Translator: Wan ED/PR: Solarin
66. Another candidate (2)
The Earthly Wings Hall, special[1] gym.
As an exclusive training facility for dormitory students located in the Earthly Wings Hall, the special gym was designed to endure quite a bit of superpowers.
Superpowers were used both in training and in tests, but this special gym’s key usage was training.
‘It’s the first time I’m using this place.’
I often trained at the Earthly Wings Hall in the morning and evening, but I mainly used the simulator room.
It was because, as I could experience combat with Enemies through the virtual combat training facilitated by the simulator, I thought it would be more efficient than training in the special gym.
While I read the special gym usage manual, which floated in front of the door on the hologram, Seong Siwan spoke to me.
“Idam-i agreed to the sparring request, so I can’t stop it, but… do you really not need a referee?”
“Yes.”
“Without a referee, halting the spar will be up to the AI. There is a limit to how much AI can read the flow of the spar, so sometimes it’s judgments sometimes may be quite close calls. There is a risk of big injury.”
“If You get hurt, You can heal.”
“I hope you don’t get hurt, so…”
Seong Siwan seemed to worry more about mea 1st year.
In addition to being older than me, the ‘Gye’fucker had plenty of Player experience and was in the top 10 of the 2nd years.
Moreover, it was a widely known fact that Gye Idam had an ability extremely well oriented to subduing Players.
When Gye Idam first went to conquer an otherworld, he was said to instantly subdue a Player, who fell into the state of confusion because of the boss Enemy’s skill.
Gye Idam was a talent that the Player Association’s Regulation Enforcement department, which dealt with many cases where they had to face against Players, coveted.
‘I trusted that ability and made a mistake of casting a vote on the ‘Gye’fucker during the Earthly Wings Council’s president election! I should have looked into him more!’
Gye Idam’s reputation wasn’t bad, and he acted like a reticent cooperator in front of me, so I wasn’t able to recognize that rotten personality.
I have to beat up that ‘Gye’fucker both as an intersection and training.
I was sorry for Seong Siwan, who was worried about his juniors getting hurt, but that bastard is going to hurt a lot today.
‘In the first place, as the Earthly Wings Council’s president, that ‘Gye’fucker should have a recovery item card.’
If he didn’t have a recovery item, it was the fault of the person with insufficient preparations, so can’t he suffer to my heart’s content and then be carried to the infirmary?
I knew very well how excellent the Player specialized doctor at the infirmary was, so there was nothing to worry about.
With such thoughts as a foundation, I told Seong Siwan not to worry, and he seemed a little reassured.
But Bak Seung-hyeon who was standing behind made a subtle expression.
“It seems like it will take quite a long time, can I postpone the appointment?”
“No, I will wait until the spar ends.”
“I think it will take several hours.”
“What? You’re planning to go for so long?”
At my words, Gye Idam, who was swiping the student ID card over the door to the special gym, suddenly turned around towards me.
I sneered at his shocked expression.
Considering how I endured ‘Gye’fucker for over half a year, ending it with just a few hours was absurd, so what was he acting so surprised?
Ah, did he perhaps thought it was too short?
In this case, I could somewhat understand.
“Uisin-ah, how are you going to set up the spar coverage? It seems there are quite a few spectators…”
Bak Seung-hyeon hesitantly spoke up.
I saw people gathering behind Bak Seung-hyeon.
Even now, there were many people, but there were quite a lot of crazy students, who were flying here on illegally modified air boards.
‘I guess rumors spread in the meantime, and they’re flocking to watch the fight.’
It seemed a post was published on the general bulletin board.
Rumor wouldn’t spread like this with just ‘there is going to be a fight’, my name had also to have been sold.
I didn’t see the general bulletin board, but seeing how new messages device alarm was ringing since a moment ago, I had a guess about the situation.
They seemed to be messages of cheering and worry, but I received so many of them, it seemed difficult for me to check them all right now.
