Translator: Wan ED/PR: novio
15. 1/4 quarter student representative meeting (3)
‘It was weird from the beginning.’
Hong Gyubin, the team leader of the Player’s Association Korea Branch Office’s PR and media team 1 was in charge of all incidents at Eungwang School.
When an incident broke out at Eungwang School, he even personally visited both the Hwang Myeong Foundation Hospital and Eungwang School.
‘Why did Hong Gyubin have so little importance in the game?’
In the game, numerous incidents occurred in Eungwang School, but he didn’t appear.
Moreover, I seemed to know his face, but couldn’t recall it well.
Then, if he appeared at the very beginning, there is a high chance he had disappeared later due to ‘certain reasons’.
‘Besides, there was also the matter that I had a feeling of incongruity… Hong Gyubin’s honorifics usage.’
The first day when I came to this world.
Hong Gyubin introduced himself to Jegal Jaegeol using this full name and stating his position, and then continued to call Jegal Jaegeol ‘teacher-nim’.
He was different on the day the rain stopped, after Choe Pyeondeuk’s birthday cake smash incident.
Hong Gyubin completed the greeting with Ham Geun-hyeong and Kim Sinrok with no particular introduction and in conversation after, he used honorific ‘ssi’.
‘Ham Geun-hyeong and Kim Sinrok are also good teachers. They’re the same age group. So why? Wouldn’t there be some other reason for the honorific differentiation?’
Teacher-nim.
It’s the title of a person who teaches students.
Some people use that word as a simple job title like instructor, lecturer, professor.
However, some people attach meaning to this word.
The clue to this faint feeling of incongruity was the words Maeng Hyodon said during the mid-term exam period.
[When I was in middle school, there wasn’t even one teacher-like bastard. In that school, the only one teacher-nim, the only one worthy of being called a teacher-nim, was the math guy.]
Maeng Hyodon said that there was only one person worthy of being called a ‘teacher-nim’ when he was in middle school.
Perhaps it was similar in Hong Gyubin’s case?
The reason why only Jegal Jaegeol is called ‘teacher-nim’.
‘I may resolve my doubts if I ask him in person.’
Eungwang School main gates.
A little after 9pm.
I saw Hong Gyubin in light attire, as if he was taking a rest and then rushed here.
He very naturally passed through Eungwang School’s main gates and walked up to me.
“So team leader Hong Gyubin-nim can enter Eungwang School even without a school visit card permit.”
Manager Yun and employee Jeong had school visit permits hanging from their necks, but Hong Gyubin didn’t.
At that time I thought it was under the coat he wore, so I didn’t see it.
However, looking at the situation now, it seems that Hong Gyubin is a person registered in the Eungwang School’s protective barrier system.
Like a student or school staff.
‘A Eungwang School entrance permit is never simply given. Clearly, Hong Gyubin is a key character. In the game, he stopped acting on the field, stopped coming to Eungwang School, and left the Player’s Association due to some incident.’
If so, what incident happened in the game?
Naturally, it was limited to the incidents which happened at the very beginning.
‘It would be an incident that happened before school started or during March or April.’
I had a vague guess only, but I thought I could confirm this part only after having a conversation with Hong Gyubin.
“Uisin, long time no see.”
“I didn’t expect you would really come all the way to school.”
When I said I want to talk with him about a matter related to Jegal Jaegeol, I didn’t expect him to dash all the way to Eungwang School.
Hong Gyubin was smiling like usual, but his expression was stiff.
“Is teacher-nim in danger?”
I didn’t say any details yet.
Why are you reacting like this?
Clearly, there was something more to Hong Gyubin I didn’t know about.
“Shall we not talk about this at school? Follow me. Let’s talk in my car.”
I followed Hong Gyubin outside the gate.
‘It’s been a long time since I came out of school at this hour.’
We moved towards Hong Gyubin’s car parked close to the school main gates.
The fine outline of the car and its parts made out of otherworldly metals grabbed my attention.
‘It’s a Player Car.’
Hong Gyubin’s car was a Player Car of the NK-Automobiles, the main company of the Namkung[1] Group, one of the four biggest groups of the Korean Peninsula.
It had durability to endure Players’ superpowers.
Additionally, with its elegant design, a powerful engine output and cable brakes on par with it, the Player Car was not only the dream car of Players but also ordinary people.
I couldn’t confirm the car brand, so I didn’t know the price, but it would be like a small house rolling around.
