The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 329

Sunchan and Adela’s gazes were fixed on me.

Both of them looked like they had many questions.

“If it’s a prototype, shouldn’t they be the same? Why are the code names different for me and Adela?”

Prototypes are originally test models for mass production.

Therefore, prototypes are usually prepared with the most basic form of the original type.

It was natural for the two of them to have doubts.

“Why? Are you worried because the codes are different?”

“No, it’s not that…”

Sunchan’s concern was understandable.

It’s already difficult enough to create one complete prototype, but they made two.

It’s like saying that their focus was divided when they should have been focusing on one.

It’s natural to worry about stability from the perspective of someone doing a demonstration.

“Don’t worry. The performance of the devices themselves is the same for both.”

“Then why are the code names different?”

Adela asked with a genuinely curious expression.

Adela’s question wasn’t to alleviate her worries like Sunchan’s.

There wasn’t a hint of worry in Adela’s eyes.

Adela was just curious.

Why devices with the same specs have different code names.

It was just purely bothering her.

“You’ll know once you wear them.”

“I see, it’s top secret.”

Adela’s eyes sharpened slightly.

“Even so, keeping secrets from us, who are in charge of the first activation…”

“It’s not that I can’t tell you because it’s a secret.”

I cut off Adela’s words and said.

“There’s a saying that seeing is believing. It’ll be easier to understand by experiencing it firsthand than by explaining it. Honestly, it’s a bit hard to explain in words. Maybe not for Adela, but it would take at least a day to make Sunchan understand, you know?”

“Hmm…”

Adela closed her mouth with a puzzled expression.

She looked like she understood and didn’t understand at the same time.

“There won’t be any problems, so don’t worry about that.”

“Well, yeah.”

Sunchan chuckled.

“If there was even a slight chance of danger, you wouldn’t have made us the demonstrators.”

“Huh? That’s not true?”

I chuckled too.

“Why are you including yourself? I don’t care about your danger, unlike Adela.”

“…This guy?”

Sunchan looked at me with a half-believing, half-doubting expression.

“You don’t mean… that the reason Adela and I have different code names is… because my device is more dangerous, right?”

Sunchan alternated between glaring at his choker and Adela’s choker with a half-serious, half-joking expression.

“It could be, or it might not be.”

“…”

Sunchan’s expression instantly turned anxious.

“This guy… you seemed to be jealous of my sweet love life lately. Are you trying to assassinate me like this?”

“Jealous, my ass.”

I scoffed with sincerity.

“Oh, come on, friend. Don’t pretend. I saw your face stiffen when we ate together last time, you know? I know you were jealous.”

“That was just because your aegyo [acting cute] made my face sour.”

I don’t even remember what we ate that day. Sunchan’s actions were so disgusting that everything from that day disappeared from my mind.

“Even if you pretend, it’s obvious that you’re jealous of my happy life…”

“Say one more word. I’ll really mess with your device separately.”

“…”

Sunchan immediately shut his mouth.

He seemed to have sensed the sincerity in my expression and tone.

“If you understand, shut up and put the choker around your neck. Don’t annoy me.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sunchan put the choker around his neck as he was told.

“Adela, you too. Put it on first, and observe later.”

“Yes.”

Adela, who had been looking at the internal code of the choker the whole time, also put the choker around her neck after Sunchan.

Click!

The two chokers made a clicking sound and began to move mechanically.

The sizes were being adjusted to fit the necks of the two people.

“Oh… wow. This alone is already cutting-edge technology?”

Sunchan touched his neck as if he was amazed.

“There’s… no foreign sensation at all?”

Adela was the same.

She exclaimed while touching the choker on her neck.

“You don’t feel like you’re wearing anything on your neck at all, right?”

“Yeah. Not at all.”

“How is this even possible?”

Sunchan’s eyes widened as if he was genuinely surprised.

Adela’s eyes sparkled as if she was very interested.

“Ask Researcher Terun about that later. He’ll tell you in great detail.”

“Hey, why are you passing the explanation to me?”

Terun, who had been typing non-stop next to me, glared at me.

He looked like he was complaining about not passing such a bothersome role to him.

I smiled at Terun while making eye contact.

“You don’t have any plans tonight, do you? Think of it as putting effort into nurturing the next generation.”

