Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
61. Rival (3)
To speak of conclusions only, I managed to move alone.
Jeon Mu-yeong showed an intention to oppose on an extremely common sense basis of being unable to leave a teenage junior in the Demons’ castle alone, but Seong Gukeon took my side.
Not at all flustered by my unexpected actions, Seong Gukeon spoke with admiration.
— You probably can go sightseeing alone. Because you’re a kid, who can take care of himself.
— But… Shouldn’t we be considerate of the location?
Perhaps keeping in mind the Demons’ ears, the two continued the conversation, carefully choosing their words.
They seemed to be careful not to say anything that had a possibility of exposing their identities like names.
— He is not a senseless kid. He wisely overcame a deadly crisis. After that, he got opportunities to assess his abilities among strongmen. He isn’t one to act recklessly.
Seong Gukeon spoke about Eungwang School’s practice entrance exam and the school life after that in a roundabout way.
Jeon Mu-yeong postponed a reply for a moment, stared at me and Seong Gukeon with a face of deep life wisdom, and then said:
— … Understood. It doesn’t seem like You will listen even if I say something here. Please be careful when moving around.
I guess Jeon Mu-yeong recalled Seong Gukeon’s stormy school days when looking at me.
Seong Gukeon in his younger days would act even more without any hesitation than right now, so I understood why he was making such a face.
— Don’t forget about the item I gave you last time.
What Seong Gukeon mentioned was SR — rank consumable item ‘Messageless pigeon’.
He troubled himself to remind me of that item to tell me to request help at any time.
Before I left the lounge, Seong Gukeon asked.
— That person you said you knew. Are they perhaps a friend your age?
Seong Gukeon didn’t ask for a long description, but because it was a question difficult to answer, I avoided answering.
It was because at Seong Gukeon’s words I recalled a certain theory, which I tried to turn away from, but could make a sufficient guess about based on my prior knowledge obtained from PMH and through the experiences in this world.
‘There is a high chance that the Phantom Thief Neon is a student of Eungwang School.’
The Eungwang School’s main gate clock tower, that changed into a neon tower on the April Fool’s Day.
Big Ben that became the Phantom Thief’s notice letter.
When considering the similarities of the neon towers, and the method of swift appearance and disappearance of the crime, I guessed that both works were deeds of the same culprit.
When looking at those two cases alone, I couldn’t exclude a possibility of the Phantom Thief Neon being a member of the school facility.
Because there were many odd facility members at Eungwang School.
Wasn’t there the String Club’s advisor, who took ‘three steps, and bow’ pilgrimage from the main gate to the General Club Hall because of the hasty words they said at the school community’s general board?
‘However, the Phantom Thief Neon isn’t an adult. Personal details description didn’t appear, but there were texts describing him as a ‘boy’, and the face I saw in the CGs was young.’
Then let’s consider the Phantom Thief Neon belonging to Eungwang School.
Based on the Phantom Thief Neon’s personality, he would take the entrance exam seriously, and there was no way that the interviewer, who filtered out numerous of class 0’s students, wouldn’t recognize the Phantom Thief’s desire for attention.
‘With the personality of the Phantom Thief, he would be naturally allocated to class 0…’
And there were many absentees in our class.
There was a chance that one of them was the Phantom Thief Neon.
‘No, the Phantom Thief Neon’s age didn’t appear. Even if he belongs to Eungwang School, it could be to the 2nd year or 3rd year class 0, right?!’
The 2nd and 3rd year class 0’s attendance rate was high, and they were well united, but there were students who didn’t attend school, like Dokgo Miro’s homema Jeong Haeon.
So, I couldn’t conclude right away that the Phantom Thief Neon was in the 1st year class 0.
‘… But I can’t do that for the other one.’
Merlin’s disciple, the coolest and most outstanding druid.
She was certain to be a 1st year class 0.
Strictly speaking, according to predictions, she would appear as a 2nd year class 0 next year, but at the current point, she and I were in the same class.
‘Anyway, aren’t there four of my Playable Characters at this castle right now? Considering their goals, I can’t see them all as being safe.’
