quite angry. Lee Si-hyeok bowed his head slightly and picked up the fallen artifact again.

“I apologize for acting so suddenly. However, it was a necessary process.”

“Ha! Necessary? Breaking a perfectly good artifact to pieces was necessary!?”

“Yes. Because I still have one more thing to show you, Professor.”

“One more…?”

Only then did something occur to Hong Yong-jin.

The test wasn’t over yet.

The process of pointing out the wrong parts hadn’t even begun yet.

He had momentarily forgotten due to the series of unexpected events.

“Do you remember now?”

“Ahem. Sorry about that. I was surprised without realizing it.”

Professor Hong Yong-jin slumped into his chair.

“But still, what’s the connection between pointing out mistakes in a book and splitting a perfectly good artifact in half? You’d better explain properly.”

If I couldn’t explain properly, it would just be an insult to the professor. Keeping this fact in mind, Lee Si-hyeok placed the Emberice he had just picked up on the work table.

The Emberice was now in the form of Ember/Ice.

“What I found wrong in your book, Professor, is just one thing. But that one thing occupies such a massive part that it practically negates the entire content of the book.”

Professor Hong Yong-jin tilted his head.

“Namely, the very theme of the book itself.”

“The theme itself…?”

[Artifacts achieve maximum efficiency when the constituent materials and the user’s magical attributes are identical.]

Lee Si-hyeok wrote large letters on the whiteboard in one corner of the research lab. It was to increase immersion a bit more.

“Of course, I know this isn’t a theory you discovered first, Professor. I also know this book is closer to educational material meant to explain that theory in more detail.”

He put down the pen with a tap and returned to the research table.

“So I hope you’ll understand that what I’m about to say is not meant to insult you, Professor.”

“You’re being unnecessarily polite. It doesn’t matter. Even if it were a theory I discovered, what would be the problem if it’s a valid criticism?”

“Thank you. You’re quite generous in this regard too, Professor.”

“…Cheeky brat.”

Professor Hong Yong-jin clicked his tongue.

Lee Si-hyeok picked up each half of the artifact that had been split into Ember/Ice in his hands.

“Anyway, you probably already know the principle of the existing theory.”

In magical engineering, there exists something called ‘waves.’

The materials that compose artifacts have their own unique waves, and the mana dwelling in an awakened person’s body also possesses unique waves.

And when a hunter uses an artifact, those two waves collide with each other inside the artifact.

“At this time, if the attributes of the two waves are identical, the wave flows straight through. This proceeds in a very stable form.”

After pausing briefly, Lee Si-hyeok held up two fingers and crossed them.

“But what if they’re opposite? An artifact made from fire attribute materials, but the user possesses ice attribute mana. What happens then?”

“…Interference waves are formed.”

“Correct. Interference waves. The two waves interfere with each other and are reborn as completely new forms of waves.”

The interference waves born this way are one of two things.

Either the wave frequencies of the two interference waves mesh together, amplifying and amplifying the power until it explosively increases the output.

Or the wave frequencies become misaligned, causing the power to weaken tremendously in reverse, with even stability plummeting into the negatives.

“So if we could just match these wave frequencies, we could tremendously increase the power of attribute-type artifacts. To a degree incomparable to now.”

“But….”

“Yes. The problem is that it’s impossible. In fact, the book states ‘tuning the wave frequencies of interference waves is impossible.’ This wouldn’t have been a conclusion reached lightly. Right, Professor?”

Professor Hong Yong-jin nodded.

“I experimented at least ten times before reaching that conclusion. Well, I wasn’t the only one experimenting, so if we expand the scope, it would be much more.”

This was probably also why this book wasn’t particularly popular despite being published by Professor Hong Yong-jin.

To use an analogy, it was like people not bothering to buy a book explaining why 1+1 equals 2.

One could research and publish a book on that topic, but it was natural that it wouldn’t receive interest because it was such a basic principle.

