A Powerful Backer (2)
After the introductions were over, I left the president's office and went straight to the third-year Hunter Studies lecture.
I opened the classroom door and stepped inside, and dozens of students glanced my way.
So the stares are piling up after all.
Well, a transfer student walking in mid-semester was always going to be a curiosity. There were about forty people in the room, and the looks they gave me sat somewhere between indifference and mild interest — neither particularly warm nor particularly cold.
Then the professor came in, and with a TA's help he started setting something up on the podium. It was a device that looked like a glass crystal orb the size of a basketball, a data cable snaking out the back and plugging into a laptop.
They said if you put your hand on that thing, it can analyze your stats.
One caveat: the device couldn't read exact numbers or fine-grained details. That kind of equipment was far too expensive for a Tier-2 university to afford. What it could do was parse existing data, recognize a student's growth rate, and rank everyone against each other.
The lack of detail is a shame, but the fact that it can analyze at all is a real advantage.
From here on I planned to keep raising my stats with the magic sword, and that device was going to be essential for tracking how far I'd come.
Thud. Click. The professor finished the setup, tapped at the laptop, and brought the orb to life. White light bloomed inside the glass sphere that had been dark a moment ago.
"We'll begin today's analysis. As you all know, when your name is called, place your hand on the device and wait until the light blinks and goes out."
The students whose names were called came up one by one and set their hands on the orb. Because the device was linked to the laptop, the results showed on the big projector screen at the front of the room — and on the Manbeop University student app as well.
"Next. Kim Najin."
I stood at the professor's call and walked up to the podium. The moment I laid my hand on the orb, my rank and growth rate flared up on the screen behind me.
A murmur rose around me almost immediately.
"What? 123rd?"
I could practically hear the rest of them thinking it.
They said he transferred in right before the Man-Deok Tournament, so I was expecting something… but he's mid-to-low even among the third-years?
Aren't transfer students supposed to be the kind of talent that lights up a university?
That was what they were all thinking, no doubt. The Hunter Studies Department had roughly four to five hundred students across every year. 123rd among that many wasn't terrible — but it wasn't anything special either. In the eyes of Manbeop University's elite third-years, who had clawed their way this far, it was a number that fell well short.
Fair enough that they'd be disappointed for now.
On top of that, the fact that I could wield a magic sword was a secret among the students. Even most of the professors didn't really know. From their side of things, this was probably a bit of a shock.
"Ahem."
The professor for this lecture coughed, looking flustered, and saved the data on the laptop.
"Kim Najin. If you intend to keep up with Manbeop University's curriculum, you are going to have to work several times harder than everyone else. Return to your seat."
"Yes, sir. Understood."
I didn't bother making excuses. I just nodded evenly and went back to my seat. My abnormal growth rate from the magic sword was only just getting started anyway. The stares right now didn't bother me in the slightest.
The worse the results look now, the more the growth will hit later. Getting them disappointed might actually work in my favor.
And besides — I was already getting VIP treatment, wasn't I? I was receiving every bit of support I needed. There was no reason to start caring about student gossip today.
That afternoon, inside a donut shop on the Manbeop University campus, a male student was holding court with a group clustered around him.
"That transfer student, Kim Najin. The more I think about it, the weirder it is."
Choi Jaemin, class representative of the third-year Hunter Studies Department, had his face drawn tight.
"Getting into our university in one shot with a caliber like that? What the hell is he?"
Manbeop University was a place that valued raw stats. If this were Deokseong University, where you could luck your way into better grades, maybe. Here, you couldn't slip past the yardstick of strict scientific evaluation. On top of that, Kim Najin's origins sat badly with Choi Jaemin.
That guy dropped out of Deokseong and came here, didn't he.
After digging around, he'd confirmed it: until just recently, Kim Najin had been attending Deokseong University. And what kind of school was Deokseong? A place where professor embezzlement and corruption were everyday business.
No way a sneaky Deokseong brat got in here on merit.
Of course, Manbeop University was hardly a saint when it came to corruption either. They were, after all, the two undisputed peaks of the Tier-2 universities — rivals. But Choi Jaemin loved his alma mater fiercely, so he simply closed his eyes to the problems sitting right in front of him.
A Deokseong product who cooks grades, embezzles Ministry of Education budgets, and lives off corruption — walking into their bitter rival Manbeop overnight.
None of it added up.
"He's definitely a spy sent by Deokseong."
That was Choi Jaemin's conclusion, which was why he was still turning Kim Najin inside out from every angle. As class representative, he had no shortage of students who followed him, and the rough profile on Kim Najin had been gathered by putting those underlings to work.
Weapon is a sword. Does dungeon-clearing gigs on Hunter's Nation. Too busy to get close to anyone, apparently.
And even now, students loyal to Choi Jaemin were tailing Kim Najin. He pulled out his phone and posted in the group chat with his underclassmen.
The red flags weren't just one or two. Kim Najin was definitely supposed to be living in the dorms — and yet nobody had ended up as his roommate, and nobody had spotted him in the building.
There might be something shady about this too.
That was when it happened. A message shot up in the group chat — one of the underclassmen tailing Kim Najin, posting in a panic.
The underclassmen had been watching Kim Najin from a distance in pairs. Then Choi Jaemin's notice had come through — and right at that moment, Kim Najin had walked into the dormitory building.
