Chapter 254: Brown-Eared Bulbul
An underground ruin located beneath the Fairy-Elven Alliance Royal Palace.
Kyung-joon and the the Fairy King arrived at the secret door, which could only be accessed through the the Fairy King’s spatial magic, after descending a long spiral staircase.
“Now, the 『Abyssal Device』 you speak of must be inside here.”
As the the Fairy King spoke, a status window popped up in front of Kyung-joon’s eyes with a ding!
[Emergency Quest (Mythical) 『Secret of the World』 has been activated.]
▶Descendant. You have finally made it here.
“Oh. The status window appeared right away?”
“Really?”
The the Fairy King’s eyes widened in surprise.
“It seems you truly are the descendant.”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
Kyung-joon said so and continued reading the bottom of the status window.
▶A simple test will be given to see if you are worthy of opening this door.
“But it says there will be a test to see if I’m qualified.”
“A test?”
“Yes. Like this.”
Kyung-joon’s eyes widened, and he immediately activated the Dimensional Study Room.
His pupils darted back and forth, as if they were trying to pierce through the status window.
Click. Click, click.
And then Kyung-joon started to solve the problems in the status window at a speed that an ordinary human could not see.
[Submitting answers.]
And it wasn’t long before he solved all the problems.
[Grading in progress.]
▶Score: 71/100
[You have exceeded the eligibility requirement of 70 points.]
[Eligibility confirmed.]
▶A score barely passing 70 points… Descendant, you need to study more.
“Yes, you’re right.”
Kyung-joon nodded his head, acknowledging his shortcomings to the status window left by his predecessor.
Creak.
The tightly closed secret door began to open.
“The door that hasn’t been opened for 700 years by any means… opened so easily……”
The the Fairy King couldn’t hide her surprise.
Of course, this door couldn’t be bypassed by the the Fairy King’s spatial magic or any other tricks.
“But what kind of test did Huma leave behind that you could solve it so quickly?”
“Hmm… Have you ever heard of the AB effect?”
“AB effect?”
“Yes. It’s a question related to the Aharonov-Bohm effect, quantum mechanical effects, Quantum ring, and second quantization…”
Quantum mechanics, the flower of physics.
It was the very quantum mechanics that allowed To** Sta** to leap forward in the game Ea**h Age **.
Kyung-joon had already finished studying it up to the undergraduate level while preparing for the Physics Certification Exam.
“…But this is a problem that is rarely covered in ordinary undergraduate quantum mechanics. It’s covered in more detail in graduate quantum mechanics. But I haven’t studied that far yet. So, I thought I wouldn’t pass, but fortunately, I barely passed with 71 points.”
“Is that so……?”
“Yes, it is.”
Kyung-joon’s explanation, which only he could understand in the World, went over the the Fairy King’s head, but he didn’t care.
Step.
Kyung-joon took a step further inside the open door.
“…Well, let’s go in for now.”
The the Fairy King also tried to flap her wings and follow him in.
However.
[Only those with the Mythical Job 『Infinite Knowledge Seeker』 can enter this space!]
Crackle!
“Ugh?”
The the Fairy King was blocked by a translucent blue mana shield that blocked the entrance.
Kyung-joon was the only one who entered the door.
“Oh……”
Kyung-joon admired the shield that had suddenly appeared outside the door and poked it from the inside.
Crackle.
Whether he poked it weakly and slowly.
Crackle! Crackle!
Or strongly and quickly.
“This feels different from an ordinary shield made of mana……”
His poked finger was as if forced to slow down, converging perfectly to a speed of 0.
“Then how about……”
This time, Kyung-joon tried to break the shield of the door with Vector Calculus’s mana.
Woooong!
He concentrated a considerable amount of mana on the tip of his finger, creating an extremely sharp pressure at the nano-scale.
However.
Crackle!!
The shield blocking the door did not break.
Unlike ordinary shields that simply blocked attacks with a wall of mana, this one was different.
This couldn’t be broken.
It simply couldn’t be passed through.
It was like…
Instead of hitting something when he touched the shield blocking the door, it felt like he was putting his body into a thick liquid that he could never pass through.
“Hmm.”
Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!
Kyung-joon continued to put in mana and strength to try to break through the shield.
Ding!
▶My descendant. You cannot penetrate my repulsive field with your current knowledge of quantum mechanics. Go back and study more.
A status window from his predecessor popped up, telling him to give up.
“Repulsive field? That’s amazing!”
The technology left behind by the Infinite Knowledge Seeker was something that even Kyung-joon couldn’t fully grasp just by looking at it once.
As his predecessor said, he needed more proper study and research.
“the Fairy King-nim. I’m afraid only I can enter from here.”
