Chapter 31
There was a phrase I once read in a book.
A beautiful woman's looks fade in less than ten years,
but having a wise woman by your side brings a hundred years of peace.
Well, there's also a saying that a virtuous woman is remembered for a thousand years, but let's skip that….
The key point here is that wisdom lasts a hundred years.
In that sense, VTuber Wayo can be said to possess the qualities to keep things peaceful for a hundred years, well beyond the bare-minimum ten.
-???
-How did he get that right?
“Isn't that just common knowledge?”
This is the proof.
[Problem Solved!]
“Berlin? That's easy.”
I shrugged while watching the detective on-screen give a thumbs-up.
The game I'm playing now is a mystery game called Professor Sherlock and the Mysterious London.
Actually, it's closer to a general-knowledge quiz than a mystery game.
The problems could be solved by answering general-knowledge questions or solving puzzles.
-You knew this?
-The guy next door didn't know any of themㅋㅋ
-First time I've seen a VTuber get one right
“You learn world geography in high school, don't you?”
Well, Wayo only has a middle-school education.
Still, Berlin? You see a map when you get on a plane, don't you?
Europe is all familiar to me.
-It is still the early game
-This bastard's getting cockyㅋㅋㅋ
-He's still above the average VTuber; that's normal-person level
“Yeah, yeah, let's keep going.”
Ah, the reason I'm doing this now is.
Just a little over ten minutes ago.
An incident occurred while I was playing Rell.
-Do you have no intelligence?
-Why did you do that?
-How many times is this dumbass going to fall for the same thing?
Right after the game ended following a four-game losing streak.
The viewers who had bet points on me getting picked off in the side lane at the end finally exploded,
“Why am I a dumbass? The team didn't get anything while I was with the main group.”
I pouted and grumbled in response.
-Haㅋㅋㅋ
-Fucking hell
-Why can't he admit he's a dumbass??
“No, sigh, I can't even prove it.”
Even if my academic credentials are lacking, I've never had anyone call me stupid.
Haven't I been renowned as a sharp kid since I was a six-year-old model?
Of course, that's only natural since my brain stayed the same even though my body got younger….
-Why can't you prove it?
-Holmes go go
-Let's take an IQ test??
“Holmes? Oh, right, bring it out.”
Anyway, I still couldn't admit I was a dumbass.
So I took the viewers' provocation at face value and....
And so.
"Tsk."
I'm solving problems right now.
[Name the Five Oceans and Six Continents.]
What was this again?
-Kyaㅋㅋㅋ
-The killer question has appearedㅋㅋㅋ
-No way he can get this one
I pinched the bridge of my nose as I watched the viewers act as if I'd already gotten it wrong.
For the record, fittingly for a bet that began with a fight, both sides had something at stake.
The viewers would be banned from taking walks for a week.
I would give out ten burgers.
The condition was scoring at least 500 points total in the Sherlock game.
I'd heard the average VTuber score was under 200 points.
“Pacific… Atlantic… Indian… Southern Ocean….”
-He knows the Indian Ocean??
-Is this guy really a VTuber?
-???
Even as I wondered what on earth VTubers were supposed to be….
I calmly entered the answers.
[Problem Solved!]
[What is the name of the river where ancient Egyptian civilization developed?]
[Problem Solved!]
[What is the name of the world's largest desert, covering most of North Africa?]
[Problem Solved!]
Thus, I did reasonably well on the geography-related questions.
“Phew, hehe.”
I smiled in satisfaction as I watched my score climb.
Am I really this smart? Honestly, it's frightening.
-No way;;
-How the hell does this bastard solve them?
-He's pretty goodㅋㅋㅋ
“What? Isn't this basic knowledge? None of you know this?”
-ㄱ-
-I know itㅋㅋ
-Wayo controversy
-Apparently some people don't know??
“I'm only saying that to you guys.”
Other people, well, they might get it wrong.
It's not like they called me a dumbass, right?
[Chinese Four-Character Idioms]
Anyway, after geography.
Questions about four-character idioms started appearing.
[This detective insists on outdated methods even though the times have changed.]
[Choose the key bearing the four-character idiom that best fits this statement.]
[A. Mark the Boat to Find the Sword]
[B. Progressing with Each Passing Day]
[C…]
[D..]
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-This is fucking hardㄷㄷ
-What is this??
-ㅋㅋ Should we give him one phone-a-friend?
As the questions came out at a higher difficulty than expected, I could see the viewers enjoying themselves.
Bastards… Do they really want those burgers that badly?
Naturally, I had no intention of handing them out easily.
No, you could say I had no intention of handing them out at all.
“...Mark the boat to find the sword?”
[Problem Solved!]
Naturally, I was going to win the bet.
-?
-??
-How do you know this??
“It was a saying my mentor liked.”
Still, one fortunate thing was.
I was confident in one of the biggest hurdles for VTubers: the four-character idiom section.
‘History is humanity's answer sheet of wrong answers! How could we forget the words of the sages recorded in such a notebook….’
It was all thanks to Teacher Han Seonghwa.
It's not for nothing I consider my mentor.
Honestly, I hadn't been confident I could reach 500 points.
Thanks to that, it looked like I'd get to save the burgers.
-Ha..
-You can't get this one either??
-He wasn't a dumbass after all?
-Does this bastard have a college degree??
“Phew, hehe….”
This was an achievement beyond even my expectations, so how much more so for the viewers?
