Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
53. Second attempt (6)
Central zone Guideline Club Hall, Guideline Club’s exclusive conference room.
After the 3rd student representative meeting ended, all members of Guideline Club gathered here.
It was a farewell ceremony of the 3rd year members, who practically ended their office term, as it was their last meeting.
With the Guideline Club’s president Oh Hyeji standing in the center, they held mugs with the Guideline Club logo and made a farewell toast.
“Everyone was working hard all this time. The 1st years and 2nd years, please also work hard in the future. Until the graduation I’ll sometimes come to look around, so tell me if something happens. Cheers!”
After Oh Hyeji finished speaking, the Guideline Club’s members lightly bumped their mugs and drunk up the carbonated drink.
Oh Hyeji climbed down from the platform and headed to Cheon Dongha straight away.
“Hyeji noona, you have worked very hard.”
“My juniors were doing well, so what hard work did I do?”
“… No. There were times when seniors-nim have had a hard time because of juniors.”
Instead of specifically mentioning the reason of the hard time, Cheon Dongha looked towards the entrance, where Ma Jinseung was talking with Ju Su-hyeok.
Oh Hyeji seemed to have figured out with what intention Cheon Dongha spoke up.
“Ah, it’s because of Junyeol?”
“Didn’t Junyeol’s fans complain a few times to the Guideline Club? The Guideline Club, whose duty is to stop the fights, was walking around causing fights.”
“It wasn’t hard work. It ended with giving Jinseung penalty points according to the rules.”
“…”
Cheon Dongha had doubts about Oh Hyeji’s answer.
Oh Hyeji looked pretty tired starting from the summer vacation.
Coincidentally, because at the time Ma Jinseung increased the frequency of picking up a fight with Yeom Junyeol, the fans made their resentment widely known.
So Cheon Dongha pointed out the cause of Oh Hyeji’s depression as Ma Jinseung, and tried to speak up about it right now, but it seemed that his prediction missed.
‘It was just a coincidence it overlapped with Jinseung? I guess there was a cause alongside it.’
Other people might have simply thought it was exam and job choosing stress.
But Cheon Dong-ha judged it wasn’t that.
‘Because Hyeji noona’s career path is almost certain, there wouldn’t be a problem with that. Then is it because of Sang-hui noona?’
It was famously known that Yu Sang-hui and Oh Hyeji’s relationship wasn’t good, but in fact the two had a connection since they were young.
When Oh Hyeji almost went crooked, it was Yu Sang-hui who held her back.
Even though she didn’t express it openly, everyone around knew that Oh Hyeji cared about Yu Sang-hui.
‘… I don’t know. I don’t have an ability to solve it if it’s something I don’t know about, and digging into the circumstances Hyeji noona didn’t personally speak about, when I can’t solve it, is a bit much. I also have circumstances I can’t talk about.’
As Cheon Dongha recalled his dongsaeng, he stopped trying to reason it out and changed the topic.
The subject of the new topic was a person, who at one point was a member of the Guideline Club, Gye Idam.
There was a time when Gye Idam was provoking fights as much as Ma Jinseung, but after being completely defeated by Seong Siwan, he fixed his mind and went to the Earthly Wings Council.
“If Idam was here, Jinseung would cause fewer incidents.”
“It’s a pity the Wings Council stole such a talent. Siwan even said he was enormously thankful. Because it was difficult to handle the 2nd year class 0, when Siwan was busy facing Woo Gihwan.”
Gye Idam was a Player with outstanding grades that landed him in the top 10, and had an ability that was very effective against the Players on par with him.
When he left the record in PlayerSAT-K when he stepped out to conquer the otherworld for the first time, he was even scouted by the Player’s Association, asking if he wouldn’t like to come to the Association after the graduation.
After the 2nd year Gye Idam joined the Earthly Wings Council, thanks to him displaying the ability optimized to overpower Players, the incidents caused by the 2nd year class 0 at the dormitory were sorted out.
As a result, he even became the Earthly Wings Council’s president.
‘Idam would have a farewell meeting at the Earthly Wings Hall around this time.’
Besides the Guideline Club members, each autonomous organization’s members would be spending their time in the clubrooms.
