Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
[1]
Song Daeseok, who returned home after playing to his heart content at the class president’s home against his intentions.
After his time as an elementary student, it was his first time since he got along and played with the children of his age, excluding Min Geurin.
From the moment he started attending school, he somehow ended up getting along with the meddlesome 1st year class 0 children.
However, as it was the exam period they didn’t spend so much time playing, even though they used it up to eat snacks they made and chat.
‘Ah, why did I do that? It’s dogshit embarrassing.’
He had a lot of fun, but he regretted it.
No, to be more precise, he was regretting it because he had too much fun.
‘When that Small Stone bastard was fighting, Geurin wasn’t around, but I was so excited and…’
Midst the afterglow of the fun he had and the drowning embarrassment, he had a flashback of his appearance when he was excited like a child.
Before the spar between Maeng Hyodon and Bang Yunseop, he didn’t care who would win or lose and didn’t like that he had to go to see them.
But when he came to his senses, he jumped up to stand up from his seat and was staring towards the stage.
Recalling his appearance when he clenched his fist and shouted with all his might out of excitement, he felt as if hands and feet were shrinking.
‘In addition, during the board games, I again…’
He welcomed the dawn without a wink of sleep, because he couldn’t sleep at an unknown place without the pillow he usually uses.
He hated to be looked down at as a bastard who can’t even sleep without his own pillow, so he diligently pretended to sleep, but he somehow was seen through and dragged to play board games.
Even though Song Daeseok knew perfectly the rules of all games and Min Geurin was covering up for him, he couldn’t avoid becoming the worst performer.
But when he cut the long losing streak and gained his 1st hard-earned victory, he unknowingly yelled out of happiness.
‘It can’t. I tried not to be friendly.’
Great Hero Iron Arm Song Manseok.
His children and grandchildren were all without superpowers.
Excluding Song Daeseok.
Among them, Song Daeseok was not only born with a powerful superpower, but he looked like a spitting image of Song Manseok in his youth, so it seemed that the surroundings’ expectations would pierce the sky.
To repay those expectations, he smiled, even when he didn’t like it, and swallowed what he wanted to say.
In the end, the guys who favored Song Daesoek harmed Min Geurin.
‘However, those guys don’t care if I’m the grandson of Song Manseok, or bother with my face…’
Then wouldn’t it be okay to become friends?
Wouldn’t it be okay to want that?
Geurin also showed signs that she wanted me to be close with the class children.
Such rationalization blended with a sense of guilt as Min Geurin’s childhood friend in his head, turning into a mess.
As he glared into the mirror, he met with the messy hair completely covering his eyes.
And he recalled the matter he was putting off.
‘… I have to take a new picture.’
The Player’s Association’s intern position suspicious vice president told him about.
He was still thinking if he should take it or not, but first of all, he tried to send an application.
But the papers were sent back because of security problems as the picture wasn’t clearly showing his facial features.
Even if he flipped his hair for a moment when taking a picture, it was obvious that problems will come up if he hides his face so much.
Song Daeseok drowned in worry.
‘… Do I have to cut it?’
***
‘… Should I ask to cut it?’
My dormitory room.
I organized the alone conversation I had with Hwang Jiho and fell into worries.
— Currently, the Ho tribe is pursuing the whereabouts of the ‘Death of Imoogi’.
After wrapping up the topic of Kim Yuri, Hwang Jiho spoke like this.
— There were a few incidents in the National Museum of the Modern Korean Art. In addition, they are connected to Hong Gyeongbok’s excommunicated disciple, who cut off his right hand in an ‘unfortunate incident’.”
There were two kinds of incidents that he mentioned, while throwing a keyword like this.
First, the remodeling of the National Museum of the Modern Korean Art.
The museum, which earned quite a lot of revenue from Hong Gyeongbok and Min Geurin’s paintings exhibit, was said to carry out a massive remodeling in the name of improving citizens’ art enjoyment.
— The management embezzled a lot of assets during the process of choosing constructors and bidding. Well, this was handed over to the national assemblyman, who was digging into this theft incident. With Jin people paying taxes to Korean government, the representative of Korean Peninsula’s citizens should be able to do this much, right?
It seemed he was talking about Seong Gukeon.
This bastard made my Playable Character work?
But I, who happily made Hwang Jiho work, didn’t make the sound I was about to make.
— It seems that he torments many of our school teachers, including our troublemaker, in the name of data requests. Now we’re equal.
Hearing those words and considering the Eungwang School teachers’ work load, I decided to take Hwang Jiho’s hand this time.
Thinking about our class children’s faces, who said that they can learn from the 2nd year class 0, after they couldn’t play with teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim, it seemed that Seong Gukeon was a very little bit wrong.
No, Seong Gukeon was doing what he should do, so in the end there was nothing wrong.
As expected, my Playable Character couldn’t be wrong.
— The second problem. The mental disorders, which were common among the museum staff.
— All the workers that suffered from the symptoms of mental disorders were workers, who managed the art pieces during the remodeling period.
— It seems the thing was done by disturbing their minds. From the looks of it, that trash entered the museum as a cleaning service and placed a medium for the mind manipulation category skill.
