Chapter 246

Professor Cheon Kyujin’s fiancée had said that she passed away in an unfortunate accident in an instant, along with the baby in her womb.

It had been 27 years since he had overcome the pain of losing his family.

“I might have been afraid that my personal desire to reclaim my family could hurt a child. Or perhaps I was just scared of losing my family again. So…”

Professor Cheon could not finish his words.

The image of the tall young man had completely disappeared, and wrinkles had formed on his forehead and around his mouth; he was now old enough to see his grandchildren.

If his fiancée had not died and was alive, he could not shake the bit of speculation that a remarkably intelligent child might have been born, resembling her parents.

But the past was in the past.

He could not draw Name into his pain.

“Still, I will try, teacher.”

If this was for Name, he would have to be more careful moving forward.

He listened attentively to the counselor’s advice.

The production team fell into a heavy silence, unsure of what words of consolation to offer.

Only the counselor empathized quietly, sharing the sorrow.

In that moment, the director of the psychological counseling education center entered through the cramped camera space.

“Oh, Director Park!”

“The atmosphere here feels a bit heavy. The student Name has just completed an extensive personality assessment.”

After the Wechsler Intelligence Test, Name had somehow finished the MMPI with over 600 questions in just one day.

Considering the average concentration level of a child, it was truly astonishing.

Since an incredibly weighty conversation had just taken place between the two, the producers desperately hoped the director had good news to share.

This time, the director attached explanations to several bar graphs displaying the results.

“The MMPI often involves analyzing scores that are either above or below average. For example, you can see that Scale 1, which measures health anxiety, is lower compared to others, right?”

“Yes.”

“When this score is high, it means that the person is excessively fixated on health issues or complains of physical abnormalities when stressed. Patients with actual physical illnesses often score around 60 points or higher. But seeing how Name’s score is very low, it indicates a tendency to overlook pain unless it’s a serious illness.”

“Does that mean they hide their pain?”

“Yes. It’s certainly possible. So, I think caregivers need to pay special attention to them.”

The beginning was not good.

The production team felt stifled as they saw Professor Cheon’s expression distort.

Fortunately, the subsequent scales all fell within normal ranges.

There was no depression, hysteria, antisocial behavior, or paranoia reported. It had been noted that they exhibited a strong rejection of traditional feminine roles, but since Scale 4 for antisocial behavior was low, they said it wasn’t a big problem.

The director of the psychological center hesitated before explaining the next item.

The camera operator, who had seen the results on the screen ahead of time, coughed nervously due to the towering Scale 7 and Scale 8 results.

“Scale 7 is Psychasthenia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

“That’s extremely high…”

Finally, with the inevitable looming, Professor Cheon adjusted his posture and sat straight.

“When Scale 7 is high, it often indicates obsessive thoughts as a defense against anxiety and a tendency to strive for perfection. This can also lead to self-deprecating thoughts and feelings of guilt. If it rises alongside Scale 2, it may be accompanied by depression, but as you can see, that isn’t the case here. However, if Scale 8 is high as well, it can be accompanied by thought disorders.”

And Scale 8 was also high.

“What about Scale 8?”

“Scale 8 measures schizophrenia. However, please don’t misunderstand; a high score doesn’t necessarily indicate that someone has schizophrenia. It includes various areas and should be interpreted in a complex manner. We also conducted a subjective questionnaire…”

Director Park continued in a serious tone.

“The child reported feelings of derealization, believing that their thoughts were not their own, delusions of being controlled by someone, and occasionally experiencing hallucinations.”

“Ah…”

Even a sane person could go mad when locked in a solitary room, and a child who had been trapped in virtual reality for seven years could hardly be normal.

* * *

In the past two months, sales of children’s capsules had significantly increased to a noteworthy level.

Additionally, second-hand transactions for virtual reality helmets, already discontinued in Korea, were taking place.

The reason was simple.

Having witnessed Name’s sparkling talent, the aversion to virtual reality had evidently diminished.

[You can’t go against the flow of the times anywayㅋㅋㅋㅋ Didn’t people in the past complain about writing on pads? Now look, who still uses paper? ㅋㅋㅋ]

-Other than calligraphers on VTube, I don’t think I’ve seen a single person.

-They still use it a bit in elementary school.

-But studying in virtual reality really doesn’t work at all, right? There’s no one to monitor, so you keep getting distracted.

-So trueㅋㅋ

However, amidst the parents’ demands to lift the daily access time limit for children’s capsules, some experts voiced their concerns.

[A common misconception among many parents is that studying in virtual reality improves learning efficiency; there has been no official research supporting this to date. In fact, if children use capsules for long periods at such a young age, before their egos are established, they might feel a sense of disconnection from reality, making it crucial for parents to provide clear guidance.]

Few people actually took the word of a doctor with 30 years of experience at face value.

So how would they explain Name’s case?

The likelihood of an innocent child trapped in a capsule by terrorists being the smartest person in South Korea was far too low.

Experts could not easily come up with an answer for this.

There simply wasn’t any other explanation.

While VR capsule companies were raking in money from a successful marketing strategy, the ‘Name the Genius Discovery Team’ special was aired.

This immediately caused a significant ripple effect in the community.

-Is… is this human like me…?

The production team had evidently planned this out, testing various activities to unleash Name’s abilities to the fullest.

And the method was to recreate all the talents she demonstrated during the previously aired ’13-Year-Old Ham Chorrong’ segment.