He had to put it off for now.
There was something else he had to do right now.
“I see. Then I will wait here.”
“Yes, please do.”
Kyung-joon turned his head and looked down.
He could see a deeper cavity than the spiral staircase he had just come down from.
It was so deep that even with the mana illuminating the way, the bottom was not visible and was so black that it was like looking into a black hole.
This was the 『abyss』, deep underground in the Fairy-Elven Alliance, which was mentioned in the quest window.
“Oh, and while we’re at it.”
Scribble, scribble.
Kyung-joon wrote something on the floor with mana.
Thud.
Then, without a moment’s hesitation, he threw himself into the abyss.
The reason for his lack of hesitation?
It was simple.
If he didn’t find anything here.
He was going to die in the next two weeks anyway.
🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷
More than a week had passed since Kyung-joon disappeared in reality.
『Missing Person
(Kyung-joon’s student ID photo)
Personal Information: Lee Kyung-joon (Male, 18 years old)
Date of Disappearance: November 30, 2029
Physical Characteristics: Height 180.9cm, Weight 69.5kg, Thin build, Short, neat hair, Glasses.
Clothing: ……』
During that time, Kyung-joon’s family and the police had been hot on his trail, but they had been unable to find any clues.
It was only natural.
Kyung-joon had asked AngerManagementVodka to make it so.
AngerManagementVodka was the information officer of the Russian mafia, Ruski Komrade.
Erasing traces like this was a very simple task for him.
Of course, Kyung-joon had been connected to the World during that week.
However, since he had connected using a special access device so that his location could not be tracked, it was impossible to pinpoint his whereabouts.
Therefore, if the Kyung-joon Special Management Team tried to monitor Kyung-joon.
[Monitoring Information: Kyung-joon]
▶Current Connection IP Port Location: 154.72.199.38;57836
▶Country: Uganda
▶City: Unknown
This is how it appeared.
“No way, that’s crazy! Uganda? What the hell is Uganda!”
“W, What…?! The connection location has changed!”
“To where!”
“It’s… Goundi, a city in a country called Burkina Faso in Africa!”
“What the hell is Goundi! Is it some kind of rice dish?!”
“H, He’s now connecting from… Barrouallie, a city in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a country in the Caribbean Sea! Ah, ah…! It changed again! He’s now in Eastern Europe…!”
Thwack!
Team Leader Jo hit Kim Bu-ha’s head with a file folder.
“You idiot! Do you think Kyung-joon is teleporting while logging in?! Of course he’s using a VPN! Call the security team and tell them to find out where he’s actually connecting from!”
Team Leader Jo was so dumbfounded that his brain almost exploded.
He knew that Kyung-joon was connected.
After all, his account showed as being logged in.
But he had no idea what kind of access device Kyung-joon was using or where he was connecting from.
“We can’t monitor him like this! Damn it!”
And that wasn’t all.
There was also a direct order from Chairman Yoo’s right-hand man, Secretary Oh.
The order was to track Kyung-joon’s IP address and find out his location as soon as he logged in, but they couldn’t carry it out either.
There was no way Kyung-joon was connecting from unfamiliar countries like Uganda, Burkina Faso, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
So the Kyung-joon Special Management Team was digging around without any clues.
Bang!
Suddenly, the door to the office burst open.
“C, Chairman Yoo?!”
The person who barged into the Kyung-joon Special Management Team was none other than Chairman Yoo Geun-chul, the head of the Seolha Group.
“Excuse me! Secretary Oh!”
“Yes, Team Leader Jo. Please step aside. We’ll take care of it from here.”
“Oh, even Secretary Oh is here…?!”
And his right-hand man, Secretary Oh.
Secretary Oh stepped ahead of Chairman Yoo and strode over to the monitoring computer.
He placed a very sturdy-looking case on the nearby table and quickly opened it after entering the password.
A single USB drive was revealed.
It wasn’t an ordinary USB drive.
As soon as Secretary Oh plugged the USB drive into the monitoring computer’s main body.
[Administrator privileges (Legendary) confirmed.]
Orange status windows began to appear on the monitoring screen in succession.
[Would you like to use the Legendary skill 『World Monitoring』?]
※This skill has three uses. The USB drive will become unusable after use.
“Chairman. I will proceed.”
“Yes! Hurry up and find that punk!”
“Yes, sir.”
After receiving final confirmation from Chairman Yoo, Secretary Oh manipulated the screen.
[Please select the area to monitor.]
Then, a large image of the World continent appeared in the orange status window.
Only the western part was clearly visible, and the eastern part was blurry except for the Tower of Trials, which was the closest.
Secretary Oh zoomed in on the screen so that only the western part filled the status window.
