Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
66. Another candidate (3)
[Player Meister Highschool, end of service notice.]
“Those dog fuckers!”
Curses left his mouth the moment he saw the announcement.
It wasn’t long after the final chapter update, and they’re releasing such announcements?!
It was that sort of game that it wouldn’t be strange if it was ruined and closed its service a long time ago, but he couldn’t help but spit out curses.
Even though he often posted malicious comments ‘why didn’t you shut down yet?’.
‘I made purchases, but you’re closing the service?’
His situation wasn’t good, so he didn’t make many purchases.
As far as buying went, it was An Dain’s avatar and skins.
But even though it was a small amount, it was money, so his anger surged.
He decided that if PMH really closed down the service, he should immediately request a refund from the platform.
‘Huu, I should try to do it, while seeing if jo2god111 posted conquest.’
‘jo2god111’, who uploaded conquest and review posts on the dot[1] with an update, was strangely quiet.
Even when he searched through the bulletin board and blog, there was no complete conquest post.
To speak precisely, he uploaded conquest memos organized while conquering until the middle, but no posts showed up after that.
‘He is a bastard, who sacrificed his life to PMH, so he must have been shocked by the end of the service news. Did he decide to live day to day now?’
Even as he waited, jo2god111 didn’t post a conquest until the end.
As the service’s closing time gradually drew closer, he gave up on waiting for the conquest post and made up his mind to play through it personally.
For a story that killed its Playable Characters, there was no way it would have a proper ending, but didn’t the title hero and heroine survive for a while?
To see what kind of ending the title heroine An Dain meets, he had to play PMH.
‘Haa… Dogshit gamewreck, the last chapter difficulty is hell. You made it like this, so no one plays it.’
The difficulty was high, but as he played until the last chapter, it didn’t take him so long to reach an ending.
Luckily, he succeeded in seeing the ending before PMH’s close of service.
Seeing the ending, he felt empty.
‘That’s the end?’
The protagonist group, including An Dain, all died and even though they threw their lives away, they failed to stop the Dark Mastermind.
Nothing could be protected, and no righteous person could be rescued.
He kept spitting out curses while watching the ending credits.
He knew very well that PMH was a dogshit gamewreck, he diligently spread that fact more than anyone else, but he thought this went too far.
He went through unnecessary trouble of seeing that ending, but what enraged him even more that that hard-earned conclusion of an ending was such dogshit.
What made him even more pissed off was the app notification sent after he saw that ending.
[You can obtain the Last Chapter Clear Compensation[2]. Please check the gift box.]
“Crazy dogshit gamewreck abandoned by its parents! You have done for all Playable Characters, what use is a clear compensation?!”
He didn’t see a proper notification for close to ten years, but it’s now sending dog sounds after killing everyone off?
This gamewreck was all the worst — from the tutorial, to the ending, and even after the ending.
As he opened the gift box, while cursing, he started to hear a strange sound.
⟨Connecting with Transcendent Universe completed. Examining the connected Player’s suitability.⟩
⟨Examination completed. Selection put on hold.⟩
The noise immediately stopped.
At first, he thought he was hallucinating, but he soon judged it was a noise heard from a neighbor beside or above him.
“Live quietly!”
He swung the rubber hammer used for noise revenge and bashed it against the wall, then laid down on a bed.
Laying on the bed, he saw posters, plastered on the ceiling and walls.
It was the advertisement poster released before PMH launched, of Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain standing back to back, looking up into the night sky.
Worthy of a gamewreck, goods didn’t come out often, so any goods were rare.
“Crazy dogshit gamewreck, dooooooogshit gamewreck!”
Getting pissed again recalling the two’s last moments, the service closure time drew closer.
This national gamewreck would disappear together with his crooked 20s.
The moment PMH service ended, hid smartphone rang with countless notifications.
It was an alarm for when an article mentioning keyword PMH is published, so it seemed that trash journos poured out provocative articles matching the end of service time.
Usually, he would press like and post a comment, and keyboard battle any bastards that refuted his words, but for some reason he didn’t feel like it.
At that moment, he heard neighbor noises again.
⟨Cause of insufficient number of people… Player… Other Dimension… Suitable Candidate selection…⟩
For some reason the sound was faint.
While figuring out the origin of the sound, he quietly stretched out his hand, grabbed the rubber hammer and focused on his ears.
Once he differentiated whether it was the above or side neighbor, he planned to give them a dog fight.
