Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
35. Connection with god (2)
Next day morning after hearing news about Zhu Ganglie.
When I was going to school early in the morning to have a conversation with Hwang Jiho, I ran into Ju Su-hyeok.
Dormitory students and day students didn’t cross each other on these walk trails.
“Why are you coming from there?”
“I came early to relax my body a bit. I also have a practical exam today.”
I guess the model student Ju Su-hyeok came to school early during the exam period to use the simulator room and shower facilities which were open 24/h.
When our conversation continued to the topic of final exams.
Ju Su-hyeok’s gaze fixed somewhere, and his words stopped unnaturally.
‘Is An Dain around?’
As expected, I saw An Dain walking some distance ahead.
As if she came out in hurry, her long hair wasn’t completely dry and sparkled in the morning sunlight.
Ju Su-hyeok couldn’t take his eyes off of her back.
An Dain may go away while he continues to stand here blankly like this.
I threw a hint, because my mind felt like it was getting stuffy.
“What are you doing not talking to her?”
“Uh? It’s because… to whom?”
This perfect main character had no ability to feign innocence.
I walked up to An Dain and spoke up to her, with a thought that I have to speak up for the sake of stammering Ju Su-hyeok.
“Hey.”
“Um? Uisin, hi.”
I planned to draw An Dain’s attention here, guide two people to greet each other and leave afterwards, but…
“Uisin, the pictures of the cotton ball like puppy which Yuri published on her SNS before… I enjoyed Snare pictures a lot.”
As if An Dain heard about the origin of Snare pictures from Kim Yuri, she spoke up to me with a soft expression.
“Can you send me pictures sometimes? I heard from Yuri that Uisin and Snare are very close.”
Hearing such words from the in-game owner of Cotton Ball and puppy lover, I was filled with happiness.
Title heroine recognized Snare’s cuteness and righteousness, and made a request, so I naturally had to comply.
“Okay. Do you want me to also send pictures taken before?”
“Yep! Don’t hide them and send them all!”
While I smiled with An Dain and exchanged the device codes with her, and then shared the exclusive folder for Snare pictures.
Ju Su-hyeok was looking towards us with eyes as if he saw his world crumbling.
He didn’t show it much, but he couldn’t avoid the sharp eyes of me, the stagnant and rotten water.
‘The brightness disappeared from Ju Su-hyeok’s eyes! He must have suffered shock because of the scene of An Dain exchanging device codes with a male highschooler, huh?
Unlike corrupt Tao Wonu or Song Daeseok, who were wary of me, Ju Su-hyeok was someone who just fell into the endless pit of despair because of loneliness.
As expected, the title hero’s character and pure love were extraordinary.
While An Dain and I looked at Snare pictures, while talking about this and that, color gradually disappeared from Ju Su-hyeok’s face.
“Thanks, Uisin! Please send a lot of pictures whenever you can in the future! … um?”
An Dain, who was getting drunk on Snare’s picture, looked at Ju Su-hyeok’s bloodless face and asked with worry:
“Su-hyeok, are you sick somewhere? Do you want to go to infirmary?”
“Ah, that… I’m fine.”
After An Dain spoke up to him, Ju Su-hyeok’s complexion noticeably improved.
When I confirmed that Ju Su-hyeok was fine just like he said:
“I’ll go to my classroom first. You go slowly.”
“Um, uh? Uh….”
After confirming that the two people started to talk, I walked towards the classroom with fast footsteps.
Behind me, I overheard them sharing a conversation of which the main point was giving each other a book recommendation, like during after the exam period last time.
‘You won’t make a promise to come out to play together after the end of exams?’
While Ju Su-hyeok often offered to go out to play with me and Maeng Hyodon, I didn’t know why he wasn’t able to do that with An Dain.
As I thought of a plan to get the two of them to go on a date, I soon arrived in the 1st year building.
1st year class 0’s classroom, which was still quiet.
Hwang Jiho with an apathetic face was perched on a desk and waiting for me.