My anger soared the moment I heard those words.
Before, that trash was spreading a rumor about Min Geurin’s abuse of power, while insisting that the mental problems of the previous museum staff members were aftereffects of that abuse.
The move, that was used as a method to steal Hong Gyeongbok and Min Geurin’s paintings, was used again to blacken Min Geurin.
Here I sunk into a worry.
‘… Should I ask to cut the remaining hand?’
It seemed that Hwang Jiho would do it for me if I asked.
— Hong Gyeongbok, who figured out the situation, personally examined every art piece in the museum. As result, over 30 art pieces were confirmed to be replaced. Excluding a few, all of the stolen works belong to Min Geurin and Hong Gyeongbok. There should be a report about this situation today.
As I checked the portal news site, the number 1 article, which came up, had Hong Gyeongbok’s face and was covering the list of the stolen art pieces.
— The damage suffered by people, who experienced mental abnormalities, is more serious than we expected. It seems that we will need a bit more time if we’re going to get a clue from them, eh?
Hwang Jiho’s words continued to this.
I, who heard about all of the details, was upset.
‘The list of the stolen art pieces is much longer than I thought. Perhaps… Isn’t it connected to that scenario?’
In the game, there was a character, who made big and small appearances throughout the next year, making an already chaotic world even more chaotic, and then disappeared
I was a rotten and stagnant water, who cherished all Playable Characters.
But that character alone was painful, no, he was finger-shrinking.
‘The clues are still insufficient. I can’t draw a conclusion!’
With the feeling of escaping reality, I turned on the messages, which had turned off notifications.
There were more messages piled up than I expected.
In particular, a certain chat room had an unusual digit of piled up messages.
[Geun Chansol] Hey
[Wang Chansol] Suspicious bastard, read the message!
[Geun Chansol] Hey!!!
[Wang Chansol] Are you sleeping?
[Geun Chansol] Are you asleep right now, sir?
I didn’t get a wink of sleep yesterday, so I was sleepy.
Why the hell are those bastards so noisy in the morning?
[Geun Chansol] You called that clingy and dirty first disciple, right? We know everything!
[Wang Chansol] Didn’t he somehow knew about teach Jegal-nim and came, because you sent him that picture? Looking at the angle and location it was taken, it was exactly the location where suspicious junior bastard was sitting.
Did you figure it out with just that?!
As expected, the guys representing the 2nd year class 0’s madness were extraordinary.
But what did Hong Gyubin do for them to be like this?
[Geun Chansol] That first disciple bastard dragged teach Jegal-nim out after we finished the meal, saying that there is some Association work and disappeared! We couldn’t even eat the dessert!
[Wang Chansol] We all secretly prepared to say up all night!
I guess Hong Gyubin saw the picture and came to look for him all the way to school.
As a bonus, it seemed that he snatched Jegal Jaegeol from the class 0 and the Newspaper Club.
I opened Hong Gyubin’s chat room on the side.
[Hong Gyubin] Uisin, thanks for the tip. Thanks to that, I played with teacher-nim very well!
[Hong Gyubin] If you wear nice clothes, you should have a cup of tea or alcohol at a good place, right?
[Hong Gyubin] Please often contact me about things like this in the future! ^^!
It was confirmed, Hong Gyubin dragged and played with Jegal Jaegeol under an excuse of work.
‘Hell, what sound did Jegal Jaegeol, who was putting on an impenetrable iron wall before, hear that he went along with Hong Gyubin?’
Putting those doubts aside first, I continued to read the factual messages of GeunChan&WangChan.
[Geun Chansol] You knew about this, right? There is no way you didn’t know about it, right? If that first disciple bastard just opens his mouth, he will talk about teach Jegal-nim!
It was a fact that if Hong Gyubin just opens his mouth, he talks about Jegal Jaegeol, but I had truly no idea that he would go that far to even invade and snatch him.
[Wang Chansol] I’m pissed, so shouldn’t we assemble new clothes for teach Jegal-nim?
[Geun Chansol] yy that’s it. Weren’t the clothes this time personally designed by that chief designer?
[Wang Chansol] yy that’s right~. He said that the clothes fit very well, so he wanted to meet in person to take measurements again and gain the inspiration.
[Geun Chansol] Neuru’s top designer has good eyes. Let’s use the excuse that we couldn’t play yesterday and drag him to go. Go go go!
[Wang Chansol] Let’s ask no. 1 Garam to make a tearful performance. Kkk!
I guess that referee outfit Jegal Jaegeol wore that day wasn’t Neuru’s ready-to-buy suit, but an assembled suit.
The two forgot about my existence and started to happily chat about the design of party outfit and swimsuits to dress Jegal Jaegeol into to their heart content.
‘… Did you send messages to try to nitpick on me?’
It seemed it would be fine even if I ignored them, so I didn’t reply and decided to check the next message.
[Yeom Junyeol] Master-nim, hello.
[Yeom Junyeol] Today’s probability of rainfall in the Eungwang District is 60%. This year monsoon season is said to be a bit later than usually, but just in case, please make sure to take an umbrella!
