Chapter 2

With his ultimate artifact ‘Casio’, he was famed far and wide beyond the empire, and across the continent.

His magical capabilities were so shocking to the point that someone described it as ‘I dare say it’s beautiful. 1 second teleportation! 1 second meteor! 1 second dimensional portal! The common sense-destroying skills that cast all magic under 1 second is an unforgettable sight.

(omitted)

I, the author, am so proud to have been his friend. Abel is the hero of our Hela empire as well as the continent of Kornos.

- From the book ‘Kornos Saga’ by Gallua>

Ring ring~

The end-of-cla.s.s bell was always sweet. Even though it sounded the same as the starting one.

“Yes! It’s over! Hey, wanna go to internet café later?”

“No, duh. I need to go to maths cram school.”

“Hey, we just had maths.”

“Idiot, he can’t teach at all! He didn’t even pa.s.s the teacher’s licen-“

Smack!

The mathematics textbook that the teacher was holding hit exactly on the back of the student. Since it was a hard-cover, the student fell his skull ringing.

“Ack!”

“Hey, I heard everything. Come with me to the teacher’s office! How dare you.”

“Ah f.u.c.k! Why did you hit my head! You’ll prevent me from studying!”

“‘Ah f.u.c.k’? Is that something you’d say to a teacher? I never saw a student that did well when they were picky about teachers. Come with me!”

“Ah no! I need to go to cram school. If you keep hitting me, I’ll sue you for student abuse!”

Haa… the times… Maths teacher, Kang JiWoon could not hide his sigh. When he went to school, that would be a cause for a lot of trouble.

Smack!

“Aack!”

“Fine! Do it then! Sue me! Sue me twice! You just let me catch you doing that again. I won’t let you go then.”

Unfortunately, he had to let the student go. Screw student rights.

Kang JiWoon was a mathematics teacher at Kw.a.n.gseong high school. Not only that, he was

s.p.a.ce-time Transcendence (1)

a 1-year contract teacher as well. Honestly, this was him being lucky as well. The original mathematics teacher left on a maternity leave due to a sudden pregnancy. He just grabbed the right chance then.

‘Screw this world!’

He felt like drinking. Especially on days like this where the students acted rude to him.

JiWoon took out his phone and pressed on the number 4 for a long time. It is a very ominous number in the eastern Asian region (for sounding similar to the word ‘death’), and not many people use it as a shortcut number. However, JiWoon didn’t care. He’s a true science man that did not believe in things like that.

Ring ring, click.

-h.e.l.lo?

“Hey! Get out here, let’s have a drink!”

-You the one buying?

“It’s only the first month, where would I have the money? I’ll treat you after I get my salary! Hey! I’ll even treat you to a lobster.”

-Okay, okay. Such a bluff, lol. So I’ll see you at the snack cart?

“Yeah, see you later.”

Beep.

A drink with a friend on a Friday night could be considered a consolation for him.

Snack carts on the side of the Han river on Friday nights are always filled with people. It was literally Fire Friday.

“Is it doable?”

“Don’t even get me started. Kids these day don’t listen at all. And look at their personalities…. I can’t even hit them. They even threaten me to sue them if I try to.”

“But hey, you were the maths guy since you were young. Especially in calculations! We didn’t call you calculator for nothing, you s.h.i.t-ulator.”

“Oh? Did I hear a swearword just now? What good is calculating in my head? Nowadays this thing, the calculator, does everything. Moreover, it’s scientific. It can do everything. It can even plot graphs!”

JiWoon took out the scientific calculator made by the company ‘Casio’ and complained.

“Sheesh. I should have majored engineering like you did. Why did I just have to choose maths out of all things…….”

JiWoon complained about his own life choices as he drank.

“Hey, it’s hard for us here too! At least you’re doing what you like. It will all be okay later.”

His friend consoled JiWoon as he filled up the gla.s.s. The moon reflected on the gla.s.s looked especially big today.

“There comes the driver! Later!”

“Thanks for today! I’ll see you when I get my salary. This bro will take you somewhere good next time!”

His friend waved his hand with a smile without saying anything.

