The Genius Programmer Turned Wizard - GPW Chapter 6: Settlement

‘I did it!’

If I could make a golem kneel, then I could do other things too.

“Left hand.”

At my command, the golem raised its hand.
I climbed onto it.

“Lower.”

It gently lowered me to the ground.
I tried to act like I was fine, but honestly, I felt like I was going to die.
The metallic taste of blood swirled in my mouth.
My legs were shaking so badly I could barely keep my balance.
But I couldn’t collapse here.
This wasn’t over yet.

The colosseum, once noisy, had fallen completely silent.
Everyone was staring only at me.

Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap.

A round of applause echoed through the quiet.

But this direction… it had to be—

‘Crow?’

Crow, the Mage of Origin, had stood from his seat and was clapping.
Soon, the rest of the audience followed his lead.

‘I don’t know what his game is…’

—“Unbelievable! For the first time in history, a prisoner wins by controlling a golem!”

The commentator shouted loudly, proclaiming my victory.
It had its ups and downs, but the tutorial was finally over.
With that, I had shed my status as a prisoner. Now, the story would return to its original path from the source material—

‘No, not yet.’

At that moment, someone landed lightly in the arena.
The sight of him made every nerve in my body tense.

‘Yeah… there’s no way he’s letting me walk away that easily.’

Crow.
The host of this match—and the bastard who had nearly killed me.
He began walking toward me at a slow, deliberate pace.

‘Stay sharp.’

I felt like I could pass out at any moment, but I held onto my consciousness.
I checked my connection with the Ancient Golem—ready to react at any time.
…Not that it would matter. I had no chance of winning anyway.

Step. Step. Step…

After walking leisurely for a while, Crow stopped in front of me and said:

“First, congratulations on becoming a free citizen.”

…Congratulations? What the hell was he up to?
Hearing those words from him—of all people—made goosebumps rise on my skin.
As I said before, he almost killed me.
So it made no sense for him to be congratulating me now.

But then, he suddenly burst into laughter.

“Keuhuhuhu!”

Could he even laugh like that?
I was thrown off by this new side of him.

“Incredible skill… or perhaps overwhelming talent.”

…What?
I couldn’t believe my ears.
In all of player history, there had never been a single instance of Crow acknowledging anyone else—even as lip service.

And now, his change in attitude made sense.

“So, what do you say—how about becoming my disciple?”

A proposal shocking enough to make everyone in the colosseum faint.
Murmurs began spreading rapidly through the stands.

“Crow is taking a disciple?”
“Has he ever done that before?”
“Is he going senile? Where did this come from?”

Crow’s first disciple.
Everyone was stunned by the symbolism alone.

But to me, it wasn’t all that surprising.

‘In a way, it makes perfect sense.’

If I’d wanted to become his disciple, I wouldn’t have needed to participate in this insane match.
I could’ve done it long ago.
I just didn’t want to.

And I still didn’t.

“I’ll have to decline.”

“…May I ask why? To be honest, with your level of skill, you must know—there’s no mage in the world more qualified than me to teach you.”

That’s true.
There’s no teacher in this world more capable.

A true all-master—versed in theoretical magic, combat magic, Magic Circle crafting, enchantments, and everything else.
And especially in theory, he stood peerless.
That was Crow, the Mage of Origin.

‘But once again—you’re dangerous.’

And just as dangerous as your skills is the fact that you’re the most likely person to uncover my “coding.”
No—not just likely. You will find out.

And on top of that…

“Right now, I want to carve out my own path.”

“I thought as much…”

Crow nodded as if he understood, then approached me.
He reached toward my chest.

Shing.

In his hand was something golden, reflecting the light of the evening sun.
When he pinned it to my chest, I finally realized what it was.

A badge?

Now that I thought about it, the only ornament on his robe was gone.
He must’ve taken it off to give to me.

“It’s the badge of the Chief Mage of the Blue Tower—that is to say, my badge. Wherever you go, that’ll be of some help.”

…Is he even allowed to just hand that over like this?
More importantly—
It’s hard to believe this is pure goodwill. This is Crow we’re talking about.

“May I ask… why are you giving me this?”

Crow responded as if it was nothing.