“… May I ask, why did you contact me?”
Hong Gyubin sat in the driver seat and I sat in the passenger seat.
Hong Gyubin didn’t look in my direction as he spoke.
He should be much more aware of how extremely weird his actions are right now.
“Team leader Hong Gyubin-nim doesn’t call anyone ‘teacher-nim’ besides teacher Jegal Jaegeol-nim. If I planned to request help from the Player’s Association in the matter about teacher Jegal Jaegeol-nim, I thought it would be best to talk with team leader Hong Gyubin-nim.”
What will be Hong Gyubin’s reply to it?
If I’m wrong here, he should roughly gloss over it.
“… You’re sharp. I was careful around other teachers, but made a mistake here.”
Confirmation, huh.
Seems like my guess was correct.
“Yeah. I have a favor to repay teacher Jegal Jaegeol-nim. I was only waiting for a chance to repay the favor, but… He acts extremely coldly, as if he hates it. There are times when he pretends to not know me at all.”
So this is why Jegal Jaegeol constructed an iron wall before Hong Gyubin at the hospital?
Was it meant as ‘Don’t think about repaying me a favor and go your way’?
As expected from my Playable Character.
His heart which thinks about his student knows no bounds.[2]
“I’m stubborn, so I send messages every day and every time we meet, I introduce myself from the beginning to the end, while handing my business card and confront teacher Jegal-nim with ‘teacher-nim’, but… Hahahaha!”
Though Jegal Jaegeol may hate seeing Hong Gyubin like this, so he put an iron wall.
It truly was a confrontation in the hospital.
“Every time I look at teacher Jegal-nim’s serious face, I feel so refreshed. Hahaha! Last time when I came looking for him due to the case of students losing superpowers, he asked ‘Who are you?’ in my face. Hahahahaha! Hahaha… ah, why are you not laughing?”
As if Hong Gyubin was thinking the same as me, his sly expression sunk into a bit darker one.
I’m sorry, Hong Gyubin.
I’m on my Playable Character’s side.
Anyway, I made a long jump and asked Hong Gyubin what I wanted to ask.
“Why, when you saw my message, you immediately assumed that teacher Jegal Jaegeol-nim encountered danger?”
“I have ‘Foresight’ skill.”
Did you say Foresight skill?
Are you saying you possess such a rare skill?
Depending on the level, it was something supervised on the national level.
“I don’t plan on raising it above level 1, so it’s useless. It’s just like a premonition. It’s nothing, but it seems that the precision has risen because an annoying Jin put a blessing on me.”
Hong Gyubin had a rotten expression when he mentioned an ‘annoying Jin’.
Maybe Jegal Jaegeol thought something similar when he looked at Hong Gyubin.
I didn’t know if Hong Gyubin knew the word ‘hypocrisy’.
“This entire year teacher Jegal-nim seemed to be in danger. So I took over all incidents at Eungwang School… but it didn’t seem to be particularly helpful.”
Hong Gyubin stared at Eungwang School main gates, seen beyond the glass of the front window with a tired face.
I guess it wasn’t only because he had to frequently work overtime due to the incidents I exposed.
So it seems that he took this work voluntarily?
“And I knew that you, Uisin, will be related to the incidents that will happen to teacher Jegal-nim in the future. Because the moment I watched your video sent by the PlayerSAT-K my Foresight skill activated.”
Foresight skill activated against me?
So that’s why he confronted me the first moment he saw me and after that he sent messages so often?
Hong Gyubin was always curious about the news from Eungwang School and told me several times to tell him if anything happened.
It aligned with my first impression of Hong Gyubin as a sly schemer type.
I guess he was preparing for this moment all this time.
“Please tell me about the matter with teacher Jegal Jaegeol-nim. And tell me if there is something for me to do.”
I was also using Hong Gyubin, so it was fine.
I, for my Playable Character’s sake, and Hong Gyubin for the sake of the favor.
It’s mutual help.
Good is good.
“Sure. But there are few conditions.”
“Don’t ask about your information route, you want to hide your identity and this is the content of request, right?”
Hong Gyubin accurately pinpointed the details of my request.
“I’m on quite a sensitive side. And as a Player member of the Association there were many times when I did ‘those types of matters’ with other Players. Don’t worry.”
Jegal Jaegeol and Hong Gyubin.
I still didn’t know how those two people of similar age became a teacher and a student and then how they became distant to each other over whether to repay the favor or not.