‘Dammit that guy. He even has a car.’

For JiWoon a car was a luxury. He had mountains on student loans alone. He was barely able to afford insurance and tax. Buying a car would be a stretch.

Plod, plod.

He walked on top of Mapo bridge. Since he was drunk, humming was a necessity.

“At mah haus~ I am alon~ dadi taxi draaver~ when I a.s.ssk its always mapo bridge~ mapo bridge~.”

Since he drank so much, somehow the moon looked closer than usual today.

‘Is it a super moon? O, moon! Please make the kids listen to me and let me pa.s.s my teacher’s license!’

JiWoon made a wish and turned around to look at the river.

Perhaps due to it being night, the waters that reflected the moon felt eerily dark. As though it was sucking everything in. He felt as though even light wouldn’t be able to escape from it.

‘Why do people jump into Han river of all places? Now that I look at it, it looks really scary……. If I had the courage to jump, I might as well do everything else.’

Mapo bridge had the highest count of people throwing themselves off, and was nicknamed the ‘Bridge of Death’.

And so, the ‘Bridge of Life’ was constructed. The bridge of light constructed from bright LEDs spoke to JiWoon.

-Have you eaten? Are you doing well? Nice wind today. How was today? Nothing special? So you had it hard, huh? I know without you telling me. When you feel bad, stretch your arms out and look at the blue skies.

Looking at that text, he felt more sentimental.

‘Now I feel really emotional.’

Why was it that he felt like jumping off instead?

Looking at the articles of life, he walked about half way through Mapo bridge, when the ground suddenly started shaking as though there was an earthquake.

Rumble!

Stagger.

“Wha? What the h.e.l.l!”

The bridge shook like h.e.l.l. He couldn’t maintain his balance at all.

‘Dammit! I just had to be drunk!’

He was so scared that he came to himself and ducked down as low as possible. Due to all the alcohol in his system, his body didn’t listen to him easily, but since his life was at stake, he bit his lips and focused.

Glunk!

The steel bridge started waving vertically. The gigantic metal wave flung JiWoon’s body into the air as well.

“Uaaaah!!!!!”

JiWoon was flung 2 meters into the air, and drew a parabola from the Bridge of Life to the river.

At the same moment, the waters of Han river started being sucked into the abyss as though it was being drained. Just as if the river was a giant bath and the bath water was being drained through a small hole.

‘Screw this life!’

So it was going to be over so easily?

JiWoon lost his consciousness due to the ever-increasing force from the gravitational acceleration.

“#$%@#$%#[email protected]%”

“You’re noisy… Zzz…….”

He felt dreamy. His consciousness half awake. But a voice kept annoying his ears.

“[email protected]#$!$#@^[email protected]#”

Hearing some weird accent that he had never heard before, JiWoon frowned and opened his eyes.

‘Gandalf?’

Some old man looking to be in his 70s was wearing a grey, tattered rag. Whether it was some makeup or a disguise, the long beard that reached to his stomach reminded JiWoon of Gandalf he saw from a certain movie.

‘Where is this place? I think I fell into Han river… Oh shoot, did I forget about stuff again?’

Looking at his intact arms and legs, it seemed as though he was safely rescued.

“Old sir! Where is this place?”

“[email protected]#[email protected]%#%@[email protected]#$”

Old sir Gandalf was saying something but he couldn’t understand at all. It was definitely not English……. Seeing that his appearance was somehow western, JiWoon judged that it was some European language.

‘A surprise filming?’

He remembered about a foreign actor appearing in a Korean TV programme.

“Old sir! Can you speak Korean? Are we filming?”

“!%[email protected]#[email protected]#%@%!%”

“Does he speak English? Helo! Am prom Koria! Do yu no Kimchi? Do yu no Psy? Do yu no Yuna Kim?”

“[email protected]%#%@#$%#[email protected]$”

“Ha... this is giving me headaches…….”

At that moment, old man Gandalf’s mutterings suddenly ended and a strong light suddenly flowed out from the end of the staff he was holding.

“@#$... Translate! Now, can you understand me?”