People Learn by Seeing

How should I deal with Han Seunghyun?

I was turning it over in my mind, combing through his records, when I found something truly horrific in his school violence file.

The victim was a male student — a big guy, but quiet and withdrawn. Han Seunghyun had decided he was going to "make a man out of him," and the verbal abuse and beatings escalated until he inflicted irreversible damage. He destroyed one of the kid's testicles and left him with only one.

Pulling off something that monstrous and then burying it with money and influence… it made my skin crawl.

"Decision made. We're going Hammurabi on this."

An eye for an eye. A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tooth for a tooth. A ball for a ball.

"Once he's far enough from the convenience store, blow out one of his testicles and leave him with a matching set of one."

No need to put my little sister through a sight like that.

I waited until Han Seunghyun cleared out of the convenience store, then gave Yerina the attack order. A small mana shell fired from the underside of the stealth aircraft. She'd scanned his biometrics with the mana radar first, so the shot landed dead on target.

"GAAAAAAAH!"

Han Seunghyun screamed like something out of a nightmare, collapsed, and rolled around on the ground thrashing. Through Simona, I texted an anonymous tip to emergency services. At the same time, I left a message on Han Seunghyun's phone.

The leech was dealt with, but my own business wasn't finished yet.

I never imagined my little sister — the one who'd been lying about doing just fine — had taken a leave of absence from school and was bouncing between part-time jobs. If she'd told me she wanted to drop out while still living at home, I would have shut it down cold. So she'd spun some story about an easy way to make money, moved out, and started working odd jobs instead.

With Simona's skills I could hack together as much money as I wanted, but I wanted to hand my sister clean cash — nothing that would drag her into anything dangerous.

"Guess it's not time yet. Hang on a little longer, Haneul."

At the very least, I needed a clean ten million won before I could tell him to go back to school with a clear conscience. Impossible right now — but climbing the Tower would make it possible. I was sure of that.

Midnight rolled around again.

I couldn't see any reason to hesitate about climbing to the Tower's second floor. The first floor's trial had been a cave escape — a test of adapting to the dark and handling threats. Darkness hadn't worked on me at all, so I'd swept the enemies like I was out for a stroll, even found the hidden content and learned Goblin Language.

Though what exactly was I supposed to do with Goblin Language?

The standard clear for the second floor was to push through goblin settlements scattered across a fairly wide plain and forest, then reach the exit gate. The safest, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠most orthodox route — the one least likely to get you spotted — was well established, so first-timers typically memorized it cold before going in.

I asked Alex instead.

"Can the ammo loaded on the plane handle a hundred goblins?"

"More than sufficient, Mother."

That settled it. I was not choosing stealth infiltration. I was going to smash the goblin settlements head-on.

The moment I spoke the entry incantation, a warning message appeared.

That message was good news. So even if I went into the Tower, I could leave my abilities active on Earth. That meant freer deployment of my unit, didn't it?

I left Captain Yerina on her ongoing assignment — escorting Haneul with the stealth aircraft. This world wasn't so dangerous that people dropped dead if you looked away for a single day, but it wasn't safe enough to leave completely unattended either. Knowing someone could keep watching over my sister put my mind a little more at ease.

"Captain Yerina continues her mission. Everyone else is going to the Tower."

A flash of blue light wrapped around my body and the transfer began. In an instant I was standing in terrain that looked like a blend of jungle and grassland — the kind of ground goblins preferred.

I immediately launched the Paper Crow and sent it out on reconnaissance.

"If you find a small settlement of ten or fewer, wipe it out on the spot."

According to the guides, a climber setting foot on the second floor for the first time had no chance of winning a hundred-to-one fight against goblins. The whole point was to avoid combat as much as possible, carefully map their patrol routes so the scouts never raised the alarm, then sneak all the way to the exit gate without a fight.

"Hut discovered. Eight goblins eliminated."

"Four goblin archers on the watchtower neutralized."

"Located a goblin food storehouse. Six guards eliminated."

All I had to do was stroll through the forest at a leisurely pace and listen to Alex's extermination reports.

"We've discovered a special item in the storehouse. Would you like to inspect it, Mother?"

"What is it?"

"A Goblin Medical Book. It's a book."