“No, nurturing the next generation or whatever, you can just explain it. It’s a technology that’s half mixed with your theory.”

“The main technology is derived from the researcher’s theory, isn’t it? I just lent a hand.”

“That’s true, but…”

“So, it’s right for the main proposer, Terun, to explain it.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about…”

Terun stopped talking and closed his mouth.

“…Oh, man.”

He must have lost his will to refuse after seeing Adela’s sparkling eyes next to me.

“Okay, okay. I’m not good at explaining…”

He scratched his head and showed that he was annoyed.

“You. You should consider yourself lucky. It’s not often that you get a chance to talk about research with me one-on-one.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Sigh. What a life.”

Terun clicked his tongue softly and focused on the hologram screen again.

It seemed like he was reaching the final stage, as the codes were decreasing rapidly.

“Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with your bodies, right?”

“Yes. There’s nothing wrong.”

“I’m fine too.”

The two of them signaled that they were okay in turn.

“Okay, then that’s good.”

Terun took his hands off the keyboard as if he had completely finished his work.

“Then let’s start. You two. Go inside.”

“Huh? Just the two of us?”

Sunchan asked, looking puzzled.

“What about Hayul?”

“He’s next after you two. His device is much heavier than yours, so simultaneous processing isn’t possible.”

“Ah. I guess so. Considering his constitution…”

Sunchan and Adela nodded as if they understood.

They didn’t even ask why mine was different.

They just looked like they accepted it.

Since they both knew about my constitution, they probably just thought it was natural.

“If you understand, go in quickly. Before the patience of the people in the VIP seats runs out.”

“Yes, sir.”

Sunchan entered the main room with a sharp salute.

Adela bowed her head slightly and followed Sunchan.

“Ah, ah. Mic test.”

Terun sent a notification to the three people waiting in the VIP room through the voice transmission device prepared next to the main control terminal.

“As of this moment, all preparations for the Project Mimir demonstration are complete. We will now begin the presentation of the next-generation AI.”

Two mechanical chairs slowly appeared behind Adela and Sunchan, who were inside the main room.

“Sit comfortably.”

The two sat in their respective chairs as Terun instructed.

“Don’t be nervous. It’ll be over as soon as you close and open your eyes.”

Terun reassured the two and began to control the main terminal.

The mana gips [devices that suppress magic] built into the mechanical chairs restrained the two’s bodies and stopped the movement of their mana circles.

“Relax. Breathe deeply.”

Perhaps because their mana had stopped.

The two’s bodies stiffened.

They looked extremely nervous.

“Relax. It’s really nothing.”

Terun tried to reassure the two, but their tension showed no signs of easing.

Not being able to control mana is an unspeakable fear for a mage.

It was natural for the two to react like that.

“What should we do? If they’re that nervous, there might be a problem with the synchronization rate.”

Terun looked at me.

It was a look asking for help.

“I’ll talk to them.”

I approached Terun and brought my mouth to the microphone.

“Relax. It’s really nothing.”

I spoke slowly to the two people on the other side of the camera.

“It’s just like having a dream and coming back.”

Was it thanks to my voice?

The two’s condition began to improve noticeably.

“Adela, you’ll meet a beautiful woman and have a dream of drinking tea. Just drink tea like that and come back. Easy, right?”

Adela nodded.

“Sunchan, you’ll… um… meet someone a bit eccentric.”

Sunchan’s expression hardened at the word ‘eccentric.’

“They’re just a bit like that in personality, but they’re a good person. Stick to them well. Rubbing your hands like a fly is your specialty, right?”

Sunchan in the screen burst out.

Since the voice couldn’t be transmitted from the inside to the outside, I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

But from his mouth shape, I could roughly tell what he was shouting.

“Whoa, whoa. Don’t swear.”

Adela chuckled softly next to me.

She seemed to have burst out laughing at Sunchan’s sudden outburst.

In the screen, Sunchan muttered, ‘Aish.’

I looked at Sunchan and Adela and took my mouth away from the microphone.

“It’s done.”

Terun looked at me with a strangely lukewarm expression.

“I’ve been thinking this for a while, but you guys are really close.”

“Well, yeah.”

“You’re not denying it?”