“But you know, Professor.”

However, magical engineering is different from mathematics.

Someone can deny an area that has already been established as common sense.

“Just because it hasn’t succeeded so far doesn’t necessarily mean it’s impossible, does it?”

“…?”

“I mean, that’s right, isn’t it? Even if we’ve failed hundreds or thousands of times so far, if we just keep succeeding from now on. Then it’s no longer in the realm of impossibility, but in the realm of possibility.”

Professor Hong Yong-jin’s eyes widened as if they might tear as he belatedly understood.

‘No way.’

He had no choice but to doubt his own ears. If he hadn’t misheard, this guy was now trying to completely deny the very common sense that ‘1+1=2.’

At first, when he said he’d correct the wrong parts, I thought he’d just point out minor details, but what on earth was this about?

“The method is simple.”

Lee Si-hyeok looked at Professor Hong Yong-jin’s bewildered expression and picked up a mana conduction panel that had been organized on one side of the work table.

It was one of the supplies he had brought earlier and saved for this moment.

“We insert a new medium between the two interference waves.”

“A medium?”

“Until now, existing researchers probably focused only on directly tuning the two waves. The experimental process written in your book, Professor, followed a similar flow.”

He combined the panel between the halved Emberice. The activated skill assisted his movements.

“But that’s, um… no different from trying to forcibly match sounds of different pitches. Even persuading the finicky interference waves wouldn’t be enough, yet trying to forcibly tune them. Does this even make sense?”

It was the moment the panel was completely combined.

Crackle! Electricity sparked for an instant, and the mana circuit that had been split in half suddenly began delivering mana to the opposite side using the panel as a medium.

Ice and fire. Despite being opposite attributes, they were moving freely.

“Th-this is…?!”

He added to the shocked Professor Hong Yong-jin.

“Originally, according to your design, Professor, the central parts of the Emberice were separated from each other. The intention was probably to contain both attributes in one artifact while preventing them from colliding with each other.”

“That was actually a mistake…?”

“Well, something like that. This is an attribute difference within one artifact, but even with single-attribute artifacts, if we just apply the medium properly, users with opposite mana could use them freely too.”

If that happened, the power would increase ridiculously compared to existing same-attribute designs.

It meant abandoning stable structures and adopting more complex methods to maximize performance.

Of course, this wasn’t the end.

Wave reassembly method. Unlike existing researchers who tried to handle interference waves as a whole, Lee Si-hyeok chose a method of breaking them down into fine pieces for tuning, further improving even stability.

‘In Orbes, this level was basic.’

What he was presenting to Professor Hong Yong-jin now were all ideas obtained from analyzing the artifacts of Orbes that had been stored in 『Subspace』.

Seeing the professor’s continuous amazement, he realized anew that Orbes had been a world beyond worlds.

“Huh, huhhh….”

Meanwhile, Hong Yong-jin couldn’t figure out how to react anymore.

Shock? He’d had enough of that.

Impact? He’d received plenty.

Yet his pounding heart still wouldn’t calm down.

‘Why on earth couldn’t I think of this?’

Surprisingly, Lee Si-hyeok’s idea was a very simple and straightforward method.

So much so that one wondered why so many researchers had missed it until now.

After pondering for a long while, Hong Yong-jin was finally able to realize the reason.

‘…This can’t be done with ordinary skill.’

That guy had pulled it off right before his eyes, but when Hong Yong-jin had just tried it himself, he failed – it required such incredible detail.

The theory itself was simple, but applying it was insanely difficult.

That crazy bastard had just proven ‘1+1=999,999,999…’ through pure skill alone.

‘Choi Hyeok, was it?’

Unlike the documents sent from the Association, he was far from ordinary. From the way he spoke, something seemed off, and the confidence he’d shown so far, along with those extraordinary eyes.

How could he not acknowledge this level of ability?