“Jeok-ho isn’t returning.”
Jeok-ho said he was going to spy until Zhu Ganglie came back and then would return.
I guess in reality, he wanted to investigate a bit more after Zhu Ganglie came back and then come back.
It seemed that Jeok-ho would hear Hwang Jiho make some sounds once he returns.
“He said that Zhu Ganglie’s injures are serious, eh? It seems that after he took your attack on Cymopoleia and being forced to disembark, someone gave him a lesson…”
Ungnyeo of Grief’s story, huh?
I had no idea how the hell she attacked, but to make a Jin tribe’s head go missing and be injured to this degree was impressive.
“After Zhu Ganglie returned to headquarters on his own, he stayed unconscious and recovery items are being used on him.”
“So Jeok-ho is still there, huh?”
“Yeah. Is it because Jeok-ho and you have similar mindsets? You understood quickly, eh?”
My and Jeok-ho’s situations were different, so I had no idea why he thought of putting us together again.
Hwang Jiho’s expression was a mix of dissatisfaction and irritation.
“He insisted that in addition to Zhu Ganglie’s state being no good, he doesn’t have Nine Iron Teeth Rake, so they won’t be any problems, eh? After reporting that he will continue the infiltration, Jeok-ho unilaterally cut contact.”
I guess Hwang Jiho was fuming so much, because he couldn’t forcibly pull out Jeok-ho, who was midst infiltration, and make him come back.
Hwang Jiho pressed his temples as he spoke quietly.
“… Putting aside Zhu Ganglie, I had no idea what he plans to do if ‘that guy’ comes.”
Hwang Jiho continued to be internally pissed and worried through the entire final exam period.
***
The last day of final exams, after exams ended.
Kim Yuri’s house.
“Guys, you worked hard!”
“Hyodon probably worked really hard…”
“This time it’s over 50 points! Congratulations are in order!” [1]
“Thanks…”
Excluding me and Maeng Hyodon, who first self-graded the math exam, all children gathered.
Unlike the previous time, when Maeng Hyodon ended up choosing and concentrated on a specific part, this time he studied the entire exam range diligently.
The result of that came out in 51 points.
He would be the worst performer among the students taking the math class, but Maeng Hyodon’s studying, where he wasn’t guessing and avoided failing with his own abilities, was a victory of human spirit by itself.
The expression of Maeng Hyodon, who withstood the pressure of math and reported his grade to his homeroom teacher-nim, seemed to make the world brighter.
“Then let’s prepare to make a toast! Did all of you buy something?”
“Yeah. I didn’t know which, so I bought three.”
“Uh, I also bought three drinks!”
“Me too.”
For this time’s after-party, we decided to each bring a drink, exchange them and drink them.
We planned to bring them out randomly, without discussing it, so it had a charm of not knowing who brought what and how we would exchange it.
“Please reveal what each of you brought!”
The result was like this:
Me, take-out fruit drink from the fresh fruit juice shop in front of the school.
Maeng Hyodon, summer limited soda flavor ionized drink released by famous carbonated drinks company.
Sawol Seeum, ice cappuccino with homemade ice creams.
“All three are exactly like I predicted.”
“Looking at Seeum’s taste…”
“Then we will also reveal ours.”
Kim Yuri, ginger ale she personally made with saturator.
Kwon Lena, blue lemonade she made with Kim Yuri.
Min Geurin, nut milk with almond cookies.
Han Yi, milk shake with java chips, whipped cream, cacao powder, hazelnuts and caramel syrup of amazing sugar level which seemed if one took a sip, it would make a tongue happy but not blood vessels.
“Han Yi is awesome!”
“Please tell me where you bought it!” [2]
“Let’s go together there next time.”
When the reveal of Han Yi’s drink, which boasted overwhelming visuals, ended.
It was a turn of dangerous ones, Song Daeseok and Hwang Jiho.
Still, I asked what Song Daeseok bought as he seemed better, but…
“I didn’t buy anything.”
