Chapter 113

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Translator: Ryuma

Chapter: 113

Chapter Title: Lesson 24. Where's a Freshman Like You? - 1

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Why had Ban Yu-won left the treasure chest alone?

It was due to a somewhat whimsical idea. He'd been mulling over whether he could change the color of the chest.

During their second exploration, they'd gotten a treasure chest in the 10th room too (it had a gold trim made of wood), but back then, the chest had popped open before Ban Yu-won could even properly examine its concept, leaving no chance for any experiments.

The chest was structured to open the instant a person's hand touched it.

There was only one shot.

"Can I open it this time?"

"Sorry, I want to try something."

"Ah..."

Light, who'd been staring at the chest with sparkling eyes, deflated and stepped back.

Ignoring Light, Ban Yu-won pulled out something else entirely.

"Heave-ho."

"What?!"

It was a massive pile of gold.

Dozens of pure gold bars, each worth 7.53 million ronicas!

"What, what?! Where'd you get this much gold?!"

"Grandfather gave it to me when I came to school."

"Grandfather again...!"

Lucelle burned with pointless rivalry at the sight of Ban Yu-won smiling so innocently whenever he mentioned his grandfather.

But Dokgo Yeon nodded as if it all made sense.

"I figured as much. I suspected you weren't from an ordinary family, but carrying around this much state-certified gold bullion..."

"Wait, is Ban—no, are you royalty?"

"No wonder...!"

Light excitedly lunged forward at Dokgo Yeon's words, while Lucelle belatedly clapped and chimed in agreement.

Ban Yu-won, who remembered telling them bits about his life on Earth several times before, was dumbfounded by their overreaction.

"You guys never listen to what I say... I told you, I'm just a regular guy."

"No dimension's regular carries around that much gold."

Fair point. Ban Yu-won immediately conceded.

He'd pulled out the gold to tinker with the treasure chest, but his party members seemed more curious about him hauling out such a massive amount.

He'd already heard about Lucelle and Light's family situations to some extent, and pretending ignorance now would feel off, so skipping any mention of Babel Tower, he decided to give a simple rundown of his family background.

"Grandfather said we were once in a position of rulers long, long ago. I had special abilities even before coming here and awakening to magic power, and since many ancestors had abilities too, we've apparently accumulated wealth over generations."

"Getting picked for Union Academy's special admission from a dimension without magic power—I figured it wasn't just a simple mutation..."

"Indeed, a descendant of a forgotten royal line..."

Ban Yu-won tilted his head at Light muttering with a sly grin.

"Light, why are you so hell-bent on making me royalty?"

"Huh? Well, that's, uh..."

It had been an offhand comment, but Light visibly panicked.

No way was this guy thinking something lame like, 'I'm royalty, so my friend has to be too'?

"Anyway! What are you planning to do with that gold to the treasure chest? Offer it as tribute or something?"

Light, sweating bullets and avoiding his gaze, blatantly changed the subject.

Ban Yu-won decided to play along.

"Treasure chests from the tower come in four patterns: wood, bronze, silver, and gold. So I wondered if changing the chest's material with my ability might change the contents too."

"That's a truly absurd idea."

Dokgo Yeon replied incredulously.

"The contents are fixed the moment the treasure chest appears. Changing the material doesn't even make sense to begin with, and even if you succeeded, the odds of the contents changing are zero."

"Well, it's a good chance to test my authority in various ways... and there's no real loss, right?"

"You're losing gold...?"

Light blurted out in shock, but Ban Yu-won, who'd been waiting for that, flashed a triumphant smile.

"Know how much our channel made this month?"

"How much?"

"60 million ronicas."

"...?"

"?"

"?!"

One ronica was worth about 100 won compared to Korean currency.

In other words, 60 million ronicas was 6 billion won.

And that was just for a period short of a full month—with more videos going up, revenue would only climb higher.

"How...?"

"Channel subscriptions and donations are big, but mostly ad revenue."

Explaining YouTube's monetization to the trio who didn't even know the internet existed would be too complicated, but he could convince them that a channel watched by billions from higher dimensions, tied to countless higher beings, wielded massive influence and profits.

Of course, they'd roughly anticipated it, but the concrete figure seemed unreal.