“Because it’s true.”

If Sunchan was in front of me, he would have vehemently denied it.

But Sunchan was inside, so.

“I’m a little jealous.”

Terun smiled softly and typed.

The process after the mana gips proceeded sequentially.

“I don’t have friends like you guys, let alone someone I can call a friend…”

Adela and Sunchan in the screen were very calm.

As if they had never been nervous, they were closing their eyes with very calm expressions.

“I’m here, you know.”

“What?”

Terun looked at me with an absurd expression.

“Look at this guy. Is there an age difference that would make you and me call each other friends?”

“There’s only a 7-year difference.”

“It’s a 78-year difference.”

“Where do you include memories from a past life?”

“Where else? Right here.”

Terun finished the operation and tapped my head with his index finger.

“Seriously. Don’t try to be equal to me.”

The emptiness and hollowness that I had felt earlier had disappeared like snow melting from Terun’s expression as he said that.

* * *

About three and a half hours passed.

Adela and Jisunchan woke up from their sleep.

“…”

“…”

Both of them had blank expressions, as if they had just had a daydream.

Ziiing-!

The door to the main room opened, and Terun, Kim Kangin, and Shin Inhyuk came in from outside.

“The implantation went as well as it could.”

Terun manually released the two’s mana gips.

He also released the restraints that had been fixed to prevent them from moving.

“You can get up.”

“…Huh? Ah, yes.”

Jisunchan got up from the chair with a blank expression.

“…”

On the other hand, Adela was still sitting in the chair with a blank expression.

“Miss Adela?”

“…”

She didn’t respond to Kim Kangin’s call.

Her mind was completely somewhere else.

“The procedure wasn’t a failure, was it?”

Kim Kangin asked Terun with a worried expression.

He looked worried about Adela’s blank reaction.

“No. The implantation is as perfect as it could be.”

“Then why is Miss Adela like that…”

“Her?”

Terun chuckled and looked at Adela.

She was staring blankly at the empty air, with her mouth open.

“That’s just because her synchronization rate is high. It seems like she can already see it.”

“What does a high synchronization rate have to do with that state…”

“It does.”

Then Adela slowly opened her mouth.

“Yes? Ah, yes. Hayul seems to be outside.”

She muttered to herself as if she was talking to a ghost.

“If the synchronization rate is high, you can talk to the AI at any time. You’ll also be able to see the other person’s appearance, albeit vaguely.”

“Are you saying that the AI… has a form and can even have conversations?”

“Yeah. I told you. The AI we’re implanting this time isn’t a simple task-processing AI like before, but a fully autonomous AI.”

Terun looked directly at Adela.

Adela was still staring at the empty air.

“Yes. That’s right. This is Hayul…”

Now she seemed to be used to it, and she was having a pleasant conversation.

“Right now, she can only hear the AI’s voice. That’s why she’s not responding to our words.”

“Isn’t it dangerous to be so deeply connected to the AI?”

“No. It’s okay. It’s called an AI, but it’s not a real AI. Just think of it as talking to a person.”

Terun handed Kim Kangin a document.

Kim Kangin slowly scanned the document.

“Elena Ro Greenwood? What is this?”

“The person Adela is talking to right now. A legendary mage from the distant past.”

“What is that…”

The Forest Mage.

Elena Ro Greenwood.

After a long period of research, Shin Hayul and Terun succeeded in restarting her data.

“Ah, Aslan-nim?! Why, why are you here…?”

At that moment, Jisunchan shouted with a surprised expression.

“It seems like he can see it too. It’s not as good as Adela, but his synchronization rate was also considerable.”

The two’s implantation was successfully completed.

Now, all that’s left is Shin Hayul’s implantation.

‘Now it’s the main event.’

Terun smiled and moved out of the main room.

‘I’m looking forward to it. I wonder what kind of person the genius who created this level of research results on the spot, with just a hypothesis and no research materials, will be like.’

Terun opened the door to the main room.

Shin Hayul was standing outside the door.

He was glaring at the choker in his hand with an expression that conveyed a myriad of emotions.

“Let’s start.”

“Yes.”

Shin Hayul ran his finger over the code inside the choker for the last time.

[Code Name. Mimir]

Mimir.

Her reunion was just around the corner.