Seong Gukeon and Jeon Mu-yeong, the Phantom Thief and a Druid.
I worried about all four of them, but in the situation where I couldn’t use a cloning technique[1], the targets I could support were limited.
If I was going to aid one of those two groups, I couldn’t help but choose the latter.
In the worst case scenario, Seong Gukeon and Jeon Mu-yeong would draw a line on failing to steal ‘Imoogi’s Rise to Heaven’, but the lives of the two, who were openly fighting, would be at risk.
‘Those two won’t be easily caught, but I have to prepare for a possibility.’
The first thing I had to do was to figure out the whereabouts of the two, who disappeared after invading.
Because as I didn’t hold a meeting with them beforehand, like with Seong Gukeon and Jeon Mu-yeong, I didn’t know where the two were right now.
⟨Using Gwangrim ‘Player’s Trajectory’.⟩
The first thing to come to mind was Cheon Dongha’s Gwangrim ‘Eyes Embracing Heaven And Earth’, but the risk of it was too big.
The Demon currently leading Fomori Demons was a one-eyed giant Balor, who had an Eye of Death.
Like its namesake ‘Eyes Embracing Heaven And Earth’, as an ability that took the sight of the whole area, its weakness was that the amount of information couldn’t be controlled.
‘If I use Cheon Dongha’s Gwangrim here, I have a chance of making a mistake and meeting an eye with the Eye of Death sent by Balor.’
As our eyes would meet through a Gwangrim, the effect wouldn’t be immediate, like when seeing it with my actual eyes.
But I may need an ability user at the level of Yu Sang-hui to borrow a power of higher being to recover.
So I decided to borrow an ability of another Playable Character, instead of Cheon Dongha, to chase after the two.
‘Let’s use Mun Saeron’s ability.’
The target of the ‘Player’s Trajectory’ selection was Mun Saeron.
From among Mun Saeron’s abilities, the one I decided to use was a derivative tracking category skill, which she was predicted to obtain in her 2nd year, ‘Focus Coverage’.
While in use, the derivative tracking category skill Mun Saeron mastered, belong to the cheat skills, but the activation conditions were difficult.
First condition was to be a certain distance from the tracked target.
It was impossible to track a person, who was extremely far away.
‘I can cover this old castle. It’s within its range.’
The second condition, knowing the tracked target’s information to a certain degree.
The problem was the second one.
Because in case of the Phantom Thief Neon, even in PMH’s setting book, his age and affiliation was unknown, and he was only mentioned as ‘Phantom Thief’.
Even so, it didn’t mean there was no way.
‘As I don’t know the Phantom Thief Neon’s name, tracking him is impossible, but I certainly know the information of Merlin’s disciple.’
The 2nd year class 0, number 1 on the attendance list, Playable Character ‘Gu Seulbi’.
She was a character who appeared after Ju Su-hyeok started his 2nd year.
Through the dream, Merlin ordered her, Gu Seulbi, to investigate the concrete collapse incident scenario, and she started to attend the school for the smooth investigation.
Gu Seulbi approached Ju Su-hyeok, who was in the center of the incident, because of her character and strange actions matching the class 0, she ended up causing a conflict with Hwang Jiho.
From a Player’s perspective, I remember being much more doubtful about the NPC that suddenly popped up, the Myth category Ho Hwang Jiho.
⟨Using the target character’s skill ‘Focus Coverage’.⟩
⟨The target of the ‘Focus Coverage’ was designated as ‘Gu Seulbi’.⟩
After I designated Gu Seulbi as the ‘coverage target’, the skill activated with the information I had and surrounding situation as a foundation.
Paaat!
In front of my eyes, text written with a superpower wave floated up.
Upon discovering the target designated with the ‘Focus Coverage’ within the range, it started to write the coverage plan.
In coverage plan written with a skill had the candidates for Gu Seulbi’s predicted movement routes.
Compared to Cheon Dongha’s Gwangrim, Mun Saeron’s ‘Focus Coverage’ had strengths like that it consumed less superpower wave and mental power, and could move according to the plan — but compared to catching the target directly, its accuracy was lower.
