The Talent Seal
"Is it over already?"
They said it was a massive patch, but it finished sooner than I expected. I quickly sat up and moved to my computer. As I clicked the execution button in front of the massive school gate, the gate swung wide open, reflecting a gorgeous garden landscape on my screen. After I entered my ID and password, the game title COSMO flashed brilliantly before scattering into fragments. What followed were the characters I had played: swordsmen, mages, archers, spearmen, and so on. While their classes and weapons were all different, they shared one thing in common—they were all "effort-based" characters.
Even among the countless games on the market, this one was famous for its high degree of freedom. That applied not just to gameplay, but to character creation as well. You could set everything from appearance and traits to the character's very talents. You could build a balanced type skilled in many areas, a specialized type with one exceptional trait, or even a character with no talent at all. My preference had always been a "normal" character—neither a genius nor a dunce, with nothing particularly outstanding. Watching such a character work endlessly to grow, eventually surpassing talented individuals to reach the pinnacle, gave me a strange sense of catharsis. Perhaps because I knew such things were impossible in reality.
'But I'm getting a bit tired of that now.'
It was fine once or twice, but watching the same repertoire over and over was becoming boring. So, this time, I decided to raise a perfect genius character. Not just a mediocre genius, but one who overwhelmed everything with their innate talent alone. 'Let's start building.'
I pressed the character creation button and began adding talents. Since I had to fit them within a limited point pool, it was impossible to dump every single talent in. I had to focus on the essentials. 'Let's go with a swordsman this time.'
Once the class was decided, I started adding the corresponding talents. I prioritized the basics: swordsmanship, martial arts, strength, agility, stamina, mana capacity, and mana control. Then came the secondary ones: mental fortitude, regeneration, mana affinity, comprehension, and reaction speed. They were secondary, but that only meant they were lower priority, not that they weren't important. They were a huge help in both combat and the training process.
'And this for the last one.'
Finally, I added "Artistic Sense." This talent was like an identity shared by every character I had ever raised. It wasn't a talent that helped much with gameplay. Adding it was purely my own indulgence. Since it was a talent I had desperately wished for in my own life, I wanted at least the character I played to possess it.
I had added all the necessary talents, but it wasn't enough. Only the core swordsmanship and martial arts were A-grade; everything else remained in the middle. It was because of the limited points. Even with this level of talent, they would certainly be classified as a genius, but it would be difficult to create a significant gap between them and other geniuses. I didn't want that. I wanted a talent so overwhelming that others wouldn't even dare to think of surpassing me.
I could have used the penalty system to add higher talents, but I didn't like the idea of introducing risks into my gameplay. That was why I had waited for this massive patch. It was scheduled to add exactly the feature I wanted.
'There it is.'
At the very bottom, there was a function called "Constraint." It was added in this patch. It was a system where you could place a constraint on your character in exchange for something else. For example, you could gain a powerful physique in exchange for the constraint of being unable to use mana at all. Furthermore, the stronger the constraint, the greater the reward. I intended to use this constraint to push my character's talents even further.
I had already thought about what kind of constraint to apply. 'Talent Seal and Growth Stagnation. The duration is two years. The reward is talent growth.'
According to the system of Cosmo Academy, the game's main setting, you aren't expelled until your second year, no matter how rock-bottom your grades are. The main scenario also begins after that. So, my plan was to endure the first two years without any talent and then use the enhanced talent to become stronger afterward. Since there was a skip function, I could just enjoy the pleasure without the pain starting from the third year.
I didn't know how much the talent would grow. However, having one's talent sealed for two years would be even more fatal for a genius-type character like this. Considering that, even if it wasn't as much as I expected, a clear growth would surely occur. If it didn't work out, I could just make another one.
'Then, let's do it.'
I finished the other settings, checked [Start from 3rd Year], and pressed the start button. And then, I lost consciousness.
'...This is possession.'
After dozens of minutes of agonizing thought while walking here following the guide, that was the conclusion I reached. I had become the character I created before losing consciousness, and the surrounding scenery was exactly as I had seen while playing the game. The vividness of the senses told me this was no dream. I pinched my arm and bit my tongue; it hurt. If this wasn't possession, then I must have finally gone insane.