His thoughts ended at this point, and Oh Hyeji lowered her voice as if she had the same thought.
“Next year, you will have to choose the 1st years to enter the ‘Secret passage’. There is no problem with you and Su-hyeok on our side, but the Student Council…”
Oh Hyeji’s words trailed off.
At the beginning of every year they would choose the secret members to enter the secret location between the two buildings, Student Council Hall and Guideline Club Hall.
There were three selection conditions.
First, they must belong to the Student Council or Guideline Club.
Second, they received a recommendation of the secret gathering members.
Third, they aren’t a Jin or a descendant.
The problem was that the Yong tribe’s descendant, Yeom Junyeol was chosen as the Student Council’s president.
“… Why not descendants? Junyeol is friendly towards humans, and the Yong tribe, which cherishes Junyeol, wouldn’t act thoughtlessly against humans.”
“That…”
Oh Hyeji hesitated, bowing her head.
Recently, when she fell into thoughts, she developed a habit of toying with the watch she was wearing.
Oh Hyeji, who quietly fiddled with her wristwatch, spoke:
“… There were seniors who brought a descendant to that secret passage.”
“Then Junyeol too…”
“Don’t do that.”
Oh Hyeji shook her head.
“There is a trap targeting Jin people and descendants in the middle of the secret passage. The descendant, who went to that location at that time, was caught in the trap and lost her senses… when she woke up, she couldn’t remember anything.”
“Yes…?”
Oh Hyeji lowered her voice even more, as she spoke:
“If the existence of the superpower selecting only Jin people and descendants becomes known, it will become the target of all Jin people and descendants.”
* * *
Hwang Myeong-ho’s great mansion.
I met and encouraged Eun Saeho and Eun Niho, who were busy with the preparations for the Eungwang School’s entrance exam and then sat down in the drawing room.
Today’s tea was red yeast rice tea and the snacks served alongside it were red grapes[1] without seeds.
Hwang Jiho, who handed the porcelain bowls with red tea and snacks according to the number of people, abruptly spoke up to me.
“I heard you asked Kim Sinrok to turn off the dormitory’s outer CCTV?”
I expected that he would speak up about this matter someday.
But I didn’t think he would bring up this story straight away.
‘There was no time to block mouths. It would have reached Hwang Jiho’s ears right away that day.’
The day I headed to the dormitory rooftop, I urgently asked Kim Sinrok to turn off the outer CCTV.
Without any questioning Kim Sinrok said he got it and carried it out, but it wouldn’t a simple matter.
The Wings Council regularly checks the CCTV’s footage.
So he would have to play a trick of filling the footage during the time camera was cut-off with another video, or hide the reason for the camera breaking.
“I guess something happened. I know that Kwon Jane came to take Kwon Lena in the middle of the night. And the condition Kwon Lena was at that time.”
He knew everything, so I didn’t know the reason he troubled himself speaking with me to confirm it.
Hwang Jiho quietly looked at me, and then opened his mouth.
“I’m glad, eh.”
“What?”
“About Kwon Lena being safe and about you stopping it.”
“I didn’t stop it.”
The only thing I did was to remind Kwon Lena what she did.
So what stopped Kwon Lena from making a second attempt was her own choice.
The decisive thing that rescued her was the fact she tried to save me the day I was disguised as Yeom Junyeol.
But Hwang Jiho resolutely refused those words, as if he didn’t think so.
“However, if you weren’t there, it’s uncertain what would happen to her.”
If I wasn’t there that day, wouldn’t Mok Uram, who was spiral climbing the wall of the dormitory building, caught Kwon Lena?
Another class 0 legend would be added, but Mok Uram would save Kwon Lena.
“Even if that violin artisan’s disciple caught Kwon Lena, there is a difference between her directly making a second attempt, and not doing it.”
It seemed that this geezer knew that Mok Uram was climbing the dormitory wall.
I didn’t say anything, but Hwang Jiho passed to the next topic straight away as if he knew that I won’t reply.
“Jo Uisin, You said the time until your ability becomes possible to use again differs, right? And you said that the rest time was different each time you used it on Yu Sang-hun, Jang Namuk and Son Mingi.”
“Yeah.”
“How about Kim Sinrok’s case?”
