The Doctoral Degree Vanished
“Hey, have you seen my degree anywhere?”
“Young master, you’ve finally lost your mind.”
Something was wrong. I could have sworn I was holding it just moments ago. The same went for everything else. The graduation gown I had been wearing and the plaque I received as an outstanding researcher had both vanished.
“This doesn’t make any sense…”
I looked around and patted myself down, even slapping my own cheeks a few times. All I saw was the sterile interior of a spaceship, and all I felt was the plain, unremarkable body of a boy.
“Please come to your senses.”
A girl with navy-blue bobbed hair grabbed my shoulders and shook me. Ah, right. This had to be a dream. There was no other explanation. Any moment now the after-party would begin. I needed to wake up and get back to the graduation hall immediately. I couldn’t throw away a once-in-a-lifetime honor like this.
“Repeating: please come to your senses. How long do you intend to carry on like this?”
The girl flicked my forehead. A yelp escaped me before I could stop it. That actually hurt. If this was a dream, why did it hurt? While I stood there stunned by the vivid sensation, the girl snapped her fingers and asked,
“Do you at least remember who I am?”
“……”
“I will ask again. Do you remember who I am?”
“…Sonia.”
The name left my lips in a daze. Navy-blue hair, white eyes. Sonia—the android maid from the space-opera web novel I had binge-read just recently.
“At least that much is intact.”
Sonia sighed. “You were unconscious for an entire week, young master. Do you remember what you did wrong before you blacked out?”
I shook my head. Of course I didn’t. How could I? The only thing I had done wrong was nodding off for a second during the graduation ceremony. Then I opened my eyes and found myself in this world. It was only natural to assume this was a dream, wasn’t it?
“You truly don’t remember?”
Reality was merciless.
“A beating might jog your memory.”
Sonia raised her fist, brows drawn together. I instinctively realized she had no intention of obeying the Three Laws of Robotics. The next thing I knew, I was being pummeled like a dog on its way to the butcher.
“Aagh! Ow, that hurts! It hurts!”
“It hurts? This Sonia hurts as well.”
“Is a maid allowed to hit her master?!”
“It is permitted.”
“Is a robot allowed to hit a human?!”
“It is permitted.”
Who on earth programmed her like this?! Every punch made my head ring. Something was starting to surface in my memory. I desperately tried to recall. If the guy who kept Sonia as his personal android was anyone, it had to be that bastard—Idel von Rheinland.
The third-rate villain from Surviving the Outer Gods. The disgrace of the Rheinland family who got beaten once by his father, once by the protagonist, and once by the transcendent beings called Outer Gods before collapsing in utter ruin. If the information flooding my mind was correct, I had possessed the most rotten human being in the entire novel.
“Aagh! Ow!”
Whatever. Sonia’s punches hurt too much to care. The fact that I still hadn’t woken up even after being tenderized like meat for a stew told me this really was possession. Whether any of this made scientific sense could wait. First, I had to survive the immediate crisis.
“Are you feeling better now? Do you remember?”
Sonia asked, arm still raised. I nodded frantically. Thankfully, she didn’t hit me again. Her fist dropped, and her hand moved to her waist.
“What exactly did you do wrong? Tell me.”
“I… squandered the family fortune.”
“To what extent?”
“Two thousand trillion won—no, two thousand trillion credits.”
“By what means?”
“Gambling.”
“You’ve lost your mind.”
Sonia clicked her tongue. “That is not all. Thanks to the commotion you caused at the casino, the family’s reputation has—ah, do you even remember what kind of commotion it was?”
“I threw a fit about the payout being too small and got clocked by security…”
I rubbed the back of my head, where a strange pressure lingered. My fingers met the rough texture of bandages. So I was currently a patient with a head injury. A patient who had just been beaten by a robot.
“Because of this incident, the Rheinland family’s prestige has hit rock bottom. The head of the family is furious. You have truly outdone yourself this time, young master.”
