Chapter 221

“How did you know I was here and come to find me, No Name?”

Niel, stirring the red broth and drawing the number 8 with her spoon, asked casually.

“You just ran out without a plan. There’s only one park that you can get to by going straight along the road.”

“If I’d gone somewhere else, No Name would have been wandering around for a while. I’m glad we met like this.”

“But I wouldn’t have wandered around.”

“Huh? Why not?”

I took her left hand and opened her palm wide.

Using my fingertips, I traced her palm lines gently, tickling her.

“Ah! That tickles, No Name!”

“Just a little more. I’ll get this out for you.”

Like making cotton candy, I spun my index finger around to pull out a fine golden thread.

“What is this?”

“It’s my aura.”

As soon as I clenched my fist, the yellow thread vanished as neatly as melted cotton candy.

“Why is that coming out of my hand?”

“I tied it earlier. This way, your sister can know where you went.”

“Hey, this is tracking…! Just say it! I guess you learn all this at the Academy?”

“More or less.”

If I said I learned it at the Academy, that would really become an unbeatable logic, wouldn’t it?

I’ll have to make good use of it later.

To help digest our dinner, we left the park and wandered aimlessly through the city center.

“I guess the team leader is really mad at me…”

“If you know that, send a text message right now.”

“What would I even say that wouldn’t just make things worse?”

“You shouldn’t think like that. It’s not about expecting something to change but rather, if you’ve done something wrong, you should apologize.”

“Yeah, I get it. I’ll send it right away.”

“You made a good decision.”

As we talked, I realized Niel was a person who avoided conflicts to a serious degree.

Whenever it seemed like a relationship might falter, she cut ties from her side.

It’s surprising that someone who should be the first to study the psychology of relationships would doze off in class and skip study group meetings because of extra tutoring.

“I didn’t sleep all the time! The professor’s voice was just a bit sleepy.”

“That’s one thing, but why did you schedule the extra tutoring at the same time as class?”

“It was originally scheduled right after class. The study group always ends early, so the timing was perfect. But then the mother kept asking for it to start 30 minutes to an hour earlier, so I had no choice.”

“You should have said no right away.”

“Yeah, I should have… If it was going to end like this, so easily…”

She pressed her aching forehead.

When it comes to making a living, compromises are always difficult.

But aside from everything else, the biggest problem was that Daniel hadn’t told her teammates about her situation.

It was natural for them to be frustrated when she kept missing study group meetings without any explanation.

“Were you not planning to ask for understanding?”

“Yeah… Who would see it positively? Besides, if I have to explain, I’d have to spill all my family issues.”

“I don’t know what your family issues are like, but if it’s necessary, I think you should share.”

“Yeah.”

“You probably don’t understand because it’s coming from a kid, right?”

“Huh? No, no! I didn’t think that at all, No Name.”

You didn’t think that? Your facial expression says otherwise.

Stubborn people need to be humbled from the start.

You need to clear your mind first if you want advice to be effective.

As the western sky began to fade from red to navy blue, I stopped in my tracks and made a suggestion to her.

“Then let’s make a bet. If you win, I’ll go to Danyun and explain why you had to miss the study group. If I say it, I’m sure Danyun won’t be too angry. That way, it will be less awkward for you when you join the next study group, right?”

Niel’s eyes reflected the neon lights, sparkling with various colors.

“But if I win, you have to go and apologize to everyone in the next study group.”

“Do I really have to do that?”

I nodded.

She had no choice but to accept the bet.

I wasn’t luring her with the reward; I was using the bet itself as bait.

“But you talked a lot during the first study group, didn’t you? I heard you can’t use the capsule because you have claustrophobia.”

“Yeah. I have that because of a trauma from childhood.”

“That’s a shame. You had a lot of fun with Professor Pisoojeong and Maestro, right? Do you want to compete with me?”

I pointed to the building next to us.

[King Wang Jjang Arcade]

“Isn’t playing offline okay?”

Maestro was a game released in the early days of capsule distribution.

Since the capsule platform itself didn’t have enough promotional and influx effects, arcade games were initially combined with actual musical instruments to create a more interactive experience.

So it was no different from other offline rhythm games, except that the instrument was a violin.

Here, I was determined to crush her pride completely.

“The professor said, I seem to play better than you.”

“…!”

“What do you think, Niel?”

If she could endure this, then she wasn’t a student from Korea University’s music department.

“This is my life.”

Niel’s eyes widened.

For the first time, her voice was filled with seriousness.

There was a strong accent in her words about life.

—

[Beethoven, Sonata No. 8 Op. 13 ‘Pathetique’ 2nd Movement]

[Difficulty: ★]

[Adagio cantabile: Slow and singing]

Life is a blessing.

