Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
54. Dongsaeng (2)
Yu Sang-hun’s name didn’t come up in PMH, and he was only indirectly mentioned as Yu Sang-hui’s dead dongsaeng at the time of Eungwang School’s practical exam.
Even so, I knew well how much Yu Sang-hui cherished her dongsaeng Yu Sang-hun.
Because to avenge Yu Sang-hun, Yu Sang-hui abandoned her precious blessing and Gwangrim, the life of the 3rd year highschooler and the future after.
‘From the beginning, the goal of Yu Sang-hui’s revenge was impossible to achieve.’
The supreme goal of the Playable Character Yu Sang-hui was annihilation of the Demonic Beast species Enemies.
Even if Yu Sang-hui made a contract with the goddess of revenge Nemesis for a price of her life and was reborn as the ultimate weapon against the Demonic Beasts, it was the sound of nonsense.
Considering the number of Enemies, which came to this world every time an otherworld occurred, or through the Jin people, Yu Sang-hui’s revenge was absurd.
Yu Sang-hui cherished Yu Sang-hun enough to attempt the meaningless and hopeless revenge on her own.
If she owed the life of that dongsaeng to them, the TC Research Institute would be able to put pressure on Yu Sang-hui.
‘If Yu Sang-hun died that day, it would be meaningless for TC Research Institute to talk about owing Yu Sang-hun’s life. But now it’s different.’
Currently, Yu Sang-hun was so healthy that he became the MVP in the sport exchange of the Korean best superpower special highschools.
Every time Yu Sang-hui saw Yu Sang-hun like this, she would be reminded of Yu Sang-hun’s life owed to TC Research Institute.
“The TC Research Institute made some kind of suggestion to senior Yu Sanghui-nim using the Yu Sang-hun’s life debt, huh?”
“Yeah. It seems that Yu Sang-hui has a lot of worries.”
The elementary school’s student version of Hwang Jiho showed an attitude as if he knew about Yu Sang-hui’s problem since before.
I wasn’t able to notice my Playable Character’s worries, so there is no way that this bastard noticed it, right?!
“… It seems that you knew about senior Yu Sanghui-nim and TC Research Institute before I asked. Did you know about it?”
At my question, young Hwang Jiho nodded his small head.
“Yeah.”
Hwang Jiho said he knew!?
I knew that Yu Sang-hui was worrying about her career problems.
But I thought it was simple career problems usual for the highschoool 3rd year students and didn’t consider it deeply, so I acutely felt how short-sighted my thoughts were.
“After the training camp ended, when injured people were hospitalized in the Hwang Myeong Eungwang Hospital’s Player special ward, I called Yu Sang-hui to treat students. At that time, I approached her in the guise of chairman Hwang Myeong-ho.”
“… Really?”
“Yeah, I revealed the intention to help with the TC’s problem. Didn’t Yu Sang-hui heal Jeok-ho? The Ho tribe doesn’t forget favors[1].”
Hwang Jiho said such a thing to Yu Sang-hui, but what the hell was I doing in the meantime?
But my Playable Character was in such a position, so why didn’t this bastard say anything?
Yu Sang-hui still looked worried, so it wasn’t completely solved right? Then even more so, shouldn’t he contact me?
I almost spat out hateful sounds, but looking at Hwang Jiho in his young form, I couldn’t say a word.
Instead, the sense of guilt was pushed forward, but I decided to postpone self-loathing for afterward.
‘It would be a suggestion she doesn’t like so much that she doesn’t respond to TC Research Institute and is worrying.’
That suggestion would be probably related to the TC Research Institute’s new project Tao Sihu spoke about.
First, I decided to dig out about what was the suggestion that TC Research Institute made from Hwang Jiho.
“What kind of suggestion did TC Research Institute make to senior Yu Sanghui-nim?”
“It seems that they’re thinking of putting Yu Sang-hui in the new project that TC Research Institute is making.”
Hwang Jiho erased all the disarranged holograms and floated up just one document in the air.
