Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
50. Set piece (7)
The in-game time in Player Meister Highschool was flowing much slower than in reality.
I started PMH in the 3rd year of highschool, the day after the exams ended, but when the title hero, Ju Su-hyeok and title heroine, An Dain were finishing their 1st year, I was already an adult and was about to be enlisted[1] at any moment then.
[The masterpiece mobile RPG Player Meister Highschool, the new story update is planned this week!]
That news appeared a few days before Christmas.
For the first time, Christmas in reality and the Christmas time in PMH overlapped, so the expectations and morale of the small number of PMH fans, who were solid like a concrete, were piercing the sky.
Because the only information about the update was a date, the fan community was overflowing with prediction comments.
[If the story this time is also a bit healing ㅋㅋㅋ It was heartwarming when a Jin gifted an instrument during the music club’s concert.]
[Our Dong-ha went on a regional business trip, and it’s Christmas this time?! *shaking*]
[Christmas is good, but… Because I’m thinking about teach Jegal-nim, I won’t be able to enjoy a Christmas event. I just don’t like it. I’m still too deep into the 2nd class 0’s kids… The fuckers like Choe Pyeondeuk are still teaching. Huu… Sorry, for acting like an asshole.]
[↑If you know you act like an asshole, restrain yourself;]
The fan community was flooded with all kinds of predictions.
Though it wasn’t that there were no negative views, encouraged by the end of the year and the Christmas atmosphere, there were overwhelmingly many hopeful comments.
[I heard the news about the event and came running on all fours. Will they sell teach Yong-nim santa costume as a purchasable item? There is no way that the Game category Dragon would miss on such a big event, sir.]
[On the 4th quarter student representative meeting, it was hinted that the Student Council and the Guideline Club kids are preparing for the Christmas event. It seems a bit difficult for Sang-hui, but Dain and Hyeji would 100% wear santa clothes.]
[If it’s a Christmas party, can we see Yuri…? When will Yuri come to school again? ㅠㅠ I don’t even care about the santa clothes. Just come to school please…]
[If it’s Christmas, isn’t that a romance event? When are Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain going to make progress? Will they HOLD hands this time???]
[I hope they would sell weapons as purchasable items. I grinded otherworlds, but I almost broke my smartphone when the boss mobs only dropped R rank items.]
[Turning on the Christmas celebration free quest double experience event circuit.]
[Give me NPC purchasable costumes… I want Jeok-ho hyung wear something else other than black clothes! ㅠㅠ]
And on Christmas Eve, the anticipated new story was updated.
But because I had scheduled a last inspection, I couldn’t play PMH straight away.
Thanks to having the military interview that day, I also had to refuse the invitation to Cheon Seong-hyeon’s Christmas party.
In fact, almost all my peers went to the army, so I thought it was good that I found an excuse to not participate in the party where only my juniors gathered.
‘If a senior came, the atmosphere would be ruined, right? Moreover, I would have to go home early today, because I also have to play PMH.’
Although I couldn’t go to Cheon Seong-hyeon’s party, thanks to the student bringing a cake as a snack to celebrate Christmas Eve, I got into a somewhat Christmas mood.
When I finished the military interview and was going home, a sleet came.
At the time, thanks to having some spare on the living expenses, I wasn’t living in a gosiwon, but a one-room apartment, but it wasn’t quite enough to ride a bus, so I had to walk for a while.
‘… There should be people who already cleared the new story, right?’
Holding an umbrella in one hand, I moved the other hand’s frozen fingers to download the update file while heading home, and was lost in worries.
I didn’t know what was the story’s weight[2], but the time it would take was almost as much as the 1st chapter.
Someone in the fan community would publish a post play review, but I hated getting spoiled, but was also curious about the atmosphere.
‘I should only look at the titles and play straight away…!’
At the end of my worries, I entered the fan community I saved in my favorites.
And I witnessed the moment the layer of PMH’s concrete fans collapsed.
To warn others about the spoilers, the kind posters would put ‘ㅅㅍ (sp)’ at the beginning of the title, but I couldn’t differentiate if ‘ㅅㅍ’ was an abbreviation for spoilers or first consonants of 쌍욕 (fuck).
In conclusion, I got spoiled the moment I connected to the fan community page.
Because Jeok-ho’s die-hard fans lost their minds and were repetitively cursing the production crew, I ended up guessing what kind of situation it was.
And the development continued according to my guess.
