Translator: Dreamscribe
At 5:40 a.m., Tae-jin woke up to the sound of the microwave running. It was clear that someone in the dormitory was heating up a snack.
"Ugh, I smell...."
Tae-jin grabbed his towel and trudged out into the hallway.
It had already been a month and a half since school started. Students wandered the dormitory halls like zombies from the early morning. Most of them had bloodshot eyes from lack of sleep. Towels hung around their necks, and they each held their own toiletry bags, waiting in front of the shower room for their turn.
Since students during this period were all on edge, Tae-jin was being careful not to cause any trouble.
[Shower, 5 minutes max!]
A phrase someone had written in red on an A4 sheet and stuck up, but most students finished even faster than that. These days, even time spent showering felt like a waste.
As soon as he finished showering, Tae-jin checked his laptop. The school had an intranet for students, which was especially useful during exam periods.
Click.
[The Duck Lord visited today as well]
– Solved all the math, physics, and chemistry problems before leaving. Seriously, doesn’t anyone know who it is?
└ Maybe it’s a third-year sunbae?
└ Possible. If they’ve already chosen a university, they might have time.
└ Doubt it. Their solution style is totally different. Exactly three lines per problem.
└ Are the answers correct?
└Yeah, I asked the teacher and they said it's perfect.
└ They said there wasn’t anyone like this last year. Not a sunbae.
└ We know who they are, but we won’t say for privacy reasons.
└If you leak it and that person disappears, we'll all come after you.
'Duck Lord, huh....'
The anonymous board run by the student council allowed users to choose an icon per post. You could even design your own, and this mysterious individual had a signature icon of a duck with a wicked expression.
It started small.
Someone posted a photo of a math problem at 1 a.m., and within 3 minutes, a solution was uploaded. From that point on, the number of questions snowballed. And without fail, solutions and answers were posted within minutes.
All the students praised the grace of the Duck Lord.
If you posted a problem you didn’t understand on the anonymous board and dozed off for a bit, a notification would ring. Normally, you'd have to seek out a teacher or ask a sunbae. Thanks to the Duck Lord, students were able to secure more study time.
[Duck Lord-nim, how do I calculate energy loss in a physics collision? The formula keeps getting tangled (diagram attached)]
└ Fix v_cm. In the center-of-mass coordinate system, the collision is symmetric reflection. So, loss rate = 1 − e²
└ Overwhelming thanks. May Pythagoras and Newton’s blessings be with you, Duck Lord-nim.
Tae-jin chuckled as he looked at the Duck Lord’s solution.
The explanations had become kinder than before.
When students started complaining about the one-line solutions, the Duck Lord began adding explanations to the answers. And now, they had increased to a maximum of three lines.
Tae-jin didn’t know about the other classes, but everyone in Class 1, where he belonged, knew who the Duck Lord was. It was just that no one said it out loud since the person clearly wanted to keep it hidden.
“I thought he was only good at math, but turns out he’s amazing at physics and chemistry too.”
Tae-jin realized for the first time that there really were untouchable geniuses in the world.
***
Two weeks ago, a guest had come to see Seo-ha.
When he went out to the café in front of the main gate, the guest had already arrived.
“Teacher!”
Woo-hyun was sitting at a table wearing large sunglasses, as if to hide his face. Next to him was a large box.
“What do you mean teacher... I didn’t even teach you anything.”
The corners of Woo-hyun’s lips lifted slightly.
Even though it had been a while, Seo-ha was just the same as before. He’d gotten taller and lost some of his country-boy vibe. Still, he was just as polite and pure-hearted as ever.
“Take it.”
Woo-hyun pushed the black box onto the table.
“I can’t accept something this expensive.”
Seo-ha glanced at the logo on the box and was startled, waving his hands.
“Don’t be cheeky. Something like this is the same as me grabbing an ice cream from a convenience store. And besides-”
Tap tap.
Woo-hyun tapped the table with his fingers.
“I was the one who suggested sending you to the Gifted High School. I should at least provide this much after-service."
“Still....”
Seo-ha hesitated.
He had been planning to ask for a laptop at home. Not something this expensive, though....
Accepting the gift was burdensome enough, but what worried Seo-ha more was whether his parents might feel hurt by it.
“You’ll be taking computer science from the second semester, right? If you’re going to install an IDE (Integrated Development Environment), handle data, and take coding tests, a laptop is essential. Are you planning to go into battle unarmed?”
Rip.
Without another word, Woo-hyun tore off the seal sticker on the box.
At that point, Seo-ha couldn’t resist anymore.
“I’ll definitely pay you back later.”
“Sure. If you end up earning more than I do.”
Seo-ha let out a sigh.
Last year, Woo-hyun had ranked number one in lecturer income in Korea. His newly launched lecture series was a massive hit, and his books had sold hundreds of thousands of copies. He was more than a walking mid-sized business.
“Thank you. I’ll really put it to good use.”
Seo-ha bowed deeply.
That day, Woo-hyun treated Seo-ha to the most expensive Korean beef in the area, then returned to Seoul.
As Seo-ha was carrying the box up to the dorm, his classmate Ki-bum saw him.
“Guys! Seo-ha got a laptop!”
""What?""
Where had those aloof attitudes from the beginning of the semester disappeared to?
In an instant, five or six students came rushing over. Their eyes lit up at the sight of Seo-ha’s high-performance laptop.
“Seo-ha, leave stuff like this to us hyungs.”
Tae-jin took the heavy box on his behalf. Then, everyone followed Seo-ha to his room.
After spending over a month together, his classmates had come to understand Seo-ha’s charm.
At first, no one could believe it, but now they all knew. Seo-ha had no ill intentions.