I had no plans to make things any bigger.
But it seemed already too late.
“The spar will be carried out privately.”
At my words, laments exploded here and there.
At the Eungwang School, where there was a natural atmosphere of learning from each other and exchanging suggestions while watching spars, private spars were rare.
It was a pity I couldn’t show the audience the spectacle going against their expectations and ‘Gye’fucker being beaten up by me, but I still had this much sanity left.
“Okay… Uisin-ah, good luck!”
It seemed that Bak Seung-hyeon was going to cheer me instead of Gye Idam.
Gye Idam was an Earthly Wings Council’s senior, but Bak Seung-hyeon was acquainted with me longer, and I guess, hearing that ‘Gye’fucker was a malicious commenter, his heart leaned towards me.
As expected, worthy of my Playable Character, a wise choice.
Wwwi.
While the automatic door closed, I saw Seong Siwan disperse the audience with a complicated expression.
It seemed there would be people who wanted to wait until the very end.
If they wanted to see how ‘Gye’fucker, who will become a mess, is carried out, I had no plans on stopping them.
“….”
On the other hand, Gye Idam, who was scheduled to become a mess, stared at the windows.
Because it was set to private mode, after I and Gye Idam entered, the blinds came over the made with superpowers reinforced glass.
After confirming that the blinds completely closed, I opened my mouth:
“If you win, I’ll forgive you.”
“… Really?”
Gye Idam immediately made a doubtful expression, but he instantly lit up and seemed to take the bait.
Did he think he could be forgiven after doing something like this?
Now and back then, this ‘Gye’fucker was a fucker without conscience.
Anyway, I wasn’t going to lose, and so I wasn’t going to forgive.
“Ye. In exchange, if I win, I’ll grill you until you graduate. No… I’ll grill you even after you graduate.”
“So you just mean you want to grill me.”
“Don’t flap your tongue.”
“… Was your personality always like this?”
I guess he was annoyed by my coarse words that he was going to live for longer than one year.
Whether he found fault with that or not, I had no plans to change my thoughts.
“Rules?”
“Use whatever you like, Gwangrim and what’s not. It ends when one side becomes incapable of fighting.”
“You must be ‘Suitable’ rather than ‘Suitable Candidate’. Isn’t it a shameless suggestion when you received some fucking cheat ability?”
Gye Idam frowned while rattling long.
He spoke so much, that I had no idea how he endured all this while.
But, Gye Idam in Gye’fucker days was always talking a lot.
“I can win with the likes of you even without Gwangrim. You use your Gwangrim or don’t.”
There is no way that I would show my trump card to this bastard, right?
If you can catch the chess piece with a pawn, why would you need to trouble yourself with moving the queen?
Perhaps pissed by my provocation, Gye Idam’s face twisted.
Even though ‘Gye’fucker apologized to avoid this situation, that personality of his was the same, so he reacted sensitively.
— Both[2] Players — to positions.
Mechanical voice rang out.
It appeared that the preparation time I typed in before entering was almost up.
Two circles with some distance to each other appeared in the special gym.
The timer above the circle decreased by one with each passing second.
Pat. Pat.
I and Gye Idam each entered our circle.
Gye Idam adjusted his breathing, and opened his mouth:
“We can stop this spar even now and find another way…”
“I hate it.”
As if his mood became even nastier because I cut him off, Gye Idam’s face crumpled even more.
Looking at that expression, I felt somewhat better.
Even if I could beat up Gye Idam with more efficient and legal method than a spar, I hated to listen to this bastard.
The numbers, that started at two digits, started to get close to 0.
3, 2. 1…
— Start!
Paaat!
At the same time as the mechanical voice, Gye Idam released his superpower wave.
The superpower wave turned into a dark fog and started to swallow the surrounding.
I threw myself backwards, but the fog quickly filled up the entire special gym, leaving no place to escape to.
‘Faster than expected! And…’
I vaguely saw Gye Idam’s figure in the fog.
