The main lecture hall of the VR department, which could accommodate up to 100 people.
“Koo Jaho.”
“Yes!”
“Kim Kahyung.”
“Yes.”
Lee Jinook, who read down the attendance, calling each name out one by one, momentarily paused on a particularly familiar name.
‘Park Jinsung, come to think of it, this one, he didn’t come out for the first week of classes.’
Of course, as the first week was the class-changing period, there was no effect on the students’ attendance marks even if they did not come out to class.
However, as it was rare for a major-related course to be changed, it was normal to come out starting from the first class, so Jinook was in a bad mood.
‘I even threatened him with a call during the break, so he probably came today, right?’
Jinook scanned the lecture hall and called Jinsung’s name.
“Park Jinsung-“
However, the lecture hall was silent.
Out of disbelief, Jinook called out his name again.
“Park Jinsung? Has he not come today?”
However, just then, the back door of the lecture hall jerked open.
Deu-reu-reuk-.
“Yes! I came!”
All eyes in the lecture hall turned towards Jinsung.
With a sunken expression and deep, dark circles that was all the way down to his chin, Jinook cluck his tongue at his form that was almost like a remnant.
“Don’t make a fuss and go sit down quickly.”
Jinook slightly glared at Jinsung before he began to call out the next person on the attendance.
And it seemed as though Jinsung, who barely made it in time to the lecture hall, had ran all the way, as he breathed heavily while sitting next to Yoohyun.
While looking at Jinsung, who sat down next to him, Yoohyun whispered in a small voice.
“Still, you attended today.”
“Hoo, I’m not that crazy, dude.”
However, Yoohyun replied with an expression saying as if he completely disagreed.
“Dude, for someone who’s not supposed to be crazy, you even skipped four days of school this week.”
As it was Jinsung, who hadn’t showed up for four days of the week even after the class-changing period, Yoohyun’s scolding was an obvious.
However, Jinsung responded with a resolutely determined expression.
“There was a good enough reason for that.”
“What reason?”
Instead of giving him a response, Jinsung pulled out his cellphone from his pocket.
“It was exactly for this reason.”
And on the screen of Jinsung’s cellphone was a screenshot of the stat window of Jinsung’s character, Ian.
“Hm…?”
And once Yoohyun checked it, his two eyes rounded.
“What the hell, you’re lv 93?”
Out of complete shock, he almost yelled it out, but Jinsung warned him, barely hushing him up.
As it was mandatory major-related course that all of the students of the department had to take, the lecture hall was large, so fortunately, it seemed as though it didn’t reach Professor Lee Jinook’s ears.
“Can you not tell when you see it, man? This hyung[1] is this great.”
Yoohyun couldn’t even think of a response to Jinsung’s arrogance and just blankly stared at the cellphone screen.
‘Lv 93… I just barely past lv 100 now.’
Yoohyun was currently lv 103, and he as well was proud that he leveled-up quite quickly during the break.
However, despite that, he was caught up to by Jinsung, as Jinsung and he now only had a 10-level difference.
‘What level was I at when he reset?’
He couldn’t remember exactly, but he felt he was around the edge of hitting lv 80.
Yoohyun shook his head.
Even if the out-of-common amount of playing time and additional stat compensation due to resetting was considered, it was an unbelievable leveling-up speed.
At this rate, he truly believed it was a matter of time until he caught up.
“This monster-like dude.”
At Yoohyun’s grumbling, Jinsung smirked.
“If you’re jealous, then say so, dude.”
Yoohyun meekly admitted.
“Sure, I’m jealous. Whew…”
And while Yoohyun and Jinsung bantered, Professor Lee Jinook had finished the attendance and started his lecture.
And as soon as the lecture started, Jinsung went out like a light on top of the desk without a doubt.
As it was a form that wasn’t at all new, Yoohyun only smirked.
‘It only makes sense that he’s so tired, considering he even reduced his sleep to game like crazy.’
However, just around when the class was ending.
Jinsung, who only slept on top of the desk, miraculously(?) rubbed his eyes and woke up.
“What the hell, why did you wake up? Did you have a nightmare?”
