Episode 40

Finally, the morning of the midterm exam arrived.

There was nothing to fear.

I had prepared as perfectly as I possibly could.

With light steps, I headed towards the school, and without a moment's hesitation, I threw open the doors of the lecture hall designated as the exam site.

But something was off.

It was less than 20 minutes before the start of the exam, and I was the only one in the lecture hall.

How long had I been sitting there, waiting blankly?

The door clicked open, and Shin Seo-joon, with a pale face, poked his head in and shouted.

"The midterm exam has been canceled!"

No, what was he talking about?

"A murder has occurred on campus. And Mr. Park Yoo-seung. You are the primary suspect. Please come with me to the station."

A murder? That couldn't be. There was still a long way to go before the mid-to-late part of the original story.

Besides, what did he mean by me being a suspect?

More than that, Shin Seo-joon was a graduate of the police academy, not an active police officer, so what right did he have to arrest me?

While all sorts of questions were floating around in my head, handcuffs were placed on my wrists.

With a click, the cold metallic sound and the hard, cool sensation brushed against my skin.

What the heck was going on, I thought, as I struggled in disbelief.

"Ah."

I kicked the blanket forcefully and jumped up from the bed.

"......It was a dream."

That was one messed-up dream.

The stress that had accumulated from studying Civil Law until right before I fell asleep was the cause, it seemed.

I looked at the clock. It was six thirty.

I had decided to close my eyes for a while to recover my condition at three thirty in the morning, so I had slept for exactly three hours.

"No, it wasn't a completely messed-up dream, was it?"

The latter half of the original story had suddenly taken a turn towards a suspenseful development, so it was true that murder cases and political infighting had appeared.

And the worry about that was always in a corner of my mind.

In the end, all the incidents were going to be resolved by the main character Shin Seo-joon.

The culprit would be apprehended, the mastermind would fall, and Korea University Law School would return to a peaceful place of learning.

That was a clear and obvious fact.

But 'resolving' an incident also meant that an incident would ultimately occur.

Only after someone had already been hurt, tormented, or even killed, would the main character's activities follow.

I couldn't criticize that.

The main character didn't know the future.

The problem was that I, at least, knew everything that was going to happen in the future.

I couldn't just turn away while knowing that a tragedy where people were going to die was going to happen.

What was the reason why I had wanted to become a prosecutor?

Wasn't it to change the world, even if only in the areas that my hands could reach, to be a little less unfair?

That was why the reason I was avoiding getting entangled in the main story was not just simple self-preservation.

If all the stories went as planned, it wouldn't be that difficult to prevent the catastrophe that was going to befall Korea University Law School.

I just had to wait and wait, and then intervene 'just once' at the most decisive moment.

That was why I was focusing on living my life as a law school student right now.

I would study to build my skills and make various preparations.

To achieve my long-held dream from my past life, and for all of these stories to lead to a slightly better conclusion.

To do that, I first had to pass the hurdle of the midterm exam.

Since my sleepiness had completely disappeared anyway, I decided to go to school a bit early and study some more.

While getting ready to go out, I checked my fortune for the day on my smartphone.

It might be surprising, but ever since the judicial exam was still around, there had been quite a few people in the legal profession who relied on shamanism or superstitions.

After going through a long and arduous exam preparation period where they couldn't be sure of passing, everyone needed something to lean on.

The fact that a profession that seemed more rational and logical than anyone else was one of the major customer bases that sustained shamans was quite paradoxical.

Even I, who was saying this, was not an exception.

[Today's Fortune!]

[Please enter your date of birth, name, and gender.]

After opening the fortune app, I suddenly realized an important fact.

"......Should I enter Park Yoo-seung's information, or my information?"

My soul was mine, but my body was Park Yoo-seung's.

But after thinking about it, I didn't even know Park Yoo-seung's date of birth anyway.

What webtoon would introduce an extra character's date of birth, which would only be used once?

I had no choice but to enter my original information and press enter.

[Wealth: Good. Health: Average. Business: Excellent. Love: Good.]

[You have always worked diligently! Today is the day that you will receive your reward. People who are on bad terms with you may try to block you, but even that will come as an unexpected stroke of luck.]

[Lucky Item: Apple-flavored Candy]

"That's good?"

The 'business' section of this fortune app encompassed the areas related to studying and exams.

For it to say 'excellent' instead of just 'good' was a considerable good omen.

Maybe because I had slept for a while, my physical condition wasn't bad either.

I took a handful of apple candies from the candy container on my desk.

The 'lucky items' on this app rotated between a few fixed items.

Of course, I had prepared all of the lucky items.

If I was going to check my fortune anyway, it was more comfortable to follow it perfectly.

When I arrived at school, familiar faces were leaning against the wall in the first-floor hallway of the law building.

I waved to Han Seol, who was more disheveled than usual.

"You came early?"