“It took longer than with Yu Sang-hun, but shorter than with Son Mingi.”
“In the middle you say… a descendant or a human, I guess there is no difference between them, eh?”
After Hwang Jiho finished speaking, Kim Sinrok actively expressed his opinion.
The general content was that as he was feeling well, please use Replay whenever.
“… Even a human child can bear it. The previous time was also fine. Jo Uisin, at any time when this ability becomes usable, I wish you to use it on me agai…”
“Son-ah, what the hell are you talking about?!”
Jeok-ho urgently cut him off.
As if he was worried I would perhaps attempt to use that ability on Kim Sinrok at any time, he looked between me and Kim Sinrok with a stupefied face.
After Jeok-ho scolded his son for a while, and Hwang Jiho also put a few words to discourage Kim Sinrok’s ideas, the situation calmed down.
“Then use that ability… But doesn’t that ability have a name? Whether Gwangrim or a skill, the user would naturally learn its name.”
“Thinking about it, Jo Uisin didn’t mention the name of that ability that makes one dream even once, eh? I don’t even know if it’s a Gwangrim or a skill.” [2]
“If it’s fine with you, will you inform us of the skill or Gwangrim’s name?”
Strictly speaking, ‘Replay’ was a type of skill.
When using the currently level 5 ‘Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification Exclusive Menu’, a window similar to the menu window in PMH would appear.
As Replay was one of the functions that came up when using the Exclusive Menu skill, would it not be okay to call it a skill?
“You don’t have to say if it’s difficult.”
When I was worrying, Baek Ho-gun spoke up like this.
As expected, my main Playable Character was deeply considerate.
A usual courtesy among the Players was not to dig into each other abilities.
As such the tigers also were asking me carefully, not digging deeply into to the Replay.
‘…Even so, it would be easier to communicate if there was something to call this ability by, right?’
After thinking through it, I decided to say this ability’s type and name.
“This ability is a type of skill. It’s called ‘Replay’.”
“… Replay?”
Replay meant ‘to watch again’ or ‘to play a game again’.
From the standpoint of someone who played PMH, I knew why this skill was named ‘Replay’, but the tigers naturally had doubts.
“Isn’t it because it’s something that almost happened in the past? So perhaps that’s why this name was given.”
“… It would better if you didn’t say it like this, huh?”
“Replay you say….”
Kim Sinrok and Jeok-ho seemed to be adequately convinced, but Hwang Jiho had a face by which I couldn’t judge his insides.
‘… I can’t guess what he is thinking.’
The geezer, who for a while made an expression worthy of living for five thousand years, cut the silence.
“… Got it. Then use ‘Replay’.”
In Hwang Jiho’s hand was the golden incense burner I saw the previous time.
Kim Sinrok’s face hardened in determination, but Jeok-ho’s expression showed open hate.
“Then I’ll use it.”
After a warning, I opened the Exclusive Menu and selected Replay.
In the meantime, Hwang Jiho was observing me with a piercing gaze.
As if he was trying to unravel the secret of ‘Replay’.
And after a while.
Kim Sinrok woke up from the nightmare.
‘It was shorter than the last time. Is the target conscious of the Replay, if they dream the nightmare repeatedly?’
While I looked at the clock and checked the time, Hwang Jiho examined Kim Sinrok.
As Hwang Jiho showed signs of noticeable relief, it seemed that Kim Sinrok was fine.
“The superpower wave and physical condition are all more stable than when the Replay was used during Chuseok…. What’s wrong?”
“…”
He said that the body and superpower wave were stable, but Kim Sinrok was making a blanker face than the last time.
“… It seems I saw something I couldn’t see the last time.”
*~*~*
[1] red yeast rice and red grapes — in Korean ‘홍국쌀 (hong-guk-ssal)’ and ‘적포도 (jeok-po-do)’.
[2] “Thinking about it, Jo Uisin didn’t mention the name of that ability that makes one dream even once, eh? I don’t even know if it’s a Gwangrim or a skill.” — Jeok-ho’s sentence.
Translator’s note: Jeok-ho, I’m as dumbfounded as you by Kim Sinrok’s actions. If he isn’t looking for ‘something’ in that nightmare, then I really don’t know why is he like this.
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