Jinsung pulled out his cellphone without regarding Yoohyun’s sarcastic remark.
And with an interested expression, Yoohyun watched Jinsung’s actions.
‘What’s he doing?’
Jinsung tapped his cellphone and opened his screenshot image again.
‘Is he continuously looking at it because he’s pleased?’
However, just then.
Wasn’t Jinsung sending that image somewhere.
And Yoohyun, who checked the recipient without intending to, was startled.
“Yo, dude! What the hell are you doing? Have you not woken up fully yet?”
“What the hell are you saying. I’m completely sober.”
“This crazy, what kind of sane dude sends a game screenshot to their professor’s number?”
To Yoohyun, who wouldn’t have known about Jinsung and Professor Lee Jinook’s bet, Jinsung could only look like a crazy person.
However, Jinsung, who was the person in question, just grinned.
And right then, Professor Lee Jinook’s cellphone, which lied on the platform, vibrated, and he momentarily paused his lecture and lifted his cellphone to check it.
“Yo, what are you going to do. I think the Professor saw his cellphone!”
“Don’t worry about it and just pack your bags, dude. The class is over now>”
Just as Jinsung said, the class was ending now.
And 5 minutes later, Yoohyun, who heard Professor Lee Jinook’s last words, couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh as he looked at Jinsung.
“Alright, this is it for today’s class. You are all dismissed. Student Park Jinsung will momentarily stay.”
@
Jinsung, who was dragged(?) away to Professor Lee Jinook’s office once the class was over, wore a triumphant expression as he sat on the couch.
And Professor Lee Jinook was sitting across from him, sipping his teacup.
“That’s the stat window of my Kailran character. As you said you were a Kailran user yourself, didn’t you know as soon as you saw it?”
“Keu-heum…”
As Lee Jinook cleared his throat, Jinsung added as if he was interrogating.
“By any chance, you haven’t forgotten the bet you made with me, right?”
Lee Jinook could feel the back of his neck straining.
Truthfully, he had forgotten about the part related to the bet. As it was more of a threat telling him to be more devoted to class rather than a bet.
He obviously hadn’t even thought of the potential that Jinsung could succeed.
Lee Jinook, who momentarily pondered, slowly opened his mouth.
“I haven’t forgotten…”
At those words, Jinsung wore a triumphant expression.
“Hoo-hoo, Professor, you wouldn’t dare be double-tongued against a student, right?”
Jinsung now thought that it was over.
If he just received a definite answer, he could at least be relieved of Professor Lee Jinook’s class.
As he even had two major-related classes with Professor Lee Jinook, this was an incredible merit.
However, different from Jinsung’s expectations, Lee Jinook didn’t immediately say the words that Jinsung wanted to hear.
He was not such an easy person.
“But that bet. From what I remember, I believe the deadline was until ‘before the first day of classes’.”
As Lee Jinook sharply pointed out, Jinsung flinched.
Truthfully, this was because this was the part that bothered Jinsung the most.
Flustered, Jinsung tried his best to lay out excuses.
“That… I… Professor.”
“What?”
“To be honest, I reached lv 93 before the first day of classes.”
“Oh, really? Then you should have showed me last week. From what I know, you didn’t even come out to classes last week.”
“That’s because I was sick up until yesterday…”
It was a lame excuse that would have made an elementary school student that was just passing by laugh at him.
However, there was no alternative but to just insist ‘it’s the truth’.
Until Professor Lee Jinook personally visited LB Co. and ripped apart character Ian’s access log, he couldn’t find proof that Jinsung was wrong.
“Are you expecting me to believe those words right now?”
Since it was already like this, Jinsung decided to push on until the end.
“But, what can I do when it is the truth, Professor?”
And meanwhile, he tried his best to appeal his innocence with an expression that looked like he was about to cry.
This was because he knew very well the truth that stubbornly insisting too much could also cause a bad ending.
‘Anyways, it wasn’t like there was a contract, and if the Professor makes it so that it never existed, there’s nothing I can do from my side even if it’s depressing…’
It was incredibly important that he also made sure to not make the Professor feel offended.
