Translator: Wan ED/PR: novio
5. 1st year class 0 (1)
The games usually have a character that acts like their face. Those were the title heroes and heroines.
Even the multi POV’s game like PMH, with the three digit number of playable characters, had the title hero and heroine.
Title hero Ju Su-hyeok.
Title heroine An Dain.
The poster showing the two people holding twin swords and a rifle, touching each other’s backs and looking up into the night sky, was one of the most popular and well-known PMH posters.
The two were the typical main character munchkins.
They were two monster geniuses who at the entrance exam to Eungwang School, which boasted the highest entry level and difficulty in Korea, got perfect scores in all three parts: paper examination, writing exam, and practical exam.
They acted together as the freshmen representative at the entrance ceremony and from their first meeting, they continued good-hearted competition and polished each other’s abilities.
The two who fell in love at first sight regarded each other as rivals, while also empathizing with the other, and gradually liking each other even more.
However, in the hopeless scenario, there was no time to cultivate such feelings.
And in the second half of the last chapter…
All the playable characters died, and only three remained. Ju Su-hyeok, An Dain and Baek Ho-gun.
A day before the final decisive battle…
Ju Su-hyeok wanted to confess to An Dain.
[Are you trying to die? Don’t create weird cliche!]
An Dain drew a line.
And added:
[Never say anything before I confess.]
The two didn’t speak any further, but made up their minds.
‘I’ll return alive.’
But Ju Su-hyeok died protecting An Dain. She brought down the opponent but was fatally injured.
An Dain released the Gwangrim and told Ju Su-hyeok who collapsed among far away Enemy corpses.
[Su-hyeok…I like you. From the entrance ceremony… From the moment you stood beside me…. I’ve liked you. I like you….]
An Dain squeezed out the last of her energy a few times and continued to repeat her confession over and over.
Naturally, Ju Su-hyeok didn’t reply, and An Dain died.
Baek Ho-gun, who joined them too late, stared at the two who had already stopped breathing. It was the last appearance of the two main characters.
And now.
The two main characters, Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain, stood as representatives of first years at the entrance ceremony.
“Oath. We, the freshmen who were permitted to enter Eungwang Player Meister High School, solemnly swear to work hard to learn and develop our abilities, and to respect and live by the school tradition and rules during our school days.”
“Freshmen representative Ju Su-hyeok.”
“Freshmen representative An Dain.”
The energy radiating from the two geniuses overwhelmed people.
At the same time, when they recited the freshman entrance oath, they left a beautiful echo that spread through the speakers.
It was only a trivial freshman oath, but it felt like watching an opera.
‘They said they fell in love at first sight, but I wouldn’t have any idea when watching from the outside.’
They finished the oath, and the two people looked at each other for a moment. The look in their eyes showed wariness and tension, as if when facing an old foe.
Even so, the mood wasn’t even a bit close to being bad.
On the contrary, it looked like aloof air surrounded them, almost as if the two were knights before a holy war.
Rather than calling Eungwang School’s Central Great Auditorium, the Hall of Third Sacred Terrestrial Branch[1] a school auditorium, it would be more right to say it was an enormous banquet hall.
This place was filled with two thousand of Eungwang School’s students and teachers.
In the second floor seats were hundreds of visitors.
All of them were awestruck by the charm and spirit the two possessed.
“Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain seem to live in a different world.”
“The battle between the two proudest geniuses…!”
“Do you mean that in a bad sense? It does seem to be a battle of geniuses.”
“When I was in middle school, I heard I was good at studying, but… those kids are for real.”
“There are no kids at Eungwang School who didn’t study in middle school. It’s embarrassing, so don’t talk about those days.”
“Isn’t ‘Unknown Supernova’ also among the freshmen? This 1st year is crazy.”
The best of two million Korean highschoolers.
The nation’s talents and geniuses gathered in Eungwang School.
Even in that Eungwang the interest gathered by the two people standing on a stage was great.
‘My story also came out, tsk.’
