It’s an Academic Fact That Rankers Are Model Students – Chapter 22

Chapter 22: How to Hunt While Studying – Energy Tower (2)

Wooden fences were erected, forming a circle with a radius of 50m, centered around the Study Villa.

With a radius of 50m, the circumference is approximately 300m, calculated as 2 x pi x radius.

Kyung-joon positioned Energy Towers along the circumference, each spaced 30-40m apart.

A total of 10 Energy Towers.

Each tower had a range of about 50m, more than enough to cover the entire perimeter of the fence.

It allowed for a response to monsters attacking any part of the fence.

“The question is, will they work properly…… Teemo, are you ready?”

Kyung-joon asked Teemo, who was floating next to him.

Teemo displayed a single English word on the crystal.

<Synchronizing…….>

<Synchronization complete. No malfunctions detected. Currently connected to a total of 10 Energy Towers.>

“Good. Let’s start the experiment.”

Kyung-joon opened his inventory window and took out a random item.

[Rotten prairie wolf meat]

▶Prairie wolf meat that has gone rotten. Eating it may cause severe indigestion.

▶Item Grade: Low

Meat obtained from defeating a prairie wolf earlier.

It had been sitting in his inventory for over a week while making the Energy Tower, and it had rotted in the meantime.

Kyung-joon took out the rotten meat and immediately threw it outside the fence.

“Ugh, the smell.”

The rotten smell drifted all the way here, despite being a good distance away.

If it was this bad for a human nose, it must be worse for a wolf.

Prairie wolves are said to be able to smell blood from kilometers away.

They say their sense of smell is dozens of times better than that of humans.

“Oh. I see it, I see it.”

Before long, he could see the grass swaying in the distance beyond the fence.

It was a common sight in the Starting Village’s grasslands, where strong winds blew frequently.

Nevertheless, Kyung-joon knew.

That wasn’t just the wind.

It was just that the sight of wolves running through the grasslands looked as if the wind was blowing through them.

They must have been drawn by the smell.

“I thought they wouldn’t react because it’s rotten meat, not blood, but they still came.”

Kyung-joon felt a bit nervous as he watched the approaching wolves.

Nervous?

Why was he nervous now, when he hadn’t been when he was surrounded by wolves before?

Of course, he wasn’t actually scared of the wolves.

“I worked so hard to make this. I hope it works properly.”

He was worried that the Energy Tower he had put so much effort into building might not work.

“Grrr!”

“Woof! Woof!”

The wolves had approached close enough to be seen with the naked eye.

As if they decided there was no need to run silently anymore, they barked incessantly with hostility.

Perhaps they were angry because the rotten smell of the meat was so overwhelming.

Unfortunately, Kyung-joon’s response to the wolves’ protest was not an apology.

<Enemy detected within range. Currently approaching rapidly.>

50m from the fence.

As soon as the prairie wolves entered within that range, Teemo spoke.

The Energy Tower’s enemy detection function seemed to be working properly.

Now that enemy detection was complete, it was time for the next step.

It was time to prepare for the attack.

Fortunately, the automatic attack function also worked without any problems.

<Charging Energy Bolt.>

Ziiiiing……!

Mana began to gather at the top of the Energy Tower.

It wasn’t just gathering in the air; it was converging around a transparent gem embedded at the very top of the tower.

A quartz gem made from 99.9% pure quartz.

The mana that touched it amplified rapidly, soon reaching a point where it seemed ready to burst, and then it was fired forward.

Swoosh, Boom!

There were no screams.

The prairie wolf that was hit by the Energy Tower’s attack, along with its surrounding companions, were all turned to ashes.

“Wow.”

What an incredible splash damage!

It looked like at least three or four of them were killed.

And with just one shot.

Zoooom.

The Energy Tower immediately went into recharge mode.

It took about 3-4 seconds to recharge mana and be ready to fire again.

During that brief time, the remaining prairie wolves reached the fence.

However, the fence was designed too high to simply jump over.

Some chose to climb up, while others decided to destroy it and attacked the fence relentlessly.

<Charging complete. Resuming fire.>

Ziiiiing!