"Huh? Oh, it's you. I thought that the traffic would be bad during rush hour, so I just woke up early and took the first train."

Han Seol answered with a tired face.

"How's your preparation going? Is it going well?"

"It's, well, I think I'm screwed. I haven't memorized anything."

"You? There's no way that's true."

"It's true. I've only done 10 reviews so far."

'10 reviews... only...?'

The subject for today was Civil Law III.

If you included the lecture notes, past exam questions, basic textbooks, and supplementary materials, it was by no means a small amount.

She had gone through all of that 10 times and was saying 'only'?

That was a blatant display of arrogance, but it also meant that she was a perfectionist.

Normally, when preparing for an exam, Han Seol didn't stop until she had crammed every single letter within the range into her head.

Whether it was 10 reviews or 20 reviews, it didn't matter.

She repeated it until she could recite the entire text as if she had scanned it.

But because the amount of law was so large, even for her, it was physically impossible to prepare so perfectly.

"Ugh."

Still, it was still annoying.

I took out a candy that I had brought and shoved it into Han Seol's mouth to stop her from complaining any more.

"Umpf?"

Han Seol's surprised eyes widened like a rabbit's.

Who told her to act all arrogant?

Lee Ha-roo, who had been dozing off beside her, rubbed her eyes and asked in a mumbled voice.

"Oh, what's that?"

"Candy. It's apple flavored. Do you want one too?"

"I want one."

I peeled one and handed it over, and she took it like a sparrow.

"But why are you here at this time?"

"I stayed up all night here. Criminal Law, the one-day battle, the heart-pounding cramming operation."

"Geez......"

Lee Ha-roo was still lazy and liked to take shortcuts, but she was studying more enthusiastically than before.

Before, when she was a free spirit, there was no way that Lee Ha-roo would voluntarily stay up all night to study.

'Unless it was for a game.'

Maybe she had been influenced by the experience of developing a cheat and getting praised for it.

In the original story, Lee Ha-roo was mentioned to have become successful in the legal tech field after graduation.

There were still a lot of things that I had to do for her. This change was very positive and welcome.

Like that, we were reading the materials that we had each prepared, checking our memorization for the last time, and then moved to the designated testing room.

'It's quiet.'

The testing room was quiet.

The sound of pens scratching. The sound of laptops being tapped.

Except for the slight noise that was unavoidable in the process of studying, it was completely silent.

As it was a place where all of the top students from all over the country had gathered, there wasn't a single person in there who wasn't serious about the exam.

Everyone was focused on studying, hoping to write even one more question, or even one more line.

After briefly looking around at that scene, I took a breath.

'It's really starting now.'

The first exam of the regular semester after coming to this world.

That was why it had a special meaning.

It wasn't just because of the bet with Park Geon.

The first evaluation in the free spirit state? That was an exam that I had solved relying only on hazy old memories and improvisation, without any preparation.

The pop quizzes? Of course, the amount was considerable, but they were just a part of the evaluation process in the free spirit state, and were ultimately just pop quizzes.

There were a lot of competitors who either hadn't prepared properly or hadn't yet bloomed their talent.

The second evaluation was also similar.

Strictly speaking, that wasn't a proper 'law exam.'

Instead of requiring memorization, it was a test that asked you to find contradictions in the facts, as if they were selecting investigators.

It was a real competition where everyone had put in the same amount of time and had given their all to prepare.

The first gateway of that process, which I would have to continue to overcome, was this midterm exam.

Knowing that, I hadn't wasted a single minute or second until now.

Not only was I doing rehabilitation training to regain my old skills, I had also been busy trying to catch up to the legal theories and precedents that had advanced in the meantime.

To be honest, I thought that I had achieved some results now.

But even so, I had no intention of being careless or arrogant.

I would just approach it with a humble attitude of starting anew, and clearly present all of what I had built up on the exam paper.

"The exam will begin soon. Please put away all of the materials you are looking at, and please make sure your electronic devices are turned off. We will distribute the number tags and check your IDs."

The teaching assistants who had entered the room were announcing that the exam was approaching.

Thump, my heart was beating.

No matter how thoroughly I prepared, or rather, the more thoroughly I prepared, the more the thrill and excitement of this moment was always new.

Tension was never a sign of a lack of skill or weakness.

It just revealed how seriously you were taking it.

I didn't relax my tension even as the teaching assistant checked my ID and placed the exam paper and answer sheet on my desk.

The first midterm exam.

Just how difficult and tricky of problems were going to be lying in wait inside of this?

My hands, which had become stiff from unconsciously putting in too much strength, trembled as I picked up the exam paper.

"The exam will begin now. Please turn the page."

And so, I opened the exam paper along with the teaching assistant's announcement.

'What the heck is this.'

I was so dumbfounded that I dropped the exam paper.

'......It's too easy?'

The exam paper that I had picked up, full of tension, was filled with nothing but overly familiar problems.