‘Even so, it seems that my Playable Character raises his students really well.’
And so the conversation ended.
Hong Gyubin decided to go to the Association straight away to prepare.
Overwork confirmed.
Stay strong, Hong Gyubin.
Before I got out of the car I asked him:
“Supposing teacher Jegal Jaegeol-nim was so hurt that he could no longer teach, what would you do?”
“In such a case.”
Hong Gyubin replied without hesitation.
“I would give up the Association and everything else and search for a way to cure him.”
So the reason why his face appeared in the game only for a brief moment in the beginning was because Jegal Jaegeol left the stage?
With one mystery solved, the long day of the 1/4 quarter student representative meeting came to an end.
***
Morning.
1st year class 0.
Even today, the number of people attending was seven.
Before day-start meeting, each of the children gathered into groups and chatted.
“Yesterday I went shopping with my mom and bought it! How is it?”
“Wow, where did you buy it?”
“Pretty.”
“I wanted to go shopping again, how about us three go together?”
“Yeah, let’s go!”
Kim Yuri was showing off her newly bought hair jewelry as she spoke.
It was a beaded hairpin with the image of a butterfly.
She said it was bought in the newly opened in the Eungwang district handmade accessory store.
Hearing the conversation, it seemed that three girls of our class planned today to go out together, after classes end.
“Baekseolgi, which came out today as a morning special food, was delicious. It’s the first time I had learned that such a plain white rice cake can be so delicious.”
“Uh, I just ate Bavarian cream. The whipped cream it was topped with was delicious, so…”
“Why do you only eat Western food every day? Try eating Moon Rabbit Rice Cakes.”
The dormitory students, Maeng Hyodon and Sawol Seeum.
They were in the middle of the dormitory cafeteria taste appreciation review.
It seemed that Maeng Hyodon only talked about what he eats every day, but maybe it was just my imagination.
The Moon Rabbit Rice Cakes knockout bargain had yet to end, and Moon Rabbit Rice Cakes come out as a special meal every day. Sawol Seeum’s actions were regrettable.
‘It’s peaceful.’
There was the guy who planned on breaking this peace.
“Jo Uisin, is there really nothing I can do? Really?”
I hoped that Hwang Jiho would shut up a bit before other kids heard him.
This time I decided to get Hong Gyubin help with this matter, so Hwang Jiho wasn’t needed.
“Play with Snare if you’re bored.”
“… That kid doesn’t want to play with me.”
What.
Our Snare is truly smart!
It already distinguishes between people…no, between Jin people.
“Truth be told, I’m occupied with the school work and group matters, so I have several alter-egos running around, and so I’m a bit busy. The load of moving them all at once is a bit excessive.”
Even Hwang Jiho isn’t all-powerful, huh?
I guess moving more alter-egos than one at the time has its limits.
‘Then it seems difficult to help me in the first place… then why are you bringing it up?’
The ‘escape’ was a defense mechanism, which makes you turn your eyes away when something annoying happens or you meet with difficult reality.
It was as if Hwang Jiho started to uselessly clean the room while he should do exam cramming.
The defense mechanism activates for Jin people too, huh?
“Ha… It’s the bitterness of the results of my negligence, huh? I want to play.”
I guess Hwang Jiho is frantically handling all matters that he abandoned or put off until now.
You had it coming. Work hard, chairman.
When the class ball before the day-start meeting rang, the whining Hwang Jiho finally shut up.
The class bell was the most popular worldwide spy movie’s theme song in the world.
The music was covered as an a cappella version, by the a cappella small group.
I prepared for classes while enjoying the theme song embodied solemnly through the voices of the people in a cappella choir.
***
After classes, Newspaper Club.
Seeing Mun Saeron powerlessly splayed across the desk, it seemed that she failed at something again.
“Ah, 3rd year class 0 seems crazy, really!”
“Woah, didn’t you say you’re going to gather materials about the power of the Universe? I heard it had something to do with the central zone, right?”
“That’s bullshit.”
They just wanted to skip on the student representative meeting, so they lied?
Why bother with such a lie?
“They decided to monopolize the energy of the Universe, so they spread a false rumor. Even the floating public garden on April Fool’s Day was all for a show. They secretly went to another zone.”
What…
I guess the 3rd year class 0 is clearly more out of their minds than I previously thought.
Did you put your hearts into making this entire mess since April Fools Day, just to hide something like this?
“The central zone is a diversion. I ran around the central zone for a few hours. Aack!”
