Chapter 328: Daily Life at The Society (3)
Chapter 328: Daily Life at The Society (3)
Ting.
The clear sound of a metal plate striking an observation device—one I had ripped out of... I mean, borrowed from a nearby lab—echoed through the room.
The metal plate, flicked into the air by the device, danced through the void before landing inside the machine's tray.
I leaned forward to check the result.
"Heads."
Confirming the result, I added another stroke to the notepad in front of me and simultaneously tapped the transfer button on my smartphone screen.
A few seconds later, a message appeared: [Transfer to the Social Reconstruction Bureau under the Management Bureau complete.]
Once the transfer was confirmed, I pressed the button on the machine, flicking the metal plate into the air once more.
It looked like a coin, but it was a precision-engineered metal plate designed to have nearly identical probabilities for both sides. To minimize randomness, its smooth surface was finely coated with different colors to distinguish the sides. It spun through the air again before landing in the tray.
Red.
"...Heads."
After confirming the result, I repeated the same actions. Once the transfer was complete, I reviewed the records I had gathered so far.
Total attempts: 100.
The distribution of results: 84 heads, 15 tails, and 1 instance of the machine malfunctioning and firing the metal plate directly at me.
Deducing from these results...
This is definitely weird.
Of course, 100 attempts aren't enough to be statistically definitive, but for the distribution to be this skewed, it could only mean that something was interfering.
Especially since I had set a precondition: if it landed on heads, I would donate my money.
Now, for someone like me, whose income mostly disappears into donations anyway, the act of donating isn't exactly a misfortune. However, the fact that what little money I have is vanishing through a stunt like this could certainly be perceived as "bad luck."
In other words, the fact that a coin toss—which should naturally result in a roughly 50/50 split—was this biased meant one of two things.
Either the Simple Causality Probability Tester was broken.
Or the causality surrounding me had been warped for some reason.
Likely in a way that makes me "unlucky."
Of course, there was a chance it was just a massive statistical anomaly, but that was about as likely as me winning the lottery, so I ignored it.
Alright then. Now that I've confirmed my current situation is abnormal...
"Alright. Go, my disciples."
I gave the order to my disciples, who had been blankly watching my experiment.
However, my command merely echoed uselessly in the silent room.
After a moment, one of the disciples, who had been staring at me with a bewildered expression even after hearing the order, spoke up.
"I have a question, Senior."
"What is it?"
"What exactly are you doing right now, and what do you mean by telling us to 'go'?"
"That's two questions. Which one should I answer first?"
"The first one."
Hmm, fair enough. At a glance, it's hard to tell what the hell I'm doing.
I suppose my explanation was lacking.
Shall I tell them, then?
"This is a Simple Causality Probability Tester. It's a way to check if something has gone wrong due to the interference of an Otherworldly Power."
After all, people with techniques that can warp probability itself are more common than you'd think.
"Then why do you need a machine? Can't you just flip it by hand?"
Han A-bin asked a follow-up question that was perfectly logical within the bounds of common sense. It was a question anyone would think of—if they were thinking normally, that is.
"Sure, I do it that way when I'm in a hurry. In the field, I'll just flip a coin about ten times. But there's one problem with that..."
Just as I was about to explain.
"Master! It's because the results get contaminated if a person does it, right?"
Baek Si-hyun suddenly cut in and blurted out the correct answer.
"Huh? What do you mean, Si-hyun?"
Before I could even explain, the conversation continued between the disciples.
"I mean, if a person flips a coin, they can control whether it's heads or tails with their own will!"
Baek Si-hyun spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, even though it sounded like nonsense to a normal person.
Naturally, Han A-bin, the one with actual common sense, furrowed her brows as if she were listening to pure gibberish.
"There's no way that's possib—"
Ting. Ting.
Right as Han A-bin spoke, the sound of two metal plates being flicked into the air rang through the room.
One was a fair coin I had picked up from the machine.
The other was an ordinary coin Baek Si-hyun had pulled from her pocket.
We both caught them almost simultaneously and opened our hands to prove the point.
"Heads."
"Heads!"
Ting. Ting.
The two sounds overlapped again.
"Heads."
"Heads again!"
By opening our hands, Si-hyun and I showed Han A-bin the exact same result.
"...Is that actually possible?"
"With finger control!"
"You can choose heads or tails the moment you snatch it out of the air."
I used to fleece soldiers out of their cigarettes and booze like this, though they eventually caught on.
"Anyway, when a person does it by hand, unconscious actions reflect in the result even if you don't intend them to. You might subconsciously cause a bias by thinking, 'This must be probability interference,' or you might force a 50/50 split while being in denial, thinking, 'There's no way I'm in such a dire situation.' That's why a machine like this is necessary."
Of course, this is just a portable version. In reality, since issues can arise depending on the machine's placement or the surrounding environment, more precise observation equipment exists within the Management Bureau...
But even for a portable tester, the fact that it fired a coin at me was already confirmation enough that something was wrong.
As I finished my explanation...
"So, does that mean something is affecting you right now, Senior? Like... a curse of misfortune?"
Han A-bin asked, her tone suggesting she wasn't even sure if such a thing existed.
And understandably so. No matter how much of a mess the world is with Otherworldly Powers and superpowers running rampant, she probably hasn't seen many techniques that directly interfere with luck.
