Chapter 12: Adaptation (3)

It had been a few days since my last visit to the warehouse.

Now, I was sitting in a university lecture.

“Today’s topic is the ‘Lost History’ of the Lokpia continent. Many historians specializing in otherworld history, along with their counterparts in the otherworld, agree on one thing.”

Professor Park Ahjeong was as lively as ever.

“There exists a ‘666-Year Void’ in the world history of that realm, a period no scholar has been able to decipher.”

She threw a question at the students, who were listening with bored expressions.

“Your recent test asked you to consider what might have been written in the missing pages of that world’s history books, during that void. You were to list as many credible hypotheses as you could, with each convincing hypothesis worth one point, for a total of 100 points.”

The students shook their heads, as if still reeling from the ordeal.

“How are we supposed to memorize 100 hypotheses?”

“Even alternate history nerds would struggle with that.”

“I think I barely wrote ten.”

“I got three, man.”

Then, Professor Park dropped a bombshell that startled everyone.

“Remarkably, the highest scorer in this test earned 99 points. They listed nearly 100 hypotheses, and 99 of them were highly convincing.”

Her voice trembled with excitement as she continued.

“This is the first time I’ve seen such a high score since I started teaching. I never imagined a student would memorize 99 hypotheses. It’s like seeing myself when I was an undergrad.”

“I’d love to bring them to grad school… Oh, whoops, never mind. Anyway, such a student exists. I’ll call them out as an example for you all to follow. Cha Hasang, Journalism and Information Studies, class of ’17?”

All eyes in the lecture hall turned to me, crouched in the corner.

Professor Park pinpointed me with a bright smile.

“Must be that Journalism major giving you an edge in this kind of knowledge? Honestly, I was shocked. ‘Great Plague Theory,’ ‘War-Loss Theory,’ ‘Historical Cartel Theory,’ ‘Mass Migration Theory,’ ‘Book-Burning Theory,’ ‘Historical Persecution Theory,’ ‘Natural Disaster Theory,’ and so on…”

“You memorized and analyzed all the possible ‘what-ifs’ that could account for 666 years of lost history in the continent.”

“…Thank you.”

“Thank you! It means you’re really engaging with my class, so I’m the grateful one. But how did you memorize all that content?”

“I just brute-forced it. I’m pretty good at memorizing.”

“Brute-forced? You must be incredibly sharp! Hoho~ You’re exactly the kind of talent we need in grad school… Oh, maybe that’s too soon.”

Professor Park walked over and patted my shoulder lightly.

“Let’s take it slow and get to know each other better, shall we?”

“…”

Some might envy the physical contact with a beautiful professor, but I just felt a chill.

I could see it.

The dark, scheming hand of a professor trying to drag me to grad school.

She lingered by my side for a while, subtly probing about my interest in grad school, before finally returning to the front.

I waited for everyone’s attention to shift away, then glanced down at my book.

Wriggle, wriggle—

A snail, half black and half white, was crawling across it.

Scritch, scritch…

It moved slowly, nibbling at something on the page.

Scritch, scritch, scritch…

The snail was eating the text on the book.

It’s really chowing down.

This snail crawled across the pages, steadily consuming the book.

But it only ate the content—specifically, the text.

It left the paper untouched, picking out only the printed words.

The white is the paper, the black is the text.

I examined the page the snail had passed over.

Astonishingly, it was completely blank, not a single letter remaining.

<Text-Eating Slug ‘Engram’>  

– Storage Number: MRG-31  

– Storage Grade: Safe  

Long ago, in the royal library of the Morgue Kingdom, librarians were frequently executed.

Precious tomes stored deep in the library would turn blank overnight, a recurring mystery.

Even with brave soldiers guarding the library, the strange incidents persisted.

Then, a wise librarian who loved books volunteered to protect the collection herself.

She stayed up all night, watching every page and letter.

After hours, she finally spotted this slug crawling between the pages, eating the text.

Outraged by the loss of precious books, she chewed and swallowed the slug alive.

Then, something miraculous happened.

The librarian began reciting the contents of all 15,000 lost tomes from the royal library, word for word, without a single mistake.

“Talk about a convenient snail.”

I patiently waited for the Engram to finish eating all the text.

Soon, its once-white body turned completely black.

It took about ten books for its body to fully darken.

I glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then popped the snail into my mouth.