[The selected area is too large. Please narrow down the area.]
[1 use consumed. 2 uses remaining.]
“Tsk…”
Secretary Oh clicked his tongue as he saw the status window.
“……Team Leader Jo. Do you have any guesses as to where Kyung-joon might be?”
“Y, Yes? Uh… about that…”
Team Leader Jo couldn’t answer right away due to the sudden situation and question.
‘The training ground is… He wasn’t in the Beginner’s Village monitoring, and while I haven’t checked all the other Holy Cross Faction areas, there’s no reason for Kyung-joon to go there in the first place… Then the only places left are the Whale Forest or the Humanity Cantons… The last monitoring location ended in the Fairy-Elven Alliance capital…’
But then he quickly thought and answered.
“Favengarden! The Fairy-Elven Alliance capital, Favengarden! We can’t monitor it with our authority, so I’m not sure… but I believe he must be there!”
Beep, beep.
As soon as he heard Team Leader Jo’s words, Secretary Oh immediately narrowed down the area to the capital, Favengarden.
[Administrator privileges (Legendary) 『World Monitoring』 in progress…]
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Ding!
[Target 『Kyung-joon』 not found.]
“Damn it! Another dead end! Hey, Team Leader Jo! Are you sure that punk Kyung-joon is in the Fairy-Elven Alliance?!”
“H, He must be there! Even if we can’t monitor the entire canton, we can monitor the Warp Gates created by the World! There’s no record of Kyung-joon leaving through there, and a week is too short to escape through other means!”
“Argh! Then where the hell is that punk?! Did he dig a tunnel or something?!”
“T, That’s…!”
[1 use consumed. 1 use remaining.]
Now they only had one chance left.
If they failed this time, the Seolha Group would have to sit on their hands without even getting a glimpse of Kyung-joon.
As everyone was at a loss for what to do.
“Um……”
Kim Bu-ha timidly raised his hand and expressed his opinion.
“You mentioned a tunnel…… What if he really is underground? Most dungeons and ruins are underground…”
“Ah! That’s right, Bu-ha! That’s it!”
“In that case……! Secretary Oh!”
“Yes.”
[Monitoring Favengarden’s underground, up to a maximum of 2,362m.]
[Target 『Kyung-joon』 found.]
“We found him, Chairman.”
“If you found him, then hurry up and show me!”
“Team Leader Jo. Please bring up the monitoring screen immediately.”
“Y, Yes, sir! Bu-ha!”
“I’m already putting it up!”
And so.
“Y, Yes, it’s Kyung-joon! It’s Kyung-joon!”
On the monitoring screen of the Kyung-joon Special Management Team, Kyung-joon’s image finally appeared after a week.
“That punk……! I was wondering what he was doing with his life for a week, but I can’t believe he was actually in an underground tunnel……! Where is that, Secretary Oh?!”
“We don’t have much data on the basement of Favengarden, so I’m not sure…… But seeing that he’s with the the Fairy King, it’s clearly a measure left by the Infinite Knowledge Seeker or the Seven Heroes.”
“I see! Good! But I can’t hear very well!”
“Team Leader Jo. Subtitles, please.”
“Yes! Bu-ha!”
“D, Done! Subtitles!”
And so.
Everyone, including Chairman Yoo, held their breath and focused on the screen.
『the Fairy King: I see. Then I’ll wait here.
Kyung-joon: Okay. Then.』
Kyung-joon on the monitoring screen turned his back on the Fairy King and headed inside the door.
『Kyung-joon: Oh, and while we’re at it.』
Suddenly he stopped walking and started writing something on the floor!
Then, after quickly completing the sentence.
『Kyung-joon: Uwaaaah.』
He jumped into the dark abyss below.
[The limit (2,362m) that the Administrator Authority (Legend) can monitor has been exceeded.]
[The target can no longer be tracked.]
[Monitoring will now end.]
Thump!
“……”
Silence fell over the Kyung-joon Special Management Team in an instant.
In that uncomfortable silence, only Kim Bu-ha managed to open his mouth.
“Uh…… Did user Kyung-joon just jump off and that’s it……?”
🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷
Wheeew!
Kyung-joon had been falling down for minutes already.
He kept illuminating the bottom with his mana light, but there was still no sign of the bottom.
―Or so he thought.
“……?!”
Booom!
He realized that something was reflecting below and immediately spread his Improved Wings of the Sylph.
Booom!! Whoosh! Woosh.
Thud.
He decelerated in an instant and landed safely on the ground.
What was faintly reflected in the mana light earlier came into view more clearly.
Kyung-joon, who saw it.
“Now I know why the predecessor wrote something about a brown-eared bulbul txt. This is amazing.”
He couldn’t help but admire.
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