I couldn't help smiling as I looked at the chat.
Ah~ Don't they have any language questions?
I need to show off by busting out some French.
“Ah, this is easy, so easy~”
It was just as I was reveling in my smugness.
[What is the underground point where an earthquake first occurs called?]
I froze when I saw the next question.
…Science?
“Uh… hmm.”
-You don't know this?ㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
How am I supposed to know science?
Middle-schooler Ahyeon aside, even Seongwon had spent high school working part-time and sleeping through class.
So while I knew basic geography and the four-character idioms I'd picked up from Teacher Han Seonghwa,
I didn't know the science I should have learned and memorized in school.
[What is the chemical symbol for hydrogen?]
“....”
-???
-You don't know this??
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Wow, this guyㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“I forgot. Ah, my brain isn't working after staying up all night.”
For the record, I hadn't stayed up all night.
I'd slept well and gotten up to stream.
...Anyway, since I couldn't afford to throw away all those points, I tried to solve a few of them.
[The litmus paper here has turned blue.]
[Then a () substance must have come into contact with it.]
[What word goes inside the ()?]
-You don't know this??
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Use a phone-a-friendㅋㅋ
-ㅋㅋㅋ
“Okay, I'm skipping this.”
I just gave up.
Okay, no more science.
You can live just fine without knowing science.
Let the scientists worry about it.
Still, after that, I managed to get through the other general-knowledge questions, except for science, reasonably well.
[Choose the shape that fits this position.]
“Ah, this one.”
When I got the answer right immediately, exclamations rose in the chat.
-How the hell did he solve that??
-He got this one rightㅋㅋㅋ
See? I told you I'm not a dumbass.
Huh? Even when I played Rell, all my plays were calculated, that's what I'm saying.
[484 points]
-Almost there;
-Still, the final boss remainsㅇㅇ
-Please get them all wrong
Thus, thanks to smashing through the questions, I sailed along with a high score.
Now only the final episode remained.
[Is this the place?]
[Yes, the final truth lies here.]
Sherlock and his assistant on-screen lit the lamps inside the dark mansion,
and then….
[Hmm, there are a lot of numbers.]
-Math has entered the chatㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-All right, let's goㅋㅋ
-Can you get this one right?ㅋㅋㅋ
I had arrived at the graveyard of VTubers.
*
Honestly, science aside.
How am I supposed to solve math?
I couldn't even remember the last time I'd solved a problem.
But the score remaining was 484 points.
Even if I solved the easiest problem, I'd have to solve two of them.
However.
[Step, step]
-?
-Where's he going?
I ignored the easiest problems and walked toward the difficult problem meant to be solved last in this mansion.
Honestly, I wasn't confident I could solve even the easiest problem.
I only knew arithmetic up through multiplication and division; I didn't know a thing about calculus or anything like that.
-ㅋㅋㅋ Did he give up??
-All right, bring on the burgersㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-You're giving us the meal set too, right?
“I'm not giving you any.”
Even so, there was exactly one problem I felt confident I could solve.
I walked proudly to the deepest part of the mansion and looked at the problem there.
[The value of the linear expression ax + 3 when x = 2 is….]
Honestly, I had no idea what it meant.
Was this a math problem or an English passage?
It looked like there were more alphabets than math.
-He's going to solve this??
-Can he actually do it?ㅋㅋㅋ
-Are you a math-and-science type??
In manga, when the difference in combat power is too great, one side sometimes can't even gauge the other's level.
This was exactly that kind of situation.
What level was this?
Still, considering the overall difficulty of the game, it was probably just a difficult high-school math problem, right?
Or not. Whatever.
-I've never seen a problem like thisㅋㅋ
-I feel like I might understand it if I looked at it for a while?
-Wait, I'll try solving it
Since there were current university students and even a few high-school students in the chat,
some viewers were showing their competitive spirit.
“You said we could use the family phone-a-friend, right?”
I casually brought it up while looking at those viewers.
-ㅇㅇ?
-Are you going to ask your little brother?ㅋㅋ
-Is your little brother good at studying?
“What? No, not my little brother.”
For the record, Aseong was a math flunker too.
Well, he probably learned the basics at the repeat-year academy… but I couldn't imagine him solving a problem like this in a snap.
-Someone give it a try
-But don't take more than five minutesㅇㅇ
-Give it a shotㅋㅋㅋ
“Ah, okay.”
Even so, I took a picture of the problem with the camera and confidently made the call.
Honestly, I hadn't expected anything from Aseong in the first place.
And I'd already decided whom to call as soon as the phone-a-friend suggestion came up.
[What brings you to call me all of a sudden….]
The other party answered before the phone had rung three times.
“Would you like me to text it to you?”
[Text?]
Without another word, I sent the photo, and the voice on the other end fell silent.
-???
-Who did he call??
-What?
"Just a moment."
I waited for a moment until they solved the problem.
“What's the answer?”
[Uh… hmm, this is sudden….]
When I asked for the answer, a flustered voice came from the other end, and then.
[31? But why are you asking me something like this….]
The answer came right away.
“The answer is 31….”
[Problem Solved!]
As soon as I entered it, it was marked correct.
-???????
-What the hell
-Seriously, who is it??
“Ah.”
It was nothing special….
[Could it be that our daughter has finally taken an interest in math….]
“I love you, Dad.”
Click.
It was my father, of course.