Crunch, crunch, crunch—

It was gross, but I had no choice.

I closed my eyes and quickly swallowed it.

Gulp!

And then…

Okay, it’s all coming back!

The contents of the books the Engram had eaten flooded my mind.

An entire thick textbook was now in my head, as if I were flipping through its pages.

No wonder I aced the test.

It was like taking an open-book exam with internet access at the same time.

No, it was faster than that.

And this miraculous snail’s taste varied depending on the text it consumed.

This wasn’t even mentioned in the guidebook.

For example, a cookbook about grilling meat tasted like actual meat.

A sports star’s autobiography tasted like salty sweat and freshly cut grass.

Academic textbooks were like chewing konjac—colorless, odorless, tasteless.

Romance novels were sweet and rich, horror novels tasted like metallic blood, and self-help books had the flavor of lies.

With this, I can ace any test.

Even a tough civil service exam would be no problem.

I glanced at the stack of books in my bag.

All of them were blank.

The Engram had eaten every word.

But that wasn’t all.

Ding-dong!

<Morgue’s Magical Warehouse exploration rate increased! – 0.000001% UP!>  

<Morgue’s Magical Warehouse exploration rate increased! – 0.000001% UP!>  

<Morgue’s Magical Warehouse exploration rate increased! – 0.000001% UP!>  

<Morgue’s Magical Warehouse exploration rate increased! – 0.000001% UP!>

Using this thing boosts the warehouse exploration rate too.

A true two-for-one deal.

Acing college exams and leveling up as a hunter—what a perfect synergy.

At that moment…

“Sunbae, class is over. Aren’t you leaving?”

Someone called out to me.

I turned to see the same female student from before.

What was her name? 

Kim Yerim? 

Yerin?

Anyway, the freshman rumored to be the prettiest in our department.

But I remembered her for a different reason.

Her dad’s an A-rank hunter, right? 

And the master of a fairly successful mid-sized guild, I heard.

That made her quite the golden spoon.

Then, Kim Yerim asked again.

“Class is over. Aren’t you going?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m heading out.”

“Where to, sunbae? Another class?”

“Me? I’ve got one more elective. Gotta head there now.”

She smiled brightly at me.

“You’re taking Modern Fiction Studies, right? The elective.”

“Huh? How’d you know?”

“We’re in that class together.”

“Really? I didn’t know. I thought I was the only one from our department.”

“Nope. I checked the roster—it’s just you and me. I noticed when I saw the attendance list.”

“Oh, cool. Nice to meet you. Well, I gotta go now… Have you eaten?”

“Not yet!”

“…”

“I already ate. There’s a new bossam place nearby that’s pretty good. You should check it out sometime. Alright, see you in class!”

Nailed it. 

Smooth exit.

I gave a quick goodbye and slipped out of the lecture hall.

But Kim Yerim followed right behind me.

“Isn’t it normal to say that while inviting someone to the bossam place?”

“Let me see your timetable, sunbae!”

“Wow, we have a lot of classes together. Here’s my timetable! Pretty similar, right?”

“I’m free Thursday afternoons too! We could study together during exam season.”

“Let’s have lunch tomorrow! I know a hidden gem near the back gate… My treat!”

“By the way, you were awesome earlier. Professor Park’s tests are crazy hard.”

“I’m super into Lokpia history too. Oh, and…!”

She was asking an unusual number of questions.

With a curious tone, she threw another one at me.

“Sunbae, why’d you get 99 points? I heard you wrote 100 hypotheses.”

“One of them must not have been convincing enough.”

“Which one?”

“Hm? Oh, just… something not in the books.”

“A hypothesis not in the books? What was it?”

“Well…”

How to explain it?

The reason for the ‘666-Year Void’ in Lokpia’s history books.

A mystery that historians from both worlds have wrestled with but never solved.

Having been in the warehouse, I had a rough guess.

“There was once a mighty empire that ruled half of the Lokpia continent, but it mysteriously collapsed after 666 years. Something like that.”

“Half the continent? That’s like… bigger than the US, China, Russia, and Canada combined in our world! No way!”

Kim Yerim giggled and continued.

“That’s a bit too far-fetched! No wonder you got docked a point!”

“Haha…”

I just laughed it off.

But few people knew that this hypothesis was actually the truth.

Morgue Mu Featherback of the Lokpia continent.

And Cha Hasang of South Korea.

Likely just the two of us.