Song Daeseok answered shamelessly.
The atmosphere almost turned toxic, but Kim Yuri settled it immediately.
“Hey, then Daeseok won the chance to drink the mix of everyone’s drinks.”
“What!? Why me?!”
“Don’t yell! It’s because Daeseok did wrong.”
As Min Guerin looked up at him while speaking like this, Song Daeseok closed his mouth.
There were many pretty unique drinks, so I didn’t know how Song Daeseok would be able to handle it.
‘Even so, I can’t help it, because he brought it on himself, right?’
The remaining one was the 1st year class 0’s best lunatic, Hwang Jiho.
“Relax. I brought two types, so you can choose one among the two. And I have ten bottles of each of the types.”
Hearing those words, I didn’t relax even a bit.
Hwang Jiho brought out a shopping bag coated with a golden dust, and the children, who saw the drinks wrapped in the paper boxes inside of it, were at a loss for words.
Red ginseng juice and pine needles juice.
That geezer caused a mess.
“What is that?!”
“Lunatic fucker.”
“… Should we think that we’re lucky it isn’t carp juice or mushroom juice?” [3]
“Hahahaha!”
The red ginseng juice and pine needles juice sets with golden labels looked pretty expensive and highly nutritional, but they seemed to be targets of the most aversion.
Among the grave children, Hwang Jiho laughed with delight.
I guess that geezer was delighted at the thought of feeding the children something good for the body.
“Then I’ll make Daeseok’s mix share.”
“Wait, are you going to mix that red ginseng juice and pine needles juice that lunatic brought? And I have to drink it?”
“Yep. You have to drink it. Then I’ll bring a mixer!”
“Hey, are you going to do that for real?! Wait!”
Kim Yuri and Kwon Lena took a bit of each drink and started to mix them one after one.
Looking at the drink color gradually changing strangely, Song Daeseok’s complexion also turned strange.
“There, then cheers!”
“Cheers!”
“… Cheers.”
“Yes…”
Sawol Seeum, who drew the red ginseng juice and pine juice, and Song Daeseok, who ended up drinking the mix drink, were in pain.
They all could turn a blind eye to Song Daeseok, but Sawol Seeum’s circumstances… the children, who felt pitiful for him, shared their drinks.
In the end, the children ended up sharing a bit of everyone’s drink.
“Then that day, it just so happened that there was a security inspection in the Eternal Lake building?” [4]
“Yep, there was also a health inspection of the team members. And they said that of all days, team doctor-nim hurt His throat. So He couldn’t talk because other People stopped him from speaking, and He had to use a hologram caption to talk… it took a bit long.”
“Took a long time? What?”
“Health inspection. As a bonus, I also received a health inspection. Though I declined, senior Kwon Jane-nim didn’t yield.”
“Hahaha, senior-nim is the same as before.”
Among the topics that were pushed away because we couldn’t talk about them during the final exam period.
Kwon Lena talked about her visit to the Eternal Lake team building.
I guess the Eternal Lake gang used that as an excuse to confirm the Oath of Silence on Kwon Lena and lift it.
“While I was examined, senior Kwon Jane-nim got an idea for a new music piece and asked to listen to it, so I concentrated on the performance and at some point….”
Soon the topic changed to Kwon Jane’s new music piece and Kwon Lena, who always had a supernatural violin and bow with her, tried to make a cover of that new song.
Everyone admired Kwon Lena’s performance which was much more skillful than before.
Around the time when the crazy after-party was to end.
‘Song Daeseok is still thinking?’
While Min Geurin left for a moment, I saw Song Daeseok open a hologram and check the Player’s Association’s homepage.
The tab he was checking was the introduction to the key departments.
Among them was the picture of the satellite control room’s interior published in press.
On the other side, there was someone else with a saggy appearance besides Song Daeseok.
“… I’ll be alone for a while again.”
With the end of the exam period, the study group would also end, and Kim Yuri would probably be in the house alone again.