The names of four people who belonged to group 13 during the entrance exam seemed to spread, so the whole school knew my name and nickname.
But this world was centered around the main characters, and my presence was buried by them.
‘Even so, I don’t feel bad about it.’
Rather, I seemed to be an irrefutable game junkie, excited by the fact I saw the game’s main characters with my own eyes.
After finishing the oath, Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain each descended to the bottom platform using stairs in opposite directions.
The two didn’t look back at each other even once and returned to their own seats.
After that, began the teacher introductions, but people at the entrance ceremony were still lost in the afterglow of the two geniuses a moment ago, so nearly no one listened.
‘I should search for our class kids.’
I also roughly listened to the teacher’s introductions and tried to search for class 0 kids, but there wasn’t even one face I saw in the game.
Since participation in the entrance ceremony was voluntary, the 1st years weren’t divided by classes, but lined up starting from the front seats on a first-come, first-served basis, so it was completely impossible to say who was in which class.
Currently, all the first years around me were unknown to me.
‘But I can’t be sure I’ll recognize them even if they’re here.’
The game progressed with Ju Su-hyeok and An Dain as the center.
At times, the point of view changed to teachers or forces outside of school, but usually the main story was led by the two main characters.
The characters from class zero also appeared only after the two came into contact with them.
‘I prepared in advance, but not all class zero members were listed in the ‘Game Library’… as the class total number didn’t come out.’
December last year, after communicating with the Transcendent Universe, the level of my ‘Exclusive menu of the Suitable Other Dimension Future Modification’ raised from 1 to 2.
As a result, the ‘Game Library’ was unlocked within the menu.
The reward for collapsing for 3 days was the game’s setting book.
‘I cursed it because they sold it as a paper book and then in the game again.’
The Game Library was free of cost.
Of course, I was PMH’s hogu[2] addict, so I paid.
I didn’t scream or regret it, but I also condemned myself for falling to my hogu power.
‘But because I was this level of an addict, even the Transcendent Universe called me to come here.’
In the end, I couldn’t find even one student of 1 year class 0 until the entrance ceremony ended.
‘In any case, I’ll meet them in class.’
I left the entrance ceremony.
***
The Eungwang Highschool’s campus was about 500,000 pyeong[3].
The morning classes took place in your own class, but afternoon classes were free choice, so a means of transportation for students was essential.
The Eungwang School provided students with bicycles and air boards free of charge and air shuttles and ground buses regularly run around the school.
The majority of students used air boards, which automatically moved when you designated the building you wanted, as their means of transportation.
In addition, in accordance with air traffic laws, it was impossible to operate the air boards manually to prevent air collision incidents.
For operating air vehicles on your own, you had to obtain a license through a strict exam.
But even with a license, you could only use them at your private possession and below a certain altitude.
‘I really wanted to ride it.’
I grabbed the airboard’s handle and flew up into the sky.
After I selected the building where the classroom of 1 year class 0 was located in an opened hologram map, the automatic driving system beeped and adjusted the attitude and air route to avoid colliding with other air boards and air shuttles.
‘It’s truly exactly like the game CG.’
The deep blue sky.
The air board and air shuttles cutting across that sky.
The buildings unfolding below.
Everything was charming and beautiful like the game CG.
‘Like a game CG’ was the highest praise a gamer could give to nice scenery.
‘Watching from above, the buildings look even more stylish.’
The central zone centered around the Hall of Third Sacred Terrestrial Branch great auditorium, where the entrance ceremony took place, and the students’ facilities grouping together like Student Council hall, Guideline Club[4] hall, General Club Council hall, Alumni hall, etc. and the connected teacher facilities gradually became smaller.
In exchange, the snow-white clock tower standing before the main gate and the Eungwang School protection barrier, which starts at the main entrance and covers the entire school grounds, come into sight.
The buildings and sculptures of various designs harmonized and twinkled like an enormous jewelry box adorned with many types of jewels inside.
‘Silver Light Building…!’
As I left behind the central district and moved to the 1 year district, I could see the faraway heart and main building of Eungwang School, the Silver Light Building, shining brightly.
