Chapter 21: Circle (4)

Cancellation.

An unheard-of magic.

All sorts of words poured out from all over.

Mostly, reactions of astonishment.

But.

The small girl was merely calm.

There was no joy, no sneer.

As if all this was natural.

Proudly puffing out her chest, an aloof reaction.

On the other hand.

The person involved was in a living hell.

A magic personally taught by Man-sin (Master of All).

A constellation that bloomed in his hands.

An elaborate calculation formula that seemed to have engraved the laws of the universe.

Abyss Cradle.

It had been ruthlessly canceled.

His heart sank.

His fingertips trembled.

“Wh…at, did you…”

A sentence broken at the tip of his tongue.

The words he uttered didn’t form properly.

‘It’s impossible. It’s impossible to break a magic that hasn’t even been disclosed.’

Magic has a mathematical structure.

A vast system combining thousands of variables and hundreds of equations.

If even one of these is off, the natural mana will not react with the circle, and the caster’s ideation will not be realized.

Therefore.

Security is required by default.

Ordinary magic majors often spend years, even decades, just to understand one spell.

But.

A young girl, can break a magic she’s seeing for the first time?

No matter how high her intelligence, it should be impossible.

Arkeus gritted his teeth.

‘I can’t accept that possibility.’

The aura he exuded was unusual.

What he showed was bravado.

“How did you get your hands on the method to break this magic?”

His voice was sharp.

Where was it leaked from?

Could there be a traitor?

Or is there a record of it somewhere?

Or did my master abandon me?

Many thoughts arose.

On the other hand.

El didn’t show any signs of serious worry/concern.

Her small mouth opened.

A voice like a nightingale.

“I just, you know, see it.”

There was no smile.

She wasn’t arrogant.

She didn’t boast about being a genius.

She just, stated the facts.

And that.

Made Arkeus even more furious.

“Right, you wouldn’t say it so easily. Then I’ll overwhelm you with skill and find out!”

It’s not that his reason has faded.

The more his emotions rise.

Rather, more calmly, more precisely—

Like a magician.

He overworks his brain.

Calculations accelerated.

His neural network endured the overload, and the density of his thoughts increased explosively.

Hundreds of equations unfold in his mind in an instant.

Three circles appeared again.

But it was different from before.

“Crazy! He’s modifying the design in real-time.”

“Just how smart is he?”

“How is that possible, he’s just a first-year?”

“It’s over. Now that he’s brought out a completely new formula, another break is impossible!”

“Arkeus will win.”

Jaws dropping.

Eyes wide open.

It’s proof that the power the boy showed was unusual.

El?

Still calm.

She doesn’t waver at the sounds coming to her ears.

There’s no reason to rush.

Because she can see everything and understand it intuitively.

While observing the opponent’s moves, she suddenly felt a sense of leisure.

In that gap.

Unintentionally, she gained insight into Arkeus.

‘How noisy. His lifespan won’t last. Is he okay?’

If Geomryong’s body contained the universe.

The boy’s upper dantian was excessively open.

His frontal lobe was heating up as if emitting light, and his neurons were firing at ultra-high speed, I wondered if his head could withstand it.

‘Savant Syndrome, huh. He’s disabled like me.’

It was a concept I didn’t know, but I understood it the moment I saw it.

Damage to a specific part of the brain, causing a developmental disorder.

Damage to the left brain and compensatory action of the right brain.

In exchange for the lost part, genius blossoms.

The result?

The occipital or temporal lobe is abnormally activated.

Brain neuroplasticity.

In other words, the brain forms new pathways or strengthens existing pathways after damage, causing specific neural networks to be abnormally connected.

‘So that’s why he looks gloomy.’

A specific part of the brain is overactivated, allowing him to intuitively derive calculations that would take an ordinary person tens of seconds in just one second.

He might be clumsy in social interactions, but he would show extraordinary abilities in specific fields such as music, art, mathematics, and memory.

Truly, living mathematics.

A computational entity that reads God’s blueprints.

The being that interprets the world through mathematics and calculation chanted once again.

“Abyss Cradle!”

Everyone’s gaze turned to the void.

It’s an overwhelming momentum.

Whoosh!

The sight of the shadow sprouting was bizarre and overwhelming.

Through his shaggy hair.

His focused gaze was sharp.

‘Just now, the cause of the magic collapse was due to Phase Instability.’

It was struck directly by a 1-circle, and the phase was shaken.

The Resonance was misaligned, and the structure that made up the magic collapsed.

So?

Just apply a different design.

The method of trapping light is the same as before, but this time, deeper mathematics is involved.

Riemannian Geometry.

Departing from Euclidean Space, the magic was placed on a non-Euclidean curved surface.

It’s designed so that even if it receives an external attack, the space itself adapts fluidly.

Applying the general formula of the Mandelbrot Set, the magic was constructed to have a Self-Similar pattern, where small parts resemble the overall structure.

