If it were the original story, I thought it would take at least a week of persuasion.
So, I had also prepared various other inducements in case of failure… but they became useless.
No, of course it’s a good thing, but there’s a sense of deflation, I guess.
Still, there’s no need to ask why I didn’t refuse; I happily accepted the luck that had come my way with a warm smile.
“Thank you, Charlotte!”
“Um… by the way… are there other participants?”
“Um…”
Actually, no one has been decided yet.
Originally, I would have created connections with the main characters and participated in the tournament using those friendships… but I don’t have the guts for that.
Noah was someone I hadn’t planned to meet, but somehow a bond was formed, and Charlotte was easy to approach by nature.
In the first place, Noah was not a combat-type character at all, so I couldn’t even ask for help.
Even if I handed over a dedicated weapon or equipment, I wouldn’t have the money for that.
Moreover, Yoon Si-woo… hmm, there’s something about this guy that makes me hesitant to approach him before making a proposal.
The other main characters were also not individuals I could ask for help given my situation.
Helisia, where proper communication isn’t possible unless one has perfect knowledge of magic or equivalent combat power.
A barbarian, rumored to have lifted mountains and crafted exercise equipment with his bare hands, as the heir to the great northern nation.
The eldest daughter of the 12th clan, known as the descendant of a great hero, Han Seol-a, with her unique cold aura, and so on.
They were all people who didn’t match my status or personality.
I wouldn’t have known if they were in the same class, but they all happened to be strangely clustered in the first class.
I had never deeply thought about the fact that characters were all gathered in the same class to create coherence between the player and the characters during gameplay.
However, viewing it from the perspective of an extra, there was indeed no more discriminatory situation than this.
In any case, since those people were not within reach, I recalled the most accessible person I could approach.
Saying this might bruise his pride… but this person, unlike Charlotte, is a character that almost every player knows.
“Do you happen to know Skolla?”
“Skol… la? Ah, yes… I’ve had my staff repaired by him a few times before…!”
Charlotte closed her eyes briefly, as if recalling old memories, and pulled out a staff from a wooden coffin in a corner of the supply room.
“It collected some dust since I placed an order and had no use for it… but his skills were good…!”
“I’m going to ask him for help.”
“Huh? That person surely…”
“Don’t worry, Charlotte. I’m sure I can get his consent.”
“Ah… okay…”
Charlotte tilted her head briefly as if recalling information about someone named Skolla, and I confidently expressed that persuasion was possible.
Of course, what Charlotte truly questioned would likely not be this.
But I’m not confident.
I’m not confident in my ability to persuade.
.
.
.
.
Real name, Vector Skolla.
To sum up this person’s personality… eccentric.
An eccentric who doesn’t care about other people’s opinions at all.
This person, known among the students as a whimsical inventor who often creates strange failures.
The most notable incident was when he blew up the annex to simultaneously test the reflexes of physical-type students and the blast radius of the explosives he created.
Moreover, he has earned a bad reputation for often forgetting to submit important assignments or documents during experiments, resulting in multiple failures.
But still, the reason players remember Skolla is for one simple reason.
His role in the game is none other than ‘Enhancement.’
Most items in the ‘Dreaming World’ can be enhanced.
Sometimes, enhancements simply improve the inherent specs, while occasionally there are cases of items evolving beyond the enhancement.
However, Skolla is the only character at the Academy who can perform these enhancements.
While there are characters that can enhance items in the Dreaming World, his assistance is crucial until one leaves the academy part.
One cannot escape the academy part without going through his hands at least once.
Moreover, even if one escapes the academy, players will inevitably have to revisit it.
There’s no character with enhancement probabilities as high as Skolla.
Though he sometimes fails, his unique enhancement methods can yield 2nd and 3rd enhancements in one go, making him more important than most late-game support characters.
‘This is mostly what players know on the surface.’
Whether it’s because I like eccentric characters or due to my peculiar nature, I’ve analyzed Skolla quite a bit as a character I liked.
And the conclusion I reached was that he could provide items that didn’t even exist previously, going beyond merely enhancing equipment provided by players.
Well, it was only natural.
An inventor character wouldn’t just enhance other people’s items without creating things themselves.
And discovering that he actually preferred to create and use his items over enhancing them led me to find another way to use Skolla.
The majority, perhaps all players except me, didn’t even consider raising Skolla’s favorability.
After all, Skolla was a character whose favorability wasn’t displayed in front of them like Charlotte’s.
By exchanging beloved items daily and analyzing changing behaviors and words, I realized that there was a clear ‘favorability’ even if it wasn’t visible to Skolla.
Since I’m now immersed in the game, I can’t even be sure whether that was just a simple program or not.
In any case, the versatility of Skolla, with that raised favorability, was beyond imagination.
[Country-destroying fusion attack using a micro-sized mana reactor]
[Teleport device facilitated by simplifying space travel and reduction of travel distance]
[Breaking through specific gimmicks using a time control device]
An inventor who distorts the laws to create items that challenge the authority of gods, as long as there are sufficient materials, time, and capital.
If Charlotte is the character with the highest point in magic, Skolla possesses the highest point in mechanical engineering and science.
This secret about Skolla has never been revealed anywhere except for the community.
After all, it’s a hassle to write it down, and I don’t want others to just glance at information I spent hundreds of hours uncovering in just about a minute and leave.
However, this is only the case when sufficient capital exists for him.
If it’s in the current state, he is probably just fiddling around with others’ items to pass the time.
So.
I thought of a proposal that would be something he would love the most.
***
“Skolla!! Why is there a rocket propulsion device on the shoes I entrusted to you!!”
“Isn’t it good to be fast when running!!”
“No, I just left them with you because they were a bit worn out!!”
“How could you not recognize such a masterpiece…”
“A masterpiece, my foot! Put them back properly!”
“Tsk…”
Looking at the strongly closing door, Skolla began to hit each propulsion device from the shoes that had been thrown away.
“These guys who don’t recognize the value of this great invention…”
Lately, there have been unusually many who have been quarrelsome.
When asking for repairs, most are the types who either don’t mention what the problem is beforehand or get angry only after arbitrarily fixing the items.
“…Um, no. Since you said the speed can’t be adjusted, I have to make a device that supports leg strength so it can handle it?”
However, Skolla was determined not to give up on the propulsion device and insisted on adding something more powerful, starting to stick things back onto the shoes.
The original owner had only requested to fix the soles because they were peeling off, but such mundane and trivial matters would never enter his ears.
“Right! What’s always lacking is more firepower…!”
Clunk.
Unfortunately, recently he had spent too much money, so the place Skolla’s hands reached only had empty boxes.
“…”
While it wasn’t a matter of livelihood being at stake, the space he was currently in was too small and meager to satisfy his desire for creativity and invention.
Even if there’s a saying that ‘the beginning is humble but the end will be prosperous,’ the beginning he had now was too small to grow… it seemed like it would take too long.
“Is there no way?”
In fact, the main reason he ran out of expenses was that he had arbitrarily added equipment or destroyed the requester’s items during experiments, but he wasn’t thinking about that.
What mattered to him was merely something cooler and more clanking…!
Creak.
“Oh, welcome! What item do you…?”
At that moment, a new victim… no, a guest entered as he opened the door.
“Mr. Skolla. I came to make a proposal that would be very beneficial for you.”
“? What do you mean all of a sudden…?”
He welcomed the small guest with a bright smile, but the girl was actually the one making a tempting proposal.
“…Robots. Are you interested?”
“…?”