Per their agreement, half went to Ban Yu-won, the other half split three ways among the rest—still an insane amount.

"...Yu-won's share is 30 million, mine 10 million... together 40 million."

"Why add yours, Lucelle?"

"Such ability... with talent like that, even a herd of over ten... grrr..."

"Lucelle?!"

Lucelle had broken.

Ban Yu-won knew she reacted honestly to money talk.

Not obsessed with cash itself, but she viewed his money-making prowess very positively.

...Though she interpreted it a bit too simplistically.

"Dokgo Yeon, calm Lucelle down while I work."

"Got it. ...If revenue's really that high, using a few gold bars for an ability test seems fine."

"Yeah... hoping it only takes a few. Let's do this."

To reiterate, a 1kg gold bar cost 7.53 million ronicas after Union fees and taxes.

Four bars equaled a full month's Rebellion channel earnings.

Though Union's valuation of gold was abnormally high...

'Can't help my curiosity though.'

Ban Yu-won steeled himself and reached out.

Cellon floated naturally from his inventory into his hand.

"Not as flashy as before."

Ban Yu-won took deep breaths, reviewing the process.

First, manifest the concept of Stop via language magic to prevent the chest from opening even when touched.

It should reliably halt the treasure chest, but the duration wouldn't be long.

He had to finish before it wore off.

'Analyze the chest's structure, then swap its bronze and gold in a flash. Simple.'

With the power of the authorities he'd seen, experienced, and wielded so far, it was definitely possible.

Now, just execute.

He drew the Stop concept in the air with his staff, then floated Cellon.

Cellon would condense the staff's mana to activate his language magic in his place.

Plenty to retort there.

Cellon wasn't even alive, and how would it know about tower rewards anyway!

'Ah, right... I just guessed. The chest opens on touch, right? Got me thinking, why bother? Maybe the contents aren't fixed until it opens.'

Denying any inspiration from Schrödinger's famous thought experiment would be a lie.

Perhaps the firmly shut chest maintained its internal independence and variability.

The idea that it only manifests upon observation fit the chest's contents perfectly.

'Okay, I'm set.'

Ban Yu-won reached one hand toward the gold pile, ready to extract concepts anytime.

The Gold concept dwelled purely at depth 10 in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠each 1kg bar.

He swallowed hard, then placed his other hand atop the treasure chest—

"Now!"

The chest didn't open right away!

But it rattled furiously, straining to open, forcing Ban Yu-won to yell at Cellon to pour in mana haphazardly.

'Analyze, analyze... Got it!'

Ban Yu-won instantly grasped and absorbed the concepts forming the treasure chest.

Total depth of 200.

Bronze Chest (denoting the bronze body), Gold Rim (gold edging), equal amounts sealing it shut, and now a temporary Stop halting its motion.

That had likely been the full set, but Stop was now blocking it.

The backlash was so intense that even now, Stop was rapidly fading.

No time to dawdle! Ban Yu-won swiftly separated only the Bronze concept from the Bronze Chest with Gold Rim.

'30! That's workable!'

He extracted Gold at depth 30 from three gold bars.

Fortunately, unlike Flesh or Soul, Gold didn't dilute when stacked, so combining from three bars kept depth 30.

Slot it right into Bronze's place!

'If only I had Chainling, this'd be easy!'

But the swap went surprisingly smoothly.

Bronze was a core concept of the chest; without replacing it, the chest would collapse, so it eagerly accepted the injected Gold.

The issue lay in the resulting composite.

'What is this? It won't hit 100... and it's not turning gold.'

Ban Yu-won sensed his mistake.

Perhaps Bronze Chest with Gold Rim and Gold Chest with Gold Rim had fundamentally different conceptual 'parts.'

Forcing the change had reduced the depth itself.

And this treasure chest needed depth 200 to complete, so with Gold Chest with Gold Rim + Seal at 180, it couldn't open.

If Stop expired like this? The chest might just collapse.

Solution? Only one: volume.

'Yeah, direction was right. I was just stingy.'

He'd dared to craft Eden's top reward himself but skimped with just three bars? His fault for skimping.

Ban Yu-won resolved firmly and began extracting concepts from the gold pile, injecting straight into the chest.