Damn it. How did things end up like this? I turned my head and spotted a mirror. Reflected in it was…
“…What?”
It was me. Not Idel von Rheinland, but literally me. Aside from the irises having turned gold—the color symbolizing the Rheinland family—I looked exactly the same as before. There had been no description of Idel’s appearance in the novel, so whoever shoved me into this body had simply slapped my face onto it.
“Hah…”
The confusion doubled. I clearly needed time to sort through my thoughts.
***
Lee Jinsoo, twenty-two years old. Future aspiration: university professor. A physics-obsessed pervert who only consumed sci-fi web novels had been dropped into a hopeless space-opera world. There was no room for doubt. Even if there had been, there was nothing I could do about it.
“Ha.”
It felt like being a brain in a jar. Honestly, what had I done wrong? I had only read the novel. Just read it. I hadn’t even left a single comment, only binge-read it, and yet someone had trapped me here. If I had known this would happen, I would have read one more paper instead of wasting time on fiction.
“Young master.”
While I was lost in thought, Sonia entered the room.
“The head of the family will arrive shortly. Please prepare yourself.”
So the moment had come. Soon I would be summoned before the father of this body’s original owner. And I would be scolded within an inch of my life for siphoning off the family fortune and gambling it all away.
Idel’s father was an extremely busy man. According to the setting, he was a renowned physician who dominated the southern galaxy, running countless hospitals—most of them automated—at once and rarely returning home. That same father had apparently stopped everything to come back.
“Aigoo.”
In short, I was screwed.
Thud!
The sound of two hulls docking echoed through the ship.
“It seems the head of the family has returned. Prepare yourself, young master.”
“Hoo.”
I took a deep breath. Once, twice, three times. I threw on whatever clothes were within reach and followed Sonia to the dock. There stood a man in a white lab coat, suitcase in hand—Arnold von Rheinland. Idel’s father and head of the Rheinland family. He adjusted his glasses and glared at me.
“Idel.”
His voice was as heavy as a boulder pressing down.
“You’ve finally crossed the line.”
Condensed fury shimmered beneath the words like morning dew. From the perspective of someone who had survived grad school, that was the look of a bomb that could explode at the slightest provocation. I needed to tread carefully.
“Idel, answer me. How did you siphon off two thousand trillion without my permission?”
Two thousand trillion. In U.S. dollars, that was roughly the combined GDP of every nation on Earth. The Rheinland family owned countless planets worth that much. Add in asteroid resources made of metal and rare earths, and two thousand trillion wasn’t even that large a sum in the space age. Relatively speaking, of course. It was still an insane thing to do—laying hands on the family fortune.
Think. How had Idel acted in the novel at this point? I had to tell the truth so there would be no lingering consequences.
“I used the southwestern asteroid belt as collateral. If I lost the money, the asteroids would be seized in equivalent value.”
Even I had to admit it sounded despicable. As expected, Arnold’s face turned an alarming shade of purple.
“Do you want to die?”
“I have committed a capital offense.”
I bowed so deeply my head nearly touched the floor.
“You have squandered the fortune accumulated over generations and tarnished the honor of the Rheinland name. Do you understand what that means?”
“I feel it deeply.”
I bowed even lower. It wasn’t my fault, but I had to keep bowing anyway. Endure it. If I got through this, I had a plan for what came next.
After that, Arnold’s voice only grew louder. Insane bastard. Unfilial son. A wretch who deserved to die. I had to listen to every unrestrained insult delivered in a tightly controlled tone.
“I was wrong.”
Each time, I parroted the same words.
“Is that all you have to say?”
“I was wrong.”
I couldn’t bring myself to say I would take responsibility. This wasn’t even my mess to begin with. Besides, taking responsibility meant repaying every last credit lost to gambling—an impossible sum for me to earn in any reasonable timeframe. Even Arnold, the current head, couldn’t manage it. That was why he was tearing into me like this.