Because it wasn’t that far, and I clearly felt the presence, there was no impairment with attacking.
The problem laid elsewhere.
‘… The superpower wave flow in my body became sluggish.’
The more fog soddened my body, the more difficult it became to operate superpower wave.
Seeing how he could interfere with the opponent’s superpower wave in such a short time, it seemed it wasn’t a skill, but a Gwangrim.
It was similar to Tao Sihu’s Gwangrim, which summoned chains that completely sealed superpower wave, but the effect was a bit different, and the range was much larger.
‘The fog’s expansion speed and scope are quite high. It’s more annoying than Tao Sihu’s Gwangrim that can be stopped if you don’t get caught by the chains.’
Click.
I heard the sound of a gun trigger.
It was the sound made by the superpower gun in Gye Idam’s hands.
The muzzle of the superpower gun was directed at me.
“You know very well what state your body is in right now, right? Forfeit.”
“Why me?”
“Superpower wave operation speed slows down in this fog, so you can’t use magic. Even if you try to activate Gwangrim, you won’t be able to match the speed of the supernatural gun.”
Gye Idam’s words weren’t exactly wrong.
The magic I mainly cast had to be cast with mana conversed from superpower wave, so in this fog, casting wouldn’t be easy.
Moreover, in the situation where a supernatural gun is aimed at me, I couldn’t hastily move.
However…
“I simply didn’t move right away to see your cards?”
“What…?”
There was no need to agree with that ‘Gye’fucker.
Because I already held an item card of UR rank weapon — the Nine Iron Teeth Rake.
As if it were waiting, Nine Iron Teeth Rake responded to my will and materialized right away.
Paaat!
Paw! Paw-paw-paw!
Bullets instilled with superpower wave poured towards me.
Gye Idam tried to shoot the item card out of my hand before it materialized, but none of the fired bullets touched my hand.
Unable to believe that he didn’t hit even once at such small distance, Gye Idam opened his eyes wide.
Gye Idam’s gaze fell onto the Nine Iron Teeth Rake that ricocheted all the bullets a moment ago.
Gye Idam shouted with an astonished voice.
“UR rank item! Crazy — that’s what the Don tribe’s head had….”
Peeuk!
Before Gye Idam could finish speaking, I jabbed the Nine Iron Teeth Rake’s shaft towards his abdomen.
He instantly tried to defend his vital points with the gun barrel, but unable to withstand the UR rank item’s force, the superpower gun cracked.
“Even when you can’t use that skill…!”
That’s right.
Perhaps because the superpower wave didn’t operate properly, I didn’t hear a system voice say ‘’Use Of Everything’ activated’, even though I held the Nine Iron Teeth Rake.
If I trained solely relaying on the Use Of Everything skill, I probably wouldn’t be able to properly use the Nine Iron Teeth Rake.
But I learned how to use the Nine Iron Teeth Rake, while fighting against a Myth category Ho.
In addition, didn’t the Nine Iron Teeth Rake recognized me?
Even though I, at the current moment, couldn’t perfectly use the Nine Iron Teeth Rake, like when the Use Of Everything was active, I could still activate one or two forks.
“Didn’t you play a game? There was a story where superpower wave was blocked. So I prepared countermeasures.”
I bounced myself from the wall and ran with light steps.
The movements of the fleeing Gye Idam were infinitely slow compared to Baek Ho-gun’s maneuvering.
Moreover, unlike in the Silver Training (Eunryeon) Building, there was no Yeong-ho (Shadow Tiger) waiting for me to show gaps or Baek Ho-gun, swinging a greatsword with a momentum to slice my body in half.
Without hesitating, I widely swung the Nine Iron Teeth Rake and aimed at Gye Idam.
With the sound of blades splitting the air, I jabbed the Nine Iron Teeth Rake at Gye Idam.
“Keuk…! Already here?!”