"Student Kim Ilshin! Please hurry!"
I felt a hand pushing my back. I stumbled forward and stood in front of the door. It looked like an ordinary steel door, but it had a peculiar texture. Near the handle, instead of a knob, there was a place to press one's palm.
"Why are you just standing there instead of going in...!"
When I stood still, the prodding came again. I turned my head to look at the face of the person behind me. 'To see this person in person...' She would be seeing me for the first time, but I wasn't. I had seen her not just once, but many times. The problem was that it had been through a monitor screen, not in reality. That woman was the character who appeared in the COSMO tutorial to explain the game's background and systems.
'If so, then now is...'
The end of the tutorial, the sparring match between the student representatives. My opponent would be beyond that door. But there was a problem. It wasn't a matter of whether I could win the spar or not. Losing the first spar didn't hinder the gameplay at all. I could even forfeit as soon as it started. The real problem was elsewhere.
I placed my hand on the palm print drawn on the square door handle. The door didn't budge. The doors of Cosmo Academy could only be opened by channeling registered mana into the handle area. The main reasons were to prevent unauthorized entry, track personnel, and manage facility usage. There was also the reason of showing off the academy's technology and facilities. It was natural for an academy student or faculty member to be able to handle mana, but I couldn't. Since I couldn't use mana, even the simple act of opening the door was impossible.
'...This is driving me crazy.'
I was stuck from the very beginning.
I barely managed to enter the sparring arena by asking the guide to open the door for me. She seemed to have a lot to say, but due to the tight schedule, she just let me go. The spar was finished somehow. Since I raised my hand and forfeited as soon as it started, there was no time for anything to happen. The shocked expression on the referee's face was still vivid in my memory. I heard that a forfeit itself was a first.
After the spar ended, I went to the dormitory, but I couldn't even open the door to my assigned room, so I had to get a card key to open it. In case of an emergency, it was set up so that you could open the door with a student ID, but the student ID wouldn't be issued until the second day.
'...This is ridiculous.'
Since it was around sunset, the room was quite dark, but I couldn't turn on the lights. The room's lights operated on the same principle as the academy's doors. I couldn't use a card key for this, so if I couldn't handle mana, I couldn't turn them on either. It was an element I hadn't even paid attention to when playing as a game, but experiencing it firsthand, I wondered why on earth they had made it like this.
Entering the dormitory room, which looked like a high-end hotel, I sat in front of the mirror. What was reflected in the mirror was the appearance of the character I had seen through the monitor screen until I lost consciousness. The student ID lying on the desk contained the face of the man in the mirror. The name was Kim Ilshin, and... I was a first-year student at Cosmo Academy.
"Damn it..."
Curses came out naturally. I held my head with both hands. "Why now... I pressed skip..."
It wasn't just a strange face that I saw in the mirror.
[Constraint in effect. Talent Seal, Growth Stagnation.]
[Remaining time: 1 year, 364 days, 5 hours, 37 minutes]
It was desperate. The skip hadn't been applied, but the constraint had been applied perfectly. As long as that was in effect, I had to endure two years without talent and with stunted growth. I didn't even know if I would be able to use mana later. I had never encountered mana, and the growth stagnation might even interfere with mana acquisition.
The only fortunate thing was that I wouldn't be kicked out onto the streets immediately in this state. Since I wouldn't be expelled for two years regardless of how bad my grades were, staying at the academy wasn't a problem for now. The tuition was also fully covered, so there was no need for money.
'That's a stroke of luck, but...'
This world is absolutely not kind to the weak. Not only are dangers scattered throughout daily life, but the enemies that run rampant in the latter half are even more fatal to the weak. If the main scenario flows poorly, the apocalypse might even arrive. The only answer is to build up martial strength. It would be fortunate if I could return to my original world before then, but as is usually the case in creative works, it's rare to return without anything happening.
Living with my talent sealed and my growth blocked would be difficult, but...
'I have to survive somehow.'
That was 1 year and 364 days ago. I was still living in that dark room.