"Goblins practice medicine?"

It sounded almost funny at first glance. Goblin civilization topped out at goblin-style architecture and mechanical devices on the level of crossbows. For people who built smartphones, raised skyscrapers, and launched rockets to the moon — was there really anything to learn from goblin medicine?

But I was someone who'd picked up Goblin Language from the first floor's hidden content. Since I'd already learned the writing, I figured I might as well take a look at the medical book.

"Yeah, bring it over."

"My apologies, Mother — it's too heavy. We'll need support from a transport craft."

I could share vision with my aircraft as a baseline. Something like receiving a camera feed over comms? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Being the mothership, I could apparently pull information from my "children."

Through the Paper Crow's feed, the book looked like a perfectly ordinary book. The plane could smash boulders, yet it couldn't haul something that light?

Don't tell me the next aircraft is a transport?

It felt like I'd just gotten a hint about the next level. I made my way to the goblin food storehouse where the book was waiting.

"Keep running operations the way you have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been. Report anything unusual."

I sent Alex back out, then opened the Goblin Medical Book — and nearly fell over in shock.

For all of humanity's progress, regenerating the body still depended entirely on natural healing. Parts that couldn't recover on their own simply couldn't be healed, and even the ones that could took at least a full day. And yet goblins — a primitive tribal people — possessed recipes for magical potions that healed wounds instantly.

"So that's it. Because they use mana, humans could never make them."

I had no idea how many Awakened existed in the world. None of them were public knowledge. Most people lived their whole lives without even knowing Awakening was a thing. I hadn't known either — not until I Awakened myself. Mana was understood only as an energy resource used by the Tower's enemies. Human capacity to wield mana was effectively zero. You could use a finished potion just fine, but a human actively channeling mana? Impossible.

"This mana herb stuff — it's everywhere on the second floor, isn't it?"

The Red Potion the goblins used — a miracle draught that restored health on the spot. Its main ingredient was stocked all over Floor 2. And the medical book also contained recipes for higher-tier recovery potions: the Orange Potion and the White Potion.

"Something this easy to make…"

No — strictly speaking, this was a secret sauce. One wrong step in the mix and you got nothing. But because I'd picked up a Goblin Language dictionary on the first floor, I could read the Goblin Medical Book and walk away with the potion recipes.

"Wait. Elixir of Resurrection. This is actually possible?"

On top of that, the final chapter of goblin medicine was the Elixir of Resurrection — something you couldn't craft on Floor 2. The ingredients looked rare, but climbing the Tower would probably turn them up. The usage condition was within twenty-four hours of death. If you used it while the body's restoration rate was still low, you'd just die again immediately, so you had to regenerate the body first and then administer it.

"Goblins… you really can't write them off as a low-level civilization."

Good thing they were relatively underdeveloped. If they'd been flying around on hover boosts with beam sabers, carving through humans, it would have been an absolute nightmare.

"Floor 2 all-clear complete. No further hostile entities detected, Mother."

I'd been mulling over how to safely monetize the potion recipes when Alex's mission-complete transmission came in.

"Well done. Outstanding work, Captain Alex."

"Everything is for Mother."

What was I, some insect-hive queen? Using military ranks and then calling me Mother every other sentence was giving me serious cognitive dissonance.

"Return to me. We're withdrawing through the exit gate."

I gave the order, and a moment later Captain Alex came back — and the experience from every goblin he'd handled hit me all at once.

Level 4 now? And what was this Production Room supposed to do for me?

While I was thinking that, I noticed the messages had come in two layers.

I'd leveled up twice? So that made me Level 5?

The new aircraft was a transport by any measure. And with it came a matching pilot. The Production Room had opened, and it looked like a supply officer had come with it.

If this many people keep showing up, how am I supposed to memorize all their names?

One question rose immediately. If the roster kept growing every time I gained a level, exactly how many names was I going to have to learn?

"Supply."

"Sir! Second Lieutenant Rice, Supply Officer, Operations Department, Supply Section, reporting!"

"Can you mass-produce potions?"

"Recipe fully memorized. Provide the materials and I can make as many as you need."

"With this, I can put my sister through college."

The first real lead on clean money had just appeared.