Chapter 147

“Hey Da Yeon, I’m serious! I’m with No Name right now. Right next to me. You don’t believe it? She says it’s true! Didn’t you say you had a class… Why did you skip? Hey, Woo Da Yeon!”

The woman let out a bitter smile at the abruptly cut-off call.

“Haha… I’m sorry, my sister is really your huge fan. Da Yeon even put up a poster of some broadcaster for a project she did last time! She made such a fuss that I remember her face distinctly, and I can’t believe how cute she is, exactly like in the pictures! Is she a VTuber? Or not?”

“To be precise, she’s active on Twish… Do you know Professor Cheon?”

“Oh, Professor Cheon Kyujin is my advisor! You recognized him by the name tag, huh? But what brings you here?”

“Wouldn’t it have been more logical to ask that before letting me in the building?”

“Ah, right?”

Why ask now that she’s already in the elevator?

“I was called by Professor Cheon too,” she added.

“Wow, really? You came here on your own? Impressive!”

“Not at all. Thank you for the guidance.”

The elevator doors opened, revealing a stark building landscape.

It wasn’t structurally different from other buildings, but the atmosphere felt oddly gloomy.

“Ugh, why are all the lights off in the hallway! Sorry, the people here really hate bright lights. It’s not like they’re vampires or anything!”

But it seemed like it wasn’t just that issue.

“How do you know Professor Cheon? Are you related?”

The lights in the hallway turned on brightly.

Then, from the far end, voices filled with excitement could be heard.

She spoke calmly while walking with her hand held.

“She’s my father.”

“Pfft!”

The woman, drinking banana milk, spluttered out its contents.

“W-What did you just say?”

She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and stared in shock.

In that moment, her head raced with countless thoughts, causing her to stutter.

“Professor Cheon is definitely single… So, is she a secret daughter? No, the age doesn’t add up! Does it? Oh, what…”

“She’s my stepfather. I was adopted.”

With that brief statement, the woman calmed herself, but the gaze directed at me remained complicated.

“Ah…”

“Don’t worry; it doesn’t bother me.”

“I’m really sorry… It was such shocking news… Why didn’t he say anything to us?”

This year, Professor Cheon was on a research leave, not traveling abroad but consistently coming to the lab, occasionally helping graduate students with their research.

So while the students could breathe a sigh of relief regarding their graduation worries, they had mixed feelings about our professor due to the relentless flood of assignments. This felt like a love-hate relationship.

Yet, given the time spent together, it seemed we shared many casual conversations, but I was still surprised that he had never mentioned anything about me.

Maybe he just wanted to protect my privacy or something.

“I heard there’s a surprise prepared today. Could it be…?”

In the lab that I entered alongside Woo Hee Jin, several people had gathered around a table.

Even without sniffing, I could tell the scent came from pizza.

Except for Woo Hee Jin, there wasn’t a single woman present; all four were men.

And the graying man at the far end stood up and raised his hand energetically.

“Oh, Na Me Ya is here!”

At Professor Cheon’s call, the four men, who had been eating pizza, instinctively stood up.

Their speed was reminiscent of a conditioned reflex.

“Hello.”

Since everyone was meeting for the first time, they greeted me politely by bowing their heads.

However, they didn’t want to bend too much, fearing it would make them look childish.

“Uh, hey… who…?”

The man in front barely accepted my greeting.

“Why didn’t you just take a taxi instead of making the effort to come by bus?”

“It’s been a long time since I went somewhere other than school. I thought the bus would be nice.”

“Okay, okay, why not sit here and have a slice of pizza? Since our guest is a bit late, we might have to wait a little.”

“I’m not really hungry, so I’ll just have one slice.”

“Could you move a bit to make room for her?”

“Oh, yes, Professor!”

“No need to stand up; just squeeze over a bit.”

In the bustling atmosphere, I sat in the middle of the sofa, awkwardly placing my hands on my knees.

Am I really supposed to eat pizza without saying anything?

This is uncomfortable!

“Um, Professor?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you introduce who I am…?”

Just then, one of the men cautiously poured grapefruit juice into my cup, gathering his courage. I dislike grapefruit; can you not have orange?

“Oh right, how could I forget! This is my daughter, Na Me. Everyone should introduce themselves to her one by one.”

“Excuse me?”

“Wait, what did you say?”

“Cough! Gasp!”

* * *

After the round of introductions ended, under Professor Cheon’s lead, we all stuffed pizza into our mouths amid a heavy atmosphere.

And when he left the room to welcome our guest, the grad students finally exhaled like deer freed from a trap.

I hadn’t realized it at home, but he seemed surprisingly strict with the lab members, didn’t he?

“Phew! Wow, she’s unbelievably cute!”

“Hey, Kim Hyunwoo! Shut your mouth!”

“Yeah, I didn’t say anything!”

Given our age difference, Professor Cheon and I were naturally considered father and daughter, otherwise, people’s imagination would skyrocket into space, and Woo Hee Jin discreetly informed others of the fact.

