The Genius Programmer Turned Wizard - GPW Chapter 9: The Shallow Hollow (2) (Part 1)

But my mind was still caught up with the code I had just seen.

‘That code just now… What did it look like again?’

It had happened so fast, and it was more complex than any code I’d seen before. There was no way I could capture all of it at once.

‘This part was related to activation… and then came a loop, maybe?’

Still, I tried to reconstruct it as best as I could—
—when suddenly, my upper body lurched forward.

‘Magic?’

I hurriedly looked around, but there was no magic circle in sight.
Adeline was simply grabbing me by the collar and glaring at me.

“I asked you how you knew.”

Ah. Only now did I realize she was speaking to me.
I quickly answered before this lunatic made a scene.

“I sensed it through the mana.”
“Be specific.”
“The mana clinging to those things… doesn’t it feel off to you?”

In truth, it was when I saw pieces of code dropping from the ceiling of the cave that I became aware of them.

“…So you’re saying they looked off to you too?”

I nodded, and she finally smirked and let go of my collar.
She stopped muttering to herself or hanging back in silence.

“What the hell is this mana?”

With that, she turned and started walking deeper into the dungeon.

—

That day was a weekend, and I was heading home with my supervisor in his car.

[In-wook, what are you staring at so hard? Got yourself a girlfriend or something?]
[I was just reviewing the code I worked on earlier.]
[Knew it. Boring guy.]
[…]
[But why? No need to tweak it anymore, right?]

Sure, there was no need to touch it. I wrote it myself, after all. It should be perfect.
But perfection wasn’t what I was after.
I wanted to make the impossible, possible.
To bring what didn’t exist into being.
To create an entire world with my own hands.
That was what I truly wanted to do through coding.

Tup. A raindrop suddenly struck the window.
Then came another. And another.
Soon it turned into a downpour, the raindrops streaming down the glass.

One in particular caught my eye—it was especially large and sluggish.

‘It’s slow.’

How long would it take for this sluggish drop to reach the bottom?

It shouldn’t be hard to calculate.
Fluid dynamics, gravitational acceleration, curvature of the glass surface—just throw in all the right functions and constants.

That’s what I was thinking when—
Tup.
—a smaller raindrop merged into it from the side.

And then…
In the blink of an eye, it slid down, leaving only a faint Y-shaped water trail behind.

The moment I saw that Y-shape, my eyes widened.

‘Interaction…!’

If I could simulate that kind of organic interaction between objects—!

I snapped out of the memory and dove back into the codes flashing through my mind.

Meanwhile, up ahead, Liam stepped in front of Adeline as she tried to enter the dungeon.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?”
“Move.”
“What for? The mission’s over. A C-class monster showed up in a D-class dungeon. That alone explains the party wipe. All that’s left is to file the report.”

He looked pretty pleased with how quickly the mission wrapped up.
But Adeline just stared silently past him and said,

“Then go back.”
“What?”

Liam faltered for a second, then scowled.

“Hey, are you not hearing me right? Where the hell are you even—”

His eyes widened mid-sentence.

Ziiing—

A magic circle flared to life at the tip of Adeline’s staff.

Boom!
A wave of mana burst out.

Struck directly, Liam was blown back and landed on his ass.

“Sir Liam!”
“You crazy bitch…!”

Ron, who had been watching from behind, rushed to stand between Liam and Adeline.

But Adeline didn’t even glance at him. She lowered her staff and kept walking.

“….”

Liam, staring after her with a dumbfounded expression, finally spat on the ground.

“Ptui! The hell with it. Let her go die in there for all I care.”

He stood up and clapped a hand on Ron’s shoulder.

“Forget it. Let’s just head back.”
“But…”
“You see her eyes?”

Ron shook his head grimly.

“She’s a lost cause.”

Liam’s gaze drifted from Adeline to me and Ethan.

“Hey, you two heard—”

He stopped mid-sentence as our eyes met.

Probably because I looked even more unhinged than Adeline at that moment.

“…What the hell’s your deal?”

That day, when I found inspiration in a single raindrop—
I had gotten out of the car and walked back to the office, in the pouring rain, without an umbrella.
I might have ended up sick the next day, but I didn’t care.

Because if I could step into a realm that had always eluded me—
Even if I died tomorrow, it’d be worth it.

And she must be thinking the same thing.

‘Yes… the heart.’

I had always been curious about the behavioral algorithms of NPCs in The Chronicles of Terrasia.
Their actions were too intricate and unpredictable to feel like part of a game.

I tried countless times to replicate the algorithm, to no avail.

But once I fell into this world myself, I forgot all about it.

Because the people moving so vividly before my eyes didn’t feel like NPCs following rigid commands.
But if those hearts… if those emotions were actually code?

‘…’

I want to try coding that.

To replicate something so vivid, so alive—using sterile, colorless lines of code.
And to do that… I would need Ancient Magic.

I stepped forward, following after Adeline.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going now?”

A sharp voice stopped me in my tracks.

Liam blocked my path, scowling with irritation.

I didn’t really have an excuse, so I made something up on the spot.
I couldn’t exactly say, “I’m going to check out the code.”

“Didn’t you just say earlier to stick close behind Adeline-nim—”
“Fuck off. Now even the apprentice’s talking shit?”

His gaze sharpened, and the atmosphere turned as if he might throw a punch at any moment.
But I didn’t have the luxury to be tied down by him either.
Adeline was surely getting farther away with every step.

“Leader.”

Translatin_Otaku

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