I got into school for nothing - Chapter 113
I got into school for nothing (113)
Lesson 24. What Kind of Freshman Are You? - 1
Why had Ban Yuwon left the treasure chest untouched?
This was due to a somewhat whimsical idea, as he was wondering if he could somehow change the color of the chest.
During the previous second exploration, he had obtained a treasure chest in Room 10 (it was wooden with a gold band), but at that time, the chest had opened before Ban Yuwon could properly examine the concept of the treasure chest, making any attempt impossible.
The chest was structured to open the moment it was touched.
There was only one chance.
“This time, can I open it?”
“Sorry, there’s something I want to try.”
Light, who had been staring at the chest with sparkling eyes, dejectedly stepped back.
Leaving Light behind, what Ban Yuwon pulled out was none other than—
“Oof!”
“What?!”
A massive quantity of gold.
Dozens of pure gold bars, each worth 7.53 million Ronias!
“What, what?! Where did you get this much gold?!”
“My Grandfather Ban gave it to me when I came to the academy.”
“Again, again with your grandfather’s stories...!”
At the sight of Ban Yuwon’s particularly innocent smile when speaking of his grandfather, Rucell once again flared with an unwarranted sense of rivalry.
However, Dokgo Yeon nodded, seemingly convinced.
“Just as I thought. I suspected you weren’t from an ordinary family, but to be carrying such a large quantity of state-certified gold bars...”
“Ah, so Ban... no, wait, was Ban royalty?”
“No wonder...!”
Light, unnecessarily excited by Dokgo Yeon’s words, rushed forward, while Rucell, a moment later, clapped her hands and agreed with Dokgo Yeon.
Ban Yuwon, who recalled having mentioned his life on Earth several times before, was dumbfounded by his companions’ exaggerated reactions.
“You guys really don’t listen to me... I told you I was an ordinary person!”
“No ordinary person carries that much gold, in any dimension.”
“That’s true,” Ban Yuwon immediately conceded.
He had taken out the gold to experiment with the treasure chest, yet his party members seemed more curious about Ban Yuwon himself for possessing such a large quantity of gold than about the gold itself.
He had already heard a fair amount about Rucell and Light’s family situations, and pretending ignorance now felt odd, so he decided to briefly explain his own family history, omitting any mention of the Tower of Babel.
“My Grandfather Ban told me our family used to hold the position of rulers in the distant past. Even before I awakened my mana here, I had a special ability, and many of our ancestors also possessed powers, so it seems we accumulated wealth over generations.”
“To be selected for Union Academy’s Special Admissions for Lower-Rank Dimensions from a dimension without mana, I surmised you weren’t simply a mutant, but...”
“Indeed, the descendant of a forgotten royal family...”
Ban Yuwon tilted his head, perplexed by Light’s strangely grinning mumble.
“Light, why do you keep trying to make me royalty?”
“Uh? That, that, well...”
It was an offhand remark, but Light visibly panicked.
Surely this guy isn’t thinking something obnoxious like, “Since I’m royalty, my friend must be royalty too,” right?
“Anyway! What are you going to do with that gold and the treasure chest? Are you offering it as a tribute?”
Sweating profusely and avoiding his gaze, Light overtly changed the subject.
Ban Yuwon had no choice but to humor him.
“They say treasure chests appearing in the Tower have four patterns: wood, copper, silver, and gold. So, I thought, if I could change the material of the chest with my ability, maybe the contents would change too.”
“That’s a truly preposterous idea.”
Dokgo Yeon replied, flabbergasted.
“The contents would be determined the moment the treasure chest appears. Changing the material of the chest is already absurd, but even if you succeeded, I believe there’s no chance the contents would change.”
“Well, it’s a good opportunity to test my Authority in many ways, and... there’s nothing to lose, right?”
“You’d be losing gold...?”
Light said, startled, but Ban Yuwon, who had been waiting for that very remark, replied with a knowing smile.
“Do you know how much our channel earned this month?”
“How much?”
“Sixty million Ronias.”
“...?”
“?”
“?!”
One Ronias held a value equivalent to 100 Korean Won.
In other words, 60 million Ronias was 6 billion Korean Won.
Moreover, this was the profit from a period that hadn’t even fully reached a month, and the earnings were bound to increase further as more videos were uploaded.
“No, how...?”
“Well, the monthly subscriptions and donations from channel members are significant, but it’s mainly advertising revenue.”