Gye Idam, who realized it was too late to dodge, raised the cracked superpower gun and blocked the Nine Iron Teeth Rake’s handle.
Even though he blocked the Nine Iron Teeth Rake, it was a useless defense.
As I expected, the cracks on the superpower gun gradually widened and it exploded.
Clink, clink! Boom!
Between the debris of the completely destroyed supernatural gun, Gye Idam made an anxious face.
The bastard must have had a spare superpower gun or a combat technique to fight without weapons, but as if he completely lost all will to fight, he couldn’t even think of playing the next move.
In the past and now, he was a bastard with no guts.
I seized the chance for victory and asked something I was most annoyed about.
“Were you a fan of An Dain?”
Gye Idam’s shoulders flinched.
Looks like I was right.
“You made such a mess at the shooting training, but you chose the superpower gun? Coveting things out of your league.”
A superpower gun was a pretty common weapon, but if you saw that ‘Gye’fucker’s shooting training even once, you would naturally consider it strange.
As if ashamed at what I said was right, Gye Idam gritted his teeth and said:
“… I lost.”
“You obviously will.”
“…?”
It seemed that Gye Idam didn’t seem to understand my words.
“The spar isn’t over yet. Get up.”
“You — no way…!”
“I said it ends when one side becomes incapable!”
Peuk!
Then, one-sided beating disguised as a spar continued.
It was a beating, but I carefully adjusted my strength so Gye Idam didn’t collapse with one punch.
Gye Idam lost his will to fight, however in front of the UR rank weapon item flying at him, he instinctively tried to block it, so on the surface it looked like a spar.
At first, I punched him in the areas that could be covered by clothes, but I hit his face a few times.
‘If I keep punching him, will his face become the face of the ‘Gye’fucker I remember?’
It felt really unpleasant to think about, so I decided to hit his face appropriately.
“Keuk, cough, no, listen to me for a second, that…!”
“Not curious.”
I wasn’t even a bit curious about the malicious commenter bastard’s story.
Wasn’t it a waste of time to just hear him out?
There were many things I had to learn about this world and many good things, but why should I listen to it at a time like this?
But seeing Gye Idam try to speak, I abruptly recalled something.
“Tutorial of the unnamed supporting character, where the Rinoseron appeared. You remember it too, right? Especially that you wrote so many malicious comments about that tutorial.”
Even if you could assume that I would solve all the other incidents, that tutorial was different.
If I was unlucky, I might have been annihilated.
But this ‘Gye’fucker, who I assumed came to this world earlier than me, didn’t appear there.
“You left it alone even though you knew?”
I felt my eyes burn at the thought of Jang Namuk and Yu Sang-hun.
When I fixed my grip on the Nine Iron Teeth Rake and was about to continue the real education.
“Augh, I told you hear me out! I only realized that I entered PMH world that day. And it wasn’t that I didn’t come!”
As if worried that I would cut him of, Gye Idam spoke without taking a breath.
He ‘realized’ that he entered the PMH world only on that day?
There were a lot of things that bothered me, but I asked first about the most bothering part.
“What you’re talking about? I didn’t see you.”
“If I acted like I knew, I could be treated as a culprit. And there was no place for me to step in!”
“No place to step in?”
“There was a Playable Character that came before me…! I turned back after seeing that.”
Playable Character, who arrived before Gye Idam.
Hearing that, I vividly recalled the situation that day.
In front of the broken gym door stood Baek Ho-gun.
Holding the White Fang of the Thunder Clouds Breaker, shining so white, it blinded the eyes.
“Tell me the details.”
I made up my mind to hear Gye Idam’s story first.
But, I decided to listen to him, while beating him so it wouldn’t interrupt his speech.
*~*~*
[1] special gym — special is ‘특별(teukbyeol)’ and ‘별(byeol)’ can mean ‘star’. So you could actually interpret this word as ‘special/particular star’.
[2] both Players — ‘both’ in Korean is ‘양 (yang)’. It’s a very normal phrase, but thought I’ll point it out just in case.