Because the strange voice sounded like it was cutting off, it was difficult to make out.
⟨Unqualified Suitable Candidate… For the sake of… Support Program… Start… 5…2…0.⟩
With the last word ‘0’, pure white light filled his vision.
It was his last memory of the previous world.
* * *
I was bothered by many keywords in what Gye Idam said.
Insufficient number of people, unqualified Suitable Candidate, Support Program.
Combining those keywords, I formed a theory.
‘The auditory hallucination that he mistook for neighbor noises must have been the system message that I and Eun-ho heard. Though this bastard cleared it, I guess he didn’t pass the examination at first.’
Suddenly my trust towards the Transcendent Universe skyrocketed.
Didn’t it see right through a person?
Of course, I didn’t like everything about it.
It decided that he was unqualified, but didn’t it bring this bastard as a suitable candidate in the end?
‘Did it choose such a bastard because the number of candidates was insufficient? Even so, I don’t like it.’
The Transcendent Universe’s choice didn’t sit with me well, but opportunely there was someone in front of me who didn’t sit well with me even more, so I decided to take out my anger on him.
“After the voice was cut off, I became a freshman at the Eungwang School and on the entrance ceremony… Keuk!”
Peuk!
Gye Idam, who tried to explain something more, was kicked by my foot, and curled up, sucking in a breath.
Because I didn’t quite adjust my strength this time, Gye Idam’s words were cut off, but it wasn’t my fault but the Transcendent Universe’s fault, and to be precise, Gye Idam’s fault.
After promising to myself to aim for another area next time I kick him, I fell into thoughts again.
‘I saw the pure white light before the end of service notice was published. Eun-ho said he saw it when there was about an hour left until the end of service.’
But ‘Gye’fucker saw the white light after the end of service.
Because he said that articles poured out matching the end of service time.
However, I and Eun-ho came to this world at the end of last year, when the practical exam was held.
In contrast, Gye Idam became a freshman at the beginning of the last year and participated in the entrance ceremony.
‘Gye Idam, who was the last to depart, arrived the fastest.’
I thought that I arrived in the gym where the group 13 was right after I saw the pure white light in the gosiwon.
But the truth might have been different.
The Transcendent Universe’s transfer, which I thought was instant, possibly took much longer than that.
“At the entrance ceremony… ack! Its hurts! Stop hitting me when I speak!”
It was so refreshing.
I thrust the Nine Iron Teeth Rake before Gye Idam’s head, and said:
“Want me to hit you so you can’t speak?”
“Ugh… ack! I’ll talk! So, the next thing I remember…”
As if understanding that I was threatening him to talk, while continuing to hit him, Gye Idam swallowed his pain and moved his lips.
I wasn’t curious, but it seemed I should know, so Gye Idam’s secret story continued.
* * *
“Oath. We, the freshmen, who were approved to enter the Eungwang Player Meister Highschool, solemnly swear to work hard to study and grow our capabilities, and to respect the school’s spirit and rules while enrolled.”
The voice, without any fluctuations, rang through the speakers.
Gye Idam was abruptly brought up to his senses by that voice and looked round.
An entrance ceremony was currently in progress in an enormous ceremony hall, the Eungwang School’s center auditorium, Exalted Tiger Hall.
‘Uh? Why am I here? That’s…’
Gye Idam couldn’t at all recall why was he here.
Then he belatedly realized that he was now an Eungwang School’s freshman, and he was participating in the entrance ceremony.
He felt there was something unnatural about that thought process.
“Freshman representative Cheon Dongha.”
He felt a faint sense of incongruity, when the freshman representative, who took the first place, Cheon Dongha finished the oath and went down.
As he thought about it, the conversation he heard around him bothered him more than the faint sense of incongruity.
“Do you know that kid Cheon Dongha? He is from that family that split from TC Group.”
“There is the Yong tribe’s descendant among the freshmen this year. If he beat that descendant and took the first place, he must be amazing.”
“You mean the son of senior Ruler of Red Flame-nim, right?”
“… The Yong tribe is famous for being good-for-nothing. If something goes wrong, aren’t we all dead?”
“Is the Yong tribe’s descendant a problem right now? This year 1st year class 0 is no joke. That Geun Chansol gave even the Eungwang District’s street king a hard time in the past…”
“When I heard the name Chansol, I instantly thought of Wang Chansol.”
“Who is that kid again?”