The underclassmen chased after Kim Najin and barely managed to squeeze into the same elevator. Choi Jaemin's messages kept buzzing their phones.
At first the underclassmen planned to hit a button as late as possible. That way they could see which floor Kim Najin chose, then naturally press a higher one and keep following him. But instead of touching the elevator panel, Kim Najin pulled a black card from his pocket. He tapped it against the empty space below the buttons, then stepped back toward the rear of the elevator without doing anything else.
The underclassmen had no idea how to react. They just looked at each other. Kim Najin smiled and spoke first.
"Aren't you going to press a button?"
"Ah — right! We'll press it!"
They jabbed the button for the 10th floor, the highest floor of the dorm. But when the elevator arrived at the 10th and the doors opened, Kim Najin still hadn't gotten off.
Huh…?
The underclassmen stood there confused for a beat, then had no choice but to step out first. Left standing in the hallway, the two of them sent their final report to Choi Jaemin.
Choi Jaemin's face went rigid the instant he read the replies. He bit his lip and typed it out in a rush. When the underclassmen confirmed it, he let out a groan.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Manbeop University's dormitory officially only went up to the 10th floor. But any third-year who'd been around long enough to know how things actually worked was in on a certain open secret. Choi Jaemin laughed a hollow little laugh and told the group around him.
"Kim Najin. He's been using the VIP-exclusive dorm."
"What?"
"With that caliber? Are the underclassmen seeing things?"
Choi Jaemin shook his head at the doubters.
"Even if they don't know anything, they wouldn't just invent a lie from nothing, would they? No. The fact that they didn't know makes it more credible. They said they saw the whole thing — the Black Card, riding the elevator past the 10th floor, all of it."
The dorm didn't end at the 10th floor. A secret residence existed above that — a space for the geniuses among geniuses, the talents who would make Manbeop University's name shine. It had hotel-grade luxury facilities. It even came with a breakfast buffet.
"Hold on. A Deokseong University spy got assigned to the president's personal Royal Room? Does that make any sense?"
"Maybe he's not a spy. Maybe he's a parachute the president dropped in?"
"They're giving him that kind of luxury on connections instead of skill? And on the university budget? That's messed up!"
The group launched into a heated argument.
"What if that Kim Najin kid is hiding his power? Like, a joker card for the Man-Deok Tournament."
"Ah. Like a secret weapon?"
"That doesn't make sense. There's no way he could fool our school's evaluation equipment."
"Well, yeah, but…"
Through all of this, Choi Jaemin kept his mouth shut. His pupils trembled as if an earthquake had hit them.
This can't be happening.
The way he'd been tearing Kim Najin down just moments ago now felt chilling. If he could have, he would have wiped the memories of these guys blabbing around him.
"Hey. You idiots. You still don't get the situation?"
Choi Jaemin swallowed dryly and shouted in a cracked voice.
"Hiding his power doesn't make sense. Kim Najin's stats and caliber are exactly what the machine printed."
Then he tapped his temple, as if telling them to use their heads.
"Then think about it for a second. If the president himself is handing over a VIP Royal Room to someone who's only 123rd — just how big is Kim Najin's backer?"
"No way…!"
"You're saying someone even higher than the president might be backing him?"
Choi Jaemin nodded, conviction flooding his face.
Cold sweat rolled down Choi Jaemin's forehead.
"His stats are a little low right now? That's not even a problem. With a backer like that, there are a million ways to raise them. In the blink of an eye he'll climb somewhere we can't even look at. The pathetic stat gap sitting in front of us right now is as good as nothing!"
Shock rippled through the students gathered at the donut shop. That disappointing 123rd rank. The way Kim Najin had stayed so calm even under openly cold stares. It all replayed in their heads.
Back then I thought he looked empty-headed and unambitious, and I felt sorry for him. But—
Now the feeling was completely different.
But that wasn't it.
Kim Najin had probably been thinking something entirely different at the time. It felt like his thoughts from that moment were flooding into their heads and driving themselves in.
"Sure, I'm 123rd right now. In a few days I'll be sitting on top of your heads thanks to my gear anyway."
"This actually works out. This is how growth is supposed to taste."
Kim Najin hadn't been empty-headed or unambitious. He'd been overflowing with composure because he was a golden spoon who already had everything.
The donut-shop crowd clutched their heads in agony.
"Th-this is insane! Does that mean we pulled some crazy shit during morning class?"
"That's what I'm saying! We almost got properly marked by Kim Najin-nim!"
"I-I didn't laugh. Y-you never know how things'll turn out with people. Being that obvious is just stupid."
The students wound up to start snapping at each other again. Choi Jaemin seized the mood and shouted over them.
"Hey, hey! This is not the time for us to be fighting each other!"
"Then what the hell do we do?!"
By the time you hit third year at a Hunter University, everyone was desperate about getting ahead and landing a job. Choi Jaemin was no different — and before he knew it, he had already started treating Kim Najin as his lord and big brother in his heart. He turned to the group and declared it as if making a vow.
"Starting tomorrow, we get on Kim Najin-nim's good side no matter what. Exam banks, coffee, potions — we bring him everything! Before Kim Najin-nim soars off to the high floors of the Tower, we have to throw ourselves on the ground and grab onto that lifeline somehow. If a big shot like that takes a dislike to us, our futures are finished!"