‘If I use it with the Exclusive menu’s ‘Open a map of the surrounding’ function, the accuracy will fall less, so it will be fine. The map function can make up for the opponent meetings during the moving process.’
‘Open a map of the surrounding’ was the function that showed the surrounding after finishing an exploration at least one time in the game.
Because it was a place I visited for the first time, even if I opened the minimap, it didn’t show much of a place, but I was able to check whether there were opponents or not in the area I currently was in.
‘Then let’s get going.’
After I took a step out of the break area that the Fomori Demons guided us to, the air became heavier.
All the things decorating the castle, like wallpapers, frames, carpets, were artworks worth spending time appreciating, and things that it wouldn’t be strange if they were exhibited in a museum.
But I didn’t feel at all like looking at artworks.
‘The items here and this air are all loaded with superpower waves. Is it because it’s a space dominated by Demons? Then perhaps…’
It might have been a feeling of incongruity felt from the Jin people’s territory.
However, though I had a similar feeling at the party venue to the sensation I felt when visiting the tigers’ mansion, or the Yong tribe’s area, as I stepped out of the party venue, I felt like I stepped into a space of a different character.
‘It feels closer to the sensation of walking inside an otherworld.’
When infiltrating inside the otherworld entrance as an attack team, I felt a similar sensation.
‘Is it the Demons’ move to deal with the Phantom Thief’s infiltration?’
It wasn’t a good sign that I felt a sensation similar to otherworlds in the Jin tribe’s territory.
Didn’t the Jin people have an ability that could put the otherworld under their liege, the otherworld’s gardenization ‘Otherworld Domination’.
While comparing the minimap with the coverage plan written with Mun Saeron’s skill, I moved much more carefully.
When I crossed a few corridors and stairs, while suppressing my presence.
‘… A powerful superpower wave! Enough to overwhelm a common Jin!’
I stopped my movements, and checked the front.
After holding my breath, I cautiously leaned my ears.
As I heightened my senses to my utmost, I heard the conversation on the other side.
The voices were somewhat familiar.
“To see You in such a place. Aren’t You extremely busy?”
“… Not very much of a pleasure. Why are You using a polite tone? That’s ominous.” [2]
“That must be because it’s a pleasure for me. We did our best to make an alliance, but never met, you know? Because You were shut at home, dealing with the Demons’ invasions.”
“You know it, so can’t you stop using that polite tone? Cunning, good things never happen when You use that tone.”
The owners of the voices were Seodol and Heuk-ma.
Perhaps Seodol took off his mask, I saw a hand holding a rat mask in the distance.
Heuk-ma was also wearing a mask with black horse’s hair, so I guess the two didn’t plan to hide their identities.
‘I knew that Heuk-ma came here, but I didn’t expect Seodol to be here.’
Why was Seodol here?
In the messages he sometimes sent, he revealed his whereabouts though I didn’t ask, so I knew that he was in the United Kingdom.
Abruptly, I recalled the message Seodol sent.
— [Cunning] What do You think I should do to celebrate my return home? But I don’t know if Jo Uisin will like or dislike one, and think that Jo Uisin will hate the other.
No way, was this situation right now related to doing something ahead of coming home?
No, I could only think of there being a connection.
“What did You come here for? Ah, please don’t tell. I want to personally figure it out.”
“Don’t worry about that. Who is going to tell You? Ah, I’m curious why You came here though. Tell me the reason.”
“I hate to tell You.”
The 12 Zodiac Alliance became a dog mess, when traitors like Zhu Ganglie mixed in, but wasn’t it a miracle it was maintained on the surface?
It seemed that be it Heuk-ma or Seodol, they were saying what they liked just like before.
*~*~*
[1] cloning technique — more literally ‘alter-ego technique’. Also, I do wonder if ‘situation’ shouldn’t be replaced with a ‘role’ here, but no…. I don’t think so, but… =-= (squint emoji)
[2] Heuk-ma’s tone towards Seodol — she doesn’t use a polite tone, she uses a casual tone, but she uses a polite ‘You’.
Translator’s note: Jo Uisin, actually you’re right to be doubtful about Hwang Jiho, he certainly can rival you in suspiciousness.
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