‘Higher being artificial descent project’.
I was horrified the moment I saw the project’s name.
The word that horrified me was ‘artificial’.
‘You mean to force higher being to descend with human power…?’
The ‘gods’ or higher beings existing in this world had very limited interference in the human world.
The ways higher beings interfered into the human world were largely divided into two kinds.
First way, interfering though humans, descendants and Jin people always existing in this world.
‘Possession’ where a god momentarily borrowed the believer’s body targeting the believer with deep faith.
‘Divine Revelation’, which passed their voice through dreams.
‘Blessing’, where both parties were connected under a mutual agreement.
And ‘Gwangrim’, which they could one-sidedly connect, were the examples.
‘But those methods aren’t ‘descent’ strictly speaking. Because the higher being isn’t completely descending to this world.’
Second way, where the higher being interferes in this world with only their own power.
‘Miracle’ or ‘Disaster’ caused by the change to matter by the higher being’s power stepping down to this world.
And ‘Descent’ where a higher being personally steps down to this world was like this.
‘However, the higher beings had to bear great risks with the miracles, disasters and in particular, descents. There is no guarantee they will be able to use their whole power in this world, and if things go wrong, their whole existence may be permanently erased from this world.’
That’s why no matter how warlike and curious the gods are, they don’t easily create direct miracles and disasters in the human world and try to descend for a long time.
After the Clash of Different Worlds occurred in this world, the higher beings’ descents were observed several times, but the number was small, and the descent time was short.
The most recent descent was during Kwon Jane’s solo concert on the Manchester Arena.
In that case, during Kwon Jane’s encore stage, a few of the nine sister muses[2], Terpsichore, Euterpe and Calliope descended for one minute, danced and then disappeared.
The cases of the higher beings personally descending to this world were that rare and precious.
“It’s famously known that the two goddesses, Acea and Nemesis show interest in Yu Sang-hui. They’re thinking of using Yu Sang-hui to make the two goddesses descend to this world.”
Yu Sang-hui published a paper titled ‘Research on the Gwangrim and connection with higher being of revenge’.
In it, Acea and Nemesis were mentioned, but it was a paper published to genuinely develop research on Gwangrim in this world.
Not to drag two goddesses into this world.
“When Yu Sang-hui was unwilling to force Acea to descend, they said that if she hated it, she could call Nemesis too. The TC bastards are as absurdly arrogant and don’t know their places as in the past.”
“… Why are they trying to do this?”
“We couldn’t dig that far. Yu Sang-hui is just a ‘test subject’. The higher being they truly want to summon would be someone else than Acea or Nemesis.”
At those words, my mind became complicated.
‘Calling a higher being to this world…?’
If I thought about the Dark Mastermind’s action and the aftermath of those actions, the chances of TC and Dark Mastermind being connected seemed big.
It wasn’t certain yet, but there were many parts bothering my mind about this ‘Artificial descent project’, in-game Four Group secret war scenario and traces Dark Mastermind left.
‘But how did the Ho tribe obtain the document about this project? Did they dig this far for just Yu Sang-hui?’
As if my doubts dyed my face, the young Hwang Jiho asked first.
“You’re curious how and why did we put our hands on this document?”
Without me even nodding, he smoothly opened his mouth.
“Do you know TC Group’s old name?”
“I know it was a name in our language.”
“I very disliked that name. The one to move behind the scenes to change that name was our Ho tribe.”
The Ho tribe took such an action?
The Four Groups secret war scenario exploded when Ju Su-hyeok was living as a highschooler, but it seemed that the seeds of that discord were planted already a long time ago.
“What did you do?”
“During the T and C’s divorce incident, we gave strength to C’s side. Opportunely, C was a word that was difficult for foreigners to pronounce, so it wasn’t difficult to put pressure on them to change the name.”
What the hell was that name that even Hwang Jiho said he hated TC Group’s old name?
“The TC Group’s old name was Taocheon Group. A word showing arrogance to downrate the Heavens and Heavenly God.”
