A Veteran Teaches Very Well

part 32

Everyone gathered in the conference room turned their attention to the association’s staff.

They demanded from Ryu Jeong-ah.

“Then please make Professor Cha’s paper public. If we compare it with the one in the Great Library, won’t the truth be revealed?”

─That sounds good.

─We should do this decisively.

─It’s an opportunity to clear the professor’s name.

The atmosphere was one of agreement.

If the paper were made public, the truth would come to light.

The association staff sought permission from the parties involved.

“Professor Cha, could you please make your paper public?”

“Sure.”

It was a refreshing response.

It was so confident that one might think the association staff had misjudged the situation.

─That’s not the attitude of someone cornered at all.

─Was there some misunderstanding?

─That hacker probably had his limits. Surely he couldn’t have completely wiped out the Great Library?

Yoon Seong-yeop silently mocked the professors chattering beside him.

Foolish people.

You don’t know a man named Jeon Tae-jin.

Once he’s involved, Professor Cha is nothing but prey caught in a spider’s web.

That attitude is just bravado. Bravado.

“……!”

But at that moment, Yoon Seong-yeop felt a sharp sensation.

His body felt cold and shivery.

He quickly understood the reason.

President Ryu Jeong-ah was looking at him.

“Gasp!”

Yoon Seong-yeop startled and took a small breath.

The professors around him glanced at him for a moment before quickly losing interest.

‘Our eyes met. Why…’

Ryu Jeong-ah chuckled and said to the association staff.

“Instead, bring out the one who was talking about Cha’s kid. Otherwise, there will be no cooperation.”

“Yes, yes? That’s not allowed. The whistleblower has the right to protection…”

“What a joke. That brat who claims the other is a criminal is so brazen, yet why is that guy hiding behind? Bring him here, now!”

The murmurs filled the conference room.

Within Florian, Ryu Jeong-ah’s words were absolute.

Public opinion shifted according to Ryu Jeong-ah’s statements.

─Right. What’s that guy doing?

─Let’s see the face of the fool who dared to touch the Great Library without a shred of fear.

─If Professor Cha is truly a fraud, what reason does he have to not be so confident?

“Um, um…”

The Hero Association staff could only shuffle their feet anxiously.

The association had a duty to protect the whistleblower.

The fact that the opponent was Ryu Jeong-ah was not even a valid excuse. They couldn’t mention Yoon Seong-yeop’s name here.

However, if Ryu Jeong-ah remained uncooperative, there was no way to investigate.

Yet, if the association forcibly began an investigation, a massive war that would shake Korea would erupt. The high-ranking officials of the association did not want that.

Touching Ryu Jeong-ah recklessly would likely worsen public sentiment against the association more than betraying the whistleblower.

‘Tch!’

Yoon Seong-yeop clicked his tongue inwardly as he realized how the situation was unfolding.

At this rate, it was clear things would fizzle out without resolution.

If the association was determined to overturn Florian, it could end the matter, but the time it would take was a problem.

This could complicate his promise with Jeon Tae-jin significantly.

‘It can’t be helped.’

While the Hero Association couldn’t hand over Yoon Seong-yeop, it was fine for him to step out himself.

Yoon Seong-yeop stood up from his seat and walked forward.

Step by step—

─Who is that person?

─What’s going on?

─What’s happening?

All eyes turned to Yoon Seong-yeop.

Alright. Let’s think of this as an opportunity.

This might actually work out.

It was an opportunity to reveal that the protagonist was the one who reported the professor’s misconduct.

“It’s me. I reported Professor Cha.”

Yoon Seong-yeop’s confession stirred the conference hall.

Although Yoon Seong-yeop was not a well-known professor within Florian, all the professors from the relevant department recognized him.

There were also a few professors who knew Yoon Seong-yeop personally.

Everyone reacted with surprise.

─ Yoon Seong-yeop touched the Great Library?

─ Did a fellow professor suspect him and investigate…?

The association staff felt a mix of relief and concern.

Thanks to Yoon Seong-yeop stepping forward voluntarily, the issue had been resolved, but another problem arose.

Ryu Jeong-ah’s fury turned towards him.

“Is that so? You dare to touch the Great Library?”

“Ugh!”

The energy he had exuded earlier seemed almost playful in its overwhelming intensity.

The association staff began to wonder if mere malice could kill a person.

Yoon Seong-yeop, the one directly involved, felt an even greater pressure than they did.

“Ugh, ugh…”

It felt as if he would be crushed to death by the immense malice.

Ryu Jeong-ah spoke.

“Is it true, Seong-yeop? Did you really touch the Great Library?”

Yoon Seong-yeop could not answer.

Ryu Jeong-ah continued.

“No, there must be someone else behind this. Who put you up to it?”

The staff, regaining their composure, intervened to stop Ryu Jeong-ah.