Especially from the part where she memorized a 100-page novel, the ratings suddenly started to soar, peaking during a scene where she fought Adella one-on-one.

As viewers felt both awe and a relative deprivation toward the child’s capabilities, her painful past also captured their attention.

Though her health had greatly improved thanks to her caretaker, Name still remained psychologically unstable.

Professor Cheon could no longer hold back tears at the calm report from the director of the psychological center, and viewers could do nothing but sigh in sympathy.

[She heard her mother’s voice during that interview, how sadㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]

[Oh noㅜㅜ How much suffering must that child have gone throughㅜㅜ]

[Walpurgis is truly a social evil.]

[Now we can’t even mock Name for not distinguishing between reality and virtual realityㅠㅠ]

[Is it really such a big problem knowing about the capsules?]

[Just last week, my wife was begging me to buy our daughter a 2 million won study capsule but has finally changed her tune.]

[Why do all geniuses seem to have such tragic fates? It’s really unfortunate.]

[Turn on the broadcast, No Name! The parents of Twish will give you allowance!]

[You don’t even need to turn on the broadcast; just please don’t be sickㅠㅜ]

Various communities were flooded with tears.

Name’s game interview video began to resurface in the algorithm, garnering attention once again.

As tears welled up, they were watching until the genius discovery program concluded.

Suddenly, all viewers were enveloped in shock and anger.

-What is this unique magic shown in the trailer? Is this another form of attention-seeking?

-What are these Japanese bastards doing without any moral sense?

* * *

“Hello, Nameya.”

“Hello, PD Park Yeoreum.”

“You remembered my name? It must have been hard today.”

“Seeing as the youngest PD came to see me, I guess today is the last filming for the first part.”

“How did you know?”

You could tell just by looking.

Typically, the youngest would handle menial tasks, so the fact that they came to see me meant they had no tasks for a while.

“The truth is, I came with a mission. I’m here to conduct your final interview.”

“Really? Just a moment.”

Since I had been sprawled on the sofa, my hair was a mess.

As the youngest PD set up the camera, I quickly tidied my bangs in front of the mirror.

“Did you enjoy yourself during this filming, Name?”

“It was a unique experience. I was surprised to learn how many people work behind the scenes to create a single broadcast.”

“You said you wouldn’t come on the Genius Discovery Team. Was there a reason you changed your mind?”

“There was. Do you know? If I had been rescued from the capsule even a week later, I might have died. If that happened, the connection would have been severed first, and I would have been stuck shaking alone in a dark space with barely any light. If I fell asleep, my heart would have quietly stopped without me knowing.”

Did I start with something too serious?

The PD was biting their lip, intently listening.

“I’m thankful. I wanted to say thank you. My mom is the most grateful, but starting from Professor Cheon, who helped me grow up without shortcomings, to the detectives and rescuers who came to the abandoned house to get me, and even my cousin who recognized the distress signal.”

“Distress signal?”

“There’s such a thing. But I heard that those heroes might have gotten into some trouble. They said they’d send them off to some far place, even though they deserve awards. I came on here to make that known.”

“Wow… You really seem like an angel, always caring for those around you!”

“No. It’s just that one of my academy friend’s dads is one of them. If I put it negatively, you could say it’s a form of nepotism?”

That would be covered in the second part.

I had a relaxed chat with the youngest PD about various impressions from the filming schedule.

Then suddenly, I grew curious and asked a question.

“By the way, I found something puzzling when I looked at yesterday’s script.”

“Ah! About the script…!”

Since the Genius Discovery Team was ultimately an entertainment program, the scripts the writers produced were indispensable.

However, most viewers were unaware of this existence.

“Anyway, those who should know already do know. There was something in the ‘Ham Chorrong’ segment that was crossed out in the script.”

“Was there?”

This was news even the PD had never heard before.

Since that broadcast was so long ago, they had never watched it in its entirety.

“Why didn’t you ask about unique magic?”

“Unique magic? Ah!”

Finally, PD Park Yeoreum nodded, as if something had clicked in her mind.

“That’s because Name is still too young—”

“I have it too. My unique magic.”

“Huh? Really…?”

“Yes.”

“Why, why… why?”

“I just made it.”

When Ham Chorrong created her unique magic at the age of 13, she reached the semifinals in the national competition alongside seniors in their third year of high school at just 14 years old.

And at the age of 15, winning for four consecutive years remains an unprecedented record in South Korea.

While her genius certainly played a role, everyone agreed that the existence of unique magic significantly contributed to this.

After all, having unique magic in a competition where everyone has to hide their hands could provide an advantage during casting time and make variation easier.

“What about registration…?”

“Not yet.”

“Then you need to register quickly if that’s true!”

“Well, I’ve already applied. It should be passing by now—”

Ding—

A text arrived at a truly chilling moment.

Is this what they call divine intervention in entertainment?

I showed the message from the Japanese Magic Copyright Association to the youngest PD, whose eyes were filled with disbelief.

“A-grade? The judging didn’t come out as well as I thought, but it’s not bad.”

“What do all these words mean?”

Seeing the notice written entirely in Japanese, PD Park Yeoreum asked me.

The crew turned the camera back toward me.

Feeling playful, I raised my index finger, looked straight at the screen, and said.

“Um… It will be revealed 60 seconds after the advertisement.”

The PD opened her mouth in shock, a foolish expression on her face.

This is fun. I should try using this in my own show sometime.