While discussing the revenue structure of the platform in front of the trio, who didn’t even know what the internet was, would be too complex, he could make them understand that the influence and benefits a channel held, watched by hundreds of millions of beings connected to countless higher-dimensional entities on the platform, were far from negligible.
Of course, they had all roughly anticipated it, but the final figure presented seemed unreal to them.
The agreement was that half of the channel’s revenue belonged to Ban Yuwon, with the other half divided equally among the three of them—yet, even so, the amount was staggering.
“...Of that, Yuwon’s share is 30 million, and my share is 10 million... Combined, that’s 40 million.”
“Why are you combining those, Rucell?”
“Power, power... if it’s this great, *gurgle*, even a ‘pack’ of over ten... *grrrr*...”
“Rucell?!”
Rucell was broken.
He had known that Rucell always reacted candidly to talk of money.
Not that she was crazy about money, but more precisely, it felt like she viewed Yuwon’s ability to earn money in a very positive light.
...Though she tended to interpret it far too simplistically.
“Dokgo Yeon, please calm Rucell down while I work.”
“Understood. ...If the profits are truly that substantial, then using a few gold bars for an ability test seems acceptable.”
“Yeah... it’d be fortunate if it only took a few. I’ll give it a try for now.”
Again, the price of a 1-kilogram gold bar, after various fees and taxes were deducted by Union, was 7.53 million Ronias.
Four gold bars were equivalent to the profit Ban Yuwon earned from the Rebellion channel in one month.
Of course, this was due to the abnormally high value of gold in Union, but...
‘Still, I can’t stand not knowing, so there’s no helping it.’
Ban Yuwon steeled himself and extended his hand.
Cellon, which had been in his inventory, naturally sprang out and was caught in his hand.
“What are you going to do? I’m exhausted from that earlier, I want to rest a bit.”
“It won’t be as flashy as before.”
Ban Yuwon took repeated deep breaths, reviewing the process.
First, he would manifest the concept of ‘Stop’ with his Language Magic, preventing the treasure chest from opening even if his hand touched it.
He was sure it would stop the treasure chest’s movement, but its duration likely wouldn’t be very long.
Therefore, he had to complete the task somehow before the duration expired.
‘Analyze the structure of the treasure chest, and instantaneously swap the copper and gold that comprise it. Simple.’
With the power of the Authority he had seen, experienced, and wielded until now, it was undoubtedly possible.
All that remained was to put it into action.
He drew the concept of ‘Stop’ in the air with his staff, then floated Cellon into the air.
Cellon would condense the staff’s Hyungi and activate his Language Magic in his stead.
“In all my life, you’re the first one to try and tamper with the Tower’s reward. How did you know its contents weren’t fixed?”
There were several points he wanted to argue.
Firstly, Cellon wasn’t even alive, and how did it know about the Tower’s rewards?!
“Because I’m an Archmage, of course.”
‘Ah, right... I just guessed, but the chest is set to open the moment you touch it, isn’t it? I wondered if there was really a need for that... and it just occurred to me that maybe the contents aren’t determined until the chest opens.’
It would be a lie to say he hadn’t referenced the famous Schrödinger’s thought experiment.
Could it be that the chest was firmly closed to maintain its internal independence, its variability?
Perhaps the saying, “it exists the moment it is observed,” was most applicable to the contents of that chest.
“It truly is an interesting world, isn’t it...? Did your ability to think just grow unnecessarily because there’s no need to fight? Anyway, alright. Ready?”
‘Okay, I’m ready.’
Ban Yuwon extended one hand towards the pile of gold, ready to extract concepts at any moment.
The concept of ‘Gold’ resided precisely at a depth of 10 within each 1-kilogram gold bar.
Ban Yuwon swallowed hard, then placed his other hand on top of the treasure chest—
“Now!”
“Stop!”
—he placed it.
The chest did not open immediately!
But at the same time, he felt it rattling wildly, struggling to open, forcing Ban Yuwon to yell at Cellon to pour in as much mana as possible.
‘Analyze, analyze... Got it!’
Treasure Chest 200 [Copper Chest Gold Band 100, Seal 100, Stop 42]
Ban Yuwon instantly understood and assimilated the concepts forming the treasure chest.
A total depth of 200.
Copper Chest, meaning a chest made of copper; Gold Band, meaning a band made of gold; and Seal, the concept that prevented the chest from opening with an equal depth to the others.
These were likely the original concepts that formed the treasure chest, but now, a temporarily applied ‘Stop’ concept was preventing the chest’s movement.
[Stop 40]
[Stop 39]
Such was the intensity of the backlash that the ‘Stop’ concept was rapidly diminishing even at this very moment.
