From Space Idiot to Professor

1 – I became a Space Runaway (1)

My doctorate degree has vanished.

“Excuse me, have you seen my degree by any chance?”

“Young master, you’ve finally lost your mind.”

Strange. I was holding it just a moment ago.

The same goes for everything else. My graduation gown I was wearing, and the plaques I received for being selected as an excellent researcher disappeared.

“This is impossible….”

I looked around, patting down my body. I slapped my cheeks a couple of times as well.

What I could see was the drab interior of a spaceship, and what I could feel was the monotonously dressed body of a boy.

“Pull yourself together.”

A maiden, with her short navy-blue hair, shook me by grabbing my shoulder.

Ah, right.

This is a dream. There’s no other plausible explanation.

The graduation ceremony will begin soon. I have to wake up from this dream as fast as possible to get back there. I cannot miss an honor that happens just once in a lifetime.

“I repeat. Pull yourself together. How long are you going to keep up this farce?”

The maiden smacked my forehead. An exclamation of pain escaped my lips before I knew it. It hurts more than expected.

What now? This is supposed to be a dream, so why does it hurt?

With the senses so real, I was stunned like a honey-coma bear when the maiden asked while snapping her finger, “Do you remember who I am?”

“……”

“Once again, do you remember who I am?”

“…Sonia.”

I muttered the name blankly.

A maiden with navy-blue hair, and white eyes.

‘Sonia’, the android maid from the space opera web novel series that I just binge-read recently.

“That’s a relief, at least.”

Sonia sighed.

“Young master, you were unconscious for a week. Do you remember what mistake you made before passing out?”

I shook my head.

Of course, I don’t. There’s no way I could.

The only mistake I made was falling asleep for a moment during the graduation ceremony.

Just because I dozed off and woke up to this world…

Isn’t it normal to consider this a dream?

“Don’t you remember?”

Reality was cruel.

“If I hit you, it’ll jog your memory.”

With her eyebrows furrowed, Sonia clenched her fist. Instinctively, I knew this punch was going to ignore all laws of robot engineering.

And so, without comprehending, I started getting hit like a punching bag.

“Ouch! Oh, it hurts! It hurts I say!”

“Does it hurt? I, Sonia, hurt too.”

“Is it okay for a maid to hit her master?”

“It’s apparently okay.”

“Is it okay for a robot to hit a human!”

“It’s apparently okay.”

Who the hell!

With every hit, my head throbbed painfully. Something seamed ready to surface. I tried to remember desperately. Who was this person?

Ah, of course. There was only one person who kept Sonya as his dedicated android.

Idel von Rheinlant.

The third-rate villain from the novel, “Surviving in a Foreign God.”

A repellent wastrel of the Rheinlant family, who after being beaten up by his father, the protagonist, and the transcendent beings called foreign gods, thoroughly fell from grace.

If the information surfacing in my head was correct, I seemed to have possessed the novel’s worst character in ‘Foreign God’s Survival.’

“Ah! Ah!”

Whatever it was, Sonia’s punches were too painful. I’d been beaten to a pulp, and the fact that I wasn’t waking from this dream confirmed that I was indeed possessed.

Let’s think about whether this situation made scientific sense later. First, I have to put out urgent fires.

“Are you okay now? Do you remember?”

Sonya asked, raising her arm. I nodded my head desperately. Thankfully, I didn’t get hit again. Her hand, which had stopped its pounding, went straight for her waist.

“What did you do wrong? Tell me.”

“I… blew the calculations.”

“How much exactly?”

“Approximately 2,000 trillion won… No, about 2,000 trillion credits.”

“How did this happen?”

“Gambling.”

“You must be insane.”

Sonya clucked her tongue.

“It’s not just that. Thanks to your rampage at the casino, the family’s honor… oh, wait. Do you remember what the rampage was about?”

“I remember. I started a brawl because the game was rigged and then I got hit on the head by a security guard.”

I rubbed the back of my head feeling a strange pressure. The texture of a rough bandage touched my hand.

Meaning I was currently a patient with a head injury, being hit by a robot.

