The Genius Programmer Turned Wizard - GPW Chapter 13: The Shallow Cave (6)

To be honest, I had already sensed it to some extent.

“You idiot, just because you reached the 2nd Circle doesn’t mean you can—”
“Sir, how…? How did you do it? You looked at the penalty for failing the Circle upgrade and treated it like it was nothing!”

Not a single word that came out of this guy’s mouth sounded like something a C-rank Rogue would say.

‘This guy’s a mage.’

And not just any mage—he nearly turned Adeline Rubylake into a vegetable.

‘…But now’s not the time to confront him.’

He must’ve realized that I’m not just an ordinary apprentice.
On the other hand, he hasn’t shown a single card from his mage deck yet.
I’m already at a disadvantage in the information war.

‘If I want to win for sure, I need a new card of my own.’

Something like…

‘Ancient magic, maybe.’

I glanced at the slab.
All of its code was already inside my head.
The only problem was that it took time to decode.
Time. I needed to buy time.
But how…?

“Both of you, step back.”

A chilling voice rang out.
I turned my head to see Adeline Rubylake, standing with her staff pointed forward.

“That one’s mine.”

‘She’s already recovered?’

I was a bit surprised, but it was actually a stroke of luck.
With her help, taking down Ethan would be a lot easier.

“Adeline!”

Just as I was about to expose Ethan to her,
I noticed something strange.

‘Wait a second.’

Something’s off.

‘Why… why can’t I sense even a speck of Mana Power from this guy?’

A mage who’s formed a circle should naturally exude at least a faint trace of mana.
Like how a computer, even when idle, still consumes electricity due to its background operations.
But Ethan wasn’t giving off the slightest trace of mana.

‘Then there’s no evidence that he’s a mage at all.’

And then, my thoughts went even further.

‘But a mage with zero mana output…?’

I had seen one before.
Crow, the Mage of Origin.
High-circle mages like him could suppress even the unconscious leakage of mana.

‘If Ethan’s at that level…?’

…I shook my head.

‘No way. That’s impossible.’

If that were true, we wouldn’t still be alive.
There would’ve been no reason for him to join this party in the first place.
That meant his lack of mana had to be caused by something else…

‘What the hell are you?’

I was about to pull from every ounce of game knowledge I had to figure out his identity, when—

Cough—

With a grim sound, Ethan let out a smirk as he stared at Adeline.

‘Adeline?’

I quickly turned to look—
And saw her vomiting blood.

Right as I thought something was wrong, she collapsed forward.

“Adeline!”

I gave Ethan one quick glance before rushing over to her.

‘So that’s how it is.’

Of course she hadn’t fully recovered.
She had pushed herself too hard in an unhealed state.
Once I got to her and checked her condition, I was sure of it.

‘I can’t count on her strength anymore.’

Just one Fireball did this to her.
From now on, I’d have to face Ethan alone.

‘Still… thanks to that, I bought some time.’

While checking on Adeline, I’d naturally moved away from Ethan.
Ethan, in turn, quietly approached the slab.

‘At this rate, he’ll get his hands on the slab.’

But that’s fine.
Because to him, it probably looked like this:

> [Bam-bal-tta-bba-balp-dda-bbu
> Ppa-mah-pha-ppal-bat-bam-ddu-moot
> Dot-pak-tang-ppa-mah-bood-doo-boot
> Byot-mot-pak-bal-ddoot-tu-moot-booj…]

You think it’s corrupted? Or encrypted?
No. It’s a perfectly valid and complete piece of code.
It’s just written in a nonsensical programming language (esolang).
The above example, for instance, is written in an esolang called “Aheui,” which translates to the following in a conventional language:

> `print(“Hello, World!”)`

Of course, it makes no sense at first glance.
Why would anyone write such a simple line of code in a language that’s so hard to understand?

There are plenty of reasons.
To test the limits of programming languages.
As a form of artistic expression.
Or sometimes, just for fun.

But in this case, I could guess the intent behind this slab.

‘A language designed to mock foolish mages who stumble upon it.’

In short, a code meant to test your qualifications.
And Ethan had walked right into the trap.

‘As I thought.’

The expression on his face as he looked at the slab turned stiff.
It was the same look I’d seen from new interns when they saw my code for the first time.

‘No need to worry then.’

Really, this was the natural outcome.
Even I wouldn’t have dared to try decoding it without some ‘hints.’

I raised my gaze to the air.
Specifically, to the numerous hints floating around.

> `[add %rdi, %rax]`
> `[sub %rdi, %rdx]`

Mana Power (Assembly language).
It was different from the scattered mana fragments I’d seen in previous rooms.
The ancient mana code pieces that filled this massive chamber moved with a distinct flow and structure.

‘If I can understand the sequence in which these codes affect the external world…’

Then it’s possible to reverse-engineer them.