“It’s hard to believe that Professor Cheon has a daughter like this. I mean, he’s at the age where he should be seeing grandchildren.”

“Mind your words in front of the kid! You really gonna say that?”

“I’ll be sure to pass that on to the professor.”

“No, please! It was a joke! You know that, right?”

“Make sure to tell your dad. He’s still got a cooldown on the angry time.”

“I feel betrayed by the professor. If he had told me I had to come if it meant showing a picture of Na Me every day, I would have gladly come.”

“I think I understand why Professor has kept you a secret.”

They seemed quite unreliable.

Still, everyone appeared kind as they had spent time under the professor.

“Hyun Jin!”

“Hey, Da Yeon!”

“Oh, here comes Hee Jin’s little sister!”

“Hi hi.”

A woman wearing a straw hat burst in through the door.

In Seoul, Korea, wearing a straw hat? That fashion sense is peculiar.

Woo Da Yeon covered her mouth with her hands.

“No way. They look exactly the same… What is this…”

The straw hat tumbled down and fluttered to the floor.

The woman who approached as if entranced was familiar to me as well.

I picked up the hat and casually asked her.

“Didn’t we meet last year?”

“Uh?”

“During the career experience fair.”

* * *

Woo Da Yeon was struck with shock as if hit by lightning.

“Right, that genius kid!”

She had criticized the protagonists with face blindness in dramas and movies countless times, but never imagined she would be one of them.

The main avatar of No Name looked strikingly similar, if not identical, to that kid.

“Wait, do you two know each other?”

“Sis, she’s the kid I told you about before! The amazing genius! That’s her!”

At that moment, Da Yeon couldn’t help but resent her memory. How could she not connect the two events?

“Genius…? Oh, you went on that volunteer trip last year?”

“Yeah! No, not just a genius.”

If it were just a career experience fair, one could chalk it up to the kid being gifted, possibly a participant of a talented youth program.

But if this kid is indeed the same “No Name” that she knew?

This would go beyond a variety show and balloon into a worldwide scoop!

One could think that a malevolent third party had hacked the capsule ethical code to replicate the child’s avatar, but that was also an entirely implausible narrative.

Na Me had resumed her spot on the sofa, sipping juice.

She shivered slightly at the sour taste of the grapefruit juice.

Internally, Da Yeon was still wrestling with her conflicted thoughts.

Regardless of how knowledgeable she was, No Name had seemed surprisingly mature on air.

It was one thing to be a genius and another to appear seasoned, so she couldn’t fully shake off her doubts.

Plenty of strawberry candies were stuffed in Da Yeon’s bag, and she offered some to Na Me, who seemed unable to recover from the sour juice.

“Na Me…? Want to have this?”

Quickly snatching the candy from her hand, Na Me popped the pink sugar lump into her mouth.

“Mmm, thank you. Do you have one more?”

“Oh, sure…! Want one more?”

“If you give it to me, I’ll gratefully accept.”

Her speech patterns were similar.

Shockingly mature for a child.

Unlike the gentlemen around who observed the quietly eating child with fondness, Da Yeon’s feelings grew more complicated.

“How much of a genius could she be?”

Hee Jin poked Da Yeon in the side.

“If it’s true, is she the best in the world?”

Hee Jin, her sister, had never watched internet broadcasts or VTubing, so she knew nothing about Na Me.

Even saying that felt somewhat cringe-worthy, but it didn’t require any additional modifiers.

Da Yeon rushed over to the whiteboard in Professor Cheon’s lab and hastily wrote something down.

[20,387,739 * 390,394 =]

“Hey, Na Me, want more candy?”

“Yes, this sweet is nice.”

“Then if you can guess this, I’ll give you one right away!”

“Uh… 7,959,250,979,166.”

“…?”

The graduate student who took out a scientific calculator late was astonished at Na Me’s answered result.

“What? How did you get that right?”

“Is that really the answer?”

“Wow, that’s amazing! Do you have other questions?”

“Well, how about this one?”

[ln(123,456,789) =]

“Hmm, approximately 18.6314… if I had to extend it, it’s between 017661 and 2? It’s closer to 2.”

“Wait, how do you even calculate the natural logarithm? Multiplying is one thing, but this is beyond mental arithmetic!”

“Is the answer… correct?”

“Seriously, insane!”

“Quick, give me the candy. And anyone can do this if they memorize the log table.”

After that, Da Yeon lost five candies in the blink of an eye.

Na Me contently chewed on the candy-filled mouth like a hamster, closing her eyes in satisfaction as she leaned back on the sofa.

“See? No Name is real… So was that her real name?”

Hee Jin had told me the kid’s name was Noname.

It sounded just like No Name, no matter how you looked at it.

“Da Yeon noona.”

“Uh? Yes?”

“I heard you’re a PD at Hicks Studio?”

That was true. Not long ago, I had uploaded a video based on No Name’s gameplay, focused on science and magic content.

“Why did you upload my video without permission?”