The difficulty of techniques involving causality or probability is absurdly high.
Simply doing something bad to a person isn't hard. You can throw a rock with telekinesis or fire a bullet.
However, "becoming unlucky" is a premise that is far too vague and complex.
How do you define misfortune? How do you know what the surrounding environment will be? How must that environment act to harm that specific person?
Making all of that possible is generally close to impossible.
However...
"Yeah, techniques that mess with luck or misfortune do exist."
The fact that such things are real has already been proven.
Massive, large-scale magic.
For instance, Macbeth’s S-Rank Technique, The Three Witches of the Wilderness.
Or my strangely specific issues with vehicles...
...I'm not joking. The existence of luck and misfortune was successfully proven because of that.
Of course, I'm not the only one. Heroes whose fates are twisted like that are common enough that academic papers have been written about them. But at the very least, Macbeth’s S-Rank Technique was inspired by my vehicle problems.
It's not even funny.
In other words, this phenomenon was likely caused by that kind of high-level magic.
The most likely suspect is Magic Weaver, but if that guy had pulled off magic of this scale, he would have been bragging about it ages ago, so he's a secondary suspect for now.
Next would be Macbeth, who is actually capable of using such magic, but I doubt he's met the conditions, and I don't see why he'd do this to me, so he's out of the question.
That leaves Otherworldly enemies or other mages.
"So, go find the bastard who's casting this. My disciples."
Having reached that conclusion, I ordered my disciples to find the suspicious individuals.
That was the answer to Han A-bin’s second question.
"I have another question, Senior."
However, Han A-bin didn't seem satisfied with my answer and spoke up again.
"What now? What's the problem?"
"Wouldn't it be more efficient for you to go look for them yourself? We're likely outside the effective range, so we won't be able to track the mana, and we don't know the mages' faces as well as you do."
All day today, Han A-bin had been speaking nothing but sense.
Unlike Baek Si-hyun, who lives by her instincts, I was incredibly grateful for Han A-bin’s presence—someone who could raise rational doubts.
"A-bin. I appreciate the very sensible opinion. But the thing is..."
If this were a normal situation, that is.
"This situation is a problem in an irrational domain that you don't know about. It's an answer you can't reach by thinking with common sense."
Interfering with causality itself to manipulate the probability of something happening.
The scariest part of this is that the effect is so broad that even the victim can't fully grasp its nature.
I'm unlucky, but how long will this misfortune last?
I'm experiencing bad luck, but is this really the effect of magic? If so, what actions does it apply to? How much does it apply? Does the intensity gradually increase?
Questions only continue to pile up.
And there's one more problem.
"A-bin, you're aiming for a Command Position, right? Then you need experience in finding irrational answers to irrational situations. For example, what if the essence of this magic is a 'misfortune' that prevents me from finding the caster?"
If that's the case, then no matter what I do, it'll be a waste of effort.
Of course, it's unlikely that such a powerful distortion is occurring. Just as I was able to snatch a fork in the Dining Hall, there are clear limits to what simple luck or misfortune can suppress.
"In that case, the best course of action is for me to control the probability of things happening as much as possible while people who aren't within the range of effect move instead."
In fact, the best way to deal with causality or probability manipulation on an individual level is to have someone else solve it.
This was a lesson learned from countless battlefields.
"Hmm... But thinking within a sensible range, wouldn't us finding the caster also fall under the domain of 'good luck' for you?"
Yes, that was another issue.
If someone else does something that results in good luck for me, is that also blocked?
However, I could refute that.
"The subject of these techniques is always based on the actions of the person involved, A-bin. If it weren't, you'd reach the transcendent conclusion that I'd become a de facto immortal because the only way for me to be truly 'unlucky' would be for the other person to remain completely unharmed."
Of course, there are limits.
"And during this morning's catastrophe, I was clearly the only one who suffered. This is likely a misfortune limited to myself. It doesn't interfere with the causality of others."
In fact, if they wanted to make me truly miserable, they could have just harmed my disciples or Un-ho.
I'm the type of person who would find that far more unfortunate than getting hurt myself.
But the disciples hadn't suffered any such damage.
"So, get going. For magic of this scale, they must be using a massive catalyst or an immense amount of mana. Just go around beating up and interrogating anyone who looks suspicious."
Of course, someone capable of casting such great magic wouldn't leave such obvious evidence. They've likely drawn a massive Magic Circle in some hidden location and ensured the mana doesn't leak out.
But even that kind of distortion is bound to show through suspicious behavior.
Did she understand the meaning behind my words?
"Understood, Master! I'll be back!"
Slam!
Baek Si-hyun immediately kicked open the lab door and ran out.
I gave a wide smile as I watched my disciple's retreating back.
"And you, A-bin?"
I then turned the question to my remaining disciple.
"Well, I'm going too."
Tap, tap.
Perhaps getting ready to move, Han A-bin tapped the heels of her shoes against the floor to adjust them.
"Then, what are you going to do in the meantime, Senior?"
She threw that question back at me.
"Me? It's obvious."
I stated my newly formed objective.
"I'm going to go beat up the suspicious bastards one by one."
The guy who says he can't meet me?
He's the culprit.
Now then, shall we start with Magic Weaver? Time to go give him a thrashing.
A secondary suspect?
My gut says he's the one.