No matter how badly their first impression had started, having seen this directly, even his blind hostility had nearly faded away.

Now his awe as an engineer had grown even greater.

“…I acknowledge it.”

Hong Yong-jin said with subdued eyes.

“There was nothing wrong with what you said. Then I must have made a hasty judgment.”

Then he extended his hand.

“I’m sorry for treating you rudely.”

“Not at all, it’s nothing.”

Lee Si-hyeok clasped his hand and gave him a slight smile.

Indeed, that eccentric and fiery way of speaking was probably Professor Hong Yong-jin’s original personality. After all, he’d always been like that in the interviews and lecture programs he used to watch.

Rather, seeing him bow his head like this now felt incredibly unexpected.

“So let me make a proposal as an apology.”

But then he began showing even more unexpected behavior.

“A proposal?”

“Yes. Originally, I was supposed to participate in this seminar with my team members. There are four of them excluding me. But their reactions are quite suspicious.”

Professor Hong Yong-jin chuckled.

“They all asked if I couldn’t just go without them.”

“…Excuse me?”

His explanation went like this.

The research team Professor Hong Yong-jin led belonged to the Association, and since the Association was a government agency running all kinds of projects simultaneously, every day was insanely busy.

But if they participated in the seminar here, not only would their work double, but their existing projects would pile up, creating a disaster, so everyone seemed to want out.

‘Well, even so, that’s a bit much.’

To give up even a seminar that would be like a dream to him. Just how difficult was the workload of civil servants?

“And then you appeared.”

“So that means…”

“I’m thinking of letting the other guys rest as they want and just taking you along.”

“Huh.”

The plan itself seemed to be flowing successfully, which was satisfying.

But completely unexpected words came out, making him flustered.

‘He wants to participate in the seminar with just the two of us?’

Thinking about it, it wasn’t such a bad proposal.

Since he was hiding his identity, getting involved with other team members would have made him worry about how to act, but this would perfectly solve that problem.

Plus, as an outsider, he would naturally be treated as a thorn in their side.

But he hesitated to accept it immediately.

After pondering for a moment, Lee Si-hyeok finally thought of one method.

“Before I accept your proposal, Professor, I also have something to propose.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“I understand that you once worked at Eterion Magical Engineering Institute here for a long period.”

“That’s right. It’s been a few years since I left, but I worked there for over 10 years.”

“So what I’m saying is, if some incident occurs at Eterion in the future, could you unconditionally take my side?”

“…An incident?”

He made a perplexed expression.

However, nothing was more important to Lee Si-hyeok right now.

The disappearance incident that had occurred at Eterion in the past. He would be investigating that incident he’d seen in the internal classified records, and from then on, there was a high possibility of clashing with people from Eterion’s side.

If Professor Hong Yong-jin, who had worked as a trusted professor at Eterion for a long period, supported him at that moment, it would be of tremendous help.

“Don’t tell me you’re planning terrorism or something?”

“Absolutely not. Anyway, it’s a bit difficult to explain right now…”

“Well, I’ll have to see when the time comes. At least I won’t kick you out.”

So he’d listen to the reason and then judge?

Lee Si-hyeok wasn’t certain yet what kind of situation would arise, but even that level of answer was quite satisfactory. This much wouldn’t be a losing deal at all.

“Then my proposal seems to have been accepted too. You, do you have anything else you need to do today? Like a schedule or something?”

“A schedule? No, nothing in particular.”

“Oh ho, perfect.”

Professor Hong Yong-jin ran his hand through his thinning hair.

“Those things you mentioned earlier, you know. Interference Wave Tuning, mediums, and such. We need to record all of that.”

“…?”

“Follow me right now. We need to start before it evaporates.”

“Wait, hold on. Why suddenly…”

“Don’t you get it yet?”

“Get what?”

“You’re part of my research team for the time being.”

The way he looked at Lee Si-hyeok somehow closely resembled the way a professor looks at a graduate student.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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