In other words.

A Fractal structure.

Now.

This magic will not break.

Even if the mana filter is damaged by the phase being shaken, it will be immediately restored.

While his overwhelming talent was performing excessive calculations to implement the magic, causing a nosebleed.

“Hmm~”

Ernian wasn’t in a hurry.

Even a slight hum.

I’ve just opened my eyes.

There are so many places to pierce, what is there to fear?

Whoosh!

She raised her finger and bloomed a circle.

And realized.

‘While going through the daily dungeons, I knew I was invincible against all projectiles.’

That includes.

Magic, too.

From a quick glance.

The fractal structure has self-similarity.

But perfect self-similarity does not exist.

Real-world fractals are finite due to limitations in computational power and resources.

That is, it must break somewhere.

Ernian found that ‘breaking point’ at a glance.

‘I can see it all. Where the weak points are.’

Arkeus’s magic was based on a structure that replicated itself in endless repetition and reduction.

But such a structure theoretically required infinite calculations.

Every point was divided again.

And that division replicated itself again.

Endlessly dividing, endlessly proliferating forms.

No matter how small the part, the essence was the same as the whole.

But that was also the limit.

It was theoretically perfect.

But no being in reality can perform infinite calculations.

That is, the moment the theory is implemented in reality—

No matter how much of a mathematical genius.

There is bound to be a boundary point where calculations stop.

‘As long as he’s human. The brain can’t calculate infinitely.’

The brain is basically a biological system with ‘finite’ neural networks and energy.

That is the ‘end’ of the fractal, and the weakness of this magic.

One circle floating in the void.

It aimed at the computational point that is the key to restoration.

It’s a snipe.

Whoosh!

It was a faint sound.

A trivial tremor that cuts through the air.

As insignificant as a bird flapping its wings once.

But.

The result was by no means trivial.

“……!”

“F*ck, again?”

“You have to be at that level to be the top student.”

“I really feel the wall.”

“I’m more afraid of that child’s age.”

The magic was destroyed.

Because it took the form of a structure.

Points and points connect to form a pattern.

Patterns gather to form one huge system.

It looks perfect on the surface.

But—

Therefore, it was vulnerable.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

The moment a single gust of wind matches the resonant frequency.

The huge bridge vibrated on its own and collapsed.

Now, Arkeus’s magic was the same.

A small impact hit a specific Resonance Point, and the domino effect began.

The energy reflected in the process of the magic self-restoring caused internal resonance.

Crack.

One crack.

Gradually spreads.

The shadow shook.

Through the gap, the trapped light is visible.

Flash!

The fractal tried to restore itself, but the ‘reference point’ for restoration disappeared.

When the end of the Mandelbrot set collapsed, all the structures built on it became useless.

Arkeus opened his eyes wide.

His brain felt like it was going to explode.

He ran calculations like crazy.

Applying iterative numerical solutions to approximate the solution of nonlinear equations.

Analyzing waves through Fourier transform, and attempting restoration with Inverse Transform.

But it was too late.

There is no answer for a Singular Matrix.

An impossible way to restore.

For salvaging what was already broken.

All calculations fell into endless meaninglessness.

“How can this be…… because of a single crack?”

A genius brain.

Manheontap’s design.

All of that.

The moment it was shattered by a 12-year-old girl.

“I don’t accept it!!”

Nevertheless.

Arkeus didn’t give up.

All sorts of magic poured out.

“Cancellation!”

But—

All were utterly sniped.

Beep-

Evaluation ended.

As if pierced by a sniper rifle.

Arkeus, tattered, descended from the platform.

The score?

1:0

If you don’t know, it looks like a paper-thin difference.

But those who intuited it could never think so.

It was an overwhelming difference.

After the evaluation.

The gazes were burdensome.

Too many people were trying to talk to me.

I still have things to do.

“I’m sorry~”

I politely refused with a bow and escaped.

Next?

Running so fast my eyebrows flew, I quickly returned to the dormitory.

The goal is only one.

Friday’s daily dungeon.

‘I can’t resist a treasure chest.’

Hurriedly.

I entered.

Traps flew, but they were useless.

The reaction speed of the Cheonmajiche is beyond imagination.

I could feel that I had gotten stronger.

I don’t even need to open my eyes.

I read it with ideation and easily evaded.

While doing so, I thought.

I decided to try what I saw this time.

‘I think I can implement it with just one circle?’

Where there is ideation, energy sprouts, and a circle blooms.

It resonates with the surrounding mana.

Today.

I wove what I saw with my eyes as inspiration.

Converting mana into a particle state.

Forming a filter that traps attributes.

The shape?

There is only one thing a sniper should forge.

“It works.”

The circle holds light.

Like a star.

It absorbed the mana in the atmosphere and became magic.

But now.

With the shape of a bullet added.

It was a magic bullet.