Translator’s note: Ah, this is a weird moment to make this note, the vibes don’t match at all. Alas, we will have to swallow this feeling of dichotomy, as — hello to you, dear readers, when this chapter comes to you, the third year of our and this translation existence will be coming to a close.
Three years. Three full years… Let me share a short story about certain ‘three years’.
There was a person once, who by the stroke of really bad luck had to quit university due to developing physical and mental problems. The universities are completely free in that person’s country, don’t worry, this is not a horror story. In fact, that person didn’t think much about it. ‘Just a year’ they thought ‘I can quickly catch up, when I just get better’.
But as time passed, it became increasingly obvious that it won’t be just a year. Different symptoms grew worse, the wild goose hunt on wrong diagnosis only grew longer and difficult life events all overlapped. And time still passed. Ever encroaching, ever eroding.
There may be times in your life when even the best meaning and tender question of ‘So what do you plan to do now?’ have a power to break you.
Still, obsessively, the person thought, ‘What do I do now?’. Back to university? They probably would have to start all over. They could push themself. Aren’t there sayings like ‘You have to break a few bones, before you achieve anything’? They could do that. If they pushed themself really hard, they could get a doctor title before they turn 30, right?… Maybe all their problems would disappear if they pushed themself hard enough.
… But they didn’t. Instead, they threw themself into doing some silly translation to train their Korean skills. They didn’t think it was any good, but they enjoyed doing research and leaving notes, so they thought one or two people may find value in it. That would be enough. Just a proof they’re moving.
And they were right. Partly. It wasn’t just one or two people. It was not a drizzle but a shower of compliments and warm welcomes, and hopes they would continue their work in the future…
So that person snapped. Because behind every kind word and support in the comments, in the discord server, in the reviews on NU, and later on kofi and patreon, there was a person who loved both the story and the person’s work on it. They couldn’t bare to disappoint them, so they took painfully slow steps to manage their condition. To go from thinking at night ‘Is this how I am going to die?’ to only mild annoyance and ‘Oh, I don’t know why I ever made such big deal out of it’. They got healthier. They got alive.
Dear reader. I’m so grateful that day three years ago I decided to translate for you, instead of pushing myself into an academic grinder, which I might have not survived.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for enjoying the story. As your enjoyment of the story is just what might have saved me.
With the hope of moving forward, I’ll continue to improve for you — both in skill and wellbeing.
. . .
Alright, tearful thanks time is over. Now, first, please give big and bright thanks to Jas(Personal Ghost) and Solarin, for doing their best to keep up the quality of work even when this translator sometimes fails to keep up the standards.
I also thank to everyone who joined discord and talked there, I thank for every review on NU that said ‘this a good translation’ and for liking those reviews to get them up, I thank for every link you spread on the internet and for every friend you got here, and for all the fanwork you put in that spreads a word about this novel, I thank you for every bit of monetarily support (there were more than a few times when existence of that support kept me away from panicking over my life situation), and most importantly — I thank you for every ‘thank you for the chapter’ and other delightful comments.
Perhaps Orpheus truly is the eidolon of artists, for there is nothing harder than trudging forward without being able to look back and having to fight the doubt ‘Is there anyone following?’. For in the era of bots, every view and like may be fake, and every discord and social media interaction doesn’t mean that someone is interacting with your work, and yes, someone may be supporting you monetarily and tries to help you pay for your food and lights over your head… But are they still following? What if you shout out and nothing but silence will be your answer? So for me that every simple ‘thank you for the chapter’ was a proof, a living, tangible proof… ‘someone is still following’. And I could take another step. And I hesitate and question on every step, even now, even as I publish this chapter, and in every chapter in the future. I dread the day when I shout into the darkness and hear no answer behind me. But for now. For now, I thank you. For now, I can breathe out. To know you’re still here, still following, still caring enough to leave this little proof of existence… Thank you for reading.
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