I visited it once to have a one-to-one talk with chairman Hwang Myeong-ho, so I thought the feelings of melancholy would subside, but they didn’t.
Silver Light Building was the most elegant and beautiful among the Eungwang School’s buildings.
So why did Hwang-ho let the Silver Light Building be stained by blood?
‘I heard that Hwang-ho designed the Silver Light Building himself.’
Would you not care if the building you had put such effort into was stained and crumbled, because you got tired of it?
As I had such thoughts, the air board gradually moved away from the Silver Light Building.
***
Besides airboards, the Eungwang School also provided an earring-like wearable device.
It was because a lot of problems appeared when conducting a lesson using wearable devices, or when sending a notice to the students who had outdated devices or didn’t have a smart device at all.
I knew of course I’d receive an earring, but I still bought a personal one in advance.
‘I had to be careful because there is a possibility of the school’s side reading the GPS record or received message log.’
Reading the device record was basically impossible if you respected the information protection law.
However, in the agreement you signed when you received an earring from the school, there was a clause stating that information can be read at a ‘time of emergency’.
That time of emergency could be interpreted by a guy like the teacher who sold Sawol Seeum at the Fantasy Auction, as ‘whenever I want’.
‘When my standard of an emergency comes, I’ll throw away the earring the school gave me.’
I wore the earring I bought in one ear and the earring supplied by the school in the other.
After I put an apricot-colored earring inside the ear, it turned invisible.
As I finished putting on the earring, I miniaturized the airboard to put it inside the inventory and then headed towards the classroom of 1st year class 0.
For reference, the title hero Ju Su-hyeok belonged to the 1st year class 2, and the title heroine An Dain belonged to the 1st year class 1.
Unlike 2nd year and 3rd year which students were divided into special groups by grades, the freshmen weren’t divided, so the average score was similar from class 1 to 10.
The opinions were divided about which one, Ju Su-hyeok or An Dain, who both have the same score, should go to class 1. Finally, as a result of discussion between the two, they decided to follow alphabetical order.
Therefore, An Dain went to class 1 and Ju Su-hyeok went to class 2.
‘Looking at the people gathered over there, half of them came for class 1 and half of them for class 2.’
The 1st years who wanted to talk to the two main characters had gathered.
The class 0 classroom was beside class 1, so if I pierced through the group I’d see my class.
As expected, after I pushed through the crowd, I saw class 0’s classroom.
***
1st year class 0 classroom.
I didn’t belong to those who were a bit late in general, but the homeroom teacher of 1st year class 0 came in just after me.
The teacher looked around the classroom before he wrote the three characters of his name[5] on the electric board with electric chalk.
‘Ham Geun-hyeong’
He was one of the playable characters and the head of the student department.
In the Eungwang School with tradition valuing freedom, the teachers who were extremely strict or proper didn’t rise to the position of the student department head, who oversaw the student department and guidance department.
Ham Geun-hyeong was flexible and understood highschooler’s nature very well, and even during incidents, he behaved calmly with full knowledge of the rules.
Even when I recalled the game, he was like a fox wearing a bear mask.
“I’m Ham Geun-hyeong and I’ll be this 1st year class’s homeroom teacher. I was assigned as head of the student department, so it’s likely there will be times when I’ll be absent.”
In the past, the head of the student department was called the student head or dean.
Generally in highschool, it was rare for the busy department head to be a homeroom teacher.
However, in Eungwang School, it was a custom to assign ‘class zero’ a teacher with considerably high power, considering their specialness.
As a reference, the homeroom teacher of 2nd year class 0 was the head of school affairs[6], Jegal Jaegeol, and the homeroom teacher of 3rd year class 0 was the head of the research department.
“No one applied for the position of assistant teacher, so it’s still vacant. I’ll notify you immediately when it’s decided. Though…”
Small wrinkles formed on Ham Geun-hyeong’s forehead.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen kids like you.”
Ham Geun-hyeong’s words were a fair fact.