“Please stop! He has the right to protection as a whistleblower!”

“If you press further, there may be repercussions.”

Ryu Jeong-ah reluctantly stepped back.

“Fine. Let’s change the order. If Professor Cha is innocent, then the one who did this loses their right to protection, right?”

“Yes? Y-yes…”

“Everyone, listen!”

Ryu Jeong-ah shouted.

“Do you know why I gathered you all here, kids? Do you think it’s just to publicly execute a bunch of little ones?”

“No, what’s going on all of a sudden…?”

“Did you ask why Cha Ah-hae’s thesis isn’t in the Grand Library? It’s because the Grand Library is protected by a first-class security law. So-called state secrets that fall under special security laws are not stored in the Grand Library.”

At Ryu Jeong-ah’s words, the conference room became more chaotic than ever.

─State secrets?

─What is the president talking about?

─Did I hear that wrong…?

Everyone was equally shocked, but the most surprised of all was Yoon Seong-yeob.

‘State secrets! What on earth does that mean?’

The situation began to take a strange turn.

I don’t know how things got to this point, but one thing is certain: something has gone terribly wrong.

Yoon Seong-yeob’s face turned pale.

It felt as if all the blood was draining from his body.

A staff member from the association asked.

“State secrets… Is it okay to talk about that here?”

“I was going to announce it anyway within this week. Since the opportunity has arisen, it wouldn’t be a problem to bring it up. Given the circumstances, that is.”

The sudden revelation left everyone unable to keep up.

Only Ryu Jeong-ah’s voice echoed loudly in the conference room.

“Cha Ah-hae’s thesis was groundbreaking. It denied everything humanity has built so far and proposed a much more efficient and complete module. We needed to verify it, and for a while, we kept it a secret.”

A staff member asked.

“Are you saying that means!”

“Yes. All heroes, all of humanity will advance a decade, no, half a century into the future!”

The advancement of humanity.

The scale was so immense that no one could follow the conversation.

Yet, no one doubted it.

If Ryu Jeong-ah said so, then it must be true.

Except for one person—Yoon Seong-yeob—who denied it.

“That’s nonsense! How… how can you make such absurd claims? Don’t lie!”

Ryu Jeong-ah scoffed.

“What’s absurd is that you invaded the Great Library. From now on, you’ll pay the price for it.”

“Ugh, ugh…”

The emergency meeting ended with an unexpected turn of events.

In the end, Ryu Jeong-ah spoke to Cha Eun-woo.

“Cha, you’ll remember that while your paper is groundbreaking, it needs verification.”

“……”

“The results of the research conducted in collaboration with the government, Florian, and the Dangun Guild have accepted your paper. It will be on the news tonight.”

Cha Eun-woo’s reaction was dry and unfeeling.

Ryu Jeong-ah didn’t find that reaction strange.

After all, he must have known from the beginning.

He is, after all, the very author who wrote the paper.

No one in the world understands better how monumental that achievement is.

Right now, Cha Eun-woo is the most authoritative scholar in the world.

Yet, there was one fact that no one noticed.

The most flustered person among them was Cha Eun-woo himself.

* * *

Two weeks passed after the emergency meeting.

A lot had happened in that time.

First, Yoon Seong-yeop was imprisoned for hacking the Great Library and extracting unpublished papers.

Upon interrogating Yoon Seong-yeop, it was said that Jeon Tae-jin was behind it, but Jeon Tae-jin escaped due to insufficient evidence.

However, Jeon Tae-jin’s image and reputation were severely damaged.

—Did you hear? The rumors about Professor Jeon Tae-jin.

—Everyone who knows that Yoon Seong-yeop is in Jeon Tae-jin’s circle knows what happened. It’s obvious.

Yoon Seong-yeop was stripped of his professorship.

The classes he taught were reassigned to another professor, and his research students were left in a state of panic.

Fortunately, they managed to find a temporary advisor to help them with the ongoing research.

It would have been fine if it ended there, but the fallout reached me as well.

I became their temporary advisor.

‘Isn’t there only one researcher in Cha’s lab?’

‘Excuse me?’

“Please take care of those poor kids who have nowhere to go because of that b*stard, just for a moment. I’m begging you, old man.”

No one at Florian could refuse the request of President Ryu Jeong-ah.

Reluctantly, I accepted.

At first, I worried whether I could teach them well.

That was my overthinking.

“Professor, your explanations are so easy to understand!”

“Right! Professor Cha is way better than Professor Yoon Seong-yeop!”

As I gained experience in teaching, I found it somewhat manageable to educate the kids.

The original game knowledge I had, combined with what I studied after possessing this body, allowed me to at least be called a professor in my field.

The problem was that the students relied on me too much.

“Professor, please teach me this!”

“Isn’t this content a bit strange?”

It was a little annoying.