While the wolves were busy climbing and attacking the fence, the Energy Tower finished recharging.

Another powerful Energy Bolt was fired!

Boom! Boom!

Again, there were no screams.

All that remained were traces of ashen corpses, along with the faintly scorched ground.

That was all.

[Kyung-joon’s Sturdy Ashwood Fence]

▶Durability: ■■■■■■■■□□

The fence’s durability had decreased slightly.

It wasn’t because of the prairie wolves’ attacks that the durability had decreased.

“The Energy Tower is so strong that it’s damaging the fence.”

<It seems to be causing about 10% damage per shot.>

Indeed, two out of the ten durability bars had been reduced due to the Energy Tower’s splash damage.

The prairie wolves’ attacks, which lasted barely 3 seconds, hadn’t even managed to reduce a single bar.

<How about reducing the power? So that it doesn’t damage the fence.>

Teemo suggested.

<Calculations show that even with half the current mana charge, the damage to the fence will be significantly reduced.>

“Will it still one-shot the wolves?”

<Yes, it will still be a one-shot.>

“But if we reduce the mana, won’t the splash damage disappear and the killing speed become too slow? It’s not like the attack speed is getting much faster.”

Most of the Energy Tower’s 3.7-second attack delay was spent extracting the magic stored in the Magic Memory Stone and transferring it upwards.

The process of charging the quartz gem with mana actually took less than a second.

In other words, even if the mana per shot was halved, the attack speed wouldn’t double.

“It would be a big problem if some of them get past the fence.”

<How about keeping the amount of mana charged the same, but splitting it in half and shooting it twice?>

“Oh, that’s a good idea. If only it could be implemented.”

It took over a week to implement the current Energy Tower.

It was impossible to tell how many more weeks it would take to apply such advanced technology.

<To be blunt, we need a technology that can release half of the charged mana and hold the other half, simultaneously.>

“Simply put?”

<It seems you need to learn double casting and multi casting skills.>

“Hmm, let’s do that later during vacation. Finals are in a few weeks. We should be able to hold out until then, as long as there isn’t a monster wave.”

Kyung-joon said, looking at the fence’s status window.

[Kyung-joon’s Sturdy Ash Fence]

▶Durability: ■■■■■■■■■■

The durability of the fence, which had been reduced by two bars earlier, had been fully restored.

It was thanks to the automatic durability recovery function that Bangwool had given him.

Durability recovery: 5% per minute.

About two bars of durability would be restored in just four minutes.

After confirming that fact, Kyung-joon continued.

“There’s no way monsters will attack consecutively in less than 5 minutes, right? Even if they do, it’ll be fine as long as they don’t focus on attacking just one fence.”

<So, shall we wrap up the Energy Tower research here?>

“Yes. We can do the rest during vacation.”

<Understood. I will leave the Energy Tower running 24/7.>

“Okay. Let’s go study for the finals.”

Kyung-joon was free from the interference of monsters.

Now, it didn’t matter if monsters attacked while he was studying.

He didn’t have to go outside and hunt himself.

Because the Energy Tower would hunt for him while he was studying.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

“It’s nice that user Kyung-joon hasn’t caused any trouble lately.”

“Indeed.”

The World’s Monitoring Team Branch 10.

The team leader and his subordinate, Kim Bu-ha, were standing around, drinking coffee and chatting.

“But it seems like he was building something recently?”

“Probably something related to studying, like a desk or a chair?”

“He went prairie wolf hunting once before, didn’t he? I wonder if he’s making a weapon.”

“Come on, he was catching them just fine without a weapon. One-shotting them all with Energy Bolt. Why would he bother making a weapon?”

“You’re right, there’s no real need for him to make a weapon.”

“He’s probably just making something to use while studying. He already has a desk and chair…… maybe a bookshelf?”

“Hmm.”

‘It’s just that he was using quartz as a material…’

Quartz for a bookshelf?

Kim Bu-ha, who frequently monitored Kyung-joon’s footage, couldn’t help but find it a bit odd.

Moreover, there was that time he was experimenting with various things, like when he was recording the sound of rain.

At first, they watched closely.