[I’ll take care of it, so please leave first. The opponent is a Jin. I’ll face him.]
Jeok-ho, who knew there was a traitor in the 12 Zodiac Alliance, made An Dain evacuate and faced the suspicious Jin alone.
Jeok-ho reasoned out with the clue he learned by chance through Choe Pyeondeuk, that the opponent was one of the 12 Zodiac Alliance’s heads.
The power of Jeok-ho was restricted because of Heavenly God’s Wrath, but as if the Jin facing Jeok-ho was worried about revealing his identity, he didn’t use his main weapon or skills, so the two were in a deadlock.
That balance was broken by the snow, which started to pour on Eungwang School.
[This snow…]
As the snow pilled up, Jeok-ho’s movements became weaker.
It seemed that Jeok-ho’s physical strength and mental strength were gradually reaching their limits.
But Jeok-ho was a NPC and I couldn’t unilaterally help in any way similar to Player manipulation outside the screen during the fight.
Jeok-ho looked up into the sky with empty eyes and his movements stopped for a second.
It seemed he figured out who brought down the snow, restricting it to the Eungwang School’s campus.
[Pungbaek, Usa, Unsa how… why would they…]
The opponent didn’t miss the moment when Jeok-ho’s movement stopped.
After a close-up on Jeok-ho’s face, together with the sound effect of bones and flesh being pierced, Jeok-ho vomited blood.
The opponent’s weapon completely penetrated Jeok-ho’s abdomen.
While blood gushed out so much that it was clearly visible even on Jeok-ho’s black clothes, he collapsed.
Just before the opponent could completely cut off Jeok-ho’s breath, Ungnyeo of Grief, wearing a red dress appeared, blocking the way in front of him and interfered into the story.
Thanks to Ungnyeo of Grief, who put down everything after Jeok-ho died and fought, great sacrifice was paid but the incident was solved.
But with Jeok-ho death, the identity of the traitor in the 12 Zodiac Alliance and the information about Pungbaek, Usa and Unsa couldn’t be passed to the main character party.
‘I don’t know if I had informed about this too fast or too late.’
I thought about informing the Ho tribe about this incident which would happen on Christmas someday.
Even so, choosing the timing was difficult.
If I spoke about it too fast, it would be difficult even with reliable proof, and there was a possibility I would be suspected instead.
But that said, if I spoke up about it too late, there wouldn’t be sufficient time to prepare against it.
If I was to compare it to chess, even though you know what pieces the opponent will aim at, it would be pretty difficult to make countermeasures starting from the chess opening with moves to play in the mid-game phase.
‘I have no evidence that Pungbaek, Usa and Unsa will bring snow, did I speak up too early?’
After I finished speaking, Hwang Jiho didn’t respond.
I was prepared for the moment when Hwang Jiho’s superpower wave or magic power explodes, because he couldn’t control his emotions but he was so unresponsive it was embarrassing.
… Was it because my words were so unreal?
It might have been better if I built up a bit more favorability or found something like evidence.
“… Jo Uisin, I trust you. You saved our descendants and protected the Divine Realm a few times.”
Hwang Jiho suppressed his emotions and very carefully chose his words.
“But Pungbaek, Usa, Unsa protected Sinin in the fight against foreign enemies a long time ago and died[3].”
Fight against foreign enemies.
If so, it was before Heavenly god granted the wishes of the sacred Tigers.
It would happen before Hwang Jiho became a being that ‘could exist everywhere’.
“Did you see that moment?”
“…”
Hwang Jiho didn’t reply straight away.
He pressed his temples, while falling into thoughts, and then opened his mouth.
“… I wasn’t able to see it personally. Others testified of their death. I only saw the body parts that remained.”
If so, Hwang Jiho wasn’t able to see the three’s moment of death or their bodies.
I threw one more question.
“Are Pungbaek, Usa and Unsa siblings perhaps? Aren’t there two male twins among the three?”
“There are two like this among the three. The capricious Pungbaek and Usa were alike in appearance and behavior.”
There were two twins under the Dark Mastermind in the game.
I couldn’t be certain that the two were Pungbaek and Usa with that small information, but there was room for suspicion.
I didn’t ask any further and closed my mouth.
As I kept silence, Hwang Jiho opened his mouth.
“Jo Uisin, according to the ‘things you know’…. What is attacking the divine realm?”
It seemed that Hwang Jiho wanted to believe both in me and his old battle companions.
Even amidst confusion, he informed that he would decide after calmly assessing the situation.