“Know ‘Neuru’ perhaps?”
He felt like he knew some of the names in the pouring out conversations.
But he couldn’t recall how he knew.
Gye Idam concluded he must have been mistaken.
‘Was I nervous because of the entrance ceremony? Why do I have such a strong sense of déjà vu?’
Gye Idam frequently moved between foster homes.
Gye Idam was a pretty outstanding student, but perhaps because of unstable adolescence, his superpowers blossomed late.
As such, he didn’t have connections with the Player world until he entered the Eungwang School.
So it was natural that he didn’t know about the students being discussed right now, probably.
‘…Probably?’
Onset from entering the school, Gye Idam repeatedly felt and forgot about the sense of incongruity, becoming confused over and over.
Especially, every time he got up and looked into the mirror, he felt a great sense of incongruity.
It surely was his face, but his first thought was always ‘no way’.
As he felt confused every morning, he spoke less and the time he spent alone, prolonged.
Gye Idam wasn’t exactly reticent, nor did he have a prudent personality, but people around him began to misunderstand him.
He simply just became blank, looking around because of the sense of incongruity, but it was mistaken in its own way.
Then one day, the homeroom teacher of the 3rd year class 0, and the advisor of the Guideline Club, Ham Geun-hyeong, called him.
“Gye Idam, do you have any thoughts of joining the Guideline Club?”
All Eungwang School students, who knew Gye Idam, thought it was a reasonable suggestion.
Because Gye Idam was quite outstanding, and he seemed like a student, who quietly did his work without being swept by the surrounding.
But the person, who actually received that suggestion, was simply flustered.
‘Ah, crazy… dogshit scary face.’
Even when looking from the distance, he thought that face was scary, but looking closely, it was even scarier.
Because he was only calm on the outside, and inside he had no guts at all, Gye Idam agreed right away.
Thanks to him managing his expression so well, Ham Geun-hyeong had no idea that Gye Idam agreed, because he was scared of him.
‘I wasn’t in a state, where I could decide on a club activity, so let’s think it turned out well.’
When Gye Idam started to rationalize it as a victory.
‘If I were to choose a club activity, I wanted to go to the Student Council… uh?’
He had no idea why such a thought suddenly popped out.
Why did he want to go to the Student Council?
He couldn’t come up with an answer to this question.
‘Did I lose my mind while preparing for exams?’
As he was somewhat decent at taekwondo, he should grab it as his main attack skill technique, but with no sense at all he decided on a superpower gun as his main weapon.
There was clearly something wrong with him.
“You’re Gye Idam, right? You’re the first among the 1st years to come. Come in.”
When he came to the Guideline Club’s room for the first time, there was no one but the 2nd year students.
The Guideline Club’s advisor Ham Geun-hyeong and the 3rd year students were all absent.
Oh Hyeji read the 1st years students’ doubts and thoroughly explained the situation.
“Ah, the 3rd year class 0’s seniors-nim went to the old school right now. They’re dealing with the 3rd year class 0 together with teacher Ham Geunhyeong-nim.”
The root of the incident was that one of the 3rd year class 0’s students saw a ghost at the old school.
The 3rd year class 0’s students, who before testing their courage, pledged they would physically exorcise it, overcame with fright.
Luckily, the Guideline Club acquired their blowing up old school plan, and went to stop it.
‘… Can I quit?’
When Gye Idam seriously considered quickly quitting the club, Oh Hyeji spoke up.
“Hey, take this!”
The 2nd year student Oh Hyeji sent him three codes.
The codes were the contact information of the class 0’s homeroom teachers.
1st year class 0’s homeroom teacher, Head of School Affairs Jegal Jaegeol.
2nd year class 0’s homeroom teacher, Head of the Research Department Im Yeonhwa.
3rd year class 0’s homeroom teacher, Head of the Student Department Ham Geun-hyeong.
Putting aside the Guideline Club’s advisor Ham Geun-hyeong, he didn’t understand why she was giving him the other teacher’s contact information.
“When a strange incident occurs for unknown reasons, or you receive a threatening messages, consult with the class 0’s homeroom teachers-nim first. Because they were probably sent by class 0.”
Hearing the reason, he wanted to quit the Guideline Club even more.
*~*~*
[1] on the dot — literally ‘like a knife/sword’.
[2] compensation — or reward
Translator’s note: Mm… I really want to know what those articles actually said. And mention of ghost of old school in this chapter? Hmmm.
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