No time to dawdle! Ban Yuwon quickly separated only the concept of ‘Copper’ from the Copper Chest Gold Band.
[Stop 37]
[Stop 36]
[Copper 30]
‘30! This much should be enough!’
He extracted ‘Gold’ with a depth of 30 from three gold bars.
Fortunately, ‘Gold,’ unlike concepts such as ‘Body’ or ‘Soul,’ did not diminish when stacked, so the combined ‘Gold’ extracted from three gold bars still had a depth of 30.
He immediately inserted it into the place where ‘Copper’ had been!
[Stop 34]
[Stop 33]
‘If I had ‘Changeling,’ this would be so much easier!’
However, the swapping operation itself proceeded surprisingly smoothly.
The concept of ‘Copper’ was a core component of the chest, and if its vacated spot wasn’t filled by something else, the chest itself would collapse. Thus, it eagerly accepted the concept of ‘Gold’ that Ban Yuwon injected.
The problem lay in the result of the synthesis that occurred.
Treasure Chest 200 [Gold Chest Gold Band 80, Seal 100, Stop 31]
Treasure Chest 200 [Gold Chest Gold Band 80, Seal 100, Stop 30]
‘What is this? It’s not reaching 100... and the chest isn’t even turning gold.’
Ban Yuwon instinctively knew he had made a mistake.
Perhaps ‘Copper Chest Gold Band’ and ‘Gold Chest Gold Band’ were fundamentally different in the ‘components’ that constituted their concepts.
Because he had forcibly tried to change it, the concept’s depth itself had decreased.
And since this treasure chest was a concept that required a depth of 200 to be complete, it couldn’t be opened in its current state of 180 (Gold Chest Gold Band + Seal).
[Stop 27]
[Stop 26]
What if the ‘Stop’ effect expired like this? There was even a possibility that the chest would simply collapse.
So, what was the solution? Only one.
Quantity.
‘Yes, the direction was right. I was just too complacent.’
To claim he would personally create the highest-grade reward obtainable in Eden, and then try to finish it with just three gold bars? He truly had no conscience.
Ban Yuwon firmly resolved himself and began extracting concepts from the pile of gold bars, injecting them directly into the chest.
Treasure Chest 200 [Gold Chest Gold Band 82, Seal 100, Stop 23]
Treasure Chest 200 [Gold Chest Gold Band 84, Seal 100, Stop 22]
He had to somehow get the ‘Gold Chest Gold Band’ concept to 100 before the ‘Stop’ concept completely vanished!
He saw the pile of gold bars rapidly dwindling, and he heard Rucell and Light’s screams, but he ignored them all for now!
He had piled them up like a mountain from the start, precisely because he had considered this possibility!
Treasure Chest 200 [Gold Chest Gold Band 91, Seal 100, Stop 13]
Treasure Chest 200 [Gold Chest Gold Band 92, Seal 100, Stop 12]
‘I knew this would happen!’
While ‘Gold’ was clearly a concept where depth and mass corresponded, ‘Gold Chest Gold Band’ was not!
Earlier, when he absorbed the same amount of gold, the depth increased by 2, but now it was only increasing by 1!
At this rate, ‘Stop’ would really wear off before the concept was complete.
Ban Yuwon frantically signaled Cellon, strengthening his Language Magic, and transferred the depth of ‘Gold’ at the fastest possible speed!
[Stop 7]
[Stop 6]
[Stop 5]
A little faster.
Faster!
[Stop 4]
[Stop 3]
‘Done!’
Treasure Chest 200 [Gold Chest Gold Band 100, Seal 100, Stop 1]
The moment the depth reached 100, the treasure chest transformed into a shimmering gold material, as if it had been that way from the start.
The grace period until its disappearance was a mere 1.
He realized there was a good reason why, in movies, timed bombs always seemed to stop just one second before exploding.
Those bastards too, surely started leisurely thinking, ‘Oh, isn’t there plenty of time?’ then slacked off, only to panic when the countdown began and finish the job with superhuman speed.
“It’s really a gold chest...”
“Whew.”
“Ah, aaahhh.”
“The gold...”
Beside Ban Yuwon, who now understood the hearts of movie protagonists, Light and Rucell sighed in lament.
This was because half of the gold bar pile had vanished.
“There were originally 53, and 29 of them disappeared.”
“You have good eyes, Rucell.”
“You said each was 7.53 million Ronias, so 218.37 million Ronias...!”
“Our Rucell, she’s good at math too.”