Lee Ye-eun managed just fine on her own. I suddenly felt the truth of her genius in my bones.

Perhaps it wasn’t that these kids were too much; maybe my standards, accustomed to Lee Ye-eun, were the odd ones.

Moreover, my thesis had spread beyond the nation, creating a significant impact worldwide.

I understood why Ryu Jeong-ah mentioned the advancement of humanity.

Just looking at the front page of today’s news was enough.

─K-Operation Model, Now a Global Standard!

─Everything about ‘Global Standard’ K-Operation, Praised Worldwide

…Damn it, why is the embarrassment mine to bear?

The formation operation method mentioned in my thesis was given the ridiculous name “K-Operation.”

Originally, it was supposed to bear my name, but after I vehemently opposed it, they discussed it among themselves and came up with this.

I disliked K-Operation, but being called something like Cha Eun-woo’s operation was even worse.

Just reading the news headlines made my trust plummet, but the term global standard was somewhat true.

Over 300 guilds from 22 developed countries adopted my thesis.

Especially, it was announced that a staggering 27 out of the top 30 ranked guilds in the world were either implementing it or planning to do so.

Thanks to that, my inbox was on fire.

▼ Inbox (99+)

─Hello, Professor. This is the Mystic Guild.

─This is the Porn Guild. We would like to meet with you.

─这是西城行会，我想见你。

I received requests from countless guilds around the world wanting to meet me.

Not just guilds, but academic societies sought me out for lectures and research purposes as well.

Of course, I turned them all down.

Building relationships with the esteemed figures of various countries was fine.

But becoming too close could lead to significant backlash.

In the short term, stepping out of the confines of the academy to warn the world and elevate humanity’s standards might seem like a good approach.

But in the long run, it was definitely not a wise choice.

Regardless of anything else, it was imperative that the overwhelming individuals, the playable characters, handle the final stages.

I had to be the fence for the children here.

“Still, it would be nice to have at least some safety measures, right?”

Two emails caught my eye.

One was from the Golden Jade Guild, to which An Se-ri belonged.

The other was from the Unicorn Guild, the undeniable powerhouse of the gaming world in America.

I had rejected all other offers, but I made appointments with these two.

“Haah.”

It was a misconception that being a professor in this world meant having little to do.

Now I realized I had no reputation, only one researcher, and just a single lecture, leaving me with no work.

A light knock broke my reverie.

Knock knock—

A light and cheerful knock. It was Lee Ye-eun.

“Come in.”

The professor’s office door opened, and Lee Ye-eun stepped inside.

Originally, she didn’t knock, but as more people began visiting my office, she developed the habit of doing so.

“Professor!”

What Lee Ye-eun brought was a textbook.

“I don’t quite understand this part.”

Lee Ye-eun opened the textbook.

It was related to the application of magical circuit systems.

—

It’s not even my major, and the content is so complex that I could barely use my talent to understand it.

“To grasp this, you first need to apply Krönka’s theorem from the front. Look here. If we use Drang’s formula to transform the equation, what happens?”

“Um, I’m not sure.”

“Think about it a little more deeply.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“I see.”

Since last week, Lee Ye-eun’s condition has been a bit strange.

Lee Ye-eun is a genius.

It goes without saying that she’s smart, and she enjoys studying itself, always finding answers on her own even with difficult content.

But these days, she’s been asking a lot of questions.

This is indeed a complex topic, but it’s not so obscure that Lee Ye-eun wouldn’t understand it.

I’ve been busy as it is, and with Lee Ye-eun seeking me out frequently, I’ve become even busier.

What she brought today was even longer in content.

I had just finished getting ready to go out, so it felt even longer.

“I’m sorry, but I think it’ll be tough right now. I have an appointment. Let’s do it next time.”

As I expressed my refusal, Lee Ye-eun’s eyes narrowed.

“Pii, are you going to meet other kids?”

“Other kids?”

“The ones who were students of Yoon Seong-yeop.”

“No. I have a meeting with the guild.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

Lee Ye-eun’s expression softened a bit.

Lee Ye-eun hasn’t gotten close to the new kids.

Is it because she’s wary as a student of Yoon Seong-yeop?

Or is it because they’re just passing through, so she doesn’t want to get attached?

“I’ll be away for a few days on a business trip. Please let the others know.”

“A business trip? Yes….”

Lee Ye-eun made a face like a abandoned puppy.

It seems you have many questions.

“And this.”

I handed the key to Lee Ye-eun.

“It’s a key, right?”

“Please take care of the professor’s office while I’m gone. I don’t have any tasks, but you never know what might come up.”

“…But there are other students too.”

Lee Ye-eun pouted her lips.

I understood her desire to delegate the tedious tasks to a newcomer since she was the most senior in my lab.

Still, I asked again.

“I can’t trust them. Who else would I leave it to if not my prized student?”

“P-prized student?”