Respecting Hwang Jiho’s will, I decided to objectively inform him about what I knew.
“On Christmas Eve, snow with a debuff effect will fall at Eungwang School’s campus. There’s a high chance that snow will be brought by Pungbaek, Usa and Unsa.”
“What is the basic for that possibility? There are not a small number of higher beings and Jin people who can interfere with the weather. To sprinkle such evil snow at the divine realm, Eungwang School, they would have to pay a heavy price but it isn’t impossible.”
Hwang Jiho coldly questioned the possibility.
And there existed a proof worthy of turning things upside down in what Hwang Jiho called ‘things I knew’.
“Jeok-ho in the ‘things I know’ judged it was the snow of those three.”
As Hwang Jiho swallowed a short breath, he couldn’t continue to speak.
After Hwang Jiho caught his breath, he questioned another possibility like before.
“If it’s them, they would be able to manifest such power on the Korean Peninsula. If Unsa gathers dark clouds, Usa sprinkles rain and Pungbaek freezes the rain and turn it into snow crystals, it would be sufficiently possible. But they gave many things to descend on this land. If they were to do such thing…”
Hwang Jiho shut his mouth.
It seemed that he recalled the term ‘rain calling ceremony’.
“… The rain calling ceremony or rain cassation ceremony isn’t easy to do. If a famine or flood approaches according to the natural principles, wild animals would be hunted and crops would be gathered to offer them as a sacrifice.”
It looked like Hwang Jiho ruminated over the information he gathered, and was recalling a certain keyword.
When I first heard that keyword, I wasn’t able to properly understand what role it played in this world.
But after coming to this world, spending a long time in it and contemplating it over and over, I succeeded in making a kind of hypothesis.
And Hwang Jiho right now seemed to arrive at the same conclusion through the clues I sprinkled.
“Yeah. A ‘sacrifice’ would be needed in an enormous ceremony. And a long period of preparation.”
Sacrifice.
Dark Mastermind sacrificed Eungwang School students for a long time to make a sacrifice.
The bodies and souls of the Eungwang School’s students, who while overflowing with talent, were still less influenced by the world, would make for a good sacrifice.
In the game, Dark Mastermind’s killing the Eungwang School’s students through Choe Pyeondeuk and Zhu Ganglie to procure the sacrifice was at least half successful.
The reason it wasn’t perfectly successful was Nabiryong.
Because although there were students who became sacrifices handed into Dark Mastermind’s hands, by making Kim Yuri’s Gwangrim go into runaway, Nabiryong made those ‘sacrifices’ quality and amount drop.
With Nabiryeong’s scheme, some students instead of becoming sacrifices, died to Kim Yuri’s Gwangrim.
“… The so-called by that person ‘sacrifices’ were to call the evil snowstorm over the divine realm?”
Hwang Jiho tightly closed and opened his eyes.
For a moment, Hwang Jiho’s eyes were dyed with golden light, and then changed.
“Yeah, it’s also my guess.”
After that Hwang Jiho fell into thoughts for a long time.
He had an unreadable expression, but his brown eyes were sometimes dyed golden and then return to brown again. It repeated a few times.
“… It seems I won’t be able to watch today’s exchange with you, eh? Sorry. Inform them instead of me.”
Hwang Jiho picked up the empty nest of boxes and stood up.
Before leaving, he thanked with a subdued voice.
“Thank you for telling me, Jo Uisin. To deal with this case… We will talk again when I regain my cool.”
There were many things we should talk about, but I decided to send off Hwang Jiho without a word.
After joining the children, I belatedly had a thought similar to a regret.
‘Should I have asked Hwang Jiho if he is fine?’
*~*~*
[1] enlisted — Usually, people enlist from the age of 19 to 21, but if they go to a high-ranking university, it’s often pushed back to the age of 22. It could be even later. *This note gives ages in Korean age, so take -1 year.
[2] weight — in Korean, the file weight is called ‘volume (borrowed from English)’.
[3] died — 사망하다 (samanghada) also means to deceive/fabricate/lie.
Translator’s note: While sobbing, I must point out how this chapter excellently shows why Hwang-ho became the leader after Eun-ho. To be able to suppress your emotions (if we exclude that brief moment where I think he had a panic attack) enough to think clearly and logically and be able to notice when a person beside you is spiraling, even when you’re in great emotional turmoil is an outstanding personality trait and ability that a good leader should have.
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