But they couldn’t figure out what he was doing.

‘He must be making something unimaginable, just like last time.’

Kim Bu-ha had a hunch.

There was no clear evidence, but he had a feeling based on his past experiences.

And as expected.

His hunch was right.

Ding!

Ding! Ding!

[User Kyung-joon has slain a prairie wolf.]

[User Kyung-joon’s experience has increased by 19.]

[User Kyung-joon’s mana has increased by 1 through continuous mana consumption.]

[User Kyung-joon’s intelligence has increased by 1 through continuous studying.]

[User Kyung-joon has slain a prairie wolf.]

[User Kyung-joon’s experience has increased by 19.]

[Through continuous studying…]

.

.

.

“What, what’s going on all of a sudden?!”

A massive amount of notifications popping up in an instant!

“He’s hunting, isn’t he?”

“No, look at the message in between! It says his intelligence increased through continuous studying!”

He was hunting, consuming mana, and studying at the same time?

What in the world was going on?

Did he have a clone or something?

“I’ll turn on the monitoring screen right away!”

The team leader and Kim Bu-ha put down their coffee and immediately turned on the monitoring screen.

Kyung-joon’s holographic image popped up.

They could see his eyes and pencil-holding hand moving rapidly.

“User Kyung-joon is studying.”

Kyung-joon was studying with the Dimensional Study Room activated.

He wasn’t hunting or anything.

“What the……?”

The team leader was utterly baffled by the sight that completely contradicted the notification messages.

He was about to check the logs again, thinking they might have misread them, when…

[User Kyung-joon has slain a prairie wolf.]

[User Kyung-joon’s experience has increased by 19.]

[Your Intelligence has increased by 1 through continuous studying..]

“No, we didn’t misread it! He’s studying, but his experience points are increasing out of nowhere!”

“Huh? You’re right.”

“How is this even possible……! Is this a bug this time? He used hacks, right?!”

Kim Bu-ha immediately started operating the computer to check if Kyung-joon was using any hacks or exploits.

“No hacks or bug usage detected.”

Kim Bu-ha added.

“And as you know, The World is 100% cloud-based without a client download, so there’s no room for hacking.”

“Of course I know that!”

The team leader was aware of that much.

However, the notifications that had been popping up since earlier didn’t match Kyung-joon’s current situation at all.

[User Kyung-joon has slain a prairie wolf.]

[User Kyung-joon’s experience has increased by 19.]

[User Kyung-joon’s intelligence has increased by 1 through continuous studying.]

He was only studying, yet his experience points kept increasing.

Infinite Reading increased stats but didn’t give experience points.

“No way, you’re telling me that’s not a hack? He’s just studying, not even lifting a finger to hunt, and his experience points are going through the roof! Where are these prairie wolves even coming from?!”

As the team leader was losing his mind, Kim Bu-ha shouted urgently.

“T, Team Leader! Outside! Look outside!”

“Outside?”

“Outside user Kyung-joon’s building!”

At Kim Bu-ha’s words, the team leader immediately widened the view of the holographic screen.

The sight of Kyung-joon studying was no longer visible.

Instead, the entire view of the Study Villa filled the holographic screen.

The sight was enough to make the team leader’s jaw drop.

“What in the world is that?!”

User Kyung-joon’s Study Villa looked completely different from before.

Previously, it was just surrounded by a wooden fence, but now there were several unfamiliar towers placed behind it.

Relatively short towers, about 3 meters tall.

Suddenly, the tops of the towers began to glow intensely.

Ziiiiing!

“WTF!”

Boom!

A powerful energy sphere shot out from the top of a tower!

And of course, its target was……

[User Kyung-joon has slain a prairie wolf.]

[User Kyung-joon’s experience has increased by 19.]

…a prairie wolf.

Kyung-joon was still leisurely studying inside the Study Villa.

Meanwhile, the prairie wolves were being slaughtered relentlessly.

“Why, why, why…”

The team leader, witnessing the spectacle Kyung-joon had created, was so dumbfounded that he could only utter the following words.

“Why is he playing a tower defense game in an RPG?! This crazy user!”

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