“This incident brought the Rheinlant family’s honor to the ground. The Head of the family was also furious. You’ve made a grand mess.”

Damn it, this is unfair. What the hell is going on?

Suddenly I spun my head around and saw a mirror. What was reflected was…

“…What?”

It was me.

Me, not Idel Von Rheinlant.

Except for the iris having changed to the gold symbolizing the Rheinlant family, I looked exactly like me. There were no descriptions of Idel’s appearance in the novel and it seemed like they took my face as it was during the possession.

“Huh.”

The confusion doubled.

It seems time is needed to organize my thoughts.

***

Lee Jinsoo, 22 years old.

My future ambition was to become a university professor.

Just like a veritable physics nerd, I bloated myself on web novels mainly of the SF genre until I found myself in a space opera universe devoid of dreams or hope.

There was no room for doubt.

Even if there was, there was nothing I could do.

“Ugh.”

I felt like a brain inside a jar.

Honestly, what did I do wrong?

I just read, only read.

Isn’t it a bit too much to confine a person in a place like this for just reading without posting any comments?

If I knew this was going to happen, I would have read an extra academic paper instead of novels.

“Young Master.”

In the middle of my various thoughts, Sonia came in.

“The Master will soon arrive. Please get ready.”

So he has finally come.

Soon, I will be summoned by the father of this body’s original owner.

And I expect to be scolded to death for the crime of gambling away the family’s fortune.

Idel’s father is quite busy. As per the setting, he was supposed to be a doctor gripping the reins of the southern galaxy. I remember a description stating that he was barely able to come home because he was running 10 hospitals simultaneously.

Such a father was now halting everything and coming home.

“Damn.”

In a word, I was screwed.

Clank!

The sound of the two ships docking resonated.

“It seems the Master has returned. Please get ready, Young Master.”

“Whew.”

I took a deep breath: one, two, three times.

I casually threw on the clothes handed to me and followed Sonia out to the dock. There stood a man dressed in a white robe, carrying a carrier.

Arnold von Rheinland.

The father of Idel and the head of the Rheinland family.

He adjusted his glasses and glared at me.

“Idel.”

A voice as heavy as if being pressed by a massive stone.

“You’ve finally crossed the line.”

His voice was filled with anger, condensed like morning dew.

From what I could see with my graduate student eyes, he was in a state that could explode with the slightest provocation. I needed to approach cautiously.

“Idel, answer me. How could you waste the colossal sum of two quadrillion without my permission?”

I recalled.

How Idel behaved at the time in the novel. And I decided to tell him the truth, without any embellishment.

“I signed a guarantee in the name of our family in the casino. As for the seal needed for verification, I stole it from your drawer.”

Wow.

Even I think I’m an absolute scumbag.

As expected, Arnold’s face turned red and blue.

“Do you want to die?”

“I’ve committed a crime punishable by death.”

I bowed my head as if to bury it.

“That money amounts to one-tenth of the total wealth of Rinelander. You’ve blown away the fortune your family has amassed over generations in one swoop. Do you understand what this means?”

“I feel it to the bone.”

I bowed my head deeper, deeper, and deeper. It wasn’t my fault, but I still had to bow.

Patience. I have a plan for what comes next.

Thereafter, Arnold’s voice gradually grew louder. Madman, ungrateful bastard, a guy I wouldn’t miss even if he’s dead, and so on. Vulgar words that were not restrained poured out in a restrained tone.

“I’ve made a mistake.”

Each time, I repeated the same words like a parrot.

“Is it all over if you say you made a mistake? Huh?”

“I’ve made a mistake.”

I can’t even say I will take responsibility. It’s not fair for me to say such things since it wasn’t my fault.

Above all, saying I will take responsibility is equivalent to saying that I will repay all two trillion credits.

I couldn’t amass such a huge amount of money in a short period of time within my abilities. No, even Arnold, the house master, couldn’t. That’s why he’s criticizing me this deadly.

But there was one fortunate point.

It was that Eidelle was a trash above anyone’s expectations.

The kind of guy who routinely curses at his own parents. A guy who never admits he was wrong.