“Just how fucking crazy do you have to be to come up with something like this…”
It seemed that 3rd year class 0 worked hard to fabricate information, so they could monopolize the energy of the Universe, desired by no one.
And Mun Saeron took that bait well.
‘Then where and what 3rd year class 0 was doing that day?’
The moment I learned Hong Gyubin’s secret, another new mystery appeared.
But I wasn’t particularly curious about the answer for this one.
***
And after some time passed.
2nd year class 0’s president and vice president.
I sent a message to the duo of Geum Chansol and Wang Chansol.
[Me] Please do it tomorrow after classes.
*~*~*
[1] Namkung Group – Namkung (Namgung according to revised romanization, but to match NK acronym it will be Namkung) is one of the few two syllable surnames in Korea. One of the others is Jegal by the way.
[2] His heart which thinks about his student knows no bounds – In raws it would be ‘his heart is like the sky/heaven’, it’s an idiom meaning something is really really great and noble, or something is cherished a lot.
Translator’s note: Wait… Hong Gyubin’s foresight was activated when he saw Jo Uisin…? That’s interesting…
A BIG thank you note and a few important things:
I have three important… one important and two less important things, so I’ll get them out of the way first.
1: The pronoun used for dark mastermind will be changed to ‘they/them’. That is to facilitate how little information we and Jo Uisin have about the mastermind and it would be also closer to the raws as they literally use ‘that person’ to refer to them. To tell the truth, this translator isn’t even sure if he/him would be the correct pronoun.
2: I created a form to send any typos/mistakes/ThisTranslatorClearlyLacksSleep you notice. If you catch anything in the future, please use it. Thank you to everyone who caught and informed me about mistakes in the previous chapters, I’m sincerely grateful. (Also, thanks and bows of gratitude for Sottie, that was a great suggestion, thank you again.)
This is the form 🐞
3: With this chapter our EX Replay character list has 60 characters in it! Yes, we had 60 unique characters until now (Well, a bit more, because I do not note down mythical beings unless the name they use in the human world are mentioned, nor do I note down every extra without a name…) I just wanted to say we have 60 characters already, because I thought it’s pretty cool.
For those who are unaware, yes we do have a character list with all the names (both romanized and korean ones) and short descriptions of who they are, and Gwangrims if they’re mentioned. You can access it in the menu on the top of the page, by going to the ‘EX-rank replay’ subpage and find ‘Character list’ above the chapter list. On mobile, the menu is in the left-up corner.
Now, that out of the way….
*takes a deep breath* Thank you. I sincerely, sincerely thank you for reading this translation and enjoying it. Thank you for all ‘Thank you for the chapter’ both in the page comments and on the discord, I thank you for every comment about the story, for every comment that have nothing to do with it, for all the hearts, all the conversations on discord channel that sometimes happen, for donations that came out of nowhere (I quietly put this link there after like… chapter 45 and then said nothing about it, seriously, you jumped out of nowhere, thank you very much), for all the support quiet and loud and… Most of all, I just thank you for reading and enjoying this novel.
This translation and my Korean language skills are very far from perfect, but I wish to hone them to the perfection this novel deserves, so more people could find it and fall in love with it and give it the love it deserves. So you, my dear precious reader, who jumped on this imperfect wreckage of a translation, thank you yet again, from the bottom of my heart for loving this novel enough to jump here without hesitation. Seeing people reading and enjoying the novel I love is truly the greatest thing I ever experienced, and I’m happy to make it easier for you to interact with and catch all the little precious details.
I may come back here (to this chapter I mean) when I’ll feel confident in my translation skills and start to retranslate the early chapters as they are not up to the quality I’m satisfied with or even able to properly look at, but for now these 50 chapters are results of me putting in everything I had, I had learned a lot, I’ll probably learn even more in the future, but I’m glad you came here and I hope you’ll stay here a little longer to enjoy EX rank replay with me in the future.
Okay, that was all about me, but please also give a lot of love to novio and Jas (Personal Ghost), who are doing editing for this thing. It may sounds funny after saying ‘hey, if you catch a mistake, here is a link to message me about it’, but believe me, they’re doing enormous job here of catching a lot of mistakes and wasting their time over explaining this poor illiterate in grammar translator why some things are how they are. This translation would suffer a lot without them, so please keep them in some corner of your heart.
That’s all. Thank you for reading~ I hope you’ll enjoy this story in the future, to its very end if possible. <3
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