‘This part here… the one that repeats most often…’

I began comparing, deducing—searching for the first piece of the puzzle.

‘Looks like a variable call.’

And so, I placed the first piece.
The next one came more easily.
Because placing the first piece helped reveal the underlying rules.

One piece. Then another.
The more rules I uncovered from this strange language, the faster the decoding became.
Before I knew it, the pace was up to speed. I barely even needed to refer to the mana anymore.
The code’s shape was finally starting to take form.

But at the same time, I realized—

‘Where exactly did I go wrong?’

From the outline currently visible, this wasn’t even close to the ancient magic I had anticipated—it couldn’t even be considered something like magic!

‘I was sure the interpretation was correct…’

There wasn’t a single guesswork-based fragment in my analysis.
Everything had been deduced through solid reasoning.
That left only two possibilities:
Either the ancient Mana Power in the air was incorrect,
or the code on the tablet I remembered had some discrepancies.
…Though I prided myself on my memory, in this case, it was wiser to suspect my recollection rather than what was right before my eyes.
It was the moment I turned my gaze back to the tablet.

“Hey, Ethan.”

Something felt off about the mood on the other side.

‘Liam?’

While I had been focused solely on Ethan, Liam had slipped in close.
Still keeping his eyes fixed on the tablet, he casually said with a sneer:

“What is that? Hand it over.”

This… was dangerous.
If we provoked Ethan for no reason right now, he might drop the act and reveal his true self.

“Hey, can’t you hear me? You dumb bastard… what’re you gonna do, just stare at that? You’re not even a mage.”

Just as he was about to reach for the tablet—

“Ah, Leader. Here you go.”

‘What?’

For some reason, Ethan handed over the tablet to Liam without any resistance.

‘What are you scheming?’

Liam took it and turned his back as he said:

“So what is this? Just some doodles, right?”

He squinted, trying to get a better look at the tablet—
And behind him, something sharp glinted.

‘Shit, I knew it!’

I shouted.

“Liam! Behind you!”
“What th— Gah!”

Ethan’s dagger plunged into Liam’s shoulder.

“Tch.”

He glared at me.
If I hadn’t interfered, that dagger would’ve stabbed Liam right in the back of the neck.

“You bastard… Are you out of your— Grrk!”

Ethan lunged again, swinging his dagger.

Clang!
But Ron’s shield blocked it just in time.

“Sir Liam!”

‘There’s no time to sit around!’

I needed to re-examine the tablet anyway to interpret the magic.
I had to help Ron and Liam!

Just as I moved to get up—

Tap.

Something hard tapped against my ankle.

‘A staff?’

Adeline was tapping my ankle with her staff.
She must’ve regained a bit of consciousness.

“Adel…”

“Shh.”

With difficulty, she lifted her staff.

“Use…”

What?

“I said… use it.”

I took the staff from her.
Then, through the status window, I realized—

‘Hm?’

A spell had been stocked inside her staff.

‘She gave this to me on purpose… So she knew all along.’

It made sense.
Even if she couldn’t sense Mana Power, someone like her would’ve sensed something strange about Ethan.
That’s why it had seemed so odd—how she fixated on the tablet even while overexerting herself.

But if that was to divert Ethan’s attention from me and hand over the staff with a spell preloaded—

Now everything made sense.

‘Thank you…’

I tried to mouth my gratitude.

But her lips moved first.

‘Thread.’

Thread?

‘Find… the thread.’

And with that, she lost consciousness again.

‘She said to find the thread?’

It seemed random—but it was her last message, wrung out with the last of her strength.
It had to be a clue about Ethan.
But where was I supposed to find a thread on Ethan?

‘Thread… a thread…’

Damn it, no time to think!

“E-Ethan-nim, why are you doing this…?”

Ron, trembling behind his shield with no intention of fighting.
Liam, picking up his spear with his left hand.
And Ethan, whose expression remained unreadable.

From where I stood—just slightly removed from the chaos—I spotted the tablet Liam had dropped.
I scanned everything in an instant.
Before diving into battle, I needed to grasp every variable in the scene.

Then—

‘Hm?’

Something felt off.
The pattern of ancient Mana Power that filled the room had changed.
Naturally—since the tablet had been moved from its original position.
But one stream of Mana hadn’t changed position or shape at all.

And that’s when I realized what had gone wrong in my interpretation.

‘There was a foreign element mixed in all along!’

So my memory hadn’t been wrong.
The mistake had been trying to interpret everything—including that thread-like Mana.

Wait… thread-like Mana?

‘I found it… the thread!’

My eyes followed the faint Mana thread immediately.
And at last, I reached its destination.

‘Ethan.’

The faint Mana thread was connected to Ethan.

‘Now I understand. Who you really are.’

Translatin_Otaku

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