Hit 100 on Gold Chest with Gold Rim before Stop vanishes completely!

The gold pile shrank rapidly, Lucelle and Light screamed, but ignore it all!

That's why he'd piled it mountain-high from the start!

'Knew it!'

Gold matched depth to mass, but Gold Chest with Gold Rim didn't!

Earlier, equal Gold raised it by 2; now just 1.

At this rate, Stop would end before completion.

Ban Yu-won desperately signaled Cellon to amp the language magic, transferring Gold depth at max speed!

A bit faster.

Faster!

'Done!'

The instant depth hit 100, the chest gleamed gold as if it had always been.

Grace period to dissolution: a mere 1.

Movies always stopped the bomb one second before detonation—now he got why.

Heroes probably slacked at first, thinking 'plenty of time,' then panicked in the final countdown, finishing at superhuman speed.

"Hoo."

"Ah, ahhh."

"The gold..."

As Ban Yu-won empathized with movie heroes, Light and Lucelle sighed beside him.

Half the gold bar pile was gone.

"There were 53 originally; 29 vanished."

"Lucelle, good eyes."

"At 7.53 million ronicas each, that's 218.37 million ronicas...!"

"Our Lucelle's great at math too."

"Leave the budgeting to me! ...Wait, not that!"

He'd blown an absurd fortune, but Ban Yu-won felt no regret.

He'd made a gold chest, after all.

Its depth might pale compared to Eden's natural gold chests, but a gold chest was a gold chest.

"Opening it."

"A gold chest!"

Tears for the lost gold forgotten, Light and Lucelle excitedly crowded as the chest yawned open.

Inside: transparent gloves and boots.

Judging by looks alone, one might think Ban Yu-won's meddling turned the reward to trash.

"...?"

"Ooooh, unappraised!"

Exactly.

Ban Yu-won chuckled and reached for the gloves.

Sparks crackled; they repelled him.

"Uh..."

"Whoa, Ban got rejected?"

"By gloves?"

"...How dare they."

Ban Yu-won frantically stopped Lucelle as her expression turned feral, claws extending.

"Don't get mad at it, Lucelle. It's yours."

"Mine?"

She blinked, baffled.

But Ban Yu-won was certain.

He'd glimpsed 'Feral' in the concepts from the gloves, however briefly.

"Also saw Growth, Assimilation, Thunderbeast. ...If I'm right, it's a growth-type divine tool."

"Growth-type divine tool..."

"An ancient artifact!"

No idea if ancients even had such things.

But granting Growth directly without infusing Life like he did was fascinating.

"You take it... You're the only fit. Dokgo Yeon, cool with you?"

"I don't rely on foreign objects. If it's for beasts, gladly yield."

"Ban was rejected too, so probably me as well. Yours."

"Th-then..."

With consensus, Lucelle cautiously touched the gloves.

They accepted her.

More—an info window appeared before her eyes alone, as she nodded in awe.

No more hesitation. She slipped the gloves on both hands, removed her shoes and socks, then donned the boots.

Next instant, they melted smoothly, absorbing into her hands and feet.

"Lucelle?!"

"It's fine, Light. This is right. Amazing, Yu-won. It said it was stuck in claw form for dual hand-mounting with no growth left, but you gave it new potential."

"Glad it worked."

Ban Yu-won had half-expected it.

Growth or Assimilation seemed simple but were elusive concepts.

Easy to conjure temporarily via language magic, hard to find permanently embedded in objects.

And the final Thunderbeast was a novel breed even to him.

Thus, the transparent gloves and boots were a set: a lightning beast that assimilated with and grew alongside its user... a living weapon.

'Always worried about Lucelle fighting bare-handed. Tower delivered exactly what I wanted.'

Her race used claws naturally, but seeing her hands and feet get battered hurt.

Now with a fine artifact, no more worries.

"29 bars for this payoff... Worth trying next treasure chest too."

"Yeah, another unpostable video..."

Then it happened.

A tower message appeared before Ban Yu-won.

"Ooh."

'Nice exploit via your skills—props, but won't be easy next time.' That vibe.

The message perfectly captured the tower's personality, making Ban Yu-won burst out laughing.

'Fine, next time I'll learn real Chainling from Mira.'

And his challenge ignited.

Uncannily similar.