‘Taocheon’ had a positive meaning of the great water body overflowing enough to reach the sky, but as it also meant not to fear Heavens, for the Ho tribe, which served Heavenly God, such a reaction was obvious.
‘T and C was said to be derived from each of the founding pair’s surnames. As T is for Tao, the C is for Cheon, huh?’
The young Hwang Jiho continued to speak with a clear voice that didn’t match the content or the situation.
“Cheon faction gained many debts of gratitude to our side during the divorce incident. Moreover, the people were ordered to infiltrate during that process and there is no small number of routes to obtain the information. As I can use both our strength and Cheon family’s strength, it’s not difficult to obtain TC’s inside information.”
I knew very well that TC Group was famous for how dysfunctional it is, but I didn’t expect for them to dance in the tiger’s palm.
One of the Tao family’s members was my Playable Character Tao Wonu, so it felt a bit subtle.
“Is the reason you came here because of Yu Sang-hui? We have as much power as you want to help her. There are numerous ways to make this arrogant project fail.”
According to those words, there were some ways to make this project fail, but if they did that, it meant that the routes to obtain information Hwang Myeong Group made would be blocked.
Because if this top secret project fails, TC Group’s side will rebuild its information security system.
‘I want to leave this move to deal with Four Groups’ secret war.’
After I organized my thoughts, I opened my mouth.
“No, let’s observe first.”
“I thought you would step out right away, how unexpected.”
I very much wanted to quickly dispel Yu Sang-hui’s worries, but I thought I had to think of the future events.
And in this matter, besides Hwang Myeong Foundation, there was one more reassuring ally.
“Instead there is a person I wish you to put surveillance on. Please observe carefully, because he is a powerful Player. And if something happens, inform me right away.”
“I’ll inform you.”
“Senior Tao Wonu-nim.”
“… I’ll need to think carefully who to put on his back, eh?”
As if he knew well the talent of the all years Eungwang School’s first place and Student Council president Tao Wonu, the young Hwang Jiho nodded.
Besides that, we talked about this matter for a while.
After the young Hwang Jiho emptied another bowl of bingsu[3], the conversation topic changed.
“Ah, you won’t run into Jeok-ho and Kim Sinrok for a while. It’s clear to the eyes that you or Kim Sinrok will overtax yourselves.”
Thinking about it, I didn’t see the father and son duo at the mansion today, so I guess they left so they wouldn’t meet me.
Kim Sinrok still couldn’t call Jeok-ho ‘father’ properly, so I hoped they would become closer with this opportunity.
Ah, with me around, it would be difficult for the two to stay at the mansion, so I should refrain from visiting more.
“This mansion is vast. It’s not difficult to avoid each other’s movement paths. Don’t think of using it as an excuse not to come to this place for no reason.”
The appearing-young tiger read my thoughts.
“… But do you look like this?”
“Ah, thinking about it, I have something to say in this form.”
The eyes of young Hwang Jiho sparkled.
It was a face so innocent I wanted to ask what he wanted to eat, but I came to my senses at the words following it.
“Do you remember when I said that Seong Gukeon’s secretary, Jeon Mu-yeong, sneaked into the elementary school’s classroom this one is attending in this form?”
When I nodded, the young Hwang Jiho threw a bombshell.
“Seong Gukeon made contact with this one.”
*~*~*
[1] favors — 은혜 (eunhye), kindness, benevolence, love of god.
[2] muses — raws uses two words for muses. 무사이 from the ancient Greek word ‘Μουσαι’, and 뮤즈 from the English word for muses. 무사이 also means ‘safe’ in some dialects.
[3] bingsu — ‘shaved ice’
Translator’s note: Wait. Shit. Mentioning of forced descent in the ‘Dongsaeng’ chapter? Part 2 – High priestess (with a moon on usual iconography) at that? … Not-time-travelers, please don’t ask, this translator and other time travelers may go insane if this theory is right.
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