“Keu-heum.”
And from the outside, Lee Jinook was wearing a displeased expression, but internally, he was in a greatly surprised state.
‘If this screenshot isn’t edited, then this guy is really incredible.’
Although he was a light user, he was still also a respectable Kailran user that was raising a Summoner character.
This meant that he knew well enough how incredible a lv 93 Summoner was at this point.
On top of that, he remembered catching a glimpse of a scene not too long ago on a game broadcast where they were interviewing a lv 78 user, saying they were the officially highest level Summoner.
‘If this guy isn’t lying, I feel like I could use this guy a little in my data acquisition.’
Lee Jinook, who was up to something, decided to postpone his decision for a bit.
“You, do you have a separate schedule for this Sunday?”
Jinsung was taken aback at the somewhat unexpected question, but he responded shortly after.
“I… will probably be on Kailran at home.”
Lee Jinook nodded his head as he continued to speak.
“Then I’ll see you on Kailran on Sunday.”
“Huh?”
“Why are you so surprised? I’ll see you 2 pm on Sunday at Robos Town.”
Jinsung momentarily contemplated.
‘Is this old man thinking that I’m lying right now?’
And he slightly glanced at Lee Jinook.
‘Somehow, I feel like he thinks that the image I gave him is edited…’
It seemed that he wanted to personally meet him in Kailran and check his level.
Jinsung, who made his decision, nodded his head.
“Alright, Professor.”
“Good, then I’ll see you then.”
After responding, Jinook stood up from his spot and as Ian followed his actions, he reminded him of the bet once more.
“Professor, then I won the bet, right?”
However, Lee Jinook did not give him the answer he wanted right away.
“We’ll talk about that on Sunday when we meet.”
Like that, Jinsung couldn’t help but leave the Professor’s office with an uncomfortable feeling.
@
“Keuh, finally, freedom!”
Ian, who had logged into Kailran, was so thrilled he felt he would tear up.
‘Now I can probably focus on Kailran more even during the semester!’
How hard had he hunted in order to hit lv 93 within the time limit, even reducing his sleep? Now, he felt like he could breathe a little.
It wasn’t like he had received a definite answer from Professor Lee Jinook yet, but he believed that when Sunday came, it would naturally be resolved.
After all, he had won the bet.
‘Hoo, since I’ve escaped from the pressure of having to level up a little now, should I start clearing up the quests that I pushed aside one by one?’
There were two large quests that Ian was currently neglecting.
One was the Dimensional Magic Tower quest that he had received from Oakley, the Dragon Tamer, and the other was the hatching of the Griffin Egg quest that he had received from Celias, the king of Luspel Empire.
‘Well, firstly, I felt that it would be good to do the Dimensional Magic Tower quest first, which is why I went over Forcal Mountains…’
There was no time limit for the Dimensional Magic Tower quest.
Meanwhile, the time limit of the hatching of the Griffin Egg quest was ‘Unknown’.
Just looking at these points, the hatching of the Griffin Egg was more urgent, but…
‘What can I do when there’s nothing I can do at the moment to hatch the egg?’
Whenever he had time while hunting, he went to places like the Tower of Summoners and tried hard to gain information related to hatching Familiar’s eggs from the NPCs, but there wasn’t any useful information.
Characteristically of Ian, his heart leaned towards starting the quest that he could immediately progress in rather than a quest where he wasn’t sure what to do.
On top of that, if he cleared the Dimensional Magic Tower, he could release the seal of the Dragon Head Ornament, and he could possibly obtain the War Dragon, which was rightly called a God Dragon, as a Familiar. The expectation towards the quest’s reward itself was completely different.
‘Firstly, let’s go to the Dimensional Magic Tower.’
The Dimensional Magic Tower wasn’t far past the Scorching Land.
As the monsters that inhabited near the Dimensional Magic Tower were around lv 80-90, they were actually lower level monsters than the northern continent’s, so they weren’t an obstacle to Ian at the moment.
Ian, who had made up his mind, ran for the Dimensional Magic Tower on Ly’s back shortly after.