Kim Yuri mumbled it very quietly, but there was no way that a rotten fossil like me would miss my Playable Character’s voice.
‘I want to perk up the two of them.’
Just then, I saw Hwang Jiho also in a bad mood as if he received a report from Jeok-ho that he also wouldn’t be returning today.
The result of me trying to figure out a way I could improve the mood of the two and Hwang Jiho as a bonus.
“Hey, please look here.”
I opened a hologram.
The children’s gazes gathered here.
“It somewhat looks like a puppy… Ah, it’s Snare!”
“Ah, true. It’s Snare, alright.”
“Cute!”
I reveled a trump card, Snare’s picture.
Something which Eun-ho’s descendants sent last night to cheer me up during the last day of the final exams, a picture of Snare jumping towards the screen with its front paw extended.
“… Jo Uisin, are you thinking of informing the class children about your occasional decline in intelligence?”
Hwang Jiho was disgusted and treated me for occasional stupidity, but children were good and Snare was cute, so I didn’t particularly think about it.
“It’s cute.”
Look, even Song Daeseok said that.
Kim Yuri accepted the photo with a happy face and immediately photoshoped it to put on her SNS.
“Uisin, come together with Snare, so we can play again!”
Consequently, following the two children, Hwang Jiho also looked at the Snare picture and it seemed he relaxed.
As expected, Snare was always cute and correct[5].
***
Next day after the final exams ended.
The school had a festive atmosphere.
It wasn’t simply because the exams ended, but the reason was also expected big events.
“Hey, vice president! What is that?!”
The school bulletin board was in uproar about two events hosted by the Newspaper Club.
One event was ‘Strong Homeroom Teacher Im Yeonhwa VS 3rd year class 0’.
The second event was the one which Maeng Hyodon had a problem with.
[Hidden Powerhouse, the 1st year’s sole special screening qualifier, Maeng Hyodon]
Under the title, the article was densely packed with Maeng Hyodon’s victories record.
And under that paragraph, there was one more title with two pictures.
[Facing against the fighting genius, Tak the Great and Bread Shuttle Bang Yunseop, who returned from hell.]
“Yep, I’m going to see the updates in the Newspaper Club. Go warm up well.”
My words were ridiculous for Maeng Hyodon, but the milk was already spilled[6].
***
Don tribe’s headquarters.
Zhu Ganglie’s room.
Jeok-ho, whose body was wrapped by Red Smoke, was quietly staring down at Zhu Ganglie.
It was a Jin, who ripped his stomach with forks, but Jeok-ho’s mind was so coldly calm it was strange.
‘Rather than personally exacting revenge on this guy, it’s more important to dig for clues.’
Jeok-ho was thinking like this, both rationally and emotionally.
Because of this, he didn’t respond to Hwang-ho’s demand to return home.
‘High rarity recovery items were used, but Zhu Ganglie didn’t get better, eh?’
All forks’ injures that Jo Uisin made disappeared, but the majority of the nail marks remained, not healed.
It was assumed that Zhu Ganglie’s injures were made with a particular superpower.
When Jeok-ho was organizing the information in his head.
“Red dress… kill…”
Jeok-ho’s mind shook when the clue came out from his mouth for the first time.
‘Red dress…?’
There was no way that she was involved in this matter.
In his head, Jeok-ho recalled his lover, who looked very good in red clothes.
*~*~*
[1] “This time it’s over 50 points! Congratulations are in order!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence
[2] “Please tell me where you bought it!” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence.
[3] “… Should we think that we’re lucky it isn’t carp juice or mushroom juice?” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence, and the answer is yes.
[4] “Then that day, it just so happened that there was a security inspection in the Eternal Lake building?” — Sawol Seeum’s sentence.
[5] correct — or righteous.
[6] milk was already spilled — in raws ‘water was already spilled’.
Translator’s note: Why do all of those doctors feel so… red (color)? All of them are very… honest.
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
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