After I exchanged contact information with Yeom Junyeol, I received regards with greeting every day.
A comment about the weather or summary of the events that happened to Yeom Junyeol the previous day were added to the greeting.
I asked if it isn’t cumbersome to greet me every day, but Yeom Junyeol replied:
— Father taught me that it’s disciple’s courtesy to ask master about the news and say hello with regards to them every day! But because the second master-nim likes to travel, she didn’t force it because she is often absent.
He said it’s the influence of his father’s teachings, but there is no way that that good for nothing Yeom Bangyeol would argue about the strict courtesy in the master-disciple relationship, so what strange sound was that?
‘It seems he is like this because Yeom Junyeol just wants me to accept greetings every morning.’
It was probably the correct answer.
Even so, I tried to say there is no need for this extent of politeness towards me, because I was sorry for stealing a pitiful minute of this time during the exam period.
However, after a long while filled with the signs of him worrying and writing, a dying message flew back of which key point was ‘It’s probably impolite to steal master-nim’s time by sending a message every day, correct…?’.
In the end, I let Yeom Junyeol do whatever he wants and ended up sending a short reply greeting.
[Me] Yes, you also make sure to take an umbrella.
[Yeom Junyeol] Yes! Thank you!
[Yeom Junyeol] (stamp)
In the stamp Yeom Junyeol sent was a deformed painting of him summoning Hongryeong with his Gwangrim.
Filled with a warm feeling, I checked the next message.
[Kim Yuri] Uisin, tomorrow is 2/4 quarter student representative meeting!
[Kim Yuri] I prepared all materials. Please take a read! ^▽^!
Kim Yuri acted as if nothing had happened during the dawn that day.
She hasn’t decided yet how she should take the words ‘it’s fine even if you go into runaway’.
I said it’s fine, so I didn’t want to dig into what the current Kim Yuri was thinking right now.
‘I wanted to help with materials preparation this time.’
[Me] Okay. I’ll read them.
[Me] Let’s prepare materials for the next meeting together.
Even though I didn’t dig into her thoughts, I will make sure Kim Yuri will safely come to school the next semester, and we’ll participate in the 3/4 quarter student representative meeting together.
***
Monday, after classes.
The noisy day thanks to the final exam results announcement ended.
Even this time, the 3rd year first place and second place was TaoWonu&WooGihwan[2].
In the 2nd year, the first place was Cheon Dongha[3], the second place was Yeom Junyeol.
Among the 1st years Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain took co-first place.
‘Yeom Junyeol said he would aim for the 1st place, that’s a pity.’
My disciple, who said he would aim for the first place, was studying diligently.
But because Cheon Dongha was also outstanding as worthy of my Playable Character, it couldn’t be helped.
When I thought like this while heading towards the Student Council Hall with Kim Yuri.
Ding.
A message arrived from Mun Saeron.
[Mun Saeron] Yap, Jo Uisin!
[Mun Saeron] Are you together with Yuri-nim right now?
[Me] Ya, why?
[Mun Saeron] Don’t enter thorough the main entrance! Go through the back doors~!
I wondered what kind of sound was that, but I decided to follow her instructions first.
“Then let’s go through the back door. I’ll guide you!”
Under Kim Yuri’s guidance, when we arrived at the back door and headed to the conference room A, which was used for the student representative meeting.
I ended up figuring out Mun Saeron’s intentions.
“I like that both main characters and supporting characters have a clear sense of purpose.”
“Right. Because it’s reflected with each line[4]…”
At the route from the main entrance, Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain had a date disguised as a book appreciation meeting again.
*~*~*
[1] No title — ‘Beginning of growing thread (1)’ =-= This chapter title has a lot of more sense in Korean, but I’ll do my best to explain it. The literal translation is ‘Thread beginning to growth’ or ‘Growth of thread beginning’. ‘Growth’ refers to something or someone growing bigger, so either a person growing up, or an event unfolding into something bigger. The ‘thread beginning’ literally means an end of a thread, usually referring to something very tangled up, and that end of the thread is where you start to untangle it. And it also means the lead or clue to start off the investigation of something. So this title can be interpreted as ‘Clues about how to grow’, ‘The lead on a very tangled up case’, or ‘The beginning of some bigger event unfolding’.
[2] TaoWonu&WooGihwan — they share 우 (u) in their names so in Korean it’s ‘TaoWonUGihwan’, but because of the English intolerance of one-letter surnames, it doesn’t work with this romanization ㅠㅠ (unless you read U like woo, then it works I suppose…)
[3] Cheon Dongha — a fun fact: Cheongha (천하), the word you get if you remove ‘dong’ from his name, means first one, the most outstanding, being second-to-none (it also means the whole sky or dominance, rule)
[4] reflected with each line — ‘melted into each line’, the raws’ word ‘melted’ usually refers to snow melting or something becoming warmer, but here should be used in the meaning of ‘fused with’. (At least in the direct meaning. Those lines about books are suspicious).
Translator’s note: The museum remodeling that Min Geurin was so happy about… used against her … ㅠㅠ
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
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