Chapter 208

Once upon a time, there was a CEO of a bio-medical startup based in Silicon Valley, Baek Ho Chan.

Using his major in Micro Engineering from USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering, he made headlines in local news as a young entrepreneur leading a cell observation disease diagnosis business that combined microscopy and artificial intelligence.

He was neither lacking in technology nor knowledge, and he was not ignorant of company management, having completed his MBA program.

He had simply misaligned with the times by just a little.

Since last year, there had been a chain of bankruptcies among regional banks in the United States.

Unfortunately, the first casualty was Silicon Valley Bank. He lost not only the promised investment funds but also all the deposits he had entrusted to the bank.

Unable to pay the salaries of his 35 employees, his promising company ultimately went bankrupt, leaving him buried under a mountain of debt.

However, the knowledge he had painstakingly built over his lifetime was akin to that of his own children, so he flatly refused the proposal to hand over the company along with its core technology.

The cost of not abandoning his pride until the very end was far too great.

In the end, Baek Ho Chan, who had no intention (and no funds) to return to the U.S., had to live in a cheap studio apartment on the outskirts of Seoul.

But as if a final lifeline was being handed down to everyone, one sleepless night, he vaguely recalled the words of his grandfather, whom he despised so much.

“[I used to own one of those! Back when I fell prey to that damned ransomware! What was it? They asked for some Bitcoin or something I had never heard of, but I managed to get it, only to have all the files on my computer deleted after that! Those rotten scoundrels…]”

His actions were swift.

He personally traveled to find his grandfather, and unsurprisingly, after 40 years, Baek Bong Gon had become a man of wealth with assets amounting to 300 billion won.

***

“Keep your butt down! Why aren’t you lowering it quickly?”

“Ugh! Hi… It’s hard! My legs hurt too much to continue!”

“Looks like these kids still aren’t getting it! If you don’t fix your form here, consider an extra hour of exercise!”

“Whaaaat…!”

From early morning, under the watchful eyes of Baek Bong Gon, Arin and Min Woo diligently performed squats.

Baek Ho Chan had been consistently persuading him since yesterday, saying that while his grandfather was strict, he never resorted to violence in his discipline.

Yesterday was the first time he brought out the switch.

He pointed to a white trash bag containing shards of glass across from him.

“Yesterday, the kids were hiding in the closet and accidentally broke one of my grandfather’s prized pottery. True, he shouldn’t hit them, but… he isn’t someone who can be convinced with just words. You’ve seen it since yesterday; you know how stubborn he is.”

Baek Ho Chan let out a deep sigh.

By now, the children had finished their squats and were lying flat on the dirt ground, gulping down icy water.

“It’s been reduced to 250 billion now, but it’s fine. Even after taxes, it’s still 120 billion.”

He felt just as parched as the children.

There was no trace of the days when he made wonderful presentations in front of venture capital executives, now simply a common farmer.

“It’s hot without an air conditioner, right? Want one?”

He brought back a cold drink from his room and handed over a cone ice cream as well.

“Where did you get this? It wasn’t in the kitchen fridge.”

“I have another fridge in my room. Don’t tell Grandpa.”

Having lived in the city all their lives, the kids couldn’t survive on just greens forever.

Spam, chicken nuggets, ice cream, frozen pizza, and whatnot.

He made weekly trips to the mainland to restock food.

“Why, of all things, did you adopt Arin?”

You’ve been observing our Merlin Orphanage for quite a while.

If you had to pass your mysterious grandfather’s ‘test,’ wouldn’t you have chosen talented children?

“Just because she has the same last name as me?”

“…? I think I might understand why the company went bankrupt…”

“Hey…! Plus, Min Woo and Arin aren’t officially adopted yet. We made a deal to live together until they grow up, and when that time comes, I’ll just give them about 10 billion won.”

“You’re truly a devil.”

“Min Woo proposed it to me first, don’t get me wrong. Arin agreed too.”

The reason for choosing a child with the same surname was backed by some rational decision-making process, and he felt a bit offended.

So, is this the outcome now?

A complete world filled with scars.

Baek Bong Gon thought the children were just frustrating, while Baek Ho Chan was parched, and Min Woo and Arin wanted to leave this island as soon as possible.

“Heh… Nameya, can I have some water?”

“Here.”

“Thank you!”

Glug, glug—

Arin’s stomach, which had not eaten anything and was empty, bulged like a tadpole.

I wonder if she’ll get a stomachache like that.

“Baek Arin. So you’ve been staying on this island without any contact to make money?”

“Huh? Did my uncle tell you?”

“So, why?”

“Living with Name means it’s going to cost a lot! I have to buy a house, get uniforms, and pay for medicine.”

“You’ve endured all this suffering just for that? You can live well even without money, Arin.”

“No.”

Before long, Arin, who had emptied a whole water bottle, glared at him.

“If there’s no money, you’re unhappy. If you don’t have mom and dad, you’re unhappy. Having something is better than having nothing.”

“You…”

“Then at least it’s something I can choose to throw away, right?”

Suddenly, Arin’s irises turned red.

This was definitely a sign of mana depletion.