“Leave the household accounts to me! ...Ah, that’s not the point!”
Though he had effectively squandered an outrageous amount of wealth, Ban Yuwon had no regrets.
After all, he had created a gold chest.
Perhaps compared to the original gold chests appearing in Eden, the treasure chest’s inherent depth was ridiculously low, but a gold chest was still a gold chest.
“It’s opening.”
“The gold chest!”
Forgetting their tears over the vanished gold, Light and Rucell excitedly rushed forward as they watched the chest open its maw.
Inside were transparent gloves and boots.
Honestly, just by their appearance, it was enough to make one wonder if Ban Yuwon had meddled with the treasure chest for nothing, turning the reward into trash.
“...?”
“Oooh, this... it’s unappraised!”
Of course.
Ban Yuwon chuckled softly and first reached out to the glove.
At that moment, the glove crackled, sparking as it rejected him.
“Huh...”
“Wow, Ban was rejected?”
“Ban Yuwon?!”
“...How dare a mere glove.”
Seeing Rucell momentarily adopt a fierce expression and extend her claws, Ban Yuwon desperately stopped her.
“Don’t get angry at it, Rucell. This is yours.”
“Mine?”
At the unexpected words, Rucell blinked, seemingly bewildered.
But Ban Yuwon was certain.
Because, even if for only a moment, among the concepts he had read from the glove was ‘Wildness.’
“Besides that, I also glimpsed ‘Growth,’ ‘Assimilation,’ and ‘Thunder Beast.’ ...If I’m right, this is a growth-type armament.”
“A growth-type armament...”
“It’s an ancient artifact!”
No, he didn’t know if such artifacts existed in ancient times or not.
However, the fact that an artifact’s performance could be enhanced by directly imbuing it with the concept of ‘Growth,’ without granting it ‘Life’ as Ban Yuwon did, was a highly intriguing aspect.
“This... for me?”
“I told you, it’s for no one but you. Dokgo Yeon, you’re fine with this, right?”
“I do not rely on external objects. If it is a beast’s share, I gladly concede it.”
“Me too... Ban was rejected, so I wouldn’t be any different. I’ll yield.”
“Th-then...”
With everyone’s consent, Rucell cautiously reached out to the glove.
The glove did not reject her touch.
On the contrary, Rucell kept nodding in admiration, as if some information window had appeared only before her eyes.
She hesitated no longer, putting the gloves on both her hands, and after removing her shoes and socks, she even put the boots on both her feet.
The next moment, they melted smoothly and were absorbed into her hands and feet.
“Rucell?!”
“It’s alright, Light. This is correct. More importantly, Yuwon, this is amazing. It said it had originally lost all possibilities and remained as a pair of wearable claws for both hands, but thanks to Yuwon, it gained new growth potential.”
“I’m glad there was a result, then.”
In fact, Ban Yuwon had roughly anticipated this.
This was because concepts like ‘Growth’ or ‘Assimilation,’ despite seeming simple, were surprisingly unobtainable elsewhere.
While it was easy to temporarily create them with Language Magic, finding permanent concepts embedded in objects was difficult. This was precisely that kind of concept.
Furthermore, reaching the final concept, ‘Thunder Beast,’ meant the birth of a new type that even Ban Yuwon couldn’t fully comprehend.
In other words, those transparent gloves and boots were a set from the beginning: a thunder beast that assimilated with its user and grew... a bio-weapon.
‘I was already worried about Rucell always fighting bare-handed, but the Tower just happened to give me what I wanted.’
Of course, Rucell’s race naturally fought using their claws, but still, seeing her hands and feet constantly getting injured couldn’t help but tug at his heartstrings.
Now that she had obtained an excellent artifact, he no longer had to worry about that.
“Anyway, if 29 gold bars yielded such a result... it might be worth trying again next time we get a treasure chest.”
“Ah, another video that can absolutely never be uploaded to the channel...”
It was then.
A message from the Tower appeared before Ban Yuwon’s eyes.
“Illegal access to the Tower detected. No penalty will be imposed, in conjunction with a reward for breaching the Tower’s security. The Tower’s reward system security will be strengthened in the future.”
“Oh wow.”
A message that felt like, ‘You discovered and exploited a flaw in the Tower, so you are commended. However, doing so again in the future will not be easy.’
The message seemed to lay bare the Tower's true nature, and Ban Yuwon couldn't help but let out a laugh.
‘Alright, next time, I really need to learn Changeling from Mira.’
And a competitive fire ignited within him.
They were truly two of a kind.
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