Still, there was one silver lining: Idel had been an even bigger piece of trash than I’d imagined. The kind of guy who casually hurled insults at his own parents. He would never have admitted fault even if it killed him.
“This brat… at least he knows he was wrong.”
Seeing that same brat now bowing and groveling must have been novel for Arnold.
“Enough. Talking only makes my mouth hurt.”
Having vented everything he needed to, Arnold lowered his voice. His eyes were as hollow as a retail investor who had bought the top of a crashing market.
“I don’t even want to look at you. Go back to your room.”
Not “get out of this house,” but “go back to your room.” Fortunately, the worst-case scenario of being disowned seemed to have been avoided. For the sake of my future plans, I absolutely had to avoid expulsion. Otherwise Idel would end up hounded by Outer Gods and turned into a cold corpse. I had to remember this novel’s genre was cosmic horror.
Just as I was about to bow and leave, relieved, Arnold called out.
“Wait.”
He stopped me.
“I’ll give you a choice.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ll give you one chance to make up for this mistake. Listen carefully and pick one of the three options.”
What? Had I misheard? According to the novel, Arnold had no reason to show Idel any mercy. Still, if he was offering an opportunity, I couldn’t refuse. I nodded with feigned anticipation.
Arnold held up three fingers.
“First, bring back the money you lost gambling. But you may not use dishonest methods.”
That one was obviously impossible.
“Second, enlist.”
Absolutely not. When Arnold said enlist, he meant as a common soldier, not an officer. And this was a world at war with monsters created by the Outer Gods—a world with no dreams or hope. The second option was basically “go die with honor.”
I swallowed dryly.
“Lastly, third—get into Stellarium within the year.”
The moment I heard that option—
“Oh.”
A small sound escaped me.
“If you cannot accomplish any of these three, pack your things and leave this house. And never involve yourself with the Rheinland name again. Understood?”
“Understood.”
I bowed and turned around. Stellarium admission. It was part of my original plan, and now my father had brought it up himself. This was practically a windfall.
Back in my room, the corners of my mouth curled upward.
“…It’s done.”
“What is?”
Sonia asked with a sullen expression.
“I need to go to Stellarium.”
“You mean Stellarium Academy? The school famous throughout the galaxy for accepting only the most talented students?”
“I know. So what?”
“Why would the head of the family offer to forgive you on the condition that you enter that school?”
It was obvious. First, because Stellarium was a prestigious institution where simply being admitted guaranteed a bright future. And the second reason was…
“…Because he believes you will never be accepted there, young master.”
Sonia hammered me with a calm, matter-of-fact tone. Or rather, she hammered Idel. I wasn’t angry. Idel had never been the studious type. The only reason he had even attended a remote academy after being disowned was because of a donation. Without the family’s backing, he had wanted at least a college diploma. Of course, he caused trouble there too, got beaten half to death by the protagonist, and was expelled.
I nodded.
“I know he gave me an unreasonable condition on purpose.”
“And you still intend to try?”
“Yeah. I have to. Somehow.”
“Is that even possible?”
Sonia asked, lips twisted in a crooked smile. That smirk carried both smugness and contempt, as if to say, “Someone like you?” In most young-master stories the personal butler or maid blindly believed in the protagonist. Sonia was different. That made her feel more realistic.
Still, my answer was the same.
“Of course.”
This world would soon be destroyed—by higher-dimensional beings called Outer Gods. I had no intention of dying here. That was why, over the past few days since possessing this body, I had organized my thoughts and formed a plan. The ultimate goal of that plan was to develop the Graviton Bomb, the final weapon capable of opposing the Outer Gods.
The novel had stated that the Outer Gods manifested in this universe through black holes as gates. If we used the Graviton Bomb to drive them out each time, we could prevent the apocalypse. I wasn’t the protagonist, but it was the only thing I could do. In any case, I still had to conduct research in this world. And for that, I needed…
“…Graduate school.”
“Pardon?”
“I’m going all the way to graduate school.”
At my answer, Sonia’s face went blank.