“This rascal… He realizes that he’s wrong.”

Arnold would be surprisingly seeing him bowing his head and pleading.

“That’s enough. Speaking more will only hurt my mouth.”

My father, who had spat out everything he had to, lowered his voice. His eyes were as vacant as an ant-investor who just rode a down market.

“I can’t stand to look at you. Go back.”

It wasn’t ‘leave the house,’ but ‘go back.’

Fortunately, the worst-case scenario of being driven out of the family seems to have passed.

I must avoid exile for the sake of the future. Otherwise, Eidelle would be tormented by external forces and become a cold corpse. I need to remember that the genre of this novel is cosmic horror.

Anyway, I turned to bow and take my leave, relieved.

“Wait a minute.”

Arnold called me.

“I will give you a choice.”

“Excuse me?”

“I will give you a special opportunity to redeem your wrongs. Listen well and choose one of the three.”

What? Did I hear it wrong?

According to the novel description, it’s not a situation where Arnold should spare Eidelle.

Anyway, when he says he’s giving me an opportunity, I can’t refuse. I nodded eagerly, hoping for the best.

Arnold spread out three fingers and said.

“First, recover the money you’ve lost through gambling. However, you cannot use illegal means.”

That should never happen in the first place.

“Second, enlist in the military.”

“I don’t want to die.

What Arnold asked me to join wasn’t the officers, but the grunts – the enlisted men.

This place is a pit, devoid of dreams or hope, locked in a war with monsters created by the Aliens. The second option he presented was like asking me to die with my honor on the line.

I swallowed.

“And lastly,” he said, “apply to Stellarium within the year.”

The moment I heard these words…

“Oh.”

I blinked in surprise, not expecting to say anything.

“If you can’t achieve any of these things, pack your bags and leave. And don’t let us cross paths ever again in Reinhart. Understood?”

“Understood.”

I bowed to him, turned, and went my way.

Stellarium.

That was my original plan. My father hate brought it up first. It was like winning the jackpot.

Back in my room, a smile crept to my lips.

“…It’s done.”

“What’s done?” Sonia asked, her expression puzzled.

“Going to Stellarium.”

“You mean Stellarium Academy? The prestigious school known across the galaxy, open only to the most brilliant?”

“I know. So what?”

“Why do you think your father gave you the condition to attend that school in exchange for your freedom?”

The answers were obvious.

First, gaining admission to Stellarium guaranteed a stable future, as it is an acclaimed institution in the universe.

The second reason…

“…Because he thinks you, Sir, cannot possibly pass the entrance examination.”

Sonia whispered, an accusing look on her face. No, she’s looking at Aidel, not me.

Anger wasn’t part of my emotions.

After being exiled in the novel, Aidel barely made it into a remote academy through a donation.

Without the support of the family, he must have wanted to at least graduate from university. Of course, he managed to cause trouble even there and was expelled after being beaten by the protagonist.

I nodded and responded,

“I knew he would set an impossible condition.”

“But you’re still going to try?”

“Yes, I should. By any means.”

“Do you think it’s possible?”

Sonia twisted her lips, asking in a cynical tone. Her sarcastic smile was filled with both contempt and pity for ‘someone like you’.

In many stories, butlers and maids blindly believed in their protagonists. But Sonia wasn’t like that. She seemed to have a realistic side.

Regardless, I had only one answer.

“Of course.”

This world will soon perish.

Because of the higher-dimensional beings called “Outsiders.”

I didn’t want to die here. Therefore, I spent the last few days since my possession organizing my thoughts and establishing a plan.

The ultimate goal of this plan is to develop the ‘Gravitational Bullet’, the final resort to counter the Outsiders.

The Outsiders manifest themselves in this universe by treating black holes as gates. A novel said that we can prevent extinction by using the gravitational bullet to drive them away whenever this happens.

I’m not sure, but that’s all I can do, not being the protagonist.

I must research the same thing in this world too.

First of all…

“…Graduate school.”

“Huh?”

“I’m going to go to the graduate school.”

My answer left Sonia, the housemaid, dumbfounded.