Every year about 500 freshmen enter the Eungwang School. There is no way to be acquainted with all of them.
“This is way too much.”
I agreed.
In my entire experience of elementary school, middle school, highschool, and university, it was my first time seeing such a case.
“It’s not half the attendance rate, it’s half of the half attendance rate. Even if 0% attendance doesn’t reflect on your school records…”
4 people.
Excluding me, there were 3 highschoolers of 1st year class 0 here.
The total number of people in 1st year class 0 was 16.
The attendance rate on the first day of school was nothing but half of the half, 25%.
“Today, you need to select a class president and vice class president and then be dismissed. The class motto is decided by me.”
The class motto of the 1st year class 0 was…
‘Go to school on time.’
The big hologram panel with 5 words printed in thick Gungseo font[7] raised above the electric board.
It looked like a class motto made by some strange person, but Ham Geun-hyeong was very serious.
“Class president, raise your hand.”
There were 3 people besides me who came to school.
Two females, and one guy.
‘Let’s take a look first…’
One female student was a playable character, Kim Yuri.
The other was a non-playable character, Han Yi[8].
I remembered seeing them both in the game.
And the male student.
The moment I saw his face, I unconsciously mumbled out of shock.
“…Chairman?”
It was an extremely quiet voice, but the male student immediately glared in my direction.
‘Ah, ruined.’
I guess I was swept by the atmosphere at the entrance ceremony and got excited and relaxed without my knowledge.
Currently, that one absurd word may be one of the worst moves I’ve played in this world.
I tried to organize my thoughts to deal with this blunder.
However, no thoughts came.
Because no thoughts came…
Without an answer, my mind was filled with contradictory thoughts, confusion, disorder, and chaos.
At that moment, the announcement rang from the classroom speakers.
Ding-dong-ding-dong—.
— Two students from 1st year class 0, Jo Uisin and Hwang Jiho, please come immediately to the chairman’s office in the Silver Light Building. I repeat. Two students from 1st year class 0, Jo Uisin and Hwang Jiho, please come immediately to the chairman’s office in the Silver Light Building. That’s all.
“I’ll go to the chairman’s office, teacher Ham Geun-hyeong-nim.”
Chairman Hwang Myeong-ho… no, student Hwang Jiho grabbed me by the arm and quickly dragged me out of the classroom.
It said that my height and weight decreased from when I was an adult, but his movements were as light as if he was holding a balloon.
Before the classroom door closed.
I heard Ham Geun-hyeong’s voice mixed with a sigh.
“…The first day attendance rate is half of half of the half.”
The door closed and the attendance rate of 1st year class 0 fell from 25% to 12.5%.”
~*~*~
[1] Hall of Third Sacred Terrestrial Branch – third terrestrial branch refers to the Chinese zodiac. And the third zodiac is a tiger.
[2] hogu – It’s slang for a person who is naive, easy to manipulate and use. The person who can’t say no. Usually it will be translated as pushover or sucker, though it can be different depending on the situation.
[3] 500,000 pyeong – 1652892 m³
[4] Guideline Club – The 선도부 is a self-governing student body responsible for discipline at school. They are those people who stand at the school gate and check if you’re on time and in uniform and clean etc.
[5] three characters of his name – Ham Geun-hyeong name is ‘함근형’ so it has three ‘characters’ or ‘blocks’.
[6] head of school affairs – So, while researching all teacher positions for this chapter, I realized that ‘head teacher’ doesn’t exactly mean what I thought it meant… But it also doesn’t seem to be that far off, so I may consider still using it in the future??
[7] Gungseo font – it looks a bit like it was written with a brush. It is supposed to look elegant and serious, but these days it’s treated as too tacky or a joke…For example, in the Korean translation of Undertale Papyrus is using this font, apparently.
[8] Han Yi – It would be Han I according to revised romanization.
Translator’s note: I always found this slip of a tongue a bit weird for Jo Uisin. And also his lack of thoughts… Did he suddenly lose intelligence for some reason? Or did he unconsciously play a move which would lead him to his goals…
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