Daniel was born blessed to a father who has been growing ginseng for five generations and a mother who runs a violin academy.

In a house surrounded by a yard,

on days when her mother’s beautiful violin melodies and her father’s deep voice resonated,

the baby, who resembled her parents with distinct features, laughed heartily,

and the golden retriever barked, completing a wonderful chorus.

[#1 Jūdex: SS Rank / 1,000,000 points / Accuracy 100%]

[#1 No Name: SS Rank / 1,000,000 points / Accuracy 100%]

“If our lives were this easy, how good would that be?”

The difficulty increased.

—

[Brahms, Violin Sonata No. 2 Op. 100 1st Movement]

[Difficulty: ★★]

[Allegro amabile: Fast and lovingly]

The piano academy echoed with the clumsy violin playing of still immature children.

A three-year-old child walked in, holding her grandmother’s hand.

Watching her mother’s passionate teaching from the back of the classroom, the girl yawned widely.

To relieve the child’s boredom, the grandmother handed her a children’s violin to play with until the mother’s lesson was over.

When the grandmother plucked the violin strings with her fingers, a clear ‘do’ sound accidentally rang out.

The child followed her grandmother and, with her tiny fingers,

plucked the violin strings ten or twenty times,

filtering out the notes ‘do’, ‘sol’, and ‘la’,

and began to sing the song her mother whispered in her ear every night before sleep.

[Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star!]

Do, do, sol, sol, la, la, sol.

Then, as if by magic, the child fell in love with the violin.

The expression of her mother, who witnessed a genius, turned to one of shock.

[#1 Jūdex: SS Rank / 1,000,000 points / Accuracy 100%]

[#1 No Name: SS Rank / 1,000,000 points / Accuracy 100%]

“I don’t remember any of that. I don’t even know if it happened. My mom mentioned it like a cuckoo bird every day.”

The difficulty increased.

—

[Brahms, Violin Sonata No. 3 Op. 108 4th Movement]

[Difficulty: ★★★★☆]

[Presto agitato: Very fast and hurried]

Having observed her daughter for over seven years, Daniel’s mother realized her daughter’s talent was genuine.

What was regrettable was her practice volume.

Niel couldn’t hold the violin for long due to her weak arms and hands.

At this time, there were many discussions in the industry about a game called ‘Maestro’ released by Yamaha.

Various instructors worried as their livelihoods were at stake, but for her daughter, closing her eyes once in a while was nothing.

[Let’s try increasing the practice time to 10 hours starting today.]

The goal was the nation’s top arts middle school, Yale.

In virtual reality, injuries didn’t occur, and less physical energy was consumed.

Her mother personally entered the capsule to practice multiple pieces and proved she could achieve nearly the same effects as in real life.

[You’ll perform with this avatar when you practice.]

An avatar based on Niel’s physique 15 years later when she was 10 years old.

Her chest was noticeably fuller, and she was 175cm tall, much taller than her mother.

There was no child of her age who could match her talent.

Thus, her mother looked even further ahead.

If Niel learned from adult performances from an early age, it would be a matter of time before she became a ‘master.’

Moreover, being able to produce violin sounds worth millions with just a monthly fee of ten thousand won made it even more reasonable not to use Maestro.

[Mom, what is this… I failed… I failed!]

That couldn’t be true.

Yale, Korea Art High School, and the Korea University music department’s course were all ruined from the start.

Although news articles pointed out the issues with early virtual reality education multiple times, they never reached her mother’s ears.

Research showed that there was a significant difference between learning with brainwaves and learning using the whole nervous system, especially when one was young. It was all just nonsense.

[It’s all because of insufficient practice.]

I increased the practice volume to 16 hours.

Going to a school other than Yale was meaningless, so I dropped out.

The sole objective was Korea Art High School!

In the end, her mother was right, and the girl had to be wrong.

A ‘genius of sight-reading’ entered Korea Art High School.

[#1 Jūdex: SS Rank / 1,000,000 points / Accuracy 100%]

[#1 No Name: SS Rank / 1,000,000 points / Accuracy 100%]

“It doesn’t mean anything to play well at first sight. After all, everyone practices hundreds or thousands of times before coming. What’s important is how long and from whom you’ve learned.”

What good is it to be a genius of sight-reading? If you play correctly, what does it matter? They all said my performance was terrible.

Since entering duos, the difficulty automatically increased.

Even if I didn’t want to raise the difficulty further, it was an inevitability, dictated by the system and fate.

—

[Walton, Violin Concerto 2nd Movement]

[Difficulty: ★★★★★★★★☆]

[Poco a poco più agitato: Gradually more hurried]

The mysterious heavy player ‘Yudex’, who once stirred up ‘Maestro’, completely vanished at a certain point.