“The magic of this country is pathetic. Mages are only focused on learning spells that are immediately useful. And once they learn them, they use magic solely as a means for making money or climbing the social ladder.”

“…”

“But you were different. I could tell from your eyes. You enjoy magic, don’t you?”

I understood now.

He wasn’t simply acknowledging me—
He understood me.

Even if he didn’t know what coding was, he had seen through my emotions—the joy I felt while doing it.

I nodded in affirmation.

“Yes. I do enjoy it.”

Crow smiled in satisfaction.

“Well, it’s a shame I won’t be the one teaching you. But I’m sure you have your reasons.”

As if his business here was finished, he turned around neatly and began to walk away.

‘I thought he was just a sociopath…’

Surprisingly, it felt like we shared some common ground.

“Ah.”

Suddenly stopping mid-step as if something occurred to him, Crow pointed at the golem and said,

“Restore that thing to its original state.”

He was the type to draw a sharp line between business and personal matters.

—

Once the tournament and all procedures were complete,
I stood in front of the Ancient Golem.

‘So he wants me to restore this thing, huh?’

In truth, it wasn’t all that difficult.
The problem was the badge Crow had pinned on my chest.
More precisely, the spell cast on that badge.

Of course, it wasn’t strange for a Chief Mage’s badge to be enchanted in some way, but…

`magic ThirdEye`
`int ViewAngle…`

To me, who saw everything as code, it was crystal clear.

‘A surveillance spell, huh.’

He hadn’t given it to me without reason.

Even telling me to restore the golem… was probably so he could observe how I went about it.

It didn’t work in the end, though.

‘Now then… what should I do?’

I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should try dispelling the surveillance spell.

But then I thought—maybe even that was part of his plan.
There was no reason to give him more information than necessary.

So instead, pretending it was just annoying,
I casually pulled the badge off and stuffed it into my pocket.

There. That should cut off Crow’s line of sight.

‘Now, let’s take a look.’

Without hesitation, I began reading the golem’s code.

Once I had read through it all, I cleanly removed only the lines I had added.
And finally, I implanted a hidden backdoor—one Crow wouldn’t notice.

“Don’t you enjoy magic?”

Yes. I did.

Even just by programming, I felt it.

‘When was the last time I felt like this?’

It had been at least five years.

Back when I thought programming was magic.

When I dreamed of building worlds—vivid, multicolored realms filled with people, their conversations, their emotions. I wanted to recreate all of it.

But these days, programming felt nothing like magic.

After becoming an adult, and realizing that all it amounted to was a money-making tool—
just white text on a black screen—I spent every day cranking out mass-produced games tailored to rigid specifications.

I hadn’t felt anything close to joy in a long time.

‘…No, that’s not true.’

Even in those colorless days, there was something that lit me up.

The Chronicles of Terrasia.

A game that seemed like my childhood dreams brought to life—
I had no idea how they even implemented it.

Naturally, I was drawn to it.

I admired it… maybe even envied it.

Every day, I’d analyze it, trying to break down how it worked, trying to replicate it—only to fail and laugh like a madman.

Especially… the Ancient Magic.

Lately, my research had been focused mostly on that.

‘Because I couldn’t understand how a single part of it was implemented.’

It connected spaces. It rewound time.

Even while touching the game’s most critical systems, there wasn’t a single visible bug.

So I thought—if I studied Ancient Magic, maybe I could uncover how the game itself was structured.

And the moment this game became a real world, that suspicion turned into certainty.

‘The parts Ancient Magic touches… are like the very laws of this world.’

Time and space, for instance.

In the real world, such things would be untouchable. Absolute.

But here, Ancient Magic manipulated them freely.

‘In other words… Ancient Magic means being able to rewrite the laws of reality.’

And if that magic can be coded…

If that’s truly possible—

‘Then maybe… just maybe… I could create an entire world through coding.’

That thought—

That childhood dream—

It was shimmering before my eyes again.

‘Yeah…’

Even as my heart pounded with excitement, my mind cooled—calculating my next move.

‘Let’s uncover the truth of this world.’

And to do that, first and foremost—
I need to get my hands on Ancient Magic.

This was the first time since arriving here that my goal had taken a clear shape.

Translatin_Otaku

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