With those final words, Arin collapsed onto the porch.

She didn’t show it, but she had already been pushed to her limits.

Baek Ho Chan brought ice in a bag from the kitchen and placed it on Arin’s head.

It was a nonchalant action, as if it had happened several times before.

He could not push the children any further. Hitting isn’t the only form of child abuse.

“Is there possibly a word that the Grand Master dislikes?”

“There are countless words he hates.”

“Just one from among them. The one he hates the most?”

“Perhaps it’s the Academy? The Academy caused the private school he used to run to go bankrupt. They also drove out the residents of Durido to install the mana power station’s base.”

“I see.”

“Hey! What are you doing?”

Baek Bong Gon glared at him, leisurely fanning himself and enjoying a stroll.

Baek Ho Chan stepped off the porch and blocked his path.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Please let me see that test.”

“Test? What qualification do you have?”

“Me?”

The sign hanging at the main entrance of the yard caught his eye.

[堂書名正]

“‘Jeongmyung Seodang.’

The name sounds grand, but does it really hold any weight?”

“Even children from the private school have the right to take the test, so surely someone from an Academy like me can’t be excluded. Isn’t that right?”

“Ah… the Academy?”

“Yes, a real Academy that’s different from those pseudo-educational institutions like your private school. Is that why you seem so lacking in self-confidence?”

The provocation was quite successful.

It didn’t take long for the old man’s face to turn red.

***

Above geniuses, there are geniuses.

“Baghak-idokji.”

“Broadly learning and solidifying one’s will (博學而篤志), asking earnestly and thinking closely (切問而近思), therein lies benevolence (仁在其中矣).”

Having already seen countless geniuses in Silicon Valley, Baek Ho Chan could distinctly observe the fragments of talent from the beginning.

“On-go-ee-ji-sin…?”

“Knowing the old and acquiring the new knowledge (溫故而知新), one can indeed become a master (可以爲師矣).”

Baek Bong Gon’s eyes were about to pop out as he listened intently.

The six hundred phrases of the Analects.

Ten phrases per minute.

“Crazy, did he just memorize all that in an hour?”

Baek Ho Chan could not hide his astonishment.

About twenty years ago, whenever he visited his grandfather’s house during the vacation, there was the hellish memorization of the Analects he was forced into. Something he could never memorize despite years of effort…

Even the sharp Baek Min Woo looked at Name as if she were a monster.

Reciting the first phrase, the rest mechanically followed.

Seeing Name interpret its meaning perfectly, Baek Bong Gon closed the book.

“Next!”

Even after eight months, the children hadn’t seen the second stage.

Only now did the identity of the main test, which his grandfather had casually mentioned, come to light.

“Pure intentions are the way of heaven. Without effort, things fit naturally, without thought, they are grasped inevitably, and without noise, they align with the right path.”

Thud—

The cane made of seaweed fell to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

“Excessiveness is no different from deficiency, thus moderation does not only mean keeping to the middle.”

The voice filled with anger disappeared.

Is he suppressing his emotions?

No, he is now concentrating his emotions at one point.

The crinkled skin seemed to become fertile soil sprouting new saplings.

There was a slight vibration in his arm, but his upper body remained unmoving.

Finally, an aura resembling the color of lush green foliage blossomed in the palm of his hand.

“The external manifestation of aura…!”

“What is that?”

Baek Ho Chan couldn’t believe it.

Those who handle aura to its fullest can also envelop it outside their body.

This was akin to opening up a living person’s body and directly extracting the heart.

It was a state that could not be guaranteed, even with decades of effort, yet Baek Bong Gon did something even more than that.

The fiery sprout rapidly grew, branching out, producing leaves, and turning a brilliant autumn color.

One of those autumn leaves detached and floated above his hand.

Create a perfectly independent aura space with no connection.

“Try to replicate that.”

That was Baek Bong Gon’s command.

Baek Ho Chan felt despair.

From the beginning, he had no intention of sharing the wealth with them.

Considering that for several decades he treated them as others, or even worse, it was unreasonable to expect him to just give it all up after a few months of appeasement.

When the Grand Master let out a puff of breath, the aura completely dissipated.

He then bent down to pick up the cane that had fallen to the ground.

The gentle breeze rustling through the wooden pavilion slid through his white beard.

With a sound of clearing his throat, he returned to the beginning.

“Ha…!”

In the Lotus position, Name held an apple tree in each hand.

“This easy trick, I learned it all while playing Jenga as a kid.”

Many more leaves sprouted than those shown by Baek Bong Gon, along with a myriad of golden apples.

When Name wiggled her pinky, dozens of golden apples fell.

No, rather, they rose upwards against gravity.

Watching the particles of light drifting away, Name murmured with a smile.

“The golden apple tree guarded by the Hesperides nymphs. I wonder if the Grand Master knows a bit about Greek and Roman mythology. Or do you perhaps know Isaac Newton?”

Baek Bong Gon was lost in thought, gazing at the sky for quite a long time.

As Name withdrew her aura completely, she asked,

“This is what the phrase ‘On-go-ee-ji-sin’ refers to. Please replicate it.”

She questioned his capabilities as a master instead.