Daniel felt more happiness in being freed from the bothersome capsule than in merely entering the arts high school.

Though she was recognized as a top-tier performer in terms of pitch and rhythm, she never understood the meaning of conveying emotions through music.

Nevertheless, given that she managed to enter Korea Art High School, the combination of talent and lessons was indeed tremendous.

Over the past six years, Niel prided herself on having lived through what could be considered hell, where she suffered from her mother’s almost abusive practice demands and her father’s neglect disguised as indifference.

But an even greater hell awaited her ahead.

The family’s finances had declined.

The violin was already an instrument with very high maintenance costs.

Renting a decent instrument alone cost 5 million won a month, and purchasing one would easily breach the price of a car.

Additionally, a bow cost at least 5 million won, and the instrument and bow case had to be bought separately.

Every month, the costs for lessons, competitions, and expenses beyond what the school provided could range from 300,000 to 500,000 won a day.

It was not uncommon for total expenses to reach at least 20 million won a year, with some students exceeding 100 million won.

Even a typical middle-class family could not afford the costs involved in music university admissions.

[What are you talking about? You were scammed? By Dad?]

Currently, we were in a situation where we were already overspending on debt.

Her mother sharply cut off contact.

[You just focus on your own matters. Mom and Dad will take care of household issues.]

In her first year of high school, her father was conned into losing about 300 million won through a friend who promised to create a smart automated farm.

Her father’s farm was held as collateral for a bank loan, and ultimately, he lost ownership.

In her second year of high school, Niel’s mother quit the violin academy and sold the building for a pittance.

Niel now bore the burden of her mother’s dreams.

In her third year of high school, they sold their cherished house with a yard filled with memories, love, and beauty, and the family moved to her grandmother’s house.

Niel was overseas for a competition, so she learned of her grandmother’s passing, who had first introduced her to the violin, only later.

[Is it because of me? Is it because I chose to play the violin that this happened?]

Her father was secretly disappointed that he couldn’t attend his daughter’s competition due to being too busy or overwhelmed. He was swayed by an investment suggestion he usually wouldn’t pay heed to.

Totally consumed by her daughter’s success, her mother became a nervous wreck, crying all day at home. Occasionally, she would wake up crying out for Korea University’s music department.

[No, our daughter. Your grandmother’s place isn’t too bad. Are you doing well at school? Are you getting along with your friends?]

Niel hung up on her father.

She sighed into her dead phone.

[Why are you asking what’s obvious… After three years of chaos at home, how could I possibly have a normal school life…?]

Daniel had no friends throughout her three high school years.

It was more like a blessing not to have any friends.

‘Another mark on my desk…’

She irritably erased the scribbles on her desk with a tiny eraser and threw it toward the blackboard.

—

Unlike others, including Daniel, I might say my method of playing isn’t quite the same.

First, I transform the sheet music into a three-dimensional format in my mind, setting a new axis for sound intensity.

Then I recall the movements of the left and right hands of those who played the same piece.

In doing so, I can reproduce the music based on how others play without me having to analyze or interpret the piece on my own.

That’s why the caprice number 24 I played received high praise as if it were performed by a master from Professor Pisoojeong.

In contrast, my first time playing Kariri’s cover song received somewhat harsh evaluations.

[You really play well, but… doesn’t it sound somewhat rigid like Daniel’s?]

[Oh, you’re right, professor! I was thinking the same thing!]

[How fascinating… I thought there would be no one else like you.]

It was, of course, a blatant lie to say I played better than Niel.

After all, how could one catch up to someone who has been practicing for over ten years for ten hours a day?

I never thought Niel would believe so firmly, but whatever.

Still, I had no intention of losing this bet.

—

[Scoreboard]

[#1 Jūdex: Accuracy 99.58%]

[#2 No Name: Accuracy 99.13%]

The accuracy gap widened.

Maestro, having a performance correction mode online, tends to evaluate quite harshly.

Based on the remaining notes on the screen, Niel would have to make mistakes in at least three places for me to barely catch up.

Niel’s eyes, reflecting on the screen, never blinked as she focused on the sheet music.

What a monstrous talent.

Was there no possibility?

Just as the performance approached its climax.

Ding-!

A strange sound echoed from Niel’s violin.

The string had snapped helplessly.

[#1 No Name: S Rank / 986,392 points / Accuracy 99.16%]

[#2 Jūdex: S Rank / 933,948 points / Accuracy 95.14%]

[Congratulations!]

[The final winner is ‘No Name’!]

“You won, No Name.”

Niel immediately conceded defeat.

Was the broken string intentional, or was it a malfunction?

Daniel never revealed the truth until the very end.