There was a reason he never acted arrogant: he truly didn’t think solving problems was anything impressive.
Whenever someone asked him something he didn’t know, he always did his best to explain. And when the other person still couldn’t understand, he would sincerely apologize.
On soccer days, he would always come fully geared and head out to the field early to warm up. The others came to realize that Seo-ha really looked forward to that day.
To help computer-clumsy Seo-ha, they set up his environment at lightning speed. Then they spent a long time explaining how to use the internal network and which programs would be useful for classes.
“Hyungs, thank you.”
“No big deal.”
The students waved their hands like it was nothing and returned to their rooms.
‘When will I ever become an adult?’
Seo-ha felt like he was always on the receiving end of help from those around him. If possible, he wanted to give back even more than he had received.
***
After setting up the laptop, Seo-ha discovered the anonymous board on the school’s internal network.
“There was a place like this?”
All sorts of trivial information about the school was posted there.
[Shower Room B, stall 3 has the strongest water pressure. But hot water is slow (20 seconds)]
[Dryer 2, timer broken]
[Premed Music Room A, seems like there’s a study group in the evening]
[Housemaster patrol route revealed]
[Cheese-colored cat in front of the library seems to be pregnant?]
[Story about seeing Shin Woo-hyun at the cafe in front of school]
Thanks to the exchange of talents with Gyeo-ul, Seo-ha had gained psychological stability and no longer felt burdened when using his brain. He could now immerse himself in long periods of research without worrying about backlash.
‘Ah! I should study for exams.’
Even if he didn’t need to study math, it was a different story for the other subjects.
Having skipped the middle school curriculum, Seo-ha had big gaps in his knowledge, and it was impossible to cover all of that with just the encyclopedia.
He began devouring textbooks as if reading novels. Physics, chemistry, and biology were fun. Korean and English, perhaps because they didn’t interest him, were much harder to read. Still, it was a great relief that he had studied English in advance.
Ding-
“Hm?”
A problem was posted on the anonymous bulletin board. It was a math problem.
Seo-ha replied with an answer the moment he saw it.
After doing this a few times, even with only basic textbooks, there was almost nothing in chemistry and physics that Seo-ha didn’t understand.
Ding, ding, ding-
Notifications rang out in succession.
“Whoa, jackpot!”
Turns out, someone needed help solving problems.
The anonymous board was overflowing with questions every day. Past exams, variations, even self-made problems that someone seemed to have created. The formats were all different, but since people only posted what they couldn’t solve themselves, none of them were easy.
By solving those problems, Seo-ha could make up for the lack of real-world practice he got from only reading textbooks. And since it also helped other students, it was truly killing two birds with one stone.
As exams drew closer in earnest, targeted questions began flying in.
[Duck Lord-nim, why are sound and light calculated differently in the Doppler effect?]
└Because sound travels through a medium, while light moves directly through a vacuum, so the formulas diverge.
Since it would be embarrassing if his identity were revealed, Seo-ha decided to stick with the persona.
[Duck Lord-nim, I have no idea how to approach equilibrium constant problems in chemistry.]
└Substitute concentration with activity. The moment the idealization assumption breaks down, the problem becomes easier to solve.
Seo-ha explained the problems as kindly as he could.
Before he knew it, the board had become something like “Ask Me Anything”.
Seo-ha also gained a lot from answering the questions. He was exposed to countless types of problems he wouldn’t have seen if he’d just stayed still.
Occasionally, strange questions would come up.
[Duck Lord-nim, how do I get a girlfriend?]
Seo-ha was unsure how to respond, then thought of Sung Ji-hoon, who always had a girlfriend.
└Height and face?
└ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└That hit right where it hurts.
└Duck Lord-nim speaks nothing but the truth.
Doom- Doo-oom-
At the music room, he tried pressing the piano keys. Seo-ha had been reading piano manuals and music theory books, working to transcribe Ducky’s chaotic, cryptic-sounding song into sheet music. As he did, Ducky kept modifying the piece as if evolving it along with the theory.
It seemed like it would take more time to properly compose and perform a full piece.
After dinner, Seo-ha casually dropped by the library and found it so packed he could barely find an empty seat.
‘Ah! It’s exam season.’
While standing in line to return the piano manual, his eyes landed on a nearby group. They pulled out some printed pages and whispered among themselves.
「Duck Lord's Solutions Compilation」
“Hey, this is organized really well. Look how they put example problems right next to each formula.”
“A kid in Class 3 is a Duck Lord fan. Apparently, they collected and compiled everything answered so far.”
Seo-ha turned his gaze.
All around the library, students were reading the “Duck Lord Solution Compilation”. The A4 pages were so worn around the edges, it showed how often they’d been read.
That night, a post that wasn’t a question appeared on the anonymous board.
[Duck Lord, thank you]
– To be honest, I had a really hard time after getting in here. I didn’t know anyone, and it was hard to ask questions. But Duck Lord answered everything, and it felt like I had a friend, which made me so happy. Duck Lord’s probably way smarter than someone like me, but still, I hope you do well on the exam.
└I would have had a mental breakdown too without the Duck Lord.
└I don’t know who you are, but I’m really thankful too.
└I also wanted to say thanks. Duck Lord, thank you!
└But if Duck Lord is a first-year, doesn’t that already decide who’s going to be top of the class? ㅋㅋㅋ
└For real
└Totally out of our league.
└Shouldn’t the Duck Lord Solution Compilation have copyright protection or something?
Dozens of thank-you messages were posted beneath it.
Seo-ha’s vision blurred as he looked at the